I watched The Strangers the other night…very scary. I tend to not be afraid of monster/supernatural horror movies…I’m more afraid of things that might happen to me. That said, as I made the list below, there is an embarrassing supernatural horror movie on there. Oh well. Anyway, below is a list of movies that have scared me, either in the theater, or walking home afterwards…
Three home invaders terrorize a young couple in a rural home. That’s it. I think the movie goes a little far with what people could actually do (at one point, we see the boyfriend get physically touched on the shoulder while leaning into his car in the driveway, and when he turns around, no one is there…) but it’s scary as heck. We never see the villains’ faces, even when they take their masks off to make the final kill. The girlfriend asks, “Why are you doing this to us?” And one of the home invaders, almost puzzled, responds…”Because you were home.” Jeez…
Sort of a funny one. I saw this in my campus movie theater while in college, and really enjoyed it. It’s not particularly scary, although it fits my “Things-That-Could-Actually-Happen” Corollary. It wasn’t until I was lying in my bed late that night that I started to get scared. It’s a little embarrassing to be afraid of Skeet Ulrich and Matthew Lillard (although not the most embarrassing thing on this list…) but I couldn’t help myself. Freaky kids with no compunction? Scary.
I talked about the Blair Witch in my Greatest Movie Villains discussion. This movie is scary. If you can handle the shaky-cam business, which I blessedly have never had a problem with, this one will make your hair stand on end. It’s just three kids lost in the woods…and scary stuff starts happening at night. Aren’t we all already afraid of this? Also, this movie has one of the greatest endings of all time. Even years after seeing it, I would RUN from my car to my apartment if I got home too late at night. And this was when I lived in the desert. But hey, maybe the Blair Witch is a snowbird.
Okay, this is the really embarrassing one. Scared by Neve Campbell, Robin Tunney, and Fairuza Balk? Well, Fairuza Balk maybe. But the idea of four sexy teens who accidentally get wrapped up in the truly dark arts is just too humorous to be scary, right? I mean, the unintentional comedy potential is huge. But when the lights came up in the theater, and I tried to stand up and leave, I realized that my legs ached…from my muscles having been clenched THE ENTIRE TIME. It’s the Me, Myself, and Irene Corollary: You must trust your body when judging a movie. I didn’t think I particularly liked Me, Myself, and Irene when I saw it in the theater, but as I walked out, I realized that my face hurt from smiling for 90 minutes straight. Must have liked it, right? So The Craft? Must be scary.
Now, I know this is not supposed to be a scary movie. In fact, quite the opposite. It’s a triumph of the human spirit. But the idea that a competent, intelligent family man can end up homeless…that’s something that I (hopefully irrationally!) worry about all the time! When we find Will Smith sleeping in a San Francisco subway station, that’s just as scary as when Tom Skerritt turns around in the ventilation shaft and the alien is right there. And I’m terrified I wouldn’t have the resourcefulness (like a great phone manner and the ability to solve a Rubik’s Cube in five minutes) that Smith needs to get back on his feet. Triumph of the human spirit? Hardly. Abject terror? Definitely.
So what scares you?
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10 responses to “Mockingbird at the Movies: What Scares You?”
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Your post is not unlike a pre-Airbender M. Night Shyamalan movie: awesome twist ending. Yes- Pursuit of Happyness is terrifying. My creepy movie is There WIll Be Blood. It's my equivalent of the Netflix "Hotel Rawanda" Syndrome. I own it, but will never watch it again, and yet feel strangely compelled to keep it because it is so good.
Another Will Smith but intentionally scary movie is I Am Legend. Sure, it's out there. But the reflection on human devolution is wonderful, the atonement imagery at the end is powerful, and the lonesome beginning third was eerie in a packed movie theatre.
I couldn't walk around Ambridge at night for like a month after first seeing it. That (now torn-down) abandoned warehouse opposite the TESM parking lot…yikes!
I guess I'm a calloused movie-goer but the only film I saw in the last ten years that scared me at all was Neil Marshall's The Descent (UK cut). I was telling a roommate that in order for a scary movie to actually scare you it has to appeal to a fear you actually have. In my case with vision impairment and not-really binocular vision The Descent scared the crap out of me. Not the monster angle, but the angle of not being able to tell where you are and not having enough light to tell what's going on around you at night/in the dark. And the fatalism of sensing inevitable failure creeped me out because I have struggled with those feelings during my job hunt. So, as I was saying, a scary film only scares you if it actually hits a raw nerve.
I agree, WTH. The Descent scared the shit outta me. Best scary movie in a long time.
One of the reasons the experience was so great is that I saw it without knowing any of the plot — I mean ANY of it. I just had a friend suggest I see it.
This is an experience I can't urge everyone to have as often as they can — not necessarily with movies like The Descent! Just the experience of watching a story unfold without knowing the tiniest piece about what is going to happen. Typically you just need a friend who knows you pretty well who can suggest you see something and then Shut Up. You also have to be pretty strong about not reading the blurb on the back of the DVD cover.
The scariest movie I have seen this year is JOSHUA, which was made in 2007 and has marvelous work by Sam Rockwell.
A few others off the top of my head:
The Thing (1982)
The Shining
Dead of Night
The Innocents
Alien
Rosemary's Baby
Cape Fear (Scorcese remake, though the original is great too)
The Wicker Man (1973)
Two great movies about serial killers, made long before the 70s slasher fest, are Hitchcock's FRENZY and 10 RILLINGTON PLACE.
I could not sit through "The Uknown Island" when I was eleven. At 73 I still hold those images b ut they don't scare me. But the images in "Pet Sematary" still send some chills. How does Stephen King sleep at night while dreaming this stuff up!!
Great post Nick! I cracked up when my scroll-through hit Will Smith.
I really enjoyed The Descent too (own it).
Four other favorite scary flicks that I love:
28 Days Later
Alien
The Exorcist
Manhunter
One of the biggest reasons so few horror movies scare me is because one of my hobbies is studying 20th century avant garde composers. It's hard to find most scary movies scary if you own scores by Gyorgy Kurtag, Igor Stravinsky, Olivier Messiaen, and Bela Bartok! When I saw Kubrick's The Shining at 21 I had already absorbed so much Bartok that I found myself saying, "Well, eh, the soundtrack's awesome but I don't get why this movie is scary." To be fair, I had never had a drop of alcohol and I've heard King was inspired to write the story by observing the effects of alcoholism.
I have seen the scariest of movies…and often in a house by myself. I used to be scared quite easily, but now I don't find them all that scary, mostly disgusting and disturbing. The movie 'A Haunting in Connecticut' sounds scary from an interview I heard with the woman from the story behind it, but I admit I have not watched it. I think the things that scare me the most are supernatural or ultra-violent…like that Human Centipede concept…scary that someone even thought of that. But am most scared by the evening news quite frankly.
I watched Brad Anderson's Session 9 the other day and it seriously freaked me out.
I love the phrase "seriously freaked me out." Thanks Dave.