Which is the scariest movie in the scary movie canon? (Round 2)

Don't like that I had to cut 12 movies from last time around to get the poll choices to 50. When was that limitation of poll choices imposed?

The Thing. Most scary movies just make me laugh, but this one still unsettles me after repeat viewings.

I think I probably said on the last one that being scared by a film doesn't impress me.

I probably chuntered on about the difference between suspense/jumps and being actually scared in a mid to long term sense. In the latter case, I'd probably go Don't Look Now or possibly Blair Witch.

x-post

comedies that make me laugh are such b.s.

lol

xp: That's a perfectly legit view.

An American Werewolf in London isn't particularly good at all, and it scared me more than pretty much anything on this list.

It has a couple of effective shocks for sure. Also, lots of genuinely scary movies aren't horror movies.

though it's not really a fun type of scary, i'll vote for Audition (because it's not 'fun' scary).

http://api.ning.com/files/7juhZFLXQaSPYVU871JwvgwpZtN3Cdn4ALEcmiFIz6E_/al_gore_valentine.jpg

There's something deeply unsettling about Carnival of Souls which has stayed with me. It got under my skin in the same way David Lynch does. I can see how it wouldn't work for everybody - the major special effect is black eyeshadow, and there are long stretches of not much happening, but still . .

Hmm, I've only seen 23 of these (coincidentally, I just saw Peeping Tom earlier today! Alas, the room I was watching it in got rather too lively up during the second half, so it was a less than optimal viewing experience. Rather good film though)
The ones that I recall being most scared by are ones I stumbled into parts of as a kid, such as when my sister locked me into a room where "Poltergeist" was playing. I recall it being something with an evil clown doll or something. I -have- seen the two first Poltergeist films somewhat recently, but by then I was too old, I fear, and they didn't really work. (Though the preacher visiting the family in the second was a shockingly good scene for such a silly, silly film)
Just saw Audition a few days ago too, and well... I didn't find it to be scary, but it was definitely disturbing. Liked it a lot for the first 2/3rds, but when it was over I somewhat regretted even viewing it. So, definitely horrible (in a non-perjorative sense), but not exactly "scary", I think. Indeed, the only movie that I found "scary" in recent years was (the original) Funny Games. But who knows what makes seemingly random films seem scary while others aren't. I recall being terrified by "The Neverending Story" when I was but a small tyke. I believe it was some rubbish where the Atreyu kid was walking past two sizable totems that generally zapped whoever was unworthy or whatever. Path strew with smoldering corpses and all that.
Also, The Goonies!
Thirdly, the librarian at the beginning of the Ghostbusters film! "Ssh!" That creepy the hell out of me--and I don't mean the flying monster thing she becomes, just the buildup.

Not really sure what to vote for here. This would be easier if it was just "best film". Hm, on reviewing the list, maybe it wouldn't... Went with what I suspect will get the lurker vote, "The Exorcist". A dull choice, I suppose, but it really did freak me the hell out when I was a teenager, and that was the period of my life when I was rather unlikely to do much else than laugh derisively or approvingly at grim and gristly films, without being much affected.

(I thought Possession was was a film based on the Byatt novel. Did I miss something good here? I suppose there must be several films by that title. Is the horror film worth a look?)

I voted Texas Chain Saw Massacre because I remember I had taped it off the television along with a Channel4 Mark Kermode introduction and had watched the intro so many times up until the very beginning just to the van scene, and not even that far into it and it was just like this sacred text by the time I did watch it, I had been so scared by it for so long, so in the end there was fear and fear of fear (has there been a fassbinder poll?) and I was pretty much cold sweat shaking all the way through, I remember how I wasn't just terrified, but so sad when she gets tricked by the guy halfway through.

