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142.56.2.11
The “Exorcist” scares the living daylight of me for almost a month after I saw it. Being a catholic perhaps had something to do with it.
Follow Ups:
Disney's SLEEPING BEAUTY contains what is possibly the most frightening scene in all of their animated films--when the witch Maleficent turns into the dragon, and the subsequent fight with Prince Philip. She even says the "h" word as she utters the spell that begins the transformation. Add to this the facts that the artists went for a slightly different look than in previous films (the flames, for instance, are greenish-yellow) and that the whole thing was shot in widescreen (the first Disney film to do so?) and you can imagine I was one terrified little kid when I saw it in the theatres in the 1970s, in what I now assume was its first return engagement since its initial release. The Tchaikovsky-derived score also helps.The first POLTERGEIST film kept me awake as a young teenager, probably because it took place in a normal suburban home much like the one where my parents still live.
In recent years, nothing has creeped me out as much as the original VANISHING (I note there are more fans in this thread)--cool, calculated evil with a twisted philosophical bent. I also enjoyed THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT and CANDYMAN a great deal.
djprobed
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my mother took me to see this and it terrified me
Couldn't sleep for days afterwards; the whole film is like a really bad trip on acid (not that I would know anything about that....)
Those Oompa-Loompas freaked me out as a child...
n
( huh? )
millen,I'm not so very monster orientated, but think the original "Alien" tops this list for me. I saw this on a vast screen in L.A. without knowing much about it and the suprise of the alien bursting out of John Hurt- really hurt! I think we are so used to effects now that it's easy to forget how amazing the effects and photography were as compared to the breakthrough "Star Wars" a couple of years before. Even the design of the Nostromo in which the ducts and pipes imitated the alien form was frightening. The sequels were not nearly as frightening as there is so much expectation. The recent "Alien Vs. Predator" to me appears to me a 50's "Space Godzilla Vs. Mechano-Mothra" silliness marketing desperation.
Others that gave me a proper chill:
"Eraserhead": ah, the quiet suburban family life!
"Diabolique" the original was just as sinister as could be
"The Birds": unusual atmosphere and dynamic between the people and nature
"The House of Wax: this was really scary when I was kid- Price climbing in the hospital window at night.
"The Fly": the Goldblum version was quite horrifying and I abandoned all my home teleportation experiments the same day.
"The Exorcist": this was quite a good one, unfortunatley all the tricks had been overly publicized before I saw it- the revolving head and pea soup vomit for example.
"Poultergeist": interesting
"The Thing": I really have a lot of affection for the 1951 one, but the later Bridges one is also very worthwhile and very imaginative. the hybrid "things" are just amazing- remeber when the fellows head fall onto the floor and sprouts spiders'legs?
"Amityville Horror V": This was frightening to me as I was the architect of the house used in that one and it was photographed in a way that could scare off potential clients! Another of my houses appeared in "The Boost" - as the home of a big cocaine dealer! Why can't a house of mine be owned by a great concert pianist?Of course, I'll think of 30 others later, but there we are.
Cheers,
Bambi B
The top scariest, (in no particular order):"The Monster That Challenged the World", (with night-time swim scene and autopsy scene that forshadow the ones in Jaws, and climax that Kubrik stole for The Shining).
"Horror Hotel"
"The Crawling Eye"
"Alien", and "It! The Terror From Beyond Space"
"Fiend Without a Face"
"The Thing From Another World", (original version).
"Blood on Satan's Claw"
"Night of the Living Dead", (a nightmare somehow captured on film).
When I was a kid (50 now) "invasion of the body snatchers" scared me. I don't know why...but the scene that had me most scared was where the people would go sinking into the sand spinning down.
Another one....the exorcist.....I saw it when I was stationed in germany in the army. I saw it in german first.... I had a couple dreams that I was in my top bunk shaking thinking about it...but I'm not sure if I was dreaming or not.
A more recent movie that did not scare me...but gave me the creeps was a Japanese movie called "the eye".
If you see it, you have to have to have a good sound system or headphones to get creeped out.And Bambi.....the later "thing" movie was with Kurt Russel, not a Bridges guy.
is the scariest scene from that movie. and it is one scary movie. the remake was good, too. IIRC.
Don't you mean "Invaders from Mars"?
