Your Top 5 Scariest Movies?

Diana Hignutt · Oct 8, 2010

It seems that we're on a Top 5 kick in the Pop Culture forums, so I thought WTF, why not keep the tread alive. Plus, it's October, Halloween month. So, what movies do you think are the five scariest? Here' my first thoughts:

Event Horizon
The Ring
Rec/Quarantine
At the Mouth of Madness
Sound of Music
(In No Order)

childeroland · Oct 8, 2010

A Tale of Two Sisters -- the sadness of insanity and destroyed family ties, the terror of solitude
Carnival of Souls -- existential horror at its finest, relentless
Suspiria -- despite the annoying rock soundtrack, the evil hidden under everyday institutions, and not that far under either
Mulholland Drive -- sad and creepy in the extreme, particularly the coffee scene and the climax. If someone offers you a little blue box, DO NOT TAKE IT
Inland Empire -- a film I did not particularly like, but if Thomas Ligotti ever made a film it would be something like this. Just to illustrate: Click at your own peril

Diana Hignutt · Oct 8, 2010

childeroland said:
A Tale of Two Sisters -- the sadness of insanity and destroyed family ties, the terror of solitude
Carnival of Souls -- existential horror at its finest, relentless
Suspiria -- despite the annoying rock soundtrack, the evil hidden under everyday institutions, and not that far under either
Mulholland Drive -- sad and creepy in the extreme, particularly the coffee scene and the climax. If someone offers you a little blue box, DO NOT TAKE IT
Inland Empire -- a film I did not particularly like, but if Thomas Ligotti ever made a film it would be something like this. Just to illustrate: Click at your own peril

You know, knock Rec off of my list and replace it with Mulholland Drive. good pick!

shawkins · Oct 8, 2010

OK, I'll bite: Sound of Music? W, pray tell, TF?

Let me be clear that this is my 'scariest' list, not my 'favorite horror' list. A couple of these I have no intention of ever watching again.

Dead Ringers
Martyrs
Texas Chainsaw Massacre
Evil Dead
Alien

Chris P · Oct 8, 2010

I seem to be the only one, but The Blair Witch Project scared the pants off me.

Others that left me feeling scared/weird were The Strangers, A Clockwork Orange, Alien, and It's Alive (about the mutant babies. Babies are terrifying enough, but mutant babies? *shivers*)

Kaiser-Kun · Oct 8, 2010

I find some things a LOT scarier than monsters and gore:

Irreversible - If the infamous rape scene scares you, remember: This happens EVERY TWO MINUTES in the U.S. alone.
A Clockwork Orange - Irreversible scared you by showing a woman being raped by a stranger in the street? What about it happening in her own home, in front of her husband?
El Libro de Piedra - Damian has nothing on this creepy kid.
The Passion of Christ - There's a lot to say about the life of Jesus. But let's dedicate two hours to his horrible torture and death.
Hotel Rwanda: A civil war turns into genocide and massive crimes against humanity, one of the greatest atrocities of the last decades. The scariest part: The outer world doesn't cares.

BenPanced · Oct 8, 2010

M
The Exorcist
A Nightmare on Elm Street (original)
Bloodsucking Freaks (my friend and I stopped laughing at its cheesiness about halfway through and stared at the TV in slack-jawed disbelief at what was happening)
The Atomic Cafe

shawkins · Oct 8, 2010

Kaiser-Kun said:
I find some things a LOT scarier than monsters and gore.

Good point.

Dead Ringers
Martyrs
Texas Chainsaw Massacre
Midnight Express ----------------bump---------------->Evil Dead
Alien

BenPanced said:
The Exorcist

Also a good point.

Dead Ringers
Martyrs
Texas Chainsaw Massacre
Midnight Express
The Exorcist----------------bump---------------->Alien

Diana Hignutt · Oct 8, 2010

shawkins said:
OK, I'll bite: Sound of Music? W, pray tell, TF?

A joke?

Okay, scratch the Sound of Music, and replace it with... Lord of the Flies.

Diana Hignutt · Oct 8, 2010

Kaiser-Kun said:
I find some things a LOT scarier than monsters and gore:

The Passion of Christ - There's a lot to say about the life of Jesus. But let's dedicate two hours to his horrible torture and death.
.

I'm not even Christian, but I can't watch Jesus get his ass kicked for two hours.

You know, Terry Gilliam's Brazil is a scarey f-ing movie too.

monkey see monkey do · Oct 8, 2010

Chris P said:
I seem to be the only one, but The Blair Witch Project scared the pants off me.

Blair Witch scared me too.
I'll add The Tenant into the mix as well.

ChaosTitan · Oct 8, 2010

I'm sure this list will change as I think of more, but here you go.

Jack Ketchum's The Girl Next Door (because it was based on a true story)
Poltergeist ("They're heeeeeer....")
The Strangers/Funny Games (home invasions are one of my biggest fears)
House (mostly because it scared the pants off me as a kid, and it's still creepy)
Pet Semetary (same reason as above)

Kaiser-Kun · Oct 8, 2010

Oops.. I forgot the biggest one: a mexican film called Canoa. Nothing supernatural. The entire movie leads up to the graphic, explicit, very long and extremely disturbing lynching of five innocent young men by an ignorant mob. You can see it in YouTube, if you have the stomach.

I saw it as a kid and got nightmares. I saw it again as an adult, thinking that my young mind had exaggerated it. Wrong! The movie was actually worse than I could remember.

mellymel · Oct 8, 2010

Not necessarily the scariest, but my favorites in the horror film genre

Nightmare on Elm Street (the original)
Martyrs
Scream
Poltergeist
The Sixth Sense

Calla Lily · Oct 8, 2010

The Stepford Wives (Jason Robards... well, every husband in that: :scared:

)
Pulse (the American one)
Event Horizon
Martyrs plus Hostel plus most current torture porn = Lily runs screaming from the room
Evil Dead 1

Of all those, I've rewatched Pulse and Event Horizon the most. Love 'em!

Diana Hignutt · Oct 8, 2010

My revised list:

Event Horizon
Mulholland Drive
Brazil
Lord of the Flies
At the Mouth of Madness

mellymel · Oct 8, 2010

callalily61 said:
The Stepford Wives (Jason Robards... well, every husband in that: )
Pulse (the American one)
Event Horizon
Martyrs plus Hostel plus most current torture porn = Lily runs screaming from the room
Evil Dead 1

Of all those, I've rewatched Pulse and Event Horizon the most. Love 'em!

Lily, did you end up seeing Martyrs? I thought I remember you saying No thank you.

DavidZahir · Oct 8, 2010

Lets Scare Jessica To Death was nerve-racking to me.
Prince of Darkness is not really that good a movie, but in the end it scared the bejezus out of yours truly.
The Haunting, the original black & white version, remains terrifying.
The Silence of the Lambs--OMG yes.
The Ring, a fine example of how to translate horror across different cultures.

ChaosTitan · Oct 8, 2010

ChaosTitan said:
I'm sure this list will change as I think of more, but here you go.

Jack Ketchum's The Girl Next Door (because it was based on a true story)
Poltergeist ("They're heeeeeer....")
The Strangers/Funny Games (home invasions are one of my biggest fears)
~~House~~
Martyrs
Pet Semetary (mostly because it scared the pants off me as a kid, and it's still creepy)

See? Already changing my mind.

Tiger · Oct 8, 2010

"The Shining"
"The Stepford Wives"
"Rosemary's Baby"
"The Exorcist"
"Angel Heart"

Lavern08 · Oct 8, 2010

I saw both of these when I was in my early twenties (seems like a hundred years ago now)

* Rosemary's Baby = Creepy and Scary in a this could happen kinda way

* Texas Chainsaw Masacre = Had nightmares for weeks, WEEKS, I tell ya. :flag:

SirOtter · Oct 8, 2010

Targets - Boris Karloff's last great film, loosely based on the Charles Whitman Texas Tower killing spree.
Silence of the Lambs
The Exterminating Angel - Bunuel's surrealistic portrait of a group trapped in a single room for months, with no real reason they can't leave except they just can't
Fermat's Room - a Spanish flick about four mathematicians trapped in a slowly shrinking room, kept alive only by their mathematical prowess
Safety Last - Harold Lloyd dangling from a clock face above a Los Angeles street by his eight remaining fingers. Nominally one of the great silent comedies, but to an acrophobe it's scary as hell.

Diana Hignutt · Oct 8, 2010

Lavern08 said:
I

Rosemary's Baby = Creepy and Scary in a this could happen kinda way
.

Well, aside from being a fantastic film, and very nearly on my list, Rosemary's Baby was based on my great uncle Jack Parsons' attempt to create a moonchild or magickal child. He was a Thelemite and not a Devil-Worshipper or Satanist though. There are those that believe I am his moonchild.* I'm not kidding. The process is far more complex than the straightforward method presented in the film, of course. In fairness to the movie, Uncle Jack did like to call himself the Antichrist though.

*(For more details see my blog)

jennontheisland · Oct 8, 2010

Evil Dead is scary??

Okay, yes, an old friend posted a pic on FB of us at the age of 9 screaming and hiding under the blanket, but we were 9!

Evil Dead is freaking hilarious!

Poltergeist
28 Days Later
Faces of Death (all of them)
Children of the Corn (though, I will admit I only tried watching it at 13)
...

That's all I've got.

Cella · Oct 8, 2010

Chris P said:
I seem to be the only one, but The Blair Witch Project scared the pants off me.

No, it scared me, too. Also, The Ring and I Am Legend. That's about all the scary movies I've seen and will ever see.

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