I voted for the Shining. The first time I actually encountered this movie was while watching Twister as a kid. There's a scene that takes place in a drive-in theater iirc, and you see the little kid cycling through the corridors of the hotel. At the time, I had no clue what that movie was, but the general atmosphere was so creepy that I was genuinely scared. Also, I was rather easily afraid as a child (still am actually, people hate sitting behind me in cinemas because everytime something unexpected happens I jump off my seat). Anyways, I was left with this terrible vision from my childhood that really frightened me. And then, one day, when I was 18 or something, I watched The Shining with my family. I had no idea that that scene that traumatised me as a child came from that movie, but as the movie went on I felt worse and worse until that one scene. And I have to say it still scared the shit out of me. I realise most of the movie is very amusing (bear blow job!!) but I still cannot watch it and not feel damned scared or at least very much ill at ease. So yeah, the Shining wins, mostly because it scarred me for life as a kid.

I'll have to roll this one around upstairs for a while, as I cherish a good horror film more than almost anything in the world. I know there will inevitably be a lot of bitching about missing list entries, but (off the top of my head) here are a few conspicuous ones: The Descent, Wolf Creek, The Changeling, Ringu

I sort of arbitrarily removed all the new ones from the previous draft, even though I think Outer Space is scarier than about four-fifths this list.

I've got a challops here: Ringu and other Japanese horror movies I've found to be majorly overrated. They get huge hype among film critics as being horrifying (I think Peter Travers is the most egregious example of this) and then they are really nothing special. I was all prepared when I watched Ringu to be frightened, and there wasn't a single scary thing in it. (Which isn't to say they don't have other value - but I think their scariness is vastly overstated.)

Whereas I've seen pretty much everything on that list and THE RING (US) was the last movie that genuinely freaked me out. Beyond that I'm with Noodle Vague - BLAIR WITCH was effective as fuck when you saw it the first time and didn't know what was coming. Driving home through the trees that night was creeeeeepy.

Otm. Being a bunch of idiots, after seeing it me and my friends went off to hang out in a forest. That was fun.

Hey! Let's go catch JAWS and go night-surfing!

i guess like other people have said, my "scary" meter tilts most strongly toward movies i saw when i was younger and more easily freaked out. i can still get freaked out by movies. ringu actually did scare me, especially the big payoff scene at the end where she comes out of the tv -- an iconic horror scene, imo. these days i find myself often more affected by things that aren't necessarily horror movies -- like, fires on the plain is by far the most horrific thing i've seen the last few years. anyway, of this list, i say the body snatchers remake, because i saw it when i was 9 or 10 and it scared the fuck out of me. it seriously messed with my sleep for weeks.

(poltergeist was pretty scary too, when i was 12 or 13)

Japanese horrors have the Blair Witch - filmed crappy - aspect to them that often make them seem more realistic.
I might vote Wickerman because Nicolas Cage does such a phenomenal job.

But you took off The Omen, which I would have voted for, so yeah I choose Wickerman.

The Birds is my scary-movie-viewed-young touchstone (age 11 or so), and I'm still kind of creeped out by birds. Turning over a dead bird with a stick a few years earlier and finding the other side teeming with maggots may also contribute to that, however.

I had a friend eat maggots on accident once... they were on his wheat thins or something.
Oh but the coolest thing that happened was that a dead rat spit out of a friend's washer once with the rest of the clothes.

apparently it had been clogged in the cogs for some time

OOOPS when this closes, -1 from audition and +1 to videodrome

p.s. where the fuck is jacob's ladder

Not horror that freaked me the fuck out; Fire Walk With Me.

thing on this list i've seen most recently that scared me was repulsion. fucked up.

Mordy is sitting on a massive wad of twenties about Ringu! Like, I'm pretty sure they get about 72% of their critic lust for being foreign.

ringu actually did scare me, especially the big payoff scene at the end where she comes out of the tv -- an iconic horror scene, imo

OTM I still can't not see it

Even when you know it's coming, it still scares the shit out of you:

That subway entrance scene freaked me out for about ten years.

