I'm yet to find a scary movie, TV dramas generally are not scary no matter how hard they try.
The only things I've ever watched that creeped me out was the famous vampire kid at the window scene from Salems Lot, still creepy but revisiting it it's lost what made it scary, plus I'm not 5 years old anymore that could be a key factor in that equation.
....and believe it or not C.H.U.D. the creatures are quite scary I guess, with the glowing eyes and wotnot, and the bit near the end when they all come to the surface and smash the front of the diner in leaves you thinking, not really scary at all now though......then they ruined it by making the sequel a comedy.
I'm yet to find a scary movie, TV dramas generally are not scary no matter how hard they try.
The only things I've ever watched that creeped me out was the famous vampire kid at the window scene from Salems Lot, still creepy but revisiting it it's lost what made it scary, plus I'm not 5 years old anymore that could be a key factor in that equation.
I go for the more psychologically disturbing stuff. I always thought 'Candyman' was quite unsettling, and 'Haunted' (from James Herbert's book) is a classic English spooky ghost story. But 'The Orphanage' ('El Orphanato') really creeps you out by the end.
Scary movies don't really scare me much either. Some can make me jump but most are pretty predictable.
However, I always found the bit in "American Werewolf in London" where he transforms for the first time in the living room quite scary...don't know why but I did, I was only about 10 when I saw it though.
And, from the same film I think, there's a dream bit (I think it's a dream) in a forest where he's in a bed and all of a sudden his eyes open but they are like an evil colour...think it's the same film??
The script for ET was originally meant to be much darker, and the family were terrorised by aliens... Speilberg re-wrote the script to make it cutsey and used the original script as the basis for poltergeist.
And, from the same film I think, there's a dream bit (I think it's a dream) in a forest where he's in a bed and all of a sudden his eyes open but they are like an evil colour...think it's the same film??
That was the bit that got me too! I could watch undead zombie folks with bits dropping off, and people being ripped to shreds by werewolves, but the minute he opens his eyes in a scary manner I totally freaked...I couldn't sleep for weeks after that (My brother and I were watching it in black&white on a TV in our bedroom when I was only about 7 or 8..)....
That bit from Salem's Lot got me too...
Candyman is one that was quite creepy lately, and Asian horror films, such as The Eye, Ring, etc. are quite freaky too....
A series of films that I feel never gets the credit it's due is Phantasm....properly freaky in bits, and the fact that the guy who made it shot loads of extra footage whilst filming the first one, meaning he was able to use it for previously unseen flashbacks with the same actors in a later film, help give it a surreal, spooky quality missing from other flicks! Four films filled with crazy demon dwarves, metal death balls, explosions and the Tall Man! If these ones don't scare you, you're already dead!! ;)
David Cronenburg film. the death scenes in this are genuinely freaky, but the film as a whole is pretty unsettling as well. would recommend this. scariest music I've heard in a film too...
Evil Dead, when the thing is locked in the basement and the basement door is chained up and she starts talking normal. Tense. Nightmares for months.
The Thing was pretty scary too.
Mind you, I did see these films when I was about 9.
There's not many good scary films made the last 10 years that i've seen. Watched The Fourth Kind a while back, thought it was going to be good, but it was pants.
David Cronenburg film. the death scenes in this are genuinely freaky, but the film as a whole is pretty unsettling as well. would recommend this. scariest music I've heard in a film too...
The first time I saw The Exorcist it scared the crap out of me.
I found The Blair Witch Project quite unnerving.
Seconded.
Believe it or not, I found Texas Chainsaw Massacre to be somewhat unnerving first time I saw that too... sure, it's incredibly silly in places, but it does have a rather heavy atmosphere to it all (or at least it did when I first saw it).
Nowadays, I'm more into "mondo" horror and gorefests than anything else... two faves that spring to mind are Cannibal Holocaust and Faces Of Death, both had some amazingly realistic bits of gore and yet both were made on miniscule budgets.
They sure don't make 'em like they used to. :smile:
+1 for The Changeling, and that effing clown in Poltergeist!
I enjoyed the changeling (which I searched for last year to watch with my dad at Christmas time).
