Question What are some of the scariest horror films you've ever seen and why did they scare you?

[Bop]

I don't think I'd be able to do the 31 days of horror challenge but I definitely want to watch a couple new horror films this month to celebrate Halloween. I feel like I've seen a decent chunk of horror films but of course there's still many I haven't seen.

I'm really curious to know what scares people as well because it can be so different depending on each individual.

 

[Anyanka Bunny Slayer]

Holy crap, I made the mistake of seeing The Exorcist and it terrified me beyond words.

 

[VampireSlayer07]

Only horror movie I've seen in tbe last couple of decades that anything resembling scared me was The Grudge

 

[Plasma]

There are two that deeply affect me every time I see them.

Prince of Darkness is the first. A priest enlists the help of local college students when he discovers a bizarre green container under a decrepit old church. This is the most unnerving and creepiest movie I’ve ever seen. Everything in it is deliberately designed to make it feel apocalyptic and inescapable. People inside become infected with the essence of pure evil, and they can’t escape because there’s a horde of insane/possessed street people outside that will murder them if they try. Oh, and mirrors are utilized as portals to an evil dimension of pure antimatter, and if the main characters don’t stop the possessed inside the building, they’ll bring the demonic god of the antimatter dimension into ours.

It is a really creepy movie that works on atmosphere and terrifying dialogue. I highly recommend it, and the VHS dream sequences/premonitions are icing on the cake. Watch this late at night with all the lights off.

The other will always be The Blair Witch Project. I hate the woods. I hate the idea of being stranded in the woods with no way out. So what better movie to watch than one in which the main cast literally can’t get out of the woods because they keep shifting and preventing them from leaving. The Blair Witch mythos and iconography in this one is especially freaky, and so many scary moments abound here. It always feels like I’m watching a snuff film, and that terrifies me so bad.

A good contender for runner-up is Paranormal Activity 3. The first one is good with some really scary bits, the second is mostly boring in my opinion, but this one is the best of the franchise and one of the best found footage movies out there. I really don’t want to say anything about this other than “family moves into haunted home” because the movie works so well with surprises, details, and twists. Just go watch it, preferably late at night and alone.

 

[Anyanka Bunny Slayer]

I'm going to add Constantine. I love Tilda Swinton 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 but I was seriously creeped out by her (and Lucifer) in that film!

 

[Bop]

There are two that deeply affect me every time I see them.

Prince of Darkness is the first. A priest enlists the help of local college students when he discovers a bizarre green container under a decrepit old church. This is the most unnerving and creepiest movie I’ve ever seen. Everything in it is deliberately designed to make it feel apocalyptic and inescapable. People inside become infected with the essence of pure evil, and they can’t escape because there’s a horde of insane/possessed street people outside that will murder them if they try. Oh, and mirrors are utilized as portals to an evil dimension of pure antimatter, and if the main characters don’t stop the possessed inside the building, they’ll bring the demonic god of the antimatter dimension into ours.

It is a really creepy movie that works on atmosphere and terrifying dialogue. I highly recommend it, and the VHS dream sequences/premonitions are icing on the cake. Watch this late at night with all the lights off.

The other will always be The Blair Witch Project. I hate the woods. I hate the idea of being stranded in the woods with no way out. So what better movie to watch than one in which the main cast literally can’t get out of the woods because they keep shifting and preventing them from leaving. The Blair Witch mythos and iconography in this one is especially freaky, and so many scary moments abound here. It always feels like I’m watching a snuff film, and that terrifies me so bad.

A good contender for runner-up is Paranormal Activity 3. The first one is good with some really scary bits, the second is mostly boring in my opinion, but this one is the best of the franchise and one of the best found footage movies out there. I really don’t want to say anything about this other than “family moves into haunted home” because the movie works so well with surprises, details, and twists. Just go watch it, preferably late at night and alone.

Yeah I have a fear of getting lost so The Blair Witch Project is a scary film to me, when they walk for hours and come back to that same tree or whatever it was- chills. And because it's a found footage film it does feel like it's real.

Paranormal Activity 3 is one I liked as well but it scared me less than Blair Witch Project.

