Halloween approaches -- Which is the scariest movie in the scary movie canon?

Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, The Sixth Sense and Friday the 13th all left off on purpose.

Friday the 13th actually scared me more than any of these, but it was the first "proper" horror movie I saw and the ending freaked me the fuck out.

dawn of the dead

I voted Suspiria because it has the aura of wrongness running right through it. I still think Blair Witch is scary as hell but its scariness only works once. The ending of Don't Look Now is horrifying for sure but I don't think it's a horror movie. My Dad reckons Psycho was pretty intense when he saw it at the cinema when it was first released. What I said about Don't Look Now goes for The Vanishing too, if we're talking about the original. I have no intention of ever seeing the remake.

wtf is Outer Space?

I like or love a lot of these movies but I can't say I'v ever been scared by any of them.

Movies just aren't that scary 'cause they're not real.

inland empire?

Outer Space

This is way better

body of evidence

Things I love that aren't on here: Xtro, the first 2 Demons movies, all the Phantasm movies.

You can Youtube clips of Xtro. It is Very Wrong Indeed.

Which reminds me that Von Trier's The Kingdom can be impressively scary too.

The Shinning

lol, that sounds very scary

Where's the "Wicker Man" remake?

(On a more serious note: "Black Christmas"?)

Remember kids, "Gore" and "Horror" need not be synonymous.

I was thinking Suspiria too, though Carnival of Souls has some great shocks and I love the end. Nice to see Possession up there. That is one strange, demanding and deeply wrong movie.

Black Christmas was one of the ones I knew I should've put in there after hitting submit (tho I haven't seen it) ...

This is way better
-- Noodle Vague, Saturday, October 20, 2007 6:03 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Link

Which reminds me, the work of Damon Packard is awsome.

I sort of went with my gut for stuff from the last decade, since probably none of it has been around long enough to be "canonical."

I guess give me some credit for not including Cabin Fever. :)

i voted silence of the lambs. most believably scary serial killer in history.

Also considered for a few seconds: Decasia, but Outer Space had the creepy-avant-garde slot well filled.

Had never heard of Outer Space, just IMDB'd it, and I have to see it.

most believably scary serial killer in history

I thought you were talking about Hopkins for a minute and I lolled.

Rob Zombie puts me off seeing Devil's Rejects. I keep thinking it'll be horribly meatheaded. Am I missing out?

It's on YouTube, but I warn the effect is SERIOUSLY mitigated if you're not watching it, if not in a theater, at least on a TV (in total darkness).

It is sort of meatheaded, but also very cunning. It pushed all my buttons. I prefer Zombie's blunt sadism to the continuing parade of Americanized J-horror.

That goes without saying. Okay I won't avoid this if it comes on TV.

Kwaidan, out on Criterion.

Yeah, I believe it might pop up on IFC once in awhile. Otherwise, rent this DVD (which also has the Damon Packard on it).

For whatever reason, I sort of ditched all the horror anthologies.

Wow, Outer Space sounds amazing.

I think the Star Wars Mockumentary used to get shown on Sky a lot. I didn't watch it cos I don't dig SW and I didn't know what this was.

Outer Space

I turned the lights out and full-screened it. It's very good.

Devil's Rejects is great, and I say that with a complete hatred of most splatter/torture-porn/etc. films.

re: outer space, awesome! structured like a song rather than a film, i thought. it ought to come with an epilepsy warning, mind.

It sounds a bit like Whitehouse, yes.

It made me think of Tetsuo and Repulsion, too.

A Nightmare On Elm Street - the first horror movie I've ever seen

holy shit @ Outer Space

I really, really didn't like Repulsion.

Repulsion providess a rather accurate account of schizophrenia
but I wouldn't say that the movie itself is particualrly scary

xpost

lol I know you didn't

I thought it was ham-fisted, exploitative, psychologically crude, and really rather boring, myself. But hey it had Cathy Deneuve in it so WE'LL JUST GAWP AND NOD, EH?

(that was an xpost. to NV it must seem like I'm the kind of tedious sod who enjoys repeating his more derisive opinions.)

(and to the rest of you too. zing.)

I don't think that's why people dig it really. Have you seen any other Polanski movies?

I don't think so. I heard he improved greatly.

I prefer Deneuve's sister, Francoise
she acted in Cul-de-Sac, Polanski's best movie imo

http://img67.imageshack.us/img67/35/papierpeint13francoise8006vs.jpg

I found "Repulsion" pretty scary when I saw it on TV. I voted for "Night of the Demon" tho. Still v v creepy & unsettling, good ending, on the train, where the bad guy gets the curse sneakily handed back to him.

repulsion is my choice here. it's one of the only films that actually scared me.

