# 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:** 4
**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, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie-youve-ever-seen/820095/61 "2018-08-24T03:03:47Z")
> [@Guest-starring\_Id](#): > > 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. Yeah, I thought she looked better before too. Thanks for answering 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![dorvann](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/df705f/32.png) [@dorvann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dorvann)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2018, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie-youve-ever-seen/820095/62 "2018-08-24T03:04:09Z")
I find this question interesting because when I was growing up as a kid in the 80s I use to watch all sorts of horror and slasher films including Friday The 13th, Nightmare on Elm Street, and The Halloween series. And I watched some pretty gory films as well The Thing, The Fly, and Robocop. I was nauseated little by the graphic violence, but I was never really scared by them. I watched Psycho for the first time when I was 25 and frankly it creeped me out and scared more than any other film. Part of the reason for that is that Norman Bates isn’t portrayed as some over the top horror slasher; for the most of the film he just seems like a normal guy who could be anyone’s neighbor. The film just has level of creepiness that most modern horror films can’t match. ---
**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, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie-youve-ever-seen/820095/63 "2018-08-24T03:15:37Z")
[QUOTE=burpo the wonder mutt;21165911Do you mean “The Haunting,” with Julie Harris, or, “Beyond the Door,” with Juliet (Nanny and the Professor) Mills?[/QUOTE] The first I think thank you ---
**Author:** ![Labdad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/439d5e/32.png) [@Labdad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labdad)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2018, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie-youve-ever-seen/820095/64 "2018-08-24T03:15:43Z")
“The Exorcist” in terms of pure fright. Saw it on News Years Day in a first run theater. When Merrin and the other priest went into Regan’s room to perform the excorcism, they dropped the temperature in the theater ten degrees. I was scared shitless. “The Haunting” for general fear. Also saw that in a movie theater. Very scary! For general creepiness, “Freaks.” Jeez Louise! When the guy with no arms and legs went wriggling through the mud in the rainstorm with the knife in his teeth, I wanted to crawl under the seat! The common thread for all these films is I saw them in a movie theater. No better way to get scared! ---
**Author:** ![Sunny\_Daze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunny_daze/32/438_2.png) [@Sunny\_Daze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunny_Daze)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2018, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie-youve-ever-seen/820095/65 "2018-08-24T03:25:28Z")
> [@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. Ha! Not in the fridge, but, yes, there were various gory mementos from his films around the house. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2018, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie-youve-ever-seen/820095/66 "2018-08-24T03:28:04Z")
I really like it when a movie scares me – problem is, most of them are too cheesy to scare me. I was 14 in 1975 when Jaws came out. That was kinda-pretty scary. It was pretty good. But for me, like Novelty Bobble and enipla and others, it was Alien (1979). I was 18 years old it was very scary. **In space, no one can hear you scream** – that was the tag line. _And someone please tell me, why the fuck did she go back for that damned cat!_ ---
**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 24, 2018, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie-youve-ever-seen/820095/67 "2018-08-24T03:36:59Z")
> [@dorvann](#): > > I watched Psycho for the first time when I was 25 and frankly it creeped me out and scared more than any other film. Part of the reason for that is that Norman Bates isn’t portrayed as some over the top horror slasher; for the most of the film he just seems like a normal guy who could be anyone’s neighbor. The film just has level of creepiness that most modern horror films can’t match. Amazingly, I didn’t see Psycho until I was about 20 _and_ I didn’t know the twist about Norman dressing up as his mother and that he was the murderer. I knew Janet Leigh would die and had seen the shower scene before. However, when Norman is shown in the dress with the knife over his head, I was totally scared and blown away. Jaw dropped. Shocked. A great movie moment and I got it 40 years after release. ---
**Author:** ![Dropo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ce7236/32.png) [@Dropo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dropo)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2018, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie-youve-ever-seen/820095/68 "2018-08-24T03:37:00Z")
> [@Labdad](#): > > For general creepiness, “Freaks.” Jeez Louise! When the guy with no arms and legs went wriggling through the mud in the rainstorm with the knife in his teeth, I wanted to crawl under the seat! > **[Prince Randian - Biography - IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1717150/bio/?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm)** > > Prince Randian. Actor: Freaks. Prince Randian was born in the Demarara district, British Guyana in 1871, the child of British Indian slaves. Born with tetra-amelia syndrome (the lacking of all four limbs), little is known about his early life or how... ---
**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, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie-youve-ever-seen/820095/69 "2018-08-24T03:38:52Z")
> [@Bullitt](#): > > _And someone please tell me, why the fuck did she go back for that damned cat!_ A superstition about ships’ cats, I’ve always assumed ---
