Fellow horror flick connoisseurs, what scares you?

[LaraMN]

A number of my friends find religious-themed horror movies frightening. I really don't, for the most part. Creepy children scare the crap out of me, a'la the Grudge, or the Ring, to cite some recent examples. I also find disjointed movement very disturbing. Gore doesn't particularly frighten me, in most instances I find it just lends a sort of sadistic humor to things, in fact,
I often find that the gorier a movie is, the less frightening it is, since quite typically the focus is all on shock effect and not plot. It's typically ideas that scare me, not blood.
I'm fortunate to have a sweet friend who indulges my taste in movies from behind a clenched pillow, since I tolerate her love of insipid chick flicks. So what keeps you awake at night?:scared:

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

1. The Ring, Texas Chainsaw Massacre

House of 1000 Corpses (though its sequel isn't a horror film really, Devil's Rejects is a kickass film)

[LaraMN]

2. I think I saw TCM when I was about ten.

No wonder I'm so....quirky...

[Hobarticus]

3. J-horror is the only genre that appeals to me anymore

I've always dug ghosts and the supernatural, so this is a natural. J-horror's heavily steeped in the supernatural; angry ghosts bent on revenge against people who had little or nothing to do with their demise. It's so remorseless and relentless, everybody's head is on the chopping block, it's not just the cheerleaders in their underwear like in Western horror.

There's no formula to J-horror, and there's rarely a completely happy ending. And they're so surreal, the living are in and out of the realm of the dead and vice-versa at any given time.

The Grudge scared the crap out of me. The notion that a vengeful ghost will take everybody gets it hands on, no matter their level of innocence....well, that's kind of the basis of western religion, isn't it? No one's safe.

No, gore doesn't do it for me either. I've seen lasagna.

[LaraMN]

9. I haven't seen NEARLY enough of that!

I would definitely like to. I wonder what Netflix offers, in that realm? "Surreal" totally gets me!

[Hobarticus]

38. Netflix has 'em all...

Look under Foreign, under Japanese, for the most direct route. Try the Korean category, too. Enjoy!

While you're there, get "The Devil's Backbone" and be prepared to freak out.

[On the Road]

33. "The Grudge" Absolutely Terrified Me

Other J-Horror films not so much. "The Eye" and the Japanese version of "The Ring" were interesting but only mildly scary. "Dark Water" was moody and well filmed but not that interesting.

One type of scene which really gets me is a ghost suddenly appearing in the picture, stock-still and watching. There a couple of scenes like that in "Stir of Echoes," another movie which I found enjoyably creepy but which fell into obscurity pretty rapidly.

[Hobarticus]

39. Ever see "Devil's Backbone"?

If not, give it a whirl. One of the best I've seen in a long, long time.

[ghostsofgiants]

44. The Grudge bored the hell out of me. I got halfway through it and realized

That there was no discernable plot. And I laughed my ass off at the suicide scene at the beginning. It was so bad (that's The Grudge I'm thinking of, right?). I loved The Eye, and Stir of Echoes. The Ring was alright, but could have been much better.

[Oeditpus Rex]

4. In scamming ideas for a haunted house years ago

I identified three different types of fear:

• Grossness, like dismemberment, stabbings and stuff. (Anything with sharp blade-like objects being used maliciously or wantonly creeps me out. I can't watch it.)

• Shock, i.e. Carrie's hand coming out of the ground at the end of that film. Scared the piss out of me the first time, but it was a good scare.

• Back-brained, primal fear, which can encompass many things: falling, being crushed — anything, really, with imminent doom that's beyond control. That's the scariest of all, IMO.

[LaraMN]

7. YES! I've contemplated the same idea(s).

Certain types yield very different "breeds" of horror flicks (all of which I dig). The ones that haunt me most offer up the most disturbing images, ingenious methods, and (ie: the Final Destination films)
stress-inducing, as you said, "imminent doom" kind of feelings.

Then of course there are the kind you watch just to squeal and laugh at: Child's Play, Leprechaun, (and the Devil's Rejects, if I weren't so appalled by Rob Zombie.)

Escapist fun at its sickest!

[Oeditpus Rex]

16. You shoulda seen the haunted house thing

that came out of that thought process.

