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Just sitting here talking to my son about the most frightening film ever. We have agreed that it must be The Exorcist.
What would you say? Give a title and (if you wish) reasons.
I’ll be hiding under the covers, waiting for your responses.
Hard Candy.
Not a horror, but it's the only film which has a scene I simply can't watch.
I couldn’t get Midsomer out of my mind for days afterwards. Long time since a film's done that.
I made the mistake of watching the French & Saunders Exorcist sketch long before watching the film. Didn't find the film that scary after that and I'm a complete wuss.
The Ring
Mini Series rather than a film, but the Haunting of Hill House scared me more than my film I’ve ever seen.
A Serbian Film You've probably never heard of it, I would strongly recommend you never watch it. Read the plot of the film on the Wiki page...That's bad enough
It's got to be a kids film. Labyrinth, The Never Ending Story, or Charlie and the Chocolate Factory even. Who's not had nightmares about Oompa Loompas?
'1408'
It's never mentioned in any lists but I just found it scary, and I was spooked by the woman in black too
On the other hand 'sinister' which was full of jump scares was meh for me
Someone will be along in a minute with the top trump 'a Serbian film' but don't intend ever to see it, plus more disgusting than scary
Agree about the haunting of hill House. Unfortunately the ending was a cop out but the first half of season was great
At a bad point in my life I saw Cronenburg's Videodrome. That really screwed me up for a year or so.
The vanishing
The original dutch version not the hideous Hollywood remake
It's very subjective, for me I wouldn't class a typical horror film as frightening, or even the more recent films like Saw or hostel, which to me are just gratuitous gore and cheesy 'jump' scenes.
I'm a huge lover of 'classic' horror films but they are also not very frightening.
If I really want to be disturbed, and have something to think about, something like crash (2004) would tick the list.. not really a horror but the characters and the drama and it's just a really psychological heavy film.
Or another that really made me think about things, 'unthinkable' a Samuel L Jackson film, that was very hard watching.
Mini Series rather than a film, but the Haunting of Hill House scared me more than my film I’ve ever seen.
I generally agree with you here, but in memory, there are certain decisions made by the director that detracted from it.
I still give it an ‘A’, but it loses the ‘*’.
Not a horror fan as they scare the bejesus out of me. Of those I have watched; has to be
The Ring
The Haunting (1964)
Candyman.
^^^^ I find that I'm desensitised to horror now.
Seen it all before. A bit of suspense is enjoyable but the finale is generally an anti-climax.
Horror worked best when it was an escape from reality. Without a new concept, I find modern horrors rather humdrum.
'It' was good in its day but I find it laughable now.
The less said about the remake then the better. Purely IMHO.
Eden Lake. Because it could happen to any of us. Tomorrow.
Eden lake it’s plausible
Jaws was pretty effective when it first came out.
It’s ultimately subjective at most levels, ie your personal beliefs.
what time of your life you see the film that scared you,
When I was younger (was a massive horror fan) it was The Shining. Couldn’t watch it alone hahah. Same goes for The Haunting (Robert Wise), dated but genuinely horrible and creepy.
Exorcist OTOH I found to be mostly amusing OTT. The Omen I found more disturbing as I could imagine someone being that misanthropic/cold/malignant in real-life. Since confirmed 😬
Nowadays I’d be hard-pressed to be terrified by anything fictional. But if I could find a film that does I’d be thrilled!
The spec was 'frightening'.
Not nesseserilly horror fiction .
Watch crash and unthinkable.
Both top notch films and not horror in the traditional sense.
^^^ Hence my response of 'Hard Candy' 🙂
Yeh sorry @eyestwice
I guess what i was trying to say is gritty modern realistic drama is more frightening than your average 'horror' film. 🙂
My sister took me to see Jaws when I was about 7, I'm still not mad keen on sea swimming. During the video rental heyday me and a pal watched The Shining one Saturday afternoon. As it happened it was mid December and I had to cycle home in the dark and snow, must have been about 11/12. Pedaled the whole way home down the middle of the road.
I'm a total jessie these days, I think I got to the door shaking scene in The Walking Dead before giving a firm 'Nope'
“The others” properly terrified me.
I hate horror films, and I dislike anything that is too nasty because it really upsets me. I avoid them, so I am not qualified to answer your question.
I have however read many 'horror' books because they tend to be about humanity rather than shock and gore. I have seen the Exorcist though and I liked it, because it is much closer to the kind of horror that I have read. It was not particularly scary to me perhaps because I was familiar with that kind of story.
The films that shit me up the most were probably the beginning of Robocop where they shoot the cop, which I saw when I was about 15; and aged about 21 I had to leave the room when Reservoir Dogs was on when they torture the cop. It's not that I particularly love cops, but it's about nasty people being really very nasty indeed for fun.
Wolf Creek. Tense and plausible. I've been stranded in the middle of nowhere in Australia so this true story is all the more chilling.
Has to be The Bloodening
Or failing that, The Ring. Actually, probably The Ring.
