I dunno, I think there's great horror these days too...
Hereditary
Sinister
It Follows
Suspiria (remake)
Barbarian
Insidious
Just a few from the top of my head...
Film Scariest Movie
- Thread starter AaronRedDevil
- Start date
Hereditary
Sinister
It Follows
Suspiria (remake)
Barbarian
Insidious
Just a few from the top of my head...
As I have only seen Suspiria (and agree that it's a lovely made film) from that list - Which of those have religous/believing angles as underlying themes? Not really interested in those and there are usually a lot of 'em. Is IT Follows the remake of IT? Thought that was said to be a lame remake tbh.
Hereditary has religious undertones, sort of.
It Follows has nothing to do with It (clown movie).
It's very unnerving and uniquely high concept. Not everyone's taste but worth watching for sure.
Alright, thanks for explaining a bit. Will keep it in mind then.
I can't speak for the other films on your list as I've not seen them but if you think 'It Follows' deserves to be thought of in the same way as a Nightmare on Elm Street or The Thing or Alien then we are definitely not going to be on the same page. It follows had that slightly glazed netflix sheen and it was watchable, which puts it FAR above any of the rest of the trash tier shovelware netflix puts out these days, but wow, it's not Alien and that has to be the bar we are setting if you're talking "scariest movie".
Insidious is a good film and genuinely unsettling, much better than It Follows for sure but I doubt anyone will be thinking about it in 20 years time. It's maybe on a par with "The Blob" or something.
Are we talking about the same It Follows? It wasn't a Netflix film... But anyway, can't say I agree with what you're saying.
I said it's a great modern horror, not that it's better than Alien or The Thing. It's well made, well acted, good storyline with an interesting theme and a very high concept. The final point making it a film that will pass the test of time. Whilst I like Alien and The Thing more (two of my favourite ever films), I found It Follows far more unsettling. Different people find fear in different things. I will never find any movie about aliens or space scary simply because my mind cannot let go of the fact that this is not a situation I would ever be in and also, I struggle with finding aliens scary because this is not what I actually expect an alien (if it exists) to be like.
Insidious is great and I think you're under-selling how people will remember it in time. It was the first (I think?) horror film about astral projection (as far as I'm aware) and has a bunch of potentially iconic moments/scares. The face behind Patrick Wilson during that exposition scene is on many lists as one of the best jump scare moments ever. It also re-launched James Wan and Leigh Whannell's careers, who both have gone on to become big filmmakers (especially Wan) and it also kick-started the resurgence of the haunted house sub-genre for a good while.
Not saying either of these two are as good as Alien or The Thing but just pointing out that there are many good horror films being made out there.
It's worth checking out Hereditary too... I really liked it. A lot.
Poltergeist definitely had some similar scenes and wasn't too far off conceptually either. Probably a similar sort of effect too in that it isn't a legend of the industry but it's unsettling enough to revisit, maybe. (And apparently another Spielberg film, incredibly, + released the same year as E.T. - despite being credited to Tobe Hooper). I was more scared of it by far than Insidious and not really scared at all by It Follows - but that could just be a problem with me, as opposed to those two films in and of themselves.
Poltergeist is still highly regarded 40 years on, I doubt that many people will think of Insidious the same way but we shall see.
That was terrifying
Not so much Insidious but Paranormal Activity shit me up good and proper tbh. I know its an awful movie but I watched it not long after my own ghost experience at home so, I'm a glutton for punishment.
I think Paranormal Activity is probably the best "found footage" film at the very least and will stand the test of time. Also what ghost experience?
I woke up in the middle of the night and thought I could hear quiet voices, like I'd left a TV or radio on or something. There was then 5 or so really loud bangs before a young girl ran into my room and jumped on the end of my bed, disappeared when I turned the light on.I think Paranormal Activity is probably the best "found footage" film at the very least and will stand the test of time. Also what ghost experience?
I'd convinced myself it was some sort of waking dream but not long after my elderly neighbour had some sort of hallucinatory episode, brought on by a UTI apparently, where I could hear her shouting in her apartment and on the balcony, looking for someone. She was pacing up and down the corridor outside before eventually knocking on my door saying "your daughter was in my apartment". I live alone.
Freaked me out for a while, still don't know what to make of it.
Yeah that would do it
. Maybe you heard all that stuff happening somewhere and your mind filled in the blanks. .. but who knows. I had similar when I was VERY little but I'm sure it was just a waking dream (as in 100% sure) whereby a green mop monster thing came into my room. Was terrified for years but obviously nothing happened. Can see why Paranormal Activity would be particularly triggering though for you.I've always been disappointed every time I've expected a ghost experience anywhere and I'm quite happy to stay disappointed the rest of my life!
