Scariest Movies You've Ever Seen?

[Lain Of The Wired]

Title says it all. I'm a huge horror fan, but even with all the films I've seen, I don't think there's many I could say actually worked in being "scary". But what do you think? Are there any films out there that still hold up today as being creepy, unsettling, and scary?

[KManX89]

I haven't seen many movies that legitimately scared me, but I remember renting Dead Silence from Blockbuster back when Blockbuster was still a thing and watching it downstairs late at night alone with the lights off. Biggest mistake of my life, it literally gave me sleep troubles for a couple nights afterwards.

I also thought Insidious: Chapter 3 and The Conjuring 2 had their fair share of chilling moments. And the ironic thing is, James Wann was involved in all 3 movies. That man really knows how to make a scary movie.

[Lain Of The Wired]

This is probably the only movie that comes to mind that was genuinely chilling to me
https://youtu.be/js-t_5yiLEU

[GodzillaFan1990's]

47 Meters Down which I just saw yesterday. Jesus Christ all the jump scares I experienced in that move.

Also Krampus most notably that scene with the Jack-In-The-Box. Holy skreeonk that scene was creepy.

[eabaker]

I'll probably think of more over the next couple of days, but off the top of my head (with trailers!):

Nosferatu (F.W. Murnau, 1922)


The Haunting (Robert Wise, 1963)


Ring (Hideo Nakata, 1998)

[ShinGi]

Noroi : The Curse I usually hate found footage movies but this was great and very scary

[Mac Daddy MM]

Being exposed to horror at an extremely young age has, sadly, made me pretty much impervious to the "scary" parts of horror films. That being said, yeah. SOMETIMES jump scares catch me off guard, but rarely. The movie I can remember scaring me the most when I was younger was The Blob '88 though. I love that movie to death nowadays, but back when I was like 6-8 years old... THAT was the monster under my bed... or on my wall... at night.

[eabaker]

SOMETIMES jump scares catch me off guard, but rarely.

I remember reading about Steven Spielberg being so excited by test audience's reactions to the shark popping out of the water in Jaws that he decided to go back and add in the severed head underwater jump scare earlier in the movie, but then he found that audiences jumped at that, but didn't jump nearly as much when the shark popped out.

That's not to say that I think there should be a one-jump-scare-per-movie rule or anything so extreme. I mean, Halloween and Alien both pull off multiple jumps. But it's something filmmakers should use in moderation. I feel like a lot of post-2000 horror is way too fixated on jump scares.

I also don't really tend to think of "scary" as the primary goal of a horror movie, though. I'm much more interested in horror that is thematically of narratively disturbing or unsettling. Heck, sometimes even grotesquerie with the right thematic resonance can be more a lot more interesting than all the scares in the world.

EDIT: Speaking of Alien, how could I have left it off my list earlier???

Alien (Ridley Scott, 1979)

[KaijuCanuck]

I also don't really tend to think of "scary" as the primary goal of a horror movie, though. I'm much more interested in horror that is thematically of narratively disturbing or unsettling. Heck, sometimes even grotesquerie with the right thematic resonance can be more a lot more interesting than all the scares in the world.

This is a reason I really love David Lynch. He almost never does jump scares, but instead freaks you out but giving you a long look at what's coming for you, or what's happening, and using other techniques like angle, sound, character design, etc. to get across how disturbing it is. Like when in Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, when we pan through the painting on Laura Palmer's wall to get to the Black Lodge. It's terrifying, but nothing jumps out at you - but you are vividly aware you are now being drawn into a world of evil.

[goji89]

Child's play.....as a child yeah fuck you Chucky.
Poltergeist
The Ring

Waterworld......as you can clearly see a man's career die on the big screen, sad.

[Lain Of The Wired]

Noroi : The Curse I usually hate found footage movies but this was great and very scary

Glad I'm not the only one who's watched it

[Innocentlysadistic]

Have to agree with eabaker concerning the goal of horror films. Actually I don't even care much for scares. If a horror film instead tries to tell a good, tasteful story which can properly express feelings such as dread, paranoia, the fear of the unknown, etc. then it's got a lot going for it, imo. Ringu is one such film. It may not be scary in the sense that there are spooky-faced monsters jumping at you or making you feel paranoid, but it does do a masterful job at creating an atmosphere of constant otherworldly dread which logically leads up to a horrific doomed climax. Sure I didn't jump from fright or spend the rest of the night with the lights on, but it was genuinely creepy and eerie. At least, to me it was.

