# 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:** 3
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2025, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie/1020831/41 "2025-07-14T16:03:58Z")
> [@FlikTheBlue](#): > > It’s scary but not realistic, which in my book means it’s scary in an enjoyable way. Which I _think_ is the opposite of what the OP was going for by nominating _Fail Safe_ as the “scariest.” ---
**Author:** ![Red\_Wiggler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/red_wiggler/32/13190_2.png) [@Red\_Wiggler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Red_Wiggler)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2025, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie/1020831/42 "2025-07-14T16:06:10Z")
Glad you mentioned that one. I must’ve been 5 or 6 when the original Thing showed up on our tv and I made the mistake of watching it alone. Big mistake. ---
**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, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie/1020831/43 "2025-07-14T16:21:36Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > > [@FlikTheBlue](#): > > > > It’s scary but not realistic, which in my book means it’s scary in an enjoyable way. > > Which I _think_ is the opposite of what the OP was going for by nominating _Fail Safe_ as the “scariest.” IMHO (in my head cannon) there’s two separate categories. There’s those movies, whether _The Exorcist, A Nightmare on Elm Street, The Conjuring, Friday the 13th, Annabelle_, etc. which are more in the realm of fantasy about monsters, spirits, ghosts, demons, etc. I would go so far as to include movies that depend on “jump scares” in this category. Then there’s movies that cause me to feel more a feeling of dread rather than the “scary” that the above movies go for. Whether that be the nuclear war movies mentioned by several posters, or dystopias featured in movies like _The Purge_ or shows like _Handmaid’s Tale_, the feeling they produce in me is definitely different than the those in the category I mentioned above. And not in a pleasant way. I generally refuse to watch movies in this second category, although somehow I did end up watching one recently thinking that it was actually a movie from the first category. _Clown in a Cornfield_, had it not mixed in some pop up scares and such, is a contender, since the villains are a bunch of middle aged corrupt MAGA type small town business men and cops who are tired that their children are becoming corrupted by the liberal outside world. ---
**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:** [July 14, 2025, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie/1020831/44 "2025-07-14T16:33:07Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > > [@kaylasdad99](#): > > > > _Zombieland_. Sorry, but if its primary aim is not to make me laugh, it’s not even on my radar. > > I can understand that you didn’t find it funny, but do you really find it to be one of the scarier movies you’ve seen? Sorry, I didn’t make myself clear. _Zombieland_ is the funniest horror film I’ve ever seen. The fact that it’s (nominally) a horror movie is what qualifies it as belonging on a list of the “scariest.” ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2025, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie/1020831/45 "2025-07-14T16:36:02Z")
HOMER SIMPSON: You know that movie, _Young Frankenstein_? Scared the hell out of me! MEL BROOKS: Um, thanks. ---
**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, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie/1020831/46 "2025-07-14T16:41:48Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > Which I _think_ is the opposite of what the OP was going for by nominating _Fail Safe_ as the “scariest.” No, I meant scariest movie. I chose _Fail Safe_ because I, personally, found it scary because, as I said upthread, it could have happened. Sure, there are scary horror movies; but for me, reality is more frightening. (I had a friend who used to say of horror movie creatures, ‘Eh, you’re too ugly to be scary.’) ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2025, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie/1020831/47 "2025-07-14T16:43:15Z")
This was my experience with **The Exorcist**. I was in college, early 80s. Both of my roommates were gone for the weekend. I got home from work around 11:30pm, I wasn’t tired and wanted to go do something, but it was too late to be calling around. I saw that The Exorcist was playing as the midnight movie at the student union that weekend, and I hadn’t ever seen it, so I walked over and saw it by myself. OK, so you know the scene early in the movie, before the possession, when they think they are hearing rats up in the attic? Well, I’m back home after the show, already having a hard time getting to sleep because I was a little freaked out by the movie, when my roommate’s cat starts scratching at my door. 😯 I don’t think I’ve ever actually seen it since then. There have been a few times I’ve wanted to pull it up on streaming, but my wife absolutely will _not_ watch it. ---
**Author:** ![jnglmassiv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f07891/32.png) [@jnglmassiv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jnglmassiv)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2025, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie/1020831/48 "2025-07-14T16:48:58Z")
The X-Files - Home left me disturbed, unnerved, shook. ---
**Author:** ![JohnnyEcks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnnyecks/32/18197_2.png) [@JohnnyEcks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnnyEcks)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2025, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie/1020831/49 "2025-07-14T17:15:58Z")
Deliver Us From Evil, 2006 Documentary about a child raping priest, retired and living on his pension in Ireland. The interview with him is possibly the most horrific thing I’ve ever seen, because he simply seemed unable to understand that he had done anything wrong. The idea that normal seeming people could be walking around, functioning in society, and yet be a complete moral void- it’s frightening in a way that no fictional monster could ever be. ---
