I havn’t really been scared by anything since Poltergeist. But a few movies have some creepy scenes.
I would put both The Blair Witch Project and Sixth Sense in the category of movies with a couple creepy scenes, but so mind numbingly boring for the rest of it that it isn’t worth while. (bore me in the first half hour and it doesn’t matter what you do for the rest of the movie, you’ve lost me)
There was one Stephen King short story about a guy who investigates haunted places for his books that ends up spending the night in this motel room. That one got me.
When the book Helter Skelter was new, it frightened the life out of me. I couldn’t stand to sleep with it by my bedside and would get out of bed to place it across the room before going to sleep.
This movie now probably wouldn’t make you blink, but when Wait Until Dark came out, it was the first movie to have “that ending.” You think the murderer is dead but he’s not.I lived alone and was a nervous wreck after I returned to my apartment after seeing it. It’s still a good flick especially if you like Audrey Hepburn.
I’d just like to state that I entirely and solely blame clowns for all that is evil in this world. Poltergeist, IT, Killer Clowns from Outer Space, John Wayne Gacy…clowns are E V I L !!!
I cringe in horror when I see nurseries decorated in clown themes, for I know that child will inevitably torture small animals and eventually be found to have people buried in his back yard with someone’s liver on the barbie. Mark my words… clowns = evil personified.
I forgot to mention a vote for The Blair Witch Project as well. I saw a special sneak preview of it with a bunch of friends, and all I knew about it was “A bunch of teens went to do a documentary about this witch story in an old town and dissappeared, and a year later they found their footage.” I hadn’t heard any hype about it, I was going into it blindly, and afterwards, my friends and I still questioned whether or not it was real or fake (the movie did such a good job that the credits somehow failed to convince us completely). I admit, I can’t watch it again because all the terror’s just not there, but the acting was GREAT, and even the shaky motion wasn’t that terrible to put up with and really helped to pull the viewer into the action. It was a great idea, and I’m sure would have done a hell of a lot better if it had stayed a small arthouse flick.
I was scared out of my wits when I saw “Caltiki”, sort of an Italian version of The Blob–I was probably 9 or 10 at the time. There’s a scene where a scuba diver goes down to investigate a cave or something and when they pull him up, all that’s left behind his diving mask is a skull. Creeped me out for a long time.
“Ringu” would be my first choice. I first watched it by myself on video with the lights out. I was looking over my shoulder, and turning on lights in dark corridors for days afterwards.
The only other film that has come close to Ringu was “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” - it was the ending that really scared me there.
I was younger when I watched IotBS though, so perhaps it is not really as scary as I remember it.
The Shining, the book, scared me - especially when the kid goes into Room … 410, is it? … and what he sees there - that truly frightened me
Ramsey Campbell’s short stories are reliably frightening, sometimes very much so. Dark Companions is a collection of some of his most frightening short stories.
Films? Halloween, Diabolique, Alien, Night of the Living Dead - but not any recent films especially.
Bentley Little’s problem is common to Clive Barker and many others employed in that genre - “if we gross out our readers, they will be fooled into thinking they were scared.” Wrong. Gross does not equal frightening. I have a collection of Bentley Little stories which sits on my shelf unread except for the first story. It will remain that way.
It helps if you’re young. I read The Excorcist when I was about twelve. I was O.K. reading it during the day time, but every night I’d lay in bed and hear my stomach grumble and think the devil was possessing me. I’d grab on to my bedsheets because I just knew I’d start levitating.
I did the same thing with The Amityville Horror House (or something like that). I was maybe 14 when I started reading it around 4 in the afternoon and read it straight through. Finished it around 2 in the morning and never got to sleep that night.
I read Legion, the sequel to The Excorsict ten plus years ago. I was reading late one night and I honestly don’t remember what the hell it was, I got so spooked I threw the book across the room and finished it the next day in the bright sun light. That’s the only time a book ever scared me ike that, but I typically don’t read scary books. Lots of movies scare me, but I also tend to not watch scary movies.
I had a friend who went to to see The Excorcist by himself at a midnight showing. Then walked home. I would have died, I’m sure.
“Beware: The Blob” is a godawful sequel to “The Blob,” directed by Larry Hagman in 1971 and starring quite a few TV actors in minor roles. It’s basically a comedy monster movie.
Nobody told ME that when I was nine years old. I had nightmares about that movie for YEARS. Laughed my way through “The Exorcist,” loved “Jaws,” enjoyed “Night Of The Living Dead”… but I was in college before I saw “Beware: The Blob” again, on TV, and realized that not only was it a remarkably bad movie, but it was intended to be a COMEDY.
Also scared the crap out of myself staying up late to play the original Resident Evil game on the Playstation. Don’t EVER do that…
If were are mentioning games-- and we really aren’t so sorry for the hijack-- I played Silent Hill late at night, in the dark, by myself. For a little while. Went and got my son to sit with me.
My son, macho teen that he is, won’t play Silent Hill alone at night in the dark.
The only book to ever really scare me was something I checked out of a Jefferson Parish Public Library. True or not, The Deomonologist was the one book that invaded my dreams. And I used to read a lot of Steven King.
I remember Night Gallery. It was hosted by Rod Serling. I watched it with my mom. She started corrupting me at a very early age. I still thank her for it.
