Scariest Movies of All Time

Buddy Greenfield said:

I always find it interesting to hear which films scared people.

I had a crazy aunt that took me to see The Exorcist at a midnight show when I was like 9 or 10 (Same year as The Amityville Horror came out), and it scared the F out of me!

After that no movie has seemed scary at all, most just cheap manipulating startles, a few mildly disturbing, and many totally cornball or just plain stupid.

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I TOTALLY agree. (minus the crazy aunt!)
Until I saw Audition, The Exorcist was the scariest movie I'd ever seen....actually, it still is, but Audition left me really creeped out....

Hey! Did anyone see Session 9?
(by the way, I am answering this before reading the whole thread....)


-- spinner

ussinners said:

I find realistic horror (like serial killers killing) much more disturbing then Hostel type horror. It's the pit in the stomach syndrome. This can literally happen to you. That's scary. For me, that's what makes Henry POASK so frightening. There's a scene in the beginning where he's sitting in a mall parking lot. All these women pass, finally he picks one, follows her home. That's terrifying and 1000% true. For me that's horror.

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Again, I agree. Sartre says "...hell is other people..."

I was freaked out by The Strangers. Your house is supposed to be the place where you are safe and sound. The Strangers shot that to hell. Now where do you go? You can't even be home!

I'm more freaked out by criminals. There was this one year where I somehow watched alot of serial killer movies, The Executioner's Song, Deliberate Stranger (bundy), there was something about Gacy, something about the Hillside Stranglers. That was it. Monsters - even Freddy Kruger - are not scary.

Madness is scary, for me the supernatural can be scary because - as with criminals - there's no real logic to why you are chosen.

-- spinner

I just took a look at some of the Toe Tag Productions stuff. Pretty sick...


-- spinner

Sure is

Suspiria is a great one.. creepy 4 sure

I always liked Oliver Stone's THE HAND 1981 and the SCREAMING SKULL.

I was six or seven years old, when my babysitter let me and my older brothers watch "Friday the 13th", on HBO. I peed my pants (literally). Never lived that one down.

That being said, "Halloween" is tops on my list.

My two cents... I agree with the comment above that people 'scare' differently. What I really love is the imagination that shines in some of today's best 'dark' adventure or science-fiction films that get labeled as 'horror'.
Okay, going to show my age here. Last movie to 'scare' me was the original Blob with Steve McQueen, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhyRpvgm03g -- I was eight years old and saw the movie in a theater much like the one that appears in the movie towards the end. LOL. There was even a diner up the street exactly like the one in the final scenes, place was North Canton, Ohio and the year was 1958. Those that know N. Canton (in the 1950's) will remember such locations.
I loved 'horror' as a kid, but for me it has always been more like 'dark' adventure or science-fiction then 'horror', Black Sunday and the Hammer Films... loved 'em. But I was already a non-believer in fairy tales and religious icons (like the devil) by the age of twelve and by the late 1960's I was doing large amounts of LSD and staying over night, alone in supposedly haunted houses... desperately seeking ghosts (I scoff intensely). It was the times. LOL. Exorcist did nothing for me. Most slasher films have me wondering why the victims were so stupid...
True, there are movies that can make me very uncomfortable, like Audition (which is the rare 'torture' film that I do recommend) but most Torture Porn films or films that have rape or molestation (I get angry cause I want to come to the rescue and cannot -- while being forced to watch on a screen -- largely due to the I-hate-torture aspect of my personality)... I still love 'dark' adventure and science-fiction or horror films but gore for the sake of gore is boring...
I guess, it comes down to perspective. And everyone has a different perspective. But the movies on that list... Jaws, Alien are awesome films -- very well done. The Haunting and the low budget Carnival of Souls were clever. Hell House and Rosemary's Baby, the novels is better. Everything else? Not so much... My two cents...

The Exorcist 3 was far more scary than Paranormal Activity

don patterson said:

Last movie to 'scare' me was the original Blob with Steve McQueen, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhyRpvgm03g -- I was eight years old and saw the movie in a theater much like the one that appears in the movie towards the end. LOL. There was even a diner up the street exactly like the one in the final scenes, place was North Canton, Ohio and the year was 1958.

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Don, if you ever head east towards Philadelphia, be sure to stop in Phoenixville PA to see the theater where the original THE BLOB movie was actually filmed! It still stands, still shows films, and the best part -- has a "Blobfest" every summer to commemorate the little claim to fame for this small town (about 10 minutes from my house!) The festival culminates with a re-enactment of the scene where everyone runs out of the theater into the street in a panic!

http://www.thecolonialtheatre.com/about-the-colonial/blobfest/

I agree with The Exorcist and would add The Shining to my list.

Not too many movies actually scare me but something about those twins in the shining really creeped me out and I was very young and terrified by The Exorcist so it's always stuck with me as being THE scariest.

-M

Paranormal Activity was the last movie that really scared me. I didn't like it much as I was watching it, but I had the creeps for hours afterward, so I have to give it props for that.

As far as torture porn and horror, I think there might be a difference, though I have seen so little torture porn (or any form of porn for that matter) to really know. But, from what I have seen, the purpose of torture porn is to satisfy a desire to see people in pain. The purpose of torture in horror films is to satisfy a desire to see people resist and conquer. Saw, Hostel, Hostel 2, Martyrs all focus on people discovering what is truly important to them, what they are capable of.

Also, simply from an artistic point of view, well-done gore (e.g. martyrs vs. friday the 13th part whatever) is an art form. sfx don't spring out of nowhere and they require the same skills that we prize in sculptors and painters. I think people sometimes forget this, and simply see an eye hanging from its socket, without thinking about the work behind creating such an effect. (And in the case of the eye hanging from the socket in hostel, it plays a crucial role in the storytelling and character development, as good gore should.)

As a person who has seen practically every horror movie ever I can safely say this list is disappointing. Anyways my pick for the only movie to ever scare me is the Alien abduction movie. Fire in the Sky. The alien abduction sequence still chills me to this day.

Columbus said:

As a person who has seen practically every horror movie ever I can safely say this list is disappointing. Anyways my pick for the only movie to ever scare me is the Alien abduction movie. Fire in the Sky. The alien abduction sequence still chills me to this day.

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Yeah, that is a very effective sequence; I can replay it in my head still. Too bad the rest of the movie wasn't as strong. I would have liked to see more of the alien aspect, and the longer-term aftermath of their experience.

dar said:

Yeah, that is a very effective sequence; I can replay it in my head still. Too bad the rest of the movie wasn't as strong. I would have liked to see more of the alien aspect, and the longer-term aftermath of their experience.

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That was my major complaint as well. After the horrifying abduction sequence the movie does get boring but man does that sequence live with you.

Here is the sequence for those curious

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzSxzYNfkGA