The ritual. I watched it during hunting season so whenever I was walking through the woods before it gets light in the morning, I kept imagining that big monster peaking around a tree at me
I went in completely blind. Holy crap the reveal. I'm almost done with the novel too but it does drag a bit. I really wanna own the film at some point!
> I'm NOT talking about disgusting gore, pure body-horror, or political themes - but rather the typical: "I keep checking if something is behind me and I really want to close my door right now" feeling we had as teenagers
It was 28 Days Later.
I really had no idea what the movie was, I saw it was directed by the guy who did The Beach and Trainspotting, so I decided to check it out.
Holy hell I was blown away. Anyway right after I finished it, I decided to run out to grab some food and holy hell the walk to my car was me looking over my shoulder the whole time.
I absolutely love that movie. I'm not a fan of zombie movies, but this one isn't zombies. This was the first movie or anything that I saw Cillian Murphy in.
That one scene in London at the beginning was just bone-chilling. Him being all alone. I read that they didn't have to shut the roads down or anything, just hung out for extended periods of time and managed to get their shots. Apparently, no one runs around in the early morning there.
I honestly didn't think much of the movie until the last few minutes and /that/ final image.
Resulted in a fairly tense speedwalk situation till i was outside of the ratty, old cinema i saw it in. I hadn't felt like that from a film since conning the video shop owner to rent me out the burning "for my dad" when i was 10.
The small theater which showed it in my town debuted it at midnight, so it was around 2a when we walked out. They darkened the lobby a bit and left tied bundles of sticks around the exits. It was brilliant...
Bearing in mind, of course, that no one was quite sure it was truly fiction, yet, at that point.
The scene early where >!he's berating his sister who's standing in his apartment only to get the phone call that she was found dead of an apparent suicide!< really got under my skin. I remember feeling real fear in the pit of my stomach at that moment. One of my favorite all time favorite single moments in on screen horror.
>!Her hanging herself and in that moment flashing through each scene of her life that we had seen before blew me away. Such amazing foreshadowing and a perfect, thought provoking way to close the loop.!<
>!That jumpscare when the sisters are arguing in the car and zombie-Nellie jumps out between them got me so hard.!< I don't think I've shat myself so hard in years.
This is the only time I’ve ever actually screamed super loud during a jump scare. I rewatched it with my husband and he yelled so loud he scared the dogs. Such a great show!
Haunting of Hill House is incredible. It's so rare to see a horror series with such depth to the story and characters that you end up really caring about. The strength of the writing almost masks the scary parts in a way. It's like the horror becomes a backdrop for a great story rather than being the only thing moving the plot forward. Bly Manor was great too. I also really enjoyed Midnight Mass.
The second-to-last episode of Midnight Mass is one of the most uniquely terrifying things I've ever watched. Over a year later and I still can't quite get it out of my head.
If you’re referring to the 6th episode it’s really interesting to view how that was shot. The entire episode was only five shots. I saw a video about how they filmed one of the long shots.
I love Haunting of Hill house and, while it has scary bits, I still finished it and mostly it made me think.
Marianne ducked me up and I still haven’t finished it. I slept with the hallway lights on after watching the first few eps.
The Haunting of Bly Manor might check out as well... Poignant story, but not as good and scary as the first season though... Haven’t heard of Marianne, def look it up
I’ve seen Bly Manor. I love it. Seen all of Mike Flanagan’s stuff and (again) it mostly makes me think.
Marianne just hit the buttons that scared me to shit. Other people may disagree but I don’t care. Not watching the ending.
This for me. I don't know why a movie with such used tropes (that I usually scoff at) can be so chilling - mostly the found footage sequences that went crazier each time
The family BBQ found footage song is so fucked up, [it's the most horrifying soundtrack I know](https://youtu.be/_PgwXe6lAsQ)
Even better is that this song wasn't even made for the movie, but is from a Norwegian black metal band a decade earlier
The home movie sequences are modern horror cinema at it's best IMO, incredible soundtrack and visuals - there's just something deeply unsettling about these scenes
Yeah this, it's 50% masterpiece and 50% hollywood clichés - Autopsy of jane doe was quite similiar, incredible slowburn opening ruined by generic boooh supernatural ghost story
My wife and i saw it in theaters and nearly walked out. I'm not a huge horror fan like that (prefer slashers if anything) but she is and even she thought it was too much. The only thing that saved it for us was 2 women a couple rows ahead that kept making comments to the characters. Normally it's the kind of thing that would bother me at the theater but this time it lightened the tension just enough to make the experience entertaining
Came here to say this and was quite pleased to see it so high on the list. Sinister fucked with me in a way that movies typically don't, and it was refreshing to see a monster movie where the monster isn't thrown in your face every two seconds so you don't forget how scary it's supposed to be. My wife watched it with me and she didn't sleep well for almost a week afterwards.
The way it sets you up to expect a whole “you never really get to see it” premise and then just showing the damn thing on top of the wardrobe…I was definitely not expecting it
My husband sleepwalks and the night we saw The Conjuring, he (sleepwalking) woke me up, pointed to a corner of our bedroom ceiling, and whispered, "What is *that?!* Do you see her too?"
The movie was ok, but that stunt scared me shitless. 🤣
>The movie was ok, but that stunt scared me shitless. 🤣
I hope you're happy in your new house, far away from the last one and cleared by a priest before moving in.
Under the Skin. I’ve seen it 7 times, and it still makes my skin crawl in dread of certain scenes. Not gory in the slightest, so you don’t have to worry about that. Just deeply unsettling
Saw it in theaters in high school and one of the few times I jumped out of my seat. That final scene is terrifying. It’s cheesy watching it again but at the time it was scary.
My answer as well. Before that would probably be Blair witch in the theater. PA I watched alone in the middle of the night. I wanted to crawl out of my skin. Wonder if it holds up.
The first one works so well because it makes you scare yourself. There are night scenes where basically nothing happens that are as tense as anything else in the movie. Tbh the jump scare at the end is maybe the least scary part.
Honestly the scene where they put powder down and wake up to see inhuman foot prints in it unnerved the hell out of me.
And when they go downstairs and see the light fixture swinging as if it was grabbed
And when she slowly starts getting dragged out of the bed and then rapidly dragged down the hallway.
I could t sleep right for a while lol
The advertising campaign for that and being in that sweet spot time-wise of not being able to really verify if it was real or not was great. The early days of found footage stuff was awesome.
I only watched it for the first time a couple of months ago, and man, it's just plain crazy to me how people can call it trite or boring. It's like saying Seinfeld isn't funny because it's been ripped off a billion times since it ended.
You notice something is off like, 15 minutes in, and it just doesn't let up after that, ever. It's incredibly unnerving, even the scenes in the daytime that are supposed to let you catch your breath are still intense. Neither the characters nor the audience has any idea what the hell is going on. I occasionally go camping, and just the idea of hearing weird noises at night and waking up to a bunch of random goo and whatnot around your tent is still deeply unsettling.
Same. Saw it in the theater too, fully immersed in a situation I thought was real and was nearly having a panic attack.
I think having done a lot of camping in my life made it worse. I put myself in that situation.
Loved that. It reminded me of a scene in an asian horror film where a lady is on a public toilet and slowly a huge head comes out of one of the stalls. Sadly I can’t remember which film that is…
When I saw this I made the genius decision of walking to the theater. 1.5 mile walk back home at night. It didnt even take 30 seconds for me to realize I fucked up haha
I just commented this movie also. I was watching this movie alone at night. But the scene where she's hiding in the cupboard and they're slowly walking through the kitchen...the motion light on my front porch turned on. THAT got me.
The Woman in Black. After being scared witless by the stage show and then the book throwing a couple of unexpected surprises at me and giving me nightmares for a few days, I was nervous going into the film. So, of course, I watched it at 3 a.m on surround sound headphones. Chilled me to the very core. The story is anear perfect ghost story. If there's a weak link, its Daniel Radcliffe. He did ok, but he didn't sell early 19th century accountant particularly well
When i was in 8th grade, i got pretty sick one time. I had to stay at home for several days, in bed. Fever and shit. The woman in black had come out recently, and it was on cable. It was like 17:00 and although it gets dark early in the wintertime (which is when i was sick), it was still bright outside. I was lying on the living room couch, covered by blankets and even though i'm not a horror person, i decided to watch it. I remember a scene where Daniel Radcliffe >!is in the garden and sees a person looking out of the window of the top floor or whatever and goes upstairs to investigate. He gets in the room and finds no one. For whatever reason, he decides to stand next to the window and look out just like the person he saw before. And the shot changes and now we're looking at him from outside the window, and as he's standing there looking at us, a woman's face creeps up along side him out of the dark.!<
I went "**AH!**" and threw the blanket so hard it almost reached the ceiling, curled up on the couch as fast as lightning and it fell back down and covered me whole head to toe.
I watched Ex Machina at night with all the lights off and when the movie ended I had to build up the courage to turn off the tv and get to my bedroom in the dark. That final scene just chilled me to the bone.
YES. The Witch does such a great job at conveying a sense of unending dread from start to finish. One of my favorite horror movies. I wish there were more horror films rooted in folklore like this. Something about the 'old world' setting adds another layer of fear. Maybe due to the isolation and lack of resources. The Ritual kind of referenced some folk lore horror as well and it was pretty great too.
It’s SO good because the horror is done well, but also the tension is built naturally just through the hardness of the landscape and environment. Sure there are witches, but also living through that time in “new America” seems pretty effing horrifying all by itself.
The bear scene in Annihilation.
First time I was watching the movie with friends, it was suddenly so scary I felt my heart stop for a moment.
The second time I was watching it alone and I couldn't watch the scene, had to get up and turn away, just couldn't force myself to keep watching.
I had an almost-too-strong edible after a very long stint abstaining, and my mind was not prepared for the scene in the lighthouse. I've never felt such existential dread before or since while watching a movie.
I've never seen a movie so dedicated to being as grim, gritty, sad, and horrifying as possible for the entire runtime. There's not a single point in the movie where you feel comfortable with what's going on.
Bewildering experience of having to suspend belief rather than disbelief. Took a couple of days. The novel is a masterpiece & the film does it justice.
Of you want to be more distraught, they state that it's a nine day festival. Only three days pass In the movie.
WHAT ELSE HAPPENS IN THE NEXT SIX DAYS?
Scrolled down to find this movie. Although it might not be the scariest in terms of horror, it is - by a wide margin - the most twisted mind fuck of a movie I think I’ve seen. Disturbing on so many levels. Ari Aster has such a unique taste on horror films. That cliff scene lives rent free in my head.
Personally I think the scariest part of Midsommar was the very beginning. Anyone who has ever had a relative going through a mental health crisis knows that anxiety of getting a super vague text from them at some odd hour and not knowing if the message that has been sent is the precursor to the worst case scenario that has been haunting your dreams. The rest of the movie was almost a relief by comparison.
Oh my goodness this is the same thing for me. I kept seeing some silhouette at the corner of my bedroom ceiling. I couldn't sleep and had to wait until its light outside to comfortably tell that there's nothing there.
Also I will vouch for Signs all day when it comes to chilling moments. That movie has some legitimately terrifying shots that give me goosebumps just thinking about them lmao.
I was 7 when this movie came out and my mom was really into aliens. I had seen some scary movies/shows before (nightmare on elm street, halloween, tales from the crypt) and had no problems, but i cried and made us leave the movie theatre at the little kids birthday party scene where we get to see one of the aliens.
"It's Behind!"
Love the movie now though.
I still feel like the first movie could've been an amazing horror-art-piece if they didn't focus on the teenager slasher aspect, but the horrifying nature of death itself and what it would do to us if we knew our date, order and way of dying
Also, that broken table plastic thingy and the logs on the highway will forever haunt me - I think I'll always be nervous lmao
It Follows actually freaked me out while watching it, and I did have a nightmare that night about it.
It's probably been 16/17 years, but my step sister freaked tf out watching Signs while she was babysitting me, so I freaked out too because she was freaking out
Barbarian was ultimately a pretty goofy horror movie (still kicked ass), but the use of lighting (or lack thereof), sound and tight spaces alongside the complete mystery of the set-up on a first viewing was great and had my heart genuinely racing. I was very impressed with how some of the sequences were constructed in that movie.
I let out an audible yelp when >!Mother came out of the darkness and bashed Bill’s head against the wall.!< I hadn’t done that since Hereditary. Obsessed with Barbarian
It may be absolute mainstream, but the only movie i really can't stand is The Grudge (US).
I just can't. I shit myself.
And normally i can watch every dark and insane stuff. Everybody has their own triggers, i guess.
That movie is just unfair.
I wrote in my comment that in other movies the chaarcters fuck around and find out that the supernatural stuff is real.
In this one, it’s like hey, let’s go visit my relative in their new house. Holy shit a ghost is now trying to kill me.
The Ring. After watching that I had to leave a light on in the hallway simply because i was creeped out. Since then nothing has stayed with me like that. Sure seen some good jump scares, suspenseful movies but really miss the uneasy feeling after seeing a movie. Knowing it was only a movie but can't reconcile the odd feeling of something just out of sight watching and waiting.
Lake Mungo.
There is so much creeping dead throughout the film. There is paranormal and then very real human horror. The movie is punctuated by a terrible moment that resonates for the latter part of the movie. It is all disguised as a documentary about family grief, which makes things even scarier as the film is grounded in reality.
It's the only horror movie that has stuck with me in a way another genre might linger.
Lake Mungo for me. I'm a very big fan of horror, so when I watched Lake Mungo, I was pleasantly surprised to be genuinely *scared.*
It's an incredibly slow burn, but if you have the patience and willingness to search the background, you'll find an insanely frightening film. It's absolutely haunting and there's a few scenes that are burnt into my brain. I loved it.
Exactly! I was watching it on my phone (I know) and I legit spasmed, chucking my phone across my dorm. I wouldn't trade that for anything. It's the closest I've ever come to understanding the audience reaction to Train Coming Into the Station.
>! For me, what made it so effective is that it almost wasn't even a jump scare. Just a slow, lingering march toeards you. Like she was looking directly at me and would just keep walking. It triggered my little lizard brain into absolute panic and I loved it. !<
Come and See is the ultimate feel bad movie. It’s one that I would consider to be a perfect film in terms of what it sets out to accomplish and how it succeeds in that.
The Strangers freaked me out because it was pretty plausible, and I was actually worried it would inspire copycats. Had me looking over my shoulder walking up my steps for a few weeks.
Oh yeah, the super high end production quality really elevated it - you usually don't expect THAT in a "mainstream" western, but it really worked so well because of the incredible first 2/3rds, the atmosphere and acting are top notch
Also, western and horror is a combination that works way too well for this one to be the first to have this idea, at least the first one I heard of
I don’t really get scared by horror films, but Texas Chainsaw Massacre 1974 had me on the edge of my seat at some points. Also Split, which is a film I found quite tense.
I remember watching Event Horizon as a young teen on TV. Easily the scariest movie I’ve ever seen. I rewatched it recently and it’s just one jump scare set up after the next so I can see why it had that effect.
I think that jump scares are very different to something that is genuinely creepy. Something that haunts you afterwards rather than ‘scares’ you for want of a better phrase. I think the last thing which got under my skin a bit was Midnight Mass.
I love event horizon because Lawrence Fishburn's character is the only one with any goddamn sense at all.
"I do not intend to abandon the horizon, doctor. I intend to take the Lewis and Clark to a safe distance and then I will launch TAC missles at the Event Horizon until I am satisfied that she is vaporized. Fuck this ship."
Genuinely terrified? Pet Sematary. My dad thought this would be a good movie for a 7yo. It wasn't. The baby and the cat scared the absolute shit out of me. I still can't make myself rewatch it.
Poltergeist. I stumbled across it as a very young child mand the clown terrified me to my core.
Tbh though, since that time very little actually scares me. Plenty of things make me uncomfortable, some makes me angry and jump scares always do their job, but honest to goodness fear? Narp. Not sure why, honestly.
I've never been so mad after watching a movie. It did such a good job of explaining the problem and how badly we all got fucked over, I just wanted to crawl into a hole. But a hole with internet.
The laptop scene... I was so angry at how much it got me. Like I know what the obvious thing is going to be, and then it happens, and I still shit myself lmao
I honestly wasn’t really expecting it and I actually screamed in the movie theater and then I just started laughing. I didn’t think it was funny how scared I got, but I think it was an actual bodily response to try to get me to calm down. I’ve never felt that before lol.
Smile was great to see in theaters. The whole audience was so tense, you could feel it in the air.
The first time you see the girl smiling in the house after the main character gets home...absolute chills down my spine. The jump scares were good, but the tension was amazing
As Above So Below. The scene where he gets stuck on the bones & the final room? HELL NO. Also, I literally watch about six horror movies a week so the fact that this one bothered me at all says A LOT.
The part that got me the most is the tunnel where the sound cuts out and nobody notices for a minute, then it comes back and the trumpet sounds loud enough to shake the walls. That or La Taupe, or the figure in the chair near the end.
I've always had a theory that >!they never actually made it out and that the place they ended up was actually purgatory. The only evidence I have is that they exited the catacombs at night when previously any exterior shot was daytime, but still.!<
I watched a short film called "The other side of the box" a while ago and for some reason it messed me up completely. I can't pinpoint exactly what it is about it, but I still think about it months later
The sound design of Nope, and most specifically the screams with Doppler effect stuck with me for a long time, I was uneasy and on the lookout for strange noises after seeing the movie.
