What movies are scary?

[devilf]

I remember when horror movies were about being scared. Then I became an adolescent and discovered Fangoria and horror movies became all about gore.

In the last few years I've become disenfranchised with gore films. I feel like I've everything, and I wish that there were more plots to go with the disembowelments (like the Dead films - good movies WITHOUT the gore). And I've become really disenfranchised with horror on the whole as it seems no one takes it seriously anymore. Guy-in-a-mask-killing-teens movies were never scary and I think they were barely ever horror (I only consider Halloween, founder of the genre, to be a horror movie). When movies are made that might fit into a more horror mode, they tend to be campy, or just plain terrible, films that no one even bothered with.

The question is: What MODERN horror movies (post 1990) are actually scary? Gut-clenchingly frightening.. making sure your feet don't hang over the edge of the bed terrifying... sleeping with the lights on scary.

I can think of a couple of SCENES in movies that do that for me (the sister in Pet Sematary has also freaked me out), but most of the movies that I have found frightening at all in the last decade weren't horror films.

What do you cats think?

[grabass]

I think the scariest flicks lately do tend to be the ones rooted in some kind of reality, since that's where most of the entertainment these days seem to be coming from.

I agree that "Horror" movies lately seem to be all about good gore and death. You're not necessarily scared by them, just impressed at the sometimes inventive ways people(teens)are 'offed'.

That's not necessarily a bad thing, though.

As an adult I think it takes a lot more for a film to scare me, since reality scares me more. Some films do make me...unsettled, or disturbed. 'Blair Witch' and 'American Psycho' come to mind. The opening of 'Scream' still makes me uncomfortable.

I think brutality(rape, torture, etc.)in films, if graphic enough, really fucks me up.
I still don't think I could watch 'Last House on the Left'.(all together now: PUSSY!)

Yet I laughed when that chick was hit by a bus in 'Final Destination'. Is that wrong?

[Johnny Butane]

Hell no that's not wrong!!! I laughed LOUD at that scene in the theater, and got some weird looks for it, too.

It is harder to get scared as you get older, and very little has really terrified me in the past ten years. I can think of some scenes as well, but I don't think it's likely I will ever see a movie again that could scare me. I'm a horror fan, so when I see something, gorey or not, that would normally frighten a little girl (unless her name is girlcreeture) I just think "Damn, that was cool". I appreciate it for what it is when I see something good, but it's been so long...

Maybe they just don't make 'em like they used to, or perhaps I'm too jaded. That doesn't mean I'm going to ever stop watching horror though. It's in my blood.




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[devilf]

Adults have been scared by movies, though - the Exorcist is the last one that I can recall that really terrified people, although some claim that the Blair Witch scared them silly.

I just don't think anyone is trying.

[grabass]

Maybe their trying too hard, and missing the point of what's scary.

Maybe it's just a case of filmmakers thinking that scary involves a computer generated, 20 story tall octo-squid. I usually crack up at something like that, as I did in 'Deep Rising'.

Then again, quite a few folks thought 'Blair Witch' was just as laughable. Not me.

I think some filmmakers in the past ten years have honestly tried, but failed to meet my expectations of horror, like 'Deep Rising'. I think Carpenter's "In the Mouth of Madness" did it for me pretty well. It always scares me to think about the "end of the world".

Here's my "cop-out" answer: http://www.chud.com/board/ubbhtml/smile.gif

What's scary to you could very well bore the shit out of me, and vice versa.

I guess it's all subjective.

[Underground Dweller]

Horror movies just aren't what they used to be, but you can't really say, "they don't make them like they used to", because that's exactly what the problem is, they are trying sooooo hard to make horror movies like they used to. Ofcourse, there are the stand outs, but when one movie stands out, along comes a hundred just like it.

Personaly, I don't care, I just love horror movies. Horror Movies Rock.

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Fear me, for I will spit slimey green goo in your face!!!

[Hastur]

Oooh, a subject I can warm to.

