The original “Nightmare on Elm Street”, “Halloween”, and “Psycho” tops my list as my own personal faves.
There was one moment in film, however, that still makes me jump every time I see it...even 20 years later...and that's the part in Jaws were Richard Dreyfuss was inspecting that boat under water and that half eaten / decomposed head popped up in the port hole.
BTW, if you haven't seen it, E! had a "behind the scenes" special on the making of Jaws. Watching that shark being made was pretty cool.
I’ll tell you what. I considered myself a pretty tough kid. That is until I saw Stephen King’s IT (even though it had the WORST ending ever)!!! I almost asked my mom to sleep in her bed that night, and I was like 13 or 14! That clown was f@cking scary! I was so scared I was going to see that balloon come out of the sink! Ooooh, I still get the jitters!
I find it hard to believe that no one has mentioned “What Lies Beneath”…I honestly slept with my light on the night I watched that. You had to see it in the theatre or watch it late at night (maybe even on a stormy night!) to get the full effect. It’s the only movie that has ever “really” scared me. Most of my friends will agree.
Bambi-mostly because of how I could see it impacting people’s views of nature. I knew it would be a bad thing.
The Exorcist I thought was funny. The scene where she was plunging the cross supposedly in and out of her vagina didn’t even fool me when I was 14…the angle was all wrong. The head rotating and the projectile vomiting could have been more realistic too.
Has anyone ever seen The Entity? My stupid babysitter let me watch that movie when I was about 11, Oh My God! Same with Salem’s Lot which I saw at a birthday party when I was eight. Scared of vampires for a decade. That new Mel Gibson movie Signs looks super creepy too, I can’t wait.
Savannah…great call on Salem’s Lot. Though I was thoroughly disappointed on how easily “Mr. Barlow” was destroyed in the end, that’s a great, albeit a bit cheesy, horror flick. I think the gloomy atmosphere was what did it for me. Whoever mentioned that scene from Jaws was a good call as well. I’ll have to check out “Entity” and “What Lies Beneath.” How about “Rosemary’s Baby?” Maybe not a traditional horror flick, but the whole Satan thing really flipped me out.
The Thing gets my vote for the scariest movie. I was watching it at a friends house at about 2:00 a.m. one Friday night when I was in 7th grade. The part when the guys stomach turns into huge jaws and eats the doctor’s(I guess he was)arms was some freaky shit.
The first Blair Witch movie freaked me out also. I watched it in a theater with some friends then drove home by myself. Which isn’t so bad, but I live out in the country. Needless to say I spead home.
The spice girls movie without doubt! LOL! Seriously? Probably Aliens the 2nd one, I’ve never seen another movie combine visual atmoshere, music and actor performance so effictively to create heart stopping suspense. The first time I saw it in the cinema I was on the edge of my seat for most of the movie as was everyone else, and when the Aliens eventually did attack…well you can imagine the response.
Fire in the Sky was a good movie. I live in AZ
and right known all that area in northern AZ
Like Pinetop Snowflake and Show low are on fire right know. About 350,000 acres burned. MR. Bush will be out here to check out the damage. I’ve been to where the abduction supposedly took place and the forest up there is pretty ere at night. Just think you’re at the same place all this happened. You can’t help to think what else is out there. I know we can’t be the only living organism around.
The Shinning was great, Hell Raise was cool
but I like friday 13 part 1 and 2 and nightmare on elm street PART 1 were excellent.
Joel, good call on “What Lies Beneath”. The scene at the end of the movie when they’re in the water was great. Another great creepy movie is “Lost Souls”… if you haven’t seen it yet, rent this movie! Just make sure you have some clean underwear handy.
the scariest thing in any movie was in the movie seven with brad pitt/morgan freeman, when they find that decomposing skeleton, shine the light on it and it is still alive, jumping out and gasping for breath…the whole theatre went f’in nutts, girls were screaming…
There hasn’t been a “scary” movie (or a true HORROR movie), in a LONG time. I’m talking since “Aliens” in 1986. And while “Aliens” wasscary, it was more a “stress-fest”. I find that “Alien” was a truly scary movie. And I mean “scary” by “not wanting to get in your car alone” scary. Or walk down your own home’s hallway scary. The beauty of “Alien” was what wasn’t “seen”. As in, Ripley Scott didn’t allow the audience to see the alien in it’s full glory until nearly the very end. So, it was the unknown that made the film so scary.
