# Scariest movie you ever saw **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 10, 2013, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie-you-ever-saw/660666 "2013-06-10T22:40:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2013, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie-you-ever-saw/660666/61 "2013-06-11T20:12:07Z")
The trouble with \*Alien \*is that by the time the captain is killed by the alienyou have a pretty good idea of what’s going to happen: Most everyone is going to act kind of stupid from fear and will get killed one at a time, and one person (probably Ripley) is going to survive.A scary movie has to be surprising all the way to the end (in my opinion). Alien fails on that score. When I was maybe 9 years old I saw the original _Invaders From Mars_ while I was alone in my grandparents’ house. Even though it was afternoon, it really got to me. The idea that your parents could be taken over and turn against you was very scary, and then the ending where it turned out to only be a prescient dream (i.e. it didn’t happen but it is now going to happen) gave it that nice open-ended, the-nightmare-never-ends quality. And being alone in a relatively strange house didn’t help either. As an adult, I’m going to go with Wait Until Dark (already mentioned) as having the single scariest moment I can remember. I especially like that it wasn’t horror or sci-fi, just a nice little drama about a nice blind lady. And the psychopath who was tormenting her. Roddy ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2013, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie-you-ever-saw/660666/62 "2013-06-11T20:21:15Z")
_Three Women_. I **paid** to see this??!??!? :eek::eek::eek::eek::eek: ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2013, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie-you-ever-saw/660666/63 "2013-06-11T20:37:04Z")
> [@Roderick\_Femm](#): > > The trouble with \*Alien \*is that by the time > > the captain is killed by the alienyou have a pretty good idea of what’s going to happen… For me, the tension of knowing what’s going to happen is a large part of what made it so scary. Different strokes and all that. > [@Roderick\_Femm](#): > > As an adult, I’m going to go with Wait Until Dark (already mentioned) as having the single scariest moment I can remember. Saw that with my wife when it was in first release. Big screen old-fashioned theater. I’ll never forget “that scene”; three hundred adults whooping while jumping out of their seats, in perfect unison. ---
**Author:** ![Mauvaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mauvaise/32/11084_2.png) [@Mauvaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mauvaise)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2013, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie-you-ever-saw/660666/64 "2013-06-11T21:32:54Z")
> [@SykoSkotty](#): > > **The Shining**. Everything about this movie is creepy and scary. The music, Nicholson’s transformation, the settings, the snow…and more than anything else, the noise that Danny’s big wheel would make while riding it through the hallways on and then off the carpets. Adding my vote for **The Shining**. It is, for me, the scary movie by which all other movies are judged (and found wanting). > [@scabpicker](#): > > I’ll fourth _The Shining_. It scared me when I was little, and it still makes me feel uneasy all day long if I watch it now. I know why it scares me, because Nicholson’s doing the sort of thing people actually do, with Kubrick turning the visuals up to 11. . This is my reaction and I keep getting suckered into watching movies hoping to achieve this reaction. I did find the first **Paranormal Activity** and \*\*Insidious \*\* creepy, but not anywhere near the level I was hoping. ---
**Author:** ![Wakinyan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wakinyan/32/352_2.png) [@Wakinyan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wakinyan)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2013, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie-you-ever-saw/660666/65 "2013-06-11T21:45:28Z")
Here’s another vote for **The Shining**. Little hijack: I’m very surprised to see how many who found _Blair Witch_ scary, which is anything but frightening to me; the only reason I saw it through sincerely was because I hoped someone would kill the morons in the wood, which you never got to see either, if I remember correctly. It’s the most annoying and perhaps boring (except for the remake of the _Planet of the Apes_) I’ve seen through, and I find it fascinating how people can experience movies in such completely different ways – which is a good thing of course. ---
