John Carpenter’s Prince of Darkness. I re-watched it a few years ago, and it doesn’t really hold up. The core concept is pretty horrible—satan is some sort of weird liquid trapped inside a big glowing tank, and if he sprays liquid in your mouth, you become posessed. Pretty bad.
But … it has the single creepiest piece of video ever. People in the future are beaming messages back in time into people’s dreams.
“We are transmitting from the year 1-9-9-9…”
“We are having transmission difficulties. This is not a dream.”
You know, I’ve never seen this. However, I’ve often read about it, mentioned by other Dopers in threads like these. I had to go find out what the heck all the fuss was about.
So, not to traumatise anyone, but if you were freaked out by it, this is one of the things I found and you probably shouldn’t click it: Angry Doll.
After sitting here, wide-eyed and thinking WTF? - I burst into uncontrollable laughter. But truthfully, it was horrified laughter. Deep in my heart of hearts, I could feel my five year old self *really freaking the hell out * over this.
As for me, it has to be the Exorcist. I had never watched it until recently. My mother (another devout Catholic, what are they, just drawn to see this movie?) told me she saw it in the theatres and it, of course, scared her to bits. Oddly, she said it was good (oddly if you know my mother, of course). I finally watched it, sometime this past year. My husband owns the DVD, but rarely watches it. I told him I finally wanted to see it after all these years, and he left it up to me - he didn’t want any part of it. He has to be in “the right mood” for that one. So, stupid me.
Waits until midnight.
Turns out the lights.
Now, I’m not easily frightened, and religious themes don’t bother me, and the over-the-top freak outs in the movie didn’t bug me. But there was an absolutely sublime atmosphere of creepiness throughout, caused mostly by those little things that flash quickly - did I just see that?! What was that? Was that what I thought it was? While the action and plot itself didn’t do much to me, I huddled under my blanket in gleeful fright - FINALLY! a movie that feels pretty scary! I’m so tired of all the “scary” movies put out - oh, little girl walks funny or sings a lilting rhyme, or clicking or ticking or creaking or groaning that is supposed to sound creepy but isn’t. Or gore. I’m don’t care much for gore. That’s not scary, it’s gory. But this, this was wonderful. If only I could find more movies with that lovely, creepy, something-is-not-right vibe. I want to gulp and gasp and get chills and wonder if I really, truly did see what I thought I did… and upon rewatching frame by frame discover that YES I DID OH MAN THERE IT IS!
I slept with a light on that night. In my book, that’s a sign that it was a good, scary movie. I was satisfied.
Psycho. I’m not really the horror movie type, so the sample size is quite small for me, but no movie has affected me quite the way Psycho did.
I only watched it quite recently–last year, around Halloween, was my first time. I was on Fall Break from school, and staying up late; I think I put it on at around eleven. By one, when I took the Netflix envelope back to the mailbox, I was reflexively checking over my shoulder on the walk to the car. I also checked the back seat of the car, just in case. About the only place I wasn’t creeped out was in the shower–the shower scene, after all, is famous, and I’ve seen clips of it plenty of times before. By the time I finally watched the movie, the impact was greatly reduced–I was expecting it, so the shock value just wasn’t there, I think.
Yet another vote for Poltergeist. I was 10 when it came out, but didn’t see it until I was 12. Scared the ever-loving bejeezus out of me. It took well over a decade before I watched the face-peeling scene, but I do think the evil clown doll is still the scariest part for me…and clowns don’t typically scare me. I love this movie. "Cross over children, all are welcome, all welcome…"
Silence of the Lambs shook me to the core. I was as disturbed by the audience cheering on Hannibal as by the actions of Hannibal or Buffalo Bill. I shook for two hours after the movie, and Hannibal Lector was in my nightmares for months. Every now and then, he reappears, even 15+ years later.
Yeah, I’m a wuss.
The way I battle this is to watch it every time it’s on TV, but in pieces. I still can’t take the whole thing all at once.
Yeah, I’m a wuss.
Except–I love creature features. *Alien, Aliens, Jaws, * and the like are complete fun for me, and not really frightening (though startling). The only thing I can surmise is there’s no evil in these films…the shark is just hungry and the aliens just need to reproduce, m’kay?
The Haunting (1963 version) contained no gore, no profanity, and no sex, and it scares the living hell out of me every single time I see it.
Props also to Jaws, mainly for the underwater scene in which:
Richard Dreyfus is under the boat, and the dude’s severed, gnawed-on head drops out.
I’ve seen that movie probably six or seven times, and every time, even though I know it’s coming and I’m waiting for it, that scares me senseless.
