# what is the scariest movie ever? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 15, 2001, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-scariest-movie-ever/81839 "2001-09-15T17:22:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2001, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-scariest-movie-ever/81839/81 "2001-11-04T16:52:16Z")
I don’t get scared at movies, but I do get disturbed. Last summer’s **Jeepers Creepers** , despite its flaws, was disturbing. I wish I’d known the back story before seeing it though – would have been even more effective, I think. Sometimes it just makes all the difference if you can see something on its first run. I saw **Night of the Living Dead** at a drive-in when it was first released, and it just froze me up. But now, it’s been remade and parodied and used in TV commercials – hard to take it seriously as a movie – it’s a product, and it just seems silly. Good luck finding something! ---
**Author:** ![Sofa\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/58956e/32.png) [@Sofa\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sofa_King)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2001, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-scariest-movie-ever/81839/82 "2001-11-04T19:45:19Z")
My vote is for _Truimph of the Will_. Chilling. ---
**Author:** ![rsa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/839c29/32.png) [@rsa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rsa)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2001, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-scariest-movie-ever/81839/83 "2001-11-04T19:58:13Z")
Nobody’s mentioned **Don’t Look Now**. It keeps you in _anticipation_ that something is going to happen at any moment. More mental horror than in your face special effects. ---
**Author:** ![DarkWriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ee59a6/32.png) [@DarkWriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DarkWriter)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2001, 6:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-scariest-movie-ever/81839/84 "2001-11-08T06:15:12Z")
OK, **The Exorcist** and **Blair Witch** were definitely scary. The Exorcist I can NOT watch alone. Blair Witch gave me nightmares for a week. Tonight I saw a movie I’ve been hearing about and finally got the chance to see. It’s a Japanese movie called Ring (or Ringu, according to the IMDB). The basic premise is that there’s a cursed videotape going around. If you watch it, you get a phone call that tells you you’re going to die in exactly one week. And people do. They die with hideous expressions of terror on their faces. A journalist whose cousin dies from this decides to investigate. She watches the tape, gets the call and realizes it’s real and she’s going to die. She and her ex-husband spend the week trying to solve the mystery of the tape and prevent their deaths (he watches it, too). It’s very atmospheric and creepy. But for a while, I thought all the hype was false. There were a few moments where I got creeped out, but that was it. It wasn’t as scary as people had said it was. Until the last few minutes. I won’t give away what happened, but I have never had a movie scare me that badly. Not even the spider walk in The Exorcist got to me like this movie did. The spider walk was a shocking scene - this movie’s scene STAYS with you. Even just thinking about it, I can feel the hairs on the back of my neck prickling. If you can find this movie, watch it. It’s subtitled, but it didn’t detract from the movie at all. Sheri ---
**Author:** ![Daowajan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3bc359/32.png) [@Daowajan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daowajan)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2001, 6:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-scariest-movie-ever/81839/85 "2001-11-08T06:55:24Z")
**Stir of Echoes** scared the hell out of me. Especially the dream sequence where he’s in the movie theater… DIG. Gives me chills. ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2001, 7:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-scariest-movie-ever/81839/86 "2001-11-08T07:11:10Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by AuntiePam \* > \*\*Last summer’s **Jeepers Creepers** , despite its flaws, was disturbing. I wish I’d known the back story before seeing it though – would have been even more effective, I think. > > \*\* ::Raises an eyebrow:: Back story? One of the things I hated about JC was that it seemed to have basically no back story. Where did you find a back story? ---
**Author:** ![Beadalin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3be4f8/32.png) [@Beadalin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beadalin)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2001, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-scariest-movie-ever/81839/87 "2001-11-08T15:26:02Z")
Two more votes for **Hellraiser** and _The Blair Witch Project_\*. Both have their flaws, but a damn good scare, all the same. I wasn’t scared _during_ Hellraiser, but afterward. Never looked at Venetian blinds in the same way again-- too much like the slats in the room opening to admit Pinhead. I’d also like to nominate **The Texas Chainsaw Massacre**. The part where the old man gives a ride to one of the girls (she thinks she’s finally safe & escaping), and he begins jabbing her with his cane. Creeps me out to this day. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2001, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-scariest-movie-ever/81839/88 "2001-11-08T23:55:06Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Cisco \* > ::Raises an eyebrow:: Back story? One of the things I hated about JC was that it seemed to have basically no back story. Where did you find a back story? \*\* Cisco, oops, ack, argh, sheesh, I’m not a movie person and I used the wrong term here. “Behind the scenes” is what I should have said. “Back story” is exposition, isn’t it? Yeah, you’re right, there was none of that. ---
