I, too, was stoned during that whole movie and it was the creepiest damn thing I’d ever seen.
On the OP…I’m a big scaredy-cat. I was on the edge of my seat during “Signs” and “The Others” and I’m highly anticipating seeing “The Ring”.
Oddly enough, I was never scared by “The Shining”, but “Poltergeist” scared the daylights out of me. Go figure.
Cool…I have got to check out the original “Haunting.” I actually enjoyed the gothic elements of the newer version, though of course, it was not scary. 
“The Shining” is one of my favorite movies. It doesn’t make me do “monster checks” under the bed, but it is a great film.
“The Changeling” sounds interesting. I will also check out “Night of the Living Dead.” For some reason I thought this was supposed to be a cheesy film. I will also watch the “Exorcist.”
Thanks for the suggestions!
I sort of thought of a different set of parameters here. TheO.P. mentioned not jumping much. Might I recommend the rental of either Fatal Attraction, OR Jagged Edge? Then again, Ghost Story really did make me scream out loud at the end. And, I had a crush on her to boot !!
Cartooniverse
I’m sorry folks- I saw the Ring Friday night and am only getting over it today. My husband admitted yesterday that the look on my face when the girl was in the closet scared him because he had never seen me react like that. I felt it all the way down to my toes.
My wife and I saw the Ring just last night, and I have to say it’s one of the best scary movies I’ve ever seen. I have to see it a few more times just to see how it holds up, but I may have a new favorite horror movie.
(she was terrified)
It’s actually a very good ending, if you saw Curse of the Blair Witch first. BWP was effective because of the setup, and CotBW was the most important part of that; it contains several important plot points for the movie, including an explanation of why the footage was found where it was.
I’ll stick my oar in for My Little Eye. Not all that scary, but if you understand everything that goes on it will stay with you for a long time.
Tim Curry strikes again. It was pretty good right up to the last half hour, when it got shot in the foot by a certain confession.
I think I’m mostly agreeing with you, but I’ve never seen The Changeling.
I agree about the BWP, very creepy until the end.
I think that’s because you want the girl character to shut the hell up so you’re hopeful they’ll get killed. She got annoying real fast.
Change her character and put a little more suspense in the ending, and that’ve been a perfect movie.
The only thing that scared me about “The Ring” was that someone thought it was worth releasing that piece of shite. :rolleyes:
For the record, I couldn’t finish watching one of the “Hellraiser” series, but more because I found it gross rather than frightening. “Carrie” creeped me out years ago. I couldn’t sleep that night playing scenes from it in my head over and over again. Kinda embarrasing.
Don’t limit yourself to American movies.
The Vanishing (original Dutch version) has a seriously creepy ending, among the best ever filmed for a horror movie.
Audition (Japanese) builds slowly, but it’s all in service of setting up a series of seriously demented payoffs.
Funny Games (German) has very little violence, and what there is occurs just off screen, but nails the tone just right, and blatantly ignores the conventions and taboos of American moviemaking.
But for some truly demented horror, you gotta go Italian. Dario Argento knows how to create the right tone better than any horror director in history. Suspiria is his masterpiece, but Opera, Phenomena and Inferno are also quite creepy.
Lucio Fulci is another Italian director who won’t hesitate to go way over the top, but lacks the subtle artistry of Argento.
I also didn’t take to The Ring too much. I think they should have worked the cinematography a lot more than they did. The few twinges of the heebe-jeebes that I did get were during the brief and grainy distance shots of the well, just as she is starting to crawl out of it. At the time that I watched it I couldn’t figure out why that particular image pushed my buttons, but now that I think about it, it strikes me as very dream-like and surreal. Like one of those nightmares when you can see exactly what is about to happen to you, but you can’t move, can’t scream, etc.
My Dad was a big horror fan, and would sometimes drive the 2 hours from our rural home to the nearest movie screen to indulge his cravings…alone…since Mom didn’t care for them and I was prone to nightmares when I was a wee tot. I guess I picked up the suspension of belief issues later in life.
The film that scared him the most was The Howling, but I think that was due to the all-important “horror environment” that everyone has mentioned. I’m fairly sure that the 2 hour drive through foggy Redwoods on a one-lane road at midnight had more to do with his adrenaline rush than the movie. I watched it as an adult and it wasn’t all that.
I agree. New “horror” movies seem to rely on the old tricks and a few digital effects.
build scene/music
throw cat at actor
pause
hit actor on the head with axe
yawn
Oh yeah. Good movie that one. I bought the DVD and watched it again. Short of it’s dated feel in some parts it is a great movie with lots of creepy moments.
I think the reason might be that, for at least part of that scene, it appears that the film is being run backwards. It makes her movements even more unnatural-looking. The backward-running film trick is even more evident in the original Ringu.