I think I need to start a Frank Henenlotter thread. Frankenhooker is good, but the Basket Case movies are wonderful.

Oh and I meant to say apparently he has a new film in post-production, which is great.

Driven by biological excess, a young man and woman search for sexual fulfillment, unaware of each other's existence. Unfortunately, they eventually meet, and the bonding of these two very unusual human beings ends in an explosive and ultimately over-the-top sexual experience, resulting in a truly god awful love story.... With bizarre special effects by Gabe Bartalos, a hip-hop soundtrack from Prince Paul, and shot in glorious 35mm, BAD BIOLOGY is guaranteed to shock even the most desensitized of audiences, and sure to become a modern cult classic.

I'm there.

the first two FInal Destinations have more effective scares than 90% of these

I might want to distinguish between "jumps" and "scares", but yeah the first half of the first Final Destination especially.

I'm thrilled that, if nothing else, doing this poll introduced a bunch of people to Outer Space.

I'll be singing a different tune if the results reveal yet another dozen-vote wonder.

I could see the Final Destination series being canonical at some point down the road, maybe.

As for the Polanski apartment trilogy, I'm all for The Tenant myself.

I don't think films like Repulsion, Irreversible or Inland Empire should be on the list. They may have a few scary moments, but aesthetically and thematically they aren't made as scary movies. (Actually, I don't think Irreversible has any scary moments at all, just ugly moments. Why'd you choose that?) Otherwise you'd have to include any film that has a creepy scene or two. Also, if you wanted include Lynch, why not put Lost Highway or Mulholland Drive on the list? I think they have much more scary scenes than Inland Empire.

Personally I had to vote for Carpenter's The Thing. It may not be the best film all in all on the list, but as a horror film it certainly works the best. Audition is a close second.

repulsion is definitely a horror film, and i'm pretty sure polanski's primary intent was to disturb ppl. obviously it's a more "serious" film than most of the others on the list.

as a film, nosferatu is prob the best one here.

rosemary's baby is great but i can't imagine anyone watching it now and not dying with laughter at the ending.

the ending is supposed to be funny. i watched it recently and loved it still.

no Salem's Lot?

scary movie 3

AUDITION by a long shot.

Tuomas, Inland Empire is straight up horror after about the first 30 minutes of the movie. Mulholland Drive, in contrast, is only a horror movie for about the last 30.

I'll give you Irreversible though. Like I said, I allowed myself to be extremely indulgent with the most recent films because the movies that I'd imagine would be in the horror canon now based on popular vote -- The Sixth Sense, The Ring Remake, The Descent -- suck.

Actually, of all the movies I included, I think the one that most sticks out as being in the wrong list might be the original Pulse.

I really don't see how Repulsion could be labeled a horror film just because of that one creepy scene where the hands come from the walls. It's pretty much framed as a psychological drama. I guess you could say the same about Rosemary's Baby and The Tenant, but at least they have more creepy and unexplained stuff to interpret them as horror.

I think the basic minimum requirement of a horror film is that it deliberately tries to scare or freak the viewer throughout the film. Maybe some of Lynch's stuff might fit into that definition, but not Irreversible or Repulsion. And like Alex pointed out, a lot of gore (like Peter Jackson's early stuff) is more comedy than horror.

I think Eric was trying to make an interesting, expansive canon rather than a dull, restrictive one.

I don't like being scared and don't think a film has to be remotely good to accomplish it, so I vote An American Werewolf in London.

Also, I think The Sixth Sense and Ring (the original one) and even Scream (despite meta element) work very well as horror films, and all in all they're better movies too than Irreversible or Inland Empire. I think horror if an genre is where you should let your elitism drop and make way for the thrills and chills.

(x-post)

Tuomas you're totally free to criticise the subjectiveness of eric's list but it kind of defeats the point thereafter to state that The Sixth Sense, The Ring and Scream are better films than Irreversible or Inland Empire.

At least they're better as horror films, i.e. actually scaring you.

What, objectively?

Also Sixth Sense lololololol

inland empire actually scared me which is more than i can say for 99% of so called horror films.

xxpost

I voted The Birds bcz it was on amc last night and having never seen the entire film I had no idea how fucking creepy it was. scores are cheating.
also no jacob's ladder? oh well.

Gimme cheap thrills before muddled arty crap anyday. Though to be honest all the three movies I mentioned have other things than just scariness going on in them, which I think makes them good films all in all.

