# Scariest movie **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** movies\ **Created:** [July 14, 2025, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie/1020831 "2025-07-14T01:56:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2025, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie/1020831/1 "2025-07-14T01:56:55Z")
We’re watching _Fail Safe_ (1964). It just ended. I’ve often thought that _Johnny Got His Gun_ (1971) was the most depressing film I’ve seen. But I’ve always thought _Fail Safe_ was the scariest’… and most bleak. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2025, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie/1020831/2 "2025-07-14T02:10:50Z")
I really like Failsafe, but On the Beach, also packed quite the punch and was even more bleak. > **[On the Beach (1959 film)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Beach_(1959_film))** > > On the Beach is a 1959 American apocalyptic science fiction drama film, starring Gregory Peck, Ava Gardner, Fred Astaire, and Anthony Perkins. Produced and directed by Stanley Kramer, it is based on Nevil Shute's 1957 novel of the same title depicting the aftermath of a nuclear war. Unlike the novel, no one is assigned blame for starting the war, which attributes global annihilation to fear, compounded by accident or misjudgment. The film received mixed reviews from critics. > In 1964, World War... ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2025, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie/1020831/3 "2025-07-14T02:17:08Z")
I might have said _Night of the Living Dead_, because that movie scared the bejeebers out of me when I was 14. But I also just finished watching _Fail Safe_, and while it is a lot different than _Living Dead_, it is perhaps even more frightening. ---
**Author:** ![Si\_Amigo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/si_amigo/32/2877_2.png) [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2025, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie/1020831/4 "2025-07-14T02:26:31Z")
While I truely appreciate Failsafe as being very damn scary, I am starting to come to the realization that a Dr. Strangelove type of situation is actually becoming more possible. A irrationable person in power with oddball fanatical beliefs starting a nuclear war doesn’t seem too far fetched anymore. ---
**Author:** ![FlikTheBlue](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fliktheblue/32/10972_2.png) [@FlikTheBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlikTheBlue)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2025, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie/1020831/5 "2025-07-14T02:48:25Z")
I’ll go with the classic answer to this question, _The Exorcist_. It’s scary but not realistic, which in my book means it’s scary in an enjoyable way. Horror movies that are overly realistic just don’t do it for me. ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2025, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie/1020831/6 "2025-07-14T03:02:49Z")
As far as my initial reaction, and not with hindsight, definitely has to be the 1982 version of the Thing. Midnight TV showing. Suffice it to say I didn’t get much sleep afterwards. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2025, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie/1020831/7 "2025-07-14T03:20:47Z")
> [@Si\_Amigo](#): > > While I truely appreciate Failsafe as being very damn scary, I am starting to come to the realization that a Dr. Strangelove type of situation is actually becoming more possible. _Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb_ was not only always possible, much of the premise of the story and piercing dialogue was actually based on the lectures of RAND Corporation nuclear strategist and later Hudson Institute founder Herman Kahn (and satirist Terry Southern, who introduced the sexual innuendo that permeates the movie) despite being ostensibly based on Peter George’s novel _Red Alert_. From the binder labeled “World Targets in Megadeaths” to the Russians implementing a “Doomsday Device” that they didn’t bother to inform anyone about, the film was incredibly incisive and shockingly prescient. > [@John\_DiFool](#): > > As far as my initial reaction, and not with hindsight, definitely has to be the 1982 version of the Thing. Midnight TV showing. > > Suffice it to say I didn’t get much sleep afterwards. I didn’t sleep soundly for years after watching that movie as a ten(?) year old. The fantastic practical effects on that film still squig me out––especially the dog, and the spider-head––far more than any CGI tentacles, and certainly more than the quasi-prequel/remake/whatever that was tragically unconvincing. But the bleakest film I’ve ever seen is Charlie Kaufman’s [_Synecdoche, N.Y._](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0383028/) Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2025, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie/1020831/8 "2025-07-14T03:25:15Z")
> [@Spoons](#): > > I might have said _Night of the Living Dead_, because that movie scared the bejeebers out of me when I was 14. But I also just finished watching _Fail Safe_, and while it is a lot different than _Living Dead_, it is perhaps even more frightening. While watching _The Wizard of Oz_ sometime in the 1980s, my father told me when he was my age the flying monkeys scared the hell out of him. I was perplexed because nothing in that movie was frightening. I first saw NotLD circa 1986 and I was 9 or 10. Was it scary? Not in the least. Roger Ebert helped me put it into context. He wrote that when he saw NotLD there were a lot of children in the theater. A lot of horror movies back then were schlock films that really weren’t all that inappropriate for kids. But then you have this new movie where the deaths are fairly violent and gruesome (for the time) and the heroes die. It was like a slap in the face to those kids. I sometimes wonder what movies that scared me as a kid would cause a 12 year old to look at me and say, “You were a wimp, Uncle Odesio.” ---
**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:** [July 14, 2025, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie/1020831/9 "2025-07-14T03:29:55Z")
Scary? Depressing? Or both? Come and See Hereditary ---
**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:** [July 14, 2025, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie/1020831/10 "2025-07-14T03:34:34Z")
Scariest and most distressing is _Carrie_, but mostly because of the final scene. The lone surviving girl goes to Carrie’s grave with flowers, full of sympathy and sorrow. But it ends in total shock and terror when Carrie’s hand grabs her from the grave, and her dream becomes a nightmare. The girl’s mother tries to calm her hysterically screaming daughter, but that’s her life from now on: haunted by nightmares of Carrie the rest of her days. Eek! ---
