My Comfort Horror Movies | Mental Health and Horror Documentary

hey there creepy peeps my name is amber

maven and i love talking about horror

movies

i mean i just love horror movies

[Music]

if you're new here hi hello welcome so

glad you found my channel hopefully you

stick around for a while

if you don't that's okay for those of

you that are returning

welcome back so i am making this video

in the light of a kickstarter campaign

that

just launched on wednesday for the

upcoming documentary mental health and

horror

my friend xena aka real queen of horror

is a producer on the project

and she reached out and asked if i

wanted

to talk about the the documentary and

honestly

xena could ask me to bathe in a pool of

spiders then i'd probably

say yes because she's just that nice all

seriousness though i think the

documentary is a great idea

and i'm really excited to see it get

made so in honor of the documentary and

their kickstarter campaign i wanted to

share with you

some of my favorite comfort horror

movies

and talk a little bit about how horror

has helped me mental health-wise i will

talk more about the documentary in the

kickstarter

campaign at the end of the video

there is a mere constant discussion

about the effect that violent media has

on young people in particular usually

tend to be the focus of this

there's this pervasive idea that like

horror movies and violent

movies tv shows video games make

the people that consume them just as

violent

and there's hardly it no discussion

outside of the horror community about

the catharsis that the horror genre

brings to a lot of people for so many

different reasons

horror genre is known for you know

tackling these tough topics frequently

and providing

a you know safe environment for us to

kind of explore those fears or anxieties

popular movie monsters have been used as

metaphors for mental illness

like throughout film history you know

for example vampire symbolizing

addiction

demons and ghosts symbolizing anything

from depression and grief to anxiety and

paranoia

granted there are a few quite a few

horror movies that have not handled the

topic of mental illness

particularly well i could probably make

a whole entire video

on those movies but fans have criticized

the representation of the more

culturally misunderstood topics like

schizophrenia dissociative identity

disorder bipolar disorder ocd

just to name a few but if we can pull

one positive from those movies it's that

they open the discussion

to learn the facts about those mental

illnesses and of course

learn why proper representation is

important in all forms of media

i am not diagnosed with any mental

illness i of course

like i think everybody um experience

anxiety and stress

and as i'm sure a lot of you know if

you've been around the channel for a

little bit

um my mom recently passed away

from cancer this past december so i've

been dealing with uh

grief and this video may get a little

like sappy

a little maybe i'll be reaching a little

bit with some of these movies but

this is the first time i've actually

like put into words

like why i find these movies so

comforting

sitting down to like write out my

thoughts about these was super

interesting

so i have certain groups of movies that

i turn

to depending on the time of year

what i am looking for in terms of

comfort from these movies

so for example during the holiday season

as somebody who works in retail and in a

mall

no less holiday horror movies are my

absolute favorite thing after a long

stressful day at work

being yelled at by entitled customers uh

krampus

silent i deadly knight and p2 are some

of like the top ones that i turn to i

probably watch those

three or four times each over the course

of a holiday season

every year kind of in a similar way

the rest of the year not during the

holiday season

i have a list of horror movies that i

frequently turn to

uh when i'm feeling anxious or stressed

or

down and in no particular order

we'll go ahead and just start with as

above so below i'm still not 100 sure

why i find this movie so comforting

if i had to guess i would imagine it's

probably something along the lines of

like well my day was horrible but it

could be a lot worse

the ending of course is also like super

cathartic

given that a lot of the the cast

ends up surviving ends up making it out

of the catacombs it kind of

maybe makes me remember that like

through all like the shitty

situations in my life where i felt like

oh my god this could not get any worse

how am i going to

you know recover from this i always do

in the end

cabin in the woods is another one i

really really like after a bad day

maybe this sounds weird but during like

really bad days or like a bad week a bad

month or whatever

i like to imagine that all of the shitty

situations that i experienced

we're being orchestrated by two old

white dudes in an underground compound

somewhere

why does this bring me comfort i know

for sure it helps me compartmentalize

the things that bring me stress

and anxiety that are outside of my

control so by identifying the things

that are outside of my control in any

given situation

can then figure out some of the things

that are within my power to change

and maybe on a more superficial level

sometimes i just feel like so stressed

and angry that i want to

release a bunch of ancient gods upon the

world

one day i kind of feel a very similar

way

about the next movie on my list which is

twister

not a horror movie whatever but

i feel like a tornado a twister is like

the perfect metaphor for