This is the first time I'm hearing about Prince of Darkness, from what you said it sounds creepy so I'm going to see if it's on streaming somewhere.

 

[ILLYRIAN]

Plasma,
I'm so disappointed that you were scared by The Blair Witch Project. That film is on my list of the worst films ever made.
Now if you like creepy stuff try The Fourth Kind. A true story of people who were abducted by aliens, when they had deep hypnosis to help them sleep they found out the owls of their dreams were in fact aliens. That scared them even more.

 

[November]

I was so terrified of Candyman as a kid, I have never seen that film since.

 

[Dogs of Winter]

I don’t mind films with lots of jump shocks but they don’t really scare me. The atmospheric films that create a constant sense of dread and unease about what may happen are the ones that get to me as they prey on your own personal fears. And a creepy soundtrack is vital to that

Halloween is relatively bloodless compared to most slasher films but keeps up the tension really well and has one of the best scores of any horror film

I am not really claustrophobic but The Descent always convinces me that I am and totally puts me on edge all the way through it. And it has one of the best jump scares ever right near the start

And Misery where you relate to his complete sense of helplessness and reliance on someone who is completely insane. Especially as Kathy Bates acts like she is being reasonable most of the time but in a way where you know she is always right on the edge of losing the plot

 

[Cohen]

The other will always be The Blair Witch Project. I hate the woods. I hate the idea of being stranded in the woods with no way out. So what better movie to watch than one in which the main cast literally can’t get out of the woods because they keep shifting and preventing them from leaving. The Blair Witch mythos and iconography in this one is especially freaky, and so many scary moments abound here. It always feels like I’m watching a snuff film, and that terrifies me so bad.

A good contender for runner-up is Paranormal Activity 3. The first one is good with some really scary bits, the second is mostly boring in my opinion, but this one is the best of the franchise and one of the best found footage movies out there. I really don’t want to say anything about this other than “family moves into haunted home” because the movie works so well with surprises, details, and twists. Just go watch it, preferably late at night and alone.

The Blair Witch Project
This piece of cinematic gold came out in 1999. I was 8 years old. I lived with a large set of woods behind my house. And when I tell you I was scared to go in my backyard at night!!! I seriously thought that the blair witch lived in the woods behind my house and that I would get lost one day and killed. I had so many nightmares about finding that abandoned house at the end in MY woods. I still get those chills when I watch this movie!!

Paranormal Activity
So when this movie came out on DVD, I rented it from blockbuster. It was my freshman year of college. I'm pretty sure it was Thanksgiving break because everyone else in my dorm went home, but since my college was in the same city as my parents, I stayed in my dorm. One of my buddies came over to watch it. We turned all the lights in my dorm off, and watched it. Now, as Plasma says there are some scary bits in the first movie, but its mostly just jump scares and a weird feeling. And let's remember, besides Blair Witch, there really weren't that many MAJOR found footage films in 2009. Paranormal Activity's success brought the hype back for that kind of film. And this was even more "scary" because of the setting inside a normal suburban home. When I tell you after that film EVERY sound that came from my dorm that night had me jumping. And at one point the elevator outside my door kept opening and closing, with no one coming out. I was super freaked.

The Conjuring
No other film has made me actively jump from my seat in a theater than this one. I've grown up watching horror. I was 23, saw this movie with one of my best friends in the theater. And I'm pretty sure I nearly pulled a Glory from squeezing her hand so tight! The demon/spirit on the dresser of the girl's room actively made me jump and scream all at the same time! I don't get that feeling as much on rewatches anymore. But this one definitely got me.

Final Destination (film series)
These films do not scare me as much as make me weary about every ordinary object murdering me if I'm not careful. FD2 has forever made me queasy driving behind a log truck. I often think about the safety of roller coasters and tanning booths due to FD3. That death can come for you from the most mundane things is terrifying in its own right.

 

[spikenbuffy]

The Hills Have Eyes (Remake 2007, never seen Wes Craven 's original version)

It gets tough when the poor entire family is attacked in the night, it was BRUTAL, poor dad got burned alive, there's also a rape scene. I relate on comments on Youtube when I checked out & rewatched scene videos years later of how it was too much to indulge one time. Though even some sounds & visuals of being stared at was unsettling. Plus there's real stories about cannibals 😓. I slept well the night when I saw that movie back in 2009 but when I woke up at like 3/4 AM trembling, I had no doubt that movie scared the hell out of me. This movie one of the scariest I've seen.

