Oh crap! I forgot to include a spoiler alert on my Aliens post. Dang, and I did that once before last week when I told that Vader is really Luke's father. :rolleyes:

I watched a movie when I was a kid back in the 80's called "The Stuff." Freaked me out!! I could only handle about 5 or 15 minutes of the movie. I felt very sick and had to turn it off. Of course you got to know it came out in '85, I was 7 years old.

Young whipper-snapper! :)

A movie that scared the crap out of me as a kid in the 80s was Saturn 3. That freaky robot made me have nightmares for weeks!

I haven't seen this posted yet but the last story in Steven King's "Cat's Eye" gave me nightmares. I always thought that troll was going to emerge from one of my walls.

Something Wicked This Way Comes was pretty scary for a Disney flick.

"Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things". Old flick. B&W I think.

I saw Children of the Corn when I was 7 or 8 years old. I'll never look at a corn field the same way. Also, the original Amityville Horror was more than scary enough for me. And of course, The Exorcist still makes me soil my bdu's.

I thought the movie Seconds was pretty creepy when I saw it when it first came out.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060955/

When I was younger, the scenes that messed me up the most...

The twin girls in the Shining (hallway scene)
The vampire brother scratching on the window (not the first floor) in the original Salem's Lot
The first scene of Freddy in the first Nightmare (the arm stretching across the street to scratch wall)Wow, you somehow have managed to read my mind. No joke, the first two examples were on my short list, but I think that vampire kid from Salem's Lot takes the prize, that scared the CR*P out of me as a kid. I think it really was easily the scariest thing I had ever seen. Those 2 little girls freaked me out, too.

It was 1965 and I was 10 years old. Stayed up late and watched Chiller Theater with a double feature. On first was....

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e393/heynow123/AM.jpg

then the second feature was....

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e393/heynow123/CB.jpg

My dad was a cop and worked midnights. After watching these two films my mom actually had to call my dad home to settle me down... I was frantic... :)

I would tell the story about this to my son and he always got a kick out of it. One day a few weeks ago he and I decided to go to W*lMart and check out the $ 5.50 DVD bin...and guess what I found?


http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e393/heynow123/CBmovie.jpg

I have had this three weeks and have not watched it yet....oh the opportunity has been there.... but I'm wondering if I'm still freaked :)

I don't know if anyone mentioned this; I didn't read the entire thread.

My scariest is Hellraiser. I was in Grade 6 at the time. The mood/lighting change when the LeMarchand box is opened, the chains, the bloody hooks..... I had a hard time going to bed I tell ya. Now I think Pinhead's lines (dialogue) are so cool.

Wes Craven's They freaked me out recently

Hellraiser is some freaky ****, the Cenobites are scary as well Hell...

I remeber the first time the Chatterbox Cenobite came on screen I think my heart stopped (13-14 years old at time)

~Bob

White Noise was on the other night and my gf had to wake me up to watch it, even though I was asleep right next to her.

As far as sheer creepiness goes I dont believe no one has brought up Eraserhead yet. That baby is one of the most disturbing things on film IMO. I'm also rather surprised that only one other person has mentioned Audition.

A nod to two excellent movies that have stood up very well: The Shining (already mentioned several times) and Psycho. I saw the Shining for the first time a couple years ago and even knowing all the pop culture references (Here's Johnny, REDRUM, All work and no play... etc...) it was still one of the scariest things I've seen. Was bored at like 1am on a weekend so I thought to myself "Hmm, haven't seen this. I'll watch this then go to bed." Boy was I wrong on that one.

Psycho is on the same wavelength. I knew less about it than the shining but its still hard not to pick up on the pop culture references. Regardless, I thought it was great and can only imagine what it must have been like to see cold.

Audition is a very visceral experience, that's for sure. Three Extremes is pretty intense at times.

I finally got the DVD of Eraserhead recently and watched it for about the 5th or 6th time and honestly- it gets funnier every time I see it. The more I piece together a narrative for it the less creepy it seems and the more it strikes me like the darker comedic aspects of Twin Peaks do. It's a scream. Blue Velvet is WAY scarier.

As far as sheer creepiness goes I dont believe no one has brought up Eraserhead yet. That baby is one of the most disturbing things on film IMO.I'll have to agree with you on that baby. I finally saw this movie, after waiting for years. I went in with no expectations, other than it was going to be weird. I wasn't disappointed.

The baby is certainly creepy, but not in a scary way, more like a totally dream-like, horribly helpless and disturbing kind of way. I kept wondering what a pregnant woman would be thinking while watching this film. Considering this movie was made with almost no budget, the effects were surprisingly good and well-used.

After watching this, I have to wonder if there's any other filmmaker with a better grasp of sound in cinema than David Lynch. He's really able to make it an integral part of the story making process.

Highly recommended, but not really scary.

Scott

Audition is a very visceral experience, that's for sure. Three Extremes is pretty intense at times.

I finally got the DVD of Eraserhead recently and watched it for about the 5th or 6th time and honestly- it gets funnier every time I see it. The more I piece together a narrative for it the less creepy it seems and the more it strikes me like the darker comedic aspects of Twin Peaks do. It's a scream. Blue Velvet is WAY scarier.Did you watch the commentary? I just find it fascinating listening to David Lynch and his stories. The man has a way of thinking that is just plain odd. The details he remembers and picks out sit in contrast to the bizarre tableau of his stories and films. How does one guy mix the coffee and pie story with the cat?

Of all the directors out there, I really think he'd be the most interesting to sit down and have a conversation with. Who knows what you'd end up discussing.

Scott

Micheal Anderson who played the Man From Another Place on Twin Peaks told a great story on the TP DVD. Lynch was making Lost Highway and during one scene he yelled "Action!" and the power went out. I think they were on location- someone went and restarted the generator and on "Action!!" it blows a second time. So someone fixes it and meanwhile Lynch gets up and moves a lampshade in the scene a little to the right. The third time he calls action and everything works great and they get the scene. Afterwards he points at the lampshade and says "Yeah... I thought that was it."

Really, though, he seems very cool and very intelligent, and very normal in real life.

Of all the directors out there, I really think he'd be the most interesting to sit down and have a conversation with. Who knows what you'd end up discussing.
Scott

I tend to think Cronenberg would be the same way. From listening to interviews and commentary from both they both seem like really intelligent, nice people. And then you see their movies... Speaking of, I found Dead Ringers really terrifying but that was just because I spent the whole movie waiting for Cronenberg to do his thing.

And yeah, the baby is more disturbing then scary but I tend to lump the two together since I tend to be scared by disturbing things rather than "boo" things. In any case I've been looking for speakers lately and been playing with the idea of bringing in eraserhead for a reference dvd and see what sort of looks I get when the menu comes up.

