For me, what started it was Resident Evil (the Original,) on the Gamecube. It was one of the First "Real" games that i had ever played, and because of that, i was pretty terrible at it. Resulting in Many, many, deaths. After awhile, (for reasons i couldn't understand at the time,) i started to enjoy seeing Jill get attacked, and killed, by Zombies, and the assortment of other Creatures.
About 10 years ago, what really caused me to become interested in Ryona, was Tomb Raider Legend, on the Xbox Original.
Specifically; failing the Quick time events, would lead to pretty graphic deaths. (For the time, that is.)
I thought that i was some sort of freak back then, for enjoying things like that. Years later, i was glad to find out that i wasn't the only one.