Paranormal Horror films and their impact on your day-to-day life?

[The Witch]

Alright, I am a HUGE horror-film junky. I can watch almost any genre of horror films but my favorite are usually the psychological or paranormal kinds of films. For example, Session 9 and Insidious are some that really freaked me out after watching them. Anyway, when I watched Insidious last Halloween with my family it really freaked us all out. I wasn't expecting to be so scared of a film with so few scary moments but I was. I couldn't sleep that entire night and for a while after that. In my opinion this film is a psychological and paranormal horror film which is why I feel it impacted me so greatly. I usually don't have problems falling asleep after horror films but after I watched this particular evil film I seriously had problems that haunted me for a while. In fact, it was so horrifying that my dad made me and my siblings promise to never watch it again (which was weird because he NEVER did that sort of thing about any films, including horror films). That was just how terrifying it was for us. I can't explain why this film stuck with me so much without spoiling the whole plot, all I can say is watch the film and you'll understand.

Well, another film that I want to see is Sinister (another Jason Blum produced film) but my sister watched it before me and she seriously will not allow me to watch it at all because she felt it was one of those films that really haunted you. Well, like I said I'm a horror junky and I don't believe in that "too scary to watch" bull... I mean, I didn't but I do now.

I read the plot online and it's your basic run of the mill horror film. To sum it up, a demon possesses children into killing their parents in order for the "boogie man" (aka the demon of the film) to capture the children into hell to consume their souls. Pretty basic if you ask me. It doesn't even sound like a film that would be that scary (even for Jason Blum). Anyway, my sister made me google a picture of the demon as a way to make me not want to watch it. So I did. The demon is also pretty generic and not so scary, I still haven't watched the film and honestly after looking up info of it I was turned off from it. I went to bed being more afraid of Paranormal Activity 3 than I did about thinking of that film that night, honest.

However that night (the night where I read the plot and saw the picture) I had a nightmare or something of this thing. I say it was a nightmare because it had a monster in it but in the dream I wasn't even afraid of it Other then the boogie man being in it I can't think of anything that would deem this dream a nightmare. The dream was brief but all I remember was that it walked up my hallway and stopped a few feet from me. I don't remember being intimidated or scared by it in my dream and I say this with confidence because in my dream I made my fingers into a shape of a gun and acted as if I shot a bullet at the demon (and then I woke up). I wasn't scared in my dream but when I woke up I was scared.

I find it really really odd that this thing that I saw only once (and wasn't afraid of) was in my dream. Honestly, it's making me question whether or not I ever want to watch another horror film about demons or something. You know... just in case.

Both of these situations have made me ask myself an important question.
What is the real-life impact of watching horror films? Not just for myself but for others as well. I guess what I'm saying is, do you think it's possible that certain films can have a sort of "curse" to them that can have an effect on your real-life? That's probably a strange way of wording it but I'm at a loss for words on how to ask this question. Sort of like those weird rumors kids pass around about not doing a certain thing because so and so might happen.

Anyway, my questions are these.


1) Do you think these types of films can cause real life paranormal/horror experiences?

2) Do you have any stories you want to share about it?

Sorry for the wall of text I'm bored and I just want to talk about shit.

 

[Jack's Smirking Revenge]

seriously? insidious was awful. i'll grant you the first half was interesting and had it's moments, and it did a good job of setting up something much better. but the second half was incredibly poor that didn't deliver at all. it ended up being a cheap and cheesy film that i laughed and cringed at more than anything. i don't understand why insidious is held in such high esteem.
sinister on the other hand was the other end of the scale, i thought. it may not have an original or overly-imaginitive plot, but it was executed very well. it helped that it had a good lead character, who was well portrayed. the best thing about it, though, is how it uses sound to set up the tension. that's the age-old trick of a horror film, so it's to be expected, but at times sinister felt like you were watching a man go insane, and i loved that.

i don't think these sort of films can cause anything paranormal, you just have to be slightly impressionable and have a bit of a vivid imagination. i'll admit when i was younger, i was quite scared by darkness falls and it took me a while to get to sleep that night because i kept wondering what if. at the end of the day you just have to put what you've seen to the back of your mind and forget about it. if you dwell on it too much, of course it's going to have 'an impact'

 

[The Witch]

that's what i believe too. i think whether or not this sort of thing lingers on your mind the more they have impacts on your life. (i was never afraid of films like this as a child) however, like i said i was not thinking about sinister or even thinking it was scary but i had a nightmare of it which confuses me. it made me step back and question whether or not these type of films can find a way to follow you even if you don't consciously allow it (by actually being afraid of it, i mean).

oh and insidious was amazing. it was old school and psychologically terrifying (dreaming too much = demon taking your body.... that's freaking scary, man )