# 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:** 5
**Author:** ![Draelin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ce73a5/32.png) [@Draelin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Draelin)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2013, 12:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie-you-ever-saw/660666/81 "2013-06-12T12:22:30Z")
> [@WhyNot](#): > > 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: We had a camping trip about a week after the movie came out, and my friend and I woke up extra early to put little piles of rocks in front of everybody’s tents. Of course, nobody else had seen the movie, so it wasn’t even funny. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2013, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie-you-ever-saw/660666/82 "2013-06-12T14:58:44Z")
As a small child: The _Space 1999_ episode “Dragon’s Domain”. The banshee scene in _Darby O’Gill and the Little People_. _Jaws._ If you are a bachelor older than 30, _Remains of the Day_ is terrifying. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2013, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie-you-ever-saw/660666/83 "2013-06-12T15:28:26Z")
I remember being very frightened as a small child by some horror TV series of the anthology sort, a story about Jack the Ripper. Considering I was neither female nor a prostitute, amazingly effective horror! Still, I was VERY young. Other than that, the most horrifying stories I have encountered have been in book form. I read the short story that “The Thing” and its various remakes are based on, it frightened me a HELL of a lot more than any of the movies did, though once again, I was much younger when I read the story than when I saw the movies. Plus, I knew the story. So there’s that. Scariest book ever? 1984. ---
**Author:** ![Gangster\_Octopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a8b319/32.png) [@Gangster\_Octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gangster_Octopus)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2013, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie-you-ever-saw/660666/84 "2013-06-12T15:59:40Z")
The two that stick with me are _Event Horizon_ and _Jacob’s Ladder_. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2013, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie-you-ever-saw/660666/85 "2013-06-12T16:48:29Z")
> [@seal\_cleaner](#): > > Event Horizon This. ---
**Author:** ![Draelin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ce73a5/32.png) [@Draelin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Draelin)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2013, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie-you-ever-saw/660666/86 "2013-06-12T16:50:18Z")
I have never made it through _Event Horizon_. I always fall asleep somewhere around the airlock scene. ---
**Author:** ![RobDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f07891/32.png) [@RobDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RobDog)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2013, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie-you-ever-saw/660666/87 "2013-06-12T16:55:51Z")
For me it’s the original Time Machine with Rod Taylor. I watched it when I was about 8 and was absolutely terrified. For weeks afterwards I had nightmares about being dragged away by the Morlocks. ---
**Author:** ![Achren](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/898d66/32.png) [@Achren](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Achren)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2013, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie-you-ever-saw/660666/88 "2013-06-12T16:56:57Z")
When I would (as a young kid) stay with my grandparents for a couple weeks, they would never alter their viewing habits to allow for my youth. There was some episode of, I think, Unsolved Mysteries that gave me night terrors and to this day I can’t stand uncovered windows at night and don’t care for the dark. Haven’t been truly frightened by a horror movie apart from the not-very-good _They_ (It featured things in the dark that kidnap you and give you night terrors/nightmares, but it was such a bad movie I didn’t think it would bother me that much; had to sleep with my lamp on that night.) ---
**Author:** ![FallFast](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ba9def/32.png) [@FallFast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FallFast)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2013, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie-you-ever-saw/660666/89 "2013-06-12T17:49:50Z")
“Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark”, a made for tv movie that came out in 1973, scared the bejesus out of me. Little prune head things locked up in an old fireplace and finally somebody accidentally set them free. And now are trying to get that person. Just freaked me out. ---
**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 12, 2013, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie-you-ever-saw/660666/90 "2013-06-12T17:53:31Z")
> [@scabpicker](#): > > 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. I am a horror fan, but I strongly dislike reading King. I love (most of) his stories (when turned into movies), but I can not slog through his books and I’ve tried. There’s something about his writing style that bores me to tears. I didn’t even like The Shining (novel) and I wanted to - but it just didn’t scare me the way the movie did. ---
**Author:** ![Trom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/958977/32.png) [@Trom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trom)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2013, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie-you-ever-saw/660666/91 "2013-06-12T18:34:10Z")
Another vote for Event Horizon. ---
**Author:** ![Sr\_Siete](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6de8d8/32.png) [@Sr\_Siete](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sr_Siete)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2013, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie-you-ever-saw/660666/92 "2013-06-12T20:04:25Z")
> [@Ranchoth](#): > > _The Grey_ > > Made me understand what it must be like to be afraid of dogs, and _I grew up with_ lots of dogs. Liam Neeson making a whole bunch of terrible decisions one after the other is the really scary monster in that movie. ---
**Author:** ![Mixolydian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/da6949/32.png) [@Mixolydian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mixolydian)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2013, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie-you-ever-saw/660666/93 "2013-06-12T20:22:16Z")
Am I the first to mention John Carpenter’s _The Thing_, with Kurt Russell? ---
**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, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie-you-ever-saw/660666/94 "2013-06-12T22:45:44Z")
I liked _The Grey_ as a sort of Jack London throwback. Never really thought of it as a horror film before. > [@Mixolydian](#): > > Am I the first to mention John Carpenter’s _The Thing_, with Kurt Russell? No, I think it’s been mentioned at least twice. > [@Mauvaise](#): > > I am a horror fan, but I strongly dislike reading King. I love (most of) his stories (when turned into movies), but I can not slog through his books and I’ve tried. There’s something about his writing style that bores me to tears. > > I didn’t even like The Shining (novel) and I wanted to - but it just didn’t scare me the way the movie did. A haunted hotel that sneaks up on people is a ridiculous premise. King managed to make it not only creepy but threatening, not to mention a bestseller. And then Kubrick made an iconic, if not all that scary, film. A film based on a book that not only had a ridiculous premise, but also dippy scenes (look out, it’s a killer topiary!) and cliche characters (why, I’ve never seen an alcoholic struggling writer protagonist before). So hats off to both. ---
**Author:** ![Jungian\_Camisole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/8baadc/32.png) [@Jungian\_Camisole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jungian_Camisole)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2013, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie-you-ever-saw/660666/95 "2013-06-13T00:05:15Z")
I was laying on the couch watching Se7en. The scene: Sloth. I literally (really!) fell off the couch and nearly peed my shorts. Was not expecting that!! A good movie that I saw when I was a wee child was “Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?” Jeeeeezus, Bette Davis could play psychotic bitch better than anyone. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Noodles\_Fellicini](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/e36b37/32.png) [@Noodles\_Fellicini](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Noodles_Fellicini)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2013, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie-you-ever-saw/660666/96 "2013-06-13T00:12:58Z")
The 1980 version (not the 2005 remake) of _The Fog_. The sound of it was horrifying. ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2013, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie-you-ever-saw/660666/97 "2013-06-13T00:22:19Z")
Childhood scares: Seeing Vincent Price’s \*House of Wax \*on television…then being taken on a family trip to a wax museum. I’m amazed I could walk. I remember staring at the wax figures, terrified that I’d see evidence of real flesh beneath. Also, an episode of one of the anthology series (possibly _One Step Beyond_) in which there was a box that people looked into and were sucked inside by some creepy little blob of an alien that lived inside the box. (Maybe I dreamed this. Does this sound like a genuine episode to anyone?) As a young adult the most frightened I’ve ever been by a movie relates to…_Three Men and a Baby_. (!) This was when the theory that the ghost of a little boy is visible in the film was rampant. The theory was inspired by the fact that there’s a cut-off stand-up poster of Ted Danson’s character (I think), partly hidden behind curtains in the characters’ living room. I KNEW that it was merely a cut-off poster. But somehow the mental picture of this there-but-completely-unacknowledged-by-the-film-personnel GHOST got hold of my mind and creeped me out utterly. For several days I couldn’t look at similar windows-with-curtains without wondering what might be lurking there. Other than that: _The Ring_ bothered me more than most other scary movies, I guess. ---
**Author:** ![Patch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a183cd/32.png) [@Patch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patch)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2013, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie-you-ever-saw/660666/98 "2013-06-13T00:41:02Z")
> [@drewtwo99](#): > > As a kid I saw Evil Dead and that scared the bejeezus out of me. Heh. When I saw _Evil Dead_ in the theater with my brother, I was so transfixed by the movie I never noticed him bend down so he could grab my _opposite_ ankle, adjacent to an empty seat, at a tense moment in the film. I leaped out of the seat and screamed. Top movie that scared me was _The Shining_. Could not get past Room 237. The fact I was 10 at the time didn’t help. I think that’s helped heighten the scariness of the movie in my mind, as I still have trouble with that scene. ---
**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 13, 2013, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie-you-ever-saw/660666/99 "2013-06-13T01:09:41Z")
> [@mbh](#): > > As a small child: > The _Space 1999_ episode “Dragon’s Domain”. That’s one of the only episodes of _Space:1999_ that I still have memories of. It was really disturbing when I was a kid. I actually watched it again not long ago on YouTube. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2013, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie-you-ever-saw/660666/100 "2013-06-13T05:36:46Z")
I think I was 12 when I saw _A Man Called Horse_. The initiation ritual where they stuck claws in his chest and hoisted him up left me shaking. Nothing else in the movie is very scary, but that scene hit me hard for some reason. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie-you-ever-saw/660666.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie-you-ever-saw/660666.md?page=6)