OT: Movie/TV program that really scared you
In the spirit of the given month, I thought it'd be cool to post about our favorite Halloween picks. Specifically movies, TV shows, specials that left an impression because they scared us.
My entry is a show called Haunted Lives (I watched it under the name Real Ghosts) which aired as three separate specials on CBS and later on UPN in the early 90s. There's one reenactment that scared me so much I covered my eyes and ears and refused to open them till there was a commercial. I spent the rest of the night watching college football in the other room for the first time.
October 4th, 2020 at 2:22 PM ^
Show is “are you afraid of the dark?” Scared the hell out of me when I was a kid.
Movie was probably Texas chainsaw massacre or scream.
October 4th, 2020 at 2:24 PM ^
Pet Semetary. I slept with my lights on that night.
October 4th, 2020 at 6:55 PM ^
You don’t wanna go down that road
October 4th, 2020 at 2:25 PM ^
Arachnophobia. Deathly afraid of spiders.
October 5th, 2020 at 10:22 AM ^
I sat there watching that movie with my Dad and broke out in a sweat...he kept saying he would turn it off but I wouldn't let him. Funny movie to watch now, but back then as a kid I was terrified.
October 4th, 2020 at 2:27 PM ^
Jaws and Alien.
Jaws: I kept waking up from a nightmare thinking my mattress was a raft on the ocean and the shark was swimming straight up at me.
Alien: Totally creeped me out. No nightmares from that, but scared me big time in the theater.
October 4th, 2020 at 2:27 PM ^
As a kid two stand out to me:
Movie: The Nightmare Before Christmas.
TV show: TV special titled “The Chicken from Outer Space” which became the pilot for Courage the Cowardly Dog
October 4th, 2020 at 2:28 PM ^
MOVIE: been mentioned a few times, but Event Horizon is a fucked up movie
October 4th, 2020 at 2:37 PM ^
Event Horizon is always the first movie that pops in my brain when I think of a film that actually freaked me out. I thought I would be the only person to come in here with that thought process. Turns out a lot of people agree on this one.
Event Horizon is a mind fuck that still holds up in 2020, I watched it this winter.
October 4th, 2020 at 2:29 PM ^
"The Night Stalker," a 1972 ABC-TV "Movie of the Week." It starred Darren McGavin as an investigative reporter who suspects that a serial killer is actually a vampire. He wasn't wrong.
Scared the bejeezus out of 11-year-old me.
October 4th, 2020 at 4:53 PM ^
“Kolchak: The Night Stalker” became a short-lived series in ‘74-‘75. It did star Darren McGavin. Loved it as a kid. Scared the hell out of me. Cheesy AF today, but this is about age.
Already mentioned, but “The Exorcist” is the scariest movie of all time. “The Conjuring” and “Paranormal Activity” are the only other movies to give me the same chills.
October 4th, 2020 at 2:31 PM ^
Get Out and Requiem For a Dream were the most psychologically horrifying movies I've ever seen, and I've seen hundreds of horror movies. Ironically, Get Out is seen as more of a suspense and Requiem For a Dream a drama.
InsidiouseInsidious 1/2 and Sinister are phenomenal modern horror.
All of the classic slashers (Halloween, Child's Play, Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th, and Scream) are a lot of fun.
October 5th, 2020 at 4:34 AM ^
I felt the need to take a shower after Requiem for a Dream.
October 4th, 2020 at 2:32 PM ^
Aliens.
October 4th, 2020 at 2:42 PM ^
Great movie? Yes. Scary? Not so much. You wouldn't last 17 minutes in a truly scary movie!
October 4th, 2020 at 3:40 PM ^
Thanks?
?
October 4th, 2020 at 2:35 PM ^
There was a Jonny Quest episode with an invisible monster. Terrified me as a kid.
October 4th, 2020 at 2:55 PM ^
Loved that episode! Painting it was a stroke of genius.
October 4th, 2020 at 2:37 PM ^
Mother! By Darren Aronofsky (the same guy who did Requiem for a Dream and Black Swan) really sticks out to me. It’s isn’t really “scary,” but it’s suspenseful and a VERY disturbing and psychologically/emotionally scaring movie. I saw it in theaters three years ago after the Air Force game, and I’m still haunted by a few of the scenes.
October 4th, 2020 at 2:37 PM ^
Hereditary is terrifying.
October 4th, 2020 at 9:12 PM ^
I loved Hereditary but didn't find it very scary. The last few minutes made up for that.
Have you seen Midsommar? Same sort of slow burn psychological horror with a great payoff.
Very excited to see what Ari Aster does next.
October 4th, 2020 at 9:25 PM ^
Midsommar is one of my favorite movies! Arguably one of the best films ever made from an analytical standpoint.
October 4th, 2020 at 2:38 PM ^
MTV had a program called "Fear" when I was a teenager. The contestants would wear a body cam and go exploring in pitch dark "haunted" locations like an abandoned psychiatric hospital, abandoned prison etc. That show scared the **** out of me.
They had to do some things like conduct a seance, sit in a deactivated electric chair, spend a night alone in a cell etc.
October 4th, 2020 at 2:52 PM ^
I vaguely remember that show from when I was a kid!
October 4th, 2020 at 2:58 PM ^
That show was unreal at the time, way before the "reality" horror shows of today. I remember there was an episode where every single member quit because the place had so much activity.
October 4th, 2020 at 2:41 PM ^
When I was young, it was the scene in Poltergeist where one of the researchers has maggots in his face and peels all the skin off.
October 4th, 2020 at 2:47 PM ^
I don't do the paranormal stuff! Monsters, Serial Killers, Vampires, Aliens don't bother me but I can't handle the supernatural horrors.
The Ring - Went with my GF at the time and all of her friends to the late show on a cold rainy night, we all left with chills.
Paranormal Activity - Me and the wife watched in the middle of the day and she couldn't be left alone in our apartment for a week. (To be fair when I was alone I had every light on)
Haunting of Hill House - After the paranormal activity experience we pretty much swore off the supernatural shows but decided to give the Netflix series a try. We really liked the series but there was a few times I jumped and one particular moment I woke the kids up from their rooms by yelling "OH S!IT!".
October 4th, 2020 at 2:49 PM ^
The Day After
October 4th, 2020 at 4:19 PM ^
Utterly terrifying to see that in grade school. I wonder if it holds up today?
As an adult, season 1 of The Man in the High Castle scared the crap out of me.
October 5th, 2020 at 10:59 AM ^
Great pick. We must be similar ages. That movie left an indelible impression on a kid (me) growing up during the Cold War and living within 20 miles of a B-52 bomber base.
October 4th, 2020 at 3:04 PM ^
the diner scene from mulholland dr.
i refuse to watch the part by the dumpster ever again.
October 4th, 2020 at 3:06 PM ^
Jaws.
October 4th, 2020 at 3:17 PM ^
Everything Orwellian used to scare me, as its themes blurred the lines between reality and fiction.
The past few years have forced me to come to terms with my fears.
October 4th, 2020 at 3:25 PM ^
American Horror Story is one I always look forward to every year for Halloween.
October 4th, 2020 at 3:30 PM ^
Anybody remember the show Unsolved Mysteries? That show scared the shit out of me as kid.
October 4th, 2020 at 3:40 PM ^
Same here. Even the theme song.
October 4th, 2020 at 6:18 PM ^
There are new ones out now too.
October 4th, 2020 at 9:54 PM ^
The reboot was released on Netflix July 1st 2020, and it was #1 on Netflix for a week or two.
I would highly recommend episode one about a mysterious death in Baltimore. Truly strange.
October 5th, 2020 at 4:38 AM ^
This show was the worst as a really young kid. I can still hear the theme music-- it terrified me.
October 4th, 2020 at 3:32 PM ^
The HBO Autopsy series with Michael Baden back in the 90’s. It came on at 11 pm and I would always watch it with the lights off for some reason. The music was the part that would keep me on edge
October 4th, 2020 at 3:46 PM ^
Playing OSU every year... not scared of OSU, sacred to see the score at the end of the debacle
October 5th, 2020 at 8:21 AM ^
Yes, it's a horror version of Ground Hog Day.
October 4th, 2020 at 4:05 PM ^
Original Halloween. We scared shitless coming out of theatre.
October 4th, 2020 at 4:12 PM ^
The first time I saw Alien, I was in 5th grade, and that freaked me out pretty good. It's one of my absolute favorite movies now, though. Same with Jurassic Park- I saw that in theaters when I was in 3rd grade, and that also scared the hell out of me. Again, one of my favorites now.
When I finally got around to seeing The Exorcist, i found that to be a pretty powerful experience, but I'd already absorbed some of the really big scenes through pop culture osmpsis, so they lost some of their impact. That said, the scenes that made me really squirm in that one were the awful medical tests they put Regan through at the beginning of the movie- that angiogram scene is awful!
I've only seen the first two Paranormal Activity (activites?) films, but I found those to be really effective. I caught Hereditary in theaters as well, and that gave me shivers too.
October 4th, 2020 at 4:13 PM ^
I went to visit my brother at Georgetown and he showed me the house where The Exorcist was filmed (near the famous steps). He says go knock on the door, they'll let you come in and look around. Sure enough he was right. (This was late eighties, probably not true anymore.) I walked up the stairs and looked to the right and said, that's enough for me.
That, and that freakin' music, means The Exorcist will top my list of scary movies so long as I shall live.
October 4th, 2020 at 4:14 PM ^
Was young when I saw children of the corn and it at my neighbor. That shit terrified me.
October 4th, 2020 at 4:18 PM ^
Saw this episode of "One Step Beyond" when I was 7. I already thought clowns were creepy, and this made it worse. The mental image of a malevolent clown behind me holding a pair of scissors that I can only see in the mirror has stuck with me all these years.
October 4th, 2020 at 4:43 PM ^
I saw "Silence of the Lambs" on VCR in 1991, alone, in my dad's cabin in northern Michigan. I was 17 at the time, but alone, in the woods, miles from anyone else. Scared me to no end. Slept with lights on. True story...
October 4th, 2020 at 5:11 PM ^
I feel like so much just got explained...