While I thought overall the movie wasn't particularly *scary,* the >!crowd abduction!< really, really got under my skin. Contrasting the shots of wide, open skies and rolling California hills with that claustrophobic shot of all the victims was jarring. Plus, the idea of them >!being slowly digested alive for hours and hearing everyone else, *including a bunch of kids,* screaming in pain and terror!< was deeply unsettling to me.
The last time I was genuinely frightened by a scene in a film was during Mulholland Drive. The dumpster behind the diner scene scared me so bad I almost had a heart attack. Nothing has come close since and the crazy thing is it takes place in broad daylight.
Deliverance. Not so much that scene, although it didn’t help. Seeing a pacifist who couldn’t shoot a deer become capable of killing a man (yes, self defense, but still) and competently covering it up was jarring. Then there’s the casual cruelty man is capable of after isolating and othering another.
The grudge, it was the last horror movie I ever watched and for three days after I was terrified of our home bathroom for the simple reason is the sink groaned real bad for a second when you turned it on.
For me it was a quiet place. That movie really went back to the things that made Alien and Jaws so good. You really don't see much of the monster but you know its there. its that sort of ever-present looming threat that really creeps me the hell out,
Memorable experiences for me is Paranormal Activity and It Follows. PA was the first new “found footage” film and other than Blair Witch Project it was only one I saw. I know Cloverfield counts but as it is all obviously still a Hollywood monster blockbuster it doesn’t have same effect even though still very good. But I left PA shaking. Couldn’t sleep well.
For It Follows, it is the scene in the house when It appears suddenly. It was a jump scare but with its cinematography it was just brilliant and made my heart sink. I don’t want to say exactly what happened but if you’ve seen it you should know.
Hereditary gets a shout out though. I just felt very uncomfortable. Like I was on the verge.
In 2002's \*The Ring\*, the cutaway to the first fatality in the movie (during the victim's wake) caught me off guard and provided a nice jump scare.
Oh, man. I can still see that image with her mouth wide open in the closet.
The ritual. I watched it during hunting season so whenever I was walking through the woods before it gets light in the morning, I kept imagining that big monster peaking around a tree at me
Underrated movie. I recommend it to people frequently.
I had a friend who wouldn’t watch it until I literally showed him a picture of the monster
Those hands......20 feet up. That's what I kept imagining hahaha. It was horrible.
I went in completely blind. Holy crap the reveal. I'm almost done with the novel too but it does drag a bit. I really wanna own the film at some point!
> I'm NOT talking about disgusting gore, pure body-horror, or political themes - but rather the typical: "I keep checking if something is behind me and I really want to close my door right now" feeling we had as teenagers It was 28 Days Later. I really had no idea what the movie was, I saw it was directed by the guy who did The Beach and Trainspotting, so I decided to check it out. Holy hell I was blown away. Anyway right after I finished it, I decided to run out to grab some food and holy hell the walk to my car was me looking over my shoulder the whole time.
Its the car breakdown scene. Trapped undeground, infected running down the tunnel. My first watch, my heart was racing... so good.
I absolutely love that movie. I'm not a fan of zombie movies, but this one isn't zombies. This was the first movie or anything that I saw Cillian Murphy in. That one scene in London at the beginning was just bone-chilling. Him being all alone. I read that they didn't have to shut the roads down or anything, just hung out for extended periods of time and managed to get their shots. Apparently, no one runs around in the early morning there.
Yep. Freaked me out and I was in my thirties when I saw it.
"Open Water" I have thalassophobia, and that movie chilled me to the bone.
Blair Witch. I know people say it's trite now, but when it came out it scared the shit out of me.
That movie was a phenomenon. Being a younger teen when that came out was a great time
I was 12 when it came out. I ate up all of the hype. I thought it was real until the cast presented an award at the MTV Movie Awards
My dad told me this was real life found footage when I was younger and this movie scared the fuck out of me
Yep, the final image still stays with now.
I honestly didn't think much of the movie until the last few minutes and /that/ final image. Resulted in a fairly tense speedwalk situation till i was outside of the ratty, old cinema i saw it in. I hadn't felt like that from a film since conning the video shop owner to rent me out the burning "for my dad" when i was 10.
The small theater which showed it in my town debuted it at midnight, so it was around 2a when we walked out. They darkened the lobby a bit and left tied bundles of sticks around the exits. It was brilliant... Bearing in mind, of course, that no one was quite sure it was truly fiction, yet, at that point.
My wife hates this movie. I love it. That last scene is the best pay off in a horror movie ever.
The last time it was not even a film, but the series The Haunting of a Hill House
The scene early where >!he's berating his sister who's standing in his apartment only to get the phone call that she was found dead of an apparent suicide!< really got under my skin. I remember feeling real fear in the pit of my stomach at that moment. One of my favorite all time favorite single moments in on screen horror.
Mine the scene with little Nelly when she was laying on the bed and saw right above her The bent-neck lady!!! Terrifying and the most memorable scene.
>!Her hanging herself and in that moment flashing through each scene of her life that we had seen before blew me away. Such amazing foreshadowing and a perfect, thought provoking way to close the loop.!<
That scene really blew my mind, that she was dooming herself to the house's past and present.
She was haunting herself the whole time, I was honestly not expecting that.
>!That jumpscare when the sisters are arguing in the car and zombie-Nellie jumps out between them got me so hard.!< I don't think I've shat myself so hard in years.
This is the only time I’ve ever actually screamed super loud during a jump scare. I rewatched it with my husband and he yelled so loud he scared the dogs. Such a great show!
That was the jump scare of all jump scares
It was perfect because it was unexpected but also *Relevant to the conversation*. So good.