And heard the screams. :evilgrin:

[LaraMN]

19. I can NOT go through those kinds of things!

I went in a "haunted house" at a fair once, and someone had to come get me out after about 30 seconds.:rofl:

[Oeditpus Rex]

20. I can't either

But I sure loved designing 'em. :evilgrin:

[TheBaldyMan]

5. '30s & '40's noir ; '60s & '70s Hammer Films not scary but I love them

[xmas74]

6. I guess I would have to go w/ religious horror

since the only movie ever to scare the crap out of me was The Exorcist. But I was pretty young when I saw it so that might make a difference.

[LaraMN]

8. That one never scared me at all, but I'd seen alot of horror, by then.

My Mom would have been appalled if she knew the kind of stuff that went on at some elementary school sleepovers when I was a kid!:rofl:

[xmas74]

11. I wasn't supposed to see it.

That's how I did see it-at a sleepover. And it was one of my first horror movies.

We were more interested in watching Flashdance at sleepovers than horror movies.

[BigMcLargehuge]

10. Great question, but I don't think I can truly answer it...

generally movies don't "scare me" and haven't since my mom took me to see The Exorcist when I was 6 or 7 years old. I've been a horror/monster movie fan since pretty much birth. My big childhood reward for being a good boy was being alowed to stay up late and watch Roger Corman's Poe movies (with Vincent Price) at midnight with popcorn and chocolate milk.

So films don't really scare me, but there are some that disturb me. It's a different feeling really. There is no visceral reaction, no jump, no scream and then laughter. Just this lingering sense of unease, sometimes that last years, and scenes that come back and beg to be thought about during vulnerable moments.

So, here is my list of films that disturbed me, and links to reviews I've written about them, or if not reviewed, a description of the scene that keeps haunting me.

Big McLargehuge's most disturbing movies (in no order)-

Men Behind the Sun
AKA He Tai Yang - 731

http://www.horrorview.com/Men%20Behind%20the%20Sun.htm

There are times when watching a film ceases to be an enjoyable experience. In even rarer cases you may stumble upon a film that promises not to be an enjoyable experience, yet demands your attention. In the rarest cases, you may actively seek out a film viewing experience that is in no way shape or form anything that could be called enjoyable.

T.F. Mou’s Black Sun - 731 (Man Behind the Sun) is the rarest of the rare, a film that is horrifying in its portrayal of inhumanity and
still manages to document a period in history rarely acknowledged in the western world.

An article about this film, on another website, began my obsession with researching Japanese war attrocities. It was almost two years before I obtained a Region 0 copy from Japan Shock, and it took two sittings to work through. I have never watched it again.

Black Sun: The Nanking Massacre

T.F. Mou's follow up to He Tai Yang:731. This one a docudrama about the Rape of Nanking. Set early in the rape, December 1937, follows three storylines through the ruined city, that of the Japanese officers jockying for position in the hierarchy based on their arrival and location in the city, the story of a Chinese uncle trying to rescue his very young neice and nephew, and the story of a Chinese man who collaborates with the Japanese. Mou is uncomprimising in his film making, and while the special effects are sometimes lousy, the impact of them is anything but.

I wrote the extras package for the Unearthed Films DVD release of this film.

The Man Who Fell to Earth

The scene where Buck Henry and his lover (who looks scarily like Christopher Reeve) are murdered has stuck with me since I was a teen and first encountered the film. The overall tone of the film is strange too, portraying both growing dread and apathy in equal measure.

The Hypnotist

I had no idea what to expect when I popped The Hypnotist into my DVD player. Would it be gross out new wave Japanese splatter, a large scale crime drama, or supernatural demon-inspired antics? The answer was yes!

The Hypnotist is a fantastic film that draws inspiration from a novel of the same name by Keisuke Matsuoka and begins with three very unusual suicides, a groom at his wedding reception strangles himself with his tie, a seventy year old retired man leaps to his death, and a college runner literally runs until her body crumbles.

http://www.horrorview.com/Hypnotist.htm

The Great Silence

The phenomena of Spaghetti Westerns was coming to a close in 1969, correspondingly so was the last labored breaths of the American western. Two films would emerge that year stamping a final melancholy and nihlisting coda to the genre. The better known of the two is Sam Peckinpah's amazing The Wild Bunch, the lesser known of the two is Sergio Carbucci's The Great Silence.