Now there's two candidates for worst first date movie of all time: Eraserhead and Dead Ringers.

Anyone see 'Communion'? I thought it was scary.

Like I have mentioned before..

my 2 scariest movies,

Black Sabbath
Blair Witch Project

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=6436653&&#post6436653

from the review..
"The corpse mask itself was created by Bava's father Eugenio and I would venture to say that it is one of the most effective pieces of make-up in the history of the horror film. If you don't get a chill when you first see it, then you are one desensitized bastard,

Scariest movie ever...When a Stranger Calls (2006 remake)

NOT!!!

The one sene in the one movie that totally scares me is seeing the serial killer Buffalo Bill dancing around while wearing the skins of his female victims, in Silence of the Lambs. I found this scene much scarier than Anthony Hopkin's facial expressions while portraying Hannibal.

Another scene that never bothered me but which has caused more people to leave the room in terror than any other: cockroaches coming out of all of E.G. Marshall's orifices in the 1982 film Creepshow.

Gary

Glad to finally see that I was not alone in being scared by the Blair Witch Project. The entire area where they did the film reminded me of where I grew up. We had several acres of wooded land, hills, creeks all that good stuff, there was a house falling over right across from the creek and this is one of those old towns where cemeterys are everywhere... it was an old civil war town. I was messed up for an entire weekend over B.W.P.

Scariest movie ever...When a Stranger Calls (2006 remake)

NOT!!!

First off, It is no longer 1992, so please refrain from using a really bad Wayne's World references. The "Not!" bit is the most painful attempt at sarcasm I read on forums and it should be stopped.

Secondly, how exactly what that post even helpful?

Anyway, my "scariest" movies:

A Tale of Two Sisters
Session 9
The Ring
The Descent

"The twin girls in the Shining (hallway scene)"

Everyone thinks they are twins. They weren't. They were sisters but one was older, (and bigger if you look) than the other. I think that's one reason they are creepy, because they aren't identical. Something slightly off....

"Trilogy of Terror", Part III - "Amelia".

Anyone see 'Communion'? I thought it was scary.

Extremely so.....to the point where I can barely watch it again.

Extremely so.....to the point where I can barely watch it again.I liked the movie a lot, but I didn't find it "scary" so much.

More "eerie", I suppose.

"The Birds" freaked the heck out of me when I was young and watched it alone on a small black and white TV. Just the idea of there being nowhere to go to get away from them . . .

"The Birds" freaked the heck out of me when I was young and watched it alone on a small black and white TV. Just the idea of there being nowhere to go to get away from them . . .It's funny when you look at it now, and you can really notice the thick, super-imposed outlines around the closeups of the birds when they're attacking the people.

I guess it wasn't as noticable on our little screens back then, plus the fact that we were more impressionable and naive at that age. ;)

Got to go with "The Exorist" When Linda Blair's head did that 360, I almost lost it. But when
she was doing those modified situps in bed in rapid succession, I think I freaked out.

JAWS at realease for several reasons

1. The "monster" was real - as 25 ft great whites while 1 in a 1000 compared to typical great whites - apparently do exist, and in any case the more common 15 ft to 18 ft great whites could swallow humans also

2. As a child I swam on many ocassions at both South Beach (where the girl is eaten) and State Beach (in Oak Bluffs) where the lifeguard's leg is bitten off

3. I saw the movie in the summer in ultra-clear 35mm film - equiv and actually better than HD as the theater setup was excellent

TRINITY AND BEYOND

I first saw in HD on Comcast last year. This is the definitive atomic bomb documentary w/o any doubt

Just the soundtrack alone is frightening with the Moscow Symphony Orchestra and Chorus providing the incredibly haunting music. It goes way beyond movies like ATOMIC CAFE, and TRINITY ends up showing a huge number of the actual 300 plus nukes exploded above the earth - before the test ban. which put them underground

It ends with the Chinese shooting a nuke out of a cannon or something similar and 100,000 plus soldiers running toward their forward explosion - very scary stuff

http://www.screenarchives.com/title_detail.cfm?ID=3781 - see for the table of contents listing to understand how detailed thsi movie is

First off, It is no longer 1992, so please refrain from using a really bad Wayne's World references. The "Not!" bit is the most painful attempt at sarcasm I read on forums and it should be stopped.

Secondly, how exactly what that post even helpful?

Anyway, my "scariest" movies:

A Tale of Two Sisters
Session 9
The Ring
The Descent

Totally OT -
Did you do a search for the word "not!" and jump all over anyone who says it? I see your last two posts revolve around the word "not!" in this context.

It must be a pet peeve of your's. ;)

First off, It is no longer 1992, so please refrain from using a really bad Wayne's World references. The "Not!" bit is the most painful attempt at sarcasm I read on forums and it should be stopped.


I totally agree- Not!!!.
























:D

Scariest movie - the original texas chainsaw massacre VHS...

not necessarily the scariest, by far the most disturbing and strange, it just had a certain feel to it, it was so detached and unlike anything I've ever seen..and the ending when leather face dances with the chainsaw, very weird.

and the way people were killed, it was just different, it was graphic and disguisting, alot of people say they didn't think it was scary, but for some reason it just felt different then any movie I've seen. It didn't feel like it was hollywood, but it was well done.

oh and come on, they had a family dinner and held the girl down with her head over a barrel and tried to have the half dead grandpa hit her in the head with a hammer but he couldn't do it...and all the furniture and whatnot made of skin. Almost a little funny.

The Exorcist.......I saw it when I was young.......and I have never been able to forget it.

First off, It is no longer 1992, so please refrain from using a really bad Wayne's World references

Actually the "NOT" disclaimer can be traced as far back as old Buster Brown and Little Nemo comic strips. 100 years. So some people are really behind the times.

NOT!!!

First off, It is no longer 1992, so please refrain from using a really bad Wayne's World references.
If you are going to be nitpicking than someone should call you on your grammar.
"a" is singular. "references" is plural.
a really bad Wayne's World references. is incorrect.
And you made that exact same mistake in a post back in april.
I'm sorry but I'm going to have to pick on you, and its for your own good.

It is no longer 1992, so please refrain from using a really bad Wayne's World references. Do you just cut and paste your pet peeves?

;)

Session 9 get's my vote.

creepy.

much more so creepy than Identity.

good stuff :)

First off, It is no longer 1992, so please refrain from using a really bad Wayne's World references. The "Not!" bit is the most painful attempt at sarcasm I read on forums and it should be stopped.

Secondly, how exactly what that post even helpful?


Oh, sNOT! My stomach is in a knot from not seeing that, so it's all for naught! :rolleyes:

Apparently, you missed the purport in my reference to the word, "Not!", as it was clearly implied as a comparative to When a Stranger Calls, rather, it seems you interpreted the original post's latter part as a testimonial to the former, which it obviously wasn't, given the overtly sarcastic nature of the entire post and its contents. My apologies. I thought it was painfully obvious.

