Bluecat Posted November 3, 2008 Report Share Posted November 3, 2008 Hi all,I was discussing Horror films with my students recently (they love them!) and several of them assured me that "they knew" that people had been frightened literally to death while watching horror.I wondered whether anyone could tell me of actual case where that has been proven? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kevinc Posted November 3, 2008 Report Share Posted November 3, 2008 (edited) i have never heard of that ever. wouldn't there be scariness regulations? like the Spooky Act of '03 or something? Edited November 3, 2008 by kevinc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fawzo Posted November 3, 2008 Report Share Posted November 3, 2008 I would think it would be quite possible for someone to be scared to death if they had a weak heart.The most scared I have ever been while viewing a movie was watching Vincent Price's "Tales of Terror/Twice told Tales" I was a teen and the one in which they hypnotized the man on his death bed at the moment of death scarred the bejesus out of me. It was late at night and I was so tensed up I went down into the basement to rock out the tension in my favorite rocking chair. One quick look into the pitch blackness of the back of the basement and I'm surprised I didn't have any bowel movements as I haul assed up into my room and dove under the blankets. I'm normally not such a scaredy cat except when girl scouts come knocking on my door to sell there cookies at midnight lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rev.Fred Posted November 3, 2008 Report Share Posted November 3, 2008 Never heard of that. I'd assume that the cardiac arrest would've happened either way and it was just chance they were watching a horror flick at the time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator Cornelius Posted November 3, 2008 Moderator Report Share Posted November 3, 2008 I seem to remember some minister having a heart attack while watching passion of the christ. Which is gorier and more detailed then alot of horror movies I've seen Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Verisoph Posted November 3, 2008 Report Share Posted November 3, 2008 Hi all,I was discussing Horror films with my students recently (they love them!) and several of them assured me that "they knew" that people had been frightened literally to death while watching horror.I wondered whether anyone could tell me of actual case where that has been proven?It happened to me when I was a kid. The Horror of Party Beach is the movie that did me in.I got better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dwight Posted November 3, 2008 Report Share Posted November 3, 2008 (edited) Hi all,I was discussing Horror films with my students recently (they love them!) and several of them assured me that "they knew" that people had been frightened literally to death while watching horror.I wondered whether anyone could tell me of actual case where that has been proven?Statistically, I'm sure you could find someone, somewhere that died during a horror movie... However, proving that the movie was the cause of their heart attack would be difficult... I'm sure people have died in church during the sermon... doesn't necessarily mean they were bored to death... Edited November 3, 2008 by Dwight Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kokigami Posted November 3, 2008 Report Share Posted November 3, 2008 (edited) not definitive butedited to link directly to the article in straight dope as the original link didn't work.. Edited November 3, 2008 by kokigami Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bluecat Posted November 4, 2008 Author Report Share Posted November 4, 2008 Thank you all for the help and references! Have just been reading Stephen King on the Horror Genre (in film and writing) and he recalled the 50s when horror films used to be announced with posters claiming that " a qualified nurse will be in attendance at each showing!"Great publicity.I suppose what I'd really like to find is a confirmed case of someone dropping dead in a horror film - preferably just at a particularly scary moment - even though there would be no guarantee of cause and effect.I once thought this was ABOUT to happen to the person I'd gone to the cinema with (to Jurassic Park) but that turned out to be, umm... how shal I put it? ... more to do with previously ingested substances than the Speilberg wizardry. That was my own personal scariest moment in a cinema, mind you... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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