Top Ten Tuesdays

[Susan Foreman]

Very nice list and reasoning Mr. Dike

Kudos to you

[Nosferatu@Cult Labs]

Great lists, Demdike and nos42.

I am finishing mine at the moment and, like yours, it contains a mixture of ages and genres, plus explanations of why they frightened me.

[trebor8273]

most of these are scary scenes in the films. so here my list in no particular order.

Pet semetery (Gage and Zelda)
Carrie (creepy/evil Jesus)
Jaws ( the head scene)
Salems Lot (gave me nightmares for weeks as a kid)
Nightmare on Elm street (scared the shit out of me as a kid and was terrified to goto sleep)
Watership Down (a strange choice but this film is not subtle for young children)
Omen (the same scene with the nanny that nosferatu42 posted)
chitty chitty bang bang ( the child catcher was the stuff of nightmares)

[Demoncrat]

Scariest films?? Hmmm. will these suffice??

Triumph Of The Will

Anything that features hairy spiders. Laugh all you want, but as a horror fan, every time I see cobwebs, I am on alert . Especially a pain when I went to see The Beyond at the pictures. Was once berated for this on another forum. How I love the internet NOT.

Yentl. Fcuking terrifying. I dare you.

Halloween (1978).
Watched it again (as part of me October ...post to come cough). And it still works. I wish Rob Zombie ill with his new venture haha.

Nil By Mouth (1998)
The anti Darling Buds Of May . When people speak about onscreen brutality, they always flock to the latest atrocity. This is still a hard watch, and yes it scares me still.

Threads (1984). Need I say more ???

Possession (1981). any excuse with this one ....

Salems Lot. As I may have mentioned before, i was that scared by the end of the first part, that it took me years to watch the second ...

The 5000 Fingers Of Dr T. Saw this and The Boy With Green Hair round about the same time. Whilst that is a charming morality tale, this is a sicko puppy dreamt up by that Seuss chappie. Crazed tis.

Jaws. Aye, the bit with the head always gets me

That's ten anyhow. Well .... ach, whatever. Next!!

[Demoncrat]

Originally Posted by trebor8273

most of these are scary scenes in the films. so here my list in no particular order.

Pet semetery (Gage and Zelda)
Carrie (creepy/evil Jesus)
Jaws ( the head scene)
Salems Lot (gave me nightmares for weeks as a kid)
Nightmare on Elm street (scared the shit out of me as a kid and was terrified to goto sleep)
Watership Down (a strange choice but this film is not subtle for young children)
Omen (the same scene with the nanny that nosferatu42 posted)
chitty chitty bang bang ( the child catcher was the stuff of nightmares)

List! would have put CCBB, but haven't seen it in years . I have an aversion to Dick Van Dyke etc

[Nosferatu@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Demoncrat

Jaws. Aye, the bit with the head always gets me

This moment gets a mention on my list even though the film isn't featured. It's a textbook example of a jump scare.

[Nosferatu@Cult Labs]

SCARIEST FILMS

Not really in any order:

