I saw the director’s cut of The Exorcist last weekend. I would not call it creepy.
Creepy, IMO, means subtle and atmospheric. There is nothing subtle about this movie after about half way through (up till then, though, it’s not bad). The only thing that gave me an actual chill was when you hear Linda Blair coming down the stairs; you watch Ellen Burstyn’s reaction as Linda comes into view, and then you see how Linda is actually coming down the stairs. Well done shot. Now that I think of it, Ellen investigating the noise in the attic was pretty creepy, too. (WTF was that up there, anyways?)
But that’s what does it for me: atmosphere. Gore and torture are just sickening, not creepy. Overbearing special effects make me lose my suspension of disbelief. The only thing that frightens me on a regular basis is my own imagination (though I hate it when I do that), so leaving stuff to my imagination makes for a creepy movie.
That said, good creepy movies for me were Don’t Look Now, Wicker Man, and The Green Man. That last one didn’t have that great an ending, but there are scenes where you see the character’s frightened reaction, only there is nothing there when the camera follows the character’s gaze. Really nicely done.
Another creepy scene I recall was the dream sequence in Sybill, when Sybill dreams of finding kittens and taking them home. The dream takes a creepy turn when the momma cat comes looking for her kittens. You hear her weird meows and see her frozen shadow as she follows Sybill, then finally we get the crazy camera angles on the freakishly stuffed momma cat itself. ::Brrrr::
Uniball mentioned The Lady in White, and there was a discussion about another G rated kids movie that was really creepy. I can second The Lady in White. I’m guessing that since you can’t fall back on gore in a G rated flick, you have to make up for it with atmosphere. The Blair Witch Project had some good atmosphere, too.
The original of The Haunting was well done (haven’t bothered to see the remake), and the silent Nosferatu is the only creepy vampire movie I’ve ever seen.
Props for Nightwatch with Ewan McGregor, too. Although the second half is pretty standard (though well done), the first half is mostly very creepy, atmospheric scenes.
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That Spoorloos and The Vanishing were both directed by George Sluizer makes me wonder if the director wasn’t making a statement with the obviously Hollywood-ized ending of the latter.
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And I apologize if this is a hijack, but it would be nice if people could be clear what they mean by creepy when they post to this thread. By my definition, above, Hellraiser (which I’ve seen) and The Cell (I’m assuming as I’ve only seen trailers) would not cut it.
