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Some people avoid horror movies because they find them silly. Others avoid them because their entire job already looks like one.

One emergency services worker spends her working hours exposed to real trauma, real emergencies, and real consequences, which means her downtime is intentionally reserved for anything but more of the same.

When her friend group’s rotating movie night landed on horror, a genre she’s never enjoyed and physically can’t tolerate, she flatly declined, citing the jump scares, the gore, and the toll it takes on her mentally.

Now she’s stuck wondering whether setting that boundary, one clearly tied to her actual job, somehow makes her the difficult one in the friend group.

Keep reading for the full story.

AITA for refusing to watch my friends horror movies

For context, I work in emergency services, so I expose myself to real bad stuff every day.

When I am not working I just prefer to keep things upbeat.

So her friend’s recent suggestion for a fun night in totally rubbed her the wrong way.

My friends are having a movie night, where we all rotate around our favourite films. They have chosen horror, and I just can’t stand horror.

It’s not a case of I think horror movies suck, or are badly written. It’s a case of I physically don’t want to watch gore.

She knows it’s a somewhat unpopular opinion, but she still tried to look out for her mental health.

I understand it’s their favourite genre, but I know it’ll affect me mentally and give me nightmares. I just can’t watch them, I hate the jump scares, I hate the gore, I hate it all.

And don’t get me wrong, I know it is fake, but it doesn’t matter, it still makes me squirm.

Still she wondered if it somehow made her a bad friend.

AITA for flat out refusing to watch my friend’s favourite genre, horror movies?

Not everyone likes these kinds of movies and that’s okay.

What did Reddit have to say?

Friends don’t have to do everything together.

This woman has a legitimate reason for not wanting to do this.

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Her friends can still enjoy this movie night without her there.

This user doesn’t like that this friend group is making her feel obligated in the first place.

Knowing something is fake doesn’t override how the brain actually processes repeated exposure to violence and gore, especially considering the nature of her work.

Declining to sit through a horror flick isn’t a matter of taste here, it’s a legitimate boundary tied directly to protecting her own mental health.

Days off are sacred — and she’s determined to keep them that way.

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Author

Benjamin Cottrell

Benjamin Cottrell | Assistant Editor, Internet Culture

Benjamin Cottrell is an Assistant Editor and contributing writer at TwistedSifter, specializing in internet culture, viral social dynamics, and the moral complexities of online communities. He brings a highly analytical, editorial voice to his reporting on workplace conflicts, malicious compliance, and interpersonal drama, with a specific focus on nuanced stories that lack an obvious villain.

As a published author of rhetorical criticism, Benjamin leverages his academic background in human communication to dissect and elevate viral social media threads. Instead of simply summarizing events, he provides readers with balanced, deep-dive commentary into why the internet reacts the way it does. In addition to his cultural reporting, he is an experienced fine art photography essayist and video game reviewer.

When he isn’t analyzing the latest viral debates, Benjamin is usually chipping away at his extensive video game backlog, hunting down the best new restaurants, or out exploring the city with a camera in hand.

Connect with Benjamin on Instagram and read more of his essays on Substack.