**Author:** ![Battle\_Pope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@Battle\_Pope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Battle_Pope)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2013, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie-you-ever-saw/660666/66 "2013-06-11T23:03:10Z")
**Alien** I first saw this when I was, maybe, 12 and was more grossed out than scared. Then I watched it on a good widescreen TV in a darkened room and holy crap is it creepy :eek: There are a lot of long shots with people in lit areas and then long corridors stretching off into the darkness and I swear the dark areas extended off the screen. **Exorcist**. Still scary but I think the various extended editions/directors cuts have hurt the flow of the film. **Blair Witch Project** This got me because I used to do a lot of hiking and running a youth outdoors group. I’ve seen hike groups come apart and start really being antagonistic to each other in a very short time-frame so a lot of the film rang true to me in the actions of the characters getting lost and making bad decisions. Plus, I watched it in the early afternoon of a day I was leaving town for a 3-day hike. :smack: Unlike a lot of people in this thread I was completely unimpressed by **The Ring**. Maybe the original Japanese version is better but it felt like an extended version of an \*X-Files \*episode to me. I kept wanting Mulder & Scully to show up and take care of the haunted video tape. ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2013, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie-you-ever-saw/660666/67 "2013-06-11T23:03:14Z")
The original “Invasion of the Body Snatchers”. A combination of the movie itself and the age I was at when I first saw it. I greatly appreciate it even now, the way it starts out so slow and also the way the narration factors into the overall scare value. Toward the end when McCarthy and Wynter are hiding under the thing and all the pod people are just running right over them and the siren is going off over and over, you’re just ready to plotz. ---
**Author:** ![divemaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/divemaster/32/78_2.png) [@divemaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/divemaster)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2013, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie-you-ever-saw/660666/68 "2013-06-11T23:12:35Z")
I’ll also agree with **Poltergeist** , **The Ring** , and the original **A Nightmare on Elm Street** as being very effective and outright scary movies. **Jacob’s Ladder** is a tremendous psychological horror. Not mentioned previously (I don’t think), is perhaps the _creepiest_/scariest movie I’ve ever seen. **Ju-on**.Not the greatest plot-wise (it’s rather disjointed) but I was definitely more tensed up scared watching that than anything else. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2013, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie-you-ever-saw/660666/69 "2013-06-11T23:14:34Z")
> [@Novelty\_Bobble](#): > > Three films I saw within weeks of each other as a young teenager still remain as the scariest. > > Alien (obviously) > Poltergeist (again, obviously) > [Special Bulletin](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_Bulletin) (not so obvious, but a very unsettling fake TV news broadcast on a terrorist nuclear threat) I’d love to see “Special Bulletin”, but VHS and DVD recordings cost $200 or more if you can even find them, and are probably bootlegs. As for “Blair Witch Project”, I’ve never seen it, but a woman I worked with at the time did and thought it was real. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2013, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie-you-ever-saw/660666/70 "2013-06-11T23:30:21Z")
> [@Draelin](#): > > I thought _Blair Witch Project_ was brilliant when it came out, but I would say now that most of the brilliance had more to do with how it was marketed. Still get the shivers every time I think of that last shot of the guy standing in the corner, though. > [@Wakinyan](#): > > Little hijack: I’m very surprised to see how many who found _Blair Witch_ scary, which is anything but frightening to me; the only reason I saw it through sincerely was because I hoped someone would kill the morons in the wood, which you never got to see either, if I remember correctly. It’s the most annoying and perhaps boring (except for the remake of the _Planet of the Apes_) I’ve seen through, and I find it fascinating how people can experience movies in such completely different ways – which is a good thing of course. For me, it was so scary precisely because of what they didn’t show. Which was, basically, everything. Nothing scary or gory is actually on the screen, like, ever. The scariness is all just off the edge of the frame, and the details supplied solely from my imagination…which can come up with scarier stuff than any level of silicone and CGI. (This makes it the opposite kind of scary to _Pan’s Labyrinth_, which spooked me with gorgeous and gruesome visuals.) I knew before I saw it that _Blair Witch_ wasn’t found footage - I worked managing a video store at the time it came out, so I’d read tons about it in movie magazines. Didn’t matter. Still scared the fuck out of me. I suppose it didn’t hurt that I was moonlighting weekends working at the Renaissance Faire, and camping in a single person tent in a little wooded area just outside the Faire grounds…literally the only time I’ve ever lived or stayed alone anywhere overnight for more than a single night. Since the movie was all the rage, some asshole(s) thought it would be hilarious to craft those little stick men and hang them outside the doors of all the girls’ tents in the middle of the night. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Iggins](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Iggins](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Iggins)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2013, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie-you-ever-saw/660666/71 "2013-06-11T23:48:30Z")
