Scariest Movie

[topspeed]

All Hallowed's Eve is nearly upon us, and since we'll be up all night twitching and burning off the 30 or 40 Reese's and Snicker's Minis we inhaled, we might as well fire up the DVD/BD players and scare ourselves silly.

So, let hear it: What is the scariest movie you've seen?

No poll (been there, done that) and I'm taking Exorcist off the table right now. Everyone already knows that's the scariest movie ever made and wins every poll anyway.

My vote: The Changeling
George C. Scott rents a haunted house. No axe murderer's. No hockey masks. Just pure scares. OK for the kids because there is no gore, however plan on them sleeping with you for the next month or so.

[ForeverAutumn]

The Ring creeped me out for weeks afterwards, like no other movie has ever done. Even seeing the Excorcist as a kid didn't have the same effect on me. The Ring is, hands down, the scariest movie that I've ever seen.

[GMichael]

The very first "Nightmare on Elm Street" was the scariest movie I remember. Seeing that face peeking through the wall over the bed frightened me like I was a 13 year old little girl. I couldn't walk home alone in the dark for weeks.

[ForeverAutumn]

The very first "Nightmare on Elm Street" was the scariest movie I remember. Seeing that face peeking through the wall over the bed frightened me like I was a 13 year old little girl. I couldn't walk home alone in the dark for weeks.

I love the Elmstreet series. The first one was scary but after that I thought that they were pretty funny!

Amityville horror freaked me out too. I forgot about that one until just now. And because I'm a glutton for punishment, I couldn't just see the movie, I had to read the book too.

[emaidel]

Absolutey nothing has ever topped the sheer terror I felt when, at the age of 16, I first saw "Psycho." Now, as a cantankerous old (63) fart, it seems that nothing frightens me any more, but I'll never forget how terrified I was back when those shrieking violins started, and the knife seemed to be ripping apart Janet Leigh's lovely torso.

[Feanor]

All Hallowed's Eve is nearly upon us, and since we'll be up all night twitching and burning off the 30 or 40 Reese's and Snicker's Minis we inhaled, we might as well fire up the DVD/BD players and scare ourselves silly.

So, let hear it: What is the scariest movie you've seen?

...

When I first saw it back in the '60s I thought that The Day of the Triffids was the scariest movie I'd seen. Today it doesn't have the same impact given special effects that are very hocky by today's standards.

Again when I first saw them, two I found to be the scariest to the point in time were Alien and An American Werewolf in London

[kexodusc]

"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".

[ForeverAutumn]

Hellraiser! I LOVED that movie. Clive Barker is pure macabre genius! Read his Books of Blood series of short stories. They are the only books that I've ever read that could turn my stomach with the descriptives.

[Auricauricle]

The Face of Fu Manchu

Ah, the Summer of '74....I remember it well....

I spent an afternoon bending coathangers, twisting rabbit ears and turning dials to get three or four more channels on my grandmother's TV. Up in the mountain house where she lived, reception was terrible, a matter that I wasted no time "correcting". As a reward, I treated myself by stayed up way past my bedtime congratulating myself on my ingenuity and watching Christopher Lee as Fu Manchu evil plans unfold.

Later that night, the squirrels (affectionately dubbed "boomers") that skittered in the walls of that house and memories of Fu Manchu scared the bejesus outta me.

[RoadRunner6]

Absolutey nothing has ever topped the sheer terror I felt when, at the age of 16, I first saw "Psycho." Now, as a cantankerous old (63) fart, it seems that nothing frightens me any more, but I'll never forget how terrified I was back when those shrieking violins started, and the knife seemed to be ripping apart Janet Leigh's lovely torso.

I agree almost completely with Emaidel. Here's my comments:


Absolutey [sic] nothing has ever topped the sheer terror I felt when, at the age of 17, I first saw "Psycho." Now, as a cantankerous old (64) fart, it seems that nothing frightens me any more, but I'll never forget how terrified I was back when those shrieking violins started, and the knife seemed to be ripping apart Janet Leigh's lovely breasts. [sick]

RR6

[Smokey]

I go with Ghost Story (1981) whcih 3-LockBox mentioned in his ghost movie thread. An old fashion ghost story shot in dead of winter that does deliver. The guy that did make up for Exorcist also did the make up for this movie and it shows. It scared the pants off me

[Worf101]

To me the Scariest Film I ever saw was the original T.V. miniseries of "Salems Lot". There were/are things in that vampire film that I'd not seen/thought of before...

1. Children as victims of vampirism preying on their peers, parents SIBLINGS!. When the little Glick boy floats out of the mist and begins scratching on the SECOND STORY WINDOW of his brother, goose bumps began running up and down my spine.

2. The vampire was the ugliest seen since "Nosferatu". You could almost smell the stench of death through the T.V. screen.

3. The "Teacher I'm Sick" scene... chite...

4. The mortuary scene. He's making a cross while behind him the Glick's boy's mom begins to reanimate one jerk at a time.

I could go on and on but this two parter was so terrifying that CBS was flooded with phone calls and complaints from parents who's kids couldn't sleep that night from sheer terror. Outcry was so "Wellisan" in scale that they considered NOT showing the second half.

