Since reaching adulthood, has a horror movie ever really scared you?

As I postedin another thread, watching the first Alien movie when I was 19 oops, just dated myself scared me pretty good. The soundtrack had some great environmental sounds that made the movie that much better.

The last time I was scared by a horror movie was Tourist Trap, when I was like 11 or so. It seems like these days, horror movies rely more on gore or things that pop out in front of you (which is a cheap shot) instead of suspense.

4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days. It’s about an aborted pregnancy but it felt like a horror movie to me.

I jumped at the part in “Wait Until Dark” when Alan Arkin wasn’t really dead, but I guess that’s not a horror movie.

It’s the same for me. That thrill is no longer there.

When I was 14, it was The Changling with George C. Scott. My cousin and I couldn’t get past the first 20 mintues. Scared the crap out of us. It was always the supernatural/demonic stuff that scared me. Gore, not so much.

The Shining is by far my favorite. I could watch that over and over.

it took me a good three minutes to type this because I have a cat that’s trying to slither his scrawny fur body on top of my warm laptop. Ah, kittehs.

Yes defo I find them scary!

The Thing with Kurt Russell and Exorcist III still scare me. More recently I would have to say The Exorcism of Emily Rose.

I am terribly susceptible to being frightened and avoid horror movies like the plague.

Oh yeah…as a kid I was easily scared and had nightmares a lot. The first season of “V” made my nights a living hell back in the 80s. I also remember a movie called “The Lamp”, which was hard on my weak soul. “The Burning” aswell.

I don’t know about “scared,” but I was really creeped out by both The Ring and 28 Days Later (actually, it was the documentary about real-world infectious diseases on the DVD that made me uncomfortable, not the movie itself). Come to think of it, I was at a girlfriend’s house for both movies, so maybe it was just being away from the safety of home that made those movies creepy.

The 1979 version of The Amityville Horror. There’s just something so creepy about it, along with the book. The most creepy moments for me are when the demonic pig’s eyes appear outside the window at night and the whole concept of that creepy room in the basement painted with blood. It’s disgusting and terrifying at the same time, especially since it’s supposedly based on true events. Also the part when George sees the demonic pig in his daughter’s room for a few seconds and the whole concept of the lion statue that moves by itself.

I am definitely not scared easily and nothing really makes me cover my eyes and scream. It’s the feeling afterwards and the thought of how scary it is, and The Amityville Horror was one of the few movies that actually made me feel scared and made it hard to sleep. I’ve seen it like 4 times now and read the book because the story fascinates me. The remake is a joke; it was horrible and has nothing to do with the original story.

Sorry I don’t have any suggestions; it’s just the same movie you mentioned. I’ve also been creeped out by Unsolved Mysteries segments.

My mom is also not easily scared, but she saw The Exorcist as a teen and it traumatized her. Part of the reason why I’ve never seen it; I’ve been scared out of seeing it.

I’m more scared by parts of movies instead of theo whole movie.
The thing that still scares me to this day is when the face of Pazuzu pops up in random parts in The Exorcist.
Another is when Samara crawls out of the TV in The Ring. I just remember seeing it and thinking “WTF?!??!”

A movie I really couldn’t finish watching was the strangers. Try and check the trailer here, you’ll see the female lead (Liv Tyler) is standing in the kitchen not doing anything. It’s one of those: ‘You’ll shit bricks when you see it’ moments when there is a guy standing behind her not doing anything.

Most of you will probably not find it scary at all, but for me it was a moment that gives me the ability to scare myself. That’s something more powerful than any writer could come up with. You know how everyone has one of those moments when it’s dark and you think something is watching you. You always shake it off, because well nothing happened, but in the movie there are a lot of moments where the characters are being watched without anything happening. So now whenever it’s dark I just have to watch over my shoulder every time I get that feeling ;)

Les Yeux Sans Visage is one of my favourites.

@markyy Holy shit. Great Answer. I’d forgotten about that movie. “you’ll see the female lead (Liv Tyler) is standing in the kitchen not doing anything. It’s one of those: ‘You’ll shit bricks when you see it’ moments when there is a guy standing behind her not doing anything.” So true. That part freaked me out too.