[eabaker]

Have to agree with eabaker concerning the goal of horror films. Actually I don't even care much for scares. If a horror film instead tries to tell a good, tasteful story which can properly express feelings such as dread, paranoia, the fear of the unknown, etc. then it's got a lot going for it, imo. Ringu is one such film. It may not be scary in the sense that there are spooky-faced monsters jumping at you or making you feel paranoid, but it does do a masterful job at creating an atmosphere of constant otherworldly dread which logically leads up to a horrific doomed climax. Sure I didn't jump from fright or spend the rest of the night with the lights on, but it was genuinely creepy and eerie. At least, to me it was.

After the first time I saw it (which was on the big screen, at the Egyptian in Hollywood), I actually did sleep with the lights on - and a towel over my TV - for about a week. I also obsessively drew the characters for "Sadako" all over my notebooks (this was in college).

And the first version of the movie I was able to purchase was a very poor quality VHS bootleg, so watching it basically felt like watching a feature-length version of the cursed video.

[Tyrant_Lizard_King]

Most horror movies are simply not scary. Gross and disturbing maybe but not scary. In fact I find alien abduction films far more scary than your typical horror movies. One of the very few movies to ever truly creep me out was Fire in the Sky with James Garner and Robert Patrick. The abduction and probing scenes are especially chilling and creepy. I'd also like to give a shout out to The Thing. I wouldn't exactly call it scary persay but does do a great job of creating suspense and tension. The scene where they're testing everyone blood is a great example of this.

[gvamp]

Nothing scares me any more really just the few jump scare here and there. As a kid I couldn't watch scary movies at all stuff like Gremlins gave me nightmares for weeks. When I first started getting into horror films a little more Stephen King's Silver Bullet scared the shit out of me but after rewatching it a few years back it doesn't even phase me.

[UltramanGoji]

The last movie I saw that truly unsettled me was An American Werewolf in London. Whether it's Rick Baker's startlingly realistic special effects, Jack's disturbing yet slightly comedic forewarning, the ironic placement of cheery (or at least upbeat) music during horror scenes, or the aspect of being in an unfamiliar country forced to do things against your will, it's probably one of the scariest movies I've seen.

Also, that howl. Not just a stock wolf howl, that is a genuinely bone-chilling sound that fits perfectly with this movie's atmosphere.

[eabaker]

The last movie I saw that truly unsettled me was An American Werewolf in London. Whether it's Rick Baker's startlingly realistic special effects, Jack's disturbing yet slightly comedic forewarning, the ironic placement of cheery (or at least upbeat) music during horror scenes, or the aspect of being in an unfamiliar country forced to do things against your will, it's probably one of the scariest movies I've seen.

Also, that howl. Not just a stock wolf howl, that is a genuinely bone-chilling sound that fits perfectly with this movie's atmosphere.

While I love both of the great werewolf movies of 1981, of the two The Howling has always been the one I found scarier. They both do a great job of using humor and cute or upbeat elements to give the horror an tinge of irony, but the cultish nature of The Howling's werewolves, and the gross, aggressive sexuality of Eddie Quist really make the movie deeply unsettling.

[morgoth]

I haven't seen many movies that legitimately scared me, but I remember renting Dead Silence from Blockbuster back when Blockbuster was still a thing and watching it downstairs late at night alone with the lights off. Biggest mistake of my life, it literally gave me sleep troubles for a couple nights afterwards.

That movie freaked me out a little too. I saw The Exorcist when I was 8 and as an 8 year old, I was never more scared in my life.

[Spuro]

Honestly? John Carpenter's The Thing is the only one in recent memory that ever got a reaction out of me.

Of course, the first time I watched it was early on when I was really starting to get into the horror genre for the first time. I hadn't really been jaded by them at the time.

[ToxicLove]

The only "horror" film you really need. Men Behind the Sun.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jrifmpz7LA&t=3356s