That episode scared the crap outta me.
So did the nightmare episode of MAS*H.
But movies? The Changeling with George C. Scott scared me. The soggy, red and blue ball bouncing down the stairs after he’d gone and thrown it in the river. Brrr. It’s the kind of movie that gives you the heebie jeebies when your house settles a bit making a little “crrreeeeak” noise.
Oh, and my former housemate came home from What Lies Beneath compeltely blanched, mumbled “it was scarier than Sixth Sense…”, made a whimpering noise, went in his room, and shut the door behind him.
I haven’t seen it yet.
I’m proud to say I’m getting over my issues with The Shining, which used to be my scariest movie of all time. Repeated viewings over Halloween weekend sucked the scare out of it, even with the butt-face girls. “Come and play with us, Danny . . .”
When I first saw The Ring, I wasn’t really freaked out, but some of those images really stuck with me. The way the first girl looks in the closet, the swirling effect on the faces in the photographs, and how Samara’s hair hangs limply over her own face got to me in a big way. Then my father called me about five minutes after I finished the movie and I was all, “helloooo?”
I get very freaked out at anything with mirrors. Sometimes I have problems washing my face or brushing my teeth at night because I’m terrified I’ll look up and something will be looking back at me, standing right behind me.
I am pretty easily scared at just about any scary movie, but the one I really couldn’t get over was Silence of the Lambs. I have actually blocked much of that movie from my memory now but I was so creeped out by it for weeks afterward. I still remember the end, though, when she is in the dark…brrrrr. And the scene in the elevator.
As far as the movie that had the biggest impact on my life though, it has to be E.T. Ok, I saw it when I was 4. To this day I have to say, who the hell thinks a movie about a creepy-ass alien who comes up in the woods in the dark is a good kids’ movie. I was terrified of E.T. for years, I tell you. I still don’t like him.
I still do, even when I know it’s coming.
–Cliffy
For me it was The Exorcist. According to my dad, I was white as a sheet when I watched it.
I just saw Mulholland Drive a couple days ago. I was really scared during a lot of the movie because of the palpable air of menace. The scene where the two guys go to look behind the dumpster at Winky’s was the worst because I had no idea what they’d find there.
I feel the same about certain episodes of Twin Peaks. The last one, certainly, but other parts, too. There’s one shot of BOB climbing over a couch that terrifies me – whenever I see it I can’t shower for the next two or three days because I’m afraid when I close my eyes to wash my face that he’s going to get me.
–Cliffy
Well, if I can put some of the scare back into it for ya… Kubrick based the two little girls on a photograph by Diane Arbus. Real little girls… “come play with us Judith…”
Well, although it was a pitiful movie overall, “Exorcist III” with William C. Scott had one of the effective “shock” moments I ever saw: a jumpy nurse is watching over a ward during the late night shift. There’s a fake scare, a security guard wanders in and out of scene, and just when I was starting to wonder if anything at all was going to happen in the scene, the serial killer (dressed as a nun!) comes bolting after the nurse with a pair of autopsy shears. Yike! That gave me the creeps for a long time.
Oh, The Sixth Sense! The part where the little girl just appears in the tent had me screaming.
Urge to scream rising . . . Rising . . . RISING . . .
I was raised by very religious parents (fundy dad, way-Catholic mom) and never thought The Exorcist was scary. When I was little my folks were always so sure that demons were possessing people everywhere that it became old hat. “Oh, she’s possessed. That’s nice. I’m gonna go read a book.” I did find Frailty disturbing though. Not exactly scary, but it was like watching my alternate-reality autobiography.
And I’ve had a life-long horror of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre in all its incarnations. I too fear power tools.
Thank you, Velma, I was worried that I was the only one who thought that Silence of the Lambs was one of the scariest movies ever.
I remember when I went to see it - I was travelling on business and went to see it one night after work. Alone. Big big big mistake. I was in a strange town, living in a strange room, sleeping in a strange bed…
Yikes!
The only movie that ever really frightened me, strangely enough, wasn’t a horror movie; it was “Memento.”
The idea of being injured the way Leonard is (for those who have not seen it, he’d been hit in the melon and from that point on he can remember everything before the injury, but afterwards can only remember the last ten minutes) really, really disturbed me. I had nightmares about it for months. I can’t think of a more horrible fate.
Okay all these scared the hell out of me as a child,
“Pulse” This was a flick about an evil little blob that killed people. FOr some reason this scared three kinds of hell out of me.
“Critters” After this i would jump onto my bed; I was SURE a critter was there waiting to eat my toes.
The episode of the X-Files in which a man’s parasitic twin crawls out of him at night and kills people by crawling into them
Yes! Thank you, DeaganThe Wolf! I’m not the only one who was terrified by Critters as a child! I’m the youngest of three, so sometimes I’d stay up to watch my brothers’ movie choice. Usually a bad idea. (Sometimes I just picked up fun lanugage. 
)
To this day, I’ve never seen a single Nightmare on Elm Street all the way through. Couldn’t do it growing up and just seems silly now that I’m 23.
Blair Witch would’ve been scarier if my oldest brother hadn’t blabbed the ending after I specifically told him not too. And I accidentally caught the “secret” of Sixth Sense at work one day. I couldn’t sit through it the one time it was on and my hubby watched it.
It was a scary movie. I’ve read recently that part of the reason is a lot of what the actors were going through was actually real? That the actors were badly abused on the set. I don’t know how much of it’s true but leatherface was recently interviewed and he said it was one of the worst experiences of his life.
In The Others I jumped at the scene towards the end where the blind Psychic opens the door to the cubby hole the kids are hiding and while saying “Come with us.”
The scariest movie that I saw recently was Darkness (2002) with Anna Paquin and Lena Olin. There are a few good scares in the recent House on Haunted Hill (1999), Chris Kattan notwithstanding.
