Scariest. Movie. Ever.

[kafka]

bstewart said:

I'll have a hard time erasing the memories of Henry Czerny showering across from me every week at Toronto's downtown Y, long before he made it big.

Oh, you SO have to share that story.... in detail. FWIW, I didn't think Stigmata was scary or the creepiest thing EVAH, just deliciously fun in a creepy way, if that makes any sense.

But The Exorcist holds a place dear to my heart, because it was one of the most flat-out, contrived, no-holds-barred attempts to manipulate the audience through music, shocking visuals, astonishinly layered sound design and subliminal imagery.

That's how I feel about the Omen series. I was never scared by Psycho (which I think is hugely over-rated) but the first Exorcist and the entire Omen series totally transfixed me. Even so, it wasn't actually "scary" to me. More like, "ooooooh, this is soooooooo cool!!!!" But then, I'm the girl with the Opus Dei obsession (and probably one of the only 3 people on the planet who was into the Revelations TV series about the Anti-Christ), so I'm clearly just odd.

In truth, I think one of the "scariest" movies I've ever seen was Arachnophobia, but that's solely due to my bug/insect issues.

[esoterica]

The Shining scared me so badly I was crying, and I didn't see it until after I graduated from college.

28 Days Later didn't bother me, surprisingly. The eye scene got to me, but that was it.

I remember seeing Lair of the White Worm when I was a kid and I was terrified. I think anything sacrilegious would have creeped me out at that age.

Oh, and in the original Nightmare on Elm Street, Freddy's long arms STILL scare the bejesus out of me.

Cape Fear scared me when I saw it in theaters. I think the piano wire scene was the worst part. (shudder)

[hobbes]

I love horror movies! Because I've seen so many, it's really hard for me to be scared by them. While I love Nightmare on Elm Street, I saw it so young that Freddy doesn't scare me anymore. I'm actually more scared by 'realistic' movies (American History X) than horror...however, 2 movies that will haunt me for the rest of my natural life are:

Arachnaphobia. Spiders. Spiders spiders spiders everywhere! And there's me, curled up into a ball in the corner, chanting the Lord's prayer.

Creepshow. Now, I saw this movie at a very young age (ah, my parents - truly the kind from the early 80's, where anything goes!), and it fucked me up. When I was 5 years old, I got strep throat and got a really high fever. I woke up in the middle of the night hallucinating that there were COCKROACHES ALL OVER ME. Dear God. That particular scene terrifies me.

Also, I love The Omen. I found it much scarier than The Exorcist.

[Deleted]

kafka said:

Oh, you SO have to share that story.... in detail.

Nothing to report, out of the ordinary. Czerny's just an above-average guy (looks, build, everything) who happens to belong in that category of "totally-gets-me-going". Was, I mean, he kinda got old, and fast. And he was always friendly (but not particularly gregarious) in the gym, too (this was when Boys of St. Vincent was just airing).

Scary movies? The Dawn of the Dead remake was scary, funny and had Sarah Polley, who rocks rather hard.

[kafka]

hobbes said:

Arachnaphobia. Spiders. Spiders spiders spiders everywhere! And there's me, curled up into a ball in the corner, chanting the Lord's prayer.

Hobbes, I was too and I don't normally have issues with spiders. But these weren't just any sort of spider; they were super-intelligent, malvolently strategic, ninja attack spiders with a plan! The girl I saw it with at the cinema was clutching me during the film the way a drowning man clings onto a floating piece of wood. And we were both shrieking our heads off. Pyscho didn't frighten me but this film? Scariest. Film. EVER.

Creepshow. I woke up in the middle of the night hallucinating that there were COCKROACHES ALL OVER ME. Dear God. That particular scene terrifies me.

Okay, cockroaches I *do* have issues with. They're my biggest phobia so your comments made the hair on my arms stand up and my skin crawl. It's clear that this is one film I will NOT be renting.

bstewart said:

Nothing to report, out of the ordinary. Czerny's just an above-average guy (looks, build, everything)

How disappointing. I was hoping for some big details about things below the waist to enliven my viewing of the upcoming mini-series, The Tudors.

[Deleted]

Oh, don't get me wrong -- the "everything" to which I referred as "above-average" is what you're wanting to know. The "long before he made it big" was me being 12. (And intact, if you must know. ;D) He seemed just genuinely a goodguy, and if we played for the same team, I'd have seriously been asking for a date.

The scary movie which has had the most significant impact on me was the original The Haunting, not because I still find it frightening, but because I spent at least two years of my childhood awakening from nightmares afterwards. "It's the coldest room in the house!" is still one of my fave non-sequiturs, much to the puzzlement of... everyone.

[mariposalabrown]

I just used this thread to make a whole netflix queue, thanks, guys!

I love love love horror movies, and second the last story in Creepshow about the cockroaches. I can't even watch it. I think my scariest though, which I'm actually watching tonight, is Children of the Corn. Any time they have the music that is a choir of children just singing that "Aaaah- ah-ah- aH-aaaah" stuff really high, oh that just gets me going.

[marywebgirl]

If anyone wants to get a big dose of scary with some snark, Bravo is doing a 4-hour show about the 100 scariest movies in history with various actors, directors, etc. commenting on them. There are a whole bunch of movies I never would have even heard of if not for this thread. A fun tidbit I learned: They had an interview with either the director or writer of Last House on the Left who said that they broke for lunch after filming the scene where they kill the girl in the woods, but everyone just went off by themselves and nobody ate a thing.

[chiqui]

I live horror movies set in hospitals or medical settings, like the recent remake of The House on Haunted Hill or the J-horror psychological drama Infection. I'm not a suspense/splatter/sex fan -- I like the quieter chills. I thought the scariest scenes in The Exorcist were in the beginning, when they didn't know what was wrong with the girl and were subjecting her to all these invasive medical treatments, including a primitive CAT scan.

[marywebgirl]

chiqui, whenever I have to describe what my husband does to people I always say, "Do you remember the scene in The Exorcist when they stuck the wire in her vein? That's what he does."