Scary Stuff

[monkeybutlersforall]

A quick question to you all out there before I disappear for a few weeks.

With today's Hollywood film makers seeming to put more emphasis on special effects than genuine tension in their horror movies, I was wondering what was the last film that genuinely scared the shit out of you? Not just made you jump or grossed you out, something that made you turn on all the lights and not want to go to sleep.

For me it was probably Hideo Nakata's original version of The Ring. Something about that movie really unsettled me the first time I watched it.

[Moundshroud]

I'd have to say The Descent.

It's an interesting question... I looked over the list of horror movies that I've rated on IMDB over the past ten years or so to jar my memory. I'd have to say the ones which genuinely scared me the most have almost all been low-budget independent flicks.

The Hollywood movies (and granted, even most Hollywood horror movies are fairly low budget by Hollywood standards) can be fun, entertaining, provide some shocks and gore, but for the most part they rarely succeed at scaring me.

[The Butcher]

The descent didn't scare me as much as it made my stomach turn from the tight spaces. The original version of Pulse creeped me out. I watched it in the dark by myself. CREEPY!!!

[psychobillyjekyll]

This is probably going to sound ridiculous, but The Howling. I first saw it when I was about 8 years old and to this day I am always looking over my shoulder to make sure that nobody is following me. Something in that movie just scares the shit out of me. Hell, even in Iraq, I am paranoid about people I can't see watching me like when TC is watching Bill and Karen from the bush.

[Homicide]

Well to be completely honest it's pretty difficult to recall actually being afraid from a film (not something I'm bragging about, dammit I would love for something to truely frighten me!), but some which made the hair stand up on my neck would be The Orphanage, Audition and the Strangers. All pretty minimalist films when you really think about it but with some real moments of tension, suspense & fear.

[T-1000]

Nothing scares T-1000... Except maybe bad circuit board.

[psychobillyjekyll]

Nothing scares T-1000... Except maybe bad circuit board.

Although he/you did have a great "OH SHIT!!!" face when you ate that 40mm grenade right before you stumbled into the molten steel.

[Moundshroud]

Well to be completely honest it's pretty difficult to recall actually being afraid from a film (not something I'm bragging about, dammit I would love for something to truely frighten me

I haven't truly been pull-the-covers-over-my-head frightened by a film since I was a teen. If that were the case, I'd have to say that An American Werewolf in London or some of the early 80s slasher movies were the last movies to truly "scare" me.

I think most people recognize the difference between film fantasy and reality as they mature. When I say a movie "scares" me these days, it means that it has a creepy atmosphere, effective shocks, and leaves me with a hollow feeling in the pit of my stomach. I never really expect a movie to scare me the way that, for instance, Tarantula or Invasion of the Saucer Men scared the crap out of me when I was a kid watching Dr. Shock's Horror Theater on Saturday afternoons. The "scared" feeling is still there when watching a good scary movie, but it's more internalized these days.

I remember watching the first Scream movie in a crowded theater on the Friday night that it premiered. I was completely surrounded by teens. It was quite a delight to see all the teenage girls literally jumping out of their seats - in a way, I envied them their ability to be so unabashedly frightened by the movie.