• The Exorcist – when I first watched this it was an overwhelming experience of the everyday and supernatural horror affecting. However, with repeated viewings and academic study, the scenes which still frighten me are the documentary-style sequences of the medical tests which Regan undergoes. This is probably because of my own experiences in hospitals, but Friedkin's use of real medical professionals and the cinema vérité style makes it all the more affecting.
• Spoorloos – the idea of losing someone close to me and having no idea what happened to them, then gaining some sort of hope and meeting an undetermined fate is terrifying. The fact it is made in such a matter of fact and mundane way adds to the sense of not knowing who, if anyone, you can trust and death could be in any car park.
• The Texas Chain Saw Massacre – as pure a horror film as has ever been made, the A/V onslaught and nihilism never seems to reduce no matter how many times I watch the film.
• The Descent – when I watched this at the cinema I remember looking for light sources and have always tried to recreate the feeling by putting all the lights off and closing the Curtains before starting the film. There's something about the darkness and not knowing where something may be which is frightening.
• The Blair Witch Project – this is probably a polarising choice, but the ending really freaked me out the first time I saw this and, although that has been lessened with repeated viewings, it is still a film which leaves me a little shaken
• Open Water – despite the great jump scare with Ben Gardner's head and the score, I don't think I've ever really found Jaws to be scary. This, however, really preyed on my fear of being abandoned or lost and unable to fend for myself. The idea of not knowing whether it is best to know if there is something dangerous (like a shark) around you or not is a philosophical dilemma which could apply to many aspects of your life.
• The Birds – much of the film isn't overly scary and birds don't tend to frighten me either. However, the scene in which Melanie is attacked is effective because Hitchcock really did put Tippi Hedren under such physical and emotional trauma that she was hospitalised. I'm always a bit wary if a bird comes close to me a few days after watching the film!
• When the Wind Blows – I only watched this recently and it was around the time when people were first speculating (with the utmost seriousness) about the instability of the man currently listing his primary address as 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and the possibility of a Twitter spat escalating into nuclear war. The fact this film made me think about what could happen in the eventuality of a nuclear conflict and the terrifying implications for the entire world isn't a traditional 'fright' but made me consider some genuinely frightening permutations. I can't imagine how scary and affecting it was in 1986 when, like the situations outlined in Threads and The War Game, nuclear warfare was much more a part of everyday life than at present.
• The Beyond – because of the storyline and effects, this isn't a traditional scary film, but the way in which Joe the Plumber is killed, the general creepiness of Emily, the blind woman, and the general feeling of desperation and hopelessness that permeates the final third of the film before the incredibly desolate and downbeat ending is a little like how I feel when watching The Blair Witch Project because of the rush to get somewhere which is inevitably futile.
• Don't Look Now – I can't really add much more to what nos42 wrote on the previous page, that you could be the mercy of unseen forces which have power over you which is both omnipresent and unknown. The overwhelming sense of helplessness and being complicit in your own fate, one which is far from ideal, is present throughout and very unsettling.

Just missing out: Buried – I don't think is the best film ever made, but the relentless claustrophobia really unnerves me, and the ending really is nightmarish.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Sounds like you have a fear of being buried alive, Nos.

My mum has as well. She won't watch anything that features it. That Tarantino directed CSI double header was a total no-no.

[Nosferatu@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

Sounds like you have a fear of being buried alive, Nos.

My mum has as well. She won't watch anything that features it. That Tarantino directed CSI double header was a total no-no.

It's not so much a fear that puts me off watching anything featuring someone being buried alive, as some people would do if they have a fear of clowns, but when it happens in a film or TV show, it's something which taps into a fear of being in a position where I'm utterly helpless and the only thing to do is to lie there and wait for the inevitable.

I don't watch CSI so don't know the episodes you're referring to, but it is something I would probably watch even if I found it really disturbing. That's what I meant in my initial post for this week about horror being a masochistic choice for favourite film genre!

[Paul Zombie]

Top 10 scary films.

this i think is most difficult because i don't find most horror films scary at all and think actual real life is more terrorfying.
and i watch them for reasons of entertainment and find a lot of comedy in them as well, especially the Italian ones. even as a child i would sit there with a big grin on my face watching Dracula in Hammer films when the other kids were crying and hiding behind the sofa.

but that's not to say that there's nothing at all that hasn't scared me or made me a bit uneasy.

1)The Omen, was very well made and believable and a genuine scense of unease, eventhough it's lost the impact now.
2)The Exorcist, was also a bit unnerving on the first watch, eventhough i find it quite funny nowadays.
3)Let's Scare Jessica To Death, made me feel rather uneasy at the time, but i barely remember it now to be honest.
4)Aliens, i found a bit disturbing because i have a phobia of worms and tentacles, and didnt like the black tentacles coming up from under the water with Newt.
5)Threads, because the threat of war with Russia was real at the time.
6)Squirm, too many disgusting earthworms wriggling about.
7)The Worm Eaters, no thanks.
8)Ouatermass, not the Hammer ones, but starring John Mills and a bunch of weird hippies turning to stone. no idea why it disturbed me at the time.
9)The Wicker Man, the end was so powerful and a bit frightening
10)And a episode of Space 1999 called Dragon domain, with a horrible tentacle monster on a abandomed space ship eating people and mummifying them. much more scary than watching Cannibal Holocaust and I Spit on Your Grave as a kid.