It is hard to spook me, and perhaps I should clarify that these films were disturbing to me and effected me in subtleties that is not usually appropriated to the “spooks” that one derives from horror films.
To name a few, Pascal Laugier’s “Martyrs” affected me quite a bit! Wes Craven’s "The Last House on the Left " spooked me upon my first viewing of it years ago. I still find the dinner table scene in Tobe Hooper’s “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” particularly spooky. Other films spook me because I like them too much or am attracted to the ideas behind the horrific instead of being repelled.
Does “Jesus Camp” count? I think that may very well be my number one even though it is not intended to be a horror movie.
I think movies that make you believe that you’ve seen something where you really hadn’t at all are the most spooky. I think the best example of this is Robert Wise’s(I think it’s Robert Wise) The Haunting. I guess movies that deal with gosts and the supernatural and anything with creepy kids. I hate creepy kids. I’ll throw in The Shining(more like a straight up terrifying film), The Innocents, Devils Backbone and The Orphanage.
Carnival of Souls, Paranormal Activity, Blair Witch Project, Halloween (original), Exorcist, Night of the Living Dead
call me old fashioned but rosemary’s baby still creeps me right out. many of my friends think it’s silly and that’s fine. i wish i could laugh! ruth gordon is the most terrifying character in film history! ok, joking. a little
^ they must not have suspended disbelief. boy did they miss out on a paranoid conspiracy pop classic.
I have very little knowledge of horror nor much of a desire to expand said knowledge so I can only think of a few horror film that I ever found spooky. I’ve been distracted with questions like “Why is she going in there?” “Why do none of them look like geologists?” “Why are her tits out?”
Eraserhead definitely spooked me when I first saw it, although I was alone and it was 2:00am.
I thought the original Japanese version of The Grudge was pretty scary at times.
Suspiria had a few genuinely frightening moments for me, even if it was unapologetically over the top.
I do love The Blair Witch Project, though I think that may have to do with the fact that I’ve gone camping a lot in my lifetime and I’m from Maryland and have been to where they filmed the movie.
what’s with being scared by demons and ghouls. it’s just silly tbh. i think i’ve only found 3 movies scary ever and 2 were realistic scary
THE UNKNOWN – the friendzone is some scary shit
THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI – man that somnambulist was a freaky dude
IT – yeah well clowns freak me out so yeah
Ahh, The Unknown was fairly creepy and strange. I think Tod Browning was the best director of really weird subject material. I mean Freaks was pretty fucked up. West of Zazibar is out there too.
Re. “Why are her tits out?”
I ask myself that everytime I watch a horror movie. It’s pretty dammed annoying.
House (1977) – Nobuhiko Obayashi
A piano that eats someone and then their fingers are instantly attached to the keys? Yeah, scary.
Ha, I got to see House in the theatre. That was some wild stuff. So much fun too.
i know it ain’t a horror though three men and a baby still freaks me out with the ghost child’s appearance :O(
Some newish horror that I think is better than people give it credit for:
The Ring (The American Version)
Paranormal Activity
The Descent
2. Night of the Living Dead (the closing scene)
#1. Texas Chainsaw Massacre (whole movie—that’s why it’s still my favorite horror film, an addiction.)
These don’t “spook” me so much as I find them to be the two most effective films in the history of horror cinema.
A film that I don’t care much for (and is a thriller more so than horror) but was one of the rare films to truly disturb me was Jacob’s Ladder.
David Cronenberg’s The Brood is the one that gets me. Especially the ending where you see the little girl has the beginnings of the disease. It will be interesting to see if the remake will have quite the same impact.
Ringu (1998)
Kairo (2001)
Inland Empire (2006)
Inferno (1980)
Don’t Look Now. is just pure dread from start to finish.
Probably the spookiest movie I’ve seen in a bit would be “Let’s Scare Jessica to Death”. By no means a perfect movie, but some seriously, seriously spooky moments within (but won’t spoil them here).
Ah yeah I’ve read comments on IMDb before about that ’Let’s Scare Jessica to Death’ being very scary, I will have to check that one out, thanks for reminding me.
Disturbing atmosphere is, for me, generally more unsettling than just individual “boos” from behind a door.
“The Texas Chainsaw Massacre”
“The Shining”
“Jacob’s Ladder”
“Freaks”
“Carnival of Souls”
John Carpenter’s “The Fog” is very effective in the opening.
Claus is right, atmosphere is everything if you’re going for spooky.
The Blair Witch Project totally spooked me out, although the fact that I live in a wooded area might have had a lot to do with it. Both versions of The Ring are also plenty spooky. The Others and The Orphanage are too, but they’re more subtle.
But the movie that spooked me out more than any other was Nicholas Roeg’s The Witches. First saw it when I was eight, and haven’t been able to bring myself to watch even part of it since. It’s all about the prologue-ish opening sequence, when the girl gets stuck in the painting. Freaked me the fu*k out then, and still gives me little shivers now.
A bunch of them.
Ringu, Dead Birds, REC, The Haunting, Rosemary’s Baby. 2 lesser known ones that still get to me: The Legend of Hell House (The scene where Roddy McDowell screams his head off really gets to me) and the original Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark (Screw you Del Toro, this did not need to be remade).
The Innocents is spooky.
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Blair Witch Project (Although it might be based on the first time I saw it, which was at a younger age), Profondo Rosso and Suspiria.
I guess it’s all about atmosphere for me. It’s pretty hard to get a good scare out me, I think a lot of films ruin some good opportunities because of cheesy dialogue or other flaws. Strong images are important to make it good, like in photography I get scared a lot easier because it doesn’t always come with an explanation.
inland empire, the strangers
REC1 &2 uuuuuuuyy
The Innocents.
I’ll second The Haunting by Robert Wise. Has no one mentioned Takashi Miike’s Audition yet?
Audition isn’t spooky, it’s sick.
“Spooky”, “Sick”—It’s all subjective. Talk about why the film was or was not one or the other for you. Otherwise, who cares?
We want to hear what makes a film for different people, not individual monosyllabic value-judgments. Get into the discussion—that’s where the fun is.
Lucas Davies
Which horror movies have spooked you quite a lot?