Do you Feel very emotional after watching a sad or scary film or TV show?

[MamaFern]

i find myself getting sooo emotional after i watch TV or movies.. i watched the movie dogville the other night and i felt like throwing up the whole time.. it was so sad and sick.. i try to distance myself from these things because i know its not "real" but i cant.. i know that these things do happen in our world.. woman Do get raped and abused.. men and woman and children do die in wars... there are serial murserers who take peoples lives in cruel and unusual ways.. i cant make myself see it any other way..

i dont wantch movies or tv very often and if i do i really tend towards the stupid comedy's because at least i can laugh and not be having abd dreams for nights...

why am i so sensitive?

[MommytoMJM]

yup, I get completely emotionally invested in stuff.....

[alexisyael]

Yes, I do too. I decided a long time ago, after an emotional meltdown of crying fairly hysterically after watching the movie _Gods and Monsters_ that I just couldn't do that to myself anymore. No matter how great the reviews were. And then a few months later, I stupidly watched that movie with Bjork in it, you know the one where she's on death row (I forget the name). Dumb, dumb, dumb!

Now I always find out whether the movie ends well or not before I watch it. If it ends positively, with some sort of uplifting ephiphany, I'll be OK. If not : it just makes me depressed.

Very few people in my life (aside from my husband and my mom) get this. They are always recommending movies to us that are just downright depressing. Just last weekend my MIL told my dh we "had to" see Hotel Rwanda. Like I need that kind of depression in my life, like it isn't already bad enough that I can *feel* the effects of the mass-killings of so many millions of people when I have just heard *about* it.

Sorry to go on. Obviously my sensitivity is a sore point

(Oh and don't get me started on nightmares... I still have nightmares about movies I saw as a child. And I can't even watch a few seconds of a scary movie trailor without being worried I'll have nightmares about it! Tho, for some reason, vampire movies are exempt from that. Don't know why.)

[FeministFatale]

That's totally me too! I remember in high school, my best friend and I watched Beaches and cried our eyes out together. We cried off and on for the rest of the night. I haven't watched it since.

Scary movies are too much for me now. I remember watching The Blair Witch Project on opening night and feeling like I was going to throw up because I was so scared.

If I watch anything creepy at night I have to watch something funny right after it, otherwise I'm scared for the rest of the night and have a hard time sleeping.

Oh, and that Bjork movie, my god, that was awful for me emotionally. That was just way to much. Also that director's other movie, Breaking The Waves, I had to turn it off because it was just way to hard for me to watch.

[alexisyael]

Oh my G-d, I saw Breaking the Waves, too... oy! I can't believe I let myself get talked into seeing his Bjork movie after Breaking the Waves!

(I did love Beaches... it's so so so sad, but Bette is so awesome, and I loved the music. But yeah, it makes me cry and cry... I think I saw it a few times.)

I was really proud of myself for not getting sucked into the Blair Witch Project. It was hard, because we have all these geeky movie friends and they all talked about it like it was the best thing that had ever happened to the movies. But NO WAY. I just knew... there was no way I could handle that... I really wish I'd had the same fortitude when it came to the movie Seven. :: shudders ::

[MamaFern]

thanks for sharing..


when i was in highschool i was really depressed and my history teacher was making us watch schindler's list.. she said that if i didnt watch id fail the class?!%$^$* i cried through every class till i finally couldnt cope. it was all too much for me! i dropped out of school..i ended up finishing it at an alternative school but i always think back to that and feel sad. how does watching a film about death camps and nazi's make you a better rounded person.. the sad thing was that no one else in the class seemed at all upset. they had all watched so much tv..seen so many people die that it didnt phase then..in fact it was entertaining..

[Ahimsa]

I started being sensitive to movies when I became pregnant with Kai. Before that I could watch anything and I even enjoyed deep, dark films. Now, I often get light hearted comedies, because I just can't deal with anything too intense. I watched a movie about Sylvia Plath, starring Gwyneth Paltrow and it gave me the chills and creeped me out. The ending scene where she kills herself with and locks her kids in their room with some food and milk was just too much for me.

Ahimsa

[Alkenny]

Yes! I cry at EVERYTHING...documentaries, a good actress or subject matter (My Life Without Me...UGH!), books, newspaper articles.

Yet, outside of the real-life things (newspaper, docs), I find myself still watching and reading the same type of stuff. I believe a good cry is good for the soul. If we didn't get touched by these things, how heartless and unfeeling would we be?

[alexisyael]

Oh, I still watch movies that make me cry (everything makes me cry -- I freaking cried at the Incredibles. I'm a total crier). But I had to stop watching the type of movies that made me cry *uncontrollably* or for hours after the film had ended. It's a fine line sometimes... I love art movies, but some of them really get me.

