As I was doing research on the topic of why people like to watch horror movies, I thought to myself; "Who would be a good person to talk to about this?" The first person that came to mind was my sister, as she watches more movies than I do. We also watch a lot of horror together as we usually don't have anyone else to watch it with. To prepare for this interview I asked her to rewatch two movies, Martyrs (2008) and The Lighthouse. Why these two movies? Well both of these are in the category of psychelogical horror, but they are made in such different ways that I thought it would be interesting to compare them. For myself I like both movies and think they are pretty good for their own reasons. However I do not enjoy watching both of them, I did enjoy The Lighthouse but Martyrs is a whole different story. Why is it I think both of these movies are good but like one and not the other. I was curious what my sister thought of this and try and figure out why we did end up saying that Martyrs is a good movie, but not necessarily like it.
Feyo
To start of this interview about why people enjoy horror movies by talking about two movies from the psychological aspect. The movies "Martyrs" and "The Lighthouse". Did you enjoy these movies?
Lidwien
For the movie Martyrs I think the word enjoy does not fit. At first glance I didn't necessarily understood the point of the movie and viewed it more as "torture porn". But because of the ending of the movie I found it a lot more interesting.
F
As if the pain and trauma the girls in the movie endured still had some sort of purpose?
L
Yes, it showed it was not just purely to torture them but they were trying to achieve something with it.
F
And The Lighthouse?
L
I did really enjoy The Lighthouse, the aesthetics and the atmosphere was executed well. The claustrofobic feeling that was created by it helped. The relationship between the two characters and the way Robert Pattinson loses his mind throughout he movie was interesting to see.
F
That is something I also really enjoyed from the movie, the fact that they also build the exterior of the lighthouse was also a smart choice.
L
I did not know they did that, but that is a nice attention to detail.
F
Seeing how both movies are in the same category of Psychological Horror, can you find similarties in certain aspects?
L
At first I questioned how I was supposed to compare these two films as they are drastically different from eachother in most ways, but after having seen them again recently I find the ending of both pretty similair.
At the end of both movies the main character looks at something, but you can not see or hear what it is
F
That is also something I noticed. I also found the aspect of that both movies show that the main characters sort of lose themselves more and more towards the end.
Now ofcourse The Lighthouse has more focus on it, but the way they portray Anna's (the main character from "Martyrs") experience also shows how she loses her own humanity more and more the longer she is held captive.
F
Do you think both movies achieved their goal with what it is they were trying to portray?
L
Martyrs, yes. If the director's intention was to share his pain with the world then yes he managed to do that quite well.
F
From what I have read about the director when he was asked about it, he said that he was on the verge of suicide and wanted to make a movie purely about pain. As I for one find it difficult to say if I truly enjoyed the movie, I do find it easier to see it's intention when I see it less as a form of entertainment and more as a form of portraying emotions.
L
After I had read some reviews I did notice that there was a mix of people who thought it as an amazing movie and people who really despised it because of what was shown. I think that for this movie it is indeed good to not see it as entertainment, because if you look at it like that you will only blind yourself from it's intended purpose. I do believe it is one of the better horror movies I have watched as it truly makes you feel horrible for watching it. There is no joy that stems out of it and there should not be. None of the characters within the movie feel or look truly happy and that sticks very much to the viewer.
F
And what about The Lighthouse?
L
I know the director was trying to make it as a sort of character study of two people losing their minds in captivity, which I think is a goal well achieved. I wish I knew more of the mythologies shown in the movie as I think it would add a little more depth to it, but even then it was also nice to hear Willem Dafoe try to explain it to a non sailor such as Robert Pattinson. This adds to that mystery of what is actually going on.
F
What emotions arose when watching these films?
L
With both movies I felt very uncomfortable, but with Martyrs I mostly felt misserable. Seeing how Lucie (2nd main character from "Martyrs") killed the supposed people who tortured her and their kids and then seeing her trauma still appear in physical form feels like as if what she just did had no purpose and she got no satisfaction from it.
F
This is the thing that got me thinking about why we want to watch these kind of movies.
L
I do think of that everynow and then. What I know is that people like to create theories around them, such as with Terrifier. Or with Saw on how they would escape those games. And I think it also has something to do with age, with teenagers it's probably more the excitement and finding it tough that you watched a horror movie.
F
It is noticable that when we go to the Pathé (cinema) there is often a somewhat younger crowd with these types of movies, compared to when we go to the Filmhuis.
L
Most teenagers would not go and watch a movie like the Lighthouse no. They would find it boring 'cause it's shot in black and white and because it is not filled with jumpscares. I recently also started rewatching all the movies I watched as a teenager. Whilst watching these I realised I never really paid attention to much. I could not even remember a single thing about the stories.
F
Now that you say that I do realise that whenever I rewatch a horror movie I only remember small bits and pieces.
L
And because I'm rewatching them now I realise I don't find them that interesting compared to most of the movies I've seen in the past few years. The stories are often bland and the movies are filled with easily forseen jumpscares.
F
The last time I've watched a movie that used jumpscares I actually liked was The Barbarian from 2 years ago. The way they make you fully convinced who the villain is going to be and completely shatter that with an unforseen twist immediately pulled me to the edge of my seat for the entire movie.
L
Yes, but for that movie I also found the story very interesting. It was strange and mysterious and they are very careful with giving you any details on what is happening. Whilst watching it I was trying to figure out how the "mutated whatever lady" got in that basement or what it even was. Everytime they showed more backstory I was immediately trying to think again about how this lead to the lady in the basement.