KSL.com has an article about the 13 Scariest movies.
This list is for Horror Lightweights… Which means for most people living in Utah. But the Ogre lives in Utah and this list is something he might watch at 3 AM because he can’t sleep. *Yawn*. I’m bored and tired just looking at that Fail Roster.
Okay, The Ring and The Thing are right up there for great Spook Flix… but they don’t SCARE me. I’m not exactly sure what it is that really scares me… but there is one that stands out that scared the shit out of me.
EVENT HORIZON.
There are two kinds of people out there… Those that have seen EH in the theatre… and those that have only seen it at home, safe, in your little box. Event Horizon scared the shiat out of me. 3 days later, I climbed a wall backwards trying to get away from my wife… because I was having a nightmare about EH. Uncle Musket did the same thing 2800 miles away after watching EH, three days later. Hell, I had nightmares and couldn’t sleep for a week.
The Woman in Black… with Daniel Radcliffe is a new movie out on disk that’s well worth watching. It has great Lovecraftian atmosphere and tells a good story. It’s scared a lot of people I know… and is now in my favorites list of Creepy Movies. You’ll have to check it out if you’ve not seen it.
So what movie scared you the most?
Salem’s Lot.
Saw it as a WEE lad.
Nightmares for years, I still… from time to time get creeped out while alone at night.
And I am pretty sure this movie is the reason.
Jim
Night of the Living Dead at 6 years old.
Monsters under the bed ever since.
EH didn’t do much for me, in the theater, but I’m jaded.
May have to check out Harry gets Scary.
Another vote for Night of the Living Dead. Saw it Halloween night my freshman year of college. One year later, it was on again. I absolutely could not watch it again, knowing what was coming up. I tried. Couldn’t do it.
Generally, horror films don’t scare me that much, usually because the “heroes” are total idiots who survive by total dumb luck and the plots can be resolved in ten minutes with a shotgun and judicious applications of buckshot.
That said three horror flicks have scared the carp out of me:
-Psycho… the first time I watched it, anyway. Was actually terrified to take a shower the next morning (mostly because I was almost certain my Little Brother would fake-attack me with a toy butcher knife). After that one time, eh. Kinda boring actually. But that first time… oh man.
-The Birds. Stayed up ’til like 1:30 AM watching it on TCM. Didn’t sleep that night. And had a total panic attack/phsychotic break the next day when a crow made the exact “brawk!” sound the birds in the movie make when they’ve massed and are waiting to attack.
-Children of the Corn (the 1984 version with Linda Hamilton). Ho-Lee FRAK! I’ve actually never seen this one in its entirety, nor do I wish to. Caught fragments of it on AMC a few times…. still have nightmares about it every so often. Mostly that tall red-headed kid, Malachai. “OUTLANDER!”
I am with you on Event Horizon, Ogre. I saw that when I was 16 in high school at the theaters, and it chilled me, hardcore. (Bad date movie, by the way.) On subsequent/more recent viewings, it’s lost some of its edge, but I still really appreciate what it did to me.
Lately, I’ve gotten into more ‘extreme’ horror. But most of that stuff is better categorized as “difficult to watch” than scary. Hollywood and American cinema has basically relegated itself to LOUD NOISES and THINGS JUMP OUT, as an attempt to scare.
You really have me thinking hard about a movie that has “scared” me some lately.
See, that’s the thing. I don’t need to be Startled. Startled – BOO! – Isn’t scary. That doesn’t do it.
What scares me has to disturb me on multiple levels… like EH did.
Slashers don’t do it.
Movies like the Friday 13th, Hostell, and movies where the Director kills off the characters in creative new ways… No.
I want supernatural. I want unknown. I want something that makes me think…
If I can resolve the movies Plot with a Firearm – those don’t scare me. They frustrate me. Usually the Director has the guy with the gun drop the gun and not retrieve it or is poor shot or whatever. Usually this character is “Trained” and in the end an “Untrained” person wins the day with it or whatever… No… These movies piss me slam off.
I want a movie that makes me want to get on my knees and PRAY afterwards.
It does sound a bit cliche, but the first Paranormal Activity unsettled me in ways similar to what you mean. I’m 31 now, and if a movie can make me turn off the lights and scamper up the stairs, hoping nothing is following me, the movie hit its mark like a champion!
I have to say, Event Horizon was the last film that actually scared me…
Before that, Pumpkinhead did a number on me but that may be because I saw it late at night at my cousin’s house out in the middle of the woods.
Oh and my Aunt let me see the Hitcher when i was about 8 or so.
And then in a stunning lack of intelligence a whole group of us kids at La Petite daycare were shown Jaws 3… An hour later when the only black kid’s father showed up looking exactly like Louis Gossett Jr., we all screamed… I had nightmares for months.
When I was six it was “The Crawling Hand”-! Damn, I saw it everywhere (the hand, crawling)…
Poltergeist. The scariest PG rated movie ever.
I watched Event Horizon last night for the first time in forever (maybe since the theater) and it’s lost a bit of its edge, but still cool. I agree about the Lovecraftian angle in supernatural films. That’s the horror I want to see; just something completely incomprehensible.
Being an 80’s kid and not a huge horror fan, a lot of the nuclear thriller films at the time really spooked me. I can remember watching The Day After, but a really quiet one called Testament spooked me the most. It’s just about a small town dealing with fallout after a nuclear exchange. You just see things fall apart and there’s nothing you can do.
There was a TV movie called Special Bulletin about a terrorist nuclear attack on Boston Harbor that was shot like a live news broadcast that was pretty wild watching it when it first aired.
There’s a British film called Threads from the time that is almost too much to watch and one from the 60’s called Ladybug, Ladybug that’s told from the perspective of children in a small British village (possibly) misinterpreting news information about an impending attack and it goes all Lord of the Flies. The last shot in that one is something I’ll never forget. Just awful.