I've seen almost all the movies listed here and I still put Woman in Black at the top of the heap for sheer scaryness and also for shock value. If you haven't seen Woman in Black I highly recommend seeking it out for it still has the power to scare the crap out of everyone I watch it with for the first time. Then they all ask, "how come I haven't heard of this before?". It will be remade next year with Daniel Radcliffe as the protagonist (previous version was a made-for-ITV ghost story).
Nowadays, I'm more into "mondo" horror and gorefests than anything else... two faves that spring to mind are Cannibal Holocaust and Faces Of Death, both had some amazingly realistic bits of gore and yet both were made on miniscule budgets.
They sure don't make 'em like they used to. :smile:
Not scary just totally cringe worthy is the cock chopping scene in Cannibal Holocaust, with the perfect squirt of blood that flies out of the stump!
Not scary just totally cringe worthy is the cock chopping scene in Cannibal Holocaust, with the perfect squirt of blood that flies out of the stump!
Makes me wince just thinking about it :lol:
Yeah, I was a bit shocked when I first saw that bit, and it does still make me go "OUCH" when I see it now. I saw a documentary about the film a while back, and Deodato actually got taken to court to prove that the effects were just effects, and not real. Quality. :grin:
I remember watching and episode of the X-Files where their was this plastic surgery where all doctors and nurses were devil worshipping blood junkies. There was this one scene where they gave a lady liposuction, but then after they drained almost every inch of fat of her (which was scary in its self), the seemingly posessed Drs used the process to sucked her dry of blood so aggressively that the glass canisters that were supposed to hold the sucked out fat exploded from being too full of blood. Plus IIRC the patient woke up half way though and screamed till she went unconscious.
It was a particularly disturbing scene that made my back go cold and for a TV show that's quite difficult to achieve.
Jaws is a great film, not so much for the shocks as for just doing everything right - it's one of those films (like Star Wars) where's it's just as good the 20th time you see it as the 1st.
My parents pulled the same f***ed-up s**t twice when I was younger - letting me watch most of a horror film but then sending me to bed during an ad break at a certain time, before it had finished. This was with both Alien and Jaws, which was not a good way for me to get some sleep that night!
I'm not a major film fan, so I can't really name any not mentioned here. The Ring (Japanese) was eerie, unlike the rubbish American version, and the original Nosferatu (1922 or whatever) must have terrified audiences. The bit Boozey mentions from the TV version of Salem's Lot scared me, as did the Dalek's voices from Doctor Who when I was a kid. The weeping angels were unsettling in Blink! (not so much in the Matt Smith double parter), possible David Tennants best Doctor Who story. Sapphire and Steel had some unsettling moments, and is still unnerving even today, well worth getting on DVD.
Actually, no one mentioned the the British classic Dead of Night, which is very eerie. It's a compilation of a few short horror stories, a format which was quite common for a few decades. Most of these sort of films were quite weak, or even if they were amusing they weren't frightening, but Dead of Night is by far the best. It's dated, in black and white (it's made in about 1946, I think), and some of the stories are weak now, but what makes it stand out from other horror films, even to may horror films who still class it as one of the best horror films ever made, is the overlying story, Usually in compliation horror films, the story that binds the tales together is fairly weak, but in this one it's very good, and the ending is still one of the most frightening scenes in cinema history. Very well recommended.
Come to think of it, the original Psycho would still be very frightening, if you view it the way it was intended, i.e. as the tale of a normal, decent, obviously well brought up young man, who is in actual fact not only an insane murderer, but isn't even aware that he kills anyone. Vampires, Werewolves, giant ants, etc, are all just myths, but violent murderers do exist (albeit very rarely), and the idea that one could be living right next to you, in the guise of a perfectly decent and likeable friend, is terrifying. Of course today's audience would miss that entirely, and see Psycho as just a crap slasher-flick with only one murder ("Rubbish! There's no tits in it", "Only one murder? Crap! You get over three dozen in Zombie Assassins meet Alien Warmongers", "It's not even in colour! I'm not watching black and white. Films have been in colour since the 1980s", etc. Horror films nowadays aren't about the creeping fear and tension that builds up slowly (has to, or it won't work), but instead they're about the in-your-face gore and ever more graphic murders, with characters you don't get to know well enough to are about, or to empathise with. And as a result they're instantly forgettable.