I had something similar to this, but I don't believe in ghosts and I think it was just a hallucination.
I woke up at like 3AM and it was pitch black in the room and my eyes started to focus, it looked like there was an old woman in renaissance clothing stood watching over me (no chance it was a coat etc as it was literally on my bed above me),and I flung myself out of bed, switched the light on and it was gone.
In the same room when I was about 7 or 8, me and my sister were jumping on the beds playing and I turned around and her face looked all burnt and her eyes were red, I shat myself and jumped away, when I turned back around she was back to normal.
I think they're just imaginitive brain glitches.
As an avid horror fan who forces family, friends and girlfriends to watch horror films I can say that Sinister is probably the scariest and a brilliantly made horror film.
Some of my personal favourites include:
The Shining
Sinister
Hereditary
Ghost Stories
Doctor Sleep (Directors Cut)
It Follows
Smile
Some of my personal favourites include:
The Shining
Sinister
Hereditary
Ghost Stories
Doctor Sleep (Directors Cut)
It Follows
Smile
The western Ring - watched on a dare by myself after a couple drinks at college...friends waited til after to see what state I was in. Not great.
Watched Jaws when I was around 8 and had issues with dark water ever since.
Watched Jaws when I was around 8 and had issues with dark water ever since.
Yeh, hallucinations are a thing so it's surely just that. There's something called a Hypnagogic Hallucination which happens between the state of sleep and awake. I spent some time researching the subject the day after
. Still, I struggled to sleep for at least six months. Every damn noise... The neighbour thing made it a lot worse though, she basically hallucinated the same thing as me. Looked as freaked out as I did when I told her I don't live with anyone.I've had sleep paralysis a few times in the past, so maybe its related. No shadowy figures leaning over me or anything like that, did have my dead cat pay me a visit once though.
Maybe we just call them hallucinations cos science can't explain it!
Jaws probably has to go down as the scariest movie of all time? If you think of the millions of people it gave a lifelong fear of water to. Another contender being Arachnophobia, might give that a re-watch, wonder how well its held up.
Sounds like Sleep Paralysis which is fairly common. You're in an awakened state but still semi dreaming so your brain tricks you into some very weird stuff.
Hard to explain how the neighbour had a similar dream though
I had a similar thing where I was laying in bed on my back and a black shadow like figure (looked like the grim reaper) came out of the wall and floated over the top of me. I screamed (didnt audibly though apparently)and tried to move but I couldn't I was stick stiff. Then it floated off into the wall against and suddenly I could move. Jumped out of bed with my heart racing and turned the light on, and nothing.
If you google it though there's thousands of similar stories.
JAWS.
Even now I won't swim out very far if I go to a beach. When I first watched it as a young kid I worried that a shark would come into the house somehow and attack me.
Even now I won't swim out very far if I go to a beach. When I first watched it as a young kid I worried that a shark would come into the house somehow and attack me.
I get that feeling in a swimming pool
Remember one night I was in bed in my nans house and I was about 8 or 9. The bottom of the bed covers starting rising and I pulled my legs up towards me…they kept on rising up. Scared the absolute shit out of me and ran downstairs. Came back up and the covers were off the bed. Paranormal Activity awakened something in me that I couldn’t sleep for 2 weeks. Crazy how these things happen yet our brain refuse to believe it.
If it's any help I also had that nightmare. Somehow the dining room would turn into a dark pool. Ugh, therapy-o-clock. Damn you Peter Benchley.
I get that feeling in a swimming pool
Good to know I'm not alone in that! I remember times seeing my parents swimming far out in the sea at the beach and thinking "Don't you know there are huge fecking sharks out there!" to the point I'd really get scared they weren't gonna come back. See, a movie like that shitty Megaladon one can't do that to me, but Jaws did for sure fasho.
Saw it when I was about five. Have a bonafide shark phobia such that I didn't even like taking my character into the water in Grand Theft Auto V. The heart palpitations and nerves would start
Thank goodness for Barbados otherwise I'd never have set a toe in the sea, which has helped assuage the fear a bit. Still, when I was on a jetski and over dark water I did not like it.
Arachnophobia scarred me as a kid.
Apart from that, The Blair Witch, Paranormal Activity, and The 4th Kind creeped me out a bit.
Apart from that, The Blair Witch, Paranormal Activity, and The 4th Kind creeped me out a bit.
I really like this movie, much better than the reviews suggest. Some really unsettling scenes in it.
I've had a few scary experiences but the worst was when I was living with GF (now wife), Francesca my mate and Juliette (a teacher) in a flat where we knew an old person died.
We noticed weird things like every morning the saucepans would be left on the kitchen floor, doors would open on their own etc... We just ignored it.
Then we started hearing voices... Carried on ignoring it.
One day we heard Juliette screaming and then ran into her room and she said she was being strangled and we said it was sleep paralyses. She said it was a woman with orange hair and cataracts. I contacted the owner and asked about the dead woman... She had orange hair and cataracts....
Then Francesca had a shower and then swore she saw the outline of a woman. I then saw the kitchen roll move across the counter top on its own.
Every time we had visitors, they would complain about getting sick and tired after visiting us.
Then one night me and gf lying in bed and we CLEARLY hear footsteps approaching the bed. We just stay silent... Then it stops. Suddenly, the bed sinks in like someone got in. We jumped out of our skins.
Then one night, we were all shook from hearing loud whispers. Juliette called her boyfriend in, he was a massive security guard and it's common sense that massive security guards can beat up ghosts.
We were sitting in our rooms and suddenly we hear this loud banging and whirring sounds. We all ran into the hallway and it got louder and louder and suddenly all the lights started going on and off for a while then BOOM! Like a gun shot.
We all stayed together that night in the living room and following morning we left that place.
Don't know what was happening there and don't wanna know.
We noticed weird things like every morning the saucepans would be left on the kitchen floor, doors would open on their own etc... We just ignored it.
Then we started hearing voices... Carried on ignoring it.
One day we heard Juliette screaming and then ran into her room and she said she was being strangled and we said it was sleep paralyses. She said it was a woman with orange hair and cataracts. I contacted the owner and asked about the dead woman... She had orange hair and cataracts....
Then Francesca had a shower and then swore she saw the outline of a woman. I then saw the kitchen roll move across the counter top on its own.
Every time we had visitors, they would complain about getting sick and tired after visiting us.
Then one night me and gf lying in bed and we CLEARLY hear footsteps approaching the bed. We just stay silent... Then it stops. Suddenly, the bed sinks in like someone got in. We jumped out of our skins.
Then one night, we were all shook from hearing loud whispers. Juliette called her boyfriend in, he was a massive security guard and it's common sense that massive security guards can beat up ghosts.
We were sitting in our rooms and suddenly we hear this loud banging and whirring sounds. We all ran into the hallway and it got louder and louder and suddenly all the lights started going on and off for a while then BOOM! Like a gun shot.
We all stayed together that night in the living room and following morning we left that place.
Don't know what was happening there and don't wanna know.
I can't remember a movie I found "scary" as an adult but if I took those pills of @Dirty Schwein I wouldn't have survived the Little Vampire tv series (which I found awfully frightening as a kiddo).
I shat myself watching Smile the other day. Mrs and baby at my in laws and I felt a bit macho. Yeah the smiles are super sinister.
when I was a child, Scream would scare me. The ring, and funnily enough, IT.
when I was a child, Scream would scare me. The ring, and funnily enough, IT.
In terms of pure scares, I think REC, Blair Witch Project and Paranormal Activity 3 have terrified me the most. Common theme for these three is I watched them with flatmates at uni having smoked copious amounts of weed
I think the best overall horror film I've seen in recent years though is Hereditary by far.
I think the best overall horror film I've seen in recent years though is Hereditary by far.
I re-watched Threads again recently and yes, it still terrifies me.
That's absolutely brutal. And to think it was commissioned for TV boggles the mind.
Nobody likes to admit but these found footage films are often the scariest. The first paranormal activity is very unsettling. No matter how often people disregard the film. Same goes for the blair witch project.
For something older watch the segment “the last drop of water” from 1963 film “ black sabbath”. Imo very scary. Also the exorcist still does it. That jumping bed scene has lingered on my mind for decades after I saw it as a kid.
For something older watch the segment “the last drop of water” from 1963 film “ black sabbath”. Imo very scary. Also the exorcist still does it. That jumping bed scene has lingered on my mind for decades after I saw it as a kid.
I remember finally seeing the Exorcist when it was re-released in 1998 as a 15 year old. My friend and I found it hilarious and were gutted about the fact that it wasn't terrifying.
Cheers. I'm going to watch it.
Don'tCheers. I'm going to watch it.
The Japanese version of Ju-on and The Ring and the original Exorcist are the scariest movies I watched. I've not see any that come close so far. I remember changing shampoo so I can wash my hair with eyes open and moving my monitor to face the wall whenever I sleep for a couple of months. It was that scary for me.
I went to see Smile at the cinema last week and it was the first time in maybe decade that any horror film really got me, it was creepy as feck.
Up until now I've always considered Sinister to be the scariest film I've seen but now it's got some competition.
That's because they are not even remotely scary at all
A door opening or closing is not great horror. I'm real life if that happened it would be " Who the feck left the door open?"