Horror Movie Scares

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 10/22/11 at 9:10pm

I was re-watching IN THE MOUTH OF MADNESS tonight (I forgot how much I like this movie) and had forgotten about the scene in which the white haired man on the bike passes Sam Neill and I almost pooped.

What are some moments in movies that just stop your heart and make you crap your pants?

[strummergirl]

Posted: 10/22/11 at 9:16pm

The last 15-20 minutes of Audition.

[tazber]

Posted: 10/23/11 at 2:45am

Speaking of Audition, what about that scene about halfway through where she's on the phone and suddenly the bag behind her convulses.

The first WTF moment in a movie that still holds the crown for WTF moments.

Also:
the final shot of "Carrie"

[JohnBoy2]

Posted: 10/23/11 at 8:21am

The first time I saw this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zH8ynu0jRvY

[uncageg]

Posted: 10/23/11 at 10:25am

I second the final shot of "Carrie". Also the scene near the end of "Halloween" in the hall when Michael Meyers sits up.

[uncageg]

Posted: 10/23/11 at 10:26am

Sorry, the site did something weird and double posted.

Updated On: 10/23/11 at 10:26 AM

[JerseyGirl2]

Posted: 10/23/11 at 10:39am

The first scene in THIS montage. Gah!

Updated On: 10/23/11 at 10:39 AM

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 10/23/11 at 11:24am

Johnboy, I've never even seen that movie, but that was AWESOME!

[JohnBoy2]

Posted: 10/23/11 at 12:05pm

You MUST see it. It's my favorite horror film. Of course, I just ruined that scene, for you.

[best12bars]

Posted: 10/23/11 at 12:46pm

I saw "Carrie" the day it opened. I think I was 13 or 14 years old. To this day, I have not heard a sold-out audience scream quite like that collectively. The final shot was set up so well, too, with the "Summer's Eve douche ad" approach: tranquil pictures, soft focus, warm colors, and Pino Donaggio's lovely music, and then ... GOTCHA!!!

They tried it in other horror movies after that, like the end of Friday the 13th, and it worked, more or less.

I'll add a few others to my list:

The crucifix scene in The Exorcist
The pea soup fountain in The Exorcist
The final shot of the Blair Witch Project
The "big reveal" near the end of Don't Look Now
Mom in the rocking chair in Psycho
The shower scene in Psycho (well, maybe not the 350th time you've seen it, but try to remember back to the first, particularly if it hadn't been spoiled for you yet)
The reveal of Damien's "mother" in the grave, in The Omen

And of course, the entire film of A Chorus Line.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 10/23/11 at 12:55pm

Am I really the only person who has never been scared by THE EXORCIST? I saw it for the first time when I was around 8 years old and just thought it was boring. Over the years I've grown to appreciate it more but it's never once even given me the slightest "chill" watching it.

[adamgreer]

Posted: 10/23/11 at 1:11pm

Am I really the only person who has never been scared by THE EXORCIST? I saw it for the first time when I was around 8 years old and just thought it was boring. Over the years I've grown to appreciate it more but it's never once even given me the slightest "chill" watching it.

No. It never scared me, and actually makes me laugh now. I will never, for the life of me, understand why that movie is mentioned among the scariest films ever made.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 10/23/11 at 1:16pm

Updated On: 10/23/11 at 01:16 PM

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 10/23/11 at 1:35pm

For me it's the shot of Mother coming out of the bedroom to stab Detective Arbogast in PSYCHO. Just the way the camera is placed, the sound, and Mother are so disturbing.
There's also the moment in THE SHINING where Shelley Duvall discovers the manuscript Jack has been working on.

[tazber]

Posted: 10/23/11 at 3:02pm

I always thougt Legion was underrated.

The Heretic is pretty fantastic too, but only as a comedy.

[best12bars]

Posted: 10/23/11 at 3:09pm

My theory about The Exorcist is that people who grew up a generation or two later had either already been exposed to WAY too many rip-offs of it (nothing, and I mean NOTHING was similar to that movie when it was first released), or they have been desensitized by other horror movies that were far gorier.

Even if you saw this movie when you were eight, unless it was the first horror movie you'd ever seen of that ilk, I would imagine you wouldn't be as effected by it.

"Back in the day," when it was released, it scared the crap out of millions and millions of people.

I had a similar reaction to Casablanca (not a horror film comparison, LOL). I mean that I had already been exposed to SO many similar films, I'd seen all the spoofs, heard all the cliche lines, etc, before I actually saw the film. And when I did, I was like, "meh."

It took me several years and several more viewings to appreciate it. And now, I absolutely love it. But I had to rid myself of all my preconceptions and "history" in order to do that, which isn't easy.

[doodlenyc]

Posted: 10/24/11 at 10:02am

I love that scene in Exorcist III at the nurse's station, also the "radio lady". Great film, very well directed by Blatty himself.

I'll agree with besty that in 1973 there was no talk of exorcism, so it was totally new and shocking. Since then, and in part due to the film and the many rip off's that followed, there is a resurgence of belief in posession. It also helped if you grew up catholic, I think. Perhaps I was impressionable enough to be scared sh*tless from just the television commercials!

When I was older and could actually see the film, I realized that it was just a great film. Great story, well acted and very well directed, imo. The biggest scare is still the flame in the attic to me.

