THE SCARIEST HORROR MOVIE YOU'VE EVER SEEN
 

FOR ME..

BAD MOON

The one starring Michael Paré?

For me its either, "The Exorcism of Emily Rose" or "Hereditary"...those two really made me feel horrified.

We need more movies like this
 

Hereditary and the Witch are both excellent movies. The only movie that "affected" me was the Exorcist, but that was 30 years ago. Now, I can watch just about any thing and still sleep well.

At first I didn't know what to say. There are only a few scary movies that really got under my skin, but I couldn't really tell which I thought was scariest. Then I realized that the only one that I only watched twice, primarily because I've been too scared to watch it again, was, Candyman.

for me it's all about mood, there are certain movies that scared me at the time, but now don't at all, I saw Devil back in this old 100 year old house i used to live in, and for some reason that movie got to me, but when i watch it nowadays in my new home....not as scary for some reason...these days very little scares me movie wise, sometimes movies will make me feel uncomfortable like italian giallo's can sometimes, which is a good thing in horror, or fulci's movies, but its usually upon first watch. Are we desensitized?

Old movie. Nightmare on Elm Street (original), when I was a kid.

New movie. Sinister. Watched at night, under the influence of alcohol.

As a child in the mid-80s, I watched the first episode of a two-part film, the name of which I do not remember. The film began with a woman walking slowly down the street and the camera showing her from the back, and sometimes with her eyes, as if the camera was attached to her head. The action took place in a Gothic style village. The woman walked slowly towards the bazaar. When the woman got to the stalls, the camera showed her hands and nails - it was a terrible sight. But then it was even worse - the camera turned to her face. It was hell of a hell. I have not seen such a scary face in the aftermath of any horror movie. I remember how I pressed myself into the sofa and could not move from the terror that fettered me. Now I understand why the director did not show the old woman's face for a long time, filming her from behind, this was specially conceived to enhance the effect. The old woman is a monster. Later, when the camera showed the old woman's face in close-up, I immediately closed my eyes.

Some of the scariest films I have seen could be a close race between Umberto Lenzi's Eaten Alive and Cannibal Ferrox, Lucio Fulci's The Beyond, Mario Bava's Kill Baby Kill! and Shock, Dario Argento's Phenomena, Tenebre, Deep Red, and Stendhal Syndrome, Tales From The Crypt(1972), Night Train Murders, to name a few that I can think of right offhand... ::devil::

Honestly not alot of movies scare me i think the one that made me feel the most uncomfortable was the blair witch from 99 and it wasnt even the witch or supernatural element of it it was honestly just the aspect of them being stuck in woods while running out of food with no one knowing. Also the found footage aspect of it is creepy and makes it feel more realistic.

Sounds like if you bumped into Joseph Merrick, your reaction would make him feel very sad. ::wink::

Exorcist-wise... that's pretty much my story. Although there were certainly some other films that affected me, just not as much as Exorcist... thinking about Jaws (although I was criminally young when I saw it), Amelia/Trilogy Of Terror, Amityville Horror, Psycho, TCSM, Carrie 76 and The Howling. Actually, if Exorcist affected you, you might get some traction from these more modern films: Dead Silence, The Conjuring, Vacancy, Sinister.

argento and fulci know how to make you feel uncomfortable, which is something that happens when you are scared...

Yeah, it's very unlikely a film will be scary to someone on the second viewing, especially people who've seen a lot of horror films.

And yeah, feeling the horror has a lot to do with mood -- that is set and setting. Late night in the dark, without interruptions tends to be a good place to start.

I there's a lot of folks that are desensitized, probably more to violence than real horror. Or ironically, some watch too much cinema that they've lost some ability to really get completely absorbed into a film... the constant cinematic stimuli is just all too familiar, like a shower that never stops, like white noise, to really empathize with the characters, to feel like your actually there, anymore.

As far as gaillo and Fulci films, I think part of their effectiveness is they are unusual to 'english speaking' viewers. Fulci's The Beyond and Zombi 2 had a feel to them. I didn't personally find them scary, but decently horrific. I think Bava's Black Sabbath's third segment "The Drop of Water" was effectively scary.

great points/observations made sculpt, and that segment from black sabbath was definitely effective!

sometimes scary is also how something looks as a definition and not necessarily what scares you personally, like a zombie looks scary, and if you think of it in real life its even scarier, but maybe the movie doesn't scare you...it really is about how absorbed into the film you become. Or if the subject matter hits in a way where there's something in your life that traumatized you, or scared you...maybe there's some good "psychology of horror movies" videos out there?

No, it was not the face of a sick person. The face was not ugly. It was the usual face of an old witch, shown at close range. It looked damn frightening, especially the evil eyes.

Let me know when you find that movie. I wanna see it.

I'm with you on The Blair Witch Project! I think a lot of the people who complained about it were looking for gore, but it's not that type of film. Just the three of them, being terrorized by an unseen presence they're defenceless against. That plus the growing animosity between the characters, when they are supposed to be relying on each other to make it out of there. And they kept the mystery of the witch by not revealing much of her history. I consider it one of my favourites. Unsettling, but to me not really one of the scariest.

I'd say The Ring, Insidious, The Thing (both original and remake), Sinister, Alien, and Us. There's so many great ones to pick from!

mr. macabre
 

I've seen all of those except for Vacancy. I really liked The Conjuring.

Friday the 13th is a very scary movie to me

The Exorcist, The Shining

that could be so many movies...

Tough call! I would have to say the orginal exorcist movie. I couldn't even finish it when I was a kid. I still find it to be scary as an adult. I also think that the werewolf in London movie was creepy as hell.

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre