Is there such a thing as too scary?

S

sotty

Active member
Working on the screenplay for a feature we are shooting in Feb. Some of the scenes and flow are pretty damn scary just reading it. Do distributors, hollywood, etc., not like it when its to "got to turn my head".? Its pure thriller now and not horror or gore.
 
I seriously doubt anything is too scary these days. When Freddy Kreuger entered the scene, he was pretty scary as a young teen. Now, people chuckle at him. There are two movies that I vividly remember terrifying me as a child of 3 or 4- Dr. Faust, and Attack Of The Mushroom People. For years, I wouldn't eat anything with mushrooms in it, and I'll never forget those lost souls reaching up from Hell to drag Dr Faust down with them. Nowadays, you have to work really hard to make that kind of horror work.
 
'Attack of the Mushroom People' was disturbing, all right...put me off mushrooms for about six months, when I was a kid.

So I ate one!

I doubt that anything you write could be 'too scary' for readers looking for scary material.

At this point, there's probably nothing too gross, too disgusting, too crass, or too violent, either...

What are your most scary/disturbing moments in films you've seen...? I nominate:

Freddy Kruger walking down a 20-ft-wide alley, with arms outstretched and claws scraping the walls on either side as he goes (N.O.E.S.)

Jason exploding out of the water all scabrous and rotting and grabbing the girl at the end of the movie (F.T.13th)

The trip to X-ray/descent into Hell (Jacob's Ladder)

The poltergeist-propelled empty wheelchair chase (The Changeling)

The inverted down-the-stairs crab walk (The Exorcist)

The vengeful burning-man apparition (Event Horizon)

Pretty much any chunk of '13 Ghosts' that focused on the ghosts (as opposed to any of the acting or dialog)

The drowned girl's weird limb-flailing climb up the well from 'The Ring II' - the only disturbing or scary part of the movie, IMO.
 
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Again, not talking horror or gore. Just insane thriller buildup. Exorcist, Alien (without gore).
 
I think that if you can create nerve-frying thriller tension on the page, then you're probably a very good writer, and people will respond.
 
Too scary. No. There is not.

Too Gory. Yes. Maybe. Depending on it's motivation by the story.

There IS such a thing as bad tastes.

Additionally - If you can make a movie that is actually scary without that much gore/blood/violence, you will make a bijillion dollars.
 
i think that depends on genre. if you're making a horror, no it can't be too scary. if you're making a pg13 harry potter, yes you can have too scary. just have to be mindful of your audience.
 
I also think it's easy to confuse "scary" with "sickeningly violent." "Scary" films lately seem to descend more toward the latter.

You can be scary without having to resort to peurile, graphic torture.

For example, the tension in "Signs" was maddening. "Joy Ride" made the drive home from the theater almost intolerable. That's "scary."
 
It will be a PG-13 rating, no bad language. no sex or nudity. No gore. No scenes call for any blood. Just a lot of tension and shock.
 
One of the scenes that freaked me out the most was actually the bum/troll in mulholland drive that looks out from behind the corner in the scene where the dude tells about his nightmare of the bum/troll that hides behind the corner.. and yeah that scene in friday the 13th when jason grabs the girl in the boat gets me everytime..
PS. Another scene that was really scary was in a episode of "full house" when uncle Jesse almost quit in his band..
 
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