What is the scariest movie you have ever seen?

[MolotovCocktail]

Originally Posted by j. d. worthington

The majority of "slasher" or serial killer films bore me. I'm just not one to react with a genuine chill to blatant physical horror/repulsion. I like a little more finesse, myself. I like something that gets in there and niggles at you with intimations and adumbrations, rather than smacking you in the face with a cold mackerel. Not all such films are of that type, no. But a huge majority of them on this theme are, sadly. No reason you can't have a truly disturbing and haunting piece about a serial killer -- it's been done: Robert Mitchum in Night of the Hunter is a good example, for instance; or (again, Mitchum) that throroughly nasty type, Max Cady, in Cape Fear (1962; I've not seen the remake, but Mitchum's was quite nasty enough....).

However... among those that have always haunted me: The Haunting (1963) by Robert Wise. So many superb moments in there because you're never really sure about things... and you don't really see what it is that's haunting Hill House... only hear it, or see its effects; so your imagination can really go to town.

Several of the films Val Lewton produced would be on my list; all understated, but that allows them to get in there quietly and disturb all the more. The Seventh Victim (1943), for instance. Can even seem slow and plodding, a little silly at times... but it builds toward a very ... effective ... ending. That last screen moment still sends a chill up and down my spine.....

Or I Walked with a Zombie (also 1943); I don't know whether Darby Jones' Carrefour or Christine Gordon's Jessica Holland are the more unsettling (or more pitiful) zombies(?) here. But the creepiness here is the pervasiveness of a culture's superstitions, and the question of whether they have a basis in reality or simply in distorted thinking... but how they affect lives, and make monsters of even the most innocent....

There are others I'd put on the list. The original Night of the Living Dead certainly did it for me the first time I saw it -- in a packed-house, primed like a keg of gunpowder waiting for the match. Very effective that way, it is; genuinely terrifying.

I quite like the original Japanese version of The Ring and, as Nesa said, Dark Water. Also Ju-On (The Grudge). All of those were very effectively scary films, much better than the "in-your-face" sort of thing, and can still get the hair up on the back of my neck after repeated viewings. The American version of The Ring left me cold, unimpressed. Too much flash and glitter, not enough subtlety and substance. Alejandro Amenábar's The Others is another one, in some ways. Also Guillermo Del Toro's The Devil's Backbone. And, in some ways, Stuart Gordon's Dagon, though that one had to grow on me. Didn't care at all for it the first time out, but now it's become a personal favorite... and it gets creepier each viewing, as the genuine eerieness factor is understated, and -- appropriately, for a film on that theme -- surfaces when you least expect it....

I totally agree with you. I find that most horror movies are fairly predictable. But there are some good ones that can give you a good scare, even if they aren't technically horror movies. I remember seeing one that took place in a concentration camp, and the guy had to pretend to his son that it was just a game so that he wouldn't get caught by the german officials over there. Some of the elements in that movie were particularly disturbing.

[j. d. worthington]

Originally Posted by MolotovCocktail

I totally agree with you. I find that most horror movies are fairly predictable. But there are some good ones that can give you a good scare, even if they aren't technically horror movies. I remember seeing one that took place in a concentration camp, and the guy had to pretend to his son that it was just a game so that he wouldn't get caught by the german officials over there. Some of the elements in that movie were particularly disturbing.

Are you talking about Life is Beautiful (La Vita è bella)?

Vita è bella, La (1997)

Yes, that's a wonderful film. I can see your point, but I personally wouldn't call it scary in the usual sense, myself; though anything dealing with that particular horror is genuinely terrifying -- not only because it was a real event, but because it would is so terribly easy for us (human beings) to slip back into that madness under another name....

I'll add another one to my list earlier: Fanny and Alexander (Fanny och Alexander; 1982), by Ingmar Bergman. That one subtly slips up on you with the terrors it holds, but it makes what happens inescapable and lifelong... and it ties in so well with the terrors of childhood.

[HardScienceFan]

PLUG PLUG PLUG PLUG PLUG
Tesis,Spanish movie.
Warning: contrary to American traditions in the thriller/horror genre,this one HAS A (VALID)POINT TO MAKE!!!

Plot summary to intrigue you: university student reserches violence in the media,only to discover that perhaps snuff movies are real,and made somewhere in her vicinity.Forget 8 MM,by the way.

[HardScienceFan]

That explains it:Tesis,is by Amenabar(THE OTHERS)

[Winters_Sorrow]

Well the scariest film for me was "The Children of Ravensbeck" or just "The Children" as it was released in the US. Probably helped by the fact that I saw it when I was about 8 or 9. Also maybe because the protagnists were evil, radioactive, indestructible kids who could only be killed by slicing their fingers off and the 'hero' was a school janitor with a scythe!

