The most frightening motion pictures?

[Jaguar66]

The soundtrack and sound effects from the original "Invaders From Mars" with the choral work still gets me really edgy.
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Yes, the original Invaders From Mars http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0045917/

I will add The Creeping Unknown. That was its theatrical release title. It later bacame known as the Quatermass Experiment http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0049646/

Another very little known movie was called Fiend Without a Face a 1958 low budget movie. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0050393/

I loved some of the 50s creepy pseudo sci-fi stuff. One already mentioned, the original Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

For those that saw these 50's movies like I did, here is a great compilation of these films. Seeing this list brings back great memories.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_science_fiction_films:_1950s

I will mention another film I saw on TV in the 50s, a 1949 film about a boy that witnesses a murder through a balcony window, and the story of him trying to convince uncaring adults, while the murderers try to get him. It is called The Window http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0042046/

 

[Zombie_61]

...Then I took a date to see it...

This reminded me of an amusing story. When my older brother and the woman who would eventually become his first wife went on their first date, he decided to take her to see The Birds. Her response to the "scary" scenes was far more than he expected, but he shrugged it off and attributed it to the effectiveness of the film. It wasn't until after the movie that she told him she had a pathological fear of birds. :lol:

 

[Miss Golightly]

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

I saw Martyrs a few months back - horrible, horrible movie (great beginning though - so tense!).

 

[Chas]

"Cannibal Holocaust" which was completely ripped off by "Blair Witch". The filmmakers who made CH should have sued.
"Ringu". Original Japanese version of "The Ring".
"The Exorcist". 'nuff said.
"Manhunter" - the original film of the Hannibal Lechter stories; incredible bit of filmmaking, here.
"Seven" was pretty F-ed up.
"Dead Ringers". Also, pretty f-ed up.
"Salo" by Paosolini. woah....
"Henry, Portrait of A Serial Killer"
"I Spit On Your Grave"
"Jesus Camp"

And my pick for the most disturbing stuff I have EVER seen is "Little Dolls" - about the Beauty Pageant circuit for little girls and for the delight of pedophiles. I felt that I needed a shower after seeing this. I was seriously disturbed and nauseated by this. It's fitting, however, that the most disturbing thing I have ever seen comes from real life.
[video=youtube;dwttqXiCE-I]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwttqXiCE-I&feature=related[/video]

 

[davidraphael]

"Jesus Camp"

Totally. There are a few feature documentaries about the power of religion in America and I'm glad I no longer live there in this respect. It's nice to be back in 'civilised' Europe.

 

[Edward]

"Cannibal Holocaust" which was completely ripped off by "Blair Witch". The filmmakers who made CH should have sued.

You're bang on about Cannibal Holocaust. Blair Witch had not a single shred of originality - you've got to admire their nerve in the way they trumpeted it as something so new!

I watched The Strangers last night. Excellent film. I found it interesting that it was so timeless, in effect. Had they not referenced mobile telephones in it, it could really have been set any time in the last, well, century or so, I think. The most chilling bit of all was the "Why us?" "You were home." exchange. The lack of any explanation upped the horror, in my eyes.

 

[Cricket]

I would have to scare I was most disturbed by The Road. Like a few other posts I have read here, what was so scary about it was the realness of it. It didn't take a pyscho, monster or sci-fi theme to leave me anxious. The fact of "what could happen" struck fear in me the most. Putting myself in the same situation with my own children added to my anxiety.

I loved the movie though, but I have to be mentally prepared to watch it for a second viewing. It's not one of those movies you ask buddies, 'hey wanna watch The Road tonight" with excitement, for me anyway.

 

[Undertow]

I would have to scare I was most disturbed by The Road...

Oh yes, this as well. I wasn't "scared", but thoroughly impressed. Cormac McCarthy is one of the greatest modern authors alive, and this story is so engrossing, so desperate that when I saw it play out over the screen, I broke down in tears at the end. Very awful, very sad.

If you haven't seen it, it's like Mad Max stripped down to wearing plastic bags and fighting hordes of cannibals with one bullet and his wits. And it's NOT sci-fi/horror, strictly speaking; just miserable. Is miserable a genre? Should be.

 

[Edward]

I read the book on a train to Edinburgh last year, then a few months later picked up the DVD. The film actually really did the book justice. Undoubtedly the most believable - and for that, the most horrifying - take on a post-apocalyptic future that I have ever seen.

