Movies that actually scared somebody
 

     I'm not talking about something jumping out of the bushes unexpectedly. I'm talking about a movie that scares somebody into a fetal position, can't sleep for three days without nightmares stuff.
     The only movie I can think of that qualifies is The Excorcist. I got a copy of that when I was 16 and showed it to the 15 year old son of a holy-roller across the street. He balled up in the corner of the couch and whimpered, "Turn it off" a few times. I found it facinating to watch him, unable to turn away, scared shitless. Amusing too. Anyone else?

"The Ring" (the US version) creeped out my wife to the point where EVEN NOW I can sneak up behind her, whisper "Seven days..." in her ear and watch her leave handprints on the ceiling.

I'm such a giant sissy that I usually avoid movies that I think will scare me. Years ago I sat through a flick called "Jagged Edge." I can't even remember the story, but just hearing the name of it gets my heart beating faster and the hairs on my neck standing up. I remember sitting, terrified yet transfixed, through the final quarter of the movie.

I haven't voluntarily seen a scary movie since.

I love scary movies and rarely find one that's actually able to scare me. Perhaps this is because I started watching them at a young and impressionable age and got desensitized to it.

I certainly look forward to seeing "The Ring" if it's that unsettling. I'll have to make a point of renting it, or seeing it when it hits cable.

I had heard about all of the crowd reactions to seeing "The Exorcist" ... they must have been some seriously unbalanced, nervous people. When I finally saw the movie I enjoyed it, but wasn't horrified, particularly. Years ago I read a psychology journal article about those reactions, but too much time has passed to remember the exact conclusions, except that the author chalked it up to mass hysteria.

I will admit to being scared by one scene in Jaws (I guess I was in Jr. High, or early High School at the time), where Hooper is diving down to the boat that the shark sunk, and the head pops out ... jumped out of my seat! The gotcha factor doesn't go as far nowadays, of course.

I think, though, that I'm more scared by things that I personally find scary ... Like in "The Great Escape", when the tunnel collapses. THAT'S scary, also stunts involving high places.

But Icky Stuff usually doesn't get me that way, beyond making me feel unsettled.

     I just saw The Ring a few days ago. I thought it was good, but it is definitely one of those movies that you have to let suck you in to work. If you don't sink into the movie early on you'll get bored with the end. So definitely turn off the lights (or use low level back lighting, less harmful to your eyes) and tell everyone to shut the hell up.

     Wolf, if you don't mind me asking, what is your religious background? Generally I've found that The Exorcist was designed specifically to target Catholics in particular and the other christian franchise' members to a lesser extent. Being a skeptic and a cynic since I was six, it didn't scare me that much. As I said, my friend that was raised getting religion shoved (one of the Protestant, Baptist maybe?) down his throat was terrified. I grew up going to church, and I found it pretty spooky. Even though neither of us considered ourselves christian at that time.

I'm a recovering Cathaholic. ;)

I thought the Exorcist was pretty lame. I guess that's the expectations of kids these days...

But, one movie that truly scared me (and really the only one that still gets me) is the beginning of <i>When A Stranger Calls</i>... I had never heard the urban legend before and just thinking about it right now makes my eyes water (what happens when I get scared). The rest of the movie sucks, but the beginning is great.

Ok, this is going to sound weird, but Apocalypse Now did it for me when I was about 15-16. I sat and just absorbed the movie, not realy jumping out of the seat or anything, but man, trying to sleep that night...

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas made me feel like I was having a flashback. I had to leave 20 minutes before the end and go sit out in the sun and recover.

Wolf...I yelped when the head appeared but not as loudly as when Jason Vorhees rotting head leaped out of the water in the second last sequence of Friday 13th. I was 13, at the cinema alone, as I was the only kid my age who looked old enough to get in and I had to walk 2 miles home in the dark. Never been scared of a movie since.

atmospheric movies do it for me. the original 'the haunting', 'the others' and movies like that. i think whats more frightening is what you *dont* see. i dont really like it when movies lay it all out, explaining everything. to that end, 'signs' scared the shit out of me. i love watching it, but i never sleep well afterwards.