Don't make me stop this car..........you two :rolleyes:

Don't make me stop this car..........you two :rolleyes:
In order to be on topic, should you have posted "Don't make me do a U-Turn....?"

:D

As a kid, one of the scariest things I ever saw were those creepy, floaty vampire brothers in "Salem's Lot" a'scratchin' at the window.

-Jaws. as mentioned, because it was possible (there's only no 30 foot sharks until somebody sees one, right?) I live at the ocean, and swim all the time. I was 8, and didn't stop swimming, but was scared for months after.

-at 4ish years old. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. After seeing that witch, I was scared for a long time in bed at night. Rated "G" my butt! :)

-Lords of Illusion. I know it's not very good. And the supernatural part wasn't scary. But the cult part..when the old members get the phone call...that was scary as hell, because I'm sure that could TOTALLY happen given the right situation. How well to you really know your spouses,friends, etc.?

for scenes (others have mentioned "the last 2 minutes of Blair Witch" so I hope this is on topic enough)

-The first scene (only) of Jeepers Creepers. When the brother and sister drive by the old church and see....something. I thought I was in for the coolest scary movie ever, but it went down hill fast. Still, that scene is GREAT.

Now this last one is a little strange, so stay with me. I think the most scared I've ever been was a result of watching the premiere of "Thriller" on MTV. Not actually when it was on, but about 5 of us (teens) had to walk about 2 miles to get home after we saw it (none of us had MTV, lol.) We were walking through a construction site, and started saying stupid stuff like, "What if zombies came out from behind the lumber". Before we knew it, we were all running, full speed home, and actually leaving the slower kids behind. We were all so scared we were actually abandoning each other for safety. I remember a few in the back yelling for us to please not leave them, but we did. We were SO scared. Luckly, no zomibes showed up. So the slow ones lived too!

-Beefshank

Poltergeist. I was about 12 or 13. Could not go to sleep with the closet open, and I'm pretty sure the stuffed clown got thrown out at that point. Come to think of it....I still don't go to sleep with the closet open.


Walt

Halloween.... GB JLC

Seven, bar none.

Pet Semetary-Was 16 at the time and had never been to the theatre to see a horror flick....didn't look on some scenes. Now I can't watch it due to the `log truck' scene (got a five yr. od daughter)!

Let's Scare Jessica To Death - Saw it when I was 12

Halloween - Saw it when I was 18

The Ring

Stace

The Ring (U.S. version)-This movie freaked me out like no other, and the ending was just classic. One of the best atmospheres ever in a movie.

The Exorcism of Emily Rose- I figured this wasn't gonna be that scary since I heard most of the movie occurs in the court room.....boy was I wrong! The atmosphere in this movie(the flashbacks of course) was extremely unsettling. Had trouble sleeping for a couple of days.

Salem's Lot (1979)- Saw this as a kid and I can still picture those vampires glowing eyes. This movie was creepy.

Halloween 2- Many say the first one is the best, but this is the one that I remember freaking me out the most. The music, the atmosphere, the chasing.....everything about this movie is great.

Those are the only movies I can actually say I remember being freaked out by.

The Exorcism of Emily Rose- I figured this wasn't gonna be that scary since I heard most of the movie occurs in the court room.....boy was I wrong! The atmosphere in this movie(the flashbacks of course) was extremely unsettling. Had trouble sleeping for a couple of days.


AGREED! I thought I could handle this after all the years since "The Exorcist",
but at the first flashback to the dorm bed scene, I had to stop watching.... :eek:

HALLOWEEN - The music does it.

AUDITION - That girl saying something like "kitty, kitty, kitty" scared the crap out of me.

THE DESCENT - GREAT MOVIE!

THE GRUDGE(Japanese) - when the girl had her head up in the attic looking......

I just found this thread and attempted to run through it before adding my choices. I don't recall seeing two real classics of elegant terror: Dressed to Kill (Michael Caine and Angie Dickinson) and, of course, Psycho. The jump out scene in Wait Until Dark also comes to mind. But, Dressed to Kill, with that wonderful background music score and the tantalizingly slow camera reveal shots...wow! When I recall the scene seeing the nurse's shoes slowly behind the bathroom door and then the slow reveal!!!! I still get goosebumps. If these have already been mentioned, sorry, but it's a long thread.

When a stranger calls... The org.. WOW!

I just found this thread and attempted to run through it before adding my choices. I don't recall seeing two real classics of elegant terror: Dressed to Kill (Michael Caine and Angie Dickinson) and, of course, Psycho. The jump out scene in Wait Until Dark also comes to mind. But, Dressed to Kill, with that wonderful background music score and the tantalizingly slow camera reveal shots...wow! When I recall the scene seeing the nurse's shoes slowly behind the bathroom door and then the slow reveal!!!! I still get goosebumps. If these have already been mentioned, sorry, but it's a long thread.All great choices.

Yeah, this thread seems to be more about the "in your face", visual stuff and is lacking somewhat in the more psychologically thrilling stuff.

Those films that just build and build are oftentimes better than having a constant barrage of shocking scenes.

"Irriversible" a truly disturbing film.

As a horror fan who laments the fact that he is no longer easily scared (mid 30s), this thread has really stoked some memories. I have waited until I could make my way through the whole thing before weighing in. Ironically, even as a fan of the genre, I have never stopped to rate which movie I thought was the scariest.

My vote goes to The Exorcist. Even years later, after shedding the baggage of my Catholic upbringing, watching this film brings back the terror that "demonic possession" strikes in the true believer of the faith. Aside from it's excellent effects and compelling plot lines, it is this aspect of the film that I find most palpably and viscerally terrifying.

With respect to some of the other themes brought up in this thread, I would say that the final scene of "Carrie" scared me the most and that the rape scene in "Irreversible" is the most disturbing.

Finally, while a little off topic, someone earlier mentioned an episode of The Twighlight Zone which ends with the discovery of a phone line leading into a grave after being taken down in a storm. I have retold this one around many a campfire and have given many a person a sleepless night (including myself in the re-telling). I have never come across another person who can claim to have seen this episode and have on occasion wondered if I had dreamt it up. With so many classic episodes of this fine program shown over and over, I find it strange that this one, which I regard to be the best of the crop seems to be so obscure.
Finally, does anyone remember an episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents that is set in a women's prison? The subject inmate befriends the prison's carpenter (coffin maker) and hatches a plan to escape so that she can access a stash of cash on the outside to help pay for an operation that will help restore the carpenter's failing eyesight. The final scene in that episode is certainly one to remember and I think a decent film could be made out of the short story.

