I got scared to the point of actually jumping of the seat and running to bed (and staying awake the whole night) after first watching Gremlins (1984). When the first batch starts eating after midnight and start turning to green slime.... yikes! And I got really creeped out by the Emperor in Return of the Jedi. The guy was pure evil!!! I was 5 years old. I was pretty shaken by Abres los ojos (the original spanish Vanilla Sky) when I was 20, I think. I was drunk and sexually frustrated and caught the film on TV, circa 3AM - I have no idea what scared the shit out of me then, but it was intense... And recently, I tried watching a few Japanese horrors (namely Naked Blood) and turned them off. I just can't stand the gore. Physiologicaly. But the worst experience I had would have to be von Trier's Antichrist. Couldn't sleep after that one. The film's got the full package: dead children, dying animals, castration, faceless people...
I'm quite ashamed to cnfess that the movie that scared me the most was the 1985 Fright Night. I watched is when I was a teen. I was nearly never frightened by movies and this one seemed funny... It gave me nightmares for monthes! For years, I remerbered the scene when the hero's best friend dies. I thought it was so intense and moving and everything. When I was in my 20's, I talked about it with my cousin and he told me he had felt exactly the same. So we decided to rent the movie and watch it, as adults (but still together, because hey, we were big wuss). IT WAS SO LAME! Over-kitsch, not frightening at all, and the scene that we though so moving was ridiculous. We never understood why it frightened us both so much.
Okay, I have no idea why no one else has mentioned this... but The Fourth Kind scared the crap out of me. I hated owls for the longest time after that. I don't know if it was scary because it was one of those 'based on true events' or what, but I still really hate that movie. I refuse to watch it again. The Conjuring definitely got me a couple of times, but it didn't leave me as freaked out as I was expecting. Also, I love most horror movies because I get scared easily. I love the shock and the surprise. PS: I hated The Shining because it was nothing like the book.
I waited about 2 years for all the hype around the Blair Witch Project to die down before watching. I hired it from ExtraVision on VHS and stayed up late in the pitch dark with just myself for comfort. No film has ever scared the crap out of me like that movie - I almost pooped!
The remake of House on Haunted Hill, starring Famke Janssen, always scared me. I watched it for the first time when I was about 11 or 12, and even now, if I ever catch it on TV and decided to watch it, there are still certain parts that give me chills. I'd also add the original Omen movie. The soundtrack alone scared the pee out of me. The sequels were okay, but the first one was the best. I'm also a huge fan of the Hellraiser franchise, but they don't really scare me all that much.
Can't believe no one has mentioned 'It' the movie based on the novel by Stephen King. That film scared the bejesus out of me when I was a boy. This was somewhat exacerbated by the fact that there was an urban legend doing the rounds at the time that 'bad men' dressed as clowns were abducting kids in my area. (circa early nineties).
I think "It" was perhaps one of the better King movies if not the best of them all. The original "Carrie" was awesome too, but if I remember right, "It" had no religious overtones to it. Pennywise is still the scariest clown I've ever seen.
I think that's what made it all the more sinister and unnerving, the fact it was a clown and he was out to get small children as opposed to the usual teenager/slasher stuff.
'Your Highness" it was frightening how much I paid to watch it. Also Darby oGil and the little people--- the banshee scene is scary (for a kid at teh time). Still creeps me out now.
Me and my GF are in agreement that Pennywise was more disturbing in the book. I dunno, the way Tim Curry played him just seems funny to us, like LOL funny.
To be honest, I have always been too afraid to watch It. As a kid I was terrified of the cover. Sooo, you could say that one scared me the most because I Never was able to give it a chance. Maybe I'll be able to watch it now that I'm older and not so easily frightened.
I don't know how I forgot about It. That was without question the scariest movie to me as a kid. I never liked clowns after that movie.