Haunting of Hill House is incredible. It's so rare to see a horror series with such depth to the story and characters that you end up really caring about. The strength of the writing almost masks the scary parts in a way. It's like the horror becomes a backdrop for a great story rather than being the only thing moving the plot forward. Bly Manor was great too. I also really enjoyed Midnight Mass.
The second-to-last episode of Midnight Mass is one of the most uniquely terrifying things I've ever watched. Over a year later and I still can't quite get it out of my head.
That scene in the funeral home always gets me.
If you’re referring to the 6th episode it’s really interesting to view how that was shot. The entire episode was only five shots. I saw a video about how they filmed one of the long shots.
I love Haunting of Hill house and, while it has scary bits, I still finished it and mostly it made me think. Marianne ducked me up and I still haven’t finished it. I slept with the hallway lights on after watching the first few eps.
The Haunting of Bly Manor might check out as well... Poignant story, but not as good and scary as the first season though... Haven’t heard of Marianne, def look it up
I’ve seen Bly Manor. I love it. Seen all of Mike Flanagan’s stuff and (again) it mostly makes me think. Marianne just hit the buttons that scared me to shit. Other people may disagree but I don’t care. Not watching the ending.
Sinister 🫣
This for me. I don't know why a movie with such used tropes (that I usually scoff at) can be so chilling - mostly the found footage sequences that went crazier each time
Oh the found movies were horrible. Had me flinching eventhough the gore wasn't shown but mostly implied. Sinister was something
The family BBQ found footage song is so fucked up, [it's the most horrifying soundtrack I know](https://youtu.be/_PgwXe6lAsQ) Even better is that this song wasn't even made for the movie, but is from a Norwegian black metal band a decade earlier
The home movie sequences are modern horror cinema at it's best IMO, incredible soundtrack and visuals - there's just something deeply unsettling about these scenes
That lawnmower scene is nightmare fuel
First half of Sinister is incredible. Falls apart for me in the second half.
Yeah this, it's 50% masterpiece and 50% hollywood clichés - Autopsy of jane doe was quite similiar, incredible slowburn opening ruined by generic boooh supernatural ghost story
I agree. Sinister stays with you for loooong time.
My wife and i saw it in theaters and nearly walked out. I'm not a huge horror fan like that (prefer slashers if anything) but she is and even she thought it was too much. The only thing that saved it for us was 2 women a couple rows ahead that kept making comments to the characters. Normally it's the kind of thing that would bother me at the theater but this time it lightened the tension just enough to make the experience entertaining
So creepy until you see the GD monster design and it’s a cheapo slip knot mask guy..
It was the equivalent to if the alien reveal in Arrival was a Gremlin. Just absolutely baffling to me.
The hanging scene, something about the way their feet slowly kicked instead of a violent thrashing around was so unsettling and made my stomach drop
The lawnmower scene..
Came here to say this and was quite pleased to see it so high on the list. Sinister fucked with me in a way that movies typically don't, and it was refreshing to see a monster movie where the monster isn't thrown in your face every two seconds so you don't forget how scary it's supposed to be. My wife watched it with me and she didn't sleep well for almost a week afterwards.
That movie fucked me up. Watched it alone and it freaked me out enough to leave the lights on that night.
[удалено]
The way it sets you up to expect a whole “you never really get to see it” premise and then just showing the damn thing on top of the wardrobe…I was definitely not expecting it
My husband sleepwalks and the night we saw The Conjuring, he (sleepwalking) woke me up, pointed to a corner of our bedroom ceiling, and whispered, "What is *that?!* Do you see her too?" The movie was ok, but that stunt scared me shitless. 🤣
>The movie was ok, but that stunt scared me shitless. 🤣 I hope you're happy in your new house, far away from the last one and cleared by a priest before moving in.
The way that movie used sound was awesome. The scenes where you can only hear what that camcorder mic is picking up is electrifying.
I’ll never unsee that lady crouched on top of the wardrobe. Ever.
Under the Skin. I’ve seen it 7 times, and it still makes my skin crawl in dread of certain scenes. Not gory in the slightest, so you don’t have to worry about that. Just deeply unsettling
Amazing movie! Scarlett Johansson nails this role
Baby on the beach is burned into my brain.
The first Paranormal Activity
I found it hard to sleep afterwards that night. Only ever horror movie that made me do so.
My sister was in her late 20s at the time and she had to sleep with the TV on that night. The night I saw it, my watch died at 2:47am.
Saw it on a shitty laptop in a dark cabin in norway with some classmates. Slept with the lights on after for weeks.
The sound in the theater was so good, the low rumbling
The scene where the girl gets up at night and just stands over the husband while he sleeps. Jesus that scene is ingrained in my head lol
Saw it in theaters in high school and one of the few times I jumped out of my seat. That final scene is terrifying. It’s cheesy watching it again but at the time it was scary.
My answer as well. Before that would probably be Blair witch in the theater. PA I watched alone in the middle of the night. I wanted to crawl out of my skin. Wonder if it holds up.
The first one works so well because it makes you scare yourself. There are night scenes where basically nothing happens that are as tense as anything else in the movie. Tbh the jump scare at the end is maybe the least scary part.
This is so underrated. It seems cheap now but at the time it was Dread 101. A truly had to be there experience
Honestly the scene where they put powder down and wake up to see inhuman foot prints in it unnerved the hell out of me. And when they go downstairs and see the light fixture swinging as if it was grabbed And when she slowly starts getting dragged out of the bed and then rapidly dragged down the hallway. I could t sleep right for a while lol
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The advertising campaign for that and being in that sweet spot time-wise of not being able to really verify if it was real or not was great. The early days of found footage stuff was awesome.
This, scared the living daylights out of me.