(xx-post)

jacod's ladder should be on here, yep.

also seriously he makes you become afraid of birds. which is just barely more impressive on the "feel dumb now?" anxiety meter than a shower stall.

Yeah cos he's a genius. Tippi Hedren probly had good reason to be scared of birds by the time Hitch was finished with her. The fact that the film doesn't even try to explain itself just ratchets up the creepy.

Yeah, I already knew your problem with Inland Empire being on this list was that you didn't like the movie itself, Tuomas, but thanks for reiterating it.

I haven't seen Jacob's Ladder yet, but I regret not including it. Apologies.

The only thing that could really make this thread complete is C. dropping by to dis The Shining.

Also, I did include a few films I don't think much of in terms of quality OR scariness, but which are so permanently ensconsed in the canon that I thought it would be poor sportsmanship not to include them. Of course, to name them now would be in bad taste.

It's a pretty damn good list.

all I can say is WOT NO BRAINDEAD (Dead Alive to you Americans)? ;)

you've already said more than that.

well, w.r.t. movies that should or shouldn't be on the list.

Yeah, I already knew your problem with Inland Empire being on this list was that you didn't like the movie itself, Tuomas, but thanks for reiterating it.

Er, no. My problem was that it's not horror, not liking it was just a side note. I don't think Repulsion should be on the list either, and I love that film.

I just saw Jacob's Ladder the other night and wondered the whole time "HOW THE HELL HAD I NEVER HEARD OF THIS!?Q!?!?!??!!!BOXCAR?!?!" Sixth Sense and so many others ripped it straight off. Damn thing was way ahead of its time (esp. in casting: the only drawback was getting distracted by George Costnaza-actor and wee son Macaulay Culkin before they were mega-recognizable (1990)).

SO GOOD.

It is a quality headfuck movie. Hospital scenes A+. Yeah, bout time I watched it again.

If I could nominate just one 'shoulda been on the list' movie, it would be Jodorowski's Santa Sangre. Brutal, psychedelic and just about incomparable. A love letter to classic 30's old-school horror. If you like most of the movies on this list and you haven't seen this - Halloween would be a really good time!

Er, no. My problem was that it's not horror, not liking it was just a side note.

Say what you will, but there is NO WAY Inland Empire is significantly less a horror film than Mulholland Drive. If one is to be considered horror, so is the other.

That said, my definition of horror/scary movie is generous because I have nothing but love for the genre.

I don't like being scared and don't think a film has to be remotely good to accomplish it, so I vote An American Werewolf in London.

Since you're voting for movies that aren't nominated, why not throw a vote toward Christmas In July?

yeah i hate casting distractions, I'm so glad I'd never watched Seinfeld until after Jacobs Ladder.

Where are all more recent horror films, like the SAW movies? Not that I'd vote for any of them mind.

I know people will laugh at me but I went for Texas Chainsaw. For the sheer creepiness acted out by the local hillbilly wierdos. That dinner table scene was fucking disturbing stuff.

uh...where is piranha?

I sort of think of Joe Dante as a comedy director, mostly. (Or, in the case of his Homecoming episode of "Masters of Horror," a failed satirist.)

I DIDNT FIND IT VERY FUNNY

ie: it scared the bejesus out of my 6 y/o self

I have to admit the fact that George Costanza is the costar of Dunston Checks In kind of enhances the whole thing.

Ste OTM, that dinner table scene is one of the scariest things in any movie.

Yeah, well I was scared by the Punky Brewster episode in the Indian cave when I was 6.

good point

I think I was afraid every time bruce banner hulked out on teevee until I was like eight, people

also a good point

Everything scared the living fuck out of me when I was a kid, TV or not. We lived by the tracks and every time a train came by, I hid behind the couch because I was afraid it was a ghost train, a hueg fear. I was also terrified when weeding the garden in case I pulled up a mandrake and was killed by its scream. I was also scared of the wendigo. Thank god I did not grow up here in NM and have to hear tales of La Llarona.

http://www.davethewave.co.uk/theherbs/sugarlump-studio-pics/The%20Herbs%20-%20Tarragon%20the%20Dragon%20-%20large.jpg

I had nightmares about him all the time as a kid.

the word for Jacob's Ladder is horrendous

"Jacob's Ladder" is one of my favorite movies of all time.

why you hate it morbs?

I saw it once on cable maybe 15 years ago and all I could think was Bad Twilight Zone.

I want you to watch and love Sleepaway Camp, morbs.