OK. It probably doesn't fit the "Scary Movie" train, but the most terrifying movie I have ever seen is "Se7en". When I saw it in the theatre, it was frightening, but I'm used to enjoying a frightening movie. When I stepped out of the theatre, though, and was on my way to my car, I got hit hard by the subliminals. I nearly yakked when I realized what had been done to Lust. I saw all of the progression of Sloth from healthy sleazball to jelly-for-brains.

"Se7en" is my favorite movie of all times. It still gives me the frission that I want from a movie. It may not be the best movie ever made, to some people, but it really seemed like the writer, the director, the actors, hell, even the grips, were throwing everything they could into it to really scare the audience.

Today, I actually know a couple of people that cannot watch it, even on video/DVD because they remember their reactions in the theatre. I try to tell them that there are no subliminals in the home entertainment versions, but it isn't enough.



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-Hastur
"Go ahead. Say my name four times. I dare you. I double dare you."

[JBENE]

Sadly as you get older films do become less scary.When I was a kid I was so scared of the dark and watching almost any film would scare me.But of course there are a few that still scare and that's why they will stand the test of time.No offense to any fans but SCREAM is only 4 years old and it's pretty much remembered as a satire and BWP is pretty creepy but not frightening at all.Here are some films that I think are SCARY.

THE EXORCIST-The motherfucker of all horror
films gets a re-release and kicks BWP2 and UL2 ass.Real horror returns

PSYCHO-still classic after all these years and easily the most copied

HALLOWEEN-The slasher that launched 1,000 clones

NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD-What do I need to say.

TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE-stripped down, low budget, and documentary style flick that has hardly any gore

SUSPIRIA-Doesn't make much sense but the opening kill is as heartstopping as it gets.

[JBENE]

As for 90's films being scary I'd say

SEVEN
SILENCE OF THE LAMBS
IN THE MOUTH OF MADNESS
CANDYMAN

[Smilin' Jack Ruby]

90's movies that are scary? I was really jacked up on something when I saw "The Frighteners" for the first time and the reaper scared the shit out of me (saw the movie later and had no idea why I found it scary).

Do "boo" scares count? If so, "What Lies Beneath" certainly used a lot of those.

Oh, yeah - when Geoffrey Rush turns the dead guy around in "House on Haunted Hill" and all that's in the chair is the guy missing his face and he looks in the monitor and sees Jeffrey Combs crip-walking around with that bone saw - I am embarrassed to admit that I almost had a seizure.

[girlcreeture]

It's hard for me to think of a 90's era movie that truly scared me, as far as horror goes. The scariest most unnerving movie I saw this year is Requiem for a Dream.

I'd say Blair Witch, but only for the final scene which was just spooky as hell rather than scary.

But I just don't get that wonderful tense twitchy scared feeling from modern horror films. I can watch the Exorcist and get all oogy, and the same goes for TCM, Rosemary's Baby, Poltergeist, and others from the past.

It doesn't bother me too much, I'm not a child anymore and no matter how powerful my imagination still is (thankfullY), it's not enough to really work the grey matter during a movie.

[raoul duke]

Jacob's Ladder had some creepy scenes, and though it didn't scare me that much i still love the movie.
In the Mouth of Madness had some very creepy scenes and great monsters.


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and a voice was screaming: Holy Jesus! What are these damn animals

[Hastur]

See, Jacob's Ladder left me with a feeling of "What?" more than horror. I ended up watching the entire thing very closely because I knew that the two minutes I used for a restroom break would be the two minutes that tied everything together. I was wrong, but the thought was there. I get the feeling that there are scenes that were cut.

And I was paying too much attention to Sam Neil's eyes in At the Mouth of Madness to be frightened by it. *grin*

On the other hand, Alien was very scary, even though it isn't a horror flick, per se.



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-Hastur
"Go ahead. Say my name four times. I dare you. I double dare you."

[General Logan]

I was scared to the point of near-self urination at the TV adaption of Stephen King's "It". Seriously, and edited for TV no less!