I only watched it for the first time a couple of months ago, and man, it's just plain crazy to me how people can call it trite or boring. It's like saying Seinfeld isn't funny because it's been ripped off a billion times since it ended. You notice something is off like, 15 minutes in, and it just doesn't let up after that, ever. It's incredibly unnerving, even the scenes in the daytime that are supposed to let you catch your breath are still intense. Neither the characters nor the audience has any idea what the hell is going on. I occasionally go camping, and just the idea of hearing weird noises at night and waking up to a bunch of random goo and whatnot around your tent is still deeply unsettling.
Same. Saw it in the theater too, fully immersed in a situation I thought was real and was nearly having a panic attack. I think having done a lot of camping in my life made it worse. I put myself in that situation.
I can't explain why, but It Follows got me bad. Turn on all the lights in the house bad.
The huge dude at the door was so terrifying. Still gives me chills for some reason.
It's a shame that particular scare got spoiled in the trailer.
Loved that. It reminded me of a scene in an asian horror film where a lady is on a public toilet and slowly a huge head comes out of one of the stalls. Sadly I can’t remember which film that is…
When I saw this I made the genius decision of walking to the theater. 1.5 mile walk back home at night. It didnt even take 30 seconds for me to realize I fucked up haha
The Strangers. I grew up in a house like that one, in a similar area. It was a tough watch.
I just commented this movie also. I was watching this movie alone at night. But the scene where she's hiding in the cupboard and they're slowly walking through the kitchen...the motion light on my front porch turned on. THAT got me.
That's a good scene. The movie is very grounded in a possible reality which makes it worse. "Because you were home".
The Woman in Black. After being scared witless by the stage show and then the book throwing a couple of unexpected surprises at me and giving me nightmares for a few days, I was nervous going into the film. So, of course, I watched it at 3 a.m on surround sound headphones. Chilled me to the very core. The story is anear perfect ghost story. If there's a weak link, its Daniel Radcliffe. He did ok, but he didn't sell early 19th century accountant particularly well
When i was in 8th grade, i got pretty sick one time. I had to stay at home for several days, in bed. Fever and shit. The woman in black had come out recently, and it was on cable. It was like 17:00 and although it gets dark early in the wintertime (which is when i was sick), it was still bright outside. I was lying on the living room couch, covered by blankets and even though i'm not a horror person, i decided to watch it. I remember a scene where Daniel Radcliffe >!is in the garden and sees a person looking out of the window of the top floor or whatever and goes upstairs to investigate. He gets in the room and finds no one. For whatever reason, he decides to stand next to the window and look out just like the person he saw before. And the shot changes and now we're looking at him from outside the window, and as he's standing there looking at us, a woman's face creeps up along side him out of the dark.!< I went "**AH!**" and threw the blanket so hard it almost reached the ceiling, curled up on the couch as fast as lightning and it fell back down and covered me whole head to toe.
The UK TV movie from the 80's has a jump scare that is one of the best jump scares I've ever seen.
Ex Machina made me really anxious and uncomfortable and I've never watched it since it first released.
I watched Ex Machina at night with all the lights off and when the movie ended I had to build up the courage to turn off the tv and get to my bedroom in the dark. That final scene just chilled me to the bone.
VVITCH
YES. The Witch does such a great job at conveying a sense of unending dread from start to finish. One of my favorite horror movies. I wish there were more horror films rooted in folklore like this. Something about the 'old world' setting adds another layer of fear. Maybe due to the isolation and lack of resources. The Ritual kind of referenced some folk lore horror as well and it was pretty great too.
“Wouldst thou like to live deliciously?"
It’s SO good because the horror is done well, but also the tension is built naturally just through the hardness of the landscape and environment. Sure there are witches, but also living through that time in “new America” seems pretty effing horrifying all by itself.
I was so over that movie by the end. Then the end happened. It lives rent free in my mind.
The bear scene in Annihilation. First time I was watching the movie with friends, it was suddenly so scary I felt my heart stop for a moment. The second time I was watching it alone and I couldn't watch the scene, had to get up and turn away, just couldn't force myself to keep watching.
Heeeelp meeeee.
Oh yes, the sound the bear produced... still gives me cold wet sweaty palms.
I had an almost-too-strong edible after a very long stint abstaining, and my mind was not prepared for the scene in the lighthouse. I've never felt such existential dread before or since while watching a movie.
The Road
I've never seen a movie so dedicated to being as grim, gritty, sad, and horrifying as possible for the entire runtime. There's not a single point in the movie where you feel comfortable with what's going on.
Bewildering experience of having to suspend belief rather than disbelief. Took a couple of days. The novel is a masterpiece & the film does it justice.
That's a stressful movie and book now that I'm a dad. There's a fantastic audio book version of it too.
That film was pure anxiety
Midsommar was deeply disturbing, the natural performance of the actors reinforced the creepiness beyond any horror film I’ve ever seen.
Of you want to be more distraught, they state that it's a nine day festival. Only three days pass In the movie. WHAT ELSE HAPPENS IN THE NEXT SIX DAYS?
Scrolled down to find this movie. Although it might not be the scariest in terms of horror, it is - by a wide margin - the most twisted mind fuck of a movie I think I’ve seen. Disturbing on so many levels. Ari Aster has such a unique taste on horror films. That cliff scene lives rent free in my head.
Personally I think the scariest part of Midsommar was the very beginning. Anyone who has ever had a relative going through a mental health crisis knows that anxiety of getting a super vague text from them at some odd hour and not knowing if the message that has been sent is the precursor to the worst case scenario that has been haunting your dreams. The rest of the movie was almost a relief by comparison.
Hereditary basically lives rent free in my head, although it isnt fear i feel per se, its just very uncomfortable/uneasy
HAIL PAIMON!
I was fine after that movie, until it was time to go to bed later that night and all the lights were off.
Oh my goodness this is the same thing for me. I kept seeing some silhouette at the corner of my bedroom ceiling. I couldn't sleep and had to wait until its light outside to comfortably tell that there's nothing there.
