Movies That Still Scared You Weeks After Viewing

[Totenkindly]

Oh, I tried to watch The Possession on NetFlix and only made it about ten minutes before dropping it -- I was laughing through much of it / was bored.

Sober?? See that's your problem.

If it wanted me drunk, it should have come with a peel-off coupon (like for upcoming cinema releases) except being $8 off a bottle of Jack Daniels instead!

 

[johnnyyukon]

Oh, I tried to watch The Possession on NetFlix and only made it about ten minutes before dropping it -- I was laughing through much of it / was bored.



If it wanted me drunk, it should have come with a peel-off coupon (like for upcoming cinema releases) except being $8 off a bottle of Jack Daniels instead!

So one pro tip, if a scary movie just doesn't seem that scary, eat a lot of acid alone, and your extreme paranoia and hallucinations will make it a far more fun experience!

 

[olivetti]

One that always scared me was Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1970s version with Donald Sutherland). I was scared of Mom's plants for weeks. And to this day, I've never heard anything like that screech from any movie, anywhere. I even saw the movie again in my 20s, and it still scared me. But then, I'm a lightweight.

 

[Magic Poriferan]

I can think of no example of a movie that frightened me for a week's time in my adulthood. I find horror films to be a very lame genre and I've hardly bothered paying any attention to them for years now.

The closest I can get to saying there is a movie that scared me for a prolonged time would be some film that drilled itself into my subconscious and made its way into my nightmares. By that measure, the answer would be Alien and Aliens. Those aliens have been in my dreams so many times.

 

[93JC]

The closest I can get to saying there is a movie that scared me for a prolonged time would be some film that drilled itself into my subconscious and made its way into my nightmares. By that measure, the answer would be Alien and Aliens. Those aliens have been in my dreams so many times.

"We'd better get back, 'cause it'll be dark soon, and they mostly come at night... Mostly..."​

 

[Polaris]

The scariest movie I ever watched was Silence of the Lambs, but its fear factor quickly wore off. About all I had afterwards was a fear that someone was going to eat me, which I had anyway, thanks to my grandmother watching the news and Court TV all the time. The movie that really worked its fear-instilling tendrils into me was Stephen King's It (the book's way better). Tim Curry as Pennywise the Dancing Clown is the most terrifying villain I've ever encountered, and to this day, he still appears in my nightmares from time to time.

 

[scantilyclad]

The Hills Have Eyes. I had to walk out of the movie theatre.

 

[windoverlake]

Images or atmospheric tones scare me more than a film in its entirety, so most horror films technically do their job of frightening me, but the only film I can recall that scared me weeks (now years) after viewing is the original 1988 version of The Vanishing.

 

[BadOctopus]

The Pale Man from Pan's Labyrinth still scares the bejesus out of me. Even though I know that it's Doug Jones under that makeup, and he's one of the sweetest guys alive.

 

[Totenkindly]

Not a movie, and it's nothing nowadays since computer tech has improved so much, but I remember being freaked out play Quake, which was a step up at the time. It was another advancement on the first person shooter, but with much moodier mazes and the monsters in it were pretty horrific especially for the time... not quite what you would expect. Pretty macabre, and

Left 4 Dead has this one monster called the Witch, utterly freaky and she just springs up when you trigger her and she comes right for you.

I don't know if I mentioned the opening scene in Cube. THAT image still hangs with me; it's on par with the crazy stuff from early Hellraiser (like the guy being torn to pieces in the opener and later, by all the hooks and chains).

Images or atmospheric tones scare me more than a film in its entirety, so most horror films technically do their job of frightening me, but the only film I can recall that scared me weeks (now years) after viewing is the original 1988 version of The Vanishing.

I didn't see the American remake (didn't want to, after I heard about the ending change)... but I did see the original 1988 version. So yeah -- I'm with you there.

 

[Frosty]

I don't really remember much of what I watched as a kid. I generally did not scare easily though, that was more my brother he had enough fear for the both of us and then some. I do remember one clip though...from Arthur

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MiB4dMwDFtg

I think it was more that it made me afraid of the library. Favorite place, but chance of being turned into a green monster... conflicting.

 

[BadOctopus]

[MENTION=7]Jennifer[/MENTION] I just did a Google search for the Left 4 Dead Witch. Eww. She's as creepy as the Pale Man.

But as long as we're mentioning video games, how about the EVERYTHING from Silent Hill 2?

 

[Jet Stream]

Oculus. That film is like an hour and a half long gimpse into hell forreal foreal

 

[Frosty]

Omg Megan is missing... That movie does a 180 pretty much from awful (as in just terrible acting/horrible movie) to totally just disturbing. One of few movies that really shook me up.

 

[Totenkindly]

I just did a Google search for the Left 4 Dead Witch. Eww. She's as creepy as the Pale Man.

They're kind of similar in conception (and hey, let's toss in Slender Man too!), except that Pale Man is slow but inexorable and steady, he will catch you if you don't get out, and you can always see him clearly, see that he is coming for you; the witch actually is in shadow so you just see half glimpses of her as she screams and runs towards you... so, they're like flip sides there, it's the kind of thing where you scream and fumble at the keys because you just know SOMETHING is coming for you and it's just too fast and you can't quite make it out.

But getting back to my description of Pale Man, inexorably coming for you: That's the premise of "It Follows" which just came out a month or two ago. And it's the same thing: It's coming for you, slow but inexorably. You can even see it coming if you recognize it. And it never speeds up, never changes pace... but it never STOPS. As soon as you stop running, you're allowing it to catch up. There's just some really terrifying shots when it gets into people's houses and how it manifests. And of course one of the broken bodies of its victims that shows up early in the movie... gaaaa...

There's stuff in The Babadook too that is unsettling after -- not just the damned book and The Babadook scuttling around and making its noises, but the thought that maybe it's just not an external monster at all but something dark inside each one of us... so you can't escape it.

But as long as we're mentioning video games, how about the EVERYTHING from Silent Hill 2?

Silent Hill came to mind but I've actually never played the games or saw the movies, so I didn't want to commit unless my indirect conception of the movies was accurate...

 

[windoverlake]

I don't know if I mentioned the opening scene in Cube. THAT image still hangs with me; it's on par with the crazy stuff from early Hellraiser (like the guy being torn to pieces in the opener and later, by all the hooks and chains).

Yes, Cube's opening scene!

 

[windoverlake]

Omg Megan is missing... That movie does a 180 pretty much from awful (as in just terrible acting/horrible movie) to totally just disturbing. One of few movies that really shook me up.

Just reading the plot summary on Wikipedia is disturbing. Wow.

 

[Yama]

The Human Centipede. I will say no more

 

[windoverlake]

The Human Centipede. I will say no more

 

[Totenkindly]

The Human Centipede. I will say no more

hahahaha!

... okay. Yeah. That last 15-20 minutes was pretty bad, thanks for reminding me.

Let's go the next logical step: Human Centipede 2, when Little Troll Man gets out the ball-peen hammer, and... I'll stop there. I'll just note that Ebert gave it a "no stars" rating.

Those scenes linger, even if they are stupid and coarse.