**Author:** ![MacDoc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/macdoc/32/18696_2.png) [@MacDoc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacDoc)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2025, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie/1020831/11 "2025-07-14T03:36:38Z")
I agree that **Exorcist** is in the hunt. **Wait until Dark** …my gf at time landed in my lap. **Hepburn was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress** and the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama, while Zimbalist was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture. No spoilers 😈 **On the Beach** - bleak beauty - the book is even better. **The Day After** for real life scaring Oh yeah **Bambi** at a certain age ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2025, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie/1020831/12 "2025-07-14T03:38:55Z")
The 1970s remake of **Invasion of the Body Snatchers**. Scary _and_ depressing. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2025, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie/1020831/13 "2025-07-14T03:40:30Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > Scary? Depressing? Or both? > > Come and See I have to admit that _Come and See_ is one of the few movies I have ever walked out of a theater on; not because it is a bad movie but because it was so intense and horrifying, especially as you are seeing it from the perspective of a young boy experiencing the horrors of war. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2025, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie/1020831/14 "2025-07-14T03:41:14Z")
**Blue Velvet**. Every time Dennis Hopper comes on the screen, I want to leave the room. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2025, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie/1020831/15 "2025-07-14T03:53:39Z")
The thing about horror movies is that they’re fantasy. Yes, Monsters From Outer Space, Zombies, and Demons From Hell are scary, but you know they can’t happen. _Fail Safe_, and yes, _Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb_ are frightening on an existential level because they could actually happen. > [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > But the bleakest film I’ve ever seen is Charlie Kaufman’s [_Synecdoche, N.Y._](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0383028/) Saw it once. Bored the hell out of me (and my friend who was so anxious to see it). At this stage, I couldn’t tell you what it was about. ---
**Author:** ![griffin1977](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@griffin1977](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/griffin1977)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2025, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie/1020831/16 "2025-07-14T03:58:58Z")
So I’m sensing a pattern here… > [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > _Fail Safe_ (1964). > [@What\_Exit](#): > > On the Beach > [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > Dr. Strangelove > [@MacDoc](#): > > The Day After I don’t think you can underestimate the effect of growing up with the fear of instant nuclear destruction. My personal entry in that genre… > **[When the Wind Blows (1986 film)](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/When_the_Wind_Blows_(1986_film))** > > When the Wind Blows is a 1986 British adult animated disaster film directed by Jimmy Murakami based on Raymond Briggs' graphic novel of the same name. The film stars the voices of John Mills and Peggy Ashcroft as the two main characters and was scored by Roger Waters. The film recounts a rural English couple's attempt to survive a nearby nuclear attack and maintain a sense of normality in the subsequent fallout and nuclear winter. > Jim Bloggs and his wife Hilda are an aging couple, living in an... There is no way to describe how terrifying that was to a kid growing up in the UK in the 80s. Whether its still terrifying i couldn’t say as I’ve never had any desire to rewatch it. ---
**Author:** ![CairoCarol](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cairocarol/32/3825_2.png) [@CairoCarol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CairoCarol)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2025, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie/1020831/17 "2025-07-14T04:13:44Z")
> [@FlikTheBlue](#): > > I’ll go with the classic answer to this question, _The Exorcist_. It’s scary but not realistic, which in my book means it’s scary in an enjoyable way. Horror movies that are overly realistic just don’t do it for me. Agree that this is the scariest movie ever, but for different reasons. I married right out of grad school, and while I perceived of myself as an independent, fearless woman, the truth was that I had zero experience being totally alone at night, since I had always lived with my parents, in a dorm, or with my boyfriend/husband. Hubbie’s job involved considerable overnight travel, so I found myself alone in our DC-area house many nights. In a routine that cracks up the older me, whenever I was home alone I would move the dresser in front of the bedroom door so that no criminals could get into the room where I was sleeping. Anyway, one night while alone (in the early days of cable, nothing like the streaming services we have now, but still full of choices) I decided to watch _The Exorcist_. Remember how I said we were living in the DC area? Well. The shots of Georgetown in the movie were completely familiar to me. _That was super close to where I lived._ I turned off the movie, I was so scared. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2025, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie/1020831/18 "2025-07-14T04:27:12Z")
> [@Odesio](#): > > While watching _The Wizard of Oz_ sometime in the 1980s, my father told me when he was my age the flying monkeys scared the hell out of him. I was perplexed because nothing in that movie was frightening. I first saw NotLD circa 1986 and I was 9 or 10. I first saw it around age 4. They terrified me and I even had nightmares. At age 7 or 8, I doubt they would have fazed me. ---
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2025, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie/1020831/19 "2025-07-14T04:36:28Z")
I think the movie that scared me the most the first time I saw it was The Shining. I was literally shaking with fear. But I was pretty high, which may have contributed. ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2025, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie/1020831/20 "2025-07-14T04:53:04Z")
I think I must have seen **the Exorcist** parodied so many times that when I finally saw it I really didn’t think it was that scary. I’m gonna say **The Ring** (American version) is one of the few films I really found scary. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie/1020831.md?page=2)