Films that ARE scary – but apparently aren't any more…..

Scary clown time…

The Omen (as mentioned) Used to freak me out, but now I think they are totally brill (box set owner)

prepare yourselves friends,for a journey into the furthest reaches of heaven/hell 😉 (this is genius) 😀

AWIL is a funny one, it does have some genuinely scary / shocking moments to it, however the scenes of Picadilly circus are comedy – not sure if thats deliberate or just bad acting / poor quality special effects.

this is a scarey clown;

Poltergeist 1 and 2

And The changeling

And what was that Nicole Kidman film about ghosts? The Classification Board admitted they got it wrong giving it a 12 rating (it disturbed me).

“The Others”

My 12 year old is watching it in school this week – as part of their study of Gothic Horror in english. We had to sign a form to give permission. Hope it doesn’t give her nightmares. Having said that I remember watching the Exorcist and Nightmare on Elm Street etc at her age (round at a friends house, we didn;t have a VHS player for years!) and not really being effected. Probably helped that they were always watched during the day time

Nightmare on elm street, not too scary now, pretty funny really.

+1 for Chimera from the TV. I was about 10 at the time and I’ve never been so terrified.

There does seem to be a pattern here. Films of old do seem to have been capable of inducing nightmares in the people watching (American Werewolf certainly did for me).

My OHs daughter is mad about the likes of SAW, Hostel and the Human Centipede – but they’re all just gore fests.

Although – whoever posted up the link about the hooded man who makes you drown when you swim in lakes has just given me nightmares again (that still scares me!).

Do not go swimming!

My OHs daughter is mad about the likes of SAW, Hostel and the Human Centipede – but they’re all just gore fests.

I agree with this, apart from Human Centipede which isnt all that gory, its more suggestive. The second one is awful though and ive only seen parts of the ‘cut’ version.

King;s IT here too. Still wish I hadn’t seen it.

Event Horizon did for me when I was old enough to know better.

This..scared the cr@p out of me..but I was sooooo very wasted when I watched it..

+1 for Raggity
Jaws gave me nightmares after seeing it at the flicks when I was about 10

BenHouldsworth – Member

I’ll second the Omen, saw it by accident when I was 7 and it gave me the fear right into my teens Funny you mention this, I’d watched adult films/TV content including horror, swearing and sexual content from pre-school but for some reason at around 7 or 8 when the Omen was first on TV my mum wouldn’t let me see it. The next day a few of my mates were constantly talking about it at School so after school I went round to my dad’s (who I knew had video’d it) to ask to watch it there. Knowing fine well my mum might not approve, instead of letting me watch it he sat with me and fast forwarded to all the killings so I could talk about it with my mates.
After this I didn’t really find any of the “scary” horror films scary anymore (I’d obviously still jump at frights etc.) and I’m pretty sure this this went some way to desensitizing me to horror films from a very young age.

IT definitely is one of those films.

Although probably not well known enough to be mocked in modern times but John Carpenters ‘Prince of Darkness’ still scares the sh*t out me.

No question that supernatural is more frightening than gore, although I quite liked ‘Dog Soldiers’. Don’t know what category that fits into.

To be honest, I found M Night Shyamalan’s ‘The Sixth Sense’ extremely well done. Now that we know his forumla, it doesn’t have the same impact, but that scene where the boy is in the car with his mum and explains that he sees dead people, and then the woman in the cycling accident is shown standing beside the passenger window freaks me out just to think about.

For months after I saw that, I couldn’t stop at a quiet stop sign (in Canada) at night. I would just keep on driving…

I was scared to death when I was a kid by…..

Carry on Screaming!

I couldn’t sleep as I thought there were Oddbods in my room.

I don’t watch horror. Blouses of a female variety (size 20) do come to mind.

Watcher in the Woods was pretty scary as a kid.

Aliens scared the life out of me too. The scene where they have barricaded themselves into a room and they can’t figure out why the aliens are getting closer on the scope (IN THE ROOF!! AAAAHHHGGHH!) kept me awake at night for a while.

