# Are old horror movies still scary? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 12, 2010, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-old-horror-movies-still-scary/539126 "2010-05-12T01:11:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2010, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-old-horror-movies-still-scary/539126/1 "2010-05-12T01:11:43Z")
Inspired by [this post](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=12436995&postcount=18) by **shy guy** in [my ongoing zombie-film thread:](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=562594) > [@](#): > > God knows I love NotLD and have seen it about a hundred times, but it’s just too old to actually be scary. I’m incredibly impressed by the movie and some of its images and ideas are certainly chilling, but the style of acting is just too dated and silly and the special effects are too bad for me to take it seriously enough to be scared by it. Oh, poor jaded fellow . . . ☹ Is it like that across the board? Have all the classic horror films from Universal and Hammer and all, everything that the late Forrest J. Ackerman used to gleefully showcase in [_Famous Monsters of Filmland_](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Famous_Monsters_of_Filmland) (and don’t forget [\*Castle of Frankenstein](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castle_of_frankenstein)),\* everything that scared and thrilled the shit out of young Stephen King as he recounted so wonderfully in [_Danse Macabre,_](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danse_Macabre_(book)) lost their power to awe and terrify? What about the original _Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Halloween, Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm Street?_ Are they also too dated? How new does a frightfilm have to be to do the job any more? ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2010, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-old-horror-movies-still-scary/539126/2 "2010-05-12T01:15:31Z")
The original [Wicker Man](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070917/) still creeps me out no end. ---
**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2010, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-old-horror-movies-still-scary/539126/3 "2010-05-12T01:25:19Z")
When I was a freshman in college (1996/1997) someone in my dorm rented _The Exorcist_ and a bunch of us watched in the dorm lounge together. It freaked the _shit_ out of us. We were all afraid to leave the lounge and go back to our rooms, ha. I watched _Psycho_ by myself in 2005 and it disturbed me quite a bit. It was late by the time the movie was over but I decided to do some household chores with all of the lights on because I could not go straight to bed from that. ---
**Author:** ![KRC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/45deac/32.png) [@KRC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KRC)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2010, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-old-horror-movies-still-scary/539126/4 "2010-05-12T02:04:39Z")
Back in the 90’s I rented The Excorcist after having been assured it was the scariest movie on Earth and grown men lost their lunch at it. My reaction was along the lines of “Yeah, so her head spins and she pukes and talks in a funny language. My birds do that all the time!” Of course it helped that I was quite a bit drunk when I watched the movie. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2010, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-old-horror-movies-still-scary/539126/5 "2010-05-12T02:09:56Z")
> [@Kyla](#): > > When I was a freshman in college (1996/1997) someone in my dorm rented _The Exorcist_ and a bunch of us watched in the dorm lounge together. > > It freaked the _shit_ out of us. We were all afraid to leave the lounge and go back to our rooms, ha. Well, yeah, but it’s always easier to get scared when you’re stoned. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![FordTaurusSHO94](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f07891/32.png) [@FordTaurusSHO94](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FordTaurusSHO94)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2010, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-old-horror-movies-still-scary/539126/6 "2010-05-12T02:30:43Z")
I watched the Exorcist for the first time a couple of years ago and was bored to tears through the whole movie. I’m 27 now. ---
**Author:** ![rogerbox](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/76d3ee/32.png) [@rogerbox](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rogerbox)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2010, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-old-horror-movies-still-scary/539126/7 "2010-05-12T02:36:43Z")
I was very dissapointed with The Excorcist’s distinct lack of scary when I saw it. The only frightening part was the flash to the upclose look at the demon’s face, which was a typical cheap trick…overall it wasn’t scary, though I think if I grew up a catholic and saw it in the 1970’s and hadn’t seen more modern horror movies, it probably would have been terrifying. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2010, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-old-horror-movies-still-scary/539126/8 "2010-05-12T02:49:12Z")
> [@FordTaurusSHO94](#): > > I watched the Exorcist for the first time a couple of years ago and was bored to tears through the whole movie. I’m 27 now. One thing I’ve noticed is that films from the '70s move at a much more deliberate pace than they do now. It’s just something I’ve noticed, but haven’t thought about greatly. So speaking off the cuff, I’m going to guess that the reason is one of two things: Either the filmmakers wanted the audience to _think_ about what was transpiring in an emotional way, or else wanted the audience to be involved in the mystery and try to figure it out. In the former case, I think that maybe they wanted the audience to consider the situation and how they would react. Remember that this was the time of the Ecology Movement. A film might be an allegory, to which the audience is expected to relate. Or by stretching things out, it may have heightened the suspense in audiences of the time. In the latter case, the '70s were a time for detective shows. _The Rockford Files_, _Barnacle Groans_ – I mean _Barnaby Jones_, and others. Mass quantities of exposition allowed the audience to play along. In the case of _The Exorcist_, I think that the intention was to slowly build suspense while presenting a situation that was extremely frightening. It was the style of the time, and it worked well. But _The Exorcist_ is such an iconic film that after nearly four decades of ever-more-graphic horror films it seems slow and a bit quaint. It’s the old story of a film that is being judged by its direct descendants. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2010, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-old-horror-movies-still-scary/539126/9 "2010-05-12T02:52:58Z")