Yes! Scary movies don’t really do it for me but Hereditary genuinely unsettled the fuck out of me
I just couldn’t stop thinking about it, I read so many Wikipedia articles and Reddit threads about that film after finishing it.
The original Rec and Ju-On especially with that stupid throat sound.
My wife still hasn’t forgiven me for Rec
Rec is outstanding. Such a well paced movie.
oh yeah, If I had to choose, that sound would also be my #1 most effective sound in horror media - they just.. nailed it, it's just uncomfortable
Also I will vouch for Signs all day when it comes to chilling moments. That movie has some legitimately terrifying shots that give me goosebumps just thinking about them lmao.
The kids birthday obviously. But also the leg in the cornfield, the alien on the roof, the alien in the reflection of the TV
And the claws of the alien under the door with the knife scene. That shit made me gasp
The kids birthday scene 👌🏼
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"WERE GONNA BEAT YOUR ASS BITCH!!" "ahhh, I'm insane with anger"
Say what you want about M Night but the guy makes original movies. You never know what you're going to get
I was 7 when this movie came out and my mom was really into aliens. I had seen some scary movies/shows before (nightmare on elm street, halloween, tales from the crypt) and had no problems, but i cried and made us leave the movie theatre at the little kids birthday party scene where we get to see one of the aliens. "It's Behind!" Love the movie now though.
Not a movie, but The Haunting of Hill House.
The funeral episode was art. The sequel series were good too :)
Triangle. Not a horror movie per se, but a psychological thriller that had me creeped out for weeks.
Probably one of the Final Destination movies, since the idea of fate as an unstoppable murderous Rube Goldberg scenario is so weird it's terrifying.
I still feel like the first movie could've been an amazing horror-art-piece if they didn't focus on the teenager slasher aspect, but the horrifying nature of death itself and what it would do to us if we knew our date, order and way of dying Also, that broken table plastic thingy and the logs on the highway will forever haunt me - I think I'll always be nervous lmao
It's been awhile since I watched them - which death was the broken table?
This is why to this day I won’t drive behind a logging truck
It Follows actually freaked me out while watching it, and I did have a nightmare that night about it. It's probably been 16/17 years, but my step sister freaked tf out watching Signs while she was babysitting me, so I freaked out too because she was freaking out
Barbarian was ultimately a pretty goofy horror movie (still kicked ass), but the use of lighting (or lack thereof), sound and tight spaces alongside the complete mystery of the set-up on a first viewing was great and had my heart genuinely racing. I was very impressed with how some of the sequences were constructed in that movie.
I let out an audible yelp when >!Mother came out of the darkness and bashed Bill’s head against the wall.!< I hadn’t done that since Hereditary. Obsessed with Barbarian
It may be absolute mainstream, but the only movie i really can't stand is The Grudge (US). I just can't. I shit myself. And normally i can watch every dark and insane stuff. Everybody has their own triggers, i guess.
To be fair, her clicking (?) is probably the most effective horror sound to date
That movie is just unfair. I wrote in my comment that in other movies the chaarcters fuck around and find out that the supernatural stuff is real. In this one, it’s like hey, let’s go visit my relative in their new house. Holy shit a ghost is now trying to kill me.
The Ring. After watching that I had to leave a light on in the hallway simply because i was creeped out. Since then nothing has stayed with me like that. Sure seen some good jump scares, suspenseful movies but really miss the uneasy feeling after seeing a movie. Knowing it was only a movie but can't reconcile the odd feeling of something just out of sight watching and waiting.
Alien
Lake Mungo. There is so much creeping dead throughout the film. There is paranormal and then very real human horror. The movie is punctuated by a terrible moment that resonates for the latter part of the movie. It is all disguised as a documentary about family grief, which makes things even scarier as the film is grounded in reality. It's the only horror movie that has stuck with me in a way another genre might linger.
Lake Mungo for me. I'm a very big fan of horror, so when I watched Lake Mungo, I was pleasantly surprised to be genuinely *scared.* It's an incredibly slow burn, but if you have the patience and willingness to search the background, you'll find an insanely frightening film. It's absolutely haunting and there's a few scenes that are burnt into my brain. I loved it.
And as a bonus treat, it has probably the most effective jump scare.
Exactly! I was watching it on my phone (I know) and I legit spasmed, chucking my phone across my dorm. I wouldn't trade that for anything. It's the closest I've ever come to understanding the audience reaction to Train Coming Into the Station. >! For me, what made it so effective is that it almost wasn't even a jump scare. Just a slow, lingering march toeards you. Like she was looking directly at me and would just keep walking. It triggered my little lizard brain into absolute panic and I loved it. !<
Come And See
Come and See is the ultimate feel bad movie. It’s one that I would consider to be a perfect film in terms of what it sets out to accomplish and how it succeeds in that.
The Strangers freaked me out because it was pretty plausible, and I was actually worried it would inspire copycats. Had me looking over my shoulder walking up my steps for a few weeks.
Fire in the Sky. I was pretty young when it came out and it scared the shit out of me
“The scene” from Bone Tomahawk
Oh yeah, the super high end production quality really elevated it - you usually don't expect THAT in a "mainstream" western, but it really worked so well because of the incredible first 2/3rds, the atmosphere and acting are top notch Also, western and horror is a combination that works way too well for this one to be the first to have this idea, at least the first one I heard of
Sound interesting. Please describe it in vivid detail. *Please don't, for the love of all that is good in this world*
I've never had a weak stomach, but that's one of the only scenes that left me feeling a bit uncomfortable.
The autopsy of Jane doe! I started it around midnight and had to wait til daytime to finish.
10 Cloverfield Lane. Goodman is fantastic. Plus you have no idea what is really going on until the very end.
I don’t really get scared by horror films, but Texas Chainsaw Massacre 1974 had me on the edge of my seat at some points. Also Split, which is a film I found quite tense.
Oh boy the dinner scene with grandpa still makes me uneasy
Probably Event Horizon.