I think Alien is up there - a truly scary film is a combination of tension and a bit of gore.
As a kid growing up on an RAF base in the 80s, Threads was pretty frightening to me.
Scaredest I have ever been? Toss up between the ring and Texas chainsaw massacre. The second one more because I was about 12 years old, on my own at home and definitely shouldn't have been watching that shit. Best horror? Exorcist, hands down.
Or another that really made me think about things, ‘unthinkable’ a Samuel L Jackson film, that was very hard watching.
Yep. Posted that in one of the film threads about a month ago. Very disturbing.
I tried to watch Midnight Meat Train recently. I like Clive Barker but the film lost all the subtlety of the story and just threw in gore. Not scary, just unpleasant.
Blair Witch really disturbed me for some reason....couldn't stop thinking about it for ages 🙁
Don't really find films overall frightening, probably the way my brains wired. Yea one or two scenes may make me jump but not frightened.
Blair Witch just bored me to tears and is responsible for every **** with a camcorder thinking they can make a lost footage movie.
I skipped lectures to go and see The Exorcist. I should have stuck to doing the maths. I thought it was dreadful. But I have no belief whatever in religion, demonic possession, or exorcism so it was a bit of a cartoon really. Alien, equally unlikely, but much scarier. However, if we are actually talking disturbing, then Pan's Labyrinth by a mile.
Kill List, truly nasty.
Can't stand Eden Lake, chav porn for the distressed middle classes.
Kill List is a very unpleasant film, brilliant but really unpleasant
Kill List, truly nasty.
if we’re doing ‘nasty’ then there is a near endless list...
‘Funny Games’ (1997 Michael Haneke) jumps to mind
Then there are those mock-docu films such as Cannibal bolox where the line between fiction and really disturbing gets blurred, along with real animal-cruelty, (depicted) rape and some eerily disturbing soundtrack. ‘Video nasty’
+1 for Wolf Creek. Deeply distressing and put me right off going to Australia. A lot of people just disappear in Australia.
The floating kid in Salem’s Lot scared the shit out of me as a kid. As an adult I don’t find any scary.
Not frightening but watching Eraserhead by David Lynch for me was very disturbing. I was a teenager when I first saw this & the image of the deformed baby is stuck in my head....probably forever. Nightmares for me tonight :o)
I’m not keen on films that are just nasty for the sake of it, I don’t see the point as I’m not entertained by them, but I have seen films where there’s been a degree of horror or disquieting scenes, like Alien, or Event Horizon, and the one that disturbed me the most was Pan’s Labyrinth. I never want to see it again, for one particular scene.
Texas chainsaw massacre
Hellraiser
Alien
Snowtown (not a horror but based on reality and utterly hellish)
Kill list
Audition
Not sure it's THE scariest, but Event Horizon has to be up there?
Creep - the London Underground one. Proper old school frights in that one
Event Horizon is great. So much that I keep starting to watch it again on Prime and then only get 10 minutes in.
Because I know what's coming and it will never be as good as when I first watched it.
I don't watch that much horror but Texas Chainsaw Massacre stands out for sheer visceral scariness.
And the fact that it probably defined a sub-genre is to it's credit.
The Exorcist was amazing too.
I do enjoy some of the more knowing, meta horror films, but the ones that really stand out are when they do something new and play it straight.
I agree with the floating kid in Salem’s lot.
My parents made me watch it on a 12 volt tv in a tent, in a thunder storm. I crapped myself.
I still believe in vampires.
When I grow up maybe I will be one
The Vanishing
Arlington Road
Neither “horror”/“jumpy” traditional scary but none the less disturbing in there own way.
First one I thought of has already been mentioned twice!! The Salem's lot floating vampire kid...
A function of my age at the time of watching I'm sure but its the scene that lingers...
Surely it's Jaws?
I saw it when I was ten and have spent the last forty years too scared to go back in the water
Dog Soldiers messed up night rides for me for a while years ago.
Funny games, original haneke one, as above.
Another one to add to the Jaws list here...
Watched it at far too young an age, left me nervous about swimming around the UK coast and terrified of the sea on family hols around the Mediterranean in the mid to late 80s.
The most frightening film will be the one about how the British population tried to survive a virus using 'common sense'.
The Yellow Submarine still gives me recurring nightmares, 40yrs after I saw it.
I ain't afraid of no ghost, but true stories like Wolf Creek and psychological thrillers scare me witless for weeks. I've not watched any for a while, what with randoms turning up at my door (see cctv thread)
Mama Mia was deeply disturbing and caused me significant mental trauma.
Salem's lot scared the living shit out of me when I was a kid. Had dreams that I was a junior floating vampire for years afterwards. Truly menacing. Walked into the casino scene where Jo pesci gets beaten almost to death and and buried alive, whilst on a lot of acid. Not good.
+1 for Salem's Lot - the one with David Soul. Scared the shit out of me when i was a kid. The floating brother at the window with the eyes... Also when he's trying to kill the thing in it's coffin when it suddenly wakes up, again the eyes.