Just seeing all that stuff when you’re 10-12 years old and then they’re talking about it on the news that night was kinda weird. Real horror, I guess.
There’s a movie called Magic with Anthony Hopkins and Ann Margret about a ventriloquist and his dummy that freaked me the **** out as a kid. I hate that stuff and still do. Friggin’ dummies. Bleh. Good movie though and based on a real good William Goldman book.
The original ALIEN, from the chestburster to the reveal. The fact that you never saw the whole creature until the end scared and still scares the crap out of me.
I agree, the Jason and Freddie movies just don’t do it. Relying on shock is just lazy film making.
The movie that actually gave me nightmares is called “The Changeling” with George C Scott. It’s not a blood and gore movie, no one is hacked to death. It just creeped me out watching it. Highly recommended.
I watched “The Exorcist” at a very young age. Having grown up Southern Hypocrite (Baptist) I was already convinced that I was going to he’ll just for watching it. Yeah, that combined with the crucifix scene really made me think that my imortal soul was doomed. Thanks a lot for that fear based religion, grandma and grandpa.
The movie that got me the worst when I was younger and still creeps me out is The Shinning with Jack Nicolas. His slow decent and crazy hallucinations. Those girls in the hall still give me the heeby jeebies.
That. The Shining slowly and steadily pulls your intestines out your belly button one inch at a time. I still get chills when I see a tricycle (or was it a big wheel?)
Alien was pretty spooky, I only remember bits and pieces from EH, but that was truly frightening. The scene that sticks with me is when the one guy was possessed, so they put him in an airlock with a timer. The demon possessing him is defiant until the last ten seconds or so when it leaves. The guy then looks around and realizes what is happening, and what is about to happen. He is terrified, begs his friends to please help him but they can’t stop the process. For some reason, I think I’ll always remember that scene.
Another vote for The Exorcist. I also watched it at a young age; alone in our house, and at night. I kept turning it off and back on again; some sadistic, self-torture thing I suppose. That was a creepy movie.
Pet Cemetary is probably the one that creeped me out the worst. I dont plan to ever watch it again. I never saw EH in the theatre.
Alien, From Beyond, Jaws (I was five), Zombie (Fulci), Event Horizon, The Thing (Carpenter), The Fog, In The Mouth of Madness, Night/Dawn/Day of the Dead. Almost any film where people are being eaten alive. (animal, zombie, monster)
Oh, and the Twilight series of films. So much so that I refuse to watch them.
The very last scene of The Blair Witch Project, where you can see the dude just standing there facing the wall as the chick is screaming her head off. Most of the movie was meh to suck, but that last scene almost made up for the rest of it.
EH scratches at you Spirit cause you know what they are dealing with. The Exorcist did it to many back in the day, but EH deals up mass quantity’s of chaos to top off the entree’ of evil its feeding you. Also, it does it in a science fiction setting, which we all love, so it desecrates our beloved fantasy/si-fy movies as well.
I will probably never watch it again as I don’t like nightmares. I have, however, recommended it to folks who are talking about scary movies.
I can not think of another movie that has frightened me in such a way.
I’m more like you on creepy over horror but my worse is IT, it ruined me as a kid…
Yeah, the skinless guy in EH creeped me out. In the Mouth of Madness did the same, especially the old crusty guy on the squeaky bike. My sister watched it with me back in high school and I used to terrorize her when we were on dark GA roads by making the squeaking sound.
But the one that got me the most was Bowling For Columbine.
Or Rosemary’s Baby.
Yup. Alien for modern genre – much darker and more mysterious than the sequel. EH, creepy but not over the top. Once I got the main idea I was pretty much ready for anything. As a kid? Village of the Damned. Hands down winner. Saw a pretty girl at the beach once years later – she turned and pulled off her sunglasses. As the sun caught her extraordinary pale blue eyes for a moment I just about froze. I realized it was a totally irational reaction but couldn’t shake it for the rest of the day.
E.T. yeah I said it, E.T. scared the shit out of me at 6 years old and gave me a complex about aliens that still creeps me out to this day.
Life sucks enough without adding scary movies that make you have nightmares too it.
I avoid them.
Well, my life is fucking awesome… so I need scary movies to balance out how utterly fucking awesome my whole life is.
“This Island Earth” saw it in elem school on the 8mm projector, yes they used to show movies in the school aduditorim on lunch times back when. Was checking open doors and cutting the pie at age 8 all the way back to my class room after seeing that one, (school room closets are DEATH TRAPS). Have it on disk now, good times.
Forgot Jaws! Saw it while in the military on the big screen, it had been out for about a week. When it got to the point where the young swimmer gets munched at the opening the lady next to me who was by herself grabbed my hand (never seen her before) and hung on for dear life. Thought it was funny and when somebody was about to get et I would offer my hand to her hold onto and she took it. Hey, USAF SP’s we live to serve!
Horror films, not so much. Real events, in movie form, scare me. What would that be, you say? “Hotel Rwanda”. While not exactly categorized as a “horror” film, it certainly was. Zombies, Jason, Vampires, Werewolves, etc. don’t exist. Genocidal Tribal behavior with machetes certainly does. The thought of being caught in an African “disturbance” , without the benefit of being a member of a Marine Battalion Landing Team, or a U.S. Army Airborne or Infantry Division, scares me more than ALL of the fictional boogeymen than could possibly fit in my closet, or under my bed.
Oh, yeah, I almost forgot. Barry Obama. That’s some REALLY scary shit.
Hellraiser, way back in the day.
First Saw movie more recently, and first Hostel. Both were creepy as hell until the franchise made them a mockery.