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Scary movies
The 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. I was 10 when it was in cinemas so I couldn't have seen it in a theatre. But I grew up in the 'video nasties' era, when a little kid could wander into a video rental store and walk out with anything from the latest Disney movie to Cannibal Holocaust and while the person behind the counter might offer a warning, it wasn't illegal to supply it. I spend many hours browsing the horror catalogue in our local rental and I probably saw Poltergeist as soon as it came out for rent. That would have been when I was 12 or 13 - too old to identify with Carol Anne, but not old enough to see myself as the mom or teen daughter.
Just as well, I think. If I'd felt any more at home with the film I think the scars would have been permanent.
What scared me? Hell, what didn't? The little girl trapped in the TV. A space-warp in the living room. A man hallucinating ripping his own face off. Dragons in the closet. Cofins in the swimming pool. And all of this in a totally normal, suburban street where the worst thing that happens is a neighbour's TV interfering with yours. And a normal, happy family.
But even now, there are two scenes that stay with me. The first is the clown. I didn't even know fear of clowns was a thing until the BTVS nightmare ep where Xander got chased by one. But that clown toy was creepy. It was actually a relief when the toy finally attacked, because it just sitting on a chair doing nothing was scary enough.
The other part that scared me, enough that I still can't watch that scene with my eyes open, is the tree. Because I love trees. It's my biggest childhood regret that I wasn't better at climbing them. But that tree dragging the boy out of his room and sucking him in... eek. Still can't. Because in the morning, when its light and all the terrifying stuff seems like it's gone, the boy still has a scar on his face. It was real, that canibalistic tree. Not a nightmare. It happened. My godparents lived near a park with lots of really old trees in it. After Poltergeist, I couldn't stand walking through there after dark.
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. I was 10 when it was in cinemas so I couldn't have seen it in a theatre. But I grew up in the 'video nasties' era, when a little kid could wander into a video rental store and walk out with anything from the latest Disney movie to Cannibal Holocaust and while the person behind the counter might offer a warning, it wasn't illegal to supply it. I spend many hours browsing the horror catalogue in our local rental and I probably saw Poltergeist as soon as it came out for rent. That would have been when I was 12 or 13 - too old to identify with Carol Anne, but not old enough to see myself as the mom or teen daughter.
Just as well, I think. If I'd felt any more at home with the film I think the scars would have been permanent.
What scared me? Hell, what didn't? The little girl trapped in the TV. A space-warp in the living room. A man hallucinating ripping his own face off. Dragons in the closet. Cofins in the swimming pool. And all of this in a totally normal, suburban street where the worst thing that happens is a neighbour's TV interfering with yours. And a normal, happy family.
But even now, there are two scenes that stay with me. The first is the clown. I didn't even know fear of clowns was a thing until the BTVS nightmare ep where Xander got chased by one. But that clown toy was creepy. It was actually a relief when the toy finally attacked, because it just sitting on a chair doing nothing was scary enough.
The other part that scared me, enough that I still can't watch that scene with my eyes open, is the tree. Because I love trees. It's my biggest childhood regret that I wasn't better at climbing them. But that tree dragging the boy out of his room and sucking him in... eek. Still can't. Because in the morning, when its light and all the terrifying stuff seems like it's gone, the boy still has a scar on his face. It was real, that canibalistic tree. Not a nightmare. It happened. My godparents lived near a park with lots of really old trees in it. After Poltergeist, I couldn't stand walking through there after dark.
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.