"Event Horizon" is more of a "coulda been". Directed by the guy who directed "Mortal Kombat" (and later, "Resident Evil") - it fell apart at the end. I couldn't care less when Lawrence Fishburne bit it - really didn't care. Beautiful looking movie, though. Especially, the design of the ship (Event Horizon) - which was styled after a Iron Cross. However, in the end, just another slasher flick.
There have been more "fun to be scared" flicks in the "Scream" vein. My favorite is from 1985, "Fright NIght" and "Vamps". Oh, and then you can add the "Scream" flicks, and any of the clones and Robert Zemeckis' hand at horror, "What Lies Beneath". But it didn't turn out to be true horror. Zemeckis' doesn't trust his audience - so he always needs to explain EVERY little detail rather than allowing the audience's imagination run wild. Which is what true horror does.
It plays with your head. And the movie (which by this time, doesn't seem like a movie), just hooks itself into your cranium, so that when you close your eyes at bedtime, visions of what you saw (or what you THOUGHT you saw), continually invade your thoughts.
The perfect movie that did this to me: that little flick that starred Karen Black and was about that little voodoo doll that comes to life and tries to kill her. Was made in the 70's. That and "Let's Scare Jessica to Death". But of course, "Hellraiser" - I gotta keep saying that that movie is a hard one for me to watch - to this day. So, I was wrong earlier in my post, I guess since "Hellraiser", there hasn't been a truly scary movie.
Patricia, that voodo doll flick you’re talking about is called Trilogy of Terror. That just about scared the crap out of me when I was a little kid. After I saw it I didn’t want my feet to touch the floor for weeks.
Have you seen “What Lies Beneath?” It is the ONLY movie that has ever truly scared me to date. I’ve seen Aliens and other “horror” movies, but monsters, vampires, and the like don’t do much for me. WLB was some real life, scary ass shit! I was scared driving home, scared when I got in the house…Actually, when I got home, I would go turn a light on in another room before shutting out a light just so I wouldn’t be totally in the dark (even if this meant walking upstairs, turning on a light, then walking back downstairs to turn off a light). Then I slept with the light on in my room I was a freaked out little boy (well not really little, but ya know).
Joel: I just don’t think it was R. Zemeckis’ best. But then, neither was “Forrest Gump” - but that’s a whole different discussion. I love Zemeckis - he’s better at comedies like “Back to the Future”, “Death Becomes Her.” “What Lies Beneath” just seemed, from the get-go, too formulaic and the lack of chemistry between Ford and Pfeifer bothered me.
This is often times, why I prefer reading a scary novel than seeing a scary movie. My imagination gets to let-go and when I'm NOT being shown every detail but envisioning it, it's ALOT more scarrier than a movie. Might I suggest "The Changeling" with George C. Scott - very eerie and it was filmed here in Portland. And do read, "Ghost Story" by Peter Straub - best damn scary book. You'll understand what I'm talking about after reading that book.
Spanky: THANK YOU!!! I literally could not sleep, trying to think of the title of that flick all night long. It just killed me not being able to remember it!!!! But, yeah - that movie, even now, after all these years, is quite disturbingly scary. You know there was a remake - but it didn't have the same "punch" as the original. No way.
I agree completely about the books, I have a huge collection of horror movies (although most are just funny, if anyone here was scared by anything in the Evil dead trilogy then they have an entirely different problem, and of course the Leprechaun haha). Ghost story terrified me when I read it, but then I made the mistake of buying the DVD, and even though it had an impressive cast, the movie just didn’t do anything. I think that’s why all of Stephen King’s movies pale in comparison to the books, although he isn’t exactly a horror writer anymore. Have you read anything else by Peter Straub? My personal favorite is Koko, although the Rose seemed like a direct sequel, it was good as well. I guess if I wanted to go in there and find a movie that really scared me, I’d probably have to go with Misery, because most horror movies aren’t even horror movies anymore, they’re grab your date closer when the killer is on the scream movies. John Carpenter has done some good ones (The thing, the fog), and if you’re looking for something more rare, i like Dario Argento, Profundo Rosso and Suspiria are both really good, as long as the subs don’t bother you.
I know there hasn’t been a lot of good scary movies since a lot are modelled after “Scream” now. I heard “Session 9” was supposed to be really scary but i haven’t seen it yet. What about “Ginger Snaps” did anyone see that? I thought it was awesome.
But my favorite horror series of all time is the "Halloween" series (except #3!). And I can't wait to see Rob Zombie's "House of 1000 Corpses". The trailer is available for download from the site...and it look pretty fucked-up.
I was a freaked out little boy (well not really little, but ya know).