American Werewolf in London… watched it on pirate video when i was about 10, didn’t sleep for two days…!

Spiceworld.

Can’t even get past the opening titles. Too traumatic. 😥

Poltergeist scared me silly, watched it at 14 through my fingers.

Funnily enough I found carry on screaming scary too, regrowing body parts freaked me out.

Not the film but the soundtrack LP from the film Dougal and The Blue Cat used to scare the **** out of me as a small kid!

I’d have to go with Event Horizon.

Although the Moomins episode where the Groke appears gave me a few sleepless nights as a nipper.

event horizon bored me (same with the Aliens films tho). but weirdy, I get scared if I play scary computer games.

evil etna the tv in willo the wisp frightened me as a child…..

These days films aren’t as scary but video games… first time I played resident evil I got freaked right out..

twotonpredator i love prince of darkness (one of john’s best films imho

this was a good film also 😉 EDIT MAY CONTAIN GORE 😉

Another for Event Horizon – massively underated sci-fi/horror.

PrinceJohn – Member
These days films aren’t as scary but video games… first time I played resident evil I got freaked right out.

This. Never really been properly scared by films/TV (apart from jumpy moments), but playing the original Silent Hill on my own in the dark was truly terrifying at times.

Would place Dog Soldiers in the same category as AWIL myself – supernatural horror with black comedy overtones.

Best modern takes on this genre I reckon have both been on TV – Being Human and The Fades (which has some of the best written dialogue I’ve heard on TV for ages in any genre).

slainte ❗ rob

Threads

the new phones 4 u advert

I read ‘It’, and thought it was awesome, the film was in HMV for £2, so I bought it, and was really disappointed (this was only about 5 years ago), not sure if it was because I’d read the book first (which is pretty scary frankly), or because of the shocking 90s ‘special effects’. I suspect the former as much as the latter, IMO once you’ve read a book the film will always disappoint. And vice versa frankly!

The original Childsplay scared me as a young un, not seen it since, but I doubt it’d have the same effect!

“The Others”

My 12 year old is watching it in school this week – as part of their study of Gothic Horror in english. We had to sign a form to give permission. Hope it doesn’t give her nightmares

I dunno… I think they’re scarier when you can relate to them, and imagine yourself in that situation. I can’t see a period film being scary in the same way for a child, I think that’s why these things scare you, it’s irrational fear that it could happen to you. I saw it when it came out (I was 15), and thought it was pretty poor.

The Creepshow was the only one that gave me bad nightmares as a kid (the story with the thing in the crate – I think it’s the fact it gets out at the end :p ). Watched it again a year ago though and thought it was pretty naff.
I also saw the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre when I was about 9 (gotta love grandparents :p ) freaked me out a bit watching it but no nightmares after.

Event Horizon bored me too, I thought it was hugely overblown, but it’s one of the few times I’ve actually looked away from the screen in the cinema when at some point a guy got injected in the eyeball.

I agree with the Nightmare on Elm Street films, quite scary when I was early teens, pretty lame now.

The Ring, the original Japanese one not the crappy American remake, now that was a scary film. I find psychological stuff much scarier than just plain gore and I think the language barrier and subtitles actually added to the creepiness of the whole thing.

As for computer games, the time I’ve literally jumped out of my seat was the first time I played the “Aliens” hack for Doom. On my own, in the dark, in front of a decent-size screen, plenty of volume in the headphones and when I encountered the first Alien I think I actually briefly tried to run away. I was 18…

I was about 7 when I crept downstairs and watched the Hammer House version of Murders in the Rue Morgue in a late-night re-run. Scared the sweet bejesus out of me and gave me nightmares. 😥 I saw it again quite recently and it seemed incredible tame. No nightmares to report second time around. 8)

+10 for AWIL

Was also about 10-11 when I first saw it and that’s what is partly responsible for my werewolf ‘thing’. Proper scary back then. Still think of it every time I’m wandering a tube station alone at night (normally pretty pissed).