Oh, and one more, and yet again it's black and white. But again, like the above two, the lack of colour actually helps, as it makes the mood more sombre - the brilliant Carnival of Souls. This very low budget film, which if I remember rightly had many actors unpaid as they were friends of the director, should be a cheesy horror film, but it's done so well that it succeeds in unnerving you in the exact same way that modern multi-million dollar films can't even dream of. Another one I'd recommend.
Since we're doing films and TV programs, how about computer games?
I'd say that nothing comes close to Silent Hill (Playstation) and Silent Hill 2 (PS2 and XBox 1). Both very eerie. The original Alien vs. Predator game (1999) on the PC was able to make me jump like no other (except for Doom, PC, 1994, but AvP did it better) but that was sudden shock rather than psychological terror).
Comments
Ummmm, I'm going for...
The Ring (Jap version)
Which is overall pretty scary.
Or for films with great scary moments...
The 1963 version of, The Haunting for that door-slamming bit.
Amitiville 3D for the magnifying glass bit.
'The Changling' with George. C. Scott
'The bells of Astercote' was pretty shivery too, as my distant memory recalls.
The only things I've ever watched that creeped me out was the famous vampire kid at the window scene from Salems Lot, still creepy but revisiting it it's lost what made it scary, plus I'm not 5 years old anymore that could be a key factor in that equation.
....and believe it or not C.H.U.D. the creatures are quite scary I guess, with the glowing eyes and wotnot, and the bit near the end when they all come to the surface and smash the front of the diner in leaves you thinking, not really scary at all now though......then they ruined it by making the sequel a comedy.
Gosh, I last saw that on betamax.
Umm..Superstition (1982)
Yup, what he said... :grin:
The Haunting
Night of the Living dead
Shutter
- IONIAN-GAMES.com -
However, I always found the bit in "American Werewolf in London" where he transforms for the first time in the living room quite scary...don't know why but I did, I was only about 10 when I saw it though.
And, from the same film I think, there's a dream bit (I think it's a dream) in a forest where he's in a bed and all of a sudden his eyes open but they are like an evil colour...think it's the same film??
yeah, even though its quite a bit of a blockbuster, and the start is a little wholesome, that f'ing clown gets me every time.
The script for ET was originally meant to be much darker, and the family were terrorised by aliens... Speilberg re-wrote the script to make it cutsey and used the original script as the basis for poltergeist.
Yeah, I watched that for the first time last year....Proper old-fashioned fear!
That was the bit that got me too! I could watch undead zombie folks with bits dropping off, and people being ripped to shreds by werewolves, but the minute he opens his eyes in a scary manner I totally freaked...I couldn't sleep for weeks after that (My brother and I were watching it in black&white on a TV in our bedroom when I was only about 7 or 8..)....
That bit from Salem's Lot got me too...
Candyman is one that was quite creepy lately, and Asian horror films, such as The Eye, Ring, etc. are quite freaky too....
A series of films that I feel never gets the credit it's due is Phantasm....properly freaky in bits, and the fact that the guy who made it shot loads of extra footage whilst filming the first one, meaning he was able to use it for previously unseen flashbacks with the same actors in a later film, help give it a surreal, spooky quality missing from other flicks! Four films filled with crazy demon dwarves, metal death balls, explosions and the Tall Man! If these ones don't scare you, you're already dead!! ;)
David Cronenburg film. the death scenes in this are genuinely freaky, but the film as a whole is pretty unsettling as well. would recommend this. scariest music I've heard in a film too...
Evil Dead, when the thing is locked in the basement and the basement door is chained up and she starts talking normal. Tense. Nightmares for months.
The Thing was pretty scary too.
Mind you, I did see these films when I was about 9.
There's not many good scary films made the last 10 years that i've seen. Watched The Fourth Kind a while back, thought it was going to be good, but it was pants.
My ZX Art Music Page
Carlos Michelis Theme
aye one of Olli Reeds finest :lol:
The Eye (jap version) and Exorcist III have two of the best jump-out-of-your-seat moments in cinema.
I found The Blair Witch Project quite unnerving.
+1 for The Changeling, and that effing clown in Poltergeist!
Seconded.
Believe it or not, I found Texas Chainsaw Massacre to be somewhat unnerving first time I saw that too... sure, it's incredibly silly in places, but it does have a rather heavy atmosphere to it all (or at least it did when I first saw it).
