Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[KharBevNor]

My vote, hands down, goes to Suspiria.



For the uninitiated, Suspiria is probably italian director Dario Argentos masterpiece (though he's made other excellent films: Tenebrae, Profondo Rosso and Phenomena are my personal favourites). Though some of its effects have dated by now (I'm mainly thinking of the bat), it still looks, sounds and feels like no other film on earth. Literally from the first seconds of the credits the soundtrack, by italian prog rock band Goblin, has you on edge. There are a few seconds of normality as the heroin walks throught the airport, and then, as the doors slide open (with a masterful shot that makes it look like a knife thrust) there is absolutely no doubt until the very end of the film that horrible, horrible things are going to happen and that there is absolutely nothing you can do to stop them. Everything about it, the soundtrack, the old-fashioned technicolour, the cinematography, the sets, every single element is perfectly calculated to instill dread, discomfort and all that jazz. As with all the great horror films, it's the tension that really makes it good, rather than the 'shock' reveals that most horror films nowadays seem to rely on, though it also has some of the most shocking moments in film when that tension breaks (two words: RAZOR WIRE). I can't say anymore without ruining it for those who haven't seen it, but man, watch this film.

What are your scariest horror films? Not best, I want to add: I don't think Suspiria is the best horror film ever made, mainly because of its weak ending. That honour goes to Alien (which is also, in my opinion, the third scariest film ever made, right behind Wes Craven's The Last House on the Left, a film which makes modern entries like Hostel look like a teddy bears picnic.) We can also, maybe, talk about why most horror movies nowadays suck balls on both scales of rating horror films (they are neither scary, nor do they work as insane schlockfests, partly I think because they try to be both and fail abysmally). I also think it has something to do, wierdly enough, with the film literacy of film-makers nowadays. There's too many homages and references (not counting the seemingly endless torrent of remakes). People aren't so much looking into the roots of what really makes good horror: Argentos main sources, for example, were his childhood nightmares (In one interview I saw with him he recalls having to walk down a long corridor with many doors to get to his room as a young child, which scared him shitless, and how that eventually resurfaced in, for example, Suspiria) and research into mutants, insects and other disqueting things.

Anyway, I just wanted to babble. Shoot away people.

[rasufelle]

My top three scariest horror films would probably be, umm...

-Night of the Living Dead
-House
-The Fly

Night of the Living Dead wins out, in my opinion, for several reasons, but the most pressing has to be that George Romero did back in the day something that hasn't been done since: he scared the bejeezus out of everyone who saw the original B&W film with almost no special effects, and for the type of movie an almost inconceivably minimal amount of blood.  I had nightmares for WEEKS after seeing the movie the first time, and I still can't watch it alone.

House, admittedly, gets such a high ranking mostly on the basis that it was the first scary movie I ever sat down and watched, and it really freaked me out.  Then again, I was eight.

[TheBoredOne]

My personal picks are The Haunting (the old version, not the catherine zeta jones version) and the Grudge, when it was in theaters.

I saw the Grudge in theaters twice and it scared the crap out of my twice.
DVD, not so much.

Oh man, I love a good ghost story. To hell with the special effects. I like to be spooked.

[Emaline]

I liked Ju-on better than The Grudge. The first night I watched it, it scared the shit out of me, which could have been because I had not slept, and it was roughly around 4am when I was watching it, and at one point, we inexplicably lost electricity. Scared me shitless.


I watched again later that we and it wasn't to scary.

[Jimmy the Squid]

I think it's Nightmare on Elm Street 3. Simply because I have an ear thing due to the complications in surgeries I've had on my ear. That scene where freddy kills the deaf kid still makes me shudder. I'm not really into horror movies though and I am aware that most people don't consider any of the Nightmare on Elm Street films as part of the horror genre past the first movie. Still, I now have a fear of Freddy Krugar.

[Omnicide]

I think a good horror film tends to be all in the soundtrack- imagine The Shining without the pizzicato or Suspiria without the drums and moans.

