The only things that scares me deep down (not startles me…) is realistic portrayals of extra-terrestial contact. Like Communion with Christopher Walken. Or Fire In The Sky. Yikes!
Audition is the most horrible movie I have ever seen. Ever. Not just the climax, which is just awful (my friend Rain likes to creep me out by occasionally going “kee kee kee kee kee” in a high-pitched voice). But even more, a scene earlier where we first see what’s going on in the girl’s apartment. I started a thread about it a while back, and became convinced from that that there really is a message to the movie, so I “get” it now. But I’m never going to watch it again. Or any of Miike’s other movies, even where he’s more clearly over the top.
I’m not sure exactly what it is that consistently scares me in movies. The jump-out-and-scare-you moments work on me, of course – the bit in the closet in The Ring, the bear-mask blowjob in The Shining, all the devil faces in The Exorcist, the creepy backwards-walking video guy in The House on Haunted Hill, and the sound guy at the end of The Blair Witch Project (who, now that I think of it, looks a lot like Troy McClure SF). But I don’t count them, because it’s one scare and then it’s over. It doesn’t “stick.”
What scares me more is when they show horrible things happening to people and it just won’t stop. The Blair Witch Project is entirely an exercise in making you uncomfortable and annoyed, so that by the end they can show you something mundane and make it creepy. The worst thing about The Exorcist isn’t all the devil faces jumping out, but the idea that these horrible things are happening to these people and they don’t know why and they can’t do anything to make it stop. And the scariest part of The Shining, to me, is when Shelley Duvall’s character is running through the hotel freaking out at all the ghost sightings, not understanding what’s happening and trapped and helpless to fight against it.
I think the thing Alfred Hitchcock was best at was knowing exactly how long to make a scene last for it to be scary, and then making it longer. To those of us who had the movie spoiled a long time ago, the shower scene in Psycho is scary not because of the surprise, but because it goes on longer than it should – there are all these extra shots of a knife against flesh and a hand reaching out and the whole thing just seems to go on forever. I think he does it even better in The Birds, when Tippi Hedren goes to the attic of the house. It’s not the surprise, because really, at that point in the movie it’s absolutely no surprise what’s going to happen. It’s that the attack just keeps going on and on. Several times, you think that it’s finally over, and then they just keep coming.
::shudder:: I agree, I had to change the channel when she came out of the screen.
pepperlandgirl, it seems you can’t suspend your disbelief enough and perhaps keep knowing, not thinking, “it’s just a movie.” Try some scary books.
I dunno, I just felt like that was part of the overkill that made the American Ring not scary to me. I was probably annoying my gf towards the end when I kept saying “Oooh! A SPOOKY house! A spoooky chair!” My gf wouldn’t watch the end but I freeze framed it on the dead ex-husband and she (who was scared almost all the way through Shaun of the Dead) thought it was silly too.
I thought the Japanese version did the dead-from-sadako bit much better; just people with their faces frozen in a rictus of fear. I wish I could find an online picture because I thought it was a lot creepier.
One thing that rachets up the horror for me is when someone is alone. There’s no one to depend on for safety. Blair Witch, when Heather is upstairs alone. Sixth Sense when Cole is alone in the hallway or in his tent. Night of the Living Dead, when Barbara is alone in the graveyard after her brother dies.
Ironic, as I love spending time alone, especially at night.
After seeing Shaun of the Dead, which I liked, I realized why zombie movies freak me out so badly:
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The gore and general grossness, which bug me in any setting, though zombies are always especially gross,
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the extreme paranoia, because anyone could be infected and these movies are usually set so that everyone is a zombie except for the main character, possibly with some added friends, thus everyone really is out to get you,
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the very real possibility you’ll have to kill someone you care about because they are or are going to become a zombie.
I won’t say it scares me, but what makes me jump a little is a sudden noise at a plot development. When the priest is brought into the room to see the “help me” in Regan’s stomach in The Exorcist there is a sudden very loud EEE EEE sound. Nothing else like that is done in the whole movie. Cheesy but effective.
I love audio cues. The chants in *The Omen * are great for setting the mood. Then the piano in Halloween are the signature ones that come to mind.
Yeah, Audition freaked me out more than Ichi, but you’re right about the torture scenes. I’m just trying to figure out which “particular” one you’re talking about. There are two that were stomach-churning.
I was thinking of the one where Ichi’s sitting there calmly making shrimp tempura while the guy is hanging on hooks before him, and you know pretty much exactly what’s going to happen with the oil, and then it does and it’s just as bad as you might suspect. That one.
I have to admit, zombie movies don’t scare me at all. They seem so unreal.
Okay, I’m too damned cowardly to click on it, will somebody tell me what it is? It’s one of the quick shots from The Ring of a character dying of fright, right? Must…not…click!!
Well, that was emasculating. 
I agree they’re unreal, but those are things that bother me I guess- I don’t want to kill people I like (there are few enough of them as it is), and I don’t want everybody to be out to get me because I like me.
Well, I didn’t mean to stomp on your manhood! It’s just one of those things that doesn’t frighten me. I have a very bright fiance, who has a LOT of survival skills- I’m quite sure we’d survive!
And I’d definitely kill my friends if the alternative was them going around sucking brains up.
Figures you did it without noticing. I mean, uh, it’s not like you’re the first. Err, aw, why can I never get out of these things gracefully?
Sure, I would too. Point is I’d rather not be in that position, or think about it in the first place. Come to think of it I’m not that confident in my survival skills either.
Another vote for zombies. Especially the fast ones from 28 Days Later and the the re-make of Dawn of the Dead. Homicidal, unable to be reasoned with, horrifying, relentless, and FAST.
In fact, apocalyptic stuff like 28 Days Later creeps me out, too, and that film did it exceptionally well. The scene in the beginning where the lead (I forget the name) is walking dazed through London, which is just … so… empty…
I’ve always thought zombies were kinda funny. All that shuffling and groaning…
Oh sure. That stuff is silly. The atmosphere of the movies and some of the individual moments are the issue with me.
Yeah, that stuff is pretty silly. But when they’re fast and ferocious, it’s a different story.
<slight hijack>
Is the “fast zombie” motif new as of 28 Days Later or has it been used before?
</hijack>
Movies and/or scenes of abject hopelessness for a character. When someone or someones know that they are going to die, possibly horribly, and be unable to do anything about it.
The Dawn of the Dead remake is one example, but more realistically, and more horrific as a result would be the knife scene in Saving Private Ryan, the home video scene in Henry: Potrait of a Serial Killer and pretty much all of Funny Games although the casualness of the boat scene stood out. The last two are movies I know I can never watch again.
These are the kind of zombies that don’t scare me. They move so fast that it seems there’s still a hint of life in them. (At least I think that’s why.)
The one’s I don’t like are those shown in the original Night of the Living Dead. That slow, plodding, relentless advancement to get to you. And mindless in its pursuit. Kind of like a diesel engine with a 500 gal tank. It ain’t the fastest thing out there, but it will follow you for a looooooooooong time.