I was scared by the Exorcist, but really old stuff with mummies creaking around or zombies, from the 30s or 40s, leaves me cold. Slow suspense definitely does scare me. Though Psycho didn’t–then again, I had read the book and knew the story, so maybe there’s that. Things that leap out at me scare me but on a basic fright level. After I’ve seen it there’s no real sense of dread. Like, the horrid Robert DeNiro movie Hide and Seek freaked me out when there would be sudden noises/movements but when I think back on it, I think of it as a really silly movie. I still look back on the Exorcist in retrospect as being really scary. And again, suspense and what you don’t see scares me the most. Like the scene in Jurassic Park (the first one) with the raptors stalking the kids in the kitchen. It’s so deliberate and slow that it still gets to me. Or, for a non scary example, the suspense of little Charlie Bucket ripping open his candy bar and finding a golden ticket. I know it’s going to happen but it’s still great suspense each time. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2010, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-old-horror-movies-still-scary/539126/10 "2010-05-12T02:56:06Z")
I think _ **The Haunting** _ holds up very well, half a century after it was made. [Trailer](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xq74oz6mf3w) [_The Haunting_, Part 1 of 13](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQEjjzgdZFQ) ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2010, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-old-horror-movies-still-scary/539126/11 "2010-05-12T03:06:02Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > I think _ **The Haunting** _ holds up very well, half a century after it was made. > > [Trailer](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xq74oz6mf3w) > > [_The Haunting_, Part 1 of 13](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQEjjzgdZFQ) This is one of my all-time favorite movies and I was terrified by it as a child (I literally had nightmares for years after seeing it in the theatre), but my kids don’t think it’s all that scary. They were relatively scared by _Mr. Sardonicus_, though. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2010, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-old-horror-movies-still-scary/539126/12 "2010-05-12T03:17:05Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > I think _ **The Haunting** _ holds up very well, half a century after it was made. > > [Trailer](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xq74oz6mf3w) > > [_The Haunting_, Part 1 of 13](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQEjjzgdZFQ) And it tells the story in such a way that you’re **never sure** whether there’s anything supernatural going on or not. Much like [_Night of the Demon,_](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_of_the_demon) up until the final scene where the demon appears and kills Karswell; and I understand the director actually wanted to leave that out, just show Karswell’s mutilated body on the tracks, and leave the audience to wonder whether he was simply run over by the train. ---
**Author:** ![Palooka](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/palooka/32/2902_2.png) [@Palooka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Palooka)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2010, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-old-horror-movies-still-scary/539126/13 "2010-05-12T03:25:30Z")
Maybe the problem is that every major horror movie has been parodied a dozen times so audiences are desensitized. I don’t particularly believe that though. I think it’s most that old movies in general are ridiculously dated and campy so it’s hard to take them seriously. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2010, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-old-horror-movies-still-scary/539126/14 "2010-05-12T03:56:30Z")
I haven’t watched the **real** oldies for a long time, the ones from the 30’s, but I still get tense at all the same places when I watch _The Haunting_, _The Changeling_, and _Them!_. Same thing happens with some of the newer ones, especially _Pan’s Labyrinth_ and _The Orphanage_. I won’t rewatch _The Mummy_ (the original), because the scene where the mummy takes the woman into the water is just too much. It’s probably the first scary movie I saw that didn’t have a “happy” ending. It was traumatic. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2010, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-old-horror-movies-still-scary/539126/15 "2010-05-12T03:57:33Z")
> [@Palooka](#): > > I think it’s most that old movies in general are ridiculously dated and campy so it’s hard to take them seriously. Kiss your loved ones goodbye. The Cinestapo will be knocking on your door in ten minutes. ---
**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2010, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-old-horror-movies-still-scary/539126/16 "2010-05-12T04:23:27Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Well, yeah, but it’s always easier to get scared when you’re stoned. 😉 We were probably doing college wrong, but we were all totally sober. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Hazle\_Weatherfield](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Hazle\_Weatherfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hazle_Weatherfield)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2010, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-old-horror-movies-still-scary/539126/17 "2010-05-12T04:38:59Z")
The original “Halloween” still does it for me. ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2010, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-old-horror-movies-still-scary/539126/18 "2010-05-12T05:04:36Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Kiss your loved ones goodbye. The Cinestapo will be knocking on your door in ten minutes. Awesome well poisoning there Glutton. Way to make sure that no one will be able to address this without being preemptively dismissed as “Cinestapo.” It’s more fun I guess when only one point of view is presented in a thread, and easier to shut all the others out than to engage them constructively. ---
**Author:** ![FordTaurusSHO94](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f07891/32.png) [@FordTaurusSHO94](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FordTaurusSHO94)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2010, 5:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-old-horror-movies-still-scary/539126/19 "2010-05-12T05:30:33Z")
I just don’t think I get scared when watching a movie. Pan’s Labyrinth made me tense a couple of times, but I was never scared. I think the closest I’ve come to being scared during a movie was the Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake. It wasn’t that it was that scary, but it was the first of the modern torture porn movies that I saw. He would run out, hack off your leg, and then slowly drag you back to his basement to hang you on a hook to wait for him. That tensed me up a bit. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2010, 12:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-old-horror-movies-still-scary/539126/20 "2010-05-12T12:04:47Z")
A couple of years ago I showed Poltergeist to my teenage stepkids, thoroughly modern children who don’t have any interest in things that happened before they were born, and it freaked their shit right out. _Except_ the scene where the guy tears his own face off. The special effects there are so outdated it takes you right out of the movie. It worked on me when I was a kid, but it’s kind of laughable now. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-old-horror-movies-still-scary/539126.md?page=2)