I'm going with The Shining- no other film gives me such a lasting disquiet afterwards.

[fish across face]

I'm not a horror fan, so this may be a dumb thread for me to post in, but the movie that scared me most was Nicolas Roeg's Don't Look Now.  Donald Sutherland is great in it. 

I remember going to a party at a friend's flat and he had Suspiria playing on a TV in one room and Eraserhead in another.  Hm.

Generally I find things scarier if they're from the 70s, don't know why.

[Scandanavian War Machine]

i'm gonna go with The Shining simply because of one small scene that haunts me to this day. i don't know why.
the scene where he is walking up a flight of stairs and he gets to the top and looks down the hall to his right and one of the rooms is open and inside is some dude sitting on the edge of a bed and there's a guy in a dog suit sitting at his feet. then they both look over at the camera or stand up or something. it's a really short scene but it's always freaked me out since i was a kid.
also; the naked old lady.

[ampersandwitch]

some dude sitting on the edge of a bed and there's a guy in a dog suit

He was actually totally being fellated by the fellow in the bear suit, I believe it was.
I am still afraid to watch the end of Pi.  It's pretty scary.

[Will]

I'm not really scared by horror movies, at least not in terms of scares that last anywhere past the initial jumpiness I have right when a scene takes place. The movie that gave me absolute bone-chilling nightmares though when I first saw it is Silence Of The Lambs. I can't remember how old I was, but it was shortly after the movie had come out on video. I was't even watching it; I had come out into the living room right as the elevator scene was taking place, but that combined with the part where the one guard is strung up in a crucifix pose gave me nightmares for days.

The shit that really scares me is the more psychological mindfuckery, and not so much the slashiness.

[tomselleck69]

i love suspiria, but i've got trouble actually finding it scary instead of goofy (this applies to all giallo.)

Film has never really SCARED me, but I guess the most frightening/intriguing concept I've ever seen in a film was Shinya Tsukamoto's Haze.

[wm_star]

The Exorcist.  My husband, the horror-lover, says so, and I've never been able to watch it all the way through because I get so freaked out, so I guess it's pretty damn scary.  For evidence, we present the following:

• "Dami, why you leave me?"
• Spider-crawl
• "Fuck me, Jesus!"

Honorable metions:  I agree whole-heartedly with the original The Haunting; Psycho's pretty creepy; The Boston Strangler; The Sadist; the first 30 minutes of the original Dracula.  Can you tell we love the schlock and cult movies? 

[Dimmukane]

Night of the Living Dead, because zombies fucking rule.

[Emaline]

Excuse me for bitching again, but the Exorcist was rather boring. The first time I tried watching it, I fell asleep. The second time I tried watching it, I got so bored, I gave up and went to watch something else.

(Warning: Post gets really long from here, and may contain spoilers. I've bolded what I thought was important, to help you skip through what you don't want to read.)

I really do like horror though. Mostly Japanese, and Korean stuff. Has anyone seen Tale of Two Sisters, 3 Extremes, or Audition? Audition is one of my favorite films. The first time I watched it, it freaked me out. The second time, I was more creeped out. I think this was due to the scene where she is torturing the main character guy. I'm super afraid of needles, so that scene made my skin crawl.

• The last time I watched Tale of Two Sisters, I had nightmares. This could have been because I was drinking a lot that night, though. But the scenes where there are ghosts in the girls rooms creeps me out. I also like this movie a lot because it's one of those films where you have to piece together everything to fully understand what is going on. I like that a lot in any genre of film.
• 3 Extremes is actually a collection of 3 short films by 3 different directors, from three different countries. The three films are (in order)Dumplings, Cut, and Box. I could do without Cut. It's a nice intermission between two good films, but it isn't something I exactly look forward to when watching this movie. Cut is drawn out, and just not the interesting. Dumplings, however, is on of my favorite short films to this day. It has even been made into a feature length film, and released to British theaters, but I don't think it ever made it to American theater. Box is good because of it's surprise ending. It also features a Japanese David Bowie.
• The Eye is another good Asian horror film. It's a Chinese film directed by The Pang Brothers. It's about a girl who gets a cornea transplant and is then able to see ghosts. As corny(no pun intended) as the plot may sound, the movie is actually rather good.

