Movie, TV, Web Series, and Music Hot Take(s).
- Thread starter BrawlMan
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?????
And what is you're trying to say exactly? Are you agreeing or disagreeing with me? Or are you agreeing or disagreeing with Double Toasted?
I get what exactly what that movie is trying to accomplish, but you leaving no comments is not helping me on how to respond on this.
Um, oh shit, that post was a very very wasted me, sorry! Not sure what train of logic was going on there, lol! 🫣
Despite not being labeled officially as horror, the George Clooney, Sandra Bullock film 'Gravity' is the most frightening, psychologically damaging movie I've ever seen. More effective than any official horror remembered. No hyperbole here, that fucked me up for a good few years, unlocked a phobia and a consistent stream of crazy nightmares - of which the only words I've found closest to describing it are "cosmic vertigo." Not a single other film has had that much of a lasting fear effect, nowhere close, and not from lack of trying! Also I don't remember any of the story and may have not even watched it all the way through. But I ain't going back. Fuck that.
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...especially if you have a slight notion of how inertia and orbital mechanics work.
(who the hell was pulling clooney's legs ?)
Yeah, it's possible that may have been entirely the issue. Had problems even trying to play space games afterwards without having weird dizzy brain freakouts occasionally, is only recently that stuff has calmed down a bit, and nightmares about cataclysmic events throwing us into the forever void haven't popped up in a while, thankfully. Really not wanting to undo that progress, so is legitimately like the only film I'm afraid to go back to, just in case. Plus any attempts to search online about wtf was going on mentally did not provide anything at the time, like it didn't exist for anyone else at all, causing further questions about own dwindling sanity, lol....especially if you have a slight notion of how inertia and orbital mechanics work.
(who the hell was pulling clooney's legs ?)
I had a similar experience with the videogame Subnautica. I always knew I wasn't a fan of the idea of the open sea or vast spans of open water in general, but after playing Subnautica for a few minutes, I self-diagnosed as someone with thalassophobia. I swam out to the highly-radioactive crash site, and as I tried to return to the safety of my submersible with the sun going down and my resources dwindling, I had a mini panic attack. Turned it off, and haven't played it since.
I won't call it a crippling fear, but I also am in no hurry to put myself in a position to test my theory. My family has wanted for years to do a cruise together; 1.) it'd be expensive, and most importantly 2.) the idea of being in open water with no land in sight puts my stomach in knots. My personal hell would be drowning while burning alive and being gnawed on by a great white shark. If that ever happens, not only would it be the most curios death in human history, but also proof that God is real, and that he hates me specifically.
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Well, dizzy brain freakouts are one of the appeals of gaming. But seriously, my point was about Gravity having a lot of its science terribly (and delibetately) wrong. One of which being how easily some characters (I won't say which ones so that I cunningly avoid spoilers) get separated. One of the "traumatic" scenes would simply not have happened, because physics don't really work like that.
Cosmic scales are terrifying, and so is humans' vulnerability in space (or in the oceanic depths). And I actually found the intro of You Only Live Twice more haunting (the space one, not Connery being righteously crushed on the wall mid-rambling). In contrast, the fear of helplessly "falling" towards the planet is not warranted. You drop from a space station, you stay at the space station, and de-orbiting would require a lot of work and energy (or years of patience if you count on the micro-atmosphere's drag). So, physics make some aspects of pop culture less scary.
I'm never short on bad advices, but as I "like" to confront spiders in games, I wonder if familiarizing yourself with the mechanics of KSP1 or Juno New Origins would change the feeling. I also wonder if that would be a good thing (it's nice, sometimes, to be able to contemplate, measure and feel some actual existential dread without diminishing it - but that may be my sadomasochistic fondness for the kantian sublime, stendhal syndromes and lovecraftian mindfucks).
Okay, so much for my advice.
But I'm oddly almost jealous of that. The closest thing I have is heights, I guess, but I barely manage to get an occasional weird thrill from videogames. That said, it does make me beeline for the "damage-less fall" perks/items/upgrades.
So in other words that Titane train of logic had already left the station lol.