**Author:** ![urban1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/d07c76/32.png) [@urban1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/urban1)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2001, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-scariest-movie-ever/81839/89 "2001-11-09T00:06:06Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by elfkin477 \* > \*\*Well, I found the new version of HOHH to be both very good, and very disturbing. Similarly with \*\*The Haunting **(the orginal was The Haunting of Hill House, which is confusing since both use some version of haunt and hill) it was scarier than its orginal too. However, neither movie was \*\* really** scary. The scariest movie I can think of, besides polerguist which might be less scary 20 years older, is **In The Mouth Of Madness** which scared the hell out of me. Maybe it’s because I write, but non-writers said it’s scary to them too. Oh, I found the Blair Witch Project scarier than I thought I would too, but not nearly as much as In The Mouth of Madness . \*\* The original version of The Haunting was The Haunting, from a short story (novel?) from Shirley Jackson, called, The Haunting of Hill House. I much preferred the original version, but the special effects in the new version are great. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2001, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-scariest-movie-ever/81839/90 "2001-11-09T00:28:39Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Oblong \* > \*\*The Amityville Horror-The way the house lights up as eyes. > > Anything involving the ‘supernatural’ scares me. \*\* Nothing supernatural bothers me. But **The Day After** … Now, that’s scary. ---
**Author:** ![DarkPrince](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ce73a5/32.png) [@DarkPrince](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DarkPrince)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2001, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-scariest-movie-ever/81839/91 "2001-11-09T02:14:27Z")
Go rent **The Changeling** and not sleep for days. I hope you don’t have a piano in your house… ---
**Author:** ![vivalostwages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d07c76/32.png) [@vivalostwages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vivalostwages)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2001, 5:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-scariest-movie-ever/81839/92 "2001-11-09T05:59:10Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by RenMan \* > \*\*The Cube! > > What a frightening concept. \*\* Saw it before but rented it again today after seeing your reminder in this thread, and will cast another vote for it. ---
**Author:** ![Badtz\_Maru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e36b37/32.png) [@Badtz\_Maru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Badtz_Maru)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2001, 10:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-scariest-movie-ever/81839/93 "2001-11-09T10:52:55Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Daowajan \* > \*\ ***Stir of Echoes** scared the hell out of me. Especially the dream sequence where he’s in the movie theater… > DIG. > > Gives me chills. \*\* I haven’t seen this one, but I have a friend who went to see this with friends while tripping on acid. That was the last time she ever took it. ---
**Author:** ![ejrn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a6a055/32.png) [@ejrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ejrn)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2001, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-scariest-movie-ever/81839/94 "2001-11-09T15:16:17Z")
**The Wizard of Oz** (you can stop laughing at me now) No joke - I can still remember the nightmare I had after seeing it for the first time. Nothing I’ve seen as an adult even comes close. Why do they push that movie on kids??? **Mr. Sardonicus** also made a big impression. ---
**Author:** ![detop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bcef8e/32.png) [@detop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/detop)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2001, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-scariest-movie-ever/81839/95 "2001-11-09T16:34:19Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by ejrn \* > \*\ ***The Wizard of Oz** (you can stop laughing at me now) > > No joke - I can still remember the nightmare I had after seeing it for the first time. Nothing I’ve seen as an adult even comes close. Why do they push that movie on kids???\*\* Stephen King in _Danse Macabre_ IIRC said that one of the scariest movie for a kid is probably _Bambi_ (because of the scene where Bambi’s mother is killed), so no I’m not laughing at you, actually I kind of agree with you. Any movie can be scary depending on the state of mind you’re in when you see it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-scariest-movie-ever/81839.md?page=4)