# Scariest movie you've ever seen? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 23, 2018, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie-youve-ever-seen/820095 "2018-08-23T04:27:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2018, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie-youve-ever-seen/820095/1 "2018-08-23T04:27:43Z")
I’m a lightweight. I don’t even watch many horror movies and growing up, I saw none. I remember a friend of mine who, when we were in middle school, had an extensive conversation with me where he ranked all the Halloween movies. I was blown away that his parents had let him see them(on tape, I assume). Anyway, what movie you have seen did you find the scariest? I’ll go first. [Hereditary](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7784604/reference) Yeah, I have a thread about that right now. Holy crap, did this movie have whatever it takes to absolutely freak me out. I won’t spoil details here, but much more than any supernatural stuff, it’s the horror of loss, death, and trauma that shook me. I was shaken by that movie. I both recommend it _and_ warn everyone about it. It’s great…and a horrible experience. Weird. What movies did you find the scariest? ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2018, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie-youve-ever-seen/820095/2 "2018-08-23T04:35:08Z")
I have never, ever been as scared as I was as a small child watching the flying-monkeys scene in _The Wizard of Oz_. Nothing even comes close. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2018, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie-youve-ever-seen/820095/3 "2018-08-23T04:46:22Z")
Definitely the version of “Gaslight” starring Ingrid Bergman. The German-language version of “Funny Games” was a close second. I’m not into gore, but a psychological thriller? Much scarier! p.s. A few years ago, I started a thread like this on another website around Halloween time. The most unusual entry I got was “All The President’s Men”, which is more relevant than ever nowadays. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2018, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie-youve-ever-seen/820095/4 "2018-08-23T04:50:10Z")
_The Blair Witch Project._ I was able to suspend my disbelief enough to imagine it as if it had been real found footage. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2018, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie-youve-ever-seen/820095/5 "2018-08-23T04:54:20Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > _The Blair Witch Project._ I was able to suspend my disbelief enough to imagine it as if it had been real found footage. You mean it wasn’t? :eek: ---
**Author:** ![denquixote](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9bd4f/32.png) [@denquixote](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/denquixote)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2018, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie-youve-ever-seen/820095/6 "2018-08-23T05:15:05Z")
I don’t like horror movies at all unless Abbott and Costello are in them so the scariest movie I have ever seen is Wait Until Dark where Alan Arkin gives the greatest performance ever as a psychopath. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2018, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie-youve-ever-seen/820095/7 "2018-08-23T05:21:56Z")
Scooby doo scares me. My kids really love horror flicks. Not me, I don’t let them discuss them around me. Funny I can read Stephen King (daylight only), but I cannot watch it. My imaginings are never as bad as the movies. ---
**Author:** ![Paranoid\_Randroid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/paranoid_randroid/32/18_2.png) [@Paranoid\_Randroid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paranoid_Randroid)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2018, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie-youve-ever-seen/820095/8 "2018-08-23T12:30:51Z")
Hm. I watch a lot of horror movies, but at a certain point you grow desensitized; at this point I honestly can’t remember a movie scaring me, though one must have at some point. The last time I recall truly being terrified at something on a screen was when I was a very little kid and my older brothers forced me to watch Thriller. Recently Hereditary left me feeling pretty unsettled, if that counts. ---
**Author:** ![ZonexandScout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zonexandscout/32/544_2.png) [@ZonexandScout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZonexandScout)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2018, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie-youve-ever-seen/820095/9 "2018-08-23T12:42:29Z")
I’ll offer up a couple, but with the qualification that they scared me when I originally saw them in a theater. At the time, I had very little idea of exactly what sorts of films they were. I went in blind, so to speak. _ **The Thing** _ (1982) and _ **An American Werewolf in London** _ (1981). They seem pretty quaint now, and I watch them frequently with great enjoyment, but they were scary as hell at the time if you saw them late at night in a basically empty theater. ---
**Author:** ![Novelty\_Bobble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2018, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie-youve-ever-seen/820095/10 "2018-08-23T12:44:17Z")
I’m not a fan of “horror” films generally but I think “alien” counts and when I first saw it aged 12 or 13 it was something of a paradigm shift for me in terror and suspense. Nothing came close before and nothing has provoked the same reaction since. ---