Both films share many similarities. The era of "the old west" is coming to an end as technology and commerce flood into the plains following the end of the American Civil War. Law was coming too and the days of a six-shooter-slinging, justice-dispensing sheriff who answers to no one were all but over.

Civilization had come to the fringe, and the fringe was being cut off. Peckinpah's film followed the last desperate raid of a gang of old time outlaws heading for the more familiar, and thus less civilized, lands of revolutionary Mexico. But the future had come to the once wild southern land as well, and as they say, you can't outrun progress. Corbucci's film takes a different, albeit smaller, track through these last days of lawless men and open frontiers and in the process manages to deconstruct both the art of the spaghetti western and the psyche of the genre's fans.

http://www.horrorview.com/Great%20Silence.htm

Santa Sangra

Andre Jodorowski's insane carnival movie. The whole damn thing is disturbing, but compelling.

Romper Stomper

The only skinhead movie I've ever seen that did not glorify these bald fuckwits as misunderstood, misguided kids going through a "nazi phase". Russell Crowe is excellent as the gang leader Hondo. The real disturbing stuff revolves around a love triangle between Hondo, his best friend, and an epileptic girl that falls in with them.

Cape Fear

The original only (The remake sucks). Max Cady is the scariest man ever captured on film. Played by Robert Mitchum as a cunning and sadistic rapist with a vengeance streak against the upright and morally questionable Councellor (Gregory Peck). Cady's dialogue still rings in my ears late at night sometimes.

Phantasm (and Phantasm 2)

Stunningly creepy imagery of The Tall Man (Angus Scrimm) slow-motion stalking a boy (and his ice cream truck driving pal) through a series of mausoleaums. The scares are okay, but the atmosphere is just creepy to the max.

The Grey Zone

The Auchwitz of The Grey Zone is not the sweeping barbed wire and row upon row of barracks we’ve come to expect from Holocaust movies, but a series claustrophobic interiors where the SonderKomando eek out a ghoulish existence guiding other jews into the chambers, sifting through their belongings, pulling gold teeth, cutting the hair of corpses, and finally disposing of the bodies in rows of roaring ovens. In exchange for these horrible duties they receive four months of life, better food, clean linens, alcohol, and cigarettes.

http://www.horrorview.com/Grey%20Zone.htm

[LaraMN]

12. Nice work! Thanks! Phantasm- I haven't seen that in ages.

It WAS very atmosphericly creepy!

[BigMcLargehuge]

14. Glad you liked it

I am pouring through my brain for other films that got under my skin. If I can remember them and organize my thoughts I'll post them too.

[rbnyc]

36. Nice List (nt)

[Fox Mulder]

13. Killer Clowns from Outer Space.

Clowns scare the hell out of me! :scared:

[LaraMN]

15. Ahhh....what about the "IT" clown!?

I was SO disappointed when I saw IT, and the "horrible" creature at the end was just a big dumb freaking spider. The clown was FAR scarier, imho.

[Fox Mulder]

17. Pennywise...

scares me too! :scared:

[BigMcLargehuge]

A song for you then -

;)

Clowns

by Too Much Joy, off the album _Son_of_Sam_I_Am_

When I was a kid my dad had pictures of these clowns
He hung them on my wall and wouldn't let me take them down
I didn't understand then and I still can't figure out
What those goddamn clowns were so sad about

A clown was my boss at every job I ever had
Clowns run all the record companies that ever said we're bad
A clown pretended to be a girl who pretended to be my friend
Ths world is run by clowns who can't wait for it to end

I have yet to meet a kid not scared to death of clowns
They can't walk and they don't talk they've got painted on frowns
A clown with a gun I hope I never see
Would he shoot himself or shoot me?

