What is your pick for Scariest Horror Movie ever?

[Emile]

My pick is The Exorcist.

That same night after watching the movie at a theater, my girlfriend woke me up in the middle of my sleep. She was sitting up in bed with a big grin and twisting her head back and forth. She scared the living shit out of me.

[underpants]

1. The Exorcist and that was the edited for TV version

Network TV.

[a kennedy]

50. Yup, that's it for me as well, she turning her head completely around just freaked me out for a long time....

[Jrose]

2. 'Alien' and the sequel, 'Aliens'... saw both in theaters!

Always kept some lights on in my apartment when sleeping ever since!

[Shermann]

5. +1 to Alien

The movie was later adapted to a novel which I got from a garage sale and read. It scared the crap out of me.

Then I saw the movie and got scared all over again.

Aliens was great but was more of an action movie that didn't reach the same level of psychological horror for me. That said, the one scene with Ripley and Newt being locked in with a face-hugger did give me chills.

[nocoincidences]

29. I'm in for the first two Aliens!

I knew the minute I saw Alien it was something new in horror film history!!

[Stardust Mirror]

3. 2016 election results n/t

[gab13by13]

4. Sorry I don't remember the name of it

but I was just a little shit. My uncle took me and my cousin to the movies for the first time. It was a 3 Stooges movies and they were bear hunting and the bear ended up chasing the Stooges and one of them even fell into the steel bear trap. Cousin and I were kinda screaming, we had to leave the theater. Must have been a really scary movie because my uncle said, "Never again."

[Emile]

6. LOL 😂

[Emile]

15. When I was a little boy it was The Blob. When

The Blob was in the movie theater eating everyone's feet off, I remember lifting both my feet off the floor.

[k55f5r]

33. I went to the neighborhood movie theatre

with some neighborhood boys and saw "The Fly" - the original one 1958. I was 5-6 yrs old and it scared me half to death.
Then, as a teenager, I watched "The Haunting of Hill House" and it was even scarier!
I saw "The Exorcist" the summer after HS graduation...Three people in the front row were laughing every time a new special effect played- pea soup=laughter, head twist=laughter, "your mother in hell"=cackling and snickers.
Due to that, The Exorcist didn't scare me.

p.s. It turned out the people in the front row laughing were friends of mine who had taken windowpane acid and really enjoyed the movie.

[Shermann]

7. Have to go with The Shining

The whole idea of the patriarch turning on his family is unsettling. The camera angles were disturbing, and the soundtrack was off-putting. "Scary" probably isn't the best singular categorization, but it was that. That movie was intended to hurt people.

[hlthe2b]

11. The Shining scared me, but I saw The Omen in a theater and damn if someone didn't brush by me on the aisle

right at the WRONG time. I nearly screamed bloody murder in public. It has been so many years I don't even remember the scene--just the sensation. I looked up that movie and it came out in 1976 and I certainly did not see it then. I saw it many years later, apparently at a college late-night screening.

[Coventina]

72. I didn't sleep for three days after Kubrick's "The Shining" n/t

[grumpyduck]

8. I would have to agree with The Exorcist,

but Alien was