That you forgot to mention the “The day the earth stood still” I remember watching this when I was a kid. Gullible as I was at that time I truly believed that there were aliens in Mars and that they will abduct me someday.Of course, today we know that Mars really do have alien monsters that have been terrorizing and abducting rocks in their landing areas. Funny thing is they all came from earth.
millen,Interestingly different experience as I only first saw "TDtESS" as an adult- if I can make that claim even today- and I thought that the alien "Mr. Carpenter" was such a nice fellow, giving the boy the $60,000 in diamonds in exchange for a used frog or whatever. The whole way the alien was handled too was so casual- walking around the hospital in his socks. Imagine today if this happened, there would a year of quarantine at the special facility constructed for this purpose in Tustin, CA*** The alien was so quiet and non-threatening it made Bort the robot by the contrast the really the frightening character as it was so large, silent, and mysterious.
*** The gov't. used Micheal Jackson for the fittings.
But, today there's is no room for gentleman aliens. My theory is the pareticalily American assumption that technological superiority will always be used for dominance over the technologically inferior.
"Bort: Klatu bericta nicto!" ("Barney: put out that damn cigarette!")
I like your decription of the invaders of Mars. Imagine Martians watching the big balls bouncing down the way, "Oh hell, those awful 'Earthbags'- There goes the neighbourhood!"
What if there is actually a big group of Martian teenagers standing behind Spirit and Opportunity, dodging the cameras, laughing, and scrawling their names on it with ecto-lasers?
Cheers,
and it's "Barrada".
rico,Thanks for the correction- and everyone reading this take note!
Imagine if you or I had been Patricia Neal and said that one wrong at the critical moment! Gort might've gotten upset and used the molecular turn-out ray that makes all the molecules in the Universe turn inside out.. Wheew..
Practice: barrada, barrada, barrada
Silly, me- "Bort" is Gort's cousin that works in spaceship maintainence at the Olypmus Mons place round the back!
Cheers,
Did you know that the actor inside Gort, although seven feet tall, was unable to pick up Neal due to poor upper body strength so they had to suspend her on wires (that's why you don't see Gort actually picking her up)?
rico,Interesting about Gort. The costume was quite well done, but must have been vrey restrictive. It gives the impression of some kind of flexible metal and the eyeless visor with the destructor light beam was wonderfully sinister.
Something else that impressed me as a child- and it still looks good today- was the spaceship- especially the motion of the very smooth working ramp. When it reatracted and settled into position, it was photographed so that no seams were visible- it seemed ultra precision stuff to me. The ship's interior was also way above average for 50's production design- mysterious controls and the lighting were excellent.
I wonder if the uncurling tongue ramp on the ships of "Mars Attacks" were an homage to the "TDtESS" ship? The overall styles seem related.
Also, in conjuction with "TDtESS", I should have mentioned "War of the Worlds" in my list too- another movie with much more imaginative design than most of that era. Whe the Martian puts it's tripod hand on the woman's shoulder- that scene is still frightening now.
Cheers,
Probably the original House on Haunted Hill.
The Entity sort of bugged me, but I was alone at night.
John Carpenter's The Thing could have been if the effects weren't quite so darned amusing... the 1938 short story Who Goes There by John W. Campbell was far more disturbing.
I remember watching it with my older brother."ME: Can we turn the TV off?"
I thought the original "The Thing" (1951) was way more scarier. Must have been because I saw it in black and white. The scene when they open the door in the dark lab and the Thing was behind the door goes down as one of the most scariest scenes for me.
That was James Arness in the title role, BTW.
> > > I thought the original "The Thing" (1951) was way more scarier. Must have been because I saw it in black and white < < <
That's the way we all saw it, since it was filmed in black and white.
Jack
Went to see that in the theater and someone had a ventriloquists dummy in the seat next to them and turned the head around backwards during one of the possession scenes... thought the woman behind was going to die from fright!
A documentary about how the corporation has taken over as the primary source of governance in the world. And many of the toxic side effects of this takeover. Extreme? Don't answer until after you've seen it and considered it.Much more of an eye opener than Fahr. 9-11. This one gives the views of both sides. Provides some hope in the examples of what some communities are doing to bring back corporate accountibility.
Pretty lively flic, for what could have been eye glaze over time -- not up to Michael Moore's efforts, though.
not jump out of your seat scary, but deeply, psychologically troubling on several levels (perhaps the greatest last scene of any scary flick).
Night of the Living Dead also scared me and all my friends silly.
The Exorcist, lastly, had folks howling w/fear in the dark...
