# being scared by a book or movie **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 1, 2003, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/being-scared-by-a-book-or-movie/204955 "2003-10-01T17:46:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![El\_Elvis\_Rojo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/898d66/32.png) [@El\_Elvis\_Rojo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Elvis_Rojo)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2003, 11:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/being-scared-by-a-book-or-movie/204955/21 "2003-10-02T11:55:07Z")
I’m that friend that creeped out **Fionn** there 🙂 I’d seen **Ring** early that summer, and it scared the hell out of me…made it rather uneasy for me to sleep or sit alone in the apartment for a good while, even after my week was up. The second viewing, I was a little better adjusted, but when I saw **The Ring** all that fear came back. A good sign of a truly great movie. The thing that got me with it, and most others, is the whole “It can come at you at any moment, from anywhere” deal. It doesn’t matter if you’re sleeping, eating in the kitchen, taking a bath, or just watching television or walking the dog…it seems there’s always the possibility that there’s something terrible in the closet, under the bed, or just on the other side of that door that’s going to reveal itself at any moment. It doesn’t necessarily have to be anything supernatural, but those help the most. I remember when I was about 9 or so, I went to visit a friend and caught him in the middle of **Return of the Living Dead**. He turned the movie back on, I watched “Brains” chomp into a guy’s head, and the next thing you know, I’m running back home and suffering from nightmares for the next two weeks, and having reoccurring nightmares of zombies ever since. Now I love zombie movies, but good ones always make me uneasy. That overwhelming sense of dread they create is what gets me, and their ever looming presence. As far as books, I don’t read too much in the way of horror, but Lovecraft always gets my imagination in overdrive, and Clive Barker’s _The Hellbound Heart_ gave me the heeby geebies, but again, it was always the same thing…some unknown terror just waiting in the darkness. _The Blob_\* made me scared of sewer drains for a good while. ---
**Author:** ![Cerri](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3bc359/32.png) [@Cerri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cerri)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2003, 11:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/being-scared-by-a-book-or-movie/204955/22 "2003-10-02T11:58:57Z")
When I was younger, Poltergeist scared the crap out of me. I still can’t watch the scene where the one guy peels off his face to this day, and I’m 32. =p Most recently, the movie that scared the crap out of me the most was The Ring, hands down. Creepiness extrordinaire, I couldn’t bear the dark unless I was already in bed for a good two weeks. ---
**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:** [October 2, 2003, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/being-scared-by-a-book-or-movie/204955/23 "2003-10-02T12:05:56Z")
**Yookeroo** , Salem’s Lot was one I was going to mention, too! Of course, I was a young teen at the time. Another book I read around that age that bothered me was The Amityville Horror. I had to get up in the middle of the night and shut that book up in the bathroom so I could get some sleep. Movies don’t usually work for me as well because they try to get at you with gore. It may disgust me, but it’s not scary. ---
**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:** [October 2, 2003, 12:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/being-scared-by-a-book-or-movie/204955/24 "2003-10-02T12:08:06Z")
Oh, _Poltergeist!_ How could I have forgotten such a great movie? It was the clown scene that really got me, and it still scares me when I see it now. ---
**Author:** ![inaudible](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e495f1/32.png) [@inaudible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/inaudible)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2003, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/being-scared-by-a-book-or-movie/204955/25 "2003-10-02T12:42:19Z")
I recently finished reading American Psycho. Didn’t scare me, but actually had me almost to vomiting point several times. Excellent book 😃 I’ve never actually been scared reading a book or watching a movie. As a child I was scared of Freddy Kruger. But only cos Dad used to dress up as him and scare me. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2003, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/being-scared-by-a-book-or-movie/204955/26 "2003-10-02T13:04:29Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by fruitbat \* > \*\*3. The Blair Witch Project - It has become fashionable to hate this movie. To those people I say pshaw!. . \*\* I’m with you, brother. I found it very scary. My roommate used to actually make fun of me because I found it scary. ---
**Author:** ![manx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/65b543/32.png) [@manx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/manx)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2003, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/being-scared-by-a-book-or-movie/204955/27 "2003-10-02T13:25:41Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by inaudible \* > \*\*I recently finished reading American Psycho. Didn’t scare me, but actually had me almost to vomiting point several times. Excellent book 😃 > \*\* I was reading that a few years ago in English. Sitting at the back, being all quiet-like, so that my teacher would leave me in peace. I shot that to hell right about the time he staple-guns a girl to the ground - I screamed, dropped the book and fell off my chair. And yea, it is an excellent book. It gets less gross, and more sad the more times you read it. And movie-wise, The Ring is the scariest thing I have ever seen. So much so that when I came home I was tempted to unplug the TV and move it into a closet, but found I didn’t have the nerve to get within a rooms length of it. So I hid under the blankets until morning. > [@](#): > > \*\*_Originally