The movie that scared me was Funny Games US, like I wasn't just scared, I was emotionally exhausted, I think that's a good combination.

I might vote Wickerman because Nicolas Cage does such a phenomenal job.

If this was serious I'm sending it to the Lol of the Month Club.

Funnily enough I was talking to some friends about Ringu/The Ring on Friday night. We all agreed that the Japanese version isn't all that, tho I think it has some neat ideas and scary moments. I haven't seen the US remake but one of my friends also said that he thought it was much better and scarier than the original.

Yeah, I thought that too!

Wait Until Dark only has one scary scene/shot, but it's a doozy.

voted "don't look now"; it's creepy as all hell

"the exorcist" is pretty scary too

I think of Don't Look Now as more of a Tender is the Night/Death in Venice mourning veil.

Its very beautiful but not really scary.

To me it really is scary, voted for Don't Look Now as well (though it was hella close with The Birds). I somehow don't get scared by movies like Exorcist. I guess the archetype scary movie doesn't really scare me, not the 'look behind you! aaaaah!' type anyway. What does scare me is a two hour long scary, dark, disturbed suspense. I spiral down into it's atmosphere. Don't Look Now still does this to me.

God, so many choices.

I voted Sleepaway Camp as it has a special place in my heart, but any list with Candyman, Audition, Night of the Living Dead, and Videodrome is a tough competition.

Scariest (and most relentlessly unpleasant) movie I've seen recently is Wolf Creek. I watched Hostel for the first time about a week later and it was really lame in comparison.

anyone else finding it hard to 'find the demon' when those three red arrows are on the screen in that exorcist vid?

Possibly at 1:49 there's a vaguely human silhouette in the doorway but I don't really get what that vid's about anyway.

Is "Don't Look Now" the one where Donald Southerland is running around in Venezia looking for his lost kid-in-a-red-raincoat?
Uh, i'll up my count to 24 then. That was rather good too. I recall finding it pretty unnerving. In hindsight the ending seems all kinds of ridiculous though, and one of the scenes in the church has created a link in my head between it and _Bringing Up Baby_.

Texas Chain Saw Massacre is hilarious (albeit I saw it first as a middle-aged adult)

I prefer "hysterical" to "hilarious," but yes.

will have to think about this one too, glad to see the lack of new movies which tbh all just look like Slipknot or Squarepusher videos.

The quality ratio of the writing on the Popmatters site is pretty hit or miss, but this is actually very well done IMO: An extensive retrospective honoring the 40th anniversary of Night of the Living Dead

poltergeist, but i was tiny when i saw it

I watched The Strangers over the weekend.

asked my wife if this should be our halloween night horror flick and she said "I can't even make it through the trailer"

IMDB synopsis makes it sound kinda slapstick: "She then runs into the house and hides in the kitchen closet. Then she leaves the closet and runs into the bedroom, she then runs out of the bedroom".

I can't stand that kind of flick where the horror is all in the violence though. I don't find them that scary, just deeply deeply unpleasant. Give me weirdo supernatural shit any day if you really want to fuck me up.

p.s. where the fuck is jacob's ladder

OTM, that scene where he's dancing with the woman and she has a tail...I've been thinking about it all week. Creepy shit.

ding ding ding

doggies u know wut was really scary when i was a kid?

those fucken dinosaurs attack trading cards!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

http://www.headinjurytheater.com/Entertainment/da%20devil%20dinosaur.jpg
http://www.headinjurytheater.com/Entertainment/da%20nightmare%20death%20scary.jpg
http://www.bobheffner.com/dinosaursattack/df28.jpg

http://www.bobheffner.com/dinosaursattack/df24.jpg

shittttttttt

The scariest scene of all time imo (I mean the first one, from the original Korean movie, the other two on the same clip are there just for comparison)

i didn't really see the scariness in this.

most of these movies aren't scary (though most of them are also great). jacob's ladder and eraserhead are the two movies i can think of that really creeped me out

i actually never finished watching eraserhead because it creeped me out too much

Jacob's Ladder is probably still my favorite film of all time.

