Paranormal vs Slasher: Which is truly terrifying?
/From psycho stalkers / killers to ghosts, demons and ghouls haunting families and groups of friends, horror films can really range from a number of different antagonists and scares, but which type truly terrifies their audience more?
I personally have always been slightly skeptical of horror movies about the paranormal, as they are normally either a hit or miss for me. Don’t get me wrong, I love and enjoy the entire ‘Conjuring’ series or the ‘Paranormal Activity’ series, maybe even the ‘Insidious’ series as much as the next person, but if I am being honest, that’s pretty much where the list ends.
I find when the main villain of a horror film is a crazed killer or stalker, it terrifies me more. Movies like the ‘Scream’ series, following the life of Sydney Prescott as she is stalked (usually by someone she knows) and where they continuously try and kill her and to the point where one of the focal points for the third movie is where she is forced to go into witness protection and live under a different name in fear for her life. A movie like ‘Black Christmas’ (the original from 1974) where a deranged psycho killer is hiding in a sorority house, calling, stalking and killing the sorority sisters living there and they don’t realize the calls are coming from their own house.
The movie that will always be the most terrifying, and even slightly unsettling for me, is ‘The Strangers.’ After hearing a loud knock at the door, Kristen, the female protagonist and James, the male protagonist, answer and see a young blonde female asking for someone who doesn’t live there. After this, the couple is stalked, tormented and eventually killed by a group of three people, and all because they were home.
Yes, some paranormal films are scary, but do they honestly terrify me? No. Will I be scared to fall asleep that night? Not really. Most paranormal horror films rely on and overuse cheesy jump scares to scare the audience. To me, what’s truly terrifying isn’t ghosts or demons, it’s possibly answering the door for a stranger at night and that is the only motive and motivation they needed to kill me. It’s getting weird phone calls from a stalker who is inside my home. Having to go into witness protection, leaving behind my friends, family and everyone I care about because I’m in fear for my life, that to me is true horror.
Kaitlin Franks
Kaitlin is in her second year of the Professional Writing program at Algonquin. She has a deep love for all things horror, paranormal, and is also a huge fan of slasher films. If these things interest you, follow Kaitlin’s blog posts!
