I was thinking recently about a horror movie, "The Hills Run red" from 2006. It's not that good of a movie, but it has an interesting idea. What if there was a movie so scary that it sent you mad if you watched it? Like the myth of the Polybius arcade machine myth. Only as a movie. Would you watch it even if it sent everyone else crazy? Would you bury it or give it to some kind of specialists in the paranormal like the SCP foundation or the "Top men" from the end of 'Raiders of the Lost Arc'? Or would you burn it so no one would ever see it again?
I believe the Masters of Horror episode Cigarette Burns has a similar thesis. And of course there are a thousand creepypastas that use this premise and naturally 90% of them are awful.

Ok so this idea doesn't seem to make good stories. But it is an interesting idea. And I have my own thoughts on it.

I've seen some really messed up stuff on the internet. Stuff I would never want anyone to see. Stuff that makes the "weird porn" inspired by Fnaf and Undertale look like kitten videos.
And it got me thinking. If a movie that could send people insane with fear like the ones in The Hills Run Red or Cigarette Burns existed it would probably end up on Youtube in a matter of seconds. Probably tagged under comedy too. Let's face it. As long as there's no nipples you can put anything on YT and you don't even have to age restrict it.

If you knew about this movie and it's power what would you do? Would you...

A: Tell everyone and hope they believe you and never watch it.

Or...

B: Assume that spreading the word would only make people more curious to see it. So say nothing and hope it stays obscure.

God knows I'd probably check it out. It's how I've ended up seeing so much messed up stuff to begin with. My curiosity gets the better of me. And before you ask. No. I'm not talking about porn (mostly).


This has really been bothering me so I hope some of you will think about it carefully.
No matter what you're answer I look forward to hearing from you.

Kudos.

It's not only horror... humour get be deadly too.

Lol, nice, this was the first thing that the OP reminded me of too!

Good point. Ahhh Python. Good memories.

What you're looking for is a very cool short novel named "Throat Sprockets", by Tim Lucas.

Sounds interesting. I have partial dyslexia and I can't read very well for more five minuets at a time. But if an audio version is ever made I'll be sure to check it out :)

Well there was the movie that as soon as you watched it you died, but I thought it sucked. And the sequel wasn't any better.

Honestly, it's not the movie, it's the person watching it. What may drive someone crazy won't phase someone else.

There are people out there who find Mr Rogers too horrific to watch and in turn there are people out there who watch snuff films and masturbate to them.

No matter what it is, regardless of how innocent or harsh it is, people which reach all extremes of reaction to it.

So you're one of those people who watch ISIS beheading videos or Mexican cartel members cutting people's limbs off with chainsaws?
I'd take option B), no need for people to know about degenerate material.

EDIT: On the other hand, if it really kills people who watch it, it might be good for weeding out people with perverse inclinations from society...hmm, hard decision!

EDIT2: Oh, it only makes people crazy, doesn't kill them...ok, then I'll stick with answer B).

Calls himself a "free speech activist", tells people would they should and should not be watching. :P

That premise kind of reminded me of Videodrome.

Can I watch someone else watch it, without me being exposed to it?
At that point it's up to my self-control and curiosity.
Ideally I'd burn that shit fast...but i might want to give it a peek.

I used to be pretty idealistic about knowledge, actually. I thought that All Things could be solved with sufficiently shared knowledge. And then I slowly realised two problems with that :

1° Some things function better with ignorance. That's a very disturbing thought to me, but, at the most harmless level, there's the fact that stage magicians are more enjoyable (to most people) when you don't know (or notice) the tricks, and at more serious levels, there's the correlation between depression and lucidity, between happiness and self-delusion (about the past, present, future), and there's the power of placebo effects and symbolic efficiency. So, a whole can of worm that I have to take in account.

2° Knowledge requires knowledge, it cannot be rushed. Half-truth or decontextualized factoïds can sometimes be even more damaging than ignorance. If global understanding could ideally solve everything, it cannot be acquired in one go (and prejudices would filter most of its transmission anyway), so you end up just spreading fractured bits of informations that people can instrumentalize either to consolidate wrong beliefs or even to act towards their goal more "efficiently" before acquiring enough knowledge to understand why their goal itself is illegitimate.

So, globally, the question of sharing knowledge becomes quickly more tricky than I used to expect. I'm happy to know about the efficient and inefficient ways to commit suicide, but I loathe people who spread such information around. And when a suspicious Waffen SS knocks at your door, good luck informing him that you're hiding a jewish family in you basement and that there are good objective reasons why he shouldn't deport and exterminate them. Chances are, only part of this knowledge will be assimilated fast enough.

So nowadays I would lean towards B), but I'm very immensely ill at ease about that. It's related to the loss of some illusions about mankind's cognitive abilities.

Just shows that it's an old old old question.

If the objective was to prevent as many people from dying as possible, I would choose option B in a world with only person-to-person communication. However given how our current world is not really person to person and how larger and more powerful entities like governments exist and more powerful mediums of sharing like social media exist, the best course of action would be A and hope your message is picked up by either of those entities and prevented from being spread.

Regardless of that, I also think ignorance is best for some people. Too many people think ineffectively and don't see something to its natural conclusion, but stop at a point where it makes them happy and continue from that point; in error. The only way we are saved from being buried in the consequences of the false reasoning of others is because everyone thinks differently to a degree and thus we are saved from homogenising a stupid idea (to an extent). So even though it is the freedom to think and falsely reason is what allows the growth of these bad ideas, it is the same freedom that allows other people to arrive at their own conclusions (valid or otherwise) that prevents such ideas from spreading.

I choose option C:

set out on an epic quest to destroy every known copy of this movie and then defeat its creator in hand to hand combat.


Hey, I think it would make a pretty good RPG plot.

JRPG...

If you're so inclined. Could also go the hack n slash path.