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I figured out why I hate most horror tropes: Harmful messages and stereotypes about mental illness, disability and trauma (hexbear.net)

submitted 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) by Dort_Owl@hexbear.net to c/chat@hexbear.net

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Scary asylums! Creepy disfigured people! People being punished for 'not moving on and letting their trauma control them'! Violent and dangerous 'crazy' people! Poverty coded scary old women who must be a witch!

While asylums are less common horror locations these days, it still doesn't stop the genre from using pop psychology to frame itself as deep while simultaneously expousing harmful messages. Usually written by people with very shallow understanding of the themes they're employing for cheap scares at the expense of some of the most marginalized groups.

Also this might be cringe taste but some horror I actually do like are Jordan Peeles movies, because the themes of those are things like "Wow racism is horrificly dehumanising" and "Animals should be respected."

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[–] wideopenarms@hexbear.net 6 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (2 children)

People being punished for 'not moving on and letting their trauma control them'!

Does this mean MOLE sucks?

E: Thinking about it more, maybe this was why I didn't really like any of the dead space sequels. Ds2 had some kinda weird depictions of metal illness/ptsd and those depictions didn't seem like they came from a place of understanding either. It was at its strongest when depicting the more real psychological horrors inflicted by religion and, coincidentally, capitalism. DS1 was sufficient for capturing that.

Sorry I'm talking more about games than movies, it's usually how I engage with the horror genre and I'm actually really into indie horror games. I think MOLE had other problems, but the theme of holding on to trauma wasn't one of them since it was handled in a very sympathetic way.

[–] Dort_Owl@hexbear.net 6 points 6 days ago

Yeah sounds like you're similar to me where you don't mind stuff that explores moving on from trauma as long is it isn't victim blamey. There is this gross attitude I see surrounding ptsd where the implication is that it's the survivors fault that they can't bootstrap themselves out of trauma. A sort of "It's their own fault that they're letting themselves be held back from healing" thing. Turning a systemic problem into a personal responsibility lecture of "this could be you if you don't stop being weak!" Message.

But knowing me I just could be overthinking and projecting. It's a sore topic for me.

[–] whisp@hexbear.net 5 points 6 days ago

Sorry I'm talking more about games than movies

I engage with horror in various mediums, games I don't tend ro find scary but they can have a good atmosphere.

I tend to prefer books as I can find more that caters to my personal taste. Sadly all mediums can have issues.