The original Alien when I was around 12 or so was the most frightened I've ever been before or since. It was shown at an old hockey arena upstairs for my neighbors 13th birthday party. When they started it there were about 30 kids and 4 adults in the room and by the time it was over only myself and my neighbors dad were still there (I was frozen solid couldn't have moved or taken my eyes off the screen the whole movie - I had a death grip "hug" on my knees and my feet were most definitely not touching the floor till the lights came up.
The exorist was a close second I'm still spooked by that show.
As I get older I'm alot more jaded the horror movies just never invoke the fear they did when I was young sadly - that and watching almost every one that hits DVD doesn't help as they all start to seem pretty similar after awhile.

I saw a screening of The Blair Witch Project about 3-4 months before it came out, before the media/web blitz. We didn't know it was fake, had no idea what it was except that it was some kind of documentary put together from tapes that where found from some kids that went missing -- or something, we really had no idea.

When that movie ended, you could hear a pin drop in the theater, no one moved or got up or made a sound for about a half a minute.


I would also say that The Descent was surprizingly scary (I am a big fan of movies that are really scary, but find most horror signifigantly lacking) -- not sure how scary it would be in repeat viewings -- though I bet still a good movie to watch again.

Most consistenetly scary over repeat viewings? Maybe The Exorcist. I think it's scary because it doesn't seem like a horror movie. It's like it's trying to be another kind of film, and then all this scary **** happens.

The Blair Witch Project...When that movie ended, you could hear a pin drop in the theater, no one moved or got up or made a sound for about a half a minute.

They were probably still mid-yawn from the boredom. Maybe it's just me, but I was one of the few who didn't find BWP interesting or very scary. Just boring.

They were probably still mid-yawn from the boredom. Maybe it's just me, but I was one of the few who didn't find BWP interesting or very scary. Just boring.It's not only you. What little I actually was able to sit through, I thought was utter garbage. I just couldn't understand why in the hell the movie was so popular. I truly thought it sucked and was totally lame. And that constant camera jerking and incessant, gratuitous swearing didn't help matters any, either.

General rule is that people that knew about the film were far less scared than those that didn't.

General rule is that people that knew about the film were far less scared than those that didn't.
Yep-- and I don't think that complete ignorance should be a prerequisite to seeing a movie. Take a masterpiece like Psycho, for example-- Hitchcock tells you everything that's going to happen in the first five minutes of the film, and yet it's still scary. Now do the same for BWP-- some kids run through the woods with a shaky camera, swear, cry and scream a lot and find a house, the end. Still scary? Rammitinski hit it on the head.

I watched Alien again a couple of weeks ago and still jumped-- same for The Thing. A Nightmare on Elm Street still royally creeps me out at the sight of Nancy being dragged down the hall in a body bag.

In this case, I think the biggest testament to the talent of the filmmakers is what-else-have-they-done.

General rule is that people that knew about the film were far less scared than those that didn't.I actually knew nothing whatsoever about the content of the movie before I saw it, just that it was so wildly popular.

But after about 10 minutes of really trying to watch it and give it a chance, I just couldn't take anymore. It was probably the worst disparity between what I was expecting compared to what it actually was (in American popular culture) that I think I've ever experienced. That single movie had more to do with realizing how badly down the tube that mainstream America's tastes and acceptance of such inferiority had gotten than anything before or since. It was truly a rude awakening. :rolleyes: :(

I'll give it this much - I could maybe see someone under the age of 12 liking it and maybe being scared by it some - but not anyone out of their preteen years. I mean, when I was a teen, we may not have actually walked out on it (after paying to see it), but we probably would've been laughing at it or making cracks about how bad it was through the whole thing.

Now, does anyone care to hear how I REALLY feel about the movie? :rolleyes: :D ;)

The only movie that TO DATE I will not watch again..is AMYTIVILLE (sp?)..the original release...

Don't know if I was scared, or completely revolted, but my Dad had rented 'Robocop' when I was way to young to view it. I don't think he realized it had a R-rating until we saw the cop get all shot up in the beginning. Having his hand completely blown off into shreds by a shotgun still turns my stomach and it's been how long ago? My Mom grabbed my younger brother and left the room yelling at him. Remember it like it was yesterday.

Yup, that was pretty disgusting Neuner, which reminds of another movie that scared me when I was a teen, " Scanners " don't want to post a spoiler, so suffice to say it is worse than the hand scene!

Yup, that was pretty disgusting Neuner, which reminds of another movie that scared me when I was a teen, " Scanners " don't want to post a spoiler, so suffice to say it is worse than the hand scene!



Scanners was pretty thrilling.

I always thought Death Dinosaur (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0144701/) was pretty darn scary. Always gets on the last nerve.

All time for me has to be The Exorcist, still freaks me out and I have trouble watching the whole thing straight thru.

The Ring scares the bejezzus out of me, I love everything about it, camera angles, hue, sounds, and the concept! And for my money, when she comes out of the TV near the end... nothing better!

My original viewing of Blair Witch on opening night at midnight. The theatre was packed and like Lupusapien's experience, you could hear a pin drop when it ended. Then I had the pleasure of walking 4 kms home alone thru a field bordered by big old trees. What a great experience!

The two movies that made me jump the most the first time I saw them, (14 jumps each - yes I keep track!) were The Evil Dead (I must have been 13) and I Still Know What You Did Last Summer (yeah thats embarassing...)

I'm with Gene....Some reason folks made me go see The Exorcist when I was real young,I was raised catholic... guess I was a good kid after that..heheh...

Other early scarers were... Omen, Jaws and Alien...

Saw this really B Movie when I was real young Legend of Hell house... really bad but scared me...

Unfortunately scary movies don't scare me any more....I think intensity/stress is the most I feel now... sucks getting older ;)

Mostly movies when I was young:

The Angry Red Planet
The Brain that Wouldn't Die
Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte
Dimensia 13

The last two probably because the idea of a head being chopped off was pretty scary to me.

The only movie that has freaked me out as an adult is Misery.

I can't even watch Kathy Bates in other films now.

*shudder*

Mostly movies when I was young:

The Angry Red Planet
The Brain that Wouldn't Die
Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte
Dimensia 13

The last two probably because the idea of a head being chopped off was pretty scary to me.Speaking of Bette Davis, how about the scene in "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane" where she brings Joan Crawford her dinner?

Talk about jumping a mile out of your seat! Especially after that tense moment leading up to it!

Another great, all but forgotten suspenseful film is "The Seduction", with Morgan Fairchild as a newsreader, and the ever-creepy Andrew Stevens playing her stalker. (M.F. nude, too!) The scene where Stevens is hiding in Fairchild's closet and watching her undress while he's playing with himself is classic. He always did play a rather good degenerate.

I laughed at The Exorcist.....I rolled my eyes at The Omen....

But I crapped kittens when I saw POLTERGEIST.

