Scariest. Movie. Ever.

[kostgard]

Oct 27, 2010 11:53:50 GMT -4 Smilla said:

Watched The Descent last night. Not bad.

I watched it last week, and I too thought it wasn't too bad for a horror flick, and I liked that it was an all-female cast and the complexity of the characters.


But this is another movie with two different endings, and I don't understand why American movie studios always have to crap up movie endings. Spoilers: In the original version, they flash back to the cave and we see Sarah hallucinating about her daughter, and we hear the screams of the crawlers in the background, and it becomes clear that she is not getting out. She's too far down, she's probably suffering from hypoxia, and it's just a matter of time before the crawlers come eat her. But in the American theater version, they end the movie at that shot where Sarah is in the truck, making her escape (the part we learn in the original version was a hallucination/dream) and she looks over and sees Juno in the passenger seat. I guess it's more of a "gotcha" ender that makes you jump, but it is also totally non-sense and lame. The original ending is a bit bleak, but to me, it's far more terrifying.

I liked the complexity of the characters. No one was pure good or pure evil. Sarah had some not-so-great qualities, and Juno had some good qualities. But I liked and didn't like how their relationship played out: [spoilers]Okay, Juno is a bitch for having an affair with Sarah's husband. But Sarah's husband is guilty there too. And Juno killing Beth was completely an accident. Who the hell silently walks up behind someone who was just desperately swinging a pick ax around killing monsters? Yeah, Juno left her there, but she really thought she was dead and she panicked. While I kinda liked that the "heroine" was dark enough to injure Juno and leave her there to die, it smacked a little too much of "the slut gets what she deserves" for me.


But I guess in general I don't like horror films because people in them are total morons. I spent the whole time watching "Paranormal Activity" wondering why these people were so stupid. Okay, fine. Try to solve the problem on your own, but when shit gets that weird? GET HELP. Leave. Go to a mental hospital where you will be watched 24/7. Your demon specialist is out of town? Well, you don't just shrug and go "Oh, well. Carry on, then..." Get on the damn internet and find yourself another demon specialist. Get a priest up in there. Sell the miles and miles of creepy footage you have to some sort of news program and then you'll have all sorts of people beating down your door to help.

These movies are just so frustrating to me, because so much of the bad stuff could easier be avoided. I guess "The Descent" goes over better for me because while going into that particular cave was a dumb decision, most of the stuff that happened past that was understandable or not really anyone's fault. Most of those folks were truly screwed, and it wasn't just because they had the IQ of a piece of lint.

[trifle]

I read somewhere that it was actually the director's decision to change the US ending, so that he'd have the option to do a sequel. Not sure if that's true or just something put out by the studio.

[Deleted]

Oct 31, 2010 14:47:01 GMT -4 chiqui said:

Who or what is Goblin?

Goblin[/color] is an extremely loud Italian band whose music is in a lot of Dario Argento's movies.

[Atreides]

I saw Paranormal Activity 2 over the weekend. It was really intense and I had a great audience that jumped, screamed, and laughed at all the right places. There was one scare scene in particular that just came out of nowhere and had us all screaming.

[Baby Fish Mouth]

Oct 31, 2010 15:21:09 GMT -4 kostgard said:

But this is another movie with two different endings, and I don't understand why American movie studios always have to crap up movie endings. Spoilers: In the original version, they flash back to the cave and we see Sarah hallucinating about her daughter, and we hear the screams of the crawlers in the background, and it becomes clear that she is not getting out. She's too far down, she's probably suffering from hypoxia, and it's just a matter of time before the crawlers come eat her. But in the American theater version, they end the movie at that shot where Sarah is in the truck, making her escape (the part we learn in the original version was a hallucination/dream) and she looks over and sees Juno in the passenger seat. I guess it's more of a "gotcha" ender that makes you jump, but it is also totally non-sense and lame. The original ending is a bit bleak, but to me, it's far more terrifying.
But I guess in general I don't like horror films because people in them are total morons. I spent the whole time watching "Paranormal Activity" wondering why these people were so stupid. Okay, fine. Try to solve the problem on your own, but when shit gets that weird? GET HELP. Leave. Go to a mental hospital where you will be watched 24/7. Your demon specialist is out of town? Well, you don't just shrug and go "Oh, well. Carry on, then..." Get on the damn internet and find yourself another demon specialist. Get a priest up in there. Sell the miles and miles of creepy footage you have to some sort of news program and then you'll have all sorts of people beating down your door to help.

See, I like the American ending. The way I interpreted it was: sure, Sarah may have gotten out of the cave, but she's going to be haunted by what she did to Juno (and everything else that happened in the cave) for the rest of her life. To me that's a creepier prospect than just dying in the cave.

I'm with you on Paranormal Activity though. It had some genuinely creepy moments, but logic kind of got in the way.

[Deleted]

Oct 30, 2010 23:25:30 GMT -4 MrsCatHead said:

That movie scared me to death when I was young.

Hubby and I watched Candyman tonight. I'm kind of sad that I didn't feel it was as scary as when I watched it years and years ago. Sniff.

Ah. But will you say his name five times in the mirror? I got over my fear of the film eons ago but you won't catch me chanting that shit in the mirror. Uh uh. No f'ing way.

[MrsCatHead]

Oh, you got me, K.Barrett! I will NOT say it five times. Not even when I'm not in front of the mirror.

[leela46]

I just finished this whole thread. Some of these movies bring back a lot of memories.

Two Spielberg movies that still scare me: Duel and Jaws. I still get very nervous when I'm driving and see a large truck behind me. As for Jaws, I still remember sitting hunkered down in my seat in the theater hiding my face behind my popcorn during parts of that movie. To this day I can't make myself go into the ocean above my knees.

A few other that I found really scary:

Premature Burial with Ray Milland. I saw this movie when I was in junior high and it has stayed with me all these years. I get chills thinking about it.

The Dark Secret of Harvest Home with Bette Davis. This was a four hour TV movie that I haven't seen in years but I remember being really creeped out by it. I've looked for a DVD of it but all I've been able to find is a VHS tape that was chopped up into a two hour movie. I wish the whole four hour movie would be shown again on TV sometime.

Sisters by Brian De Palma with Margot Kidder. Another one of the great 70's scary movies. I couldn't sleep after watching this one. Another one I'd love to see on TV again.

I've recommended The Changeling to a lot of friends who like scary movies. I'm always surprised at how many people have never heard of it. I think it's the best ghost story movie I've ever seen.

[talkbox]

To me, The Omen series was beyond frightening. After watching it, I was chanigng my nightshirt and remembered the scene where the Satanic nanny killed the wife.

What makes the series so frightening, is that it's not obvious who is and isn't evil up front, you wait and see and then start realizing who is behind what and THEN all the evil comes out.

Mind you, I'm not ttalking about the new one, but the old original series.

[Deleted]

I've recommended The Changeling to a lot of friends who like scary movies. I'm always surprised at how many people have never heard of it. I think it's the best ghost story movie I've ever seen.[/quote]

This is a movie that stayed with me for months, it truly terrified me because it was so atmospheric. I never knew that a ball bouncing down a staircase could be that scary.