**Author:** ![DerNils](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f14d63/32.png) [@DerNils](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DerNils)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2018, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie-youve-ever-seen/820095/11 "2018-08-23T12:46:06Z")
I think the last one that really got to me was “The Ring”. Quite an oldy now, but then I was new to Asian Horror, and it was really disturbing the first time around. Don’t know if it Counts as Horror per se, but the first Christmas Special of “Black Mirror” had a really, really terrifying ending that made my wife and me sit and stare at the screen for a full silent Minute. ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2018, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie-youve-ever-seen/820095/12 "2018-08-23T12:57:23Z")
I remember alternately jumping around and slumping in my seat while watching [Suspiria](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0076786/reference). It scared me so much that I went back to see it again a couple of days later with everyone I could drum up. Mind you a lot of my movie experiences in the 70s were chemically enhance. I was only thinking about the movie yesterday due to all the stuff about Asia Argento in the media. _Suspiria_ is the only one her father’s movies I have seen. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2018, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie-youve-ever-seen/820095/13 "2018-08-23T13:15:37Z")
**[Dinosarus](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinosaurus!)**. I was eight at the time. Since then, I can’t think of any moved that scared me. A few startled me, but that only pisses me off. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2018, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie-youve-ever-seen/820095/14 "2018-08-23T14:06:12Z")
> [@Novelty\_Bobble](#): > > I’m not a fan of “horror” films generally but I think “alien” counts and when I first saw it aged 12 or 13 it was something of a paradigm shift for me in terror and suspense. Nothing came close before and nothing has provoked the same reaction since. Yep. Saw that when I was about 19 with my roommate. I knew NOTHING about the film. Roomy and I where to freaked out to go back to our apartment, so ended up chilling out in a nice BRIGHTLY lit McD’s for a bit afterword. Also Schindlers List. Met a friend at the theater, we both drove alone. Now imagine an hour drive home at night on lonely roads in a rag top jeep in the winter. Home is isolated, and I lived alone. I was just basically very weirded out. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2018, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie-youve-ever-seen/820095/15 "2018-08-23T14:12:58Z")
**The Exorcist** , back in the day. More recently: **30 Days of Night** **Descent** ---
**Author:** ![blob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blob/32/489_2.png) [@blob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blob)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2018, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie-youve-ever-seen/820095/16 "2018-08-23T14:22:43Z")
I don’t like real horror movies much. Nowadays, if I watch them, I’ll only watch in the daytime, and stop and start it if it gets too unpleasant. One that I did find scary (I was quite young) was called “The Innocents”. It had Deborah Kerr as a governess in this creepy haunted house and the kids were ghosts or devils or something. It really creeped me out. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2018, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie-youve-ever-seen/820095/17 "2018-08-23T14:27:50Z")
The original, “Dawn of the Dead” (1978), gave me nightmares for three days. It was great. I was pretty jaded about horror films back then. ---
**Author:** ![Two\_Many\_Cats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8dc957/32.png) [@Two\_Many\_Cats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_Many_Cats)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2018, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie-youve-ever-seen/820095/18 "2018-08-23T14:31:05Z")
Movie that most scared me consistently throughout the film? _Halloween_, the original. It was the movie that all slasher flicks descended from, so none of the tropes were the cliches they later became. I felt wrung out afterward, and very impressed. Movie with the biggest single scare? _Carrie_, the original. The last scene. Again, not a cliche at the time. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2018, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie-youve-ever-seen/820095/19 "2018-08-23T14:33:13Z")
I’ll go with _Poltergeist_. Fuck that clown noise, man! ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2018, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie-youve-ever-seen/820095/20 "2018-08-23T14:48:30Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > _The Blair Witch Project._ I was able to suspend my disbelief enough to imagine it as if it had been real found footage. This. I don’t typically get “scared” watching horror movies because they are so cookie cutter predictable. I also like Paranormal Activity for the same reasons I liked BW. When the bad guy is an “Unseen force”, _those_ are the ones that creep me out. Come to think of it, “The Entity” (1982), which also features an unseen force, scared the HELL out of me when I was a kid. I take it back, “The Entity” is the most scared I’ve ever been watching a movie. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie-youve-ever-seen/820095.md?page=2)