Dang, you know what? I was actually going to write that one two. I can’t think of it at this particular moment, but I just read about that incident about a month ago.
I think “wierd” incidents are always the best, also if they are closer to home-that’s even better. If I remember correctly the “mad-gassers” had an incident break out in either VA or West VA, which is where I live.
Definately! I think half of that movie was excellent! It had me going for a while, and then it was a big let down.
On the subject of Jeepers Creepers -
I would much rather have had the monster remain just a creepy human-looking thing that you never saw clearly. It was scarier when you didn’t know what it was.
On zombies -
Some friends and I are making a short comic movie about zombies, the concept being that as zombies are very slow and very stupid, they aren’t very dangerous. Frankly, I’m not afraid of zombies.
But nothing is as bad as the idea that a Leprechaun could be scary. I watched the beginning of that movie, but had to leave once it started chasing someone on a tricycle. A TRICYCLE!!!
I totally agree with you. I think when it was in it’s snappy out fit, it was 10 times creepier than when it became super-retardo beast.
Cool. I’m not afraid of zombies either. I do have a fascination about them though, that I can’t rightfully explain.
I’ll do you one better, nothings scary about Leprechaun IV In the hood .
I found the HOUSE in The Haunting to be fairly intimidating.
I can never remember how to do Spoiler Box so here goes …
Mephisto- I think what you are talking about is even worse than what you regarded it as being…
I think it’s supposed to be a mixture of the Shekinah- the Female Aspect of God & Azrael- the Angel of Death & Laylah/Lilith- the Night Demon- in other words- the Dark Bride of God- how ya gonna protect yourself against THAT?!?!?!?
Then again, She just went after Nazis & similar vermin but Indy sensed ya still should avert your eyes L
I agree with this, too. I think that’s why I usually am more frightened by suspense rather than plain horror. It’s difficult for me to not feel let down when the terrible thing finally materializes. The giant meatball looking demon at the end of Evil Dead II is a good example. Freddy Krueger is another one. The first Nightmare was pretty scary to me, but then the focus seemed to change to the goriness of his appearance in subsequent films. He was never really shown in the first movie, and I think that’s where the fear/suspense was successful.
The scariest supernatural baddie? That would be God.
Wasn’t that some sort of small rodent that leaves tracks that can be misinterpreted as cloven hoofprints?
Re: Zombies. I think the truly horrific element with zombies (talking about George Romero zombies here) isn’t the direct physical threat, but the sheer wrongness of what’s happening. It would be hard to accept such a change in reality.
I agree. That was such a promising opening half hour that led into such a terrible terrible movie. How cheap was it when you actually saw a closeup of his face and noticed he was wearing colored contacts to make his eyes look scary?
**
In all fairness, most “horror” these days is self-parody. The Leprechaun isn’t really supposed to be scary.
The spiral thingy in Uzumaki was creepy as hell IMHO. I guess it wasn’t necessarily a “creature”.
The scariest supernatural beings are those created by your own mind, when alone in a lonely place - at night.
The Northern native legend of the “Wendigo” is a personification of this - a supernatural being that is the very essence of being alone, paranoid, and ultimately crazy.
I only really understood the power of this legend when I spent two weeks camping alone in Northern Quebec. The days were okay, but the nights … you get the feeling, growing to a conviction, that something is out there, just out of sight, watching you with hostility just beyond the circle of the firelight.
Difficult to describe, but I tell you it is no joke. Two weeks was all I could stand. There is a term for it, I think - “bush crazy”. If you are with other people, it doesn’t happen.
I think the scariest kind of supernatural would be the doppelganger. Not something that chases you or tries to kill you. Just something that moves into your life, looking exactly like you. Not saying a word, just following you around, aping everything you do. Then people start addressing it rather than you, and they don’t seem to hear you at all. Soon, it’s sleeping with your SO, taking your kids to school… doing everything, and you’re shut out completely.
Damn, now you’ve done it. You’ve reminded me of one of the things that always creeped me out. For some reason, the doppelganger puts me at ill ease and I catch myself looking around. I don’t know why, becuase it shouldn’t bug me, but it does.
As Sejal_Traurig said; whatever it was in Hill House scared the bejeezus out of me. I think it was because it wasn’t defined … there are rules for dealing with zombies, or werewolves, or ghosts, or vampires, or golems. But there are no rules for dealing with that dark touch of the supernatural that reaches out and knocks the real world askew, for no reason.
“What walked there, walked alone.” Brrrr.
Sea creatures are what get me more than anything else. Something huge and ancient and cold, gliding endlessly through the murky depths. This gets me so bad, I was once terrified by a movie about a giant turtle of all things. (And no, I don’t mean Gamara.)
Ghosts don’t really do it for me, nor do zombies. Hell, zombies can be avoided with only minimal awareness of your surroundings. Plus, if head shots can still kill them… Hell, no problem. Vampires I just can’t take seriously. Too romanticized.
However, I do admit that the original Haunting is the scariest movie I’ve ever seen.
Werewolves are too cool to be scary. Besides, being attacked by a werewolf would be like being attacked by a bear, or a large dog. Scary, yes, but not the sort of thing that keeps you up night with the creeping dreads. Creeping Dreads, incidentally, being an excellent reggae band name.
I thought the haunted car Christine in Christine was sort of creepy. Poltergeists can be scary, too.
This terrifies me too…but I think I’ve taken it to a new level. I won’t go out on the ocean (or in the ocean at the beach) because I am convinced that a sea monster (a monster, not a shark) will get me.
It’s not rational. I know.
Wasn’t that what Spring-Heeled Jack was? A cloven-hoofed dude who jumped over big things? I don’t know about 6-inch pipes, though…
I have to say that I always found the idea of werewolves to be profoundly disturbing. It seems to me that the true horror of the lycanthrope is not being attacked by one, but actually becoming one. Other supernatural forces can only haunt or kill you; the werewolf, on the other hand, destroys your identity and replaces it with something bestial. This is why, unlike vampire or zombie movies, werewolf stories are almost always told from the point of view of the monster. The inexorable, agonizing metamorphosis into something inhuman… that’s what really got under my skin, so to speak.
No offense intended toward the furry community at Virginia Tech, of course. (Next on my list of “Places to Avoid…”)
Haunted places scare me more than supernatural beings. A lot of places back home in Hawaii are believed to be haunted. When you’re at such a place, it feels much worse than being pursued by a single creature. The scary thing is everywhere, under your feet, and all around you. You can’t escape from a place as easily as you can a creature.
Places make sounds: wind whistling, leaves rustling, waves crashing, doors slamming, furniture moving, objects falling, floors creaking… and they can be creepier than silence. Places have mysterious and unfamiliar passageways, shadowy corners, chilly spots, areas where you feel watched or you’re not alone. Places have history. That’s creepy.
It also is never immediately apparent exactly what is wrong with a haunted place. It could be the ghost of a person or animal who died there. It could be that bad things happened on that site and the bad juju has manifested somehow. If it’s a building, it could be that the building itself is pissed off (and that’s never a good thing). No matter what, it always takes time to figue the place out. Until then, it’s undefined and unknown, and as Steve Wright pointed out, that’s creepy as hell.
Take, for example, the apartment complex in the Japanese horror film Dark Water, or the house in House of Leaves. You couldn’t get me into those places for anything.