posted by Fionn_ > The Ring scared the hell out of me. I was scared of the TV. I saw it with a friend who’d seen all the Japanese movies, and when we left the theater, I asked how some of the victims had died, and he said it wasn’t just TVs, but any reflective > surface. \*\* I heard that, and didn’t think about it, until driving with my friend who’d just seen it, talking about how the kids in car would have died because she would have come from out of the rear view mirror. Imagine the true horror potential of that scene. Because I can, and spent another night under the blankets, trying to reason with myself - ‘Samara isn’t standing over my bed, she’s not going to kill me horribly… actually I might just stay here a while longer’ ---
**Author:** ![Agrippina](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8797f3/32.png) [@Agrippina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Agrippina)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2003, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/being-scared-by-a-book-or-movie/204955/28 "2003-10-02T15:59:32Z")
**The Ring** really scared me. I know that if I had seen **Ringu** first it would have scared me even more because Sadako seems a bit more evil than Samara. Plus she has that eye thing going on. ---
**Author:** ![Isabelle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b5a626/32.png) [@Isabelle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isabelle)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2003, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/being-scared-by-a-book-or-movie/204955/29 "2003-10-02T17:18:30Z")
The first book “Left Behind” had me on edge. The thought that the Rapture is really going to come …the story just made it to real for me. I did finish the book though. ---
**Author:** ![alice\_in\_wonderland](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alice_in_wonderland/32/176_2.png) [@alice\_in\_wonderland](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alice_in_wonderland)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2003, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/being-scared-by-a-book-or-movie/204955/30 "2003-10-02T17:27:35Z")
**Blair Witch** scared the hell out of me, my 3 friends, and the rest of the people in the theatre - we saw it on opening night at a small local theatre. We couldn’t even go home after - we all had to go drink herbal tea. Seriously. **Red Dragon** and **Scilence of the Lambs** scare me every time I read them, which is usually late at night - I start at bed time - 10:00PM and then can’t put them down until I’m done, usually at about 3:30AM. And then I can’t sleep 'cus I’m scared witless. **Hanibal** on the other hand, wasn’t scarey at all - all gore, no substance. **The Ring** was scary up till the end but then I thought it was dumb - the chick coming out of the TV just didn’t frighten me. ---
**Author:** ![fessie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c37758/32.png) [@fessie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fessie)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2003, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/being-scared-by-a-book-or-movie/204955/31 "2003-10-02T17:39:52Z")
**The Shining** , absolutely (the book, that is). And I cannot even watch **The Hitcher** (or was it _The Hitchhiker_? The one with Rutger Hauer & Ponyboy from _The Outsiders_). wait… … … what was that? … … did you hear that? … \ ---
**Author:** ![Isabelle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b5a626/32.png) [@Isabelle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isabelle)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2003, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/being-scared-by-a-book-or-movie/204955/32 "2003-10-02T17:49:48Z")
I forgot to mention the movie that scared me. That would be **The Ring** I slept with the bathroom lights on that night. We saw it on a rainy night, late late with all the lights off. \ ---
**Author:** ![Lady\_Venom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9fc348/32.png) [@Lady\_Venom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lady_Venom)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2003, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/being-scared-by-a-book-or-movie/204955/33 "2003-10-02T18:08:34Z")
I LOVE scary movies. Thrillers are better. Session 9 freaked me right out. The Blair Witch is a mess-with-your-head kinda movie, which I love. It scared the crap outta me. I dunno if anyone else does this, but usually during scary movies I plug my ears when there is no dialog, but spooky music. My fiance (and anyone else who watches movies with me) thinks I’m a nutbar, but it helps me from getting REALLY scared. [Shattered](http://www.impawards.com/1991/shattered.html) with Tom Berenger scared me. I was only 19 when I saw it, 11 years later I still think about it. ehehe ---
**Author:** ![musicguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ba0ec/32.png) [@musicguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/musicguy)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2003, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/being-scared-by-a-book-or-movie/204955/34 "2003-10-02T19:14:53Z")
Just wanted to put another vote in for “Jaws”. I suppose part of it was the fact that I was living in Long Island when it came out. My parents took me to the theater to see it and I couldn’t have been more than 10 or 11. The town of Amity in the movie could have easily been any of the beaches we attended in the summer. I remember people absolutely losing it in the theater. Lots of screaming. Years later, the shark looks a bit more fake but I think the thing that was so scary for me was that it wasn’t some made up monster with claws and firey red eyes and scales. It was something that really existed, a great-white shark. The idea that you could be swimming and suddenly see a dorsal fin rise out of the water was terrifying. A few days ago, I bought the DVD and had the opportunity to watch it with a friend that had never seen it before. He jumped a few times, most significantly when Richard Dryfuss (sp?) is diving to examine the bottom of an abandon boat and the head pops out of the hole at the bottom. My friend jumped about a foot. It was quite entertaining. ---