I was like 12 or something when my Dad took me to see it. I had a TV in my room....I had an old tree outside my window that blew in the wind. I had some freaky looking toys in my bedroom. Talk about a recipie for disaster! :D

To this day the movie still gives me the willies...partly because of its message...at first the ghosts are just pranksters, as soon as everyone in the house is feeling "comfortable" with them, they begin to TURN. Then there's the whole "corpses flying up through the ground" finale......CrEeEeEeEpY...plus its all flashing lights and loud and all that good stuff.

..and..the movie itself is cursed so..there's THAT added onto it! :P

Oh this is an old thread..

About Blair Witch..

"I can honestly say that if I were out in the woods and that stuff happened, I would be totally freaked out."

Oh yes.. i would be too. If any of the horror things happened in real life, I'd be scared sh~tless!

Oh this is an old thread...

Hey! My baby isn't even a year old yet. :D

Halloween is still the scariest movie I've ever seen.

Michael Myers standing in some shady corner of some house in the neighborhood watching me would scare the p!ss outta me.

Maybe not the scariest, but one of the best of this genre: The Descent

Something Wicked This Way Comes. Scared me to death as a kid. Have watched it since and doesn't do much, course I was a horror/scary movie junkie for a while.

The Descent. Not too many movies actually scare me these days. This one did.

Something Wicked This Way Comes. Scared me to death as a kid. Have watched it since and doesn't do much, course I was a horror/scary movie junkie for a while.
Hilarious. I thought I was the only one freaked out by a Disney show. Disney! :eek:

It's funny how odd things stick with you from childhood. There was one Peanuts strip where Snoopy was so manic about suppertime, he was dancing and saying "suppertime" over and over and over. The look on his face in one panel just gave me the chills and sticks with me to this day. Scared of Snoopy, for Hell's sake, yet I grew up watching Friday the 13th, Halloween, Hellraiser, and other horror films and wasn't the slightest bit scared.

Believe it or not, The Elephant Man did it for me as a kid. I'll never forget that one scene where the maid is walking down the hall and opens the door to John Merrick's room. I still can not watch that movie and that was 25 years ago.

For me, it was Chuckie....don't ask me why but I REALLY hate anything that involves dead kids, dolls, and toys....

Children of the Corn...I live in the corn belt and was surrounded by fields of corn.

For me, Chuckie and Gremlins and stuff represent the most absurd form of horror movies.
"Its a DOLL...a DOLL! Man-Up and KICK ITS ASS!" :D

I've seen many of the classic horror flicks mentioned here: Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th, both versions of The Exorcist, the '70s remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, and many of them gave me unsettled sleep of one kind or another. But I endured all of them, even though I was barely more than a kid when I saw most of them, either on home video or cable, since most were R-rated and I didn't go to any R-rated movies in public until after I turned 17. (Not that I missed out on too much, mind you...)

But the only film that's really scared me in any way has been an animated feature: Megazone 23 Part II, which has a few minutes of violent, incredibly bloody footage that gave me the most arcane nightmares I ever had, for at least a week after I first saw it.

The scene is simple: In the midst of an alien attack, the crew of a spaceship is slaughtered when the very wires in their computer consoles suddenly come alive, break out, and start tearing them to pieces. It looks a bit crudely animated, but that just adds to the whole nightmarish quality of the scene.

The rest of the movie is perfectly okay, but I have a very hard time watching it even now, even when I've had the DVD of it for a couple of years as part of the complete Megazone 23 set. I may get around to watching it eventually, but only in broad daylight. There's no way I'll watch it after dark, no way at all.

def Evil Dead for amount of jumps!!

Albert Gore's An Inconvenient Truth

The Ring.
I'm not sure if it's the scariest one, but it's high up on the list. The direction, cinematography, the excellent score from Hans Zimmer, the actors. A serious film not particularly aimed at teenagers, which is kind of refreshing for the genre. Some really scary moments, and a general ambience that can make one feel truly "uncomfortable". Still effective although I've seen it numerous times.

My only real gripe about the ring was that its premise was so...well.....Japanese :D

Cursed Videotape means unstoppable attack by evil little spooky ghost demon girl 7 days later. Now this to me is very japanese.....much like Anime and Manga those storytellers in Japan can throw just about anything together and call it a story. I mean, did Ringu (the Japanese version) have any Mechs in it? :D

I admit, the movie itself has some creep to it much the same way that Sixth Sense had creep to it, and the first time I saw it I had been up all night and was watching it in the dark at about 4:30am, so the creepy part definately came through.

But the problem is that plot....when you stop and think about it...its soooo laughable :)

That is kind of the reason I couldn't bring myself to see Ring 2 or The Grudge or, well, any of the other Japanese horror films that got traction after this film broke big in the states....I was afraid of more "Plots written by Japanese avant-garde horror master who eats too many mushrooms".
<shrug>

AMYTIVILLE - the original...

Never saw it again...

Try this short clip with your sound on:) Look closely. http://members.home.nl/saen/Special/Zoeken.swf

Try this short clip with your sound on:) Look closely. http://members.home.nl/saen/Special/Zoeken.swf
Sabotage! Many more at Liquidgeneration.com

I don't get scared at all. I was looking at that link from another thread late at night, the other day. It clearly got me:) Now back to your regularly scheduled program.....

Since growing older than a little kid, there is only one movie that has given me nightmares. It's a Peter Weller movie called Of Unknown Origin.

For years, I had nightmares of the rat from time-to-time. It's not really a horror movie, but more a psycho-thriller. I'm not sure if it would have the same effect on me now, but it's worth a look.

Halloween is still the scariest movie I've ever seen.

Michael Myers standing in some shady corner of some house in the neighborhood watching me would scare the p!ss outta me.

But then it's only scary if you didn't know he was there and if you didn't know he was there you wouldn't be scared.

BTW I saw you the other day practicing with your nunchucks...

Slasher flicks just never, ever did it for me.....kinda like the Chuckys......he's still just a dude with a knife. If you picked up a knife, then YOU would also be a dude with a knife.

Hence....not scary.

Slasher flicks just never, ever did it for me.....kinda like the Chuckys......he's still just a dude with a knife. If you picked up a knife, then YOU would also be a dude with a knife.

Hence....not scary.

Don't discount their superpower of being able to find scantily clad good looking dumb chicks.

LOL. What kills me is that Jason-types never run when following their victims...they just plod/trudge slowly behind. If you could manage to run without the stereotypical falling down and getting caught, then it's game over. Most zombie movies are the same way.

Why We Fight

just watched it a couple weeks ago. Welcome to the machine.

But the Zombie movies have numbers on their side, thats what makes them great.

