What are the top 10 scariest movies of all time? I'm talkin' modern, contemporary, and even older ... I assume the modern and contemporary ones are scarier though however I couldn't say ...
Gore Verbinski's 2002 remake of The Ring gave me the chills for days after I saw it and it's still a favorite of mine. Surely it makes it somewhere on a scariest movies list.
Like many people here, I think the modern/contemporary movies are a lot less scary, since they tend to rely on special effects and gore rather than setting up tense situations that let the imagination run wild.
I'm hard to scare, but the scariest movie I can think of is THE HAUNTING (1963).
For some reason, The Serpent and the Rainbow scared me more than most movies. Borderland wasn't really that scary, but it left an impression on me and gave me cold chills; probably because it was based on true events and I remember seeing news clips about it when it happened.
I have to agree with ER, THE RING is a masterpiece of creepiness. The only other movie that scared me that much in recent history is JEEPERS CREEPERS. That one majorly freaked me out the first time I watched it.
Honorable mention to SILENT HILL for its surrealistic bizarreness, and the remake of THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE for its shocking brutality.
Alien always had an effect on me.
The Legend of Boggey Creek definitely sets a creepy tone.
Triumph of the Will - a feel good propaganda movie about Adolf Hitler, & the optimistic state of the German economy under his leadership. It's kinda' hard for me to describe the disturbing insight it left me with.
Haven't seen Quarantine yet, but I did see [REC] last week and it's the first movie to freak me the f*ck out since... well... damned if I can remember. You watch a few hundred movies a year and you start to lose track. The original TCM was great too because it relied more on disturbing psychological tricks than gore, like the way the one guy's body twitches after that sick hammer-to-the-head shot, or the way Leatherface pops up out of nowhere and sinks his Stihl inside Franklin's guts. :teddyr:
I still say that the original Ring was creepier than the remake. It's not out of snobbery or anything because it's a remake either, I just think the lower budget, washed out look was more depressing and unsettling. I think the "twisted horror face" makeup was freakier looking too. Something about the remake's makeup looked too clean and professional to me. Again, not a snobbery swipe, I just prefer the not-so-polished look. Seems more twisted and unnatural.
I agree that Ringu was scarier than The Ring. Both were good though.
The Changeling is another genuinely scary movie. It works because the scariness is subtle most of the time. As George C. Scott goes about his business, we are given unsettling signs that he is not alone in the big old house. The ghost is scary by its mere presence. We spend a good deal of time anticipating and dreading, then it very effectively throws us something like the empty wheelchair. The Changeling does with a bouncing ball what other movies fail to do with the best monster and gore effects.
Karma to LilCerberus for citing Triumph of the Will! Never would've thought of it, but, yup, a frightening, disturbing piece of film making.
Somehow finding a clip of it fused to one of my favorite songs made it even more unsettlling:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcX-Xau-XUY&mode=related&search=
TRIUMPH OF THE WILL is scary I suppose, in hindsight. The scariest thing of all might be the exhilirating way it's put together.
I think THE HAUNTING, THE INNOCENTS, THE NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD and TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE are all contenders for scariest...
Quote from: LilCerberus on October 19, 2008, 12:13:41 AM
Alien always had an effect on me.
The Legend of Boggey Creek definitely sets a creepy tone.
Triumph of the Will - a feel good propaganda movie about Adolf Hitler, & the optimistic state of the German economy under his leadership. It's kinda' hard for me to describe the disturbing insight it left me with.
I received Triumph of the Will for my bday last year; it is an interesting look into bizarre times. Funny how reality can be so much scarier than anything ever put out by one's imagination.
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari directed by Robert Weine.
The Beast Within...
The transformation scene still makes Me cringe!
THE LEGEND OF HELL HOUSE deserves a mention here. Totally agree with THE HAUNTING (1963) and TCM (1974). JAWS, PREDATOR, ALIEN, the "Salem's Lot" TV Mini and POLTERGEIST all scared me silly as at some point or another although most of 'em when I was still a youth. One I really love but I rarely see get mentioned on lists like these is the old Amicus film with Cushing and Lee: THE CREEPING FLESH. Actually I find moments in old classics like FORBIDDEN PLANET with the Id Monster and the vegetable monster crashing through the door in THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD quite memorable too. Actually in HALLOWEEN (1978) - another one worth mentioning here, they seemed to pay special tribute to those two.
The 2003 remake of Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Probably because I've never seen the original and had no idea what to expect. I thought it might be a cheesy Friday the 13th type thing. Boy, was I surprised :teddyr:
As far as Poltergeist, I didn't thing it was scary at all, just a lot of fun. However, I suggested watching it to my wife and she was like "no way". I guess it really spooked her.