Sorry, but these three tied.
When I was about 5. Grandpa took me to the El Portal theater. Scared the bejezzus out of me.
I promise that's true.
The only movie I remember scaring me as a child was "Willy Wonka"-- --and I still have an irrational fear of Oompa-Loompas.
...more times than I care to remember, I was ready to take a spoonful of anything to put my sisters down. Terrifying fear of jolly women dressed in black from head to toe.Especially when its raining.
Arrrrgggghhhhh!!
Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! Mommy!
Big J.
I was scared to death of the pidgeon-feeding woman. I was also scared of the "5000 Fingers of Dr. T," the satyr in "7 Faces of Doctor Lao." and the weird, angry piano-playing kid in Gumbyland.
Want a spoon of medicine little boy?!Joking aside, are the Japanes the new/old maestros of horror (Ringu, Ju-on, etc.)?
Big J.
I'm cured!
Big J.
House on haunted Hill
not that POS John Carpenter remake (1995) but this one:
It scared me for the longest time.
In my Bible Belt hometown. Think this happened with some frequency elsewhere across the South.
nt
n
( huh? )
The Exorcist is more disturbing than scarey for me. Even though I read the book before I saw the movie, I was still bothered by it.
I wasn't prepared for the FX, which I believe were the first of their kind (to be imitated many times since).
As for sheer atmospheric scares, I still say "Juon: Tne Grudge", out of Japan, redefined the genre for me. It absolutely scared the crap out of me, like no other movie *ever* has.
Jack
Having 'enjoyed' Ringu, maybe Katy and I will be able to stomach this one.
Big J.
You'll like Juon. Its *alot* scarier. Be aware it has 5 substories, and knowing that makes it easier to follow. The sequel is OK, but not as good.
Now that October is here (Friday), my wife and I are going to have a month long horror-fest, probably with an emphasis on J-Horror.:-)
Jack
I found that with Ring 2 as well. Thanks for the information anyways. Being an natural-born obsessive means I'll probably find a way to get Ju-on 2. The web site's sound effects set the tone well. Creepy.
Big J.
I saw Juon about 7 or 8 months ago, and that sound *still* gets to me. Watch it with the lights out.
enjoy,
Jack
How do you like Takashi Miiki?
'Gozu' and 'Audition'
I never heard of Gozu(will look into it), and won't watch audition. I've seen the trailers, and talked to alot of folk who have seen it and have warned me that it's not my cup of tea.
Jack
Tough to argue against the ExorcistWatching Halloween worked very well. It's been a bit diluted over the years but the first time aorund it's made me jump a lot..
Dawn of the Dead is scary in a different way - it was so damn right and North American consumer capitalistic society is so damn screwed up.
with the dog strolling down the hallway...sends chills down my spine...
Frankenstein got me as a child...what's that noise in the hall....aaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This had to be the equivalent of the Exorcist during its day. With the shock of naked lady's posteriors, hags munching on rotted limbs pulled from a cauldron, and the deft (for its time) use of double exposure and superimposition of witches flying upon brooms--it had to be a leader of special effects and makeup for years to come.Available on Criterion, I watched the 1968 version which has the "jazz" soundtrack rather than the dead silent original.
Oddly, one of the first demons statues shown was the one from the Exorcist. Old ideas die hard.
I agree it is the same one that they used on the Exorcist's demon statues.
The statue they used in the Exorcist was the Sumarian/Babylonian demon Pazuzu, son of Hanbi and king of the demons of wind and bringer of plagues (one hand is up and the other down, symbolizing life and death, creation and destruction). He was also the patron saint of pregnant women because he was the enemy of Lamashtu, another demon who caused still-births, infant death, death in childbirth or kidnapping infants, and therefore appeared on amulets as a protection from Lamashtu.
Decent image here
http://hyperstition.abstractdynamics.org/archives/003889.html
and an actual amulet here:
n
( huh? )
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Yes, catholic school prepared me for this one. But at the time of the movie's release, I remember a discussion about it while in public high school poly sci class. The teacher told us that the demon voices and sounds were recordings from actual exorcisms. That turned out to be untruthful, but at the time it sure made me want to cover my ears in the theater.
The part of movie that really spooked me out was when she twirled her head at 360 degrees besides the vomiting and all that.
This movie is at the top for me.
I love Sam Neill but...this flick was repellent.I try to avoid "bad" movies but every once in a while...you get caught out.
Sorry.
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