No matter how far you run, no matter how alone you get...eventually, they're gonna catch up to you, and you can't run forever....gotta sleep sometime..... :D

You can outrun and outfight a few...maybe more than a few...but you'll run out of bullets or strength before they run outta Zombies...man...then you get eaten!

I LOVES ME A ZOMBIE MOVIE...Night Of The Comet ETA 2 months...not zombies, per say...cuz they're not Dead..really...yet....but its still a great "mankind is doomed...but malls are still open!" movie :D

Sadly, I've never seen a scary movie. I've tried, I've watched all the ones people say are scary, I turn all the lights out, crank up the surround sound, make the room really cold, etc. I've just never been scared by a movie :( Usually when when it gets really suspenseful is right about the point I fall asleep. I remember watching all the b-horror movies and all the classics with my grandfather, and being absolutely fascinated with them but never scared.

In all honesty you can spin any numbers each way to the bias you like. I did think "An Inconvenient Truth" was a compelling movie (slide show) to watch. Truth??? who knows???

T

The scariest movie I have seen is Cameron's Aliens.
And, of course, Jaws.
Another scary nightmare is "The Raft" from Creepshow 2.

Salem's Lot - I saw this when I was in second grade (1981-82) and to this day I can't watch it. I slept with a cross made out of two popsicle sticks for a week after that. It is the only movie that has ever scared me so much.

Mez

and one that disturbed me for months after first seeing it years ago.....Jacobs Ladder...which is on HDNetMovies tonight.

Watched Trilogy of Terror (w/Karen Black) when I was a kid ... #3 had me scared for years that a Zuni hunting fetish doll would come looking for me.

Blair Witch Project ... the lack of special effects enhanced the experience for me. The feeling of terror was very believable, and the ending was scary as hell.

For me (14)Cat people. I snuck in to see a rated R film and had nightmares. I laugh now but i freaked out at the time. I had just moved to La. and been to the New Orleans zoo.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083722/

My Brother(12) almost went into shock over The Thing
He was screaming and I had to cover his eyes to get him to calm down.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0084787/

My sister(16) wait for it... Evil Dead. Took her to a Midnight showing. She ran out of the movie theather screaming when Ash cut off hit hand. Good times! To this day she hates this movie.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0092991/

the original version of Carrie.

Final Destination. I loved that movie. The other Final Destination movies don't even compare to it.

Its the ones that still stick with you...

Jaws - of course

Poltergeist - When 'coach' drank that worm... i still look in the glasses and stuff first.

Nightmare on Elm Street - When Freddy came up through the bed and pulled the kid down? Still comes to mind when in bed...

and also:

Pet Cemetary - That movie freaked me out when I was a kid, still won't watch it.

I thought of one....ONE DARK NIGHT. Recently released on DVD (this past year in 2006, FINALLY), it was one of those movies that definately spooked me out....this not-quite-dead guy with psychokenisis powers is buried in a mauseoleum, and of course teenagers are hiding out in the mausoleum after dark....

And this guy goes around exploding coffins open and "animating" the corpses back to life. there is one scene where the kids are running down the hall (trapped in the mauseoleum) and then after a few seconds, out of the darkness this like..wall of floating corpses comes silently floating down the hall after them....sooooooo creepy ;)

I thought of one....ONE DARK NIGHT. Recently released on DVD (this past year in 2006, FINALLY), it was one of those movies that definately spooked me out....this not-quite-dead guy with psychokenisis powers is buried in a mauseoleum, and of course teenagers are hiding out in the mausoleum after dark....

And this guy goes around exploding coffins open and "animating" the corpses back to life. there is one scene where the kids are running down the hall (trapped in the mauseoleum) and then after a few seconds, out of the darkness this like..wall of floating corpses comes silently floating down the hall after them....sooooooo creepy ;)

Wasn't this that B movie with Adam West (TV show Batman) in it?

Chris.

Yes, but he plays a minor role from memory...he's not a major character....Meg Tilly stars, along with a cast of teen types who meet their demise from fright, crushed under marble or coffins or something along those lines. I bought the DVD as soon as it was released but haven't watched it yet.

Adam West....even more reason to be AFRAID :)

I love Adam West, not as Batman, but on Family Guy he's a hoot.

The Shining. For some reason, I didn't like the visual of the two girls riding around on their big wheels. Where they big wheels?

The Exorcist. The infamous 360 head spin. :eek:

The Exorcist. I was 18 at the time and thought nothing could scare me. I'm not even a religious person, yet I couldn't sleep that night and every time I looked at the ceiling, I could see new cracks appearing. It took me months to feel comfortable sleeping at night.Me too, at 18. I read the book first, then went to the New York Public Library on 42nd Street and read everything I could on demonic possession, etc. (that's what people did before the Internet!), and they had a lot of stuff to read. I saw an early show at the Baronet in Manhattan to beat the lines (things have changed so much since then). That night, I played solitaire in my bedroom with all the lights on until I passed out. :eek:

...went to the New York Public Library on 42nd Street and read everything I could on demonic possession, etc. (that's what people did before the Internet!)
Old skool! :D

Idiocracy. Look around, it's happening! :eek: :D

For me (14)Cat people. I snuck in to see a rated R film and had nightmares. I laugh now but i freaked out at the time. I had just moved to La. and been to the New Orleans zoo.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083722/

My Brother(12) almost went into shock over The Thing
He was screaming and I had to cover his eyes to get him to calm down.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0084787/

My sister(16) wait for it... Evil Dead. Took her to a Midnight showing. She ran out of the movie theather screaming when Ash cut off hit hand. Good times! To this day she hates this movie.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0092991/

You must have been one hellova brother. Now THAT'S scary!! :)

Sadly, I've never seen a scary movie. I've tried, I've watched all the ones people say are scary, I turn all the lights out, crank up the surround sound, make the room really cold, etc. I've just never been scared by a movie :( Usually when when it gets really suspenseful is right about the point I fall asleep. I remember watching all the b-horror movies and all the classics with my grandfather, and being absolutely fascinated with them but never scared.

You, most likely, just pass out when it gets scary.

Wuss!! :D

I've seen some horror movies that have really scared me xxxxless! However, none were as scary as Roseanne Barr/Arnold singing the National Anthem. :D

You must have been one hellova brother. Now THAT'S scary!! :)


It's a sibling thing :p What one goes thru all must :eek:

It's a sibling thing :p What one goes thru all must :eek:

Ain't it the truth!!

I had two older sisters. Talk about scary, but.....payback was a bitch. :D :D

Ed

Idiocracy. Look around, it's happening! :eek: :D


BEST POST so far!


You've done it again, Fred. ;)

Having always liked scary movies, i really enjoyed reading this thread and remembering different films. I would like to add a few others that have not been mentioned:

1) Eraserhead - one of David Lynch's first movies. This is horror at a dream level.

