The most frightening motion pictures?

[Zombie_61]

The most frightening were from my childhood. I recall seeing House of Wax when I was 12...

I'd have to go back to my childhood as well for the last time I was frightened by a movie. Back then I would get so wrapped up in whatever movie I was watching (in a theater, that is) that I would mentally insert myself into the film, going through whatever the characters were going through. Sadly, the film wasn't a classic (unless cult films count), or even good for that matter; seen through the eyes of an adult many years later, it was downright laughable. But I was 11 years old, and it was the first zombie movie I'd seen on the big screen.

And that film was...sigh...Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things. By the end of the film I was a nervous wreck, convinced the zombies would get me too. But it was the beginning of a life-long love affair with zombie films, so that's something.

Other than that, I can't recall ever being frightened by a movie. Startled, yes--the cheap "gotcha" gag of something unexpected suddenly appearing on the screen--but not truly or properly frightened. I grew up watching the classic Universal horror films on television so, for me, horror films are fun. It saddens me that the horror film genre has turned into nothing but gorenography and torture porn--buckets of fake blood, no story. I admit I haven't seen many "psychological thrillers", but at the age of 49 I honestly don't think I'd be affected by them.

 

[Isis]

It is easier to be frighten as a child, I think. The boundaries between fantasy and reality is more blurred. I remember being allowed to watch Psycho when I was 12. My mother wasn't at home and my father didn't think it through- she was quite angry at him later. I had nightmares for a long time featuring the scene when the heroine finds Bates mother.

I can't remember being frightened by a movie as an adult, but the description of a movie gav me one of the most horrible nightmares I have ever had. I don't recalll the title and not much of the storyline now, it was several years ago, but it was something about a couple who adpoted children and then for some reason boarded them alive into the walls of the house, where they continues to live. Perhaps the movie itself wasn't so frightening, but my imagination manage to make something really scary out of the description.

 

[WH1]

While "The Day After" was okay, the most powerful post-nuclear war movie for me was Stanley Kramer's 1959 movie "On The Beach".

 

[Isis]

A warning to the curious,
Whistle and I'll come to you

Haven't seen them, but have read the stories- James ghost stories always scare me, despite having read them several times.

 

[Warden]

The Blair Witch project

Horror films don't really 'do it' for me, but after watching The Blair Witch project I put a pile of stones on the top of the stairs, my girlfriend (now wife) screamed out loud when she went up the stairs.

I thought it was really funny, but she had a major sulk on after that.

he he he

Harry

 

[W-D Forties]

The Haunting (the original) scared the pants off me when I first saw it. The bit where the door 'breathes' in and out......

 

[Edward]

Threads - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Threads

This film terrified me and was on my mind for weeks after I saw it - for some reason the threat of nuclear war was always on my mind in my early teens - and a lot of other people I have spoken to seemed to have this same fear.

Jinkies, yes! I saw this on TV on original transmission, in the TV room of a caravan site in Scotland (Ayrshire, Kilkerran was the site). A lot of the images in that are still with me. Must buy the DVD...

I thought The Orphanage was really scary, that stayed with me for days after.
28 days later
The Blair Witch project (Especially as i watched it alone in my creaky old cottage with a storm boiling outside. I liked the fact the director crept around on location scaring the actors, it was very realistic i thought).
Cat people (The original), the bit in the swimming pool gets me every time!

The only thing that was frightening about Blair Witch for me was the notion that there are people out there who were actually taken in by it. I found it tedious and derivative. That said, perhaps it works better at home, on your own late at night than in the cinema. I imagine too not having seen many of the classic horrors it rips off would help too.

Horror films don't really 'do it' for me, but after watching The Blair Witch project I put a pile of stones on the top of the stairs, my girlfriend (now wife) screamed out loud when she went up the stairs.

I thought it was really funny, but she had a major sulk on after that.

he he he

Harry

lol

 

[Undertow]

I have to agree with you folks on the idea that movies were scarier when we were children. I know it sounds obvious, but films were literally magical to me when I was younger. Even into my teens, I was able to really get enveloped in a story.

I remember watching The Exorcist as a child, quite young, and seeing those "subliminal" images of the skull/demon face. I would yell out to my father each time and he'd laugh and say, "What are you talking about? There aren't any faces."