I really liked the movie of Silent Hill. Very unnerving and atmospheric and when the sirens go off and the town goes into hell-mode, it's like one of those nightmares where you're trying to run away and can't.

I was actually shocked at how much I liked this movie! Lots of it was really silly, but MAN when the town shifted there were some scenes that were just like YIKES (and not even the gonzo gory scenes).

One of my college roommates saw "Eraserhead" 14 times in a row thanks to his obsessive mom.

The Shining? scary? I saw it on opening night w/ my high school buddies, and we all agreed it was Kramer vs Kramer with a hedge maze.

i want more horror movies to go for awesome creepy shit like the haunted ww2 sub movie "below" or the best bits in "candyman" or some of the best j-horror shit. the so-called "torture porn" stuff isn't scary at all. i mean i really like "hostel" but that was as scary as "inside man".

man, I've seen 45 of these. courtesy of being a horror movie addict during my childhood.

ones I think are scary:

Alien - so much effective silence and tension in it, a haunted house in space.

Carnival Of Souls - wins the award for most effective scares per production dollar spent. I'll probably pull the handle for this since no one else will, it's one of my favorite films to boot.

The Exorcist - horror film as sledgehammer, not sure if it has aged well though?

Halloween - carpenter demonstrates how much mileage you can get out of sting cues and a white mask appearing in the frame corners. the murders are not particularly gory but they are violent and disturbing. for some reason the scene that scared me the most as a kid was the insane asylum breakout.

The Last House On The Left - not too scary I guess, but it is my #1 childhood trauma movie. when my uncle took 10-year-old me to a drive-in triple feature of amityville horror/dawn of the dead/last house on the left, it was the latter that freaked me out. I didn't believe in ghosts or zombies but I was aware there were people who actually liked to sadistically kidnap, rape, and murder people.

A Nightmare On Elm Street - some bad acting and 80s oh noes, but the nightmare sequences are spectacular at capturing the heightened confusion of bad dreams. was it the 3rd entry that was good as well?

The Shining - the DVD restorations have been revelatory. if the premise sucks you in this will freak you out but good. morbs, I saw it back in the day too and it somehow seems scarier now than it did then.

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre - manages to be gory, scary, creepy, and disturbing. the documentary-style production values give it realism, while the outlandish set and costume design make it surreal + nightmarish.

inland empire isn't on this list, but the movie is seriously scary, not just in its creepy/jump moments, but in how it conveys the general terror of identity dissolution. the more I think about it the more I want to watch it on halloween.

The Last House On The Left - not too scary I guess, but it is my #1 childhood trauma movie. when my uncle took 10-year-old me to a drive-in triple feature of amityville horror/dawn of the dead/last house on the left, it was the latter that freaked me out. I didn't believe in ghosts or zombies but I was aware there were people who actually liked to sadistically kidnap, rape, and murder people.

That's always scarier, tho.

You know, Devils Rejects was pretty sadistic in this way.

I'm such a big pussy about scary movies -- hate 'em, hardly ever watch 'em. They screw with my dreams and ability to get a good night's sleep. Dates back to the first time I watched Frankenstein, when I was 8 or 9 -- that night, I got wound up in the sheets in my sleep, couldn't move, so I dreamed I was paralyzed in my bed, and the Frankenstein monster appeared in my doorway, totally silent for what seemed like five minutes. Then it took one step forward. Awful.

the weird thing about rob zombie is he somehow makes that style of torture-porn socially acceptable, and you end up identifying with/rooting for the sadists... maybe because his films are so heavily stylized and ironic? whereas if somebody identified with the villains in last house on the left (or tcm) I'd be worried about their mental health. xp to whiney

jacob's ladder frustrated me because the first half was awesome, but once it tried to "explain" what was going on it started losing its footing. supposedly the original cut was 30 minutes longer and it actually was test-screened for audiences, I would've liked to have seen that. I should probably go back and watch it again, I don't think I've seen it since it was in the theatres.

v. true about Zombie.