A few American horror films that should be mentioned are May, The Omen, Rosemary's Baby, and The Sentinel.

• The slogan for May was "If you can't find a friend, make one." The film is about a girl who cannot find any friends, and goes insane due to loneliness. She collects body parts and builds herself a friend. I believe she uses her own eye, as well.
• The Omen is a classic. I'm talking about the 1976 version. If you haven't seen it, go rent/buy it now.
• Rosemary's Baby is another classic, though unappreciated. Directed by Roman Polanski, this films stars a very very very cute Mia Farrow. John Cassavetes plays Mia's/Rosemary's husband, Guy, who is an aspiring actor. In order to get ahead in his career, Guy makes a deal with Satan, allowing him to impregnate his Rosemary.
• The Sentinel is a film that has stuck with e for a long time. This film was released in 1977, and I maybe saw it when I was 7-8. I haven't watched this movie in quite a few years(the last time being when I was 10, maybe, which was almost 9 years ago), but I can almost remember ever word, and still even have nightmares containing parts of this film. It's based on a novel by Jeffery Konvitz by the same name(I think). This movie appered as #46 on Bravo's 100 Scariest Films list. I remember one scene that shows a room with all of this extremely obese ladies, sitting around nude. This is the scene that shows up in my nightmares the most. Not that I have anything against large ladies, or think they are scary. It's just that that sceen has stuck in my mind so well. One of the lines in the movie is "Black and white cat, black and white cake," which is said by an older lady, during a birthday party for a black and white cat. This is probably my favorite line in the whole movie. Whenever I see a black and white cat, I always think this.

Now if you wanna go cheesy(though these don't really qualify for scariest movie ever made, they do continue with the discussion of horror), I recommend Jeepers Creppers(both 1 and 2), Near Death 2, Night Of the Living Dead, Return of the Living Dead, and Evil Dead.

• Did anyone really think that any of the Jeepers Creepers films were scary? I mean come on, the guy is a living scarecrow.
• Near Death 2(Yes, 2. Not one) looks as though someone gathered some friends one weekend and said "Hey, lets make a movie". In this film a group of ghost hunters(I think they were) spend the weekend at a bed and breakfast. They believe the family that owns the palce are all zombies/vampires/something in that vein. They fight to survive amongst the living dead, and discover the way this family survives is by eating human flesh. During the feasting scene it is very obvious that what the actors are actually consuming is in fact jello("It's alive!"). One of the best lines through out the whole movie is "I loved you, Now I have to kill you!" which is said by the "slutty blonde" of the movie, to one of the members of the family that she slept with. The whole thing is shot in sepia.
• Night Of The Living Dead(the 1968 classic), while I'm sure this film was/is great for the time it was released and the money spent on it, it is just overly cheesy when compared to today's horror films. This film holds a special place in my heart. I mean, come on, zombies! How I love them. And the tagline is "They Won't Stay Dead!" How sweet is that?
• Return Of The Living Dead is somewhat of a sequel to Night Of The Living Dead, and features at least two totally punk rock characters(Trash, and Suicide are their names, I believe). Trash and Suicide are part of a group of friends who try to fend off zombies after a (not so)freak accident occurs causing the gas which created the zombies in Night Of The Living Dead to come to life. This gas is stored in containers(which also contain dead bodies) at one of our main character's place of work, a medical supply center. I mention this because, in this center they also have these half dogs, that upon being exposed to the gas, come to life. This freaked me out to the utmost degree, because reanimated humans aren't half as freaky as reanimated animals.  Before the group of friends realize whats going on(or perhaps afterwards, and not thinking about the damage it could do), they all decide to be totally punk rock and hang out in a graveyard. This results in one of our punk rock friends(the lady one) dancing atop the car, and taking off all her clothes. I believe this is also the scene where she is killed, though I could be mistaken.
• Evil Dead, Ash/Bruce Cambell, what more can I say? This film is awesome. The whole series is awesome. I love the lines, the acting, all of it. It has even inspired its own musical! A must for any cheesy horror fan.

