A minor treatise on the horror genre

I haven't watched any horror films for quite some time. While I do catch the occasional horror flick on tv, the last one that I sat in a cinema to watch, well, I can't remember.

Anyhow, I overheard how this girl approaches horror movie while on the mrt train about two weeks ago. I thought it was really interesting. And yes, I was eavesdropping. But given her audible voice, everyone within 5 metres was listening in.

According to her, she catches horror movies that have the ghost/spirit/disgruntled soul out for revenge only. Her theory is rather simple yet novel, to me at least.

See, she thinks it is awfully horrifying to have a ghost that picks its (gender-less) victims randomly. Or simply because the victim stumbled upon some haunted house, ancient relic or other random events. She'd watch horror films where the victims are killed or scared till their death because the ghost/spirit/disgruntled soul is out for revenge. The victim committed some hedious, nefarious, dastardly deeds to the ghost/spirit/disgruntled soul when it was still alive.

Her rationale is this. As long as she doesn't do bad things to other people, thereby causing death, she doesn't need to worry about being a victim. She's only afraid of ghosts/spirits/disgruntled souls who pick their victims randomly.

First time I hear this. But it is a way of looking at the genre. Interesting.