for me its people flitting about in the background, particularly across open doorways when the focus / action is going on in the room the door opens out from

for example, sixth sense - not a particularly scary film in itself but the kid in his bedroom at night with people flitting past the doorway made me squirm

also people walking in a funny manner - usually a jerky "not in control of themselves" manner (eg: girl from the ring with limbs doing things they shouldn't, or the short dude from twin peaks)

for this reason, gothika scared the piss out of me cos there was someone flitting about in the background and they were walking in a jerky manner <shudder>

i did intend posting this thread last night at about 2am but i was sat downstairs on a laptop in our living room. at the moment this room has no curtains & no door - there was so much scope for things flitting past that i had to hurl the laptop over my shoulder & run upstairs shrieking like a 12 year old girl with my eyes closed :D


so...what scares you most?

Faces. Scary horrible nasty faces. Flashing on screen.

*shudders

I like it when something doesn't happen suddenly, like there's a face in the background that is in shot for a few seconds whilst the camera focusses on the foreground, then someone pulls focus and you realise it were there all along.

Similarly, although it's a dumb film, there's the bit in The Howling where the woman is reading the medical files in the clinic and a big hairy hand just appears in shot and takes it off her.

Yeah people just in the backgound flitting past and also when the victim is running away like mad but the bad guy never runs just walks after them but they are never far behind. Also anything to do with the devil scares the crap out of me

psychological horror does it for me. gore maks me laugh, but if they can tap in to my sense of 'this is possible' or tap into my natural paranoia of the paranormal then i can be scared.

dawn of the dead - as scary as kittens.
28 days later - i nearly cried with fear.

Not alot of horror scares me anymore. just things in classic horror like dolls coming to life, oh and stuff thats screws with your head.

Saw 3 by the way amazing

I haven't really seen a film that truely scared me since my mates mum stupidly let us watch Friday the 13th on his 13th birthday.

however, having spend a fair amount of times in my youth camping in the forest, miles from anywhere, and knowing first hand how truely terrifying it is to be temporarily lost, in a forest in the pitch black, the Blair Witch Project brings back those memories in a frightening sense of "am I in danger, or did I imagine it". Although its much less efective the 2nd or 3rd time round.

Otherwise, I have an incredibly strong constitution, apart from the smashing of teeth, I'll happily put cigarettes out on my bare skin and pull out my own fingernails rather than see and hear the terrible sound of teeth cracking against something hard.

Otherwise, I have an incredibly strong constitution, apart from the smashing of teeth, I'll happily put cigarettes out on my bare skin and pull out my own fingernails rather than see and hear the terrible sound of teeth cracking against something hard.

You'd love American History X then.

Not much creeps me, but stary, dead eyes, like 'The grudge'.

When I was ypunger, the twisted, blue face in 'The X-files' titles REALLY creeped me

You'd love American History X then.


Is that the one with the curb biting scene? If so, I've seen that.

The more psychological stuff actually scares me. There's a low budget indie film called Session 9 which is very creepy even though not a whole lot happens and the majority of it is shot in bright daylight.

The first Nightmare on Elm Street is actually kind of creepy as well, it was during the sequels that Freddy Krueger became a wisecracking killer.

Hmmmmmmmmmmmm. Hard question.

For me it's like being addicted to drugs. :yes: I'm always looking for the next thrill, the bigger scare... it never comes, but I keep on looking. Gory films can be funny in which case they're worth watching. Gore and psychological thrills combined is usually good. Pureply psychological horror (e.g. Signs) gets closest to scaring me, although I don't ever actually get "scared". Aliens creep me out anyway so I suppose Signs preyed on that fear.

My favourite horror films have some sick humour, a good soundtrack and good characters. Devil's Rejects comes to mind - a lot of people hate it, but I think I get what they were trying to do with it.

Nothing really.

The only film I ever saw that kind of scared me was 'An American Werewolf in London' Mind, I was about 8 ish when I saw it, and it was the bit in the tube station where the guy is trying to scramble up the escalator, the camera looks down the length of the escalator and you see the werewolf slowley crawl into shot. Still one of my favourite films.

It's is always the stuff you dont see that has the best effect, it is the build up rarther than the end event, a classic example being Alien, the scene where they know the alien is coming towrds them via the beepy machine and then the fella sticks his head up into the air duct.

I don't think that much really scares people these days, we have all become a little desensitized, a lot of horror films just try to go for that big jump now, with a loud noise or something suddenly appearing on screen, dosn't work for me.

Gore is pish to me, cept if its toe curling ouch that must have hurt al la 'hostel'. But otherwise its the jap ghost/horror stuff that does me, the stuff nightmares are made of... actually, some of the missus' nightmares put the willies up me (not literally) e.g. one where there was a bloke in our airing cupboard.

For me the most potent element of horror is atmosphere, something so many films (of any genre) rarely achieve these days.

Look at The Shining, often cited as the best horror of all. Where would it be without that unique, eerie air? Or Deliverance? not a horror as such, but more unsettling and uncomfortable than many a supposed horror.