Oh, how I could go on. I love horror. Of my movie collection, I think I have maybe 2 non-horror ones. Sorry for the extremely long post.

[KharBevNor]

Oh cheesy horror films? Lets do the list:


1: Bad Taste

This film is worth watching because you get to see Peter Jackson scream "EAT MY SPINNING STEEL SHITHEAD!" Then jump right down an aliens throat holding a chainsaw. Also, someone blows up a sheep. Also, it has one of the best theme songs in cinema history. Remember: "Dereks don't run!"
 
2: Brain Dead

Another Peter Jackson film. Classic tale of boy meets girl, boys mother turns into zombie, mother eats girls dog, boy imprisons mother and growing horde of zombies in the cellar and keeps them sedated with animal tranquillisers purchased from an insane nazi vet, boys lecherous uncle throws house party, boy accidentally injects zombies with stimulants, zombies devour guests, boy slaughters zombies with a lawnmower, boy is devoured by his massive bloated demon mother, boy literally hacks his way out of her womb and leaves her to burn, boy and girl live happily ever after.

3: I Bought a Vampire Motorcycle

It's about a guy (Neil Morrisey!) who buys a motorcycle. The motorcycle turns out to be a vampire. It won't run in sunlight, but when night falls it sprouts blades and spikes and roams the streets of Birmingham refuelling on the blood of hells angels, prostitutes and traffic wardens. Blood-draining tubes sprout from its front fork, it can fire off crossbow bolts, its broken head-lamp transforms into a rending broken-glass jaw, it does wheelies and grows scythe blades from its front wheel which it uses to decapitate people, and various other wonderful things. It can also climb walls. After the bike hares off at night (presumed stolen) and is found next morning with a traffic wardens leg clamped in its headlight jaws, Neil Morrisey procures the services of an eccentric catholic priest (Anthony Daniels, aka, C3PO!) who rides to his assistance on his Harley Davidson trike, armed with blessed throwing stars, garlic and stakes. This film also contains one of the best bar brawls committed to celluloid (it begins with a hells angel shooting a crossbow bolt into a pint of Strongbow).

4: The Evil Dead 2: Dead By Dawn

You should know this one.

5: Killer Klowns From Outers Space

It really is all in the title. Insane clowns come from outer space, wrap people up like candy floss and suck out their innards. It really is that simple folks.

Runners up:

Chopper Chicks in Zombie Town: Undertaker resurrects corpses as zombies by implanting batteries in their heads so he can use them as slave labour in his secret uranium mine. Luckily, an all-girl biker gang and some blind children with uzis team up to save the day.

Hard Rock Zombies: Undead rock band must battle Hitler and his werewolf spawn.

Surf Nazis Must Die: Perhaps not strictly a horror movie, but I don't know what the fuck else to call it. This one is best explained by its poster:



Revenant: At the climax of this film, the Bloods, who have been turned into vampires by gang-raping a vampire chick, fight Draculas vampire mafia in a vampire S&M club where people in gimp suits with IVs serve as optics bottles behind the bar. Might be funnier if it wasn't played as a comedy. Still fucking hilarious. Great opening as well.

Beware! Children at Play: Have you ever wanted to see a cannibalistic child get a pitchfork shoved through his neck? Well, I have a film for you...possibly the most pointlessly offensive thing Troma have ever released, and that says a lot.

...and countless others. Really, these are probably the best sort of horror movies.

[TheBoredOne]

I remember Killer Clowns from Outer Space! Haha!

Oh man, what about It?

