I love scary movies I have shelves full of them. I have to live vicariously through others to get creeped out feelings by watching my wife's reactions. I can tell you a list of films I think are effective, and I can tell you some where jump scares got me too. Very few movies ever made my skin crawl
Babadook was pretty terrifying, so was Hereditary. But yea Exorcist might win. Also, check out Mandy with Nicholas Cage if you haven’t already, its insane.
As someone whose first desire was to be a ventriloquist as a kid, puppet master fucked that up for me. Also the little people in the painting in tales in the hood....nope
TV film Threads. It was based on a nuclear winter set 25 miles from my home. In the 1980s we also had nuclear siren testing so this was terrifyingly possible. Great northern actors working through an apocalypse (nowt stops us!), including @reecedinsdale.bsky.social and the late Steve Halliwell.
I was a couple years out of college when I finally saw The Terminator on TV, but when the top-half skeleton reawakened in the metal press and grabbed her leg, I jumped. That chase scene in the factory was with me for a long time.
Threads. The most frightening thing about it is its matter-of-factness.
It was on TV in NZ when I was 11, and I really wanted to watch it because I knew everyone at school would be talking about it the next day. My parents wouldn't let me, which really pissed me off at the time. (1/2)
When I did finally see it at the age of 26, the very first thing I did - an hour later when I finally felt able to speak again - was call my parents to thank them for not letting me watch it when I was 11.
I learnt about it on the internet much later than its broadcast. It's terrifying, and add Peter Watkins's 'The War Game' and that would be a traumatic afternoon or night. These lists always repeat silly fictional 'scary' stuff that have no effect on me.
I was only 11 when I saw this film but it has stayed with me for 70+ years!
Invaders from Mars (1953)
A young boy who witnesses a flying saucer behind his home one night. When his father investigates, he returns a changed man.... I always tended to look behind people's ears for implants after it 😱😅
That would be on my list also, but I have an exemption when it comes to anything that has Roswell Greys. I remember part of being visited by 3 of the damn things one time. Before any drug use, when I was a child. The only time in my life that an experience that may have been a dream was “real” to me
Both Bette Davis movies, The Nanny and Whatever Happened to Baby Jane. Those were scary to me as a kid. As an adult, nothing can compete with the reality of this world.
I saw Watcher in the Woods with Bette Davis at a very young age of five, scared me good. When I hear that song "Bette Davis Eyes" I think terrifying not attractive, that woman is scary.
Godzilla Minus One. The emphasis on the human story of one man and how he and his "found family" caught up in the catastrophe makes the appearance of the kaiju all the more terrifying. The stakes suddenly become very real, which makes the terror more real.
I was scared to death of The Exorcist just by hearing about it. Once I watched it, I wasn't scared at all--by that time, I was old enough to realize sometimes the world is an even scarier horror movie.
the haunting of hill house show was genuinely the scariest series i’ve ever seen. didn’t know there was a movie or even a book! i’m def gonna check out both
The Exorcist bc I watched it with my Dad when I was a kid and at the end of the movie, it was time for bed, Dad thought it would be funny to wait and jump out at me from round the corner. He regretted it bc he had to sleep with me several nights after that 🤣
WHY DO YOU KEEP GOING DOWN WHEN YOURE UNDERGROUND?!?!?! And the ending, what happened? World is upside down, they emerged in hell, not really sure what was going on. How did constantly going down loop back to the surface?
That’s probably the right answer in this one. Philosophers stone, healing massive injuries instantly..although doesn’t she heal that one woman, then later say, “I have the wrong philosophers stone”, and go back? I had serious issues with keeping up with this movie for some reason. Too much Marvel🤷🏼♂️
I went to the theater thinking that was going to be a Star Trek-like fun movie.
20m in I turned to my friend & asked "this isn't a sci-fi movie?"
He looked at me like 🤨?
😂
The Exorcist. I watched it late one night at home alone. Right after it ended, Tubular Bells is still playing, my collie had his first grand mal epileptic seizure.