I kind of get wound up by a lot of 'scary' films because their damn production often ruins the effect for me. Why they all seem to persist in a gradually increasing speed of cuts or rising backing track baffles me-- you just know the killer/monster/whatever is going to strike at the highest point! Silence is golden in horror films! That said, something a little off the beaten track is The Woodsman, which, whilst not a horror at all, has a thoroughly disturbing climax scene. It's just two characters having a conversation in a park but if you've ever seen it, you'll know what I mean. As for more traditional horror, [Rec] does it very well and the original John Carpenter version of The Thing. That scene with the dishes of blood... urgh. Also, if you've ever seen Ellen Page in Hard Candy, you'll never look at her the same way again!
I don't watch horror cus I scare too easy - the backing track stuff you talk about scares me to no end And the shock tactics too. I always get incredibly annoyed afterwards because it's such a cheap trick and it made me jump lol. Maybe you'll like Japanese horror? They tend to understate things don't they? Has anyone mentioned the original The Ring? I saw a clip of the Japanese one and it has the silence that you're talking about. Freaky as hell. What's the scene in The Woodsman? DON'T link me to a video, I don't wanna watch it (remember, I scare easy lol), but tell me what happens! Ahh Hard Candy. I watched it, without knowing what it's about, with my dad
I must be a little different than you guys, and there definitely seems to be an age gap. There are a few movies not mentioned here that freaked me out. Hellraiser with Pinhead and the gore was crazy! Then Phantasm with the tall dead looking guy and the flying ball that kills everyone. Lastly...Jaws scared the crap out of me as a little kid. After seeing that movie I was afraid to even go swimming in a pool. I would walk around the whole thing first looking for sharks and never go in the deep end. I'll admit I'm still kind of scared to go swimming in the ocean.
I tried to watch that a year or so ago, but (this may anger many on here) I thought it was absolutely terrible. I couldn't even get past the first hour. And even if you tell me that the good stuff happens after that hour, the stuff I watched didn't grab me at all. I've watched many slow-moving thrillers and horrors, and even slow-moving dramas with physical action, so it's not as if it was that. I just thought it was a weak film, even though I do understand that it is a little old. The Thing was great, though, and I've seen other films around that era. Jaws just didn't do it for me.
It was definitely an era film. When it was first released, the mechanical shark looked so real and scary. Now when you compare it to the things of today, like the sharks in Deep Blue Sea, there is no comparison.
Granted, it is terribly dated now with dubious special effects. It was real edge of the seat stuff when it was released though. Imagine a world without the iconic 'du du, du du, du du' music from the film.
I'm going to add two more movies that no one else has mentioned. Cat's Eye and the little troll that comes out of the wall to steal your breath while you sleep...oh my God was I scared at night. I couldn't go to sleep unless I had my cat locked in my room at night to protect me! The other movie was Tales From the Crypt movie. That Crypt Keeper was just so freaking creepy.
Pan's Labryinth was freaky for me - not exactly horror, but the Pale Man freaked me out! As did all the blood and the crying plant-baby-thing under the mother's bed. @Lewdog - what if they remade The Jaws with updated effects without changing the story or actors? Would it improve or ruin the film?
No, I just don't think it would be the same. They kind of ruined the franchise with all the sequels. The problem is that most of the 80's films are old enough to be seen as second generation flicks, but not old enough to be classics. Give it another ten years or so and it will be seen as a classic in the same way as films like Casablanca.
I tend to avoid 'scary' movies, simply because life is scary enough without adding yet more horrible images to my store of imagination. (Okay, I've seen Jaws, and I've seen Alien, etc, Interview with the Vampire, etc, but I normally avoid movies I know are set up to scare me.) One time I remember being scared out of my shorts and regretting having gone to the movie in the first place, was as a youngster. I was taken by my dad to see the MGM movie version of Huckleberry Finn, released in 1960. Here was me, expecting a pleasant ride down the Mississippi on a raft ...having read Tom Sawyer and loved it ...and whoopsie. That film had some REALLY scary and very adult bits in it—like when Jim and Huck board the wrecked riverboat, and find Huck's horrible father lying dead on the floor. And I remember somebody jumping out of a coffin later on. And there were lots of adult confrontations, Jim and Huck being hunted by serious rednecks with guns and dogs, etc. I remember shutting my eyes a lot, whenever 'that' music let me know something bad was going to happen. Huckleberry Finn. A scary movie!