I just wanted to show the scene that really scared me in TAH: http://www.lookydaddy.com/.a/6a00d83451901369e2010535f314c4970b-800wi I just watched the trailer a few seconds ago and when they showed those eyes, it made me jump a little…haha

Also, here in the window you can see the pig: http://chatanuga.org/pics/amity/amity52.jpg

@Allie & @markyy I found The Strangers really boring

@Allie I’m glad I’m not the only one. Come to think of it I think my fear of that movie can be traced back to another one, but I forgot the name. It’s a scifi flick from the 50’s / 60’s in black and white and it’s about an alien (human looking) that landed on earth in his spaceship. There is a scene where a door is opened and he is standing there just completely frozen. I saw it as a kid and I had to open doors really fast and step back for at least 2 months :)

@RareDenver Well I said it would be boring to most of you. It’s not about scary stuff that the writers put in the movie, it’s about how you can scare yourself.

Look into Japanese Horror flicks. Trust me, you’ll find that sense of fear you’ve been missing.

@RareDenver you called cannibal holocaust “pointless”. Your opinion is invalid

@PretentiousArtist GA for making me smile

@Grisaille GA. I completely agree.

It’s funny to watch now (ridiculous, lol)), but, back when I was younger this (Trilogy of Terror) scared the poop outta me. Gotta love Karen Black. Creepy.

I don’t like Japanese horror. It just doesn’t float my boat.

The only movie that ‘scared’ me at all as an adult was The Blair Witch Project. Now, I know it wasn’t really that scary, but it was set in the woods I grew up in, and actually filmed in a town that I lived near at the time it came out. I also saw it at night, in the theater, and when we walked out, we realized our car was parked at the far edge of the lot… next to the woods. My friend and I looked at each other in dismay, and ran our asses off to get to the car.

For my money, Halloween is the benchmark. I still love horror films, but these days they seem to be more about grossing you out than actually scaring you.

@Grisaille I have seen several Japanese horror movies. I spend more time trying to decipher their cultural meaning. Too many years of cultural and media studies, I guess.

I can’t get scared by horror movies I have seen before, especially if I have seen them multiple times. Certain parts will still give me that eerie feeling (like in Nightmare of Elm Street when Nancy is dreaming in school and Tina’s dead body, in a body bag, is being dragged down the hall by something invisible), but I want something new.

@augustlan I agree. It seems to be more about the gore now, than an actual horror movie. So disappointing.

When I was a kid I loved horror movies and loved the sense of being scared. However, as an adult I know no one is going to come keep me safe so I can’t bear to watch horror movies at all anymore. My kids think I am being silly, but then they still have me to protect them and keep them safe from the boogeyman.

I’ve never been one to experience the thrill-scare. It’s the lurking-scare that gets me. Spurting blood, chainsaws, screams, jump scares… None of those get a rise out of me. It takes cold, calculating sociopaths and creeping psychological terror and things of that nature to frighten me.

I have to add, though, that I recently tried to watch Mirrors [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirrors_(film)] and couldn’t. Here’s what I said in my review of it: “I had to turn this movie off after the first twenty minutes or so. I did like what I saw, but as it turns out, I’m far more phobic when it comes to mirrors than I was aware. Mirrors have always made me nervous, and a bulletproof way for a movie to freak me out a little is to have a scene where a reflection doesn’t show what it should. But I’d never tried watching a movie where that was the whole point. Apparently, I can’t. :(”

The Mothman Prophecies scared the crap out of me.

I’ve never seen a horror film in my life that has scared me. Kept on the edge of my seat sure, but scared, no.

@Supacase Me too. I forgot about that one.

I am always a sucker for sudden violence, especially from things off-screen, and especially when accompanied by a musical “jump”.

@jmah thanks for the link, I loved that movie, but couldn’t figure out why she didn’t do certain things to kill that little doll monster. Now I realize she was following a script. Boy, was I gullible as a child.

Horror movies arent scary.

i agree @PretentiousArtist the pop up stuff is definitely a cheap shot and doesnt count as scaring. You jump even if you friggin know its coming.

