Scary Movie

Cafe Society
1

I’ve only been scared by 1 movie in my entire life - Stephen King’s It and i was about 6 when i saw it. I didn’t go to the bathroom for 4 days. I peed twice in the yard and i didn’t poop, shower, or brush my teeth.

Since then, I’ve tried to watch “horror” movies but they just don’t do it for me. The brutality and gruesomeness get to me sometimes - the girl falling into a pit of needles in one of the Saw movies, achilles tendon cutting in Hostel, etc. but those were more empathic winces than legitimate fear.

So tonight the gf wants to watch a scary movie and i really don’t want to be bored to tears. She wants to watch some dutch movie from the 70s (the vanishing?) and i really can’t get into scary movies as it is, and i don’t think subtitles flashing across the screen is going to help any.
SOOO… long story short - what are some scary movies that i can rent? people raved about paranormal activity, but similar ravings were heard about blair witch, which almost put me to sleep.

2

The Vanishing is quite good. I wouldn’t dismiss it out of hand, but if you need some suggestions.

I rather like John Carpenter’s remake of The Thing If you haven’ seen it before that is best. It is gruesome in bits but there is a real sense of paranoia that works.

Also in the remake Dept I also got a bit of the creeps from **Invasion of the Body Snatchers **(The Donald Sutherland One) Once again the paranoia factor helps.

The Shinning has great creepy moments but it doesn’t move quickly.

The Original Texas Chainsaw massacre also give me the willies. My wife can’t stand the sound of the high pitched whine the flash bulb gives when it goes off in the beginning it just makes her uncomfortable

3

I second The Thing and Body Snatchers. I didn’t care for the original TCM but I liked Part 2 which was a horror comedy (with Dennis Hopper as the crazed hero) and I also liked the two new ones which starred R. Lee Ermey as the patriarch of the killer family. Also, why it’s a sequel to HOUSE OF 1000 CORPSES, the much superior THE DEVIL’S REJECTS stands up on its own.

4

I haven’t seen it for a while (thank goodness), but Poltergeist scares the crap out of me.

5

The Ring and The Grudge both put me off horror movies for good, and I am a horror fan. Those movies scared the crap out of me and The Ring in particular gave me a feeling of general dread throughout the entire film.

But then, lots of people hate both movies. I’m just really scared of ghosts (although I don’t believe in them). YMMV

6

I always liked Jacob’s Ladder, but it’s not so much scary as just…odd.

7

Paranormal Activity is the only horror movie that ever scared me. I barely slept for four days, and it took about three weeks to get the imagery from that movie out of my head. I gave the movie away the day after I watched it. I just found it to be evil.

I don’t know if you’ve seen it, but I always found The Exorcist to be enjoyably eerie.

8

It’s interesting, Paranormal Activity bored both my Wife and I. Too much hype about it I guess. Both my wife and I love Alien, The Thing and The Ring.

We’ve probably seen Alien 30 times.

My cousin and I saw Alien at the theater. Not really knowing anything about it. Scared us good, we couldn’t go back to our apartment for a while, went to a nice brightly lit McD’s.

9

Spoorloos (the Vanishing) is a great movie though more unsettling than downright scary. It isn’t really fast-paced though, IMHO, it will hold your attention.

If you’re looking for horror movies that move a little faster. I might go with:

(as others have mentioned) The Thing and Alien
Evil Dead or Evil Dead pt. 2
Shaun of the Dead (more comedy than horror)
Dog Soldiers
The Descent
May
Session 9 (though slower than the others I’ve mentioned).
Dead Alive/Brain Dead (early Peter Jackson)
Black Christmas
Halloween

I love, love horror movies but I don’t like movies like Saw or Hostel, fun for the feeble-minded. IMHO, if you have to rely on brutality to keep your movie going than you’re not doing a good job. I’m paraphrasing Stephen King in Danse Macabre here but he believes a horror movie should be about what you think is behind a closed door not what’s actually there. I agree with this.

10

Paranormal Activity didn’t scare me in the slightest. The last movie that scared me was Poltergeist but I don’t know if it would still scare me today. Scary movies just aren’t what they used to be - too much blood and guts and not enough psychological scariness.

11

One vote here for The Hitcher, and another for Alien.

12

To me, “horror” movies are just good clean fun. They are too unrealistic to be actually scary.

The most scared I ever was in a movie was “Play Misty For Me.” That was some scary-ass shit, that could really happen…TRM

13

Another vote for Dog Soldiers. The atmosphear is just great. As are the wearwolves.

14

It is creepier when you know in advance that no matter what happens in the movie, the little blond girl in it still dies in real life.

15

I always liked Prince of Darkness. Might be a little dated now, but it’s got Alice Cooper!

16

Young Frankenstein.

17

i think i’m going with poltergeist, but feel free to keep the suggestions coming. i’ve seen aliens, ring, and the shining.

bodysnatchers seemed to have a few votes so i might give that one a chance some other weekend.

18

The original (1963) The Haunting.

19

Ditto The Haunting and The Ring. The former scared me to death as a child. I watched the latter at my son’s insistence, even though I have pooh-poohed the entire contemporary horror genre as being all about gore and not much about storytelling.

I was pleasantly (?) surprised by The Ring. It is really creepy and suspenseful.

20

The original Candyman is pretty scary, along the same lines as IT - sort of a Saturday afternoon movie. The Vanishing is good, but a little slow. Dawn of the Dead (the remake) is good and scary. 28 Days Later is also frightening and good. Same for Session 9, which in its building of suspense reminds me a bit of The Shining. The Haunting (1963) is one of my all-time favorite movies.