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In Reply to: What is your scariest movie of all time? posted by millen on September 28, 2004 at 12:26:03:
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
Follow Ups:
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.
new to this forum and love movies.....BoB
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,
Bambi B
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,
Bam
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,
Bam
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