Nowadays, I'm more into "mondo" horror and gorefests than anything else... two faves that spring to mind are Cannibal Holocaust and Faces Of Death, both had some amazingly realistic bits of gore and yet both were made on miniscule budgets.
They sure don't make 'em like they used to. :smile:
Jaws, when the head fell out of the boat.
Carrie, when the hand comes up from the grave
I enjoyed the changeling (which I searched for last year to watch with my dad at Christmas time).
I've seen almost all the movies listed here and I still put Woman in Black at the top of the heap for sheer scaryness and also for shock value. If you haven't seen Woman in Black I highly recommend seeking it out for it still has the power to scare the crap out of everyone I watch it with for the first time. Then they all ask, "how come I haven't heard of this before?". It will be remade next year with Daniel Radcliffe as the protagonist (previous version was a made-for-ITV ghost story).
Not scary just totally cringe worthy is the cock chopping scene in Cannibal Holocaust, with the perfect squirt of blood that flies out of the stump!
Makes me wince just thinking about it :lol:
Yeah, I was a bit shocked when I first saw that bit, and it does still make me go "OUCH" when I see it now. I saw a documentary about the film a while back, and Deodato actually got taken to court to prove that the effects were just effects, and not real. Quality. :grin:
It was a particularly disturbing scene that made my back go cold and for a TV show that's quite difficult to achieve.
My parents pulled the same f***ed-up s**t twice when I was younger - letting me watch most of a horror film but then sending me to bed during an ad break at a certain time, before it had finished. This was with both Alien and Jaws, which was not a good way for me to get some sleep that night!
- IONIAN-GAMES.com -
One of the most brutal, bizarre scenes in a movie ever.
Actually, no one mentioned the the British classic Dead of Night, which is very eerie. It's a compilation of a few short horror stories, a format which was quite common for a few decades. Most of these sort of films were quite weak, or even if they were amusing they weren't frightening, but Dead of Night is by far the best. It's dated, in black and white (it's made in about 1946, I think), and some of the stories are weak now, but what makes it stand out from other horror films, even to may horror films who still class it as one of the best horror films ever made, is the overlying story, Usually in compliation horror films, the story that binds the tales together is fairly weak, but in this one it's very good, and the ending is still one of the most frightening scenes in cinema history. Very well recommended.
Come to think of it, the original Psycho would still be very frightening, if you view it the way it was intended, i.e. as the tale of a normal, decent, obviously well brought up young man, who is in actual fact not only an insane murderer, but isn't even aware that he kills anyone. Vampires, Werewolves, giant ants, etc, are all just myths, but violent murderers do exist (albeit very rarely), and the idea that one could be living right next to you, in the guise of a perfectly decent and likeable friend, is terrifying. Of course today's audience would miss that entirely, and see Psycho as just a crap slasher-flick with only one murder ("Rubbish! There's no tits in it", "Only one murder? Crap! You get over three dozen in Zombie Assassins meet Alien Warmongers", "It's not even in colour! I'm not watching black and white. Films have been in colour since the 1980s", etc. Horror films nowadays aren't about the creeping fear and tension that builds up slowly (has to, or it won't work), but instead they're about the in-your-face gore and ever more graphic murders, with characters you don't get to know well enough to are about, or to empathise with. And as a result they're instantly forgettable.
Oh, and one more, and yet again it's black and white. But again, like the above two, the lack of colour actually helps, as it makes the mood more sombre - the brilliant Carnival of Souls. This very low budget film, which if I remember rightly had many actors unpaid as they were friends of the director, should be a cheesy horror film, but it's done so well that it succeeds in unnerving you in the exact same way that modern multi-million dollar films can't even dream of. Another one I'd recommend.
Since we're doing films and TV programs, how about computer games?
I'd say that nothing comes close to Silent Hill (Playstation) and Silent Hill 2 (PS2 and XBox 1). Both very eerie. The original Alien vs. Predator game (1999) on the PC was able to make me jump like no other (except for Doom, PC, 1994, but AvP did it better) but that was sudden shock rather than psychological terror).
Edit: forgot to say, this has been asked before:
http://www.worldofspectrum.org/forums/showthread.php?t=8654