~james

The last movie that really got under my skin was Alien. The idea of some parasitical creature using your body as a incubation chamber was original and unsettling. They used the old movie trick of not really letting you see the monster clearly until the end and let your imagination fill in the blanks. The film was the first sci-fi flick to really have a "gothic" feel to it. Ridley Scott would go on to repeat that effect quite effectively in Blade Runner.

A LOW budget cult film called the boggy creek monster TOTALY messed my head up fo a few years when i was young ,,, i grew up watching the "friday night fright flicks " ,, wolf man and all the classics ,, but the boggy creek monster just blew me away ,,, oh and we owned and use to go visit some land in upper mississippi , you had to cross a body of water that was called boggy creek , my mom and older sis had the bigest time messing with my head about the boggy creek monster :eek: :eek: :eek:

I remember the Boggy Creek Monster only because the third movie made about it was one of the movies parodied on Mystery Science Theater 3000. A show where the characters sat in a theater and hurled derision and snide remarks at whatever sci-fi B-movie was playing. Consequently I can't help but giggle when I think of it now. If I recall the whole thing was a docudrama set in Arkansas and revolved around trying to reveal the existence of some "Bigfoot" like creature which I believe is known locally as the "Fouke" monster. I think all of the movies are probably available for sale on the internet.

THe sequence in 'the others' where she pushes slightly on teh door and it pushes back a couple of times, then slams in her face made me jump.

My father and brother used to tell me stories about the Fouke monster whenever we would travel through that region. I had completely forgotten about it 'till now!

Here's a link if you want to know more...

http://www.whitington.com/fouke/

Apparently there is more to the legend of Boggy Creek than I thought.:)

me too. the first time i watched it was at my parents house where they have a very nice sound setup. i seriously doubt i would have found the movie as creepy without hearing the sound as it was intended to be heard. the sound in that movie is fantastic.

~james

The last movie that scared the beezus out of me was Event Horizon. I went to the Land of Cheese to visit some friends and we went to the theatre where they had worked before coming to school. There were only about ten of us in the building and they had the music turned WAY up. I was so scared when the astronaut's helmet opens up at the end I actually yelled. Everyone was so afraid after the movie that no one would go the bathroom alone.

Re: Movies that actually scared somebody
 

<i>Scream</i> scared the bejeezus outta me.
But that's because I have a whole healthy little "oh crap the axe murderer is gonna get me" phobia.

As a kid, the only movies that scared me that much were:
<i>The Exorcist</I> (I'm really not sure why - probably because I was roughly Reagan's age when I saw it)
<i>Have You Checked the Children?</i> (I think that's the name - never actually saw it, but heard the whole damn thing because my folks watched it with the volume turned way up)
<i>The Shining</i> (which is where the axe murderer thang first started)

(Did see <i>The Ring</i> and thought some of the images were dang creepy...reminded me a LOT of <i>In Dreams</I>, much to my surpise. Good flicks, both of 'em.)

My scariest movies were Black Christmas aka Silent Night Evil Night 1974 starring Keir Dullea and Margot Kidder coz you never get to see the entity, you just hear it vocalise and shuffle about. The noises it makes are sooo inhuman ... freaked me out completely. The next one was Night Of The Demon aka Curse Of The Demon 1957, b/w movie based on an M.R. James story called Casting The Runes. I feel the title was changed to curse in the US coz that would prolly attract a bigger audience. Next one was The Haunting 1963 ... didn't like the latest one. The Legend Of Hell House 1973 was based on The Haunting and was a darn sight more frightening shot in a documentary style with times and dates. It starred Clive Revill, Gale Hunnicutt and Roddy McDowall. Judith Crist said in 1977 "one of the most absorbing, goose-fleshing and mind-pleasing ghost breaker yarns on film"

On to television now, The Stone Tape is a classic ghost story mixed in with modern technology, something that really does it for me, the more believable it is the more frightening. It starred Jane Asher and Ian Cuthbertson. the script is quite a good read too. The Nightmare Man was a BBC production from 1981. Shot on a Scottish island and made by many of the team responsible for Dr Who during its most frightening period. I always found Sapphire & Steel quite frightening especially the second story which was set in an abandoned railway station and had ghostly wartime travellers appearing and disappearing ... very scary.


Chris.

"Aliens"..."Last House on the Left"...the very last scene in the movie "Carrie"..."The Amityville Horror", before everyone found out it was total fabrication.