> [@Max\_Torque](#): > > I can second several of the movies already mentioned, and I’d like to add one that no one’s mentioned, yet I’m sure will draw lots of “oh yeah, THAT thing…” comments: > > The third segment of **Trilogy of Terror**. The one with [“He Who Kills”](http://villains.wikia.com/wiki/Zuni_Fetish_Doll). Post #28 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Accidental\_Martyr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ce7236/32.png) [@Accidental\_Martyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Accidental_Martyr)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2013, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie-you-ever-saw/660666/72 "2013-06-12T01:02:48Z")
> [@Novelty\_Bobble](#): > > Three films I saw within weeks of each other as a young teenager still remain as the scariest. > > Alien (obviously) > Poltergeist (again, obviously) > [Special Bulletin](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_Bulletin) (not so obvious, but a very unsettling fake TV news broadcast on a terrorist nuclear threat) I was 14 when **Special Bulletin** aired and I also found it very unsettling at the time. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2013, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie-you-ever-saw/660666/73 "2013-06-12T02:12:33Z")
“Special Bulletin” aired in 1983, around the same time as “The Day After” and at one of the heights of the fear of nuclear war. I’ve read online accounts of people who saw it, and realized it wasn’t real when they found out it wasn’t broadcasting on any other channels. ---
**Author:** ![Dave\_Hartwick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7feea3/32.png) [@Dave\_Hartwick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dave_Hartwick)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2013, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie-you-ever-saw/660666/74 "2013-06-12T03:59:11Z")
I react strongly to movies and TV, like how things like cringe comedy can make me leave the room. Standard TV dramas like _Kung Fu_ could make me cry or literally jump out of my seat as a kid, and still can, sometimes. So of course I became a horror fan. It helps that at least I don’t get nightmares. I can remember being scared by random shows as a little kid, but the standout scare of my youth isn’t a particularly scary film. It was _The Amityville Horror_, the first horror movie I saw in a theater. If I hadn’t been sitting next to a pretty girl I might have screamed at the scene where the dad shows up with an ax. As an older teen my buddy and I would rent a lot of low budget movies like _The Wizard of Gore_ and _Bloodsucking Freaks_. About the only movie from that period that I remember being creeped out by was _The Evil Dead_, and really only because the reputation of the movie made me susceptible and I watched it alone. Despite being a fan, I didn’t see a lot of horror classics like _Halloween_, _Jaws_, or _Friday the 13th_ until long after I’d been spoiled by friends describing the best parts, so they lost a lot of punch. Also, I frequently saw them as edited for television. _The Shining_ became more funny than anything, and when Shelley Duvall ran down the hallway (a scene a friend found frightening) it brought to mind a drunk overreacting to a carnival funhouse. On VHS and DVD, _Jacob’s Ladder_ was much more sad than scary (I cried) and _The Ring_ was merely creepy. I thought _The Blair Witch Project_ was good mainly for the way the group fell apart, their increasing desperation, and the cleverness of the film. Well, that’s all over now. I think it’s because I have kids, or I’m going in a lot less spoiled, or just because I don’t really watch many movies anymore, but I find myself susceptible again. I first noticed it when I rented the remake of _The Hills Have Eyes_ and the opening credits made me want to turn the damn thing off and go do a crossword. Almost any scary movie can get to me now, especially if it plays the kid card like the _Paranormal Activity_ series, and I’m not sure how I’d react if I saw something like that in a good theater. I still like zombie movies, though, but it seems like zombie movies really aren’t scary. Nobody’s mentioned one it this thread, have they? TLDR-- _The Amityville Horror_, I guess. ---
