Autism & Horror Movies

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this is my first time posting here, so i will preface it with an intro: i am 17 years old and afab (he/him). i was diagnosed with autism a year or two ago now.

it feels impossible for me to watch horror movies. not about the jumpscares or actual horror, but that a lot of (especially recent ones!) rely on emotional distress. and i cant deal with it in any way.

its almost agonizing.it makes me feel overbearingly upset and sometimes almost sick. especially when its relating to family or children, i just cant deal with it. i feel so bad.

i assume it's something to do with empathy, but im really not sure. does anyone else have problems with this?

I've had this issue too, although it's with crime shows. You could say that they're even worse because the stuff I pay attention to are real life events.

I never had issues with horror movies. It's the opposite even.



In autism, fear and anxiety seems common. Sympathy and trigger sensitivities is a different factor altogether.

Reaction towards said emotions and factors is also another entirely different layer.

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I love older horror movies (eg Hammer films from the 1950s/60s/70s), though I don't find them very scary. I hate the more recent ones, with ridiculous special effects, excessive gore and bad language. So called 'comedy horror' is pretty poor stuff as well - a proper horror film should actually take itself seriously, not be filled with cheap laughs or 'ironic', tongue-in-cheek approaches which try to undercut the structure of the film and the credibility of the characters.

I don't really experience this (then again, I hardly ever watch horror movies), but I think I understand where you are coming from. There is something warped about people being entertained by emotional distress. There has to be some emotional distress for most movies about people to even have a plot, but it's the dwelling on it that bothers you, is it?

I actually love horror movies that are more the stick-with-you kind of thing instead of relying on jump scares and ridiculous amounts of blood and gore (though some of both is okay, it just needs to also have something for me to think about). But then again, my main area of interest is pretty much anything unnatural/supernatural (and especially body horror, or some reason even I can’t explain), which is a significant part of (if not the real reason for) why I like horror.

I have an aversion to the horror genre.

Years ago bookstores would keep horror stories in the science fiction section. When looking at the cover art, I found it difficult to understand the mind that would find such appealing.

I try not to watch them. Milder ones are ok.

I like horror as a genre but I hate most horror movies. I don't care for cheap jump scares, or gore, or gross outs, etc. I feel like horror as a genre is best when it's psychological and plays on existential fears, fear of the unknown, cosmic horror. I like John Carpenter's The Thing because you are isolated in an arctic research station and you don't know who the thing is, it can mimic anyone, you don't know who to trust. I like Attack on Titan because (initially) the audience and the characters don't know anything, they don't know why the titans eat people, they don't know why they are stuck behind the walls, it is just their reality. I like Memento even though it's not considered part of the horror genre, I just found the concept of having anterograde amnesia and people taking advantage of you because of it scary.

I prefer horror movies that rely more on tension than over-the-top gore.

An interesting question: How 'invested' do we get in the plot of the movie? Do we imagine how we would feel if we were in the same situation? Do we forget its a fictional movie and consider what would happen if the things happens to us next? Do we walk around knowing we hold an unrealistic view of the world in our heads and the movie just becomes mixed in with that? (OK, this just got weird.)
I like a good premise and plot twist. If you can make me forget its just a movie, you are going to make me very uncomfortable.

IR