I'm sure that movie is a source of many a clown phobia.

[Emaline]

I love love love Killer Klowns From Outspace! The theme song is great. It's going to be stuck in my head all day now.



And by all means, my list was not a rating or my absolute favorites(except where noted). It was just a few that popped in my head.



As for cheesy horror, let me go up stairs and look at my collection. I know we have such greats as Attack Of The Killer Tomatoes! and Dead and Breakfast.


Also, it's not really horror, but it's close. Has anyone ever heard of the cheesy sci-fi classic The Lost Skeleton Of Cadavra!?

[Mikagon]

Thae scariest horror movie to me would have to be silent hill. That sounds kind of lame but it just disturbed me to no end and I couldn't sleep properly for weeks.

[Ozymandias]

Night of the Living Dead remains, to this day, the only movie that has ever genuinely scared me. LOVE IT.

[Inlander]

Oh man, what about It?

Any scariness in that film is absolutely squandered by the ending. Oh, I guess I should put one of these here:

SPOILER








Big scary monsters are not scary. Big scary monsters are, with a very few honourable exceptions (mainly the Alien movies and Jaws), usually incredibly lame. Having a creepy as hell clown turn out to just be another generic big scary monster is weak shit. Good horror should be all about suggestion; it should imply terror but rarely show it in the full light of day (which is why the Alien movies and Jaws are largely successful. Well, at least the first couple of Alien movies).

[Emaline]

I disagree. I think the fact that they showed Pennywise made it so much scarier. Remember that scene where he is in the sewer, heckling the kids or something? Yeah, that scared the life out of me for some reason. For years I could go near sewers. I was always so afraid he'd pop out, and pull me in, or I'd fall in and he'd be in there. I was scared of Pennywise.

[Ben yayayayayayayay]

Signs was pretty good until they showed the shitty-looking alien. He looked like Abe from Oddworld basically.

I'm not generally scared by horror films. Probably because the first movie I ever saw was The Exorcist and I must have watched it about 10 times before the age of 5. Now, I'm much more scared from the ideas and questions brought up in a film than the images depicted on-screen.

The Bad Seed (1956), The Omen (1976), and The Nanny (1965) all raise the question "What if your child was a psychotic murderer?", and that's scary cause I don't want my child to be a psychokiller  

2001: A Space Oddysey (1968) made me realize how epicly fucking scary space is. From the possibility of floating away from your ship into nothingness foreverness, to that freaky mind trip upon entering Jupiter (the monolith?), and with that lengthy space sequence where all you could hear was the guy breathing from inside his helmet, I felt small and insecure by the end of the picture.

Off topic: I hate hate hate when a fucking cat jumps across screen or there's a loud bang after a long silence. That shit's cheap and I hate it...hate hate

[TheBoredOne]

6th Sense beats the hell out of Signs.

[Ozymandias]

Signs was pretty good until they showed the shitty-looking alien. He looked like Abe from Oddworld basically.

 

I finally understand why everyone said that the aliens were scary and I wasn't even phased. I was waiting for them to say "follow me!" and then fart.

[Dimmukane]

Crazy horror movies:

Hide and Creep:  2,000$ or so budget, Zombie Lesbians, Zombies Are Afraid of the Dark
The Mad:  A zombie movie with Billy Zane about infected hamburger meat that turns people into zombies.  I wasn't expecting it to be so awesome.
2001 Maniacs:  Confederate Ghosts (led by John Englund) barbecue six roadtrippers.

[I is Grammar]

Oh man.  The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra was fantastic. 

The movie that scared me the worst was The Exorcist III.  It was very low key, but was very atmospheric.  I found it scarier than the first one.  I don't think the second one counts, because that was the one that sent William Peter Blatty into hiding after selling the rights to his novel.  After years of hiding, he came out and wrote Legion, the book on which Exorcist III was based.  It was amazing. 

It scared the hell out of me just because I already had a fear of clowns.  However, the ending ruined it for me. 