Just as a general note, I've always preferred films where the awfulness is inferred, rather than graphically depicted. "The Others" was a modern and very, very well done example of this tradition of horror/suspense which I'd thought had died long ago.

Scariest TV show goes to 'Kolchak: The Night Stalker'. Before 'Friday the 13th' it was one of the few shows or movies in the 70's to add suspense to horror.

I still remember the episode where he is in a hearse in a junkyard trying to lay the zombie to rest. He was almost on top of it when it opened its eyes.

My cousin was outside the picture window directly behind the couch I was sitting on. At that exact moment he tapped on the window. Yep, I still remember that moment.

Thats why I always get the creeps when the Blair Witch Project is aired.:)

Poltergeist 3 scares the crap out of me because of that Preacher, he is just freaky

I would have to second "Signs" and "The Others". After I saw "Signs", I had to keep my feet away from the edge of the bed, afraid there was one of those creatures underneath it. And I am an adult (supposedly).

I saw the Others in the theater on a day when they were having sound malfunctions (it was louder than it should have been). I was there with my burly big brother and he was shaking when we walked out. Not sure if it was the movie or the loudness.

I've procured copies of both versions of "The Ring" so I'm looking forward to watching those. I think I'll watch the US version first since the Japanese version is supposed to be better. Even better, I'll watch ALONE. :-o

Most of the movies already mentioned scared me. It doesn't take much for a scary movie to paralyze me with fear. I kind of enjoy it... so I probably exaggerate it a bit. Hmm... Anyway, I have seen trailers for two new movies that creeped me out. 28 Days Later (nothing's scarier than a zombie) and Godsend. I don't think Godsend is supposed to be a horror film, but there's a scary little boy in it. I take back the zombie line. Nothing's scarier than kids in horror movies. The Shining is probably the worst. Also, those of you that can't look at your tv screen when it's turned off, you should check out Ringu (the original Japanese version of The Ring - Much scarier).

http://www.click-smilies.de/sammlung...smiley-013.gif

I've got to see this...

Man Scared to Death by Horror Movie? :eek:

Re: Movies that actually scared somebody
 

I'm a big old ninny, so most horror movies I REFUSE to watch, but I'll have to agree with you on The Excorcist ("The power of Christ compels you!!" Or something like that). Hell, just reading the BOOK creeped me out! :D

Crossroads

My friend MADE me see it a couple months ago. I wake up from my sleep, screaming sometimes.

It still hurts.

Ha, Ha, Ha! Good one Kate. :thumb:

The Exorcist? I laughed through more than 90% of that movie. I enjoyed it though. I'm sure it was scary at the time it was made, but being a teenager, it was kind of like watching one of those really old (and don't forget corny) sci-fi movies...i.e. Attack of the Radioactive Monkey Octopus.

Now, the most recent scary I've seen is Ghost Ship. It was mildly amusing...especially during one of the opening scenes where the ships passengers and crew get cut in half by a wire. Then, it show the bodies wiggling around on the floor, trying to reach for their legs...who writes this stuff? Anyway, everyone I was watching it with watched with their mouths wide open staring...I busted out laughing. Guess I needed to keep from freaking out? Dunno...u tell me.

Has anyone seen 28 Days yet? That's supposed to be super-freaky, and I want to know before I lay down the $8 to go see it.

28 Days Later
 

Yep, I saw it opening night and again last weekend. It's mostly "jump out" and "bloody face & eyes" scary. And people need to stop calling it a zombie movie. They're not zombies! I enjoyed it... to the point of a stomach ache. It's a little gross in parts but clever too. It will be OK to wait for the DVD, but I prefer seeing everything in the theatre first.

http://www.click-smilies.de/sammlung...smiley-012.gif

Happy Friday, everyone.

Are you guys talking about 28 Days Later... ?

I looked up 28 Days and got a Sandra Bullock movie. I'm so out of it.

28 Days Later looks cool.

I dunno, man ... I thought that Sandra Bullock movie was really scary ...

Well, you can terrify people who have seen it by threatening to show it to them again, but that's not quite the same thing.

I saw and liked 28 Days Later. It's definitely worth watching. The atmosphere in that movie is superbly crafted. Very cool.