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Joined: Aug 24 2005 Location: Mount Holly, NJ Posts: 1062

Being that Halloween is coming up, and I am sadly too old to be scared by creepy pumpkins or to be trick-or-treating anymore, I was looking for a new way to celebrate the holiday. See, the kid in me has always loved Halloween- still do. I think I just have always liked being scared as shit while knowing that I'm still safe.

That being said, does anyone have any suggestions for truly SCARY movies that are worth watching? I know everyone has their opinions about good horror movies, but are there any that are really scary enough that they stay with you for a while? I read about a couple today: A Tale of Two Sisters, The Eye, and Audition... all Japanese movies.

So if anyone has any suggestions for shit-in-your-pants scary movies, fire away. Plus someone was itching for a horror movie thread... ask and ye shall receive.

Posted: Oct 10 2005 06:19 pm

There are none. Hellraiser I and II are freaky, but far from shit-your-pants scary. Depends what scares you.

Joined: Aug 24 2005 Location: Mount Holly, NJ Posts: 1062

Tebor wrote:

There are none. Hellraiser I and II are freaky, but far from shit-your-pants scary. Depends what scares you.

If that's true... that's depressing. I miss the days when certain movies screwed with my head.

Posted: Oct 10 2005 06:53 pm

I miss the days when I was able to watch the TV version of Nightmare on Elm Street 5 and be freaked out by it. These days, I think I'm a little too jaded to find any movie truly scary, but I recently watched Videodrome for the first time recently and that was pretty fucked up. John Carpenter's Prince of Darkness is also rather creepy.

Joined: Aug 25 2005 Posts: 287

Yeah, unfortunately the idea of the "terrifying" horror movie seems to have died and a lot of the old ones that USED to creep me out don't do so anymore. That being said, my list of major must sees would be:

Halloween (the original, possibly even the TV edit with extra footage). This one still makes me jump if I'm in the right mood.

Suspiria. Dario Argento's big masterpiece. Not shockingly scary, but the lighting, music, and pacing are awesome.

Ginger Snaps. Not scary in the least, but this was a refreshing take on the werewolf genre. Think "Teen Wolf", minus most of the lightheartedness, plus a lot of teen girl angst. It's better than it sounds. Ginger Snaps II was decent and I rather enjoyed the third film, Ginger Snaps Back.

Aswang. I still call it "ass wang", but the correct pronunciation is more like "Az-wong". No one heard about this film, but it's out there for sale/rent and it's pretty sweet. It deals with a Fillipino mythical demon that feeds on unborn fetuses. Great supporting performance by a chicken.

In terms of the Japanese films mentioned in this thread, anything by Takashi Miike (Audition, Ichi the Killer) is going to be at least gross in places. What you need to realize, though, is that his films (like most Japanese horror) can be VERY slow-paced. There are long exposition scenes that lead up to a moment of gore and then back to more (oftentimes badly translated) exposition. But there are a few worth checking out. Ichi, Audition, Tomie 3, Uzumaki, Versus... any of those are pretty good, but again, they can get slow in places.

For my tastes, a lot of the old black and white horror films, while not "scary", have a great sense of mood about them. If you're interested, Universal put out six separate volumes of its "Legacy Collection", all of which are pretty great. They did them for Dracula, The Wolf Man, The Mummy, The Invisible Man, The Creature From the Black Lagoon, and Frankenstein. Each set has the original movie in the series and ALL of the follow ups (depending on the franchise, the list length may vary... Dracula has like five films, Creature... only has three). My personal picks are those very two. Lugosi's Dracula is a classic and the Creature films are a lot of fun.

And, yeah, it's not a "horror" film per se, but for a college course I took on the genre, we had to watch Pier Palo Passolini's Italian film "Salo". Good luck finding it (though some rental places carry it). It's the ONLY movie I've ever been actually disturbed by. Long story short, during the war a group of fascists kidnap like twenty kids and you get to spend the next two hours watching them be raped, tortured, fed their own shit, and generally humiliated. The director was murdered two weeks after its premiere. It's NOT something you're going to watch on a date or in a room full of buddies while you drink beer and want to have fun, but it'll make you shit your pants, that's for sure.

Posted: Oct 15 2005 09:20 am

I've got to say that The Ring and The Grudge both did a pretty good job at making me jump. Generally "corporeal horror" doesn't get to me, but when you involve things like poltergeists, ghosts, and anything else of that nature it generally creeps me out (Freddie Krueger doesn't count as incorporeal, heck I was laughing during Freddy vs. Jason).