A Nightmare on Elm Street was disturbing because of the idea that the things in your nightmares really can get you.  The subsequent movies in the series were crap to me. 





     

[Ben yayayayayayayay]

Castle Freak was pretty scary when I saw it. I was pretty young though, so I don't know how it'd affect me now.

[Emaline]

Oh my god, you guys! Trilogy Of Terror!!! That one is amazing, and scared the shit out of me as a kid.

[Ben yayayayayayayay]

There's a sequel to that in case you didn't know 

[Emaline]

I know, but it's not quite as great as the first one.

[Inlander]

The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra

HAH! See, if this had been a thread about "most awesome horror movies (with an option on spoofs)" I would've mentioned that right away.

I'm kinda shocked that I'm not the only person here who's seen it. As far as I'm aware it screened in Australia at the Melbourne Film Festival a couple of years back, and that was it. Was it bigger overseas?

[Emaline]

I happened to see it while on a date. My date was also a horror/sci fi/cheesy movie freak.

[Inlander]

Did you resist the temptation to make Animala-style "Rawr" noises at your date?

[Ozymandias]

I'm kinda shocked that I'm not the only person here who's seen it. As far as I'm aware it screened in Australia at the Melbourne Film Festival a couple of years back, and that was it. Was it bigger overseas?

It has a pretty good DVD cult following in the states. I just recently showed it to all of my friends, who loved it immensely.

The Trail of the Screaming Forehead premiered this month! It could mean important advances in the field of science.

[Emaline]

Did you resist the temptation to make Animala-style "Rawr" noises at your date?

You know, I just might have. I was pretty wasted. It was one of those "Let's go grab some 40s and watch bad movies" nights.

[Jimmy the Squid]

Brain Dead

You forgot the best line in the whole film: "I kick arse for the Lord!"

[LeeZion]

Since the original question is, "What is the scariest film ever made?" I have to mention these, which have nothing to do with horror.  But the only films that ever truly scared me were NOT horror films.

Savage Nights. Or, in the original French, Les Nuits Fauves. Cyril Collard wrote the script, directed and stars as a man who knows he has AIDS, but sleeps around anyway, telling his male and female conquests only after the fact. One of the many things that made this film truly terrifying was that it was an autobiography — in real life, Cyril Collard had AIDS, and he probably lived what he portrayed on screen. He died a few months after the movie was released. I remember being shaken by this film that after it let out, because this could have happened to me, in one way or another. I called the girl I was dating at the time. But she wasn't in, and I had to go through the whole thing myself.

Safe. According to IMDb, there are several movies with this title. The one I'm talking about is the 1995 film starring Julianne Moore. She plays a woman who becomes extremely sensitive to common houshold chemicals, and her life falls apart. She goes for a perm, and it gives her a nosebleed. She has to carry an oxygen tank with her just to go to the dry cleaners. And it gets worse from there. What made this film horrifying was that it was real — people can and do develop multiple chemical sensitivity — unlike horror movies, where the thing we're supposed to be afraid of can't possibly exist once we leave the theater. The other thing that made the film horrifying is that there's no closure, no triumph, no catharsis. The film just ends.

Me and My Gal. Now how did a Hollywood musical end up on this list? A comedy starring Judy Garland and Gene Kelly? Well, I watched this film a few months ago. There's one scene where one character gets his hand caught in a door, and his fingers get crushed. I watched this film just after seeing a doctor for arthritis pain in my fingers, and the way that particular scene was shot, combined with the very real pain I was in at the time, jolted me way out of my comfort zone. Here I am, a fully grown adult, and for weeks afterward, I was terrified of doors. I would hold my hands close to my chest every time I walked through a door, just to make sure my fingers didn't get caught. Even now, just thinking about it ...

Returning to the horror genre, the best horror films I have seen were more unsettling than scary. The Sixth Sense. The Devil's Backbone. The Butterfly Effect. And The Blair Witch Project. The woman I saw it with, she was terrified — and made physically ill by the constantly moving camera. She couldn't even look, but the sounds got to her. She called it the best horror film she had never seen.

