Scariest. Movie. Ever.

[glitterbug]

If you think the movie version of The Shining is scary... read the book. You'll never look at topiary animals the same way again.

Absolutely!! That was the scariest bit for me. I read it to my Year 9s to freak them out. Shame they had to leave it out of the film but then special effects aren't what they are today. In fact the film left out quite a lot of the good stuff, but I read a lot of it was to do with Kubrick's obsession with native American Indians or something...?

If you think the movie version of The Shining is scary... read the book. You'll never look at topiary animals the same way again.

Topic? Saw The Missing the other night and I've got to say the freaky witch doctor type and his band of vicious murderers did nothing to help me sleep! Especially after what they did to poor old Aaron Eckhart!

[Casino Bride]

pachouli said:

This Gargoyles movie scared the hell out of me too.

Oh, dear gawd! I thought I was the only one still having nightmares about this flick! Had one this very week, as a matter of fact!

Didn't those monsters from Don't Be Afraid Of The Dark sorta look like pumpkins? That's how I remember them, anyway.

There was also another scary 70s TV movie starring Dirk Benedict (my first crush!) where he gradually turned into a snake. Or did I hallucinate that one?

[Gracie]

There was also another scary 70s TV movie starring Dirk Benedict (my first crush!) where he gradually turned into a snake. Or did I hallucinate that one?

No hallucinations there. That was the almighty SSSSSSS from 1973. So fantabulous that it got a 4.4 at IMDB.

However, I started to watch it back in the day on a Friday night Creature Feature. Scared the crap out of me. I turned it off and I never watched it again!

[Casino Bride]

Oh, bless you, Gracie! "Fantabulous" is correct!

They really would play scary stuff on late night TV back then - I'm surprised my Mom let me watch!

Weirdest thing: when I was about 9 or 10, I went to see "101 Dalmatians" or "The Aristocats". And one of the previews was for "The Shining"! I still remember the elevator doors opening and all the blood gushing out... Hello?!? My friend and I were traumatized!

[Deleted]

keepittight said:

When I was a kid, The Witches with Angelica Huston absolutely terrified me and traumatised for years. The bit where the witches all meet up and take off their wigs and shoes, and then he gets caught and then the baby gets thrown down the hill- oh, the HORROR. Seriously, traumatised for life. I used to lie in bed at night and imagine the Grand High Witch was outside my window, pointing at me *dies*.

The story about the little girl trapped in the painting who ages and disappears freaked out my entire childhood. Curse you, Roald Dahl!

[spinsterliz]

Did you read the book? It's got not only the story about the girl in the painting, but lots of other horrible stories that didn't make it into the movie. Roald Dahl was an evil genius.

This is embarrassing, but, when I was little I was scared of the movie "Ernest Scared Stupid." I saw it in the theater with just my little brother, and it freaked me out. Not the parts about Ernest, but rather the parts about the monster who turned people into wooden dolls. He gave me nightmares. It was a surprisingly creepy plot for an "Ernest" movie, actually. And dolls are just plain creepy.

[Deleted]

spinsterliz said:

Did you read the book? It's got not only the story about the girl in the painting, but lots of other horrible stories that didn't make it into the movie. Roald Dahl was an evil genius.

Oh yes. Yes indeed, I devoured Roald Dahl books. Needless to say, my childhood was both twisted and wickedly entertaining.

[january]

Is The Witches the one where the one kid gets turned into a mouse and one of the witches steps on him? Or something to that effect. It may have just been in the book. But either way, that image has stuck with me since I was a child.

[HarpofLorien]

IMO, the scariest movies are the most realistic. My favorite terror from the 1980s: Threads, or what would the world be like if the Russians and their allies bombed the crap out of the rest of the world, and vice versa. Survivors of the initial attacks die horrible deaths from radiation sickness, and those who survive the radiation find themselves in a world without law, clean water and electricity and any reasonable means of survival. Actually, it looked a lot like New Orleans, except without the radiation.

Watching it today the movie is pretty dated, but when it came out in 1984, and with Reagan joking that "we begin bombing in five minutes," this movie gave me a lot of sleepless nights.

[tydomin]

Nic Roeg's DON'T LOOK NOW, starring Donald Sutherland & Julie Christie, about a couple whose daughter dies unexpectedly despite the father's premonition of the event. His inability to correctly read the cryptic clues he's receiving is the agonizing crux of the drama, building to a finish where, believing he knows full well what he's doing, he makes a most dreadful mistake. Scary AS HELL.