Watching horror films as a child really shaped me as a person and has inspired me ever since. I still really enjoy horror films, but I think I'm most interested in well made films of any genre.

If any of you are interested in a modern day Hitchcock-esque director, you might try Takashi Miike from Japan. Although much of his work is quite blunt and vulgar, his film Audition is subtle and beautiful. Very much a Hitchcock thriller!

 

[Miss Golightly]

I think as an adult now what terrifies me are not so much ghosts or ghouls but the terrifying things that can happen to a person in their everyday life. When there is no supernatural explanation but instead the true horror of what people are capable of.

Whilst not a movie I did see the beginning of the pilot for the BBC's Luther starring Idris Elba. The start of the episode began with a young Mum in her house with her baby playing on the floor, the doorbell rings and she opens the door and there is a man standing there and he introduces himself as a policeman and he indicates that her husband has been involved in an accident so she brings him into the hallway - at this point she is frantic with worry about her husband and she starts asking some jumbled questions - the man's face just changes (he licks his lips *shudder* - that part freaked me out) and the horrible realisation dawns on her that this man she let into her home is not a policeman.

The image of his face and the situation this woman found herself in was on my mind for days. I didn't watch any more of the episode or the series - I'm kind of done with the whole "serial killer kills next victim in a more gorey and interesting way than the last one and cops are running out of time to catch him" thing.

I prefer true crime anyway.....

 

[dr greg]

The basis of a real 'horror' experience in film is to imagine yourself in that situation and how you would deal with it, in which case, by far the scariest film I've seen in the last 20 years is this, which illustrates all too well, that no 'monster' the mind can devise is as scary as real people.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Mad_Dog

 

[John in Covina]

Some of the good ghost stories can be chilling and erie. "Ghost Story" "The Changeling" with George C Scott. The B&W "The Haunting" was creepy the banging on the walls and the trap door at the top of the staircase.... "The Shining" has its moments too.

The trapped feeling from Carpenter's version of "The Thing" and also in "Aliens" is disconcerting to me.
Parts of "Jaws" still give me goosebumps from the built tension.

Several scenes in the film "30 Days of Night" are disquieting, like the overheard of the attack on the town.

The soundtrack and sound effects from the original "Invaders From Mars" with the choral work still gets me really edgy.

The movie "The Mist" also has that trapped and doom feeling the Mist rolls in and the town fire sirens go off like an air raid attack. Such warning sirens brings me back to my childhood, air raid sirens all still very emotional to me.

 

[Isis]

I think as an adult now what terrifies me are not so much ghosts or ghouls but the terrifying things that can happen to a person in their everyday life. When there is no supernatural explanation but instead the true horror of what people are capable of.

I agree! I never liked movies or books where children are the victims, but since I had children on my own I can't stand it. Too close for my own fears.

 

[Monsoon]

"The Mist" is a very good movie. My friend saw the black and white version and said it was great.

"The Exorcist" scared the heck out of me when I was a kid, and that was just by seeing the trailers! I finally saw the full movie when I was deployed to Italy in 1993. On Halloween night. In a blacked out tent in the middle of nowhere. Yep, still scared the crap out of me.

"The Others" is a good movie, but the book was much better.

One movie that I haven't (and will never) see that's very disturbing that came up in a similiar discussion as this one on another webforum was "A Serbian Film". Of course, I did a wikipedia search on this movie. Please, learn from my mistake: Don't do it!!! I know you want to after reading this, but trust me, you don't.

 

[Nachtengel01]

I think as an adult now what terrifies me are not so much ghosts or ghouls but the terrifying things that can happen to a person in their everyday life. When there is no supernatural explanation but instead the true horror of what people are capable of.

Being a father myself i do relate to what you mean and for the love of my little one, i should never have listened to Funny Games. The Original one by Michael Heneke(1997). Mind you, he did other more frightening movies but what struck me the most about his movies were the attack on your psyche and to make you realize the fact that what happened into his movies could really happen to you. Brrrrr....