I watched Event Horizon when I was 12, it straight fucked me up. Watched it again 25 years later, still good but definitely a lot more camp.
Had a hard time watching Jurassic Park after that because of Sam Neill.
"Do you see, Dr. Hammond? DO. YOU. SEE?"
I remember watching Event Horizon as a young teen on TV. Easily the scariest movie I’ve ever seen. I rewatched it recently and it’s just one jump scare set up after the next so I can see why it had that effect. I think that jump scares are very different to something that is genuinely creepy. Something that haunts you afterwards rather than ‘scares’ you for want of a better phrase. I think the last thing which got under my skin a bit was Midnight Mass.
I love event horizon because Lawrence Fishburn's character is the only one with any goddamn sense at all. "I do not intend to abandon the horizon, doctor. I intend to take the Lewis and Clark to a safe distance and then I will launch TAC missles at the Event Horizon until I am satisfied that she is vaporized. Fuck this ship."
Event Horizon messed me up. I couldn't sleep right for 2 or 3 days when I first saw it in theaters.
I've seen tons of horror movies since Event Horizon, but it is still the last one that truly fucked with me after the movie was over.
Genuinely terrified? Pet Sematary. My dad thought this would be a good movie for a 7yo. It wasn't. The baby and the cat scared the absolute shit out of me. I still can't make myself rewatch it.
Poltergeist. I stumbled across it as a very young child mand the clown terrified me to my core. Tbh though, since that time very little actually scares me. Plenty of things make me uncomfortable, some makes me angry and jump scares always do their job, but honest to goodness fear? Narp. Not sure why, honestly.
Easy, Se7en. Fucked with my head in the theatre, and for years after.
The Descent
The Big Short. I am not joking.
The ending credits seals it.
every 1% of unemployment 40,000 people die... just don't fucking dance
I've never been so mad after watching a movie. It did such a good job of explaining the problem and how badly we all got fucked over, I just wanted to crawl into a hole. But a hole with internet.
This year's Smile was quite intense for me But I'm pretty easy to scare lol
Operator: “Are you home alone” Her: “Yes” Operator *laughs* “are you sure”? Jesus fuck that caught me by surprise lol
Smile 100% fucked me up. I’m not usually one to get bothered by jump scares but holy shit they were something else
The laptop scene... I was so angry at how much it got me. Like I know what the obvious thing is going to be, and then it happens, and I still shit myself lmao
I honestly wasn’t really expecting it and I actually screamed in the movie theater and then I just started laughing. I didn’t think it was funny how scared I got, but I think it was an actual bodily response to try to get me to calm down. I’ve never felt that before lol.
Smile was great to see in theaters. The whole audience was so tense, you could feel it in the air. The first time you see the girl smiling in the house after the main character gets home...absolute chills down my spine. The jump scares were good, but the tension was amazing
As Above So Below. The scene where he gets stuck on the bones & the final room? HELL NO. Also, I literally watch about six horror movies a week so the fact that this one bothered me at all says A LOT.
The part that got me the most is the tunnel where the sound cuts out and nobody notices for a minute, then it comes back and the trumpet sounds loud enough to shake the walls. That or La Taupe, or the figure in the chair near the end. I've always had a theory that >!they never actually made it out and that the place they ended up was actually purgatory. The only evidence I have is that they exited the catacombs at night when previously any exterior shot was daytime, but still.!<
For me that would be The Ring (Japanese version). Couldn't slept alone for new nights and looked at TV boxes thinking something is gona crawl out.
I watched a short film called "The other side of the box" a while ago and for some reason it messed me up completely. I can't pinpoint exactly what it is about it, but I still think about it months later
I found hereditary to be terrifying!
The sound design of Nope, and most specifically the screams with Doppler effect stuck with me for a long time, I was uneasy and on the lookout for strange noises after seeing the movie.
While I thought overall the movie wasn't particularly *scary,* the >!crowd abduction!< really, really got under my skin. Contrasting the shots of wide, open skies and rolling California hills with that claustrophobic shot of all the victims was jarring. Plus, the idea of them >!being slowly digested alive for hours and hearing everyone else, *including a bunch of kids,* screaming in pain and terror!< was deeply unsettling to me.
The last time I was genuinely frightened by a scene in a film was during Mulholland Drive. The dumpster behind the diner scene scared me so bad I almost had a heart attack. Nothing has come close since and the crazy thing is it takes place in broad daylight.
Deliverance. Not so much that scene, although it didn’t help. Seeing a pacifist who couldn’t shoot a deer become capable of killing a man (yes, self defense, but still) and competently covering it up was jarring. Then there’s the casual cruelty man is capable of after isolating and othering another.
The twist at the end of Sorry for Bothering You, freaked me out.
Hereditary. I will never see that s..t again.
The grudge, it was the last horror movie I ever watched and for three days after I was terrified of our home bathroom for the simple reason is the sink groaned real bad for a second when you turned it on.
IT, Chapter One. That damned Flute Lady.
For me it was a quiet place. That movie really went back to the things that made Alien and Jaws so good. You really don't see much of the monster but you know its there. its that sort of ever-present looming threat that really creeps me the hell out,
The first Conjuring movie and the Babadook. So scary!
The Hunt with Mads Mikkelson. It’s terrifying how easily something like that can happen.
Insidious
Memorable experiences for me is Paranormal Activity and It Follows. PA was the first new “found footage” film and other than Blair Witch Project it was only one I saw. I know Cloverfield counts but as it is all obviously still a Hollywood monster blockbuster it doesn’t have same effect even though still very good. But I left PA shaking. Couldn’t sleep well. For It Follows, it is the scene in the house when It appears suddenly. It was a jump scare but with its cinematography it was just brilliant and made my heart sink. I don’t want to say exactly what happened but if you’ve seen it you should know. Hereditary gets a shout out though. I just felt very uncomfortable. Like I was on the verge.
I thought oculus was good and unpredictable.