the things in your life that are

out of your control we are going to go

ahead and relate it to something

recent for me death like and cancer i

guess in an

abstract way and through the

majority of that situation i kind of

felt like those cows

spun around in the air not having any

control over where i'm going

just being at the mercy of the wind but

kind of also like the ending of as above

so below

it has a very uh like happy

and cathartic ending because even though

twisters are something that are that are

largely unpredictable

and are extremely destructive um

the team at the end of the movie you

know they finally get dorothy flying and

the movie ends with us knowing that

they will learn some valuable

information about these unpredictable

storms that will end up helping a lot of

people

in the future so i guess again kind of

like reaching it you know it

just kind of reminds me that even though

there are things in my life that are

out of my control there are things i can

do

like recognizing the things i can

control and things i can change

to help me deal with those situations

which are sometimes unavoidable

like there's a theme here of me feeling

like my life is out of control because

that's part of the reason why i turn to

battle royale

a lot actually for comfort there's also

kind of a catharsis in seeing the

violence

i also want to throw your next into the

mix that was the next movie on my list

here because i feel a similar way

the violence in battle royale and in

your next

nervous to talk about these ones because

i feel like it would

just perpetuate that idea that violent

movies make

people violent which is not the case so

i want to explain

so like i mentioned i work in retail and

i have a lot of stress

involving family matters i am aware

that going around and hitting people or

harming people

is not the way to deal i feel comforted

in watching these violent situations

is seeing the bad guy get their

comeuppance for example

in not being able to see that

customer who yelled at me for 10 minutes

about an expired coupon

get what's coming to them i believe that

the universe

will give that negativity back to them

times three that's what i believe

but sometimes i just want that instant

gratification so

seeing the bad people in these movies or

the shitty characters in these movies

you know get what's coming to them

there's a catharsis in that in a

very hyperbolized way for sure but still

other than those movies i just mentioned

those are kind of like the big

comfort horror movies for me i i did

want to quickly mention

that there are just some like horror

slash creepy movies

that i just like for the you know the

vibes

they feel comforting and like cozy

cozy's a great word to describe these

that's the the comfort they bring to me

not necessarily in the subject matter of

the movie but just like the overall

feeling

so movies like trick or treat sleepy

hollow beetlejuice the craft queen of

the damned

um there's no deep meaning to why i find

comfort in these movies

um sometimes i just put them on and let

myself get into the world

and you know the vibes and that in and

of itself is comforting to me like when

i'm feeling down

so like i mentioned at the beginning of

the video uh the kickstarter

campaign for the documentary mental

health and horror

is live right now through july 23rd

there's a link at the very top of the

description box for the kickstarter page

if you want to check it out

read more about it i highly encourage

you go and read the whole

article and then obviously you can see

like any uh

you know perks you get for donating at a

certain level you know you know how

kickstarter works you guys know

also going to play a video in just a

second

of the director of the documentary

jonathan barcon

who's going to talk a little bit about

the the purpose of the movie

my name is jonathan barkhan and i am the

creator and director of mental health

and horror

a documentary horror is often shunned

and horror fans have long since been

made to feel like there was something

wrong with us

for loving a genre that tries to be

scary

but for many people myself included

horror can be the medium for catharsis

representation and even hope with our

film

we will explore the positive impacts

that horror can have on those who live

with

and endure mental illness by hearing the

personal impact horror has made on fans

those in the industry and mental health

professionals

we aim to make this documentary a

reflection of the horror community

meaning it will include people of

varying identity intersections

the horror community is vast and this

film will strive to reflect that

we hope that you will join us in

supporting this project which aims to

help people around the world

thank you

so if this is a project that you'd like

to support

and you have the financial ability maybe

consider

donating to the kickstarter campaign if

that's something you want to do

i definitely will be um and i will

absolutely

be in the comments section of this video

so please share your comfort horror

movies in the comments

um so i can add to my list maybe i'll

make a letterbox list of this

that's actually a good idea i'm gonna do

that and then i'll add some of your

guys's favorites to that list also

so i hope you enjoyed this video it's a

little bit different kind of different

from what i do

if you did give it a thumbs up subscribe

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today

i post two new videos a week so i will

see you very soon with a new video

until then stay strange bye