Peeing in Scary Situations: Cliché or Reality?

[Mr. Whizz 5,898]

If I should add questions to this poll let me know. Feel free to share thoughts and opinions in the comments.

Edited April 11, 2021 by Mr. Whizz

[Alj08 36]

Great questions! I've seen many a good (and more bad) horror films over the years and have occasionally wondered why the peeing response is not used more often - it doesn't need to be shown (although I wouldn't object!) if film makers are worried about ratings, just a reference in dialogue. I've long seen it as one of the cliches of horror and would love it to be more common. I seem to recall it being more common in the written form (there is a list somewhere on here of literature including peeing which I read a few days ago - perhaps we need a similar list of films?). Maybe it's the combination of film and literature but it does seem to me to be a cliche of the horror genre as a whole. Saying that, I've been fortunate not to have been involved in anything frightening enough to piss myself, so can't say with any certainty if it is true or not. Looking forward to hearing other views!

Edited April 11, 2021 by Alj08
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[Mr. Whizz 5,898]

On 4/11/2021 at 3:09 AM, Alj08 said:

Great questions! I've seen many a good (and more bad) horror films over the years and have occasionally wondered why the peeing response is not used more often - it doesn't need to be shown (although I wouldn't object!) if film makers are worried about ratings, just a reference in dialogue. I've long seen it as one of the cliches of horror and would love it to be more common. I seem to recall it being more common in the written form (there is a list somewhere on here of literature including peeing which I read a few days ago - perhaps we need a similar list of films?). Maybe it's the combination of film and literature but it does seem to me to be a cliche of the horror genre as a whole. Saying that, I've been fortunate not to have been involved in anything frightening enough to piss myself, so can't say with any certainty if it is true or not. Looking forward to hearing other views!

Yeah. Writer Stephan King is notorious for adding pee scenes into his literature, so much so there are articles talking specifically about peeing in his books and film adaptations. https://decider.com/2020/10/20/stephen-king-pee/#:~:text=Pee is so prevalent in,to pee himself in terror.

[Alj08 36]

Yes, I was thinking of King for the literary side of things. Thanks for the link- an interesting read - including pointing to a couple I have yet to read. 

[gldenwetgoose 21,487]

I'm not one of those people who've seen every single scary movie and can cite every single scene and movie, but I can think of a few examples...

- As a teenager with the advent of video rental libraries and parents weekends away, on of the first horror movies I saw (maybe Friday 13th???) had a girl who ends up hiding under a bed, and sees a mouse in front of her, cue the camera cutting away to a puddle flowing across the bare floorboards from under the bed.

- There is on course the famous scene from The Man Who Fell To Earth where the female star sees Bowie in his alien form for the first time and lets fly.

- In the 80s the UK BBC made a drama Threads about nuclear war, where as a mushroom cloud expands a middle aged woman is shown with a pool of pee emerging from her trouser legs.

- Much more recently in the sci-fi / mild horror final series of Stranger Things, two of the older teens (boy and girl) are held hostage and given a psychoactive drug to aid interrogation. Following on the girl whilst still high confesses to peeing herself slightly - earlier the male characters had relieved themselves whilst the girls hadn't.  In an earlier episode.  Not the first time wetting had featured in the series.

 

I'm sure I'm not the only person here who can think of numerous other scenarios where miraculously the stars of other movies and programmes somehow just never need to pee, where of course we're just willing them to...

[gldenwetgoose 21,487]

On 4/11/2021 at 5:33 AM, Mr. Whizz said:

If I should add questions to this poll let me know. Feel free to share thoughts and opinions in the comments.

I don't know about adding questions - it's probably fine as is.   My only comments would be that Q3 on whether something scary would make me pee myself, is a bit binary - it's essentially a yes / no or a don't know.  I suspect if I was bursting at the time and suddenly startled then there's a good chance I may - so that could be an option.

The other thing that would be interesting would be to open up a question as to whether you know anyone else who has wet themselves through fear or shock...  I can think of a couple of examples where I've been told about real cases, like the lady walking past a house when a dog suddenly rushed across the garden wards her barking ferociously....   Or someone here whose sister made her jump whilst she was already desperately waiting for the bathroom.