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Scare me, rllmuk

Scribblor

By Scribblor,
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Scribblor

Scribblor

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As I said in the Netflix Recommendations thread, I want a film to scare me.

But they don't. Two films have given me brief scared moments: Dark Water (the original Japanese version), and Paranormal Activity.

I also found Picnic At Hanging Rock relentlessly creepy. It is the best horror film I've ever seen. Most people don't think it's a horror film though, which may be one reason most horror films don't do anything for me.

But hopefully you lot have some suggestions for me.

What film do you think will scare me?

I'll give anything a go, but in general I prefer 'terror' over 'horror' (so tense build ups over monsters chasing people on camera). I'm not really interested in slasher films or torture porn films. I tend to find them uninteresting compared to supernatural stuff.

I've just watched Drag Me To Hell, and thought it was pretty rubbish. The 'scares' were rote, the plot was dull and the ending was telegraphed and sub Twilight Zone corny. Also recently watched and been really disappointed in Insidious 1&2, House Of The Devil, John Dies At The End, The Amityville Horror remake and Children Of The Corn.

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ZOK

ZOK

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The only genuinely scary film I have ever watched is the original Funny Games.

Picnic at Hanging Rock is indeed creepy. Seriously though, you are barking up the wrong tree expecting scares with horror films. Unless you are a child, they are all shit.

Edward Yang's The Terrorisers might be up your street.

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b00dles

b00dles

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Depends on scares, I find Jacob's Ladder really unpleasant, it's more of a psychological thriller than a out and out 'horror' film though.

Original Halloween has some good 'did I see that?' moments which makes you doubt your own brain a bit and these days are signposted to fuck,

The Eye (japanese version) has some quite freaky bits. House of a 1,000 corpses is quite rank due to tricks with filters and sound but is also very silly if you can separate yourself from it...

I really like the original Fly too, I find it very uncomfortable but it might be a bit too old school for some people.

And if Irreversible doesn't make you feel quite sick, then I'd be surprised. Although that's just straight up unpleasant, rather than a horror or anything.

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marcus

marcus

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Martyrs. If anyone can find a more disturbing movie I don't want to watch it.

Martyrs is barbaric rather than scary I would say, highly disturbing is an understatement. The French horrors mentioned above are also effective but again not scary, on that list I loved High Tension.

To be honest I struggle to think of many films that did actually scare me, the original Paranormal Activity had an effect much like Blair Witch. The Descent is one of my favourite horrors and has moments of high tenseness and jumps. And anything with clowns in.

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Paulando

Paulando

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Very few films scare me too. The Shining is my favourite horror, just watching Jack Torrance slowly melt down is immensely creepy.

More recently, I found The Descent difficult on first viewing. It relies mostly on jump scares, but it does it so damn well, I could barely watch the thing :lol:

I know exactly which bit you mean in Dark Water, and I found Lake Mungo had a similar build up and pay off.

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Tofu

Tofu

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Nothing has scared me shitless since watching Ringu years ago, this was pre-hype but it was the first time I was really, really scared. So that film always has a special place in my heart.

My favourite horror films are the old ones, like people have mentioned Shining and Alien, simply because they're horror with a really good story. Ju-on are worth a watch, the first film and TV series are creepy, however, the later ones are bit poor.

Also try Shutter too.

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George Clooney

George Clooney

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Well, it just so happens there was a thread about this a year ago that might be helpful to you.

Some personal recommendations from that list though, or at least ones you may have not already seen;

A Tale of Two Sisters - it gets overlooked due to the influx of asian horror that happened at its released, notably the Ring and Ju-on taking most the attention, but IMO it's better than both. It's possibly because it's a harder film to get into. The story is a lot more complicatied, and while the film overall is generally creepier and more unsettling than either of those 2, it's not got a standout creep factor moment that people remember it for. It got a Hollywood remake too, which did poorly (the Uninvited) but if you've seen that, please dont let that reflect on this one.

REC - one of the best found footage films, that shows how to actually use the camera well, while still making it look like something that is actually being filmed for real (check out yourmoviesucks on youtube for a pretty good comparison to the US version which shows how while it seemed mostly the same, the little changes actually affected it a lot).

The Cabin in the Woods - while most people say "dont read anything about this before watching it!", it pretty much plays it's hand from the opening scene, even if it doesnt show it fully. While some of the stuff at the start is more playing to the premise of the film than it is actually scary, the ending cranks up wonderfully to one of the most spectacularly realised scenes in any horror film I've scene. It's a wonderfully clever take on the genre, but part of your enjoyment may be tied to how much you buy into that, as it's not massively scarely for most of it.

