What is the scariest movie?
Old, New, Popular or Rare and please don’t say “Psycho” or the “Excorcist”.
Psycho is a classic but not scary compared to some newer movies such as The Ring 2, which despite what critics say is very scary and entertaining.
The Excorcist deals to much with Demons and stuff.
And who are they, the Seven Dwarfs? 
I’d say that that movie tops my personal, subjective list for that fact alone. And, I don’t want to go looking to prove myself wrong, either.
Sorry START …but I’m going to have to say The Exorcist as well . I haven’t seen anything current that scared the fluff out of me like that film did. I had to sleep with the light on for a lonnnng time. The demon movies always get me.
The Exorcist is top of my list as well. Sorry, START. :smack:
Well, I was geuinely scared that A.I. would never end…
Any listing is going to be a matter of personal taste, of course (goes without saying, I’m sure) and I’ve found that as I’ve gotten older very few movies seem genuinely scary to me anymore. Maybe I’m too jaded. Maybe I’ve seen too many horror movies, or maybe I find it harder to suspend my disbelief. I was genuinely scared when I watched Halloween for the first time, back before you had a dozen Friday the 13th and Nightmare on Elm Street movies. There was an effectiveness to Michael Meyers’ unstoppable killer that was fresh and terrifying back then, before it became a Hollywood cliche. So that’s one that unfortunately can’t stand the test of time, as far as scaring new audiences today.
I’ve come to the point where I am more or less satisfied if a horror movie can deliver a few genuinely creepy moments and can avoid doing something so silly that it takes me out of the experience. For me, Japanese horror movies are pretty effective at this.
Ju-on (the original Japanese version that The Grudge was based on) had quite a few moments that I considered genuinely creepy.
I know a lot of J-horror fans prefer Ringu, but I thought Ringu absolutely sucked, while at the same time I thought that the American remake, The Ring was far, far superior. (I thought that The Ring 2 had a few effective scenes, especially the scene in the well (you know what I’m talking about, if you’ve seen it) but there are too many silly things like the goofy deer attacks that ruined that one for me…)
The Shining is one of the few films that I thought was scary when I was younger and still gives me the creeps now that I’m older. There’s just something about the crazed look in Jack’s eyes as he descends into madness…and of course the hotel itself creeped me out, the size of the place, how empty it was, how desolate, how isolated the family was out there…yeah, if I had to pick just one movie that not only had good creepy moments and also held together as a movie the best, it would probably be The Shining. The Kubrick version, not the “what was he thinking” Stephen King TV version.
You can’t beat The Shining for psychological horror.
I found Se7en to be terrifying and I had to sleep with the lights on for weeks, but I saw it when I was 12. 
I’m not surprised about the “Excorcist” it’s just that any time I bring the scareiest movie subject up IRL people mention the “Excorcist” and if they are older they mention “Psycho” and then go on a rant about how Hitchcock could scare you without using all the violence but now young people don’t get scared as easily because TV is so terrible.
The Zapruder film.
The Exorcist might well be objectively the scariest movie of all time. Contemporary news reports told of a mass hysteria never before or since seen, associated with a movie like this. For example, rom the NY Times, January 27, 1974:
It’s been reported that once inside the theater, a number of moviegoers vomited at the very graphic goings-on on screen. Others fainted, or left the theater, nauseous and trembling, before the film was half over. Several people had heart attacks, a guard told me. One woman even had a miscarriage, he said.
Reports of demon possession skyrocketed all over the world, and the film was banned in some countries. Both catholic and protestant churches were besieged by frantic demands for exorcisms. There were even murders, as in the case of a boy in Eastfield, Scarborough who killed a young girl. From the Times (of London), October 30, 1975:
Nicholas bell, aged 17, told the police that he had been possessed by evil after seeing The Exorcist film and had killed a girl aged nine, York Crown Court was told yesterday.
To be honest? The Wansee Chronicle. A bunch of men sitting around a table one snowy affternoon in Germany deciding how to eliminate millions of people.
They were not raving nutjobs, they were businessmen, military and government functionaries calmly discussing trains schedules, logistics and inconvenience. With a break for lunch and feeding a pet dog.
The true horror is sometimes so mundane we lose sight of it. It isn’t always in blood, guts and gore.
Alien, Wait Until Dark, and the ending of Blair Witch, although I recognize that not everyone will agree with me on the last one…
friend start,
i am older, i guess. psycho is a classic due to those of us that remember seeing it in a dark theater, with no idea what was coming. to those that are jaded by seeing it year after year on television, it has lost some of its original impact
when the horror genre shifted to movies like halloween 42 and the jason 42 and the 42nd nightmare on elm street, it became less about horror and more about a formula that became a paorody of itself in scream.
i am glad to see it move away from slash, splash and splatter.
I saw Psycho about 7 years ago for the firs time. I knew that Janet Leigh died, but didn’t know the twist ending about Norman and his mother. I’ll say it here:
It may have been the mid-1990’s, but I was freaked out when the light was turned on and it was Norman with his mother’s wig on. I mean, WOW! I give Hitchcock huge credit for scaring me 40 years after a movie was made.
I say Psycho is the winner.
I’d say the Exorcist too, but I’m not allowed to. I saw it last year again, alone in my house, in the dark. I had to turn it off 3 times because i was so freaked out. Then I turned it over and watched it with the director speaking over it. Then I wasn’t so scared.
Pschyo never scard me much. Looseley based on someone who lived here, maybe since I’ve heard the stories for so long it didn’t bother me much.
Dream-like, psychological, mind f*ck horror is what gets to me more than blood and guts ever will. That being said. . .
The American remake of The Ring scared the bejesus out of me like no movie ever has. I was 23 or so when that movie came out, and I put a pillow in front of my bedroom television that night.
The Changeling with George C. Scott is another one that is beyond scary. Trust me, if you like The Ring, you’ll like The Changeling.
Huh. For me, it would be The Ring, japanese version… I couldn’t look at the blank TV screen or mirrors for months afterwards.
I’m another person who’s going to say The Blair Witch Project. The movie was scary because it didn’t show you things. What you imagine is more frightening than what you see.
I have to say the Blair Witch Project was a nap, it was so awful and boring. Sorry, guys, but nothing ever happened.
If I’m not allowed to say Excorsist or Psycho, then the Ring scared the hell out of me. Alien was pretty creepy, too. Alien gave me nightmares for two years after.
This is such a subjective list because everyone’s scared of different things. Zombies make me laugh, but I’m scared of creepy little girls and other people have said that didn’t scare them at all.
The original Evil Dead is up there, although certainly not the scariest movie ever.