I never found The Exorcist or The Shining to be that scary, tbh. I guess maybe because by the time I saw them I was already familiar with them both from parodies and pop culture references. I also watched many horror films when I was a little kid, when I was 9 years old my favorite movie was Psycho and when I was 12 my favorite film was Silence of the Lambs! I’d rent films from the Nightmare on Elm Street & **Halloween **series on my way home from elementary school!
The one film where I was truly scared watching was, as many people have already mentioned, The Ring. That fucking closet scene. I still to this day look away when that shot is coming because that face just *terrified *me and I still have the image of it burned into my mind. I remember saying to my friend when the film had ended that that was the first time I really thought a film was scary.
I’m sure it’s a cheese-fest but when I saw it in late December 1987 (age 13) it scared me so much I didn’t sleep that night.
In the mid-80, a local videoclub had a huge poster for Alien Encounters which gave me nightmares (should be SFW but broken just in case:
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The movie itself was meh but I saw it much later.
Most of these movie had one thging in common: people unable to leave a strange place (room, hotel, boat) becoming the victims of of an evil, invisible entity.
Serial killers never scared me much. I realize that they exist and that something similar to what you see in slasher movies could happen to you but, no matter how fucked-up and dangerous they are, they’re just human beings. You can outsmart them, they can make mistakes and they are obey the same laws of physics as you. Ghosts and demons, not so much.
I can’t believe somebody outside my group of friends has actually seen Death Ship. My favorite part about it is that it is always daytime on the Death Ship.
The original Night of the Living Dead, in no small part because it was third on a triple feature, the first two films being WC Fields comedies. The contrast made it scarier.
For very similar reasons my answer is Pacific Heights. I don’t know how well known it is. The thing I find so terrifying about it is that nothing or unrealistic happens. Awful, awful stuff happens to ordinary people, perpetrated by a charismatic guy for no discernible reason. He pretty much ruins them after apparently choosing them at random.
My mom has always said The Birds. Her reasoning is that they’re ordinary birds that we wouldn’t be surprised to see in our own yard, and the movie offers no explanation as to why they showed up or why they left.
If I could take back that night at the drive-in back in 1975 when my parents took me to see Jaws… I would. I have had a shark phobia since. When I was a kid, I’d even get the heebie jeebies in a swimming pool. Even now, it takes some nerves to swim in a lake, river, or the ocean and at night is near impossible.
I’d also second the original Night of the Living Dead.
You know, I saw The Shining as a kid and I can’t remember being that scared of it at all. I do remember liking it a lot but I haven’t seen it since I was like 12 or so.
Because it was mentioned, Event Horizon was the first R rated movie my parents let me see in theaters with them. I was a young teen at the time and my dad made a BIG deal about me not telling anyone that he let me see it because he was pretty conservative and religious and it was a violent scary movie. I do remember it being pretty scary and liking it a lot, but I was a kid, and don’t have any strong memories.
Now that it was mentioned, I think The Descent is the only other “truly scary” movie I have seen since The Ring. I don’t make a habit of watching scary movies anymore because I’m prone to nightmares and I think they exacerbate them.
The Ring is easily one of my favorite movies of all time and I think it is pretty much the quintessential perfect mystery-horror (as opposed to slasher horror or gory horror or torture porn horror). But yeah definitely one of the most terrifying when I first saw it for those few truly scary moments. When I go back and watch it now I can appreciate what a great movie it really is and not be so damn terrified, but the first time through you just have no idea what to expect and it just builds suspense so damn perfectly, and truly frightens you just a few unforgettable times. But, my dad just thought it was stupid and predictable so, evidently it doesn’t impress everyone! I don’t think my dad ever gets scared by movies though, haha.
Also, I feel sorry for those of you who haven’t been able to block out “the closet scene” from The Ring. Haha. I’m so glad I can’t remember that face anymore.
Dead of Night (1945) - the ventriloquist segment. Hugo Fitchis truly terrifying and a bravura performance from Michael Redgrave as his victimised (and probably barking mad) co-star helps make it more convincing.
Burnt Offerings, with Karen Black and Oliver Reed. The ending with their poor son screaming in horror has always haunted me, not to mention the rest of it.
Stephen King’s IT**,(Spoiler if you’ve never seen it) Only the first part is good when they are children as opposed to when they grow up and the clown turns out to be a giant spider.
When I was a wee lad in Indiana, my parents took me to the Ringling Bros circus when it came through Louisville, KY (the closest big city). We managed to get seats in the front row. I was maybe 4, and have very vague memories of this. The clowns showed up in their car, and FLOCKED TO ME. I started freaking the fuck out. The clowns (this I vividly remember) kept trying to get me from my parents so that I could go in their car with them. The harder I cried, the harder it seemed like they tried to get me away.
Fast forward a few years. I’m staying by myself for the first time as my parents go out to try to patch up their failing marriage. I’m watching Poltergeist.
That fucking clown doll STILL haunts me sometimes.