THE EXORCIST, ROSEMARY'S BABY, and THE OMEN belong here.
So does THE SHINING (1980) IMO. Some really freaky edge of your seat moments in that one.
The Changeling with George C Scott, Session 9, Audition, the original Texas Chainsaw, House By The Cemetery. A couple of the Blind Dead films creep me out. Those costumes just sorta weird me out.
The Haunting (original)
Texas Chainsaw Massacre (original)
Clownhouse
Salem's Lot
Jaws
The Omen
The Mummy (original)
Halloween (original)
Ring (original)
Nightmares In A Damaged Brain
Damn it, don't you just hate having to stress when films are "remakes" or "not the remake" all the time! :hatred: It'll just get worse as the years go on :lookingup:
Yeah, I'd go with The Innocents -- also the silent Nosferatu AND the Werner Herzog sound remake -- that's one damn weird movie --
As a child, the worst thing I ever saw was Kiss of Evil (Hammer) & when I watch it today, echoes of that childhood fear returns . . . brrr.
peter johnson/denny crane
I find supernatural movies scarier than most other movies of the horror genre. Anyway, I just wanted to comment:
JEEPERS CREEPERS - Saw it edited on the CW. I kinda liked it, although I don't think I was scared. The ending was disturbing, though, and made the movie seem rather pointless, until you see 2.
Night of the Living Dead - Since it isn't copyrighted, I got it off the Net. Anyways, I never really got involved in it. (Too much dialogue for my tastes...probably a generational thing there.)
Jaws - A little scary and disturbing. (Did it avoid an R and get an O(riginal)-PG because of the lack of strong swearwords?)
Carnival of Souls (original)
The Ring (original)
The Orphanage.
:teddyr:
Children of the Corn is one that scared me while watching it, then creeped me out afterward. I'm surprised it wasn't mentioned already, or perhaps I was a bit young for it when I watched.
Jaws
John Carpenter's The Thing
Prophecy (shut up, that mutant bear fetus wigs me out)
Isolation (if you haven't yet, go see this right now!)
Spoorloos (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096163/ (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096163/)) freaked me out after I was done watching it. I started thinking, "That could really happen. It probably DID happen, then the guy who did it wrote this screenplay in order to taunt society, so confident is he that he'll never be caught".
Night of the Living Dead had the longest impact on me. At times I still have nightmares of reanimated family, friends and random people attempting to rip the flesh from my bones and eat me alive. Though I still think that conceptually and psychologically it was scary and creepy, I think that this has a lot to do with the age I saw it and what happened after I saw it.
I don't remember how old I was when I first saw it, but I think it was between 4th and 6th grade. I remember that it was on late and my parents said I could not see it. Being a disobedient child I watched it anyway while my parents were asleep. When it was over I was freaking out and looked out the window to see some drunken teenagers shambling out of the forest preserve across from my house. This pushed my young brain into full panic mode and I woke up my parents who of course punished me.
Quote from: ghouck on December 14, 2008, 02:59:15 PM
Children of the Corn is one that scared me while watching it, then creeped me out afterward. I'm surprised it wasn't mentioned already, or perhaps I was a bit young for it when I watched.
It has been a while but I remember this one as being scary too.
I'm with a lot of others here with The HAUNTING,TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE,and the B+W NIGHT of the LIVING DEAD.
Some others that scared me on first veiwing...
.JAWS-When I first saw it in the moviehouse in the seventies...I was a nervous wreck!
.the EXORCIST-I know many people (girls,mostly) who refuse to watch this.
.Mario Bava's KILL,BABY,KILL-One of the creepiest Euro horror ghost stories ever. If you haven't seen it...-HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!!
.NOSFERATU (1922) A dam creepy film. Max Shreck is the stuff of nightmares.
.Bava's BLACK SUNDAY-the masked vampire rising from the grave is still a shocker!
A clip from Bava's KILL,BABY,KILL!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lu3jzMigjbw
I agree with RC on 'Nosferatu'. To some, silent films are an acquired taste, and I can understand that. A lot of the make up (particularly the rouge and lipstick on male actors) is distracting, and the incredible speed at which punches or objects are thrown or dropped often appears clumsy. But in Nosferatu, you are surrounded by desperation, depression, and a fear that is almost palpable. Look at the faces of the townspeople and other extras, and you can't help but notice the similarities to the faces in paintings by Bosch and Bruegel the Elder. Death and darkness follow Orlok, as evidenced by the rats (Black Plague), and the subtle, continuous loss of light.
It's a powerful movie, and requires an attentive viewing to get the whole horrifying story. Murnau was A MASTER!