I gave up on horror films after a nightmare caused by the Freddy’s Nightmare TV show of the 80’s which I watched every week. I did not have another nightmare until around the year 2000.
Honestly, I saw Freddy Nightmare on Elm street when I was like in 3rd or 4th Grade with an older cousin and I couldn't sleep for weeks after that. It isn't very scary now, but when I was little, I was sure he was going to find me in my dreams.
The first time I watched Halloween II was as a kid in the hospital. That movie bleeped me up for years. It took a long time to feel safe in one again. 🤣
The UK launch of Silence of the Lambs was at Broadway Cinema, Nottingham, as part of their wonderful 'Shots in the Dark' film festival. On the journey home I thought he was waiting for us back at ours.
I agree. Whilst not a fan of horror movies, "Silence of the Lambs" and "Seven" had a way of getting to me. Scary for their portrayal of the intelligent but absolutely chilling and horrifying portrayal of evil.
I actually went night swimming in the sea with my mum after watching Jaws. We swam out to the end of Weymouth Stone pier until it hit us how similar this was to the start of the film. I've never swam back to shore so quickly
The Changeling scared the crap out of me … I asked my little sister to come sleep in my room with me after watching it. I was sure I was going to hear that murdered kid banging on the bathtub across the hall.
I did a recent rewatch of The Exorcist and almost had a heart attack when I got a UPS delivery in the middle of it. Movie is still scary af to this day for me!
The Ring, American version. They did a lot of really good pacing with jumpscares and dread building. Plus, I'd left my TV on before I went to see it, so opening my door and seeing a static screen freaked the Hell out of me.
The music video to Metallica's One. I couldn't help watch it when it came on, always at night. I had to watch. The end "s.o.s. ... help me..." chilling.
For some reason, The Ring really creeped me out. Saw it at the cinema (which probably helped) it was very effectively done even if it wasn't the most sophisticated plot.
Amityville Horror.
I think I was 12.
Kids today....boy do I sound old...Kids today are a lot more jaded. They'd probably confuse it for a romantic comedy.
Psycho. Saw it when I was 10 years old & it scared the shit out of me! On the way home my mother got took a wrong turn & drove into a cemetery! She’s lost & turns to me and says, “Get out of the car and see where we are!!” In the dark, in a rainstorm, in a cemetery?! After Psycho?! No fucking way!!
Hear me out but Cocoon! The bit where he's peeping on the female alien and she strips her skin off and then he looks away for a second and looks back and she's right by the keyhole!
Jeepers Creepers! A Giant flying bat/bird/Human like creature. First sight of this creature, I was like "nope". I've watched lots of horror films, but this one really creeped me out. Did get through it a couple of years later, but only because I wasn't watching it alone. Still creeped me out.
When I was a kid, the original "The Fly" terrified me. Then "The Exorcist" kept me up at night. The "Alien" movies had the scariest monster. Incredibly nasty and FAST. Most movie monsters were slow moving.
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But now that it's non-fiction about our current timeline, it's scary as hell.
Where the dead are surfacing!
The horror.
I was far too young when I saw that one...
It was the relentlessness of it. No matter what they did, it just got up and kept coming. It was my first real experience with hopelessness.
Signs
(this scene in particular):
It was on TV in NZ when I was 11, and I really wanted to watch it because I knew everyone at school would be talking about it the next day. My parents wouldn't let me, which really pissed me off at the time. (1/2)
Invaders from Mars (1953)
A young boy who witnesses a flying saucer behind his home one night. When his father investigates, he returns a changed man.... I always tended to look behind people's ears for implants after it 😱😅
Giving me the odd shiver
Is Shyamalan's 'Signs'
20m in I turned to my friend & asked "this isn't a sci-fi movie?"
He looked at me like 🤨?
😂
I almost peed my pants.
Jason and the Argonauts.
#GobblessMerica
As an adult, the Descent.
Don't Look Up.
I think I was 12.
Kids today....boy do I sound old...Kids today are a lot more jaded. They'd probably confuse it for a romantic comedy.
•Evil dead (the 80s version)
•Terrifier 1
Fuck that movie