**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:** [July 14, 2025, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie/1020831/50 "2025-07-14T17:31:54Z")
> [@Spoons](#): > > I might have said _Night of the Living Dead_, because that movie scared the bejeebers out of me when I was 14. It was for me, and I was in my 30s at the time. I was standing a lone night watch, on call for urgent maintenance issues. The building was completely empty but for me, and the bunk room had a TV to keep things from being completely boring. Anyway, I came back from a call-out and thought “Let’s see if there’s anything on the toob.” I turned on the TV and there are these two people walking through a cemetery and arguing. In other words, the opening scenes of NOTLD. But I had no idea what I was watching and had never heard of the movie, so as it started moving along I was like “HOLY FUCKING SHIT, WHAT IS THIS?!” Didn’t sleep much that night. ---
**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, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie/1020831/51 "2025-07-14T17:34:00Z")
> [@jnglmassiv](#): > > The X-Files - Home left me disturbed, unnerved, shook. That ain’t nuthin’. Watch Imprint from Masters of Horror, directed by Takashi Miike. Even Showtime refused to show it. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2025, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie/1020831/52 "2025-07-14T18:02:36Z")
If you are a bachelor older than 30, _Remains of the Day_ is terrifying. ---
**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, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie/1020831/53 "2025-07-14T18:52:14Z")
> [@mbh](#): > > _Remains of the Day_ is terrifying. The most infuriating, soul-crushing film I have ever seen. ---
**Author:** ![SuntanLotion](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/suntanlotion/32/16165_2.png) [@SuntanLotion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SuntanLotion)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2025, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie/1020831/54 "2025-07-14T18:53:14Z")
Helter Skelter. Not the _movie_, but that it really happened. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2025, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie/1020831/55 "2025-07-14T19:21:29Z")
> [@CairoCarol](#): > > Anyway, one night while alone A friend of mine, who had never lived alone-- always at home or a dorm, was housesitting for a professor over winter break. One evening, she went looking over his books for something to read, and found a book she’d always been curious about… …_Helter Skelter._ ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2025, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie/1020831/56 "2025-07-14T19:41:27Z")
I would say it is a tie between _Bob Roberts_ and _Wag the Dog_. Scary in that I can see them easily happening (recently, I think they ARE happening!). When they were new, seeing how easy it could be to manipulate the masses scared me deeply. Third might be _The Parallax View_, and whenever they talk about trump’s “assassination attempt”, I think of this movie. > [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](#): > > I’m gonna say **The Ring** (American version) is one of the few films I really found scary. One of the few horror movies that actually scared me at a fundamental level. The entirety of the Ring video was a bonus feature of the DVD. I would not watch it! “Seven days.” click ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2025, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie/1020831/57 "2025-07-14T19:49:01Z")
John Carpenter’s “The Thing”. Ones that scared me as a kid: OG “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” and “Fiend Without a Face”. ---
**Author:** ![Llama\_Llogophile](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@Llama\_Llogophile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Llama_Llogophile)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2025, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie/1020831/58 "2025-07-14T20:26:13Z")
> [@mbh](#): > > If you are a bachelor older than 30, _Remains of the Day_ is terrifying. This might make for another interesting thread - films that are cautionary tales. I think _Remains of the Day_ is a beautiful, but sad film. Similar to _Brokeback Mountain_ in a way. And while I actually am a bachelor around Mr. Stevens’ age, I’m comfortable that I haven’t made similar mistakes (rather, I’ve made my own original mistakes). My entry in the cautionary tales genre would be _The Caine Mutiny_. I never want to be a Captain Queeg. ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2025, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie/1020831/59 "2025-07-14T20:42:56Z")
> [@Llama\_Llogophile](#): > > This might make for another interesting thread - films that are cautionary tales. Any adaptation of **Madame Bovary**. ---
**Author:** ![Calder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e99b99/32.png) [@Calder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Calder)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2025, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie/1020831/60 "2025-07-14T20:50:18Z")
> [@Odesio](#): > > 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.” Welcome to my world. My teenage daughter LOVES scary movies. She is constantly asking me for my scariest movies I have seen and what are good ones for us to watch. I actually initially opened this thread looking for any new options. There have been several movies that she had that exact reaction to me being scared when I watched them. (The ones I can remember that reaction in particular were “The Ring” and “Poltergeist”.) The funniest thing about this is that the stinker almost never flinches at the jump scares while I generally do. So now I get teased by my daughter while we watch the movies. I just tease her back on other things and we have a good time with it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie/1020831.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scariest-movie/1020831.md?page=4)