Absolutely agree with Jaws, scarred for life. Can only swim when I can see the ground.
Can’t see the point of horror films, I avoid at pretty much all cost, and don’t think I’ve missed anything.
I've watched a few of the older films mentioned, don't watch that many now, but during lockdown I watched 28 days later which was ok. A couple of weeks later I tried the 2nd one, 28 weeks later, I think it's the only film I've thought f*** this! and stopped watching, the scene where the infected get into the crowd locked in the military base is so gory I had to give up on it!
The Thing 1982. John Carpenter. Fantastically shot horror, not gory as such just really really scary. The husky scene is terrifying. The blood testing scene is even more terrifying. Great film.
Not a fan of modern OTT gorefest horror (unless it's done in a Sam Raimi style) and don't watch a lot of horror generally as my wife isn't a fan at all (Woman In Black proper freaked her out).
So, as an outlier, the one film that has still left an impression on me is The Serpent And The Rainbow. Saw it in the cinema and can't really remember any details of the film, just (still) an overwhelming feeling of claustrophobia, paranoia and sweatiness.
The Thing 1982.
Thingu 2012
I've yet to see it, but Come and See apparently stays with you for a long while after viewing. Anyone seen it?
After watching this I never used a public telephone ever again...
The only film that's given me nightmares is Irréversible. It's not a horror film, but it is horrific - I do not recommend it.
The Yellow Submarine still gives me recurring nightmares
I watched it one Christmas in the dark with all the bright lights on the Christmas tree twinkling away. When it finished I went through to the dining room for tea which was polony, chips and peas with HP sauce. This was some 45 years ago but I still vividly remember feeling really, really sad looking at the drab brown plate of food. Gawd it made me sad 🙁
It's more about your state of mind when you watched it than the actual content. For me, 'The Shining' on a tiny telly in a dark room with a load of nervous teenagers. Even the sudden 'screen going black' moments between the scenes had me jumping out of my skin.
Wierdly I found JFK really scary when I watched it as a teenager, not the film per se but the implication that "dark forces" could do what they wanted, up to killing a president and get away with it. It filled me with a kind of existential dread for a while after.
Alien and The Shining have to be up there though, they a both just brilliantly constructed films with a sense of creeping fear woven into everything in the film from the set design to the music.
Scariest trad horror for me was probably "The Descent" lots of jump scares and a brilliantly scary overall idea.
I don't care for horror/gore, personally. The most disturbing films are those where you can relate to the situational peril or violence. Jaws is one of those films.
Event Horizon terrified me as a young teenager and it's still unsettling.
The original Nightmare on Elm street gave me nightmares but I rewatched it last year and it's laughably bad really.
I believe Hereditary is terrifying but I havent seen it???
La Cabina is a 45 minute thrill ride. Loved it.
Watched Midsommar last night. Made Eden Lake look like an episode of Rainbow. Truly disturbing and frankly awful in places. Loved it.
Funny Games. Both versions are very good and terrifying.
I'm glad everyone is mentioning event horizon. Great film.
Excorcist is great but its not scary. However being able to play tubular bells on the piano is excellent for winding people up in empty theatres.
It’s more about your state of mind when you watched it than the actual content. For me, ‘The Shining’ on a tiny telly in a dark room with a load of nervous teenagers. Even the sudden ‘screen going black’ moments between the scenes had me jumping out of my skin.
There was a fantastic contribution to one of Danny Baker's shows from a listener who was watching it late at night, alone - after enjoying some wacky baccy.
His name was Lloyd and he was severely traumatised by this bit...
Frozen.
I'm struggling to think of many 'scary' films. But I can detach the screen from reality so will feel tense or excited or get jump-scares or what have you, but actually "scared" not so much.
Video games on the other hand... I played the demo of Resident Evil 5 (I think?), you're trying to escape from a creepy old house and there's things like a bedroom full of mannequins, you turn away and turn back and they've moved. The ending I got, I got the back door open and then the maniac in the house grabbed me, I about soiled myself. People play the full game on VR; two words, second word "that."
The other one that gave me the willies was Alien Isolation. Wandering around a derelict spaceship or similar, spent like an hour and a half quietly shitting myself, didn't see a single alien.
Excorcist is great but its not scary. However being able to play tubular bells on the piano is excellent for winding people up in empty theatres.
You take a piano to the cinema?
Another Salems lot vote here.
Also The Road that really preyed on my mind for months for some reason, never watched it since
Yeah video games definitely trump films in their ability to actively scare you.
I had to stop playing "Silent Hill" at one point as it just got too scary and weird
The other one that gave me the willies was Alien Isolation
It loses a bit of it power once you have a more of a handle on the Alien's behavior, but you never feel entirely comfortable. Its definitely the only game where I've ever hidden terrified in a locker.
Chopper
Not really horror, but I remember being very tense for about 1 1/2 hours.