Movies that Actually Scared You

[3mnkids]

Pontypool actually freaked me out, the idea of language being a virus that makes you go crazy and the claustrophobic atmosphere really creeped me out

This comment on youtube sums it up:
Less about Zombies,more about how the public is affected by the media. of how the media report news and influence us, by repeating and repeating until the public repeat it, how the media build moral panics, and how the power of language and ideas can spread like a virus. That mass media spreads its message like a virus, focuses on the bloody and violent, controls and manipulates us creating mass hysteria, brainwashing us until we repeat what they say without having original thought

This is one of my all time favorite movies. I love it and watch it frequently. 

[The Burgomaster]

* The Exorcist
* Jaws
* Invasion of the Body Snatchers

I'm not sure Jaws actually scared me, but it did generate a great deal of nerve-wracking suspense.  I included it on my list anyway.

Honorable mention goes to NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD the first time I saw it.  I was about 12 years old and they were showing it on the old Channel 27 (which I could barely get reception on where I lived in Massachusetts . . . I had to watch it on a 13 inch television in my kitchen and spent a long time adjusting the antenna before I could get even a barely watchable picture . . . I remember sitting with my face about a foot from the screen so I could see what was happening).  It was on late at night, everyone else in the house was in bed, and I was sitting there alone at the kitchen counter watching a snowy picture on a small screen.  That set of circumstances alone is surreal and scary.  I was surprised they showed it uncut, too.  You didn't often see stuff like that on TV in the 1970s.

[Umaril The Unfeathered]

Honorable mention goes to NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD the first time I saw it.  I was about 12 years old and they were showing it on the old Channel 27 (which I could barely get reception on where I lived in Massachusetts . . . I had to watch it on a 13 inch television in my kitchen and spent a long time adjusting the antenna before I could get even a barely watchable picture . . . I remember sitting with my face about a foot from the screen so I could see what was happening).  It was on late at night, everyone else in the house was in bed, and I was sitting there alone at the kitchen counter watching a snowy picture on a small screen.  That set of circumstances alone is surreal and scary.  I was surprised they showed it uncut, too.  You didn't often see stuff like that on TV in the 1970s.

Dude that's a great story.

Like when I was around 11 or 12 and got to see NOTLD on ABC on a warm summer night.  They had the TV broadcast with the words "dramatization" underneath it.  The windows were open and I heard small noises outside, and it started getting on my nerves.

My dad was asleep on the floor as I sat in the living room chair, but it still wan't enough to sway my imagination back into the real world.  What great memories we both have of this great movie!   

[retrorussell]

Pretty much any horror flick scared me when I was younger; I was really squeamish.  But that changed within the past decade and a half or so.  Ocular trauma scenes especially resonated.

As for nowadays, nothing really gets to me.

[10,000 Volt Ghost]

Day of the Triffids creeped me out real bad when I first saw it(5 years old).

Return of the living dead's tar zombie scared me pretty good.

The re-released version of the exorcist that came out in the early 2000's got me when she "Walks down the stairs."

Blair Witch 2. Just because of the plotline.

[Allhallowsday]

CARNIVAL OF SOULS (1962) on a CBS-TV (NY) Sunday afternoon around 1969...
NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (1968) in a late night ABC-TV (NY) showing in the mid '70s...
THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE (1974) in a Midnight movie showing in Morristown, NJ about 1980...

[voltron]

Black Christmas
Carnival Of Souls (NOT THE REMAKE!)
Cronenberg's 70s output is pretty icky as well.

[Umaril The Unfeathered]

As a kid, watching it on WNEW 5's Creature Features there was a film called Invisible Invaders that did me a few scares..

Mostly, it was the scenes when the invaders would show up to inhabit someone's body after they died.  You would see these tracks in the dirt made by invisible feet, as the invader made this raspy breathing sound.  Pretty freaky.

Mario Bava's Black Sabbath. The story called "A Drop Of Water." The look on that dead witch's face...Good Lord!  And when she returns for the ring... double 

[God the Worms]

I actually envy those who have been scared by movies. I am a life long horror buff and there are a few movies where I can say it unnerved me in an entertaining way. Two are Cujo and Little Monsters (the monsters at the end in the playhouse).

However, the only movie that truly scared me as a child wasn't actually scary (in fact one kill in it made me laugh, I am so demented), it was the end that shocked me.

I learned what a transexual was at the age of 7 by watching Sleepaway Camp. When it was over, while screaming at the top of my lungs, I ran to the VCR, took the tape out and threw it across the room.

On a happier note, the kill that made me laugh was the beehive in a bathroom stall.

[Umaril The Unfeathered]

The Evil Dead.  The part where the first girl gets possessed (after she guesses all the cards in the deck) and she's floating in the air with those blank eyes and that demonic voice as she asks why Ash and his friends awakened them.
I think we all got hit by that one 

An obscure classic called House Of The Seven Corpses.  The ending credits and what happens during the whole time..'nuff said.  And the movie itself had a very uneasy feeling to it.

And if I didn't mention The Legend Of Hell House before, THAT was a masterpiece. It was a big boost to the scare factor knowing that a REAL English mansion was used. What a great atmosphere the entire movie had!

[Trekkie313]

Bob Roberts  Gore Vidal and Tim Robbins were  phenomenal. Watching this film nowadays is even scarier because fiction has become a political reality.

[KiwiGirl]

I was actually pretty scared by "The Others" but I think it was one of those situations that I was home alone and it was really stormy outside. Or was it just Nicole Kidman that scared me... hummm..lol