# 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:** 3
**Author:** ![Marvin\_the\_Martian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/marvin_the_martian/32/2898_2.png) [@Marvin\_the\_Martian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marvin_the_Martian)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2018, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie-youve-ever-seen/820095/41 "2018-08-23T21:43:03Z")
Six years old. _Bambi._ Forest fire. Nightmares I can still remember. ---
**Author:** ![Ambivalid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a5b964/32.png) [@Ambivalid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ambivalid)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2018, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie-youve-ever-seen/820095/42 "2018-08-23T21:47:54Z")
The time in my life and circumstances in which I watched it probably had a lot to do with it but the most frightened ive ever been from a movie was “The Shining”. I watched it alone in my basement at night as a 12 year old, however. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Stafford\_Cripps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_stafford_cripps/32/7167_2.png) [@The\_Stafford\_Cripps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Stafford_Cripps)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2018, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie-youve-ever-seen/820095/43 "2018-08-23T21:47:58Z")
**Don’t Look Now**. It has almost no violence, but I’m not sure I could watch it again. ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2018, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie-youve-ever-seen/820095/44 "2018-08-23T21:56:09Z")
Some great ones have already been mentioned, like [rec] and the American version Quarantine, The Paranormal Activity series (which are all pretty much the same move, but it got me every time) I will add a personal fave, **Grave Encounters** , and a great one on Netflix now, **Residue**. > **[Grave Encounters (2011) - IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1703199/)** > > Grave Encounters: Directed by Colin Minihan, Stuart Ortiz, The Vicious Brothers. With Benjamin Wilkinson, Sean Rogerson, Ashleigh Gryzko, Merwin Mondesir. For their ghost hunting reality show, a production crew locks themselves inside an abandoned... > **[Residue (2017) - IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5009286/)** > > Residue: Directed by Rusty Nixon. With James Clayton, Taylor Hickson, Matt Frewer, Costas Mandylor. A private investigator reads a book of sinister origins and unknowingly puts his daughter and himself in a fight for their lives...and their eternal... ---
**Author:** ![teela\_brown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d9b06d/32.png) [@teela\_brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teela_brown)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2018, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie-youve-ever-seen/820095/45 "2018-08-23T22:37:39Z")
About five years ago I was home with a bad cold. I had heard that _The Thing_ was a great movie, but I had always been too scared to watch it. I felt silly about that, so I made up my mind to watch it that day. I was shivering with both fear and fever chills by the time that thing was over. I’d watch it again if my husband was with me, but he’s not into horror/sci fi and delayed plot exposition. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2018, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie-youve-ever-seen/820095/46 "2018-08-23T22:47:52Z")
**The Innocents** is terribly unsettling. Ghosts only appear three times, but the first and third will suck your balls back up into your torso. Big fan of **The Ring** , which led me to **Ringu** and the flood of J-horror films that came out at the time. I think the scariest was **Pulse** (2001), about the dead finding their way back into the world through the internet, because of A) the whole thing with the red tape B) the dead woman attacking one of the protagonists C) the offhand yet ghastly images in the backgrounds in the last 20 minutes… 1. the woman suicide dropping from the oil tower 2. the crashing airplane. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2018, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie-youve-ever-seen/820095/47 "2018-08-23T22:53:58Z")
For movies first seen as a child, most definitely The Wizard of Oz. As an adult? Probably Silence of the Lambs. I mean, I know it’s a movie, it’s NOT real. But that scene when Clarice first interviews Hannibal freaked me out.The man was so horrifying that even though I knew it was acting, and the dude was confined, I nearly peed myself. Anthony Hopkins deserved his Oscar, on the strength of that one scene. Remember when he gave that little his through hiss teeth? ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2018, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie-youve-ever-seen/820095/48 "2018-08-23T23:01:11Z")