Is Ringu/The Ring not on here or am I missing it?

Carrie was on PBS (????!!!) Saturday night and it was pretty creepy, although pacing/use of split screens/use of music is ULTIMATE CHEESE.

When I was a kid I was scared shitless by a lot of really not scary movies. Child's Play & Pet Sematary, for example.

also bruce springsteen's sister is in (one of the?) sleepaway camps!

see above for why Eric chose not to include ring/saw/freddie/jason stuff

Well, the American Ring is definitely not canonical, but I think a good case could be made for Ringu in terms of impact. BUT these arguments are boring.

I really can't be scared by the random slaughter of teenagers. Exhilarated and amused, maybe.

The thing that made Psycho so terrifying was 1) unprecedented killing of the star and 2) the audience feeling as a result, despite the progressively diminishing onscreen violence after the shower scene, that something else they had never seen could happen next.

(Also, the sequences where Sam and Lila explore the Bates property are still creepy no matter how many times you've seen it.)

is Pulse the K Kurosawa film or its remake? (I assume there was one)

Freddie is on there, tho.

poltergeist is the only movie that really terrified me, but i was like 12 at the time and also once i saw the ending it kinda lost its spook.

this scene:

with chairs on the table

im very reluctant to let my kid have a toy phone because of poltergeist. also, when i was a kid i spent a lot of nights sitting on the front lawn until dawn because i figured any random murderer walking down the street would be a better deal than a poltergeist in my house.

i still have trouble watching poltergeist in the dark. dvd rerelease recently / soon too. the way he tells the kid about the thunder to reassure him and later it works the other way is great.

there's someone else in jacob's ladder who's famous for other things too. yes, distracting. it's very manchurian candidate.

(louis black (daily show). oh, and eriq la salle (er))

As far as actual scary movies go, you're missing some of my personal favorites... among them The Changeling, Maniac, The Sentinel, Burnt Offerings, Just Before Dawn, The Innocents, and Let's Scare Jessica To Death. And that's not even getting into amazing-but-not-really-scary stuff like Re-Animator, Brain Damage, and the entire Larry Cohen cannon.

Also, Tourist Trap is pretty damned creepy.

Maybe I should've listed 100 movies instead of just over 60.

Maniac is great. I need to resee The Changeling. Not a fan of Let's Scare Jessica tho.

I really can't be scared by the random slaughter of teenagers. Exhilarated and amused, maybe.

Exactly why I like these movies: I am exhilarated and amused by them.

Having now watched it, I'm not really sure The Conqueror Worm really belongs here.

I'm glad you said so. There are no real supernatural notes (does horror need them?).

Jacob's Latter is so creepy...it's like a Buddhist/Christian horror movie

Blair Witch, b/c it is the only movie on this list that I can say scared the living crap out of me. But its ability to flat out scare diminishes greatly with repeated viewings.

The final scene is still classicly scary in the "What? What the hell? NO!!! Don't GO DOWN THERE!!! What the hell? AAHHH!!!" Dark screen.

I've only rewatched it twice, which might say something in and of itself.

Jacob's Ladder*

I forgot Conqueror Worm was Witchfinder General. No, not really scary. But brilliant.

surprisingly good scary movie: The Skeleton Key. David Edelstein and I were basically the only people on Earth who liked it, I think.

which one was that?

Kate Hudson+Peter Saaaaaaarsgard+John Hurt (I think) - voodoo, gothick mansions, etc.

oh yeah, that one was OK

Thanks for turning me on to Outer Space – now I can get obsessed with another obscure avant-garde short film dude

the skeleton key was such shit

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Voted for The Thing (remake). I need to see a lot more of these though.

Wicker Man ftw!

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

dudes The Shining is NOT SCARY! well, it is, but only in those corridor twin-girls blood-flow flash-cuts. and they're only in the first half of the movie. the second half is YAWNSOME.

Possession 0

as you can tell, i missed this poll u_u

Wicker Man ftw!

-- Just got offed, Tuesday, October 30, 2007 11:59 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Link

dudes The Shining is NOT SCARY!

-- Just got offed, Wednesday, October 31, 2007 12:01 AM (10 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

i could say the same about The Wicker Man, really.

hah, well tbh i've only seen about 8 or 9 of these films, and i threw that in as a (literally) last-minute prediction rather than a genuine statement of belief. turns out i was wrong!

http://www.chasingthefrog.com/unmasked/halloween/williamsndin.jpg

The only thing SCARY about Wicker Man is how HILARIOUS it is!