A more modern one which got to me was the original Ring (or Ringu) which totally freaked me out, especially as the friend who I borrowed it off lent it to me on VHS (the git )

[Bikewer]

Growing up in the 50s as I did, I absorbed all the "big bug" movies of the period, and found them appropriately scary for my 10-year old sensibilities.

Since then, not so much. I guess I don't scare easily....

Scariest film I have seen is On The Beach. Again, growing up as a Cold-War child, the notion of nuclear armageddon was deeply engrained.

The final scene, with the "there is still time, brothers" banner blowing across the empty beach, was pretty affecting.

[Dave]

I also agree that modern slash, blood and gore horror films do nothing for me. I have seen the The Black Cat which was Pyan's nomination. I'd also agree with the original Alien, On The Beach, The Birds and Psycho. Why Mrs Bates!

I do think older films were generally more scary, rather than just being sickening. I would also like to nominate Roger Corman's/Edgar Allen Poe's The Pit and the Pendulum (1961) and The Raven (1963), and also The Exorcist (1973).

But the only film that kept me from sleeping as a child was The Spiral Staircase (1945). I probably shouldn't have been allowed to watch that. However, it has done me no permanent harm, and we all like to be scared.

[mosaix]

Originally Posted by Dave

I also agree that modern slash, blood and gore horror films do nothing for me. I have seen the The Black Cat which was Pyan's nomination. I'd also agree with the original Alien, On The Beach, The Birds and Psycho. Why Mrs Bates!

I do think older films were generally more scary, rather than just being sickening. I would also like to nominate Roger Corman's/Edgar Allen Poe's The Pit and the Pendulum (1961) and The Raven (1963), and also The Exorcist (1973).

But the only film that kept me from sleeping as a child was The Spiral Staircase (1945). I probably shouldn't have been allowed to watch that. However, it has done me no permanent harm, and we all like to be scared.

The Birds bored me to death. I have to say I rhink Hitchcock is largely over-rated.

But I thought that The Raven was excellent not because it was scary but so funny.

[Sibeling]

The scariest movie I've ever seen is The Shining, based on Stephen King's novel. It was so scary I couldn't even watch it to the end, even though I have read the book and I know what is going to be at the end..

[High Eight]

Originally Posted by HappyHippo

aaah. My sister told me about the ending, and I was very glad I'd left. I suppose I just don't like being scared, and I'd rather watch a good musical or rom-com.

It looks like my daughter's inherited the wuss gene; I had to turn the Little Mermaid off, because "the Octopus Lady's too scary". ROFLMBO!

What I like about Seven is that, towards the end, it gets brighter and a lot less gory but much, much more horrible.

It's not so much whole films that scare me but certain scenes or sequences - the bulging door in The Haunting, Hugo the ventriloquist's dummy in Dead of Night, the demon crashing the garden party in Night of the Demon...............

[Sathai]

I scare very easily. I saw The Exorcist when I was a kid, and I still can't watch that movie. Linda Blair freaked me out big time. Poltergeist (the clown especially)and Nightmare on Elm Street are a couple of more that kept me awake when I was a kid.

As for more recent movies, The Ring (when she climbs out of the TV ) and The Grudge scared me a bit.

[The Wanderer]

The Thing - John Carpenter - 1982


also there are a few films with totally hair-raising moments these are moments that drive you into a genuine sort of terror (You can feel your spine being chilled), the end of the Japanese version of the Ring, The scary bit in 'Carnival of Souls' the 62 version, and best of all 'Les Diaboliques' by Clouzot - the last 13 minutes of creeping around in dark corridors and the final confrontation with death in the bathroom, literally drives you up the wall

[that old guy]

Hmm, I'm not sure.

I certainly wasn't scared through the entire movie, but the "nazi dentist" parts of Marathon Man really got to me.

Ditto portions of Jacob's Ladder, and for some odd reason Pink Floyd's The Wall.

Having said that I can sit through a movie like Bloodsucking Freaks and just laugh, as gross as it is.

[the_faery_queen]

the haunting, defitinly. still gives me goosebumps
japenese ring, EVERY time she comes out that tv. goodsebumps again
and don't look now. right at the end. that scares me.
and the shining. it didn't, at first, but i've seen it again recently and it is distburning
so is the wicker man originally. not scarey, but disturbing. very very disturbing.

[kafka]

When I was 12 I saw Candyman at a friends at night. My parents called toward the end of it and told me to come home. I sprinted all the way home.