Aspergers and liking either extreme of content in media.

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I was talking to a couple of friends about how most of the movies I watch are either animated family films or the opposite extreme, which is films like Cannibal Holocaust.

Both of them responded that it is common for people on the spectrum to have interests in film and television that is either family friendly or completely NC-17 rated, and have little interest in what is between those two extremes.

Is there any truth to that?

I know I am like that, but I can only speak for myself.

I don't like extremely violent films. Though I'm not an activist for their elimination.

I tend to lean towards the Hallmark Hall of Fame type of content. Very strongly.

Am not into extremely violent movies. Not into family movies either. I guess its ONLY in between movies that I like.

Have a crazy buddy who cant get enough violent movies. One long fight scene for two and half hours. That's what he inflicts on me from his DVD collection.

He is schizotypal, and probably has had just about every other psychiatric label EXCEPT autism spectrum.

But he has one thing in common with the OP. He came from a crazy, and abusive family. That suggests that a family history of abuse may explain taste in movies.

I don't have a penchant for ultra violent torture porn, but I do gravitate toward the odd and unusual. Comedy that's subtle and cerebral, and sometimes morbid and dark. I like things that make other people squirm - not gory stuff, but IDEAS that challenge people's comfy little limits and force them to deal with questions about themselves they'd rather not think about. That's ART challenging the status quo, and there's a sort of intellectual anarchism about it that appeals to me.

Last night, I watched a 90 minute pointlessly violent Tarantino-esque gun battle called "Free Fire" back-to-back with Tim Burton's animated fairy tale "Coraline" (which was by far the more entertaining picture). If you want to watch protracted gun battles and bloody violence, I recommend both "John Wick" films, they're much more creative and well-choreographed senseless mayhem.

In any case, I enjoy oddities like Eraserhead, Todd Browning's Freaks, and Cronenberg's 1980s cult masterpiece "Videodrome" (his reimagining of The Fly was excellent, too).

I'm still trying to decide whether I like Grand Budapest Hotel, or hate it, and I've seen it three or four times already. Guillermo Del Toro's film Pan's Labyrinth is excellent, if you don't mind subtitles (so is the German version of HP Lovecraft's The Color out of Space), and I just got around to watching Donnie Darko, though it was kind of a letdown. I thought it was going to be much more intriguing and thought-provoking than it turned out to be. In the end, it wasn't any deeper than a goth rendition of The Breakfast Club.

There's a little indie horror flick from 2008 called Deadgirl that I find very amusing, about a couple of juvenile delinquents who find a zombie girl strapped to a gurney in the basement of an old mental hospital and decide to make her their sex slave. It's such an outrageous and disturbing notion on so many levels, that it makes me laugh.

I guess I should state now that I only like violence when I know it is the product of special effects and makeup work. I do not have the stomach for violent documentaries.

I even barely liking anything media related.


Yet genre wise, it's possible. I prefer ranges of light genres of child-like genres of fantasy, and comedy, to dark like horror, and action -- those, it's mixes and variations.

I barely ever appreciate romance, biography, social like genres, and so-called inspirational. Unless the story IS good. I rarely incline with tragedy and sadness.

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I don't see any movie or T.V. show made recently that appeals to me. My television watching mostly consists of tennis and medical oriented programming. Some of the medical programming has questionable content, but most of it is interesting.

I also find cat videos the PURR-fect diversion!

I only watch AGT. Sometimes I have other shows like it suggested to me, but I refuse to watch them !^^^^^^^^

It depends? For me, if it has a good story, I'll watch it. I also like breaking down the violent movies fight scenes into oh that's this effect or they're using x move I learned when I studied martial arts (example, Kill Bill). But I've been known to binge watch My Little Pony or a few other "kids" shows when I'm feeling overwhelmed or I want to just get out of my head, if that makes sense. I tend to hide my like of more childish shows as my family has made fun of them. So most of my stuff I watch a lot of at the moment is true crime / intervention / hoarders/ pyschology shows (to learn more about people / try to understand them)

I'm probably closer to the latter end. I used to not like much gore, but then I saw Hellraiser and became obsessed with it (still am, actually), and that quickly took care of that issue Now I'm pretty much indifferent to gore and violence (as long as it isn't real, anyway), though I haven't actually seen anything of the caliber of Cannibal Holocaust (I'd try to find it somewhere to see what my reaction would be, except it contains actual animal deaths, which I know I wouldn't handle well). I seem to have a penchant for body horror, and I love all things strange and sinister, the more obscure, the better. However, it isn't the gore and violence that draws me to such things. I more of put up with it, and will get bored if there isn't anything else to keep my attention. I think it's that my reaction to the basic fear of the unknown is to make the unknown known. I will also watch milder things if they're interesting - actually, it's hard to find anything featuring something supernatural that I won't at least give a try (unless it's comedy - I'm not a fan of comedy, and I really hate the combination of horror and comedy). And on occasion, I get an inexplicable craving to watch cartoons or children's movies.

Not for me. I don't like movies that are too brutal or gross. On the other hand, I usually don't watch family friendly movies (except from Star Trek maybe) . I like deep, sophisticated, weird, twisted, mind-fucking movies. I can stand a bit of violence.

So I guess I'm in between. Also depends on the story... if the violence fits in the story (like in Old Boy, the original movie, not the remake...) then I'm fine with it. Don't like trash movies though where violence is only there for fun without further meaning, I really cannot deal with that.

I love comedy films, chick flicks, Star Wars, and some family friendly films. I love cop shows, medical dramas, sitcoms, and animated sitcoms. My favorite actors and actresses include Betty White, Melissa McCarthy, Charlie Sheen, Brad Garrett, Robin Williams, and Kevin James. I love watching sitcoms from the 70's, 80's, 90's, and 00's. I love to watch kid shows from when I was a kid in the 90's and early 00's.

I, like the OP, like animated and/or family films, and the opposite (the more gory, bloodier - the more bad guys get shot, and things get blown-up, the better)----BUT, I ALSO like, pretty much, anything in-between (except, movies/TV shows, with alot of sex - same with books: I like, pretty much, every genre).

Because I've always been interested in what is the psychology, behind things----and, because I, ALSO, come from a "crazy family"----I thought it was really interesting that NaturalPlastic said that he thought it might suggest taste, in movies. I'll have to ponder that, a spell.....

I HAVE noticed that when I'm in a sour mood, and want to watch a movie, I'll pop-in "Rambo" (and that that's, maybe, me, like, vicariously destroying what is making me unhappy, or whatever)----whereas, if I'm in a GOOD mood, I'll pop-in a "happy" movie.

I also thought it was interesting that the OP made a differentiation, in a subsequent post, that he did NOT like documentaries about people getting hurt----and, I am totally the same way, in that regard, as well. Like the OP said, because I know it's fake, it isn't a problem; but, I can't STAND people getting hurt, "for real"----for instance, I cried when I saw that old commercial: "I've fallen, and I can't get-up", even though it was an act.

...Perhaps you have a point...I am listening as I write this to the OST of the movie of HELLO, DOLLY!, which I might put on my Top Ten list of all time - Perhaps the " nice " extreme:-)...I like old-style movie musicals (And stage, but I'm for one not exactly in the shape to afford theater tickets! ) in general.....................

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ladyelaine,

I like Betty White, too. She shares one of my great passions: animals.

IstominFan, it's nice to know there is another Betty White fan out there. I love her in Golden Girls and Hot in Cleveland. Her stand up is good too.