It definitely doesn't affect my heartfullness. And I still get my cry on. I just avoid movies/ media that make me feel like life is helpless and unsalvageable.

[MamaFern]

thats a good point..

i dis watch my life without me and i cried.. but it also made me happy.. it wasnt a disturbing film, though it was sad. i think that there is a difference..

its weird also because i love fantasy books and lots of those books have the good Vs. evil theme and there are wars and atrocities, but they dont affect me the same way. maybe because its not being fed into my brain like pictures flashing on a screen.. i can choose how fast or slow to read through a section and if i sense its going to cause me distress i dont concentrate or a skip it all together..

i guess i could do that with movies too..but id rather just not watch them at all..

when i was pregnant i watched the birth stories and baby stories on tv sometimes and even though they were totally medical, hospital births i always cried when the woman finally had her baby in her arms..

[alexisyael]

Yup, sad vs. disturbing is a huge distinction for me.

And I do find that there are books that I am too sensitive to, and I stop reading them. (I couldn't finish Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman, even tho I loved his book American Gods, because it was too much too dark for me to handle.)

[juicylucy]

I totally understand. I feel like I am almost part of the film, I become so involved. I can't handle it, so I avoid depressing/ horror movies. Even some crappy Lifetime movies about babies being sick/stolen are more than I can handle! I am the same with books. Does anyone else avoid the news for the same reason? I hate to do so, but I become way too involved and can think about nothing else for days.

[alexisyael]

Oh, yeah, totally. I don't watch the news or read the paper (except the headlines and entertainment).

When there have been huge world-events that I can't help but pay attention to, they get overwheming for me. I usually have to find a way to let it out (usually artistically).

[MamaFern]

i dont watch the news and i rarely read the paper.. my email is with a local activist group called resist.ca and they have news that anyone with an account can post. its more politcal and less gory, so its mainly the only news i ever pay attention to..

i feel the same way juicy lucy.. its like i am the person in the film..whoever the less fortunate one is... i watched a movie with angelina jolie..taking lives i think.the other night and i was soo scared ( my sil was visiting and likes watching movies) in the end the killer stabbs her pregnant belly with scissors (it ends up she was just pretending to be pregnant) but oh my goddess.. i freaked out. i felt it...physically and it still gives me shivers..

[journeymom]

I freaking cried at the Incredibles.

:LOL I did too!

I don't mind a "tear-jerker" or a "three-hankie" movie. But I can't handle scary and gory, at all, even over the top, comedic gore.

We watched "Fargo" a couple of months ago. Dh was surprised that I rented it, but I'd heard so many good things about it. I thought maybe I could handle the gore for the sake of a good movie. And it was a really good movie! But, oh, yuck, so much blood and violence! Even though it was like, 12:30am when it ended, I insisted we stay up and watch "Scrubs" on the TiVo.

Movies I wish I could watch:

Black Hawk Down
Blair Witch Project (I know, some say it's bad, I just want to see what the fuss is about.)
Reservoir Dogs
Pulp Fiction
Kill Bill (Saw Kill Bill 2, was exhausted and upset by the end.)
Hotel Rwanda
Event Horizon (Has Jason Isaacs in it )
That movie about the effects on a small town when a whole school bus of kids falls in to a frozen pond. Nope, Nope, Nope. Critically acclaimed or not, that just sounds too heart wrenching.
Trainspotting. Would love to see early Ewan McGregor, but there's something about a dead baby in it.

There are LOTS more movies I wish I had the guts to watch simply because they get such rave reviews. But I gotta protect myself. Real life is bad enough (worse), and yes, I don't watch tv news anymore.

[fayking]

i cry at loads of movies/tv shows and the news...but it doesnt stop me doing it, in a way it makes me greatful for the life i have.
when i went to see 'dancer in the dark' the bjork film that people have mentioned, i cried and cried. i saw it with two friends who also cried lots, we then went back to my place and spent the whole afternoon in tears!

[MamaFern]

just out of curiosity..what are your astological signs? im a pisces..and sometimes i think it has a lot to do with being so sensitive..

[FeministFatale]

I'm a Taurus, and in general, not overly emotional.

[moss]

i'm a capricorn, and i have a really hard time watching anything violent or scary. i dont want to introduce those kinds of images into my psyche, it's too disturbing. i get nightmares from movies.

books are a bit different. i'm ravaging thru the gunslinger series right now and really enjoying it.

on the other hand, i recently read the life of pi, and it was so dark in places, it really creeped me out. there were a lot of really upsetting visual images in that book.

[MamaFern]

i guess my theory is off :LOL