The scariest things I remember were not films but a series the Beeb did many years ago. There was one in particular about a cursed tree where a witch was burnt to death, and these big spiders with babies heads that came out of the tree......still shuddering after many years. It totally freaked me out!

That will be 'The Ash Tree', another one of the Beebs Ghost Stories for Christmas. I did see it repeated last Christmas as it was very effective, I remember reading the story it was adapted from about six years ago just before I went to bed. Needless to say I didn't sleep a wink that night....!

Many thanks Razic! I thought that as an adult , I wouldnt be too scared to go to bed anymore..but The Ashtree terrified me...Glad I didnt know it was repeated, I might have ben tempted to watch again to see if still could give me the heebie jeebies, I suspect it would give me another sleepless night!

I consider myself fairly a tough old bird, very few films scare me but I did find myself unreasonably bothered by the Japanese original Ring movie. I've no idea why but it bothered me for days after. Every light on between living room and bedroom! Highly embarrassed I was too!

Horror films don't really scare me, but there are a few exceptions.

1)All the 'Alien' films - I have a serious fear of those films that started when I was a child. It's the whole alien covering your face and laying eggs until the babies come a-belly-bursting thing. It is just plain WRONG. Wrong I tell you!!!!!!
Ick.

2)The Grudge, the film isn't scary but the kids are - I don't like the way they look lol and I can't watch that film on my own.

3)Creep. The film isn't scary until you actually have to use the London Underground, and someone says 'oh yeah do you remember that film where the mutant lived in the underground tube system and kidnapped people and kept them in dirty water filled cages?'. I think it's scary because the film is set in an actual place that you can visit everyday.

I haven't been scared by scary films for ages. When I was a kid I was scared of them, but those were just the hack and slash ones.

The Zombie flicks weren't scary, I could tolerate them. Horror films today aren't scary anymore, I have grown up and got used to them and I sometimes think of what will come next, so I don't get scared by them anymore.

Also when I watch a scary movie over and over again you know what gonna happen next so you don't get scared by it.

quote:

Originally posted by eskimo_melon:
the ring actually frightened me quite a bit the first time i saw it

To this day that is one of the few films that have genuenly sacred me - more embarsingly watching the cursed video of it on the DVD and comes up with a disclaimer warning the viewer not to watch it. It made me think twice about watching it.

Oh and IT, clowns are not funny, they are scary, don't care what anyone says...

Couldn't agree more. There is nothing remotely cute/funny/entertaining about clowns. They are scary freaks. They scare the crap out of me. End of.

The only film that scares me is The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974). I think it's down to it's somewhat minimalist horror scenes. The first time we see Leatherface, he apprears from his "operating room" and throttles a guy with a hammer and then slams the door shut. We all know what's going to happen but it's all down to how the film was shot and the disturbing soundtrack. And the scene when he throws the girl on the meat hook and leaves her there while he decapitates her friend with his chainsaw, is just horrific. Some other horror films, Hostel for example, I didn't find remotely scary or disturbing. I think in some cases less is more and it definately works in The Texas Chainsaw Masscare. The scene in Hostel where the girl is getting her eye burned out with a blow torch is not even realistic, once she has it cut off and escapes with the main guy, she doesn't seem to be in much pain which is just ludicrous! Hostel was a good idea but the acting was very poor. That's why The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is so realistic, each scene is acted as if it's really happening.

quote:

Originally posted by RobbieJess:
I think it's down to it's somewhat minimalist horror scenes.

Totally agree, it was what your mind made of what happened and what was going to happen next. If saw had done this and not shown you what happened after the video tape but showed the result it may have been a lot scarier.

Funny Games really disturbs/scares me. Don't Look Now, The Omen, Wicker Man, Ringu and Audition have always managed to unsettle me. One film that totally freaks me out is (don't laugh) Event Horizon (I said don't laugh).

I was scared of Sleeping with the enemy haha

Films don't really scare me. I wish i could find a film that would affect me too.

Event Horizon chilled me a little bit. It's the atmosphere, not the frontal violence, although the airlock scene had me wincing.

What affects me generally is visceral violent death, particularly of women. And even then it isn't fear, it's an instinct to want to stop what's happening to them. Protect them, if you like.

quote:

Originally posted by Moonstone:
Funny Games really disturbs/scares me. Don't Look Now, The Omen, Wicker Man, Ringu and Audition have always managed to unsettle me. One film that totally freaks me out is (don't laugh) Event Horizon (I said don't laugh).

That's weird! I posted my reply without even reading yours, my heart skipped a beat when i read your post. Probably isn't that much of a coincidence though.

I'm glad I'm not the only one! There's something very scary and unsettling about being stuck in an inescapable situation. I mean, if you're stuck in an isolated cabin in the arse end of nowhere with an axe wielding maniac - at least you have a chance at escape! Ditto babysitting/slasher, isolated cottage/werewolves, desserted city/zombies and so on - were the chuff do you run to in outer space?!?!?! You are truly trapped.

They did a good job with the atmosphere on that film, with the whole "we're in a place where no soul could ever hope to find us in a trillion centuries...and we're on a ship that is using a technology none of us really understand, woops".

It was a good film in general though i think, it got less scary and more cheaply morbid towards the end but it seemed to really pick out what creeps me out in a movie, i love all that spooky technology, the gyroscopic engine thingy of doom was brilliant.

Very unforgiving, didn't use too many cliches, the "bad guy" be it the core, the ship, the "entity" whatever, was simply going to destroy you, no chase sequences or aliens, just assured doom served in bucket loads.

scary

when i 1st saw the grudge.
i was on my own watching it and when that chinese girl was looking up the attic with a candle and then the girl ghost snatched her.

i was terrified after that.

Bet no-one would have dared do this.
Whilst Blair Witch was cutting edge and was a bit scary, a few days after seeing it a bunch of us played hide and seek in a ten acre wood in pitch black (after midnight) in the middle of nowhere. Now that was scary- cos each of us was alone and some really got lost.

I consider myself pretty hard-core as far as these things are concerned, but Funny Games is the only film that has truly made me s*** myself.

It's the bleakness of the situation that the family are in, and the total lack of a happy ending. And the total possibility of this actually happening in real life.

I actually felt like sawing my own head off after the first time I watched this.

ok im gonna tell the truth now..... i take back wat i sed on the first page coz its not jus evil dead that scared me... twas also the movie Labryinth wit dave Bowie that movie scared me sensless as a kid i cudnt sleep for weeks.