To run or walk, that is the question...

So I saw Friday the 13th, the Uninvited, and this older movie called Léon the Professional, and I liked them all... but I mostly liked Friday the 13th.. In a nutshell, it revitalized an aging franchise while being the successful embodiment of what a good horror movie should be. There was some comedy (honestly, the director knows who's watching his movie, and definitely appeals to the viewer with the humor), but more importantly, there was a serious can of whoop-ass opened up throughout the movie (their was only one person doing the whooping, and I won't insult your intelligence anymore than that)...

Now I'll just say you should definitely go out and see Friday the 13th, but that brings me to what I've been thinking about for a few days now... what makes the horror figure all that scary?... In my head I can conceptualize two basic archetypes of what a horror figure could be: The intimidating figure that can't be outrun (because he just runs so damn fast) and who always happens to have the bigger weapon (lol)... and the omnipresent figure whose intelligence can't be beat and who never has to run to catch his prey (this can include ethereal beings like ghosts).

for those of you not following my drift I'll give examples. An example of the the big-ass dude with a massive weapon would be in the Texas Chainsaw Massacre... Whats more intimidating than a guy most definitely twice your size running around with a F*&@ing chainsaw!

my next example is of the omnipresent horror figure who does not use brute strength to intimidate his prey. This could be like the ghost in the ring, the guy/girl in Saw that plays games, or Freddy Krueger. I mean, Freddy Krueger might have blades for fingers, but he's not really real... he works through nightmares and basically gives his victims the feeling that they can't fall asleep because he's always there.

In the end, everyone dies! But which is scarier? sliced to bits or scared to death?