"Day of the Triffids" by John Wyndham was a terrific book...."The Chrysalids" even better. The Triffids movie was probably pretty good back in the day, but it could use a good makeover with today's Hollywood effects.

I'll second "The Ring" as a scary movie. It's the only movie that actually creeped me out as an adult. All the knock-off movies since then have tarnished a bit for me though.

I was scared silly by Jason and Freddy as a kid, but by far my all time favorite scary movie is "Hellraiser".