The most frightening motion pictures?

[Son_of_Atropos]

I find every Michael Bay movie frightening.

 

[DNO]

The House on Haunted Hill...the original 1959 version. When that door bulged in like it was made of rubber....eeiyah.

I have to agree with the original poster about that other 1959 film, Pork Chop Hill. That was an unnerving film.

 

[John in Covina]

The House on Haunted Hill...the original 1959 version. When that door bulged in like it was made of rubber....eeiyah.

In the Haunting the build up of the tremendous banging noises that sounds like they're coming down the hallway before the door knob turning is a fine build up because you don't know what is doing the banging, or what may happen so the tension is palpable. In film the fear from tension and anticipation is really an art, the shock and horror of the surprise is the payoff. (Using the shock can be turned to humor like having a cat jump out during the search in a darken hallway.)

 

[Maj.Nick Danger]

"The Grey Zone",....about the Sonderkommando at Auschwitz. Very chilling because it was based on fact.

 

[Jaguar66]

Anyone remember the Quatermass movies? I saw The Creeping Unknown (AKA The Quatermass Xperiment), when it was released in 1955, although I can't believe I was only 9 at the time. Very frightening. The story of 3 astronauts, 2 of which dissapear on a flight in space, and the lone returning astronaut undergoing a creepy transformation from an infection he recieved during the space flight. I have always been more creeped out by aliens, than mummies, vampires, ghosts, zombies, and ghouls.

 

[Effingham]

Loved Quatermass. Great stuff, all of them. I've gotten into some arguments over who was a better Quatermass, though.

 

[Bluebird Marsha]

It's always the stuff from childhood that scares me. Like someone said earlier, reality and make believe can blur pretty effectively. Besides, late night movies were occasionally things that mom would definitely not have allowed. If she had known. Which she didn't, cause she was asleep. Which is how I saw:
Freaks- the Chicken Woman!

The Black Cat- moral of the story, don't steal Belagosi's wife AND daughter

Dracula- the TV version with Louis Jourdan. My folks watched The Exorcist that night (it was Halloween) and I was too scared. So watched this in my room, by myself. Probably a mistake. I didn't know whether to be turned on or terrified.

Dr. Phibes/Theatre of Blood- watched those two as a double feature at home with my folks. Ouch!

The Conqueror Worm- I think it was the lowering the "witches" into the fire that freaked me out. Among several other things.

 

[John in Covina]

They are playing the original The Fly 1958 on TV today. The scene near the end where Andres human head and arm on the Fly body is caught in the web and he's crying screaming pleading "Help Me!" as the spider comes to eat him just about had me in tears, as a kid I think it gave me nightmares. It is one of those scenes that tends to haunt people.

If you have never seen it you need to, if you have seen it chances are you will never forget it.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

They are playing the original The Fly 1958 on TV today. The scene near the end where Andres human head and arm on the Fly body is caught in the web and he's crying screaming pleading "Help Me!" as the spider comes to eat him just about had me in tears, as a kid I think it gave me nightmares. It is one of those scenes that tends to haunt people.

If you have never seen it you need to, if you have seen it chances are you will never forget it.

A truly disturbing scene. To this day I can't get myself to watch the movie again.

 

[DesertDan]

"Let The Right One In"
The way in which 'she' slowly draws the boy into being her guardian, playing on all his weaknesses, is dreadful. The whole time you get to see what will become of him through the actions of her old guardian.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

"Black Devil Doll from Hell" (1983). Frighteningly bad.

 

[DNO]

Not frightening in the tradition horror movie way but chilling...very, very chilling: Conspiracy (2001). An illustration of how banal true evil can be.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

This will make you laugh but a movie that spooked me out when I was a kid was the documentary version of Erich von Danikken's Chariots of the Gods. Watching it today it's somewhat comical because it's so cheesy. Though I will say that it had some funky music. This is one of my favorite segments.

[video=youtube;MeVMB0GV628]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MeVMB0GV628[/video]

 

[frussell]

"Paul McCartney Really Is Dead: The Last Testament of George Harrison." Scarily bad filmmaking at its shoddiest. Scared my wife so bad she fell asleep. The "George Harrison" voice-over was so badly done that I will have nightmares all night. Shame on MI5 for keeping this terrible secret from the public for so long, and threatening the poor remaining Beatles with death if they told about the "False Paul" (Faul) cover-up. Tomorrow I'm throwing away all my post-Paul-mortem recordings (anything after November of 1966 is NOT the real Paul!) Man, just writing this gave me the shivers. Frank

 

[ButteMT61]

When I was a kid, "Legend of Boggy Creek" and "House of Dark Shadows" scared the hell out of me. I had a morning paper route, and it was dark when I had to deliver the papers. Being near a creek/stream, it got foggy in the mornings and I was terrified until the sun came up all. Could think about was those movies when I was all alone delivering papers.

 

[Flipped Lid]

"Invasion of the Body Snatchers" is the first horror movie I ever saw and it scared the living hell out of me. I remember it very well forty-plus years later. "Wait Until Dark" with Audrey Hepburn, Alan Arkin, and Richard Crenna was a close second. I never forgave Richard Crenna for scaring me so badly. Up until then I had only known him as Big Luke in "The Real McCoys".

 

[MisterCairo]

The Wicker Man (original, of course)
Invasion of the Body Snatchers
Anything starring Woody Allen

 

[Talbot]

Just saw the doco 'Inside Job' on the financial crisis.

I was scared.