When I was 9, my friend’s mom took us to **The Legend of Boggy Creek** , and I think that film haunted my nightmares for a decade. In retrospect, though, it was pretty cheesy. Someone else mentioned the original **Dawn of the Dead** , which I saw at a midnight showing in an old theater in Dallas whose AC was out, so the back door onto the parking lot and woods was open the whole movie…the movie would have scared me shitless on its own, but somehow that open, dark door added to it. I have never seen any of the slasher films that came out in the 80s, and I went through about 20 years of seeing basically no horror, but recently my daughter and I have been bonding via horror movies - mostly the demonic or psychological tension type, less so vampires and such. As such, I recently watched **Blair Witch** for the first time, and man was that effective horror. We both rank that #2 in the 25 or so films we’ve watched together in the last few years. ---
**Author:** ![Jennshark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Jennshark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jennshark)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2018, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie-youve-ever-seen/820095/49 "2018-08-23T23:29:54Z")
Jacob’s Ladder. I saw it in the theatre and had a horrible nightmare that night about sifting through piles of guts in its hospital setting – the combo of the film, which was very disturbing, and subsequent nightmare = terrifying. Remember those cheesy “Mondo Cane” “documentaries”? I saw those waaay too young, certain scenes still bother me. ---
**Author:** ![Jennshark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Jennshark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jennshark)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2018, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie-youve-ever-seen/820095/50 "2018-08-23T23:32:52Z")
> [@blondebear](#): > > [[REC]](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1038988/?ref_=tttr_tr_tt) is right up there for me. Not for people who hate POV/shaky cam, but if you “liked” Blair Witch you should check it out. I thought the first “Paranormal Activity” was quite effective - does it also fit in the shaky cam/found footage oeuvre? ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2018, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie-youve-ever-seen/820095/51 "2018-08-23T23:40:13Z")
The scariest thing I ever saw as a kid wasn’t really a movie but [a two-part episode](http://littlehouse.wikia.com/wiki/Episode_717:_Sylvia_(Part_1)) of _Little House on the Prairie_, of all things. No real movie ever scared me that much. The original _Halloween_ probably came closest. ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2018, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie-youve-ever-seen/820095/52 "2018-08-23T23:53:38Z")
I found [_The Attic_](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078806/?ref_=nv_sr_8c) deeply disturbing when I watched it for the first time. It’s one of those slow-moving things that builds the mood below your perceptions; it didn’t identify itself as a horror movie so I thought it was a Lifetime Movie or even a HallMark or After School Special kind of thingie. Holy shit. ---
**Author:** ![Guest-starring\_Id](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guest-starring_id/32/21736_2.png) [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2018, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie-youve-ever-seen/820095/53 "2018-08-24T00:28:12Z")
Actually _The Breakfast Club_ kinda gave me the willies. > [@denquixote](#): > > 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. Oh he wasn’t that [bad.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fO8Z0F_CQ_o&t=118s) > [@Maserschmidt](#): > > When I was 9, my friend’s mom took us to **The Legend of Boggy Creek** , and I think that film haunted my nightmares for a decade. In retrospect, though, it was pretty cheesy. It was primarily the [sound](https://youtu.be/E9V44D9xZ70?t=56) of the monster that always stuck with this freaked-out 9 y.o. heh - who did the soundtrack for _Boggy_? Robert Moog? ---
**Author:** ![River\_Hippie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/river_hippie/32/26_2.png) [@River\_Hippie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/River_Hippie)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2018, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie-youve-ever-seen/820095/54 "2018-08-24T01:15:18Z")
Another vote for The Exorcist. ---