PS. - A year later I was stupid enough to read the Stephen King book. I finished it during a rainstorm on a dark night. Later that night I was awakened by the sound of scratching on my second story window. I literally "pi**ed" myself with fear and the fact that I was too scared to get up and go to the bathroom. That's how sure I was that some vampire was waiting to mesmerize me into inviting him or her in.

It turned out to be a branch from a nearby tree, blowing in the wind.

Da Worfster

[Worf101]

Other's in the "Running".

1. "The Omen" - The graveyard scene. When the nanny shows up in the hospital.

2. "Night of the Living Dead" - Shows you that you don't need color film or money to scare the chite out of people.

3. "Phantasm" - A drive in movie that was a real "cut above" the rest.

4. "The Fly" - Both versions were/are marvelous.

5. "The Thing" - Carpenter version gives more "WTF" moments than you can imagine.

6. "The Howling" - One of the best werewolf movies ever made. Beats the pants off "An American Werewolf in London" if you ask me.

7. "28 Days Later" - Great zombie movie. Fast zombies is a scary zombie.

8. "Them" - Giant ants give me nightmares. Why hasn't this one been redone?

9. "Alien" - In space they can't hear you scream.

10. "Jaws" - Under water they can barely hear you scream.

11. "The Sentinel" - Burgess Meredith as Satan... wow.

12 "Poltergeist" - The coffins rising from the rain soaked earth!!!! Are you chittin' me????

Da Worfster

[Rich-n-Texas]

I go with Ghost Story (1981) whcih 3-LockBox mentioned in his ghost movie thread. An old fashion ghost story shot in dead of winter that does deliver. The guy that did make up for Exorcist also did the make up for this movie and it shows. It scared the pants off me

YO! Knucklehead! What the hell'd you do to your nurse's face???

[Rich-n-Texas]

I have video of Feanor leg-humping Hillary. THAT's freakin' scary.

[topspeed]

A lot of great suggestions. I remember being a kid and being completely freaked out by Phantasm. The mortician and that crazy flying sphere! Wasn't there a scene where the kid tapes a shotgun shell & marble to the tip of a hammer so he could blast a hole in a door? I'd always wondered if that would actually work...

Hellraiser, or any other really graphic slasher movie, was more gross than scary, I s'pose. Shock value, like the inane Saw movies, seem to pass as scary these days. Movies such as Salem's Lot, Poltergeist, or The Ring prove you can be scary without resorting to dismemberment. The clown in Stephen King's "It" scared the bejeezus out of both my wife and me!

I'm amazed no one has mentioned this classic (props to Kam)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gf7h6o3I8yw

[Feanor]

I have video of Feanor leg-humping Hillary. THAT's freakin' scary.

You can't blackmail me, RnT

[Rich-n-Texas]

Jeez, the thought NEVER crossed my mind. I was just trying to turn this thread into a political battle royal.

[Auricauricle]

I really enjoyed Ghost Story: Thought the sex/thunderstorm scene was pretty hot....

Don't remember the faceless thing you're lookin' at....Where'd the hell did that thing come from?

Who remembers "Murder by Decree"?

[Smokey]

YO! Knucklehead! What the hell'd you do to your nurse's face???

She is getting ready for Halloween. Around here, there is no pretending

Don't remember the faceless thing you're lookin' at....Where'd the hell did that thing come from?

The make up artist Dick Smith was trying different apparition for the film. That was one of them.

More info.......

http://www.dicksmithmake-up.com/Film...ghoststory.htm

[Auricauricle]

Yeah....the creature in the limo!

God, I had the leave myself alone for a coupla days after that fright!

Couldn't handle it.

But I soon got a grip.

The interest re--emerged.

The....

[canuckle]

For something more recent, 1408 made me never want to sleep again. I found it utterly chilling.

[dean_martin]

I remember reading the book "Ghost Story" by Peter Straub on which the movie is based. I was working nights at a local grocery store at the time and would get home before sunrise. I could never go straight to bed so I read this thing from early morning darkness to morning twilight every day until I finished it. I could hear every little sound in the house ("lay perfectly still...don't move...don't move!"). Scary stuff! I still haven't seen the movie because I've always thought it couldn't possibly be as good as the book.

Probably the scariest movie I've watched in my adult life is "Suspiria". Aside from some slasher/gorey murder scenes, it does have chillingly suspenseful moments and the music (by Goblin) heightens the suspense. Usually I like the old, dank, misty gothic images found in some of the better b&w horror movies, but the strong use of color in Suspiria has its own foreboding spell.

[emesbee]

I thought The Blair Witch Project was quite scary at the start. Lots of anticipation that something was about to happen. Trouble was, it didn't! The movie just meandered to nowhere, and its scariness turned into boredom.

The Village had some quite scary moments, mainly through the careful use of sound. Similar thing with The Others.

I don't usually find the blood and guts type horror movies very frightening. They are too over-the-top and so obviously loaded with special effects that there is no suspension of disbelief.

[markw]

"Something wicked this way comes" is a Disney adaptation of a Ray Bradbury story, with a great cast and done in an amazingly literate and creepy manner.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CZjZRERHWY

It's a natural this time of year. It still raises the hairs on my neck.