**Author:** ![Fionn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Fionn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fionn)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2003, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/being-scared-by-a-book-or-movie/204955/35 "2003-10-02T19:28:33Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by HDS \* > \*\*Coraline is very scary, especially if you finish it around midnight and turn the page to find _that_ picture in the back. I listened all night for sounds of that thing. \*\* Sounds really scary. [better judgement off] I’ve never heard of this before. Tell me more! [better judgement on] ---
**Author:** ![Frankenbear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c0e974/32.png) [@Frankenbear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frankenbear)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2003, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/being-scared-by-a-book-or-movie/204955/36 "2003-10-02T23:21:59Z")
I can’t believe I forgot Poltergeist and Alien. I saw both when I was a kid. My mother took my sister and I to the theater to see Alien. Sis and I spent more time out in the lobby than watching the movie. Alien doesn’t scare me now but Poltergeist still does. I, too, had major issues with the clown scene. I can’t stand clowns. Jaws scared me when I was a kid and saw it in the theater. I’m one of those who covers her eyes with her hands but peeks through her fingers during a truly scary scene. With Jaws I couldn’t cover my eyes. I was glued to the screen. Afterwards, I was physically ill for two days. Jaws doesn’t scare me now. In fact, it’s one of my favorite movies. But I still have difficulty being in water I can’t see through. Blair Witch didn’t scare me. I saw it opening weekend. It had a couple of good moments that made me jump but overall it didn’t frighten me. Ring was the same way. A couple of good moments but I didn’t react to it the way a lot of my friends did. I’ve heard Ringu is much better but haven’t seen it yet. ---
**Author:** ![Archergal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c89c15/32.png) [@Archergal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Archergal)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2003, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/being-scared-by-a-book-or-movie/204955/37 "2003-10-02T23:40:34Z")
I saw **Alien** (the first movie) just before I headed out for a long car trip all alone. I was camping by myself. I didn’t sleep very comfortably that whole trip. It was years before I finally saw all the scenes of that movie. Every time the scary bits would come on, I would hide my eyes. I had to work up to being able to watch the whole thing. I avoid movies that I think might bother me. For example, I’ve never seen **Night of the Living Dead.** And I don’t plan to. I would think about it again and again. And again. And I just don’t need that. I think books scare me more than movies, though that may be because I read more than I watch movies. I’ve VERY suggestible. I once tried to read the George R.R. Martin story **“The Pear-Shaped Man.”** I couldn’t get through it. _And nothing had really happened in the story when I stopped reading it!!!_ But he had just created such a feeling of dread that I couldn’t finish it. I just didn’t want to know what was coming up. I tried to read **Jaws** , but after the first page where the girl gets eaten, and her dismembered leg drifts down to the bottom of the sea I said, “Nope, not for me! Don’t need to read this one!!” and shut the book, never to open it again. **Jaws the movie** was another movie I avoided seeing for years and years. I’ve finally seen all the scenes now. I admit it. I’m a wuss. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Arden\_Ranger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b487fb/32.png) [@Arden\_Ranger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arden_Ranger)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2003, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/being-scared-by-a-book-or-movie/204955/38 "2003-10-03T02:38:01Z")
Trilogy of Terror. I will never watch that again. I can’t even remember the other two episodes but the one with the evil witchdoctor doll. _shudder_ I never watch anything with evil dolls in it anymore. I _hate_ those things! “My name is Talking Tina and I’m going to kill you.” :eek: ---
**Author:** ![sleestak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/919ad9/32.png) [@sleestak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sleestak)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2003, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/being-scared-by-a-book-or-movie/204955/39 "2003-10-03T04:14:51Z")
Well, I’ll third (or tenth) “The Shining”. That book still scares the heck out of me. “It”, another book by King, had a scene that kept me up for a couple of hours one night due it it’s pure creepyness. (#1) Barker’s “Damnation Game” also had a couple scenes that freaked me out. Eric #1. Spoiler alert For some reason the scene in “IT” where Ben(I think it’s Ben) is in the Library and sees Pennywise on the stairs scares the crap out of me. I think it’s because Pennywise has a mouth full of razor blades. And a balloon. EEK! ---
**Author:** ![LifeOnWry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/96bed5/32.png) [@LifeOnWry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LifeOnWry)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2003, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/being-scared-by-a-book-or-movie/204955/40 "2003-10-03T05:01:58Z")
The trouble with “It” for me is that I was already mildly phobic about clowns before I read it. I am also very arachnaphobic (hey, I _said_ I am easily scared) - and I won’t spoil anything here - but there is a spider moment that sent me bolting out of my chair. Never saw Blair Witch, because the shaky-camera previews I did see made me slightly nauseous. My brother, who adores horror movies, said that Blair Witch was 80 minutes of complete boredom followed by 10 minutes of absolute terror. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/being-scared-by-a-book-or-movie/204955.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/being-scared-by-a-book-or-movie/204955.md?page=3)