Do movies have a positive or negative impact on us?

Do movies actually impact us for better or worse? What’s your take?
Can films mess with our heads? Like, could they turn someone into an American psycho (I'm exaggerating, obviously, but you get the idea)?

I can,
I actually checked the box for Spock on the last census

Almost every decent movie I watch leaves me feeling like I've leveled up a few stages of evolution, though sometimes they just drag me down a notch 😁 instead.

😁 😁 alright, here we go: I'm looking for some straight answers now...

I have always maintained that individuals who become utterly obsessed with cinema, regardless of how much violence they consume on screen, will almost certainly never evolve into actual killers.

Such people typically lack any semblance of an active life and spend their entire existence tethered to the television set
,whereas causing any sort of mayhem out in the streets would actually require them to step foot outside of their homes for once.

True enough. At this rate, I’ll probably end up checked into a psych ward before the week is out. Heh. 😁
I basically just use movies as my own personal therapy sessions.

Grace Mitchell22 said:Do movies have a positive or negative impact on us? What’s your take?
Can cinema actually mess with our heads? Can it turn someone into a serial killer (hyperbole, obviously, but you get my drift)?

My buddy Charles would've had an opinion on this, but I took him out right after watching "American psycho".

rapidstag74 said:My buddy Charles would have had some thoughts on this—but I actually took him out right after watching "American Psycho."

Man, what a wild movie—that chainsaw scene alone was absolutely insane... bravo, man...

Everything you watch, everything you listen to—it all leaves a mark, doesn't it? It seeps into your subconscious and shapes who you are. Films, in particular, are engineered specifically to trigger those raw emotional responses—some hitting the bullseye while others... well, they miss the mark entirely. So, if you're looking for my final verdict, it’s a resounding YES. 😈 😈 😈

Any kind of art feels like a gift when it comes to you 🙂
but if someone’s just being dense, they’ll miss the point entirely 😛

Of course movies mess with your head. In my opinion, we watch them because we’re looking for an escape—we want to step into someone else's shoes and experience those wild, out-of-the-ordinary situations we'd never face in real life. Every time the credits roll, we carry a little piece of that magic with us. Sometimes, that pull is so strong you almost want to trade your actual reality for the one on the screen just to get lost in it for a while.🙂

silentpilot6, this is your calling. PHHHH, NASA👍

When I was visiting Germany, my brother and I wanted to see T-2 and Ninja Turtles, but we were barred because we were under 18. They operate under the assumption that a child might suffer a nervous breakdown from watching a violent film; I find that reasoning to be pure idiocy. Even at five or six years old, I watched Poltergeist at 1:00 AM and found it hilarious rather than frightening. I also watched Mothra and The Creature at similar hours, yet I experienced no nightmares—in fact, they actually helped me sleep better. In my view, horror has far less impact on children. Believe it or not, there are adults who turn a blind eye to movies like Psycho, which I watched as a child and found tedious rather than terrifying. The only film that truly unsettled me was Amityville; it aired around 2:00 or 3:00 AM, and after watching it, I was unable to sleep for the rest of the night.

Well, now, what a topic we've stumbled into here. 😍

Do movies actually shape who we are, for better or worse? I can't help but wonder if we're all just a collection of cinematic tropes at this point. What’s your take on it?

It really depends on which one we're talking about, because I try my hardest to find at least one redeeming quality in every movie I watch. My grandfather, on the other hand, seems to have this uncanny ability to let every single film affect him negatively—and I mean absolutely every single one. It’s honestly impressive how he does it, especially since his whole thing is that he only ever wants to watch movies that are completely messed up. Being John MalkovichHe spent days on end rambling about him—honestly, he can't even remember the guy's name anymore, yet he still won't shut up about it. Groundhog DayHe’s actually convinced this is doable, and honestly, he had the nerve to tell my entire family that he went through something pretty much identical back when he was playing for the New York Knicks. 😵 Back at the start of January, he was watching... I was thinking about The Exorcist again, and honestly, it’s one of those films that stays stuck in your brain like a bad habit. There's just something about that specific kind of dread that most modern horror movies can't quite touch, no matter how many jump scares they throw at you. It’s slow, it’s heavy, and it feels genuinely unsettling in a way that makes you want to keep the lights on just a little bit longer than usual. (I really messed this one up again). Honestly, during the house blessing, I spent a solid hour just listening to the priest drone on and on; does he even realize how much he’s talking, or is he actually aware of it? I can't help but wonder if they know about this over at Vatican City, and why the Vatican and Boanic keep all this stuff from the rest of us. 🤦 He basically insisted that I drop everything to watch this movie and report back my thoughts ASAP. This is a transcript from our phone call about three months ago—he woke me up around two in the morning because he apparently couldn't sleep.

Good grief, someone please help me out here—there’s this one movie that I just cannot shake, and it’s stuck on loop in my head.
"Seriously, Grandpa—what if Ruzin is actually Rosemary's Baby?"
It's definitely not Rosemary's Baby; this one’s actually lost his mind.
Which one?
Imagine some little kids just wandering down the street when they suddenly stumble right into a monster—you know, like one of those rabbits with those massive, creepy teeth.
Donnie Darko!
Which Darko?

Well, he passed away today. 😢 Well, Dennis Hopper is gone, may he rest in peace. 🙏 He claims that Frank Booth reminds him irresistibly of his grandmother. Honestly, the movie didn't quite land for me either; it left a million damn questions hanging in the air. Like, what is actually going on with him? What kind of sickness is he suffering from—is he just suffocating for lack of fresh air? And she isn't exactly healthy herself, so why on earth is she clinging to such a twisted portrayal? Anyway, I ended up losing it laughing during that scene with the ear.

It’s a straightforward story, really.He’s still going on about Alvin Straight—and if it isn't him, it’s just some other guy he’s obsessed with. It’s like he's stuck in a loop. DarkoRegarding the whole saga with Straight, this guy is out here claiming that his late brother was actually Isidore—apparently, they were estranged for ages, and poor Ziggy ended up passing away just because this lunatic couldn't be bothered to see him. Now he’s going on and on about heading out to Alvin's grave to light a candle, and honestly, he’s been obsessing over this since March. You try explaining to him that Farnsworth is buried in the States, but it doesn't matter; he’s just busy picking out some identical lawnmower at Home Depot and preparing to head out on whatever wild journey he's dreaming up. He hasn't even clarified if he's just talking big or if he actually intends to roll up to that unfortunate cemetery in Lincoln, New Mexico, on a riding mower like Alvin Straight himself.

Therapists aren't doing much to help, and honestly, my family is just at their wits' end. Has anyone else dealt with something similar with their own relatives?

P.S. Sorry if that was a bit of a novel. 🙂

OT: It really depends on who you're talking about.
There are certain people out there who binge too many action movies or horror flicks, and they start trying to play the villain in real life 🤷 which, more often than not, ends with them landing in prison and all that nonsense.

Now this is an interesting topic 😁

If a ever actually shows up looking just like the one from the movie and starts picking people off, you can count me in as the prime suspect, because honestly, I've probably watched that flick more than 40 times already 😂

But seriously, jokes aside, it really depends on how you look at it—I can't think of any specific example right this second.

Like, watching horror movies can really mess with people who are sensitive...😲

redmarlin27 said:Like, watching horror movies can really mess with people who are sensitive...😲

When that student went on that rampage at his school—I can't even remember exactly when it happened—everyone immediately started blaming horror movies, which is just complete and utter nonsense, isn't it?

I still remember watching Orange for the first time, probably right after I spent a month trying to act just like Alex 😁