**Author:** ![JohnGalt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johngalt/32/184_2.png) [@JohnGalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnGalt)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2018, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie-youve-ever-seen/820095/55 "2018-08-24T01:31:38Z")
> [@bibliophage](#): > > The scariest thing I ever saw as a kid wasn’t really a movie but [a two-part episode](http://littlehouse.wikia.com/wiki/Episode_717:_Sylvia_(Part_1)) of _Little House on the Prairie_, of all things. No real movie ever scared me that much. The original _Halloween_ probably came closest. As soon as you said two-parter, I knew right away which one you meant. I rewatched it lately and now it’s just meh, more silly scary than realistic. Perhaps when it was first on, I liked it because I had a teen-age crush on [Olivia Barash](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000848/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1). > [@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. I was a Scoutmaster when TBWP came out, spending lots of time sleeping in tents in strange woods. To this day I can’t stand the sound of tent zippers opening, partly due to the movie, but also it meant that one of the scouts had just thrown up in their sleeping bag or had to pee. > [@Chefguy](#): > > **The Exorcist** , back in the day. > > More recently: > **30 Days of Night** > **Descent** I had read **The Exorcist** novel before seeing the movie, so I thought I knew what to expect. Nope, the movie was worse. > [@Two\_Many\_Cats](#): > > 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. Only time I actually jumped out of my seat. Even now, decades later, if I see this scene on TV it makes me tear up, thinking how the Amy Irving character is going crazy by the trauma. I guess now I relate more to how her mother tries to comfort her helplessly. > [@Baker](#): > > For movies first seen as a child, most definitely The Wizard of Oz. > > As an adult? Probably Silence of the Lambs. I mean, I know it’s a movie, it’s NOT real. But that scene when Clarice first interviews Hannibal freaked me out.The man was so horrifying that even though I knew it was acting, and the dude was confined, I nearly peed myself. Anthony Hopkins deserved his Oscar, on the strength of that one scene. Remember when he gave that little his through hiss teeth? I saw SITL in a movie theater, by myself. On the way home, walking back to my car, I was scared shitless. Never mind that it was a matinee, and it was a bright sunny day. I caught myself looking carefully at the other parked cars, and checking out my backseat before I got in. Just writing about it gives me the willies. ---
**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 24, 2018, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie-youve-ever-seen/820095/56 "2018-08-24T02:12:38Z")
> [@Novelty\_Bobble](#): > > Whoa! you can’t just drop that little nugget in there and pretend nothing happened. > > At least tell us that he kept a model severed head in the fridge or something. That was no model! :eek: There were a couple mentions of _The Silence of the Lambs_. I’ll tell you how good a film that was. It came out in January and _still_ won Best Picture the following year. Just about unheard of for January releases, but it was that memorable. ---
**Author:** ![j666](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de0a6/32.png) [@j666](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/j666)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2018, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie-youve-ever-seen/820095/57 "2018-08-24T02:14:44Z")
The Haunting with Juliette Mills ---
**Author:** ![Slash1972](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slash1972/32/6461_2.png) [@Slash1972](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slash1972)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2018, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie-youve-ever-seen/820095/58 "2018-08-24T02:19:12Z")
> [@Guest-starring\_Id](#): > > Actually _The Breakfast Club_ kinda gave me the willies. Can you explain your thoughts here more? I’m not getting how The Breakfast Club could be scary. ---
**Author:** ![Guest-starring\_Id](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guest-starring_id/32/21736_2.png) [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2018, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie-youve-ever-seen/820095/59 "2018-08-24T02:44:38Z")
> [@Slash1972](#): > > Can you explain your thoughts here more? I’m not getting how The Breakfast Club could be scary. Clare giving Allison, like, the worst beauty makeover, ever. I was pissed about how much it sucked, and then got a bit squicked out over it, and then it was like…a shudder, went through me, which I found quite unsettling, and ultimately, getting freaked out by it. I realise it was '85, which I lived through, and, well, I lived through it. ---
**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 24, 2018, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie-youve-ever-seen/820095/60 "2018-08-24T02:56:39Z")
> [@Maserschmidt](#): > > \ Someone else mentioned the original **Dawn of the Dead** , which I saw at a midnight showing in an old theater in Dallas whose AC was out, so the back door onto the parking lot and woods was open the whole movie…the movie would have scared me shitless on its own, but somehow that open, dark door added to it. \ I’d’ve been going home in a rubber truck. > [@j666](#): > > The Haunting with Juliette Mills Do you mean “The Haunting,” with Julie Harris, or, “Beyond the Door,” with Juliet (Nanny and the Professor) Mills? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie-youve-ever-seen/820095.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie-youve-ever-seen/820095.md?page=4)