But also, I mean, I root for the sadists in Hostel since they did such an excellent job of painting the tourists as vulgar d-bags.

I think that's why "Devil's Rejects" and "Hostel" are FUN, and "Last House On The Left" is SCARY.

^ true ^

One of my college roommates saw "Eraserhead" 14 times in a row thanks to his obsessive mom.

do you visit him nowadays at the sanitarium?

eraserhead is the most disturbing PG movie ever made.

IMDB synopsis makes it sound kinda slapstick: "She then runs into the house and hides in the kitchen closet. Then she leaves the closet and runs into the bedroom, she then runs out of the bedroom".

I can't stand that kind of flick where the horror is all in the violence though. I don't find them that scary, just deeply deeply unpleasant. Give me weirdo supernatural shit any day if you really want to fuck me up.

― ledge, Tuesday, October 28, 2008 1:52 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark

I understand how you could get that I idea from the IMDB description, but The Strangers could only be considered "slapstick" if you consider, say, the original Halloween to be slapstick. It's actually a very effective home-invasion thriller. If that isn't your cup of tea, so be it. Personally, while I love "weirdo supernatural shit," it almost always fails to hit me on the visceral level that transgressive sadism/nihilism does. Another perfect example of this, as discussed upthread, is Last House on the Left, which I'm leaning toward voting for at this point.

Question: Have any of you seen Cannibal Holocaust and, if so, how do you think it stacks up against some of these other films scary-wise? I've always been curious to see it, but I don't think I could let myself get past the animal torture stuff.

this is very hard. very.

The scariest movie for me is Open Water, which is more of a scary shark attack film than a horror film. I'm more easily scared by films that are "realistic" as opposed to "supernatural" as I don't generally buy into the latter.
After seeing Open Water, I was convinced that if I ever went diving, snorkling, swimming, or took a long bath, I'd probably end up being eaten bit-by-bit by swarming sharks.

From the list, I'm going with The Exorcist which pretty well creeped me out when I saw it as a pre-teen. Probably wouldn't scare me as much if I went back to it now.

The Shining is a close second for the part with the twin girls and the part where Jack finds the lady in the tub.

Cannibal Holocaust is awesome, but not scary per se. It's another avenging conscience fantasy movie where a bunch of ugly American tourists get what they deserve (through getting eaten). Plus it's part of the whole italian cannibal trend of the 70s, so it sends up the idea of distant tribes as "savages." The "handheld video" aspect of it is pretty creepy tho.

Plus the Riz Ortalani soundtrack is one of the best horror soundtracks of all time.

There's two animal parts and you can close your eyes for both of them (like I do).

I root for the sadists in Hostel since they did such an excellent job of painting the tourists as vulgar d-bags.

So vulgar and douche baggy that they deserve torture and/or death?

Do I have to write a freshman english paper on why horror movies exist for you, Kevin James Bozelka, or can you just find your way out of this thread on your own?

Freshman English paper please.

Although I would've written the question like so: "Do I have to write a freshman english paper for you on why horror movies exist?"

zinged on my own zing.

Cannibal Holocaust is a very underestimated movie, not just because it holds a load of juicy gore and nasty scenes but it's very well made with it's documentary style. The pace is interesting too, as it just gets gradually more and more fucking insane!

Cannibal Holocaust, pretty great

Alan Yates: Oh, good Lord! It's unbelievable. It's horrible. I can't understand the reason for such cruelty. It probably has something to do with some bizarre sexual rage with the almost profound respect these primitives have for virginity.

