# The scariest horror film will be **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** movies\ **Created:** [October 31, 2020, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-scariest-horror-film-will-be/924437 "2020-10-31T21:32:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Pavelb1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/439d5e/32.png) [@Pavelb1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pavelb1)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2020, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-scariest-horror-film-will-be/924437/1 "2020-10-31T21:32:38Z")
…those you saw as a preteen, found barely plausible and chattered about the next day at school So for me The Omen and The Exorcist. Special mention for the BOOK Amityville Horror. Unfortunately it didn’t translate to film well. ---
**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:** [October 31, 2020, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-scariest-horror-film-will-be/924437/2 "2020-10-31T21:38:39Z")
Checked 3 for me there. Also the _Legend of Hell House_ is a candidate. Special mention for giving me nightmares for years, I saw _Carnival of Souls_ as a 4 year old. Not a good idea. ---
**Author:** ![Pavelb1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/439d5e/32.png) [@Pavelb1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pavelb1)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2020, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-scariest-horror-film-will-be/924437/3 "2020-10-31T21:58:06Z")
Nice call on “Legend if Hell House”. I saw it as an adult, but had I seen it at age 9…it would have terrified me. Another one I remember that fits the bill is “Helter Skelter”. You’ve got the tattered paperback being passed around and by the time that’s absorbed, the mini-series comes out. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2020, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-scariest-horror-film-will-be/924437/4 "2020-10-31T22:04:52Z")
_Frankenstein 1970_ (which was, in fact, released in 1958). I was seven or eight years old, and having a sleepover at my cousin’s house (they lived three blocks away from us); for whatever reason, my aunt let us watch the first part of the movie before we went to bed. The last scene we saw, before we had to turn it off, was of Dr. Frankenstein assembling his monster. He took the heart out of a victim, and there was a close-up of his hands, with the heart in them. In retrospect, it was probably a wad of cotton batting, soaked in corn syrup, or something like that, and it was in black-and-white, but that image was seared into my little brain, and it haunted me for _years_. Even now, close to 50 years later, I can still see it in my mind’s eye. 😮 ---
**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:** [October 31, 2020, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-scariest-horror-film-will-be/924437/5 "2020-10-31T23:50:23Z")
_Jaws_. I was 13, and it’s still the scariest movie I’ve ever seen. ---
**Author:** ![Enjoy\_Slurm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/enjoy_slurm/32/3937_2.png) [@Enjoy\_Slurm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enjoy_Slurm)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2020, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-scariest-horror-film-will-be/924437/6 "2020-11-01T03:24:50Z")
The Hellraiser movies. ---
**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:** [November 1, 2020, 12:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-scariest-horror-film-will-be/924437/7 "2020-11-01T12:21:40Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > _Jaws_ . I was 13, and it’s still the scariest movie I’ve ever seen. I’m a bit younger and I do recall looking behind us several times on the drive home to make sure we weren’t being followed by a giant shark. That was a scary but great movie. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2020, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-scariest-horror-film-will-be/924437/8 "2020-11-01T17:41:38Z")
I share the OP’s hypothesis. When I was very small, not quite five, my parents took me to see **Poltergeist**. It scared the ever-living hell out of me and I had nightmares for a year. As a result I wasn’t allowed to watch most horror movies until I was in high school, which means I missed out on many of the horror movies my contemporaries to this day claim to be the scariest movies they’ve ever seen until I was much older than when they saw them. And these “scary” movies are not. **The Fog? Jaws? The Changeling? The Shining?** Not very scary, and with the exception of Jaws, actually pretty boring. Having rewatched it as an adult, **Poltergeist** isn’t really that either.