(Entertainment Weekly will you hire me based on this work sample?)

Srsly I adore the original Wicker Man. I have a poster of it in my room. But not one whit about it is scary.

No votes for Jaws or The Vanishing? The central plot devices of those films -- being attacked by a huge shark or buried alive -- are scariest to me. I think that's because (a) they seem the most realistically possible to me and (b) in each case, you're totally out of your element in ways that heighten the terror (I mean, being stranded at sea or patrially-stuck underground is scary enough).

i expected a bigger turn out tbh.

I really can't see how some people find Blair Witch Project a) scary, or b) good. It had exactly two somewhat creepy moments: in the beginning, where that one guy describes his encounter with the witch, and the ending. The rest of it is just some crappy camcorder shots of people trying to look scared, which are sometimes unintentionally amusing but never scary. It's kinda funny how the story about it being made on a 10 dollar budget and being mostly improvised became it's biggest selling point, when it's really the main reason why it sucks.

as someone who saw The Shining w/ highschool buddies on opening night I concur: not very scary, nor trying to be.

Someone very near and dear to me was rattled for days after seeing "Jacob's Ladder" during its theatrical release and I don't believe has seen it again since.

No names, mind you.

wtf with the lack of halloween movies on uk terrestial telly tonight, only Halloween and The Grudge on. I expected at least something from Channel 5.

poor show

I thought Halloween should have gotten a few more votes. Exorcist though, for sure.

The Exorcist would have been my answer until I saw Audition.

Where's the "Wicker Man" remake?

(On a more serious note: "Black Christmas"?)

-- HI DERE, Saturday, October 20, 2007 6:19 PM (1 week ago)

Uh, I only saw the remake but I cant tell you how pissed off I was when I got to the end of the movie. I was thinking of things I would have said if I were him. Like "FUCK YOU. FUCK YOU." instead of "HELP ME. HELP ME." Also I would have cursed their crops to hell. I would have yelled 'I sell my soul to the devil to burn your damn crops'. That movie really affected me I suppose.

i was just laughing uncontrollably at that point

the original isn't scary but is creepy

So, I live in South Pasadena, CA. One great thing about this town is that they shoot A LOT of movies here, because a) it has that SoCal light that cinematographers love and b)it has significant portions without palm trees or cacti, making it an ideal for Anywhere, USA.

Or Haddonfield, Illinois!!!!

Jamie Lee Curtis' house in Halloween is right down the street from mine, and the Myers house has been moved, but still stands (and is now purple, I think). My wife and I had a great time watching it last night and pointing out where different places we knew were.

Until she go scared and made me turn it off.

Blair Witch 2 is loads better than the original

getting your teeth knocked out by a golf club is loads better than chewing gum!

wtf with the lack of halloween movies on uk terrestial telly tonight

American TV didn't do so much better. Gone are the halcyon days of wall-to-wall horror on the tube. Even TBS (which used to show so many horror movies in October) couldn't be torn from its devotion to "Family Guy."

TCM had some Val Lewtons on, which was cool.

Blair Witch 2 is loads better than the original

-- milo z, Wednesday, October 31, 2007 11:46 PM (Yesterday)

I'm SO gld I'm not the only person who thinks this

Without prying, milo, have you ever done acid? I find that people who have seem to relate to this movie's scariness more than those who have not. I know, I know, it's lame, but think about it. That final scene when it is revealed that what the kids experienced wasn't really what happened, or vice versa - kinda like a really bad trip, am I right?

if they had given out complimentary tabs of acid it would've been much more entertaining i'm sure

Not too surprised about the low turn-out for The Exorcist, actually. That movie scared the shit out of me when I first saw it in seventh grade. Didn't watch it again for like three years, and just thinking about Reagan had me scared. But after re-watching it, it didn't retain its terror. I've probably re-watched it about five times since then, good film.

I voted for Candyman, despite it not really scaring me. But I've recently decided how amazing that film is, so I hads to.

I saw Night Of The Living Dead (original) for only the second time at MoMA last night, and I hadn't remembered the specifics of the hero's fate. Wow. Has anyone done an exegesis of it re racism, civil rights, etc? What does Romero say?

yeah i remember something on the DVD of the remake version about the racism and such, not sure if it was Tom salvini himself remarking or someone else. I'll check it again tonight.

Watched Session 9, starring David Caruso, last night. It was satisfying.

Climax Golden Twins do the soundtrack to that movie. Talk about your bad trips!

I feel like reduxing this poll for this year's Halloween. Not enough turnout last time around.