Hmm, in theory, "Jaws" wins, in that it's still the only reason I'm afraid of getting attacked by sharks. In, like, swimming pools (though I believe that was a gsg used in "Alligator." And "Pirana," also). A couple of those on the lids don't really count as "scary," per se: "Bride of Frankenstein?" Cronenberg's "The Fly?" Love 'em, but nah. And where is "The Descent?" That movie is intense!

Anyway, a lot of these movies (many if not most of which I love) are genuinely creepy or eerie, but not terribly scary.

I'm such a big pussy about scary movies -- hate 'em, hardly ever watch 'em. They screw with my dreams and ability to get a good night's sleep. Dates back to the first time I watched Frankenstein, when I was 8 or 9 -- that night, I got wound up in the sheets in my sleep, couldn't move, so I dreamed I was paralyzed in my bed, and the Frankenstein monster appeared in my doorway, totally silent for what seemed like five minutes. Then it took one step forward. Awful.
― Rock Hardy, Tuesday, 28 October 2008 20:31

have you ever seen spirit of the beehive? could be cathartic... or maybe traumatize you all over again.

I was lending a friend a stack of horror movies yesterday, and I actually wondered whether or not I should give him "Spirit of the Beehive." Definitely spooky stuff. (Also, massively ripped off paid tribute by "Pan's Labyrinth")

inland empire isn't on this list, but the movie is seriously scary, not just in its creepy/jump moments, but in how it conveys the general terror of identity dissolution. the more I think about it the more I want to watch it on halloween.

Yeah, Inland Empire would've been on this list of nominees if I didn't have to pare it down to 50. So would've Cannibal Holocaust. And Pulse. And Jacob's Ladder. Damnit, I suppose I probably should've ditched Baby Jane to make room for at least one of those.

Last House on the Left, which I'm leaning toward voting for at this point.

i think this is what i'm voting for as well. and for similar reasons. the more plausible seeming a moive the more it scares me, if not during the film than certainly after. i was really freaked out by man bites dog for the same reason and that's supposed to be comedy!

I really agree with all those of you who asked about David Lynch movies because while they don't aim for scary (I suppose) they are usually very very unsettling. I remember being terribly scared while watching Mulholland Drive but:
i) i'm a terrible wuss and am scared very easily while watching movies, to the point that I usually upset people sitting behind me in theaters because I'm tall and jump a bit everytime something unexpected happens on screen
ii) I saw that movie at 3am or something in an apartment full of wooden furniture and wood floors and they kept creaking.

The same applies to Inland Empire or Eraserhead or Lost Highway or Blue Velvet. They all scared me. I guess that's what people mean when they talk about a Lynchian atmosphere or whatever, this kind of creepy ambiance that I really can't define or explain.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Didn't realize Audition had stiffed up that far into the upper echelon, but it could have something to do with the fact that I cleared away most of its recently-made competition.

I don't even think Kubrick was trying to make The Shining particularly scary.

The Thing is pretty scary now that I think about it.

To re-poll or not to re-poll ...

Re-poll!

I think the results are pretty solid. Most of the movies that I find unnerving got at least one vote. The only thing I'd add to the list at this point (although I don't particularly agree that it's as scary as it is just kind of vaguely nightmarish) is Inland Empire. The first half of The Descent is legitimately scary, but the second half kind of defuses the first.

Oh, and that Paranormal Activity movie which is currently in extremely limited release is supposed to be, like, terrifying or something.

Yeah, I really want to see that but I'm studiously avoiding reviews/over-enthusiastic blog posts about it lest it fall victim to its own hype.

First version of this poll had Inland Empire in it. If I redux this year, I may take out Shining, Exorcist, et al, for the sake of a new winner.

Jaws 0

That is just crazy.

I imagine some (looking at you Kevin) probably think the vangard horror period stretching from Night of the Living Dead through The Fly remake has been overly venerated to the point of exhaustion, but this documentary is by far the best montage-based argument I've seen in support of treating the genre in this particular time period as some of the most socially-conscious American filmmaking ever.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cniEdq4Jwaw

Rob Nelson's review of the doc