This movie is the reason I hesitate to watch new horror movies, no matter how old I am. 😅

I was a little afraid of Freddy Kruegger when I was like 7 years old (My brother loved ANOES) & the scene of Pennywise in the sewers was hard to forget for a little girl but nothing that serious, there was a little fun in it.

 

[Faded90]

When A Stranger Calls

It’s a fairly basic film but I have a fear of someone else being in the house/burglary so it hits me some place

 

[Plasma]

Halloween is relatively bloodless compared to most slasher films but keeps up the tension really well and has one of the best scores of any horror film

I will say that as much as Halloween doesn’t really scare me anymore, the one scene that still makes me squirm in my seat and actually get frightened is when she’s locked out of the house and Michael is just slowly walking across the street. The way it’s shot and the tension of if is so terrifying.

They do a similar thing in the 6th film that also really works well. Some seriously scary and tense moments in that one too, like when they’re walking over his “maybe unconscious, maybe not unconscious” body.

 

[Cohen]

I will say that as much as Halloween doesn’t really scare me anymore, the one scene that still makes me squirm in my seat and actually get frightened is when she’s locked out of the house and Michael is just slowly walking across the street. The way it’s shot and the tension of if is so terrifying.

They do a similar thing in the 6th film that also really works well. Some seriously scary and tense moments in that one too, like when they’re walking over his “maybe unconscious, maybe not unconscious” body.

Upon rewatching 4 last night, I forgot how GOOD it was. And I missed that an entire plot in Halloween Kills is paying homage to the town drunks banding together to fight off Michael!

 

[Plasma]

Upon rewatching 4 last night, I forgot how GOOD it was. And I missed that an entire plot in Halloween Kills is paying homage to the town drunks banding together to fight off Michael!

Hot take but that’s one of my favorite parts of 4. I just love the fact that Haddonfield as a whole just says “Wait WHO is back? Nah nah nah, let’s get ‘em!”

Another pretty scary movie for you to watch @Bop is John Carpenter’s The Thing. 🙂 Very tense and suspenseful movie about a group of men trapped at an arctic research station with an alien virus

 

[BibliophileAnn]

Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte
I was a teenager and after seeing it I had nightmares. When I was older I watched it again and did not have nightmares.

 

[ILLYRIAN]

Cripes, I've read the posts here and I bet you thought the Sound of Music was such a lovely movie, even though the back drop of it was the Nazi invasion of their country.

 

[Plasma]

Yeah I have a fear of getting lost so The Blair Witch Project is a scary film to me, when they walk for hours and come back to that same tree or whatever it was- chills. And because it's a found footage film it does feel like it's real.

I think the scariest part is that feeling of hopelessness. Like when Mike gets rid of the map and Heather loses it on him, but you know it didn’t matter anyways because they’re done for.

Some of the lore of the witch is super creepy too, like the idea of someone getting grabbed into the lake by a pair of hands and just vanishing.

Cripes, I've read the posts here and I bet you thought the Sound of Music was such a lovely movie, even though the back drop of it was the Nazi invasion of their country.

To sort of springboard off of Illyrian’s comments here, I would recommend a scene. The movie itself is definitely not scary or tense, but the opening to Inglorious Bastards with Landa interrogating LaPerdite is straight up frightening. If you ever wondered why Nazis frightened people so much during WWII, that simple 10-15 min sequence will tell you.

@Bop not Sound of Music! Different movie! Sorry! 😅

 

[Kendar]

Jaws and Alien. For Alien, the scene with Dallas in the ducts is still one of the scariest ever.

Of course, it is important to note that I saw both of them in the theater on original release. So Jaws in 1975 (I was 6) and Alien in 1979 (when I was 10).

I also watch Trilogy of Terror on its original release (which was ABC in March of 75). The fetish doll from the story Amelia has stuck with me to this day.

 

[TamsinValencia]

The terrifier. Probably scarier than pennywise.

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