A clown taught every class I took at my old high school
Clowns all wear Speedos when they hang out by the pool
Clowns dress up like cops and threaten to call my folks
This town is filled with clowns who don't get my jokes

They fall on their asses
It takes lots of practice

I have nightmares filled with clowns and you're there too
You have a big red nose and stupid floppy shoes
You're becoming one I can see the signs
I hate clowns almost as much as I hate mimes

[Fox Mulder]

21. Or this song...

Don't sing me lullabies
I won't close my eyes,
I can't close my eyes
It's true,
I'm doomed
'til dawn
shines through
Got too many things to do
Got friends to see,
I can't miss a thing
It's true,
I'm through
I'm screwed,
unglued

I won't close my eyes, I can't close my eyes,
I never close my eyes
You see, they're always there with funny hair,
Oh, I'm so scared

It happens to me every night
Can't sleep, the clowns will eat me
They always want to take a bite
Can't sleep, the clowns will eat me
And if you think this isn't real
I'll show you wounds that never heal
To them I'm just a happy meal
Can't sleep, the clowns will eat me

Make the coffee black as night
Help me through the night
I know their appetite for me
I'm meat
but I'm sweet
as can be
And if I do too much booze
I begin to snooze
I hear the big old floppy shoes
It's true,
I'm stew,
unchewed

I won't close my eyes, I can't close my eyes,
I never close my eyes
See, they're always there with that funny hair,
Oh, I'm so scared

It happens to me every night
Can't sleep, the clowns will eat me
They always want to take a bite
Can't sleep, the clowns will eat me
And if you think this isn't real
I'll show you wounds that never heal
To them I'm just a happy meal
Can't sleep, the clowns will eat me

:)

[Name removed]

18. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Deep13]

22. Cinema Wasteland in Cleveland this weekend.

Horror film convention. They have it ever spring and autumn.

[raccoon]

23. Psychological horror--really scares me.

THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT really creeped me out. Knowing there was something after them, but you couldn't see it, couldn't fight it, and there was no way to escape it.

Gore doesn't do it for me either. Hollywood went too far with that a long time ago, I think.

[LaraMN]

24. I didn't like the BWP at all- I think I waited too long to watch it and

the hype ruined it for me. I hate to hear too much about a movie before I see it- I don't want my mental palate tainted. Movies with even a *figment* of basis in reality scare me more than entirely fictitious ones, in general.

[raccoon]

26. I watched it years after it came out, on a video someone loaned

me.

I hate to hear too much about a movie too--I think it gets my expectations up too high, for one thing.

Different strokes!

[leftofthedial]

25. Al Gore doesn't scare me at all

Tipper gives me the willies though. :scared:

[ghostsofgiants]

27. A combination of creepy atmosphere, a healthy dose of surrealism/weirdness

I prefer creepy over scary. Lost Highway, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, Box (segment from Three Extremes), A Tale Of Two Sisters, etc.

[LaraMN]

30. " ATale Of Two Sisters,"

I haven't seen that. It's good, huh? Might have to go look for that one. I do love that general vein of surrealistic, ominous tension...

[ghostsofgiants]

34. I's a Korean film.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0365376/

Really good film.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

46. I think it's a Brian DePalma early movie, called "Sisters".

[ghostsofgiants]

47. Nope, different film.

The one I'm talking about is a Korean film based on a Korean folk tale.

Haven't seen the DePalma film, though I really want to.

[khashka]

28. Only two horror flicks have scared me

The Ring.... the horse scene. I screamed out loud.

I Spit On Your Grave..... when the rapists kicked the phone out of her hands.



The supernatural, monsters, etc. doesn't scare me. People do. The indescribable cruelty we inflict on each other. That scares me. What happened to Jodie Foster in The Accused scared the hell out of me......


And I read horror fiction, mostly it amuses me. Anything anyone can come up with.... I can think of something worse. But I read "The Cop And The Choirboy"..... and it's ugly and it's scary and I can't get it out of my head. The only porn that ever made me cry.




Khash.

[LaraMN]

29. Oh, I fully agree! People have FAR more capacity for inducing fear than

do "monsters"! In fact, I'm hard pressed to think of a monster that I really find "scary."

[skypilot]

31. For the past five years...

...I've found that "body snatcher" movies are really unsettling. Movies where people suddenly "change" just get under my skin these days. I've watched "The Stepford Wives" and the 1979 version of "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" multiple times each over the past several years and they get a little more frightening with each viewing.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

52. Man/dog scene is just one of the biggest creepouts EVER.

But the whole concept of the movie is disturbing.

[edbermac]

32. The Birds...

Because you don't know why they're attacking...

[rbnyc]

35. I agree, creepy children. I'd add Dark Water to that, tho I haven't...

...seen the American remake yet.

