Scary movie thread

Suspiria isn't really scary, though, is it? It's a lot of things, thrilling, intoxicating, sickening, laughable, but it's not in any way scary. Threads is a physically scary film to watch because it's unflinching, and unflinching about the most scary thing imaginable, nuclear war. I mean, the effect is slightly diminished now, but that 1984 broadcast must have been too much. There's a really scary scene in Pret-a-Porter where a man chokes to death on a chicken bone in the back of a taxi, which scares me because I'm terrified of choking on chicken bones.

Suspiria is quite scary i think. The nightmarish/dreamlike quality throughout, the blind mans dog being possessed, and primarily, the scene where the headmistress is breathing through the curtains just feet away from the girls... and the soundtrack is sublime of course. Definitely Argento's finest work.

I see no-one picked up on Christine/dead zone/king there. Theyre all just a bit naff arent they? Salems lot is the only non-Kubrick Stephen King thing thats genuinely scary in parts, and even that is mostly naff (David Soul), though it was directed by Tobe Hooper.

My top three are the shining, texas chainsaw massacre and Suspiria. Saw the Shining again a few weeks ago. It just gets creepier and creepier everytime.

slowtrain said:

I think the ghost movie as opposed to slasher movie distinction is important for me. I would much rather watch ghost movies. Eeerie and unsettling, with buzzing noises and doors creaking as opposed to chainsaws and screams and bones being broken.

I like the 'subtle but effective disorientation' that baboon mentioned.

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This is brilliant. One of the best ghost films ever made. Genuinely scary:

If anyone wants to start a thread about incredibly bad 80's video nasty horror knock offs, I just got a free net-flick trial and its dated horror selection is bringing back all kinds of repressed memories.

The Shining is very creepy and the first time I saw it I was terrified, right up until Jack goes mad with the axe. I saw it again last year and, armed with a little more knowledge about Kubrick than I'd had the first time (I'd also seen Barry Lyndon recently), I saw the whole film in a very different way, though it still retained its powerful effect. I wrote about what I took from it on this occasion at some length on my blog. Very speculative and possibly completely pretentious, but I do think there's something to my interpretation.

I found Suspiria frightening in spite of the terrible acting/dialogue and so on. Interestingly, I think if I saw it again now I'd look at it much more in terms of the way it was directed, since this is something that interests me a lot more now than it did when I saw it years ago (as was the case with The Shining). I think the thing that scared me the most about it at the time was the music-box style theme, those long periods where a girl is walking down a corridor with that insane music playing, knowing something nasty is going to happen (barbed-wire related). Returning to video games, there's a great bit at the start of Silent Hill 2 where you run along a foggy woodland for several minutes and nothing happens except that you hear sinister noises emanating from the mist. (Actually its just struck me that there's a bit in the aforementioned The Woman In Black which resembles this, when the fog has covered the moors and the hero can hear loads of sinister noises coming from an unseen place.

Incidentally, since Stephen King has been brought up, I'd recommend his book about horror Danse Macabre to any fans of the horror genre. Obviously its a very personal view of horror on King's part, but there's a lot of interesting ideas about the purpose of horror, what it speaks to in audiences and so on. I'd like to read Kim Newman's book on horror too (Nightmare Movies I believe is the title), its very expensive though.

Oh, and I just remembered - Dark Water (the Japanese version, haven't seen the U.S. remake) is very scary. Actually, it becomes markedly less frightening the more the heroine discovers about the reason behind the haunting, as is often the case, I find. An exception to this 'rule' is Ringu, where things just seem to get worse and worse. That was definitely one of the scariest films I've seen... there's a great bit where the lead character (I think) is sat on a bench outside, looks up to see feet close to them, and then looks up to see - DAH DAH DAHHH! Nothing. That film gives me that sense of constant queasiness and tension that I think is the ideal effect a horror/ghost story can have on you. It interests me, the way that your senses are heightened as a viewer when you're expecting something bad to happen - Carpenter (along with countless other Directors) exploited that so well in Halloween, where your always searching the empty spaces in the frame for the boogeyman. Paranormal Activity scared the bodilyfluidofsomesort out of me with this technique - the feeling that somewhere in that darkness beyond the bedroom door there's something, and if you can see it before it comes out you'll have saved yourself a scare.

Annnd: has anybody mentioned Audition yet? Orrible.

One thing that amuses me is when you watch a scary film with some friends and everybody jokes around for a bit in a way that quickly becomes nervous and obviously intended as a sort of collective comfort blanket, and then eventually everybody goes quiet except for murmuring ''oh... shit'' occasionally. Actually I dunno if this happens routinely but I remember it happening when me and some mates watched The Orphanage.

What's the film of A Turn of the Screw? I still haven't seen it but everyone says it's very good.

The Others (with Nicole Kidman in it) isn't a direct adaptation of Turn Of The Screw but is definitely inspired by it. Not sure if that's the one you mean? Its good, anyway, great twist at the end.

You might be thinking of The Innocents. I haven't seen that but apparently its seen as the best adaptation.

I keep meaning to watch The Haunting.



This is a film that scared me a number of years ago. Its hampered by a completely unconvincing demon which the studio forced the director to include, but the rest of it is much subtler and unnerving.



Speaking of vintage horror movies... Dead of Night. Has a fantastic nightmarish ending.

The Innocents is the one I meant, cheers.

possession; assorted david cronenbergs

I agree that there is something malevolent about The Shining,it feels that both Kubrick and Nicholson were on a mission to F with everyones heads.
The documentary Kubricks daughter shot at the time of filming presents a particularly intimate view of the film that if anything adds to its impact.

I quite like Event Horizon.

proteus said:

I agree that there is something malevolent about The Shining,it feels that both Kubrick and Nicholson were on a mission to F with everyones heads.
The documentary Kubricks daughter shot at the time of filming presents a particularly intimate view of the film that if anything adds to its impact.

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Yes, thats great. The only filmed document of Kubrick at work. Shame its so short.

The Excorcist 3 has a couple of particularly off key scenes that stick with you after watching it.
Similar effect to the pseudo subliminal cut scenes in The Shining.
Wont go into detail,dont wanna spoil it but def worth checking out.

I too enjoyed Event Horizon. I guess it's a kind of rip-off of Solaris. Kind of. What's that other film that is almost exactly the same where they find a spaceship under the sea with a huge magic ball at the centre? It's rubbish anyway.

that shining doc is really cool. the woman, shelly, i guess, is actually so pretty in real life! and in the film she's like this haggard awkward yucky person.