That guy in the bear suit from The Shining scares the crap out of me, seriously.. That guy is the scariest thing ever.
My vote is EVENT HORIZON!!! That movie ruined me! I used to watch scary movies like nuthin' and I was all like "Man! Scary movies ain't scary!!", but not anymore thanks to this one. I can't even look at Sam Neil anymore without getting scared.
Quote from: darthchicken on December 14, 2008, 10:50:05 PM
That guy in the bear suit from The Shining scares the crap out of me, seriously.. That guy is the scariest thing ever.
Actually, it's a dog suit. That was a WTF moment for me since I first saw the movie in the 80s. I just read the book earlier this year, and I finally understand what that was about. The book left me with a few related questions, but the presence of a man in a dog suit was explained. He had a bit more of a function in King's story.
Can't pick one, sorry.
The Exorcist - Okay, this is going to sound really silly but for some of the film I watched this with the Audio Commentary on. As well as the usual stuff like lights on and making sure the doors are looked. Ask why, I was scared out of my wits.
The Shining - Needs No Comment.
John Carpenter's The Thing - Jump out of your seat terrifying. Rob Bottin's effects are brilliant. The film plays like Agatha Christie's Ten little Indians. All Male Cast. Middle of nowhere. Relentless.
Silence of the Lambs - I always find it funny when people tell me this isn't a horror film. s**t it has two serial killers that's more then most any other horror film out there.
The Exorcism of Emily Rose - Quite honestly this one had me from the start. There's moments within this film where I literally felt trapped within my body unable to move, Speak, look away or even blink.
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre - Just the right amount of Disturbing horror and scares. Goes a bit bat s**t insane at the end but hell can't say I didn't enjoy it.
Alien - I wish they made more films like this. Subtle lingering images of an indescribable creature. Mystery. Shocks. A Great assembly cast. A character for everyone to relate too.
Session 9 - This one's not going to make too many top ten lists. It's quite the little golden nugget. I took a chance on it. So should you.
Pet Semetary - I never expected it to go as far as it did and let me tell you it did. shocking.
The Fly - You know the needle scene in Pulp Fiction (Needles freak me out). Well, I felt like that for almost entire film. it was excruciating to watch but in a weird therapeutic way. My Horror film version of a marathon. I can unofficially tell people i've been through a few marathons.
Frenzy - Shocker for me. As at the time, I had seen almost everything Hitchcock had made. So when I came across this bad boy. I was expecting Hitchcocks usually suspense greatness. What I got was a twisted, dark, dirty, depraved tension filled horror film. There's humor in it, if you can imagine that. it's mostly dry and once the s**t hits the fan Hitch all but puts it away well except for a potato shack and rigamortis.
Black Sabbath - Stylistically Bava is one of the greats IMO and certainly he's made his share of scary films yet this one got to me the most. Each story, three of them to be exact had something gut wrenching in them. The Wurdalak storyline went the mythical route. The Drop of Water was spin-tingling supernatural and Il Telefono was based on a more grounded reality. the circumstance of which most of us have been through, creepy prank calls.
In the Mouth of Madness - People always use the argument that Carpenter is washed up and has been for some time but not to long ago he made this twisted film. If anyone wants to argue nothing ever good came out of of Memoirs of an Invisible (which I liked) you need not look any further then Sam Neil teaming up with Carpenter for the first time. Which then lead to In the Mouth of Madness.
"Salems Lot." When the kid see's his dead friend at the window and let's him in, and he's floating, that was creepy.
The Omen (the original)
Rosemary's Baby
The Shining
The Ring
Quote from: Paquita on December 14, 2008, 11:21:47 PM
My vote is EVENT HORIZON!!! That movie ruined me! I used to watch scary movies like nuthin' and I was all like "Man! Scary movies ain't scary!!", but not anymore thanks to this one. I can't even look at Sam Neil anymore without getting scared.
YOU SEE! YOU SEE!
That movie terrified me and my cousins. I actually wrote a blog about the 10 movies that ruined everyday activities for me... but I won't plug that since it's in the shameless plugs thread.
The big ones for me were though:
House of Wax = first movie that actually scared me as a little kid
Jaws = Ruined horror movies for me. It completely ruined movies for me.
Alligator = One of my favorite movies, but the scene where a kid gets eaten in the swimming pool was too much for 8 year old me to handle.
The Original Texas Chainsaw Massacre is always my pick for the scariest movie/greatest horror film ever made, it's one of the most disturbing, unsettling and creepy horror films ever.
Maniac (1980)
Carnival Of Souls
Black Christmas (original)
Who Can Kill A Child?
Threads
Deep Red
The House With Laughing Windows