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2013, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie-you-ever-saw/660666/75 "2013-06-12T04:15:01Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > “Special Bulletin” aired in 1983, around the same time as “The Day After” and at one of the heights of the fear of nuclear war. I’ve read online accounts of people who saw it, and realized it wasn’t real when they found out it wasn’t broadcasting on any other channels. Special Bulletin is incredibly well-done. I’d love to see it again; a lot of it is stuck in memory, 30 years after it’s single viewing. ---
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2013, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie-you-ever-saw/660666/76 "2013-06-12T05:19:15Z")
It’s a toss-up between three: _Mill of the Stone Women_ (1962), a poor man’s _House of Wax;_ at the end the windmill-driven carousel starts running; a fire has started in the mill, and burned the rope holding the carousel from starting. Now all the wax-coated corpses travel along the track, and start to burn; the flesh burns under the wax, and eyes fall out, for example. _The House of Usher_ (1961), Roger Corman’s version; with Vincent Price. A violent storm shakes the entire house at one point; in the scene, set in the crypt, a coffin is violently thrown open, showing the skeleton of Madeleine Usher’s grandmother Miriam. \*The 7th Voyage of Sinbad \*(1958). At the end is a scene in which the villain has a live skeleton, with a sword, confront Sinbad and tells the skeleton in a chilling voice, “Kill him!” The skeleton engages Sinbad in a fencing match until Sinbad pushes it over a ledge, and it crashes to a hard rock floor below. ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2013, 7:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie-you-ever-saw/660666/77 "2013-06-12T07:31:11Z")
_The Grey_ Made me understand what it must be like to be afraid of dogs, and _I grew up with_ lots of dogs. ---
**Author:** ![PeacePlease](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/71c47a/32.png) [@PeacePlease](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PeacePlease)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2013, 10:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie-you-ever-saw/660666/78 "2013-06-12T10:11:05Z")
> [@ZPG\_Zealot](#): > > Paradise Lost, a documentary about three wrongly convicted and imprisoned young men, is one of the few movies that ever gave me nightmares. Thank you. That obviously outweighs any ‘scary’ movie by FAR. Especially since the 18 year old (Damien) was sitting on death fucking row!! So happy that these three are now free men. I remember being on the SDMB when it happened. As for “scary” horror stuff, gotta say that Paranormal Activity (in the first) was creepy as hell. Plus the ending was terrific. And I don’t scare that easily. The Shining, which people are debating, SUCKED ASS. Sorry, (not). I love Mr. King and this novel was stunningly brilliant and should NEVER have been turned into a movie. Too much mind and thinking stuff going on to translate. I don’t care if Jack chewed the scenery (that’s his gig these days) and I love him, but this just did not translate. Oh, and I don’t give a shit that it was “Kubrick”. Soi many bow down to the dude. Don’t get that, but that’s another tangent!! ---
**Author:** ![scabpicker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scabpicker/32/8268_2.png) [@scabpicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scabpicker)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2013, 11:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie-you-ever-saw/660666/79 "2013-06-12T11:12:40Z")
> [@PeacePlease](#): > > The Shining, which people are debating, SUCKED ASS. Sorry, (not). I love Mr. King and this novel was stunningly brilliant and should NEVER have been turned into a movie. Too much mind and thinking stuff going on to translate. I don’t care if Jack chewed the scenery (that’s his gig these days) and I love him, but this just did not translate. Oh, and I don’t give a shit that it was “Kubrick”. Soi many bow down to the dude. Don’t get that, but that’s another tangent!! I have heard this complaint from die hard King fans many times. It’s obviously not a movie for people who liked the book (I have not read it.) Kubrick’s movie gives me the heebie-jeebies in a way that nothing by Mr. King or any other adaptation of his books comes even close to. King doesn’t usually scare me much more than _The Family Circus_, to be honest. Of course, I’m not really a horror fan. YMMV. ---
**Author:** ![NAF1138](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naf1138/32/3245_2.png) [@NAF1138](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NAF1138)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2013, 11:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie-you-ever-saw/660666/80 "2013-06-12T11:56:03Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > or a late 1990s German movie called “Funny Games”, which is not funny at all. For me it’s _Funny Games_ without question. That movie fucked me up in a very real way. Nothing else even comes close. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie-you-ever-saw/660666.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie-you-ever-saw/660666.md?page=5)