The Descent
I forgot Mario Bava’s “The Drop of Water” segment in BLACK SABBATH; heart attack inducing.
Probably The Audition and The Ring
Scared the shit out of me
Horror Films I loved:
Evil Dead
mr Sardornicus
Films that Legitimately Scared me:
mulholland drive
the shinning
I’m sorry but Unsolved Mysteries scared the shit outta me like no Movie could
The end of The Shining really freaked me out, every second of the original Dawn of the Dead was grotesque and eerie… I can’t choose just one!
DAMOLA: I’m sorry… I can’t resist. “The Shinning”? You mean from that Simpsons episode?
I think The Exorcist is the scariest.
Jaws scared the crap out of a lot of people at the time.
Deliverance also scared a lot of people. When I came out of the theater, a guy in front of me told his wife, perfectly seriously, that he was going to go home and chop a hole in his canoe.
A Nightmare on Elm Street
The Hills Have Eyes
The Exorcist
Halloween
Suspiria
The Evictors
The shining
The ring
The Exorcist
The mothman profecies, i like it a lot, i remember watching it alone in the night and the scene where “Indrid Cold” talks with Keel, scared the shit out of me. It has many other great scenes.
The first part of Lost Highway, i found it very, very creepy and when he meets the mistery man in the party…
Rec
there’s a lot more, i can’t remember right now
The Thing.
Session 9, the original Ring and The Stone Tape. Musn’t forget Bava’s Kill, Baby….Kill!
Can’t believe the original Texas Chain Saw Massacre hasn’t been mentioned yet…scared me half to death when I saw it. Now, no film scares me, but ones that have come close are The Innocents, Mullholland Dr. and The Blair Witch Project. Oh, and the last ten minutes of [Rec].
salo is a film that leaves nothing to hide behind for me.
Hasta el Viento Tiene MIedo (even the wind is afraid),1968
Blair Witch Project scares the shit out of me
Dark Water (japanese version)
Blue Velvet
Psycho
Creep
Scariest movies would be #1 The Exorcist and #2 The Shining. Nothing to me is scarier than The Exorcist when she comes down the stairs all twisted funny and you hear those freaky piano notes as she descends. The movie just makes you feel terrible while you are watching it. One movie that is neck and neck with The Shining is the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre. That was a freaky movie. Another movie that made me feel ill for a week after I watched it was Suspiria. I kept feeling like maggots were falling from the ceiling on me. Other movies include Alien, Jaws, Psycho, Halloween, Prince of Darkness, The Thing, Zombie, Tenebrae, Trilogy of Terror (with that little brown voodoo doll that comes to life when his necklace breaks), and Blair Witch Project.
Repulsion
No need for me to see it a second time. The scene of Catherine Deneuve eating a raw delicacy while prone on the floor has revisited me many times in the ensuing years. I understand, though, that Criterion has added it to their marvelous catalogue and will be releasing it next month. I guess waiting 45 years before the 2nd viewing should be sufficient.
Don’t Look Now, The Shining, and The Exorcist are pretty chilling.
Romero’s Night of the Living Dead is still tops on my list. When I was younger I, of course, found the sequels to be equally frightening but today the satire and zombie/identification of those later films (as necessary as they may be) dulled a lot of the creepy scare factor.
John Carpenter’s The Thing is also up there. Both still scare me today.
On the flip side, I remember Faces of Death being really frightening when I was a kid but when I bought and viewed the recent Blu-ray release, I found out (sadly) what a load it was!
The original Halloween. Whenever I’m walking alone at night, I picture Michael Myers just standing and looking at me from nearby.
RE: Mayor of Hell.
I agree with the Unsolved Mysteries pick. Everything about that show was creepy and always guaranteed me a night of little sleep after watching it as a child. I used to curse those bast(erds) esp. when they had the bright idea to throw an actual corpse on screen taken from a medical examiner’s photo and ask us if we may know who this person is (or was).
Safe directed by Todd Haynes was pretty scary. I second the people who said the Blair Witch Project.
maybe its because i was 6 the first time i saw it but nothing will ever disturb me the way IT did. Down right hide under the blanket horror. I still cross the street before walking past street drain grates and dont get me started on the sheer creepiness of clowns.
Salo is the scariest movie ever made. Others include Safe (Haynes), The Shining, and Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, because it was so dishonest, evil (comparing Hitler to Darwin and, even worse, doing it with bad editing and lighting), terrible, hateful, and all around vile that it gave me nightmares about how culture seems to be coming to an end and how atrocious the camerawork in that celluloid-thing was.
Possession
texas chainsaw massacre (1974) really scared the shit out of me…kinda messed me up too.
The Exorcist scared me so much I didn’t close my eyes for 48 hours.
Trilogy of Terror Part One with Karen Black scared the piss out of me.
To start, three films in particular, some of which I’ve mentioned here many times before, but since I like scary movies, they are all worth mentioning again:
The Innocents (1961)
The Thing (1982)
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)
And I should point out something that each film has that creates a better creepy atmosphere and sense of dread throughout: sound recording. I challenge any of you out there with your stellar 5.1 Dolby Stereo Surround sound systems to not be impressed by how much their sound effects are a significant element to creeping the hell out of you with these particular movies.
In fact, I had the chance to watch Carpenter’s The Thing last year in a refurbished barn, on a big screen, with full-on surround sound going, late at night and on my own (I was testing things out before a screening the next day). The sound was excellent enough to make me constantly look over my shoulder, wondering what the hell was there, until I realized that it was all coming from the intricacies of the sound recording and sound effects from that film.
And two TV films: Helter Skelter and Salem’s Lot. The glare of Steve Railsback as Manson. Brrr. And either the vampire boy floating and scratching at the window, teeth sharp and bloody, eyes glowing, or actor Geoffrey Lewis sitting in a rocking chair in a darkened room, eyes glowing with evil and hissing: “Look at me, teacher!” Double brrrrrrr!!!
Finally, I’d really highly recommend (as I have here before) the Hammer film, Nightmare (1964). If you’re a fan of horror films, it’s ripe for rediscovery. I only saw it for the first time earlier this year, and was very impressed. You know how you watch a horror film these days and you hear a scream and are almost used to the sound of it? Well, there are a couple of scenes here that yield screams from a character that will damn well make your flesh crawl, they are so piercing and intense. Triple brrrr!!!
Match Point :D
Arturo
audition is a definete favorite
has In A Glass Cage been mentioned? One of the few true horror movies.
one of the creepiest things i’ve ever seen is “The New Arrival” episode of Tales From The Crypt with Zelda Rubinstein where there’s a little girl running around with a white mask. freaked me out when i was a kid.
also scary when i saw it as a kid but not now is The Gate. i still love that movie.