Now I am equally frightened when I see the production value of any of the King's movie adaptions. Well yeah... except Green Mile.

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What do I put here? I am not sure if me computer has UBB's.

[Hastur]

It was Tim Curry. That man could make anything scary. He is a god. If he hadn't been in the movie, it would have been really bad.



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-Hastur
"Go ahead. Say my name four times. I dare you. I double dare you."

[RathBandu]

About "It": Due to the replay of that movie on cable, practically every member of my generation I know is scared shitless of clowns because of that movie. Haven't seen it though.

Oh, yeah, and Silence of the Lambs fucked me up pretty good there for a few nights.

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I know there's a God because I kill vampires for a living. I just don't fucking understand Him.

[flint]

I think our generation isn't really terrified of anything in society per se. And that is the problem.

Some of the greatest horror films of all time tap into society's fears at the time:

THEM! (and other 'monster' movies): Nuclear Holocaust

Invasion of the Body Snatchers: Communism

Halloween:The isolation of the suburbs and the new wave of serial killers

Exorcist: The rising power of satanism

Now, in the past decade we've kind of stopped being quite as paranoid about nuclear holocaust, communism kind of filtered out with a phhffft!, we see satanists on MTV all the time, and they just look dumb, and serial killers have become nothing more than T-Shirts of the week... at best!

The reason that films aren't scary any more is because WE aren't afraid of anything at the moment, so the writers have nothing to tap into. With no current source, they steal from the fears of our parents and grandparents, or pick universal fears (isolation, fear of the dark, accidents, terror of big giant mutated sharks with lasers built into their foreheads) that they hope will scare at least ten percent of the viewing audience.

I can't say that any film has 'scared' me in the past 10 years, though I've been nervous, uncomfortable and jumped clean out of my seat, many, many times. I think the last time I was truly scared throughout a movie was Alien, when I was about ten years old. God, I miss that feeling...

[devilf]

I think that we are scared of things, as a society. I just don't think that anyone is bothering to tap into it. Half the filmmakers in Hollywood that make horror films are either referencing other movies (either as homages or blatant rip-offs), or they are making things too tongue in cheek.

I don't know what the current zeitgeist of what we are afraid of is, but it seems to me that if you judged it by the campy horror movies we've been saddled with for the last decade, it's either being serious or actually trying.

[Hastur]

Following that train of logic (and it's a good one) would the X-Files be something of a reflection of the fears of today's society? After all, the alien invasion is an obvious fear, and the thought of our government cooperating with that invasion is not the best. The painful experiments on humans part also hearkens to the big wars (especially WWII), which still makes people wonder.

Or, maybe I'm just talking out my ear.



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-Hastur
"Go ahead. Say my name four times. I dare you. I double dare you."

[flint]

I've always thought that the big scare in X-Files is less the aliens and stuff, but more the fact that the government knows something but is keeping it from us 'for our own good'. A situation we can all relate to in some way or another, no matter what country you live in.

Still Hastur could be onto something. This COULD be a universal fear in society, Big Brother watching you and all that. But how do you turn it into a good horror film? Only serious contendor to a Big Brother film in the 90's was Enemy of the State, and whilst the premise, plot and waste of good acting talent might have been horrific, I wouldn't call it a 'scary' film.

Maybe something in the vein of '1984' would make a good horror film if done right. But more often than not we're veering into Sci-Fi territory once again. Thoughts?

[devilf]

I think Hastur has it dead right.

Maybe the way to make this scary in a more horror sense is to create a scenario in which people develop the ability to completely read your mind and perhaps punish you for "bad thoughts".. I'm thinking something along the lines of that episode of the Twilight Zone where the kid holds a whole town hostage with his fucked up mental powers.

[billylove]

I would go for:

"Event Horizon"

I literally jumped out of my chair in the sceen where Sam Neil goes into the computer tunnels. Jesus! (Exuse me for swearing)

This is about the only film that has ever done that since the Days of Aliens and the Thing.

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