Top 5 Scariest Movies of All Time ~ Do You Agree?

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champ1966

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Dec 3, 2011
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Wakefield Yorkshire England
First things first, horror movies(and books) per se don't scare me. Can't be doing with spikes into eyes or anything like that. Syringes make me cringe, but not something I want to see portrayed as horror. Back in the late 70's we hired our tv and newly introduced vcr. We got free video rental with the deal. There wasn't much choice (just prior to the whole "video nasty" onslaught) Somehow I managed to rent The Exorcist almost every week for months. To say how long ago it was made I still think it is probably the best horror film ever made. Unfortunately I went to watch it again about 10 years ago, on its re-release (I think it was banned for a while here in the UK) and the teenagers laughed all way through it, probably due to all the tongue in cheek horror films of the late 90's.
 

Rrty

Well-Known Member
Jun 4, 2007
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4,588
On "The Hills Have Eyes": you mean the remake or the original?

On "The Exorcist": funny thing about the movie vs. the book is that the former really is about the exorcism itself (at least in the sense that it is what everyone remembers; that sequence is the killer app of the film), while the book shows you why the title is actually "The Exorcist" and not "The Exorcism." For years after seeing the film I hadn't read the book and always thought the film should have been called "The Exorcism," I was always confused by that. When I read the book, I finally got it...at least in the book, it is the story of the exorcist, not the ritual.
 

Liselle

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Jul 10, 2006
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England
I haven't seen REC but the others on the list didn't scare me. Blair Witch and the Exorcist were just laughable (but that is just my opinion). The Descent while a decent film wasn't scary just a bit unsettling more to do with the thought that there could be mutant humans living deep underground, bit like fish that live in the deep deep ocean I suppose. Also it didn't scare me because it is not a position I am ever likely to be in, caving or potholing is not my idea of fun.

I find films that could be realistic to me and my life more scary but at this moment I cannot think of any.
 

blunthead

Well-Known Member
Aug 2, 2006
80,755
195,461
Atlanta GA
Fair question, and I think the answer for me is a qualified yes. As long as the person is judging for him or her self (and leaving kids out of the mix--parents are responsible for them until they get older), there are definitely movies that tip each person's 'NO' meter. I will never watch The Strangers or Funny Games again. I've seen them once apiece (twice for Funny Games, if you count the German and American versions separately), and there are scenes that still stick with me and terrify/horrify me. STILL. Years later. I don't actively seek out home invasion stories; I now know they are in my 'NO' zone.
What I think might actually work here is only if the individual decides for him/herself; an individual hopefully raised not to be ashamed for no good reason, and to be honest with him/herself as to what's right and wrong; what can I afford to see, to hear - to allow into me - and what can't i?
 

Shoesalesman

Well-Known Member
Aug 12, 2010
1,814
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Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
On "The Hills Have Eyes": you mean the remake or the original?

The original. The remake was like a million movies of the same calibre released at the time; cookie-cutter, very little difference from one to the other. The Hills Have Eyes, 1977, was one angry piece of work. Hokey at times, but was gritty throughout. The more modern horror movies I see, the better this one gets in terms of scary-factor.
 

misery chastain loves co.

MORE Count Chocula please.....
Jul 31, 2011
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Nah. goobers under the ground don't scare me (lol). I can only think of a couple that really do: Funny Games and The Strangers. Oh, and the Masters of Horror episode called Cigarette Burns--MAN that one was creepy/scary! Random home invasion is what's most scary to me (I know it isn't true for everyone). I'm looking forward to seeing The Babadook, though--it comes to our local art house theatre the day after Christmas :)
Did you see You're Next? I was kind of meh about that one. The Strangers and Funny Games were way better IMHO
 

not_nadine

Comfortably Roont
Nov 19, 2011
29,655
139,785
Behind you
First things first, horror movies(and books) per se don't scare me. Can't be doing with spikes into eyes or anything like that. Syringes make me cringe, but not something I want to see portrayed as horror. Back in the late 70's we hired our tv and newly introduced vcr. We got free video rental with the deal. There wasn't much choice (just prior to the whole "video nasty" onslaught) Somehow I managed to rent The Exorcist almost every week for months. To say how long ago it was made I still think it is probably the best horror film ever made. Unfortunately I went to watch it again about 10 years ago, on its re-release (I think it was banned for a while here in the UK) and the teenagers laughed all way through it, probably due to all the tongue in cheek horror films of the late 90's.

Yeah man. I was young enough to have to ask people to say they were my parents to see this.
Then I saw the extended version with the backwards walking. OMG.
Then scary movies got all teenager like, with the sex scenes till someone gets stabbed or something.