Ghosts can be scary if they're done well. (The Changeling, The {original} Haunting, The Shining )

Gore is scary if it's an illustration of how far a sick human being can take things (Texas Chainsaw Massacre) vs. gore for gore's sake (Final Destination movies-which I live, but do not find scary at all.)

I love to be scared, but find few movies truly scary.

The egg room scene in Alien is one of the first times I was really scared in the theater. I'm way into Asian horror these days.

A Tale of Two Sisters is wonderful. Audition is very disturbing.

[ghostsofgiants]

49. If you're into Asian horror...

Check out Three... Extremes (especially Takashi Miike's segment "Box") and Miike's Gozu. Gozu has a lot of darkly comic elements and stuff as well, but the weird/creepy parts are REALLY weird/creepy. Box is probably one of my favourite films (depite it being a short film) at the moment. Creepy, surreal, beautifully shot, it's almost perfect.

[Dukkha]

37. "Slasher" movies aren't really Horror movies

They aren't meant to scare but to surprise and gross out. Their suspense scenes are filmed to make you jump from your seat and say EWWWWW! The busty blonde idiot is also a staple of the movies. Easy prey for the villain and gets the pre-teen boys into the theater.

I like the elements you cited, scary kids & disjointed movement. Also to me a real scary element is no soundtrack. silence in a scene can be a very frightening element. It makes it more real.

[BreweryYardRat]

40. Silent Hill looks like it's going to.

I'm not much for horror, since a lot of it nowadays (American horror, at least) is just an excuse for the filmmakers to use gore and revoltingly-madeup actors to disgust the audience, without any real try at a plot.

Silent Hill, on the other hand, while it has gore and actors in revolting makeup, looks like it's going to be much more of an atmospheric horror film. Those are more my style.

[ghostsofgiants]

48. Based on the trilaers, it looks fairly true to the game.

The game is atmospheric as fuck. My only complaints right now, based solely on the trailer, is the the use of steadicam (but that's just me, I like jittery camera work) and the CGI. Not sure how I feel about that (seems like it could have been more organic feeling, but I dunno).

[BreweryYardRat]

50. They didn't use much CGI, from what I've heard...

I think the main things that are CGI are the bugs hanging out with Pyramid Head, the fog, and the ash rain. If something doesn't look organic, it might have been designed that way intentionally.

I'm going to try and go to a midnight showing with a bunch of girls, enjoy the horrified screaming-and probably scream like a little man-bitch every so often myself.

[ghostsofgiants]

51. Really? I remember reading about Gans using CGI extensively.

I could be wrong though. I was thinking about things like the transition from foggy Silent Hill into dark Silent Hill. But you could be right. I'm really hoping it lives up to my Silent Hill fanboy expectations AND my film nerd expectations as well, haha.

[windy252]

I like psychological thrillers myself

as long as you can see at least something. I remember being creeped out by "They."

[windy252]

41. I like psychological thrillers myself

as long as you can see at least something. I remember being creeped out by "They."

[windy252]

42. I like psychological thrillers myself

as long as you can see at least something. I remember being creeped out by "They."

[windy252]

43. Sorry, triple post n/t

[kevsand]

45. Things I can't explain scare me the most.

But only a handful of films have done it for me, and by "it" I mean a full blown physical, visceral, hairs on end response:

The Haunting (1963)
Night of the Living Dead (1968)
Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)
The Omen (1976)
The Grudge (2004)

[Puglover]

53. I agree Kev

The Haunting(1963) scariest movie of all time. :scared:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00009NHB6/qid=1143900762/sr=8-1/ref=pd_bbs_1/104-5281864-4023922?%5Fencoding=UTF8&v=glance&n=130

[nuxvomica]

54. Loss of humanity

Some movies that really creeped me out were the original versions of...

Invasion of the Body Snatchers
Invaders from Mars
The Exorcist
Night of the Living Dead
Dracula

Though in those movies the transformation was supernatural or science-fictionish, the horror exists in real life as well when you consider things like alcoholism, insanity and Bushist Republicanism.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

55. The kind that creeps me out is the kind where the ending

indicates a terrible fate for the main character, as in the (original) The Vanishing or Wicker Man.

I don't watch a lot of horror, but I thought The Eye (which is a Hong Kong movie) was especially effective, taking place in a culture with a strong tradition of ghost stories.

[datasuspect]

56. House/Senate coverage on C-SPAN

yikes!!!!