 

[John in Covina]

I would have to scare I was most disturbed by The Road. Like a few other posts I have read here, what was so scary about it was the realness of it. It didn't take a pyscho, monster or sci-fi theme to leave me anxious. The fact of "what could happen" struck fear in me the most. Putting myself in the same situation with my own children added to my anxiety. I loved the movie though, but I have to be mentally prepared to watch it for a second viewing. It's not one of those movies you ask buddies, 'hey wanna watch The Road tonight" with excitement, for me anyway.

The Road is the other side of the question (which is a comment on nuclear disaster of war ) from Dr Strangelove. "Won't the survivors come to envy the dead?"

I thought it was interesting that The Road and The Book of Eli came out so close to each other.

 

[John in Covina]

Totally. There are a few feature documentaries about the power of religion in America and I'm glad I no longer live there in this respect. It's nice to be back in 'civilised' Europe.

It is seen by many that the history of Europe demonstrates how much they are in the lead for enlightenment, and being culturally advanced that has lead to great peace, tranquility, prosperity, the elimination of all strife and discord, with the added plus conserving rights.

 

[Stray Cat]

Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds"
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056869/
I saw many, many horror movies, slasher movies (like "Texas chainsaw massacre" and all "Friday the 13th"), but Birds still hold place no 1. Maybe it's because I was 5 when I first saw them.. and I never forgot the phone booth attack. Scary...

 

[Almost Vintage]

Dead of Winter. Of course it didn't help that I was watching it home alone and it was dark out!

 

[St.Ignatz]

The original Cape Fear. Relentless!
Tom D.

 

[Gene]

"Children of Men."

Frightening because it is probably as close to being as accurate of a film about the near-future that I have ever seen. I don't think a movie has disturbed me as much as that one on so many levels.

1.) It shows my generation in their late 40's-early 50's. That's scary enough as it is. It also shows the "hippie" generation as elderly and trying to keep their sanity in the insane world.
2.) The world has almost destroyed itself but not quite. Think "The Road" only with more survivors and a feeble form of government that gives out rations of suicide tablets.
3.) Humanity is sterile and has nothing to strive for, so death is imminent. The rich medicate themselves and the poor live in slums.
4.) I felt for the first time seeing it that there were so many subtle details in the background such as newspaper clippings and other things.
5. Terrorism is on an even grander scale than it is today.

It's basically a movie that shows what will happen in the next 20 years if we keep up the way we are and continue to slide downhill. Very, very thought provoking.

 

[Drappa]

I completely agree with The Road being the scariest movie, because it still haunts me, especially the scene with the half butchered bodies in the basement of that house. My husband dragged me to see that as he loved the book, and I should have known better. He was actually terribly disapointed and thought they sort of butchered the book.
Other ones in that vain are Blindness, and the original German version of The Experiment. I usually avoid scary movies and horror flicks, as I don't like watching them, but these caught me unexpectedly and I still think of them months or years after watching them.
I also don't like movies about genocide, like Hotel Rwanda or Darfur, mainly because they aren't just movies but based on true events and show humanity's worst side. They not only scare me but make me depressed.
As a woman I sometimes still feel haunted by The Accused, again because it feels too real to write it off as just a movie.

 

[Monsoon]

I also don't like movies about genocide, like Hotel Rwanda or Darfur, mainly because they aren't just movies but based on true events and show humanity's worst side. They not only scare me but make me depressed.

Hotel Rwanda was showing the worse side of man, but it was also showing the best side. A man was trying to save as many people as he could, risking his own life and the lives of his family while doing it.

 

[Gene]

He was actually terribly disapointed and thought they sort of butchered the book.

I will agree with your husband on that one. I thought the movie was pretty stupid, actually.

 

[Drappa]

Hotel Rwanda was showing the worse side of man, but it was also showing the best side. A man was trying to save as many people as he could, risking his own life and the lives of his family while doing it.

Yes, but in that case it is a like a drop of water on a hot stone. Maybe I am just a pessimist, but I don't find those types of films uplifting.

 

[HodgePodge]

Trinity and Beyond: The Atomic Bomb Movie (1995) A fascinating documentary using declassified footage of U.S. atomic testing. Beautiful and frightening at the same time.
Doug

I wish they would play that in a theatre somewhere. The footage was awe-inspiring in the truest sense of the word.

Wolf Creek

Oh goodness, yes. The part that got to me the most is when she fell down the ladder into the pit.

The Ring is fairly scary.

The part with " I saw her face;" that kept me awake at night.

The "fire" puppets in Labyrinth creeped me right out.

While not "scary" there's a particular fight scene in "Irreversible" that is quite disturbing. The music that goes along with the scene is rather creepy also.