Movies that actually scared somebody
 

     I'm not talking about something jumping out of the bushes unexpectedly. I'm talking about a movie that scares somebody into a fetal position, can't sleep for three days without nightmares stuff.
     The only movie I can think of that qualifies is The Excorcist. I got a copy of that when I was 16 and showed it to the 15 year old son of a holy-roller across the street. He balled up in the corner of the couch and whimpered, "Turn it off" a few times. I found it facinating to watch him, unable to turn away, scared shitless. Amusing too. Anyone else?

"The Ring" (the US version) creeped out my wife to the point where EVEN NOW I can sneak up behind her, whisper "Seven days..." in her ear and watch her leave handprints on the ceiling.

I'm such a giant sissy that I usually avoid movies that I think will scare me. Years ago I sat through a flick called "Jagged Edge." I can't even remember the story, but just hearing the name of it gets my heart beating faster and the hairs on my neck standing up. I remember sitting, terrified yet transfixed, through the final quarter of the movie.

I haven't voluntarily seen a scary movie since.

I love scary movies and rarely find one that's actually able to scare me. Perhaps this is because I started watching them at a young and impressionable age and got desensitized to it.

I certainly look forward to seeing "The Ring" if it's that unsettling. I'll have to make a point of renting it, or seeing it when it hits cable.

I had heard about all of the crowd reactions to seeing "The Exorcist" ... they must have been some seriously unbalanced, nervous people. When I finally saw the movie I enjoyed it, but wasn't horrified, particularly. Years ago I read a psychology journal article about those reactions, but too much time has passed to remember the exact conclusions, except that the author chalked it up to mass hysteria.

I will admit to being scared by one scene in Jaws (I guess I was in Jr. High, or early High School at the time), where Hooper is diving down to the boat that the shark sunk, and the head pops out ... jumped out of my seat! The gotcha factor doesn't go as far nowadays, of course.

I think, though, that I'm more scared by things that I personally find scary ... Like in "The Great Escape", when the tunnel collapses. THAT'S scary, also stunts involving high places.

But Icky Stuff usually doesn't get me that way, beyond making me feel unsettled.

     I just saw The Ring a few days ago. I thought it was good, but it is definitely one of those movies that you have to let suck you in to work. If you don't sink into the movie early on you'll get bored with the end. So definitely turn off the lights (or use low level back lighting, less harmful to your eyes) and tell everyone to shut the hell up.

     Wolf, if you don't mind me asking, what is your religious background? Generally I've found that The Exorcist was designed specifically to target Catholics in particular and the other christian franchise' members to a lesser extent. Being a skeptic and a cynic since I was six, it didn't scare me that much. As I said, my friend that was raised getting religion shoved (one of the Protestant, Baptist maybe?) down his throat was terrified. I grew up going to church, and I found it pretty spooky. Even though neither of us considered ourselves christian at that time.

I'm a recovering Cathaholic. ;)

I thought the Exorcist was pretty lame. I guess that's the expectations of kids these days...

But, one movie that truly scared me (and really the only one that still gets me) is the beginning of <i>When A Stranger Calls</i>... I had never heard the urban legend before and just thinking about it right now makes my eyes water (what happens when I get scared). The rest of the movie sucks, but the beginning is great.

Ok, this is going to sound weird, but Apocalypse Now did it for me when I was about 15-16. I sat and just absorbed the movie, not realy jumping out of the seat or anything, but man, trying to sleep that night...

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas made me feel like I was having a flashback. I had to leave 20 minutes before the end and go sit out in the sun and recover.

Wolf...I yelped when the head appeared but not as loudly as when Jason Vorhees rotting head leaped out of the water in the second last sequence of Friday 13th. I was 13, at the cinema alone, as I was the only kid my age who looked old enough to get in and I had to walk 2 miles home in the dark. Never been scared of a movie since.

atmospheric movies do it for me. the original 'the haunting', 'the others' and movies like that. i think whats more frightening is what you *dont* see. i dont really like it when movies lay it all out, explaining everything. to that end, 'signs' scared the shit out of me. i love watching it, but i never sleep well afterwards.

~james

The last movie that really got under my skin was Alien. The idea of some parasitical creature using your body as a incubation chamber was original and unsettling. They used the old movie trick of not really letting you see the monster clearly until the end and let your imagination fill in the blanks. The film was the first sci-fi flick to really have a "gothic" feel to it. Ridley Scott would go on to repeat that effect quite effectively in Blade Runner.

A LOW budget cult film called the boggy creek monster TOTALY messed my head up fo a few years when i was young ,,, i grew up watching the "friday night fright flicks " ,, wolf man and all the classics ,, but the boggy creek monster just blew me away ,,, oh and we owned and use to go visit some land in upper mississippi , you had to cross a body of water that was called boggy creek , my mom and older sis had the bigest time messing with my head about the boggy creek monster :eek: :eek: :eek:

I remember the Boggy Creek Monster only because the third movie made about it was one of the movies parodied on Mystery Science Theater 3000. A show where the characters sat in a theater and hurled derision and snide remarks at whatever sci-fi B-movie was playing. Consequently I can't help but giggle when I think of it now. If I recall the whole thing was a docudrama set in Arkansas and revolved around trying to reveal the existence of some "Bigfoot" like creature which I believe is known locally as the "Fouke" monster. I think all of the movies are probably available for sale on the internet.

THe sequence in 'the others' where she pushes slightly on teh door and it pushes back a couple of times, then slams in her face made me jump.

My father and brother used to tell me stories about the Fouke monster whenever we would travel through that region. I had completely forgotten about it 'till now!