Do you get "sucked in" when watching movies?

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When I watch movies, sometimes I seem to "be there" in the movie and I become very affected by what is happening in the movie. This is why I can't ever watch horror movies, even cheesy ones. I get so afraid and seem unable to remember that it is not real when I am watching it. I have also watched some pretty sad movies and ended up crying a lot. Movies can seem "too real." Maybe that is partly why I like documentaries - they don't have the same affect on me.

Does this happen to anyone else here?

I do get that sometimes, but not all the time.

It is like I am the character for a little bit.

I once hyperventilated while watching a movie.

I am not sure what it is that triggers it. Action and drama can be bad, but comedy is less likely. Sometimes I get these second hand emotion that are "sticky." Like if I watch something with a sad end I will feel sad, sometimes for days.

Documentaries can trigger it, if the subject is emotional. I watched a show on Janis Joplin where she talks about how people rejected her and said cruel things to her in school. That made me cry. And I watched that interviewed people who were children during WWII and what they went through. I felt like I had actual lived through it. I felt like I must have gone through something very similar in a past life.

I will get this sometimes with reading, but reading often feels less intense. Like I can't stand to watch sex scenes on screen, but I am fine reading them.

Books I can get drawn into as well, but more for the drama aspect. If the character feels sad or frustrated, I can feel it too. And sad ending for a book can leave me down for a week or more.

On the other hand sometimes I can get it with a nice feel good show/book. Like I am in a quiet peaceful place where people are all nice to each other.

The opposite is true for me, I can't get into movies or fiction shows, so I rarely watch them.

I know a woman who can't really follow plots or keep track of characters and so doesn't get into movies or TV.

I am more the other way, I kind of get deep into the shows that I watch.

My wife tells me that Breaking Bad is one of the best shows ever, but I find it very hard to watch because the situations the writers put the characters in are so harrowing. I have to let the stress off after I watch and I usually can't get through more than 10 minutes of an episode without taking a break to get my head back out of the show.

When I was little, I thought everyone sort of lived in one or more of the characters in every film or TV show. I found out that wasn't true when I complained that I didn't like a show because I didn't want to "be" any of the people in it and they explained that most people don't do that. I was embarrassed by that.

I have usually always felt detached from what is going on in a movie. I rarely jump at something scary unless I'm just reacting to a sudden sound. Now there was one seen in The Babadook that sent a chill down my spine and I was impressed because that's not easy for a movie to do that to me. And I never cry or anything like that over what is going on in movie. But I do laugh at what is funny.

I thought getting "sucked in" was part of the point. Isn't the viewer supposed to identify with the character? I ask because I can really get into a character as well. I assumed that I shared this viewing experience with the rest of the audience. Was that an incorrect assumption?

What I thought was odd was that as much as I could get into a character and really feel things, it's much, much harder for me to feel that same sense of emotional connection in realtime.

With books, you are often told what the character is thinking and feeling

This is a huge advantage over real life. None of these guessing games: Is that that "I'm sad" face or the "I'm lost deep in thought" face?

Because of this, I often feel like I know the person better than I know people in real life.

In movies and TV, I think the actors work hard to show the emotions of the people. (In real life people sometimes try to hide how they are feeling.) Maybe exaggerating them more than in real life. So maybe they are a little easier to read than in real life. And we get other clues for the emotions. For example, the background music is a clue to what the mood should be. And sometimes there is symbolism (i.e. rain = sad). If you take a class in literature you find out what some of the common symbolisms are. Music and symbolism are easier for me to read than people.

And then there is anime and manga, which sometimes give you some really big indicators. For example, person surrounded by hearts = love or really big crush on this person. Sometimes manga will even write words like "sad" or "shocked" in the background to make sure you know the feeling.

Yes, but not all the time. In fact, I have been told that the new Mad Max movie is so well done, that it is natural to feel "sucked into the movie" when watching it.

I don't really get sucked in at all, I always know I am sitting there looking at the screen, and while I can usually follow the plot, I'm very aware that what is going on is very separate from myself. Although I'm also often announcing everything they are doing wrong, which is another reason I don't become "sucked in". Which can often annoys people, but I can't help it.

Sharknado almost had me in a meltdown... It literally hurt my brain there was so much wrong with that movie, it wasn't just a remake of old horror movie style is was a horrible movie.

It depends on a lot of factors. Like if I'm anxious about something in real life I can be at the theater and not be able to invest in the movie. I'm also very neurotic about the sound. Too low or too loud can take me out of the experience.

Recently I watched Pitch Perfect 2 in theater. It was very obvious that the screen was zoomed in. This basically meant that the tops of people's heads were cut off. It was probably half an hour before I could stop thinking about it... and even then it was kind of affecting me. I can pretty much bet that most of the audience didn't notice or got past it easier.

The effect of other people with me can go either way. There's times when I'm far more into it than I'd likely be if I watched it alone. And then sometimes I can't focus because my theory of mind is on them rather than the movie. Especially if I think they're not enjoying the movie.

But yes, sometimes I am pretty dang into it. Much more so than I usually am for video games. It's kind of sad how hard it is for video games to maintain my interest these days.