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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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’
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.
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.
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.
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…
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what was that?
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did you hear that?
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<gets up to lock door & check closets, taking fierce cat Ernie with me>
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. <shivers>
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 with Tom Berenger scared me. I was only 19 when I saw it, 11 years later I still think about it. ehehe
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.