Ok, I don’t watch a lot of horror movies, and haven’t seen most of the big ones like Psycho, Exorcist, etc. But the movie that never failed to scare the ever-loving unholy crap out of me when I was younger was the made-for-tv Alice in Wonderland (was also called Through the Looking Glass). Why? The Jabberwocky. Sure, it was a big rubber dragon suit that had glowing red eyes and breathed fire, but to an 8- or 9-year-old, it was the scariest thing in all of creation. Also, Carol Channing turning into a goat was rather unsettling as well.
I have the second half of it on tape somewhere. It’s a real hoot to watch, nowadays.
If you like that, you’ll love the song. Check it out.
I wasn’t going to post, but now that I’m here, I’ll add mine: Phantasm, The Mouse and His Child, and Watership Down all gave me nightmares.
Oh, you mean this subliminal face?
:eek:
Featured in the unreleased Exorcist trailer, deemed too frightening. Warning: don’t watch just before bed.
Forgot to mention, the picture that scared me the most was the G-rated Legend of Boggy Creek, a docudrama about the Fouke monster, a Bigfoot-type creature sighted in Texarkana, Texas. Saw it on a summer afternoon, but when I rode my bicycle home from the theater, I was looking behind every bush afraid that thing would jump out at me.
Apparently, it had quite an effect on Eric Cartman as well…
Shadow of the Vampire for its ability to get uncanny-valley close to comedy and horror at the same time.
Ghost Story: When the ghost chick comes down the stairs at the end in the wedding dress. For some reason that creeped me out.
The 6th Sense: When the kid sneaks to bathroom at night to take a leak wearing nothing but his tightie whiteys and he sees the ghost of the kid that blew half of his head off. That really shook me because I used to be so scared of ghosts when I went to the bathroom at that age myself.
Another for a hand’s down vote to The Exorcist. I was just a wee lass when it came out so I obviously didn’t see it then (nor as I grew older and eschewed such things as sacrilegious), but I felt inundated with its presence. You see, a couple of my elderly great aunts were big readers of tabloids, and since it was all the rage for a while, poor Reagan / Linda Blair graced their covers a lot. Plus the ensuing conversations about hellfire and satan and demon possession didn’t help. So I was traumatized enough to sit up in bed every night, looking through those giant metal louvered blinds, on watch for that ‘scary lookin’ little girl.’ [ ::: shudder ::: ]
Fast forward to now and I’m a horror movie fanatic. I did finally watch it in my early 20s and lived on my own… in the middle of the day, with all my lights on and the outer door open. It still freaked me the hell out. Fortunately, I got to see the anniversary re-release at the theatre in Austin and my experience was much like Shawn1767. All those idiots were rowdy and guffawing and just being nuances in general. Well, that was until the Spider Walk scene. Then there was nary a peep, not to mention several embarrassed screams. Guess it only makes sense to bad mouth something if you know what’s going to happen.
Oh, and that trailer was pretty advanced for its time. I got the willies a couple of times in the beginning, but later it was a tad too repetitive. However, for overall freakiness (when that damn face kind of snarls is righteous) is was artfully done. Thanks for the head’s up.
I worked for a video store for 7 years, and I kept trying to find scary movies that are actually scary - not startling, that’s easy enough - but actually scary. I have a list of three that were actually successful:
The Shining (Nicholson version)
The Silence of the Lambs
The Blair Witch Project
Those are the only three movies ever made (well, that I’ve seen) that scared me. That stuck with me and got into my dreams or, worse, my waking life, and made me feel fear.
The Exorcist? Meh, it’s enjoyable and interesting, but I was more caught up in “how did they do that?” than the story itself. Friday The Day After Halloween with Elm Street’s Poltergeist? Mostly funny, with a few fun jumps here and there. The Ring et al were cool and creepy (oh, what was that one with Keanu Reeves and a swamp? That was neat, and again, creepy), but once never moved to what I’d call scary.
But I still have waking nightmares about those little girls in a hotel.
DAMIEN: OMEN II, and I see that it’s already been noted that it’s actually jackal blood.
What Chris Lee Dracula film had him climbing the wall? There are only two actually proper Stoker’s DRACULA movies he did which included Lucy Westenra- the Hammer 1958 one (US title- HORROR OF DRACULA) and the 1970’s Jess Franco COUNT DRACULA.
Geez, Walloon, that Exorcist trailer freaked me the hell out all over again at 7:00 am with breakfast in my hand. When the car first pulls up, that silouette of the planter at the gate looks like a big, carnivorous Medusa… and it’s right by his door.
Jaws was a good call too. The week before it came out I’d spent wade fishing with my grandparents at Rockport. That first scene where it grabs the nekkid girl swimming alone at night and slams her into the buoy just scared the frikkin’ bejesus out of me.
Scariest movie? Bambi, of course.
Was the phone call for real? Or was it a prank?
Gah, one of the more stressful movies I’ve seen. Most of the movie was just plain suspense. The phone call though, that scared me - badly.