Ooh ooh, I jus remembered summink that made my skin crawl, its not film but the last episode of 'down the line' a radio 4 spoof phone in made by the fast show team had such a ghostly twist I was actually lookin over my sholder. not sure if you can still get it on the beebs listen again service, but its worth lookin out for.

Ooh ooh, I jus remembered summink that made my skin crawl, its not film but the last episode of 'down the line' a radio 4 spoof phone in made by the fast show team had such a ghostly twist I was actually lookin over my sholder. not sure if you can still get it on the beebs listen again service, but its worth lookin out for.


Down the line is/was quality (not heard it for a while?) as is all R4 at 6.30, theres a welsh guy in Tuesdays I think, who is awesome.

Anyway, back on topic.

The bit in Signs, where the TV is showing the home video of a kids party. The camera is swinging all around as they have heard/seen something. Then it focuses on a clearing in the bushes and an alien "walks" past very briefly. Totally freaks me very time. Subtlty(?) is key for me.

I am really concerned with all these "torture" films tho. I saw bits of Creep as my wife was watching it and I thought "What the fuck?". What "pleasure do people get from this kind of stuff?

I am all for non-censorship etc, but this does make me very concerned about some peoples thoughts on this kind of thing.

I'm a big horror fan, but i've become pretty much numb to most shocks and scares on screen. With that said, i still find some of the most effective horror is abject horror found in certain individuals on screen, one my favorite examples being the twist ending in Sleepaway Camp, such a horrific and disturbingly shot ending to what is a relatively dumb and archetypal film - it just pulls the rug from under you!

im liking the debate on the genre, and its very good to be able to tell everyone the bit you mean so they can picture it in their head, but please use spoiler tags where necessary.

thankingyoukindly. :pope:

The kiddies party bit in Signs is an absolute beaut. Shame Shymalan had to spoil what could've been a good, simple, yet cleverly inverted* alien invasion thriller with all that needless faith & religion twaddle.

*films like this usually widen in scope as they progress. This lessened, and did so very effectively.

Signs wasn't a great film in the end the aliens are defeated so easily. If water kills you why go to a planet where 80% of it is covered in the stuff?

This might sound like pretentious bull crap but a good horror movie should be something like a bad dream.
You must of had one like that.
Its not what you can see, but what you cant see.That deep sense of foreboding, an unknown force, watching,waiting....brrr

oh just me then.

Perhaps they had never encountered water before. Maybe it was something totally alien to them (boom-boom).

Perhaps they had never encountered water before. Maybe it was something totally alien to them (boom-boom).

That was, after all, the whole point. Geeesh.

dramatic things happening without dramatic music...

heightens the impact somehow

Anything jumpy. Like when I was watching the Ring and my phone rang.

Look at The Shining, often cited as the best horror of all.

By who, I'd like to know. All Stephen King is shite, with the possible exception of Carrie.

I find The Shining scary because of the atmosphere created. Anticipation is scarier than the actual scary thing in lots of cases. I think it works because it's scary on several levels- it has psychological appeal, the setting is immensely atmospheric, and there's some yuck in it too.

By who, I'd like to know. All Stephen King is shite, with the possible exception of Carrie.

A lot of the adaptations are shit, the stories themselves are quite good.

I thought The Shining by Kubrick was complete tosh as it didnt really put the story together. The atmosphere generated was good though.

By who, I'd like to know. All Stephen King is shite, with the possible exception of Carrie.


What about Running Man? that shit was ace!

Also IT was pretty damn good, Pennywise scared the crap out of me.


I love cheap nasty horror movies, anything with Zombies does it for me Day Of The Dead being top of the pile.

And may I add running zombies are crap (28 days later is not included in this as they were not zombies by any means) the slow shambling I WILL get you at one point is what does it for me

The kiddies party bit in Signs is an absolute beaut. Shame Shymalan had to spoil what could've been a good, simple, yet cleverly inverted* alien invasion thriller with all that needless faith & religion twaddle.

*films like this usually widen in scope as they progress. This lessened, and did so very effectively.

I thought that was the whole point of the "signs"

One of my top 10 films :yes:

the bit where they were all in foil hats was priceless :D

Swing away.........

(and the piss take in Scary Movie ??? was awesome)

The Shining is excellent, and you know it had to be a great adaptation if master bell end Stephen King disowned Kubrick vision and had to make his own abysmal tv version instead. And yes, King does suck apart from Carrie. Von Trier's The Kingdom works on many similar levels, i felt.

Signs?? Horror? Honestly, people!

shadows get me too and twisting doorknobs....

I am easily scared and still imagine that there's someone in my backgarden watching me... then again, this is Mottingham.........

John Carpenter's The Thing has always been my fave scare. I can remember the first time I saw it, in about 1982, and had no idea what was coming when the dog splits open to turn into something awful and disgusting. Just bought the restored version on HDDVD and I think the effects stand up really well. Rob Bottin who did nearly all of them, apart from the Dog thing that was done by Stan Winston, managed wonders with no use of cgi at all.