[strummergirl]

Posted: 10/24/11 at 10:52am

I definitely agree with Besty about The Exorcist. I heard so much about it and all of the shocking things mentioned always seemed to be indiscreetly referenced whenever I heard about the film (aside from Father Karras sacrificing himself, which was the only surprise I got in first viewing) that I never was really scared or shocked. I still respect how well-done, well-directed, and well-acted it was even when I first saw it. Mercedes McCambridge's vocals are still effective and have to be heard to be believed.

Now when I watched Exorcist III, it was on some random satellite channel, and it was just beginning. I had time to spare and thought 'Well, it has George C. Scott, who I would watch reading the dictionary, and anything has to be better than The Heretic'. It did scare me more than The Exorcist. Brad Dourif and Jason Miller make a scary pair. Very well-done though I hear so many things on what was supposed to be Blatty's definitive cut and the intentions he had for the movie amidst all of the studio re-shoots. The movie critic Mark Kermode, practically an expert on the entire lore of The Exorcist, has a lot of material on Legion.
Updated On: 10/24/11 at 10:52 AM

[doodlenyc]

Posted: 10/24/11 at 11:11am

BTW, both novels are great. I'm glad you mentioned McCambridge strummergirl. Her contribution and the sound of the film were a big part of the scare and shock. It added so much to the film and the fright of this little girl monster. There are clips of some scenes in regan's room using only Blair's voice and it seems funny (although you do get an even better idea of just how good she was.)

Another shocker is the ending of Sleepaway Camp. Even if you guess what happens, the image is pretty shocking.

[Roscoe]

Posted: 10/24/11 at 11:34am

I've never been a fan of THE EXORCIST -- a couple of good jolts, the best being when Ellen Burstyn is attacked by some furniture. I just find the film works very hard to be very Important, somehow, and it just never flies for me. Whatever.

Real scares:

The opening sequence in NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, culminating in the discovery of the corpse upstairs.

Much of the original TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE -- the film, along with NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, that comes closest to actually being a waking nightmare.

More recently, that little scene in ZODIAC where an unsuspecting woman finds herself in the same car with the Zodiac himself.

And for a different kind of scare, that little scene in THE SHINING where Shelley Duvall goes through Jack's paperwork.

Updated On: 10/24/11 at 11:34 AM

[best12bars]

Posted: 10/24/11 at 1:32pm

One of the biggest, most effective aspects of The Exorcist is the style. It was shot very "bare bones," with that gritty "noise filled" 1970s cheap film stock. It looks almost like a documentary at times, and that also has to do with the camera work (particularly during the exorcism scenes, but others as well). Then Friedkin was smart enough to throw out the music score that he had budgeted (quite a bit) for, by Lalo Schifrin. He chose instead to use only sparse music throughout, including roughly 30 seconds of Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells. But during the film's most intense scenes, there is no music. That also helped with the "real" and claustrophobic feeling.

And the subject matter really messed with people's heads. I'm talking about the religious aspects. It made Rosemary's Baby look like Snow White. This was a demon possessing an apple-cheeked innocent young girl and every hideous horror that came with it. Add to that the cooperation of the Catholic Church (to the point that several jesuit priests actually played the jesuit priests in the movie), and it added another level of authenticity to the film. This was largely "taboo" stuff.

People actually fainted watching this film. They had (real or self-imagined) seizures, they "spoke in tongues," they went to therapy for severe emotional trauma after seeing the movie.

As I said, many movies have copied the techniques and basic premise since then, but in 1973, The Exorcist was something new, especially taken to these extremes.

[Jay Lerner-Z]

Posted: 10/24/11 at 3:29pm

I think that audiences today may be a little too clever for their own good, with regard to how films are actually made - I saw The Exorcist as a probably too young child, and I can tell you I was terrified. I wasn't thinking about the director, script, what an amazing actress Ellen Burstyn is, or pea soup.

What with DVD commentaries and all the information that comes out about movies before they're even filmed, perhaps these days people are too familiar with how the sausage is made to actually be scared? Or maybe I'm just being ageist, and the 1970s wasn't the stone age I imagine.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 10/24/11 at 3:35pm

But as I was saying even at such an early age not having seen many horror movies yet, it still didn't scare me. I found it weird and boring. I remember being more terrified by a movie called THE GATE though, right around the same time. I saw it again not too long ago and it was incredibly stupid and I couldn't figure out what made it so scary to me.

But I do get what you guys are saying about how people who see it now for the first time aren't scared by it. But that's just not how it was in my case.

[Reginald Tresilian]

Posted: 10/24/11 at 3:42pm

It did scare me when I first saw as a young teen.

I don't know if "scare" is the right word now, but it still unsettles me like no other film I know. It has a plausbility that gets under my skin. Whenever I see it now, I come away with a feeling of dread that I can't shake for days.

[Leia947]

Posted: 10/24/11 at 5:59pm

Jordan, I was never scared by The Exorcist, either. And it could be like best2 said, because I felt the same way about Casablanca, as was mentioned. As for The Gate... well, it had a very young Stephen Dorff in it, and that was probably the only reason I loved it.

I can't pinpoint the scariest moments, but I saw The Shining when I was 8, and I still can't watch it without holding a pillow in front of my face. Same for The Ring - the US remake. I don't know why it scared the **** out of me, but it did.