Posted: Oct 15 2005 05:19 pm

lordsathien wrote:

I've got to say that The Ring and The Grudge both did a pretty good job at making me jump.

Boy, oh boy, you better be refering to the Asian versions... Evil

j/k

Posted: Oct 16 2005 12:54 pm

I would pay to see a Goatse horror movie.

Posted: Oct 17 2005 10:09 am

lordsathien wrote:

I've got to say that The Ring and The Grudge both did a pretty good job at making me jump. Generally "corporeal horror" doesn't get to me, but when you involve things like poltergeists, ghosts, and anything else of that nature it generally creeps me out (Freddie Krueger doesn't count as incorporeal, heck I was laughing during Freddy vs. Jason).

The Grudge is up there on the list of "worst movies I've ever seen" along with Urban Legend, and the original Fantastic Four (the one that was never released. The Ring was also terrible, but it isn't on that list. And while I know you were kidding Tebor, I've seen Ringu and as far as I recall, The Ring was basically a direct translation of it. I haven't seen Juon so I can't comment on that, and the Grudge was so bad that I don't intend to.

And Darklire, I'm glad I'm not the only person here that knows what goatse is (or was Crying

), but you might want to evaluate yourself if you'd pay for that.

Posted: Oct 17 2005 11:21 am

Movies like The Ring and The Grudge do have some scary moments because they use that "Gotcha!" style of horror where something freaky just happens out of nowhere. I haven't seen The Grudge, but The Ring did manage to build a pretty creepy atmosphere throughout the film. My problem with that movie is that it's only scary because you don't quite know what's going on and by the end of the movie, the story still hasn't been fleshed out to a satisfactory level. I wanted to know why Sammara was evil and the script offered no compelling answer. That ruined the movie for me. The "Gotcha!" style of horror is rather shallow and without a good storyline, it's no better than sneaking up behind someone and yelling "Boo!".

Posted: Oct 17 2005 09:45 pm

The Ring would have been better for me if it was about a tape that killed people. Not some girl who kills horses. Get some teens together watch the tape and see how death gets them one by one. Is it Final Destination? Yes, but who cares. When you don't have a strong story hide it with over the top deaths Twisted Evil

Posted: Nov 06 2005 03:07 am

Halloween is over, but I'm watching Return to Oz at the moment and it is the scarest movie I've seen in months. It scared me as a kid, but it still terrifies me even now... what a dark creepy kids film. WTF Disney!?

Posted: Nov 06 2005 07:15 am

Tebor wrote:

Halloween is over, but I'm watching Return to Oz at the moment and it is the scarest movie I've seen in months. It scared me as a kid, but it still terrifies me even now... what a dark creepy kids film. WTF Disney!?

Oh god, that movie used to creep me out bigtime, especially the part with the evil queen with the head collection. Then I rewatched it last year and I was realized it was a lot more of a low budget film than I remembered. Particularly, it bugged me that they didn't try to make Dorothy, Scarecrow, and the Cowardly Lion look more like they did in the classic MGM film. I wonder if filming this movie did permanent psychological damage to Fairuza Balk.

Posted: Nov 06 2005 04:04 pm

Hmm, Scary is really something hard to do, the only movie I can think of that genuinly gives me chills still is The Exorcist. Also it depends on what scares you. Personally I like movies with a good basis or plot outline that could be considered Scary. That is why I like In the Mouth of Madness so much, the movie isn't all that scary, but shit, that premise alone is enough to fuck with your head.

If you are looking for Japanese stuff(I am not big on Japanese horror, Ju-on and Ringu blew especially although some of their more action based movies are alright like Versus and Returner) Audition is alright, but if you really want to be shocked watch some of the Guinea Pig movies, especially the first couple and the Flower of Flesh and Blood(I think that was the title). Truly some sick shit.

The Ninth Gate is another movie I love even though it isn't really scary. And 8mm is a must if you haven't seen it. The Changeling and The Exorcist III are awesome(as is anything with George C. Scott). The Prophecy, while especially not scary, is one of my favorite series of movies if not my favorite(it is like my Star Wars). The Thing is a classic. And a more obscure movie that is definately a must see is The Blood on Satan's Claw.