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Scary movies
Oct. 23rd, 2014 07:19 pmThe Guardian film section is having a Halloween celebration with each of the critics writing about the movie that frightens them most. You can find them all online if you're interested.
Anyhow, I thought I'd do the same. Horror films rarely scare me. Oh, I jump with everyone else at those moments, but being startled isn't being scared. Scared is when it stays with you after the film ends.
The first film that ever truly scared me in that way was the Hammer House of Horror's Charlie Boy. I was 7 or 8 (yes, way too young to be watching late-night creature features), and what scared me was the sheer inexorability of it. It's about a Voodoo doll - the kind you stick pins in to curse someone. In this case, the pin is stuck through a photograph then through the doll, and everyone in the photo starts to die, one by one. The Final Destination series repeated the concept but those never scared me like Charlie Boy. It was so random, and the characters had no idea death was coming. It stayed with me for a long time, that one. I guess technically that's not a movie, though, as the House of Horror series was made for TV.
So we come to the second. Poltergeist. Still gives me shivers today, though in a different way. ( Cut for length )
Honourable mentions go to...
Silence of the Lambs which is the only film ever to give me actual nightmares. Although the nightmare wasn't about the film. I'm just pretty sure it came from there through my twisty turny subconscious.
Cabin in the Woods as one of only two films to disturb me enough that I vowed never to watch them again. In the case of Cabin in the Woods I eventually did re-watch. At home, on Netflix, with lots of pausing. The other was Se7en and I'm never watching that again, ever. Ever. I really mean it.
Anyhow, I thought I'd do the same. Horror films rarely scare me. Oh, I jump with everyone else at those moments, but being startled isn't being scared. Scared is when it stays with you after the film ends.
The first film that ever truly scared me in that way was the Hammer House of Horror's Charlie Boy. I was 7 or 8 (yes, way too young to be watching late-night creature features), and what scared me was the sheer inexorability of it. It's about a Voodoo doll - the kind you stick pins in to curse someone. In this case, the pin is stuck through a photograph then through the doll, and everyone in the photo starts to die, one by one. The Final Destination series repeated the concept but those never scared me like Charlie Boy. It was so random, and the characters had no idea death was coming. It stayed with me for a long time, that one. I guess technically that's not a movie, though, as the House of Horror series was made for TV.
So we come to the second. Poltergeist. Still gives me shivers today, though in a different way. ( Cut for length )
Honourable mentions go to...
Silence of the Lambs which is the only film ever to give me actual nightmares. Although the nightmare wasn't about the film. I'm just pretty sure it came from there through my twisty turny subconscious.
Cabin in the Woods as one of only two films to disturb me enough that I vowed never to watch them again. In the case of Cabin in the Woods I eventually did re-watch. At home, on Netflix, with lots of pausing. The other was Se7en and I'm never watching that again, ever. Ever. I really mean it.