**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 24, 2018, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie-youve-ever-seen/820095/70 "2018-08-24T03:44:01Z")
> [@Labdad](#): > > The common thread for all these films is I saw them in a movie theater. No better way to get scared! Movie theatres can be creepy even without a scary movie. I go to a lot of movies when they are about to end their run (cheap tickets). I went to one recently and for some reason it was in one of the bigger cinemas. There was only me, and another couple in there. It was kind of creepy. > [@Bullitt](#): > > _And someone please tell me, why the fuck did she go back for that damned cat!_ It’s the rules. People in horror flicks MUST act stupidly. Somebody creeping about outside your house? Open the door and go outside… People getting systematically chopped up and you don’t know who is doing it? Trust somebody and hang out with them… etc. ---
**Author:** ![Sefton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@Sefton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sefton)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2018, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie-youve-ever-seen/820095/71 "2018-08-24T03:52:27Z")
I heard good reviews of [The Collector](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0844479/?ref_=nv_sr_1), so I saw it in the theater. Big mistake. Not just death, but torture. I walked out a third of the way through. ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2018, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie-youve-ever-seen/820095/72 "2018-08-24T03:58:09Z")
> [@blob](#): > > It’s the rules. People in horror flicks MUST act stupidly. Somebody creeping about outside your house? Open the door and go outside… People getting systematically chopped up and you don’t know who is doing it? Trust somebody and hang out with them… > > etc. Yes, must be the rules. Scary movie? Every red-blooded American heterosexual male (and not only that group) should watch Deliverance. It is pretty scary. Squeal like a pig. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Ashtura](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ashtura/32/2963_2.png) [@Ashtura](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ashtura)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2018, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie-youve-ever-seen/820095/73 "2018-08-24T04:16:54Z")
As a kid, anything remotely scary scared me. Even cartoons. As a teenager, not much. Yeah, jump scares but they don’t really count. As an adult, event horizon freaked me out, the Ring too. Dead Girl and the Evil Dead remake got to me and I had to turn them off. i avoid torture porn movies but otherwise I’m pretty desensitized now. Can’t remember the last one that scared me. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2018, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie-youve-ever-seen/820095/74 "2018-08-24T04:39:37Z")
> [@Slash1972](#): > > Can you explain your thoughts here more? I’m not getting how The Breakfast Club could be scary. > [@Guest-starring\_Id](#): > > 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. I thought it was going to be about that [“act against nature”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fT1EbZH0YVs) of a sandwich\* that Ally Sheedy made. - Starts at about the 1:20 mark. What a relief, years later I imagined that I saw Ally adding dandruff to her sandwich as a finishing touch! Turns out that was from another scene when she enhances her drawing with “snow”. ---
**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 24, 2018, 7:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie-youve-ever-seen/820095/75 "2018-08-24T07:30:00Z")
> [@Sunny\_Daze](#): > > Ha! Not in the fridge, but, yes, there were various gory mementos from his films around the house. 😃 😃 I bet he didn’t even have kids. If I were John Carpenter I’d hire babysitters anyway just so I could fine-tune my horror movie tropes. Did you ever investigate a “noise” ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2018, 7:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie-youve-ever-seen/820095/76 "2018-08-24T07:39:47Z")
When I was 8 or 9 years old my family (and my 4 siblings) visited with family friends at their house. We kids, along with their 3 kids, watched the original King Kong with Fay Wray, from 1933. This was in the late 1960s. I don’t remember it being all that scary, but it must’ve been because, as family lore has it, that night I had a nightmare and was sleep walking and crying and scared and trying to climb the bedroom wall just like King Kong climbing the Empire State Building, and I peed my pants. I deny it all. ---
**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 24, 2018, 7:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie-youve-ever-seen/820095/77 "2018-08-24T07:44:12Z")
> [@Bullitt](#): > > I deny it all. You’re lucky it was the 60s, otherwise you’d be all over youtube and unable to deny it. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2018, 10:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie-youve-ever-seen/820095/78 "2018-08-24T10:03:40Z")
> [@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. > [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > You mean it wasn’t? :eek: What does it say about us as a culture? We find footage of children being murdered, and what do we do with it? Why, we release it in theaters! Of course. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2018, 10:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie-youve-ever-seen/820095/79 "2018-08-24T10:12:30Z")
> [@RikWriter](#): > > I watched the Thing on HBO when I was about 15, late at night with the sound turned way down so I didn’t wake my parents up, sitting really close to the screen. When the guy got his arms bitten off trying to defibrillate the infected dude I about shit myself. And then THAT guy stretched his neck so far that his head fell off, and crab legs started growing out of his face and he skittered under the table. That was some mighty fine acting, right there. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2018, 10:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie-youve-ever-seen/820095/80 "2018-08-24T10:20:02Z")
> [@harmonicamoon](#): > > The shinning. > [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](#): > > You mean, “The Shining.” 😉 [Maybe not.](https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0701281/mediaviewer/rm1989806336) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie-youve-ever-seen/820095.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie-youve-ever-seen/820095.md?page=5)