[Emaline]

When I first saw the Blair Witch Project, I was a kid. Maybe ten. I lived near a forest. In fact, it was right behind my house. It scared me, because of a combination of things.

First of all, I watched it at a slumber party with some friends. We were all in the living room. All of the sudden we hear this loud crashing noise, like a lot of glass breaking. We wander into my room to find out that all the shelves in my room have been knocked over. All of my stupid glass knick-knacks(including a fish tank) were destroyed. We had no idea how it could have happened. The door was closed. No one was in there. It had to have been the Blair Witch!(We later found out that someone had shut my cat in there. So, no witch)


Then, we're all trying to sleep. The lights are out, everyone is quiet. The whole house is silent. Except for this sound coming from outside that sounds like someone clapping two stones together(like they heard in the movie). The sounds continues until we make my dad go outside and see what it is. It turned out that it was squirrels throwing acorns on the porch.


So those two things, coupled with the fact that I lived right near a forest and as a kid often played in it, made the movie very scary. When I watch it now though, I tend to laugh at it's horrible cheesiness.

Did anyone play the computer games, though? Those were pretty sweet.

[Ben yayayayayayayay]

When I first saw the Blair Witch Project, I was a kid. Maybe ten. I lived near a forest. In fact, it was right behind my house. It scared me, because of a combination of things.

Whoa! Same for me but I think I was 9.

The night I first saw it, I woke up feeling sick. The kind of sick where you lie in bed just hallucinating crazy shit. I got up out of my bed to get some water and, in the dark corner of my room, I saw a robed figure with what looked like hair covering its face...just staring at me. In the corner of my room. I ran to the light switch and could see that it was only my coat rack. Still, robed figure, corner of room, holy fuck.

And yes I did try to play the games, but my computer froze after only a few minutes in. It had nice lighting though from the little bit I played 

[flippant]

The Shining, mostly because my sister snuck me in to see it in the theater when I was way too young to see such things  and it fucked me up for weeks.  Any other scary movie I've seen since is disturbing but not nearly as  scary, I think maybe if all the shit you have inside is scared out of you at one time, you can't create any more.

then again, that doesn't make since either, since I know I am full of shit.

[CmonMiracle]

Big scary monsters are not scary. Big scary monsters are, with a very few honourable exceptions (mainly the Alien movies and Jaws), usually incredibly lame. Having a creepy as hell clown turn out to just be another generic big scary monster is weak shit. Good horror should be all about suggestion; it should imply terror but rarely show it in the full light of day (which is why the Alien movies and Jaws are largely successful. Well, at least the first couple of Alien movies).

I agree to an extent. Big scary monsters don't really stay with me...I grew up in modern day, in surburbia. That's what scares me, just the suggestion of something weird going on in a picture perfect scene like that...You know, maybe serial killers lurking in their Mom's basement, cooking body parts up and such. Oh, also scary movies in office buildings...everyone's been in an office after everyone has left and the lights are all out. They can be pretty scary, with all the smoked glass windows and just rows and rows of desks. I guess what I'm trying to say is that monsters aren't scary, but mentally deranged people really are, because it's much more plausible.

[Will]

Serial Mom.

[ALoveSupreme]

the scene where he is walking up a flight of stairs and he gets to the top and looks down the hall to his right and one of the rooms is open and inside is some dude sitting on the edge of a bed and there's a guy in a dog suit sitting at his feet. then they both look over at the camera or stand up or something. it's a really short scene but it's always freaked me out since i was a kid.
also; the naked old lady.

That scene always scared the piss out of me, too!!!  I never understood why, but it shot chills.

I haven't seen this one mentioned, but I always thought the Ring was pretty good, and I thought there were a ton of cool shots throughout.  The ending was really weak when the girl came out of the screen, but up to that point, I was fairly creeped out.

