I like to ask this question to people a lot and see what they come up with and why. Usually I get The Exorcist or something like that. My answer is Paranormal Activity, not because I got scared in the theater watching it, but because I thought about it all night when I got home. The scene that got me in particular was when they put out the white powder on the floor and the ghost left three pronged foot prints. I think it was that it wasn’t a normal ghost that got me, it was something unknown. Interested to see your answers!
Screenwriting : What’s the scariest movie you’ve EVER seen? by Mike Heff
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Add me to THE EXORCIST list.
In years long ago, I'd have to say The Exorcist and Rosemary's Baby got my attention.
Scariest is probably the Exorcist... because I watched that at my Sister's house on Halloween on their TV.
Knew everything about that movie, how it was made, the special effects used... plus, the lights were on in the house, I was with friends... and it STILL freaked me out as I tried to sleep that night and made sleeping tough the next few nights.
The only other film to freak me out that bad on a TV was Event Horizon, which I rented thinking it was a standard sci-fi film and was not expecting what I ultimately watched.
And I will say, seeing ALIEN in the theater is a totally different experience than watching it on TV. It's scary on the TV, but it is absolutely terrifying in a totally dark theater with a top-notch sound system.
That's why I still give the Exorcist the top spot, because if I was that freaked out seeing it in a fully lit room with a sub-par sound system, I can only imagine what it'll be like in a theater!
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Not the "scariest" in the normal sense, but one that stayed with me was Fellini's La Strada. Frightened the wits out of me.
"Commercially" it's Pet Semetery (1990 version)..."non-commercially" it's Idi i Smotri (Come and See)...needles to say on the later one, you have been warned...what you see cannot ever be unseen...
The Wizard of Oz (but I was five).
Recently, I was left pretty unsettled by Hereditary. The idea of framing a story from the POV of a grieving family unaware of a larger diabolical plan against them was frightening to me. Even more so, the imagery and Aster’s precise attention to production design make this one that still gets under my skin.
The Exorcist - because it was the first time I saw anything to do with demons and possession. It's probably the only movie that ever gave me nightmares and made me fear slow walks up the stairs (I was 14). The other was the original Halloween, which I saw in theaters on its first run; again because it was so fresh and new - I had never seen anything like it before.
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Alien, when it came out waaaaaaaaaaaaay back in the day. It was a whole new concept and we had no idea what was coming next.
I saw "What Lies Beneath" as a teenager and it scared the shit out of me. Horror isn't my go-to genre to watch, so I am not even sure why I watched it. lol
one of the SAW movies i was tricked into seeing it
The green inferno, I would refer to as a snuff film cause It was really graphic.... Also the scariest film as well
I like the movie "Descent".
maybe the past 5 years, the two features films by Ari Aster. Hereditary & Mid Sommar.
When I was young Black Sunday, Wizard of Oz, Lady in White. More recent was the first Alien movie, Jaws and Psycho.
COME AND SEE
Ghostbusters (and Ghostbusters 2) as a child, The Wicker Man (the original version, not the remake) as a teenager, The Woman in Black as an adult (the 1980s TV adaptation).,
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When I was a kid, "Alien." Recently, I'm with you, "Paranormal Activity," specifically the scene with the demon print.
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The original Wicker Man was well creepy as @Stefano says cos it was people against people. Ghost/ monster/demon movies have never scared me but help me forget reality I find scary and I've searched for ghosts. Tarrantino's Hostel films freaked me, again people.
I don’t really watch horror films so if your after genra specific I’ve really only seen Christine. There is however 2 Thrillers one is absolutely brilliant and both sends shivers down my spine every time. One is Annihilation and the other... I have been looking for to watch again for a long time but can’t remember for the life of me what it’s called or whose in it but it’s basically about a woman who freaks herself out so much every few years researching a string of murders she never remembers killing someone supposedly attacking her (the next murder)
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Ask people my age about Trilogy of Terror, a 1975 TV horror anthology movie when I was a kid starring Karen Black. Two of the segments were totally forgettable, but the one with the Zuni fetish doll. Oh. My. God. A whole generation was scarred for life.
Yes! Grey Forge LeFey I too was a kid when I saw that. To this day, my wife and I joke about walking into a room and seeing Karen Black waiting for us, patiently stabbing a butcher knife into the floor. Funny how nothing else from the dozens of horror movies I've watched over the years stuck with me like that.
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When I was like five, I watched Silver Bullet with my friend Colby on a camping trip. I was afraid to go to bed every night thinking a werewolf would come through my window and attack me. I even asked to get a loft bed because of it
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Oh boy. That's a toughie, but I do know that the final Gomer Pyle scene in Full Metal Jacket is the single most terrifying thing I've ever seen.
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À l'intérieur (Inside) from 2007 is very difficult to get through.
Alien and Aliens
Richard Bruce Stirling That is one movie I wish I could wipe away from the face of the Earth. It's that disturbing.