2) Videodrome - one of Conenberg's first masterpieces

3) No horror list is complete without mentioning Hitchcock's "The Birds" and Psycho

4) George Romero's "Night of the Living Dead" and all the sequels and spin-offs

5) "Rosemary's Baby" by Polanski was an original take on demonic posession

6) Everyone remembers and mentions Carpenter's Halloween but there are many other great Carpenter horrow movies including one of my favorites: "Prince of Darkness"

7) Real appreciation for horror starts as very young kids and often our first exposure starts with classics like "Wizard of Oz" in the flying monkey scene

Thanks and fun watching

...6) Everyone remembers and mentions Carpenter's Halloween but there are many other great Carpenter horrow movies including one of my favorites: "Prince of Darkness"...
Best usage of a bicycle in a horror movie yet. :)

UMD is showing a 1982 film called Parasite with a young Demi Moore. It's craptastic!

It might be the worst PQ I've ever seen on any movie ever made, which is really saying something. :eek:

Napoleon Dynamite. :rolleyes:

Jesus Camp - this one really scares me!

Leonard Part 6 (no contest)

Rosemary's baby
Planet of the Apes
Magic

The Thing scared the crap out of me. Mostly because I was just a little one when I saw it and afraid of spiders though.

This is the flick that gives me the creeps.. The old lady is dead and comes back to life!

http://kittyfingers.com/sabbath1.gif

anyone remember this?

The Ring........That seriously creeped the **** out of me and there were many things in that movie that I just didn't expect at all.......I pretty much went into it blind, not knowing much about it.

"Event Horizon" -- Maybe more creepy (gets under your skin) than scary

The eyes......sweet Jesus, the eyes!! :crying:

Halloweens and Friday the 13th's cant be topped.

it's still jaws for me, followed by the amityville horror

Jaws? As long as i'm not in the ocean everything is gravy :D

I got to say the scariest movie for me was Physcho. I watched it by myself as young kid. My favorite scary movie is Halloween.

I got to say the scariest movie for me was Physcho. I watched it by myself as young kid. My favorite scary movie is Halloween.

I bet your PE teacher freaked you out too. :D

Halloweens and Friday the 13th's cant be topped.
You're right...those are always good for a laugh.

Time for a reboot of this thread. :)

Just got done watching the pan-out of the liferaft scene in Cast Away. Terrifying!*

*In a non-zombie/alien/psycho killer/etc. kind of way. :D

I will put them in the order that i have seen them.
1. The Birds. I was between 7 and 9.
2. The Brood. That was just down right horrific. trailer -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYWNnSWGV-E&search=1979
3. Nightmare on elmstreet. (not scared when watching the movie but made me think twice when i went to bed for the night.)

I cannot forget the movie, The Amityville Horror. I was in college when I saw it and it scares the **** out of me. Its one of the two movies that's been etched on my mind. The other is The Exorcist, original version.

I've got to say the scariest movies I've ever seen was the homemade film I found a couple years ago of my parents filming themselves during "certain" activities. Scarred me for life :)

The ones I remember being most scared by were What's the Matter with Helen and The Bird with the Crystal Plumage. The fact that I was quite young when I saw those probably had something to do with it, though. I doubt either one would be nearly as scary today.

I've got to say the scariest movies I've ever seen was the homemade film I found a couple years ago of my parents filming themselves during "certain" activities. Scarred me for life :)

LOL!
That has to be funniest thing written on this forum in a long time.

I couldn't sleep for 2 weeks after I snuk a peek at American Werewolf in London on HBO @ 1am one night. I was about 11 and when he transformed in the living room I about pooped my PJ's with bunny feet.

2. The Brood. That was just down right horrific. trailer -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYWNnSWGV-E&search=1979

I was in junior high when I saw that trailer during SNL. Scared the cr@p out of me. Now, it's one of my favorite horror flicks.

I couldn't sleep for 2 weeks after I snuk a peek at American Werewolf in London on HBO @ 1am one night. I was about 11 and when he transformed in the living room I about pooped my PJ's with bunny feet.

I just spewed coffee all over my keyboard :p

I remember being scared and having nightmares for quite some time watching alot of the above mentioned movies. But that was when I was a kid. Same stuff that scared me then I would just laugh at now. One movie that I watched recently that was pretty scary (I'm 39 now) was Silent Hill.

I was in junior high when I saw that trailer during SNL. Scared the cr@p out of me. Now, it's one of my favorite horror flicks.

After that movie i came up with a new rule. No horror flicks late at night alone in the bedroom. :) I think i may have been about 14.

also previously mentioned... ill give it another vote. The Entity.

the ring

American Psycho is pretty amazingly scary. When he drops the chainsaw from the 4th or 5th floor and hits the girl in the back and then screams. Ooooh it gave me chills.

Requiem for a Dream is a real mind**** too. Scared me to no end about drugs. The manufactured ones at least. Organic is still cool w/ me. :p

The original "Night Of The Living Dead" in 1968 at the drive-in when I was 14. I remember locking the car doors.

The original "Night Of The Living Dead" in 1968 at the drive-in when I was 14. I remember locking the car doors.Yeah - the full, uncut version where they show them fighting over the intestines :eek: :).

The Exorcist by far!Not the scary scenes, just the idea of an innocent girl being possessed by the devil...

Also, your not going to believe me, but a scene that really creeped me out was in Jeepers Creepers 2, when the girl faints, and the guy blathers for a while and then says "Once every year, it gets to eat..." "Eat what?....Eat What?!" "Eat us..." And his eyeballs are just missing from his eye sockets.:(

Also, Nightmare On Elm St. ...no explanation needed:eek:

Probably a toss up between Blair Witch Project and Event Horizon. Rosemary's Baby was pretty freaky as well.

the ring

I would never forget the corpse of the girl in the closet. For me that had to be the must scary scene I have seen in my life. After watching that scene I had the image of that thing in my mind for days.:eek:

I'm assuming that we're talking about fiction. Because the scariest movies I've seen recently are documentaries: The Corporation, Blue Gold, and The World According to Monsanto. Truly scary stuff, but a valuable look at what the glossy marketing ads of corporations don't tell you.


TinMan368

*****

Trivia for 2009-June-10:

Q) In 1985, CEO Roberto Goizueta received a request for his autograph after his company made a change to their core product. The request came from someone who wanted the signature of 'one of the dumbest executives in American business history'. What company did Goizueta head at the time?

A) Coca Cola. On 1985-April-23, the company announced the relaunch of their flagship product using a new formula, sparking outrage amongst many longtime Coke drinkers. By July of that year, after thousands of letters and calls and just 79 days of New Coke, the company announced the return of the old formula. In the spirit Corporate America, Goizueta has never publicly admitted that New Coke was a marketing blunder, saying only that his company 'sent an incredibly powerful signal ... a signal that we really were ready to do whatever was necessary to build value for the owners of our business.'