[onewheelwizzard]

How has this thread progressed to this point without a single mention of John Carpenter's The Thing?  It's not the scariest movie ever made by any stretch but it's one of the best horror films I've ever seen.  The blood-testing scene is absolutely perfect.

[Cartilage Head]

 David Lynch is pretty much the best "horror" director out there.

[Inlander]

I always thought the Ring was pretty good, and I thought there were a ton of cool shots throughout.  The ending was really weak when the girl came out of the screen, but up to that point, I was fairly creeped out.

Are you talking about the Japanese original, or the American remake? I've only seen the Japanese one, and the bit where the girl came out of the screen was the only bit I found scary. Freaked the shit out of me.

[ALoveSupreme]

I only saw the American one, I wanted to see the Japanese version for a little while after seeing the remake.  I would bet that the execution of that particular scene was just not as good in the US one.

[Blyss]

My mother took me to the movies with her when I was a kid.

At 3 she took me to see Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Yes the original, I'm that old).  And at 5 she took me to see Jaws.

I was terrified at both on a level that was never equaled again.  Though I will say that Halloween 2 scared the bejesus out of me when I was 12.  Michael Myers was a scary MF - period.

As for cheesy - I enjoy them immensely.

[0bsessions]

I've never been outright scared by a movie. I don't watch horror movies often, but a couple times I was scared in the aftermath of watching a movie.

The Ring only scared me due to circumstance. I was working at a Circuit City Express (Basically a mall boutique version of the chain) and the mall was absolutely dead. The assistant manager decided the three of us working should watch the Ring on the big screen at the front of the store. I decided to be a dick and went out back to "go to the bathroom." I called the store with my cell phone to pull the whole "seven days" shit (Which worked a little, as the A.M. didn't know I had a cell phone). My manager was pissed off that I freaked him out so bad, so he elected me for trash duty that night. I get a little freaked out by silence (Part of why I enjoy living in the city) and it was about the most quiet night I'd ever taken trash out on. The problem arose on my way back into the building, walking up the stairs I tripped on a step and before I could catch myself, the ring I wore was knocked off my hand, rolled for a second and then just dropped right in front of me, almost mockingly. Suffice to say, after watching a movie focusing around the line "they say you see the ring before you die," this incident was rather unnerving.

I watched the Grudge for the first time while I had a live-in girlfriend. She was a big fan of horror flicks and talked me into watching it. Later that night, I was woken up by our pitbull growling at something. My girlfriend seemed to be fast asleep and I'd only ever seen our dog growl a handful of times. Then I heard the little gurgling sound from the aforementioned movie and was a bit freaked out for a minute. The girlfriend had set me up bad. She had waited until I went to sleep (I'm a heavy sleeper, but there are a few select things that will wake me up a bit) and started a CD she'd recorded the gurggling sound to and then blew one of those high pitched dog whistles to freak out the dog. She got a good laugh and I discovered that women are conniving beasts. I managed to get vindication when I found out she had an irrational fear of zombies and took advantage of that in the basement of the big-ass hotel she worked in.

[imapiratearg]

Thae scariest horror movie to me would have to be silent hill. That sounds kind of lame but it just disturbed me to no end and I couldn't sleep properly for weeks.

Silent Hill was pretty lame.  Some of the effects were cool, like when the darkness would fall, and that butcher dude, and all the weird stuff would happen.  Also, the treatment of the little girl, and the cult and stuff within the town that brought about Silent Hill's fate was pretty intriguing.  But it really wan't a scary movie.  That's coming from one of the most chicken shit dudes on the planet.

In all honesty, I have yet to see a movie that has scared the shit out of me.  The medium that has scared me the most in the horror genre I think would either be the novel The Amityville Horror or some of the creatures and scenery in Diablo II.  The atmosphere in that game, as well as the setting of Doom 3 creeps me out.  Being stuck on a super high tech space station with demons and shit everywhere, and all the equipment malfunctioning and people turning into zombies.  CREEPY.