I don’t watch many of them, because they are so boring, but once in awhile, they manage to startle me with a sudden movement. I think they are mostly silly, sometimes disgusting, but never scary. I guess it takes a certain type of imagination I lack.

@jmah, me too!!! Wow, I had forgotten about that one! It is pretty silly now though.
In the first Alien movie, it scared the crap out of me when the ‘baby’ alien burst out of John Hurt’s chest.

Scary, really scary, nightmare scary….Seven. But, the last real scare was the original version of Psycho when I was still a teenager.

The Ring bothered me – not right after I watched it, but about 4 months later I just laid down to go to bed and had a flashback to it. I didn’t go to sleep that night.

My Mom saw Deerhunter when it came out. Every time it’s advertised on tv she makes me swear I will never watch it no matter what. I don’t even know if it’s supposed to be a scary movie.

The Descent freaked me out. It had that older style long lead-in that adds to the suspense. The sense of foreboding was really thick, and then when the bad starts to actually happen you’ve been expecting it for so long you almost don’t expect it anymore. I just really liked the story. It completely sucks you into caring about the characters.

The Hand That Rocks the Cradle

Oh yea Blair witch project scared the crop out of me…

The only film that’s ever scared the crop out of me is Children of the Corn.

Hee!

Pumpkinhead scared the crop out of me.

hellraiser, anyone?

Child’s Play! Chucky scared the crap out of me. My uncle had a doll and used to chase me around with it. Once he put a tiny play knife in Chucky’s hand and rigged him to a string so that when I opened the door he’d fly at me.

I stopped getting scared of horror movies around age 12, although I loved them. I still enjoyed them for the gorey effects until around age 18. But after that I never really found any interest. I tried to watch Hellraiser, and it bored me. Then I tried The Saw, and that bored me.

I did find a movie with some horror-elements, but it wasn’t a horror movie per se. It was called The Cube. It also had 2 excellent sequels. That really pulled me in, but didn’t actually scare me.

However… on one occasion a decade ago… I took some LSD then put headphones on, and then listened to an Audio-drama, recorded in 3-D stereo effect, based on a Stephen King book.

And to be private, I climbed into the back of my camper truck and just sat on the couch listening to this Stephen King audio drama.

And every chill and every nailbiting nervewracking moment I had as a kid at a good horror movie… came back in full, beautiful powerful hellishly scary, and totally interesting ways. Very scary. But the backthoughts of my head knew I was okay. Just like a kid at a good horror movie.

One of the first horror movies I saw was The Amityville Horror. I was under 10 years old, far younger in fact. And my friend Kevin told me that it’s a true story, before I saw it. He then showed me the book cover to prove it. “A True Story” it said.

So I believed it. Then when I saw the movie, I was terrified that this “real” stuff could happen to anyone, including me. I must have been afraid of the dark for years because of that. Not necessarily of the dark… but what was possibly in the dark, actually.

I really was very scared of that movie. Only because I thought it was a true story… bleeding walls, devil in the basement, all of it.

@Kraigmo what was that Stephen King audio-drama called? I’d be interested to get hold of a copy of that.

@RareDenver, I’d mention it if i could remember. It was recorded in what they called “3-D Stereo”, some gimmick that makes the stereo sound Left, Right, and in the back of your head, when wearing headphones. Sorry I don’t remember. I guess it was too scary for me.

@Kraigmo I’ve read quite a few of his books, can you recall much of the storyline?

@RareDenver Sorry, I don’t remember any of it now. I wish I did, so I could get the book or find the tape again.

@Kraigmo

Cool; scored another point for The Amityville Horror. There’s definitely something to be said for how scary Amityville is since several people have said it scared them.

@RareDenver: I suspect it was probably the BBC’s mid-90s seven-part radio-dramatization of ‘Salem’s Lot. I heard it through a horror podcast I used to subscribe to, so I’m pretty sure you can google and find someplace to download it for free. :)

Edit: Actually, here. I googled for you.

@MacBean cheers, it would appear that the link only has the first 30 seconds of each part but now I know what it is I’ll just order it from my local library that can source anything from the BBC. God I love my country !!

Yes I was scared of Toy Story 3…. near the end in the incinerator.