 

[Miss Golightly]

One movie that I haven't (and will never) see that's very disturbing that came up in a similiar discussion as this one on another webforum was "A Serbian Film". Of course, I did a wikipedia search on this movie. Please, learn from my mistake: Don't do it!!! I know you want to after reading this, but trust me, you don't.

I made the mistake of reading the synopsis for this film and I have to say I felt sick reading it - the fact that someone made this film and tried to pass this revolting nonsense off as entertainment (some people were saying that it was a commentary on the situation in Serbia at the time - whatever - spare me the lame reasoning and making it out to be some kind of social/political commentary) beggars belief.

Being a father myself i do relate to what you mean and for the love of my little one, i should never have listened to Funny Games. The Original one by Michael Heneke(1997). Mind you, he did other more frightening movies but what struck me the most about his movies were the attack on your psyche and to make you realize the fact that what happened into his movies could really happen to you. Brrrrr....

I saw the original Funny Games and found it to be an unsettling and kind of grubby experience - for me it kind of falls into the torture/porn genre although there was not too much bloodshed from my recollection it still just made me feel uneasy - not an enjoyable experience.

 

[davidraphael]

The Exorcist, Alien and The Omen II scared me enormously when I was young. As did Threads, the TV movie about the nuclear strike. Spooky films I liked include The Innocents and The Village of the Damned.

There are also films that have sickened me, rather than scared me, or at least scenes in them have. Irreversible and Man Bites Dog contained some very disturbing moments, though the latter is largely an exceptionally good and blackly funny film. Then there are movies that made me feel uncomfortable - 'dreamy art horror' - such as Eraserhead, The Shining and Come and See, Elim Klimov's WWII film.

I grew up in the early 80s during the boom of banned so-called video nasties, so there were a few of those that I found difficult to watch, such as The Evil Dead, perhaps because I was a) young b) influenced by the hype.

I think movies such as Blair Witch Project were highly overrated. Frankly, I think it's an appallingly made movie that isn't at all scary.
Nowadays it's very rare that I'm truly scared by a film. Apart from the fact that I am now an atheist (therefore not as likely to be scared by magical or religious horror) I don't think that film makers are taking any risks. The most recent horror film that I thought half-way decent was 28 Days Later.

 

[Levallois]

The original "Alien" movie scared the crackers out of me way back when (1979?). Then I took a date to see it; she hadn't had the pleasure and told me the entire drive over that so-called scary movies never scare her. She was almost sitting in my lap after a short while into it. It scared her to the the point of covering her face with a sweater and she never forgave me for not warning her when all the scary parts were going to occur. I informed her that since scary movies never scared her that I thought it was unnecessary. And she married me anyway - go figure?

 

[Monsoon]

There are also films that have sickened me, rather than scared me, or at least scenes in them have. Irreversible and Man Bites Dog contained some very disturbing moments, though the latter is largely an exceptionally good and blackly funny film. Then there are movies that made me feel uncomfortable - 'dreamy art horror' - such as Eraserhead, The Shining and Come and See, Elim Klimov's WWII film.

I thought "Come and See" sucked, to be blunt. Any war movie with a "thumbs up" from Sean Penn should be avoid.

I grew up in the early 80s during the boom of banned so-called video nasties, so there were a few of those that I found difficult to watch, such as The Evil Dead, perhaps because I was a) young b) influenced by the hype.

"The Evil Dead" was OK, but the sequels rocked! Bruce Campbell was great in them!

 

[Monsoon]

I made the mistake of reading the synopsis for this film and I have to say I felt sick reading it - the fact that someone made this film and tried to pass this revolting nonsense off as entertainment (some people were saying that it was a commentary on the situation in Serbia at the time - whatever - spare me the lame reasoning and making it out to be some kind of social/political commentary) beggars belief.

I warned you! To be honest, I did the same thing; someone warned me about it, and I had to read up on the synopsis. And I agree; "social commentary on Serbia" my white Irish ass!

 

[MariantheLibrarian]

"Descent" makes me hyperventilate :/

I'm mostly scared by films about things that have the possibility of happening-- cave-ins, home invasions, serial killers, etc. The ones that have really gotten to me are films like "The Strangers," "Shuttle," etc.

And then there was the French film "Martyrs." Do yourself a favor and don't watch this.