Black Christmas - another film with an inferior remake...you'd think they'd start to twig. Anyway, there surely is no better time to watch this, with one of the most amazingly creepy killers in all of film, some chilling imagery (there is a shot of one victim that still haunts my brain) and what at the time was a horrifying ending that we've probably been desensitised to a bit, but it's still creepy as fuck. The entire film was on youtube, well worth a watch.

Whistle and I'll come for you - didnt even know of this one before the list. Short, old and has terrible effects, but is still creepy as fuck. Worth the 11 minutes or whatever of your time.

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Tofu

Tofu

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Not the American remake, please.

No-one has mentioned Sinister yet - thats pretty unsettling (at least for the first half, then it gets pretty dumb)

Hell no, the original.

Sakebi and Loft are really good too, maybe also Cure?.

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George Clooney

George Clooney

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I found the home movies in Sinister really effective and creepy as fuck. It's just the rest of the film was a bit poop. I think there's been a bit of a theme with that in western horror recently, in terms of films that get some stuff right, but then shit it up somehow, often with the end. Mama and Insidious are both films that had some good stuff utterly ruined by some stupid stuff.

It's worth watching the short for Mama on YouTube.

Though this doesn't have the ending it originally had, which I can't find.

Also for shorts, Bedfellows is worth a watch;

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womblingfree

womblingfree

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A l'interior (Inside)

Haute tension (High tension)

Frontier(s)

Ils

I love Frontier(s). Was a bit disappointed by Ils,mostly the last 20mins. High Tension is good and Inside is only spoiled by having the dumbest cops outside of a Naked Gun movie.

There's another one I've not seen yet by the same guys as Inside called Livid which looks promising.

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Let us measure

Let us measure

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Second A Tale of Two Sisters, I can't remember much about it apart from one scene, which has stayed for me for the eight or so years since I watched it.

But if you enjoyed the brilliant Picnic at Hanging Rock, then I can't recommend Don't Look Now (Nicholas Roeg, 1973) enough. Same level of unintelligible malevolence throughout the film and a fantastic, now-infamous denouement, which I would say laid the path for all the Asian Ring-type films to follow. Avoid all spoilers if you know nothing about it. That, The Shining and The Exorcist remain the three scariest films I've ever seen.

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Scribblor

Scribblor

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Thanks for all the suggestions. A lot to check out here. I have Session 9 on my hard drive but haven't got round to watching it.

Seen most of the old classics.

The Shining, Don't Look Now and The Exorcist are all great films, but none of them scared me in the least. Poltergeist is good too, but again not scary. Alien's brilliant too, and tense as hell, but not scary in the sense that it frightened me. Cabin In The Woods was fun but I can't believe anyone was scared by it.

I kind of agree with ZOK that horror films are pants if I'm looking to be scared (other than jump scares, which can work well momentarily). But my wife and most of my friends won't watch horror films because they do get frightened. So it must be possible. Perhaps just not for me. That would be disappointing though.

I get terrified in dreams though, when my dreams are like horror films and I encounter supernatural things like ghosts and demons and what have you. That's what I want when I watch a film, for some reason.

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Vimster

Vimster

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Shock Waves (1977)

The trailer doesn't do it justice, plus whilst it stars Peter Cushing he's in it for less than five minutes, but it was a surprisingly scary film, mainly down to a combination of decent direction and a seriously doom-laden synth soundtrack. It manages to build a tense atmosphere without resorting to gore and other cheap tricks. It's not a classic by any means, and some of the acting is rough, but it's well worth a watch.

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Tofu

Tofu

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Shock Waves (1977)

The trailer doesn't do it justice, plus whilst it stars Peter Cushing he's in it for less than five minutes, but it was a surprisingly scary film, mainly down to a combination of decent direction and a seriously doom-laden synth soundtrack. It manages to build a tense atmosphere without resorting to gore and other cheap tricks. It's not a classic by any means, and some of the acting is rough, but it's well worth a watch.

Watched this this week, I found it pretty naff due to the story and acting, hasn't really aged well.

On the otherhand Woman In Black is awesome, that scared the crap out of me when I was young. This was the ITV TV movie, however, the new remake was pretty good up until the last 30 mins.

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