oooooooh, scaaaaary

[Slant]

Okay, since it is so close to halloween, let's hear about some of the scariest films out there.  What was the one film that made you feel like jumping out of your skin?  Which film genuinely creeped you out the most and made you sleep with the hall light on?  For me, it was an old movie called Suspiria.  It was about an American girl who becomes accepted to this dance school in Germany which turns out to be... well, go see it.  Not very gory by today's standards, but very very creepy.

[Spriggan]

anything with barbra strisand in it has my vote

[House of Mustard]

For me it was The Lady in White.  I saw it when I was twelve and it gave me nightmares for years.  I keep thinking that I ought to watch it again to see if it was really as scary as I remember, but I'm too lazy/chicken.

[Fellfrosch]

I saw ET when I was five and slept on my parent's floor for months. And the movie that made me jump more than any other is Wait Until Dark with Audrey Hepburn. Not really a horror movie, but certainly a scary one.

As for horror films that are actually horror films, my all time favorite is Scream. I even wrote a paper on it for one of college literature classes.

[Tage]

I'm a big fan of Scream as well. It's just a really well done slasher-horror flick. And since practically ALL slasher-horror flicks suck, Scream is that much more entertaining.

As long as we're going with childhood nightmare-inspiring movies, who can forget Watcher In the Woods? Wow, that is still a freaky movie.

[Kid_Kilowatt]

I'd have to go with "Don't Look Now" first and foremost.  It combines some of the most horrific components in existence: the 70s (with that decade's requisite bad hairstyles and fashion), artsy-fartsy cinematography, and full frontal nudity by Donald Sutherland.  Yikes!  All kidding aside, though, this movie is genuinely frightening and has lost little of its edge over the past 25 years (if you can get past the 70s stuff).

Another outstanding work of horror that often gets overlooked is Lars Von Trier's "The Kingdom", a Danish horror soap opera that takes place in a haunted hospital.  I know, it sounds terrible but it is incredibly textured and frightening and humorous.  I'd trade "Twin Peaks" and "ER" for a show that combined the best elements of both, wouldn't you?  It's out on video and well worth tracking down.

Other good ones that people might not have seen: "Repulsion" (starring Catherine Deneuve), David Lynch's "Eraserhead", "Devil's Backbone", "Audition", and "The Shining".

[Slant]

Kid, thank you for remembering The Kingdom!  I loved that series immensely.  It was definitely eccentric, but it had some genuine chills in it as well.  I heard they were supposed to be doing a version (much watered down) for American television at one point.  

Watcher in the Woods WAS creepy.  I remember seeing it when I was a nipper of eight or so.  Seriously spooky stuff.  I don't remember Lady in White, though.  Who was in that one?

[House of Mustard]

I have no idea of the actors in Lady in White, and I'm not even sure of the plot except there was a little ghost girl that had been murdered and some crazy lady that wore white, who may or may not have been a ghost - I can't remember.  But it was freaky.  It gives me the chills just thinking about it.

[Lord_of_Me]

maybe the little ghost girl was a ghost

[Mr_Pleasington]

Oh, man! I thought I was the only one who was completely freaked out by Lady in White!  When I was a kid, I couldn't even watch the whole thing.

I'm also a big fan of Scream.  As a big fan of horror movies, cheesy or not, it was nice to see a movie that broke the cliches.

I was lucky enough to watch the first half of The Kingdom last year. Very good stuff, though it got really surreal near the end of that half.  Haven't seen the last half of the episodes yet.  There was a rumor for a while the Stephen King was going to adapt it and remake it for us here in the U.S.

While most people thought The Blair Witch Project was pure cheese, I liked it and it scared the bejeesus out of me...still does.  A few of those scenes just stick with you.

[Spriggan]

Next week I'm going to see the Japanese version of the ring.  That's supposed to be pretty freaky.

[Slant]

Would any of you out there consider Prophecy a horror movie?  I know it kept me awake at night as a wee nipper.

[Mr_Pleasington]

The Prophecy fall more under the thriller/action category in my book, although it does have some horror elements.  I love the first one, too bad the sequels suck so bad.  It inspired my to buy In Nomine, which I still have yet to play.

I can see how it could be scary to a youngster though.

I always thought that it would have been about 10 times better if David Lynch had directed though...

[Slant]

Actually the Prophecy movie I'm talking about was the one starring Talia Shire that had the grotesquely mutated grizzley bear in it, not the Christopher Walken one.