I take it you got burned hard by Matrix Reloaded and Matrix Revolutions? Can't blame you there, if that's the case or not. I don't care much for multipart movies either. Across the Spider-Verse, Infinity War & End Game, and MI: Dead Reckoning are the exceptions and not the rule. That said, I don't look forward to nearly every other movie studio thinking they can get away with this again.
Hm, slight couple of things I may have miscommunicated - none of those mentioned experiences were thrilling, that's a whole other emotion, usually with a more prominent implication of control, understanding and safety. I get thrills in games for like if they're just about to viciously kill me, yet escape through insane luck or any other variation of being rescued from a precipice of intense failure at the last second. But in comparison is more like a sudden subconscious dizzying panic, as if a confused primal instinct conflicted with internalised education of space and a wandering imagination, grasping for a sense of anchoring, of ground and gravity. Was mainly confusion and frustration, no thrills, and whether the Gravity film was technically accurate or not made no difference unfortunately. Were just physical subconscious reactions. If only thinking more would've helped, if only!
Additionally, upside down imagery caused similar reactions, not excluded to the vastness of space. Not sure why.Though yeah the contradiction being I always loved space, sci-fi all the adjacent shit and still do. That's what made it more frustrating. But as mentioned in previous post, the problems are mostly faded now. Could've been 7 or more years it took to fade, so am wondering if the natural full cell replacement humans go through could be a part of the improvement in some way. KSP is great, love it! Haven't got too far yet however. Elite Dangerous is doable now, No Man's Sky, The Outer Wilds (which was a bastard for it with the odd occasion trying to (or accidentally) leave the ship during a chaotic vacuum moment leaving the first-person camera lost, no bearings and spinning and fuck look away quit the game quit it quit quit quit) also. Can't. Stop. Me. Now.
Ahhh yeah, good game, though very much empathise with your experience - definitely got a bit of overlap in those fears, if there's a venn diagram out there. Took me a bit longer in the game, like till about the 3rd sea bed drop in level, then had to quit game from dizzy panic lol. The sea will consume us all eventually, but it's gonna have to put in the effort to catch this cowardly ass! How are you gonna drown while burning though? Acid? Ew, ok fair enough, not pleasant. Wait, how's the shark al...no, nope, am not falling into this hypothetical logic trap again!
That's why I said it'd be the most curious death in human history: burning, drowning AND being eaten by a shark, my three biggest fears. The circumstances required to make that even a remote possibility would be proof of a God that actively hates me!
Sharks aren't nearly that scary, after Peter Benchley made Jaws he spent ages trying to explain that the movie was fiction.
Though, people were afraid of sharks before, of course, but they needed be. As an aside, in WW2 sailors in ships that sank were in very little danger from sharks, cause the explosion that sank the ship is a lot like dynamite fishing and any sharks in the area will be leaving in a hurry or dead.
Saltwater crocodiles, OTOH...be afraid of them, they are right nasty.
Absent
And twice is the only way to live.
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Yeah but I relate them ambiguously. I have this weird theory that we seek scary movies/novels/games to get back in touch with a sort of absolute dread that we've lost after childhood, as the world did shrink with its boundaries of possible. The kind of cosmic, abstract dread that Lovecraft was after and that only Lynch manages to capture at times. I tend to think that 1) this cosmic dread is warranted, but everyday life a) teaches us that it doesn't affect us, b) distracts us from existentialism, and 2) his dread is an object of nostalgia. Once we cease to be able to feel it, we're both liberated and deprived of something, even though that something may not be the dread itself but all that surrounds it, the uncanny immensity of the unknown, a sense of infinity, the enchanted word of childhood. That we try to re-enchant through fiction, or through beliefs (UFOs, gods, witchcraft, ghosts, telekinesis, etc) that reopen a door on the infinite possibilities of the unknown.
Sometimes I miss some childish anxiety in front of night forests, storm, or the obscurity in itself. As if there was a lost poetry to these feelings. And I "admire" or feel "jealousy" for those who are still in touch with these magical, cosmic, existential, primal fears. But it may be naive of me. Maybe I just fail to truly remember the cost of it, and how it wasn't worth keeping it.