Due to popular demand (well, a few requests, at least), I am including the previous day's question.
Trivia for 2009-June-9:

Q) Which singer/actress from Night Court scored a hit by singing with Meat Loaf on 1977's "Paradise by the Dashboard Light"?

A) Ellen Foley played defense attorney Billie Young in the 1984-85 season of the courtroom sitcom and provided the energetic vocals on the Meat Loaf classic. Ironically, only her voice appears in the video for "Dashboard Light" as she was replaced by a lip-synching Karla DeVito, a singer in her own right who regularly backed up Meat Loaf.

I don't get scared at a movie, but the last 30 seconds of The Blair Witch Project really creeped me out.

larry

I'm sooo glad I'm not the only one!

This movie wasn't scary to me at all, until the last 30 seconds! I was scared sh!tl3$$ the rest of the night after that.

Event Horizon and The Howling also scared the crap out of me long term.

The movie "Phantasm" freaked me out when I was a kid...now I get a few laughs from it...still love it though!

attack of the beast creatures, lady terminator, mystics in bali, nightbeast

Idiocracy. Look around, it's happening! :eek: :D

It has always been happening in the South. :D

I actually knew nothing whatsoever about the content of the movie before I saw it, just that it was so wildly popular.

But after about 10 minutes of really trying to watch it and give it a chance, I just couldn't take anymore. It was probably the worst disparity between what I was expecting compared to what it actually was (in American popular culture) that I think I've ever experienced. That single movie had more to do with realizing how badly down the tube that mainstream America's tastes and acceptance of such inferiority had gotten than anything before or since. It was truly a rude awakening. :rolleyes: :(

I'll give it this much - I could maybe see someone under the age of 12 liking it and maybe being scared by it some - but not anyone out of their preteen years. I mean, when I was a teen, we may not have actually walked out on it (after paying to see it), but we probably would've been laughing at it or making cracks about how bad it was through the whole thing.

Now, does anyone care to hear how I REALLY feel about the movie? :rolleyes: :D ;)

And my take is 180 degrees opposite from yours.

As a long time horror fan myself I'd bemoaned how horror flicks had lost their edge and also had often discarded psychological horror in favor of cheap FX tricks ("Look at all the gore! It's a horror flick! Scared?" - no.)

A movie like Blair Witch, and it's success, restored some of my faith that people were still willing to take a horror movie seriously (that is, serve it straight up, without winking at the audience) and that people could still respond to a psychological horror movie done with "serious" intentions.

That flick affected both me and my friends when we watched it in a way that made us feel we were alone in the woods, being told the creepiest tale around a camp fire.

I feel the same about The Exorcist.

If I'm going to ask anyone else if they might recommend a good scary movie to me I'd say there is a major criteria: Did they find The Exorcist to be scary?

If they didn't - if they just didn't "get" what was supposed to be creepy about The Exorcist - then I have no trust in their aesthetic sensibilities for horror. May as well cue up "Gremlins."

Same goes for someone who dismisses Blair Witch project. I can't relate; our aesthetics for horror movies clearly don't match.

(I kinda of feel a bit that way about people who were scared by POLTERGEIST too. I remember seeing it and knowing how straining it was to be creepy...but it couldn't get around a Spielbergian influence of "show em neato special FX" and lots of winking-at-the-audience vibe moments, that for me sort of signalled an "uh-oh, I don't like where horror movies are going" signpost in my movie-going past. Not that it isn't a damned fun movie though).

It's one of my favourites now but when I watched Aliens by myself when I was about 10, that was not good :D
I didn't sleep well at all, I thought a face hugger was going to pop up anytime.

Scariest movie moment as a child: The attack of the giant monkey-spider in The Angry Red Planet. I was nine years old and a nieghbor took me to the film, whereas my mother would permit only Disney movies and Bible films. But that experience started a lifelong preoccupation with the Horror and SF film genres.

Scariest movie moment as an adult: In Wait Until Dark, when the crook jumps out of the stairwell at a blind Audrey Hepburn. What made the moment was when the "friend" behind me (who was introduced to the film the exact same way) grabbed my shoulders and screamed in my ear!

Honorable mention: Seeing Jaws very close to where the movie was filmed (the old Dreamland Theater on Nantucket), and knowing we were going swimming in that same ocean later that day.

I gotta admit though that most movies do not frighten me anymore. Occasionally a particular scene gets to me - as in Alien or The Descent, but it's more a product of being surprised than anything else. The old Haunted House principle.

And my take is 180 degrees opposite from yours.

As a long time horror fan myself I'd bemoaned how horror flicks had lost their edge and also had often discarded psychological horror in favor of cheap FX tricks ("Look at all the gore! It's a horror flick! Scared?" - no.)

A movie like Blair Witch, and it's success, restored some of my faith that people were still willing to take a horror movie seriously (that is, serve it straight up, without winking at the audience) and that people could still respond to a psychological horror movie done with "serious" intentions.

That flick affected both me and my friends when we watched it in a way that made us feel we were alone in the woods, being told the creepiest tale around a camp fire.

I feel the same about The Exorcist.

If I'm going to ask anyone else if they might recommend a good scary movie to me I'd say there is a major criteria: Did they find The Exorcist to be scary?

If they didn't - if they just didn't "get" what was supposed to be creepy about The Exorcist - then I have no trust in their aesthetic sensibilities for horror. May as well cue up "Gremlins."

Same goes for someone who dismisses Blair Witch project. I can't relate; our aesthetics for horror movies clearly don't match.

(I kinda of feel a bit that way about people who were scared by POLTERGEIST too. I remember seeing it and knowing how straining it was to be creepy...but it couldn't get around a Spielbergian influence of "show em neato special FX" and lots of winking-at-the-audience vibe moments, that for me sort of signalled an "uh-oh, I don't like where horror movies are going" signpost in my movie-going past. Not that it isn't a damned fun movie though).

I very much agree with this... and psychological horror is about the only brand that scares me anymore. I did enjoy Poltergeist and it scared me as a kid but the older I've gotten the more I've found that my imagination does a better job of scaring me if a movie is good enough to light that fuse.

As far as scariest movies I've ever seen -
Childhood: The Crate (story from Creepshow), An American Werewolf in London, and Alien.

Teens: A Nightmare on Elm Street, Silence of the Lambs, and The Serpent and the Rainbow.

Adult: The Devil's Adcotate, Storm of the Century, Signs, The Descent, Se7en, and [REC].

Not very scary but the award for most disturbing goes to Inside; the only horror movie in the past 30 years I can remember making me turn away.

Jaws is a fantastic example of something scary, because when you watch it, you think that this could happen in real life, even if the real life shark is not that big. Scares the heck out of you and makes you wonder every time you go into the water.