What Is The Scariest Horror Film Ever Made? *POTENTIAL SPOILERS*

I saw a film called Susperia when I was younger, scared the wits out of me!

But the old classics are the best - Halloween still frightens me and saw the Exorcist at the cinema when it first came out, I have never ever been able to watch it again!
 
Agree with some of the posters my scariest horror list would include:

Salem's Lot (it's scary, just is)
Dawn of the Dead Remake (fast Zombies - oh sh*t now you're screwed)
28 Days Later (actually believable, that makes it so scary)
The Thing (again possible, plus the isolation)
 
Session 9 makes me feel very uneasy watching it. I saw it at the cinema when in the US on holiday and it stayed with me for the rest of my trip. The setting in Danvers Asylum is scary enough and what with the 'girls' voice on tape and the slow process of Mike going insane, it truly is unnerving.
 
It would have been interesting to read your review you had seen Ringu first.

Samara looked like a moping, goth teen who needed to get a grip. Sadako was a chilling freaky individual.
 
If you think the movie of The Others is scary, be glad you never saw the original tv version in 1970. Sheer terror and a great deal shorter.

:eek:
 
As you say OP it is riddled with contradictions.

As I have grown older, what has come to 'disturb' me more has been the implications in 'horrific' situations. Thus, films from the 30s and 40s, if well-scripted and acted, have all of a sudden become a 'chilling' experience to me whereas once upon a time I merely revelled in their 'old school' atmosphere. For the same reason, I recently gave the original Stepford Wives another whirl and was left far more devasted by it than by the first time round a number of years ago.

Gore and violence in and of itself no longer holRAB any thrill/fascination whatsoever. That being said, Cannibal Holocaust remains the only film that can truly 'depress' me (which in terms of enduring effect you could argue is on a par with 'scary'); and I am now more than ever struck by the ingenious widescreen emphasis on hopelessness and physical decay that Lucio Fulci evokes in Zombie Flesh-Eaters, in contrast to the coitaneously much more lauded Dawn Of The Dead.
 
Noooo thats going to give me nightmares now !!! :cry: scared the be-jesus out of me !! ha ha

Have to say Evil Dead had a huge impact on me my parents had it on pirate very early 80s and I was very young , never looked at a forest in the same kind of light again. Same with Return Of The Living Dead again I was very young at the time and that scared the crap out of me because at the beginning they say its based on a true story or some rubbish like that, I find them very dated now ....... but ...... have to admit :o I still cant watch Return Of The Living Dead now with the zombie in the cellar trying to open the door :eek:and Im a 33 year old woman !! the shame ! ha ha ha
 
Wolf Creek is absolutely terrifying - that's got to be the scariest one for me.

The Blair Witch Project is also another that even watching it now I still get scared, especially at the end when Mike is standing in the corner.
 
The first half I agree on especially the vampire kid at the window.
Then it peters out in the last hour as if they they didn't have enough money to do the second half of the book justice. Shame.

The Omen and The Exorcist get my vote but their impact has diminished since the time I first saw them - aged under 12.
I once saw The Exorcist on my own and laughed all the way through. I have no idea why. Possessed? ;)
 
This thread topic comes up quite frequently and despite new horror films coming out almost every week it always seems the classics are still the best, with the exception of recent (-ish) Japanese horror, which is often very well done.

The Thing is both scary and horrendously gory. The fear element is simple but incredibly effective - an isolated bunch of Antarctic scientists with no hope of escape being picked off by an alien who can shape-shift to resemble any of the crew. It makes for incredibly tense viewing, even on repeated viewings when you know who The Thing is impersonating. The paranoia is done brilliantly and the sense of being trapped is very real, and that's one of those primal fears which scares us all.

The Grudge was a good twist on the usual creepy ghost story in that the ghost follows the main characters around. In most Western ghost stories the ghost lives in a creepy house and as soon as you leave the house you're free of its influence, so all you have to do is leave. Not so in The Grudge and that makes it truly horrifying.

A Nightmare On Elm Street tapped a similar vein of primal fear - that you could be attacked or die in your sleep.

The original Ring movies are creepy as hell as well. There's something about the way they're shot fairly cheaply which was completely lost in the glossy Hollywood remakes.
 
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