Except for Halloween, the first one. !!! Scary as all He!!
 

skimom2

Just moseyin' through...
Oct 9, 2013
15,683
92,168
USA
Did you see You're Next? I was kind of meh about that one. The Strangers and Funny Games were way better IMHO

YUP, I thought the same. The new wave of young directors pretty much leaves me cold. They seem to have substituted a '70s vibe as 'irony' (a word they totally don't understand) and multiple people yelling 'f**k' at the same time for actual character and story development. I'm not a prude, but a bunch of people all yelling at once, while it might happen in real life, is just cacophony in a movie. I get bored.
 

Scratch

In the flesh.
Sep 1, 2014
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I laughed at Blair Witch. The only horror I've ever done that with. Then something happened to me alone in the woods at night similar to one of the scenes. Just as a precaution I'm not going to laugh at any others.

I wouldn't know how to rate mine but Pet Semetary is in my top ten. One that hardly anyone ever mentions is Frailty. I found the idea of someone you love and look up to telling you God spoke to them and said you must do something horrible to be disturbing. I was glad to see Insidious mentioned. As a kid I dreamed several times of walking around outside at night. It's an odd feeling.
 

Mr Nobody

Well-Known Member
Jul 9, 2008
3,306
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Walsall, England
What is more frightening than evil personified in a sweet little girl?

Hannibal Lecter.
I know I've said it before, but The Exorcist just doesn't cut it for me. Hannibal's scary because, outwardly, he's so normal. He's even someone you might admire or at least consider to be sophisticated. Someone with old pizza on their face and/or bile-yellow contact lenses just isn't the same. (And if anyone wants to point out that Hopkins' portrayal was OTT, especially in the second outing, I'll agree...and point you in the direction of Brian Cox in Manhunter and Mads Mikkelsen in the tv series.)

As for the original list...The Descent? Are you kidding me? And wasn't AAWIL a comedy-horror thing? It always seemed so to me.
The Thing (1982) has to be on there. It's atmospheric, it's tense, it's even downright nasty. But the worst thing of all is the idea that you could be taken over, changed, and not even realize it.
 

swiftdog2.0

I tell you one and one makes three...
Mar 16, 2010
7,095
35,344
Macroverse
Hannibal Lecter.
I know I've said it before, but The Exorcist just doesn't cut it for me. Hannibal's scary because, outwardly, he's so normal. He's even someone you might admire or at least consider to be sophisticated. Someone with old pizza on their face and/or bile-yellow contact lenses just isn't the same. (And if anyone wants to point out that Hopkins' portrayal was OTT, especially in the second outing, I'll agree...and point you in the direction of Brian Cox in Manhunter and Mads Mikkelsen in the tv series.)

As for the original list...The Descent? Are you kidding me? And wasn't AAWIL a comedy-horror thing? It always seemed so to me.
The Thing (1982) has to be on there. It's atmospheric, it's tense, it's even downright nasty. But the worst thing of all is the idea that you could be taken over, changed, and not even realize it.

Lecter is a good character and I agree that Brian Cox's portrayal is superior to Hopkins. Creepy, yes. He's not the scariest thing I've seen on film though. The first and second attacks in Jaws are the scariest things I've seen on film. Because it's entirely possible for those scenes to happen almost exactly as they were filmed.


My point on the Exorcist is if you put aside the religious overtones, the story is about the corruption of the innocent by an outside force (society, family, etc). That I find scary.
 

krwhiting

Well-Known Member
Jan 5, 2015
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The first Nightmare on Elm Street scared me to death. I was watching it alone because some of my friends were supposed to join me at my house and hadn't made it yet by midnight so I started watching it. I was a senior in high school. After a short bit I shut it off to wait because it was freaking me out (that was back when I had to rent a vcr player with the movie since we didn't have one). A few minutes later I hear a scratching on the kitchen wall, about twenty feet from the chair I'm in, and I look over and see 2 glowing eyes in the kitchen window. I almost wet myself. But after a moment, I said "Nope. These things aren't real," and I went outside to see what it was. A stray dog, trying to hold itself up on the window seal and look in. Poor thing was cold and hungry. Almost killed me with fright though.

Movies don't scare me much. But that one did. The only other one since that actually made me nervous was the first Paranormal Activity. Had trouble sleeping that night when I got home. Made my wife stop canning and come to bed so I didn't have to be in the bedroom alone after hearing a thump on the second floor wall of our bedroom at the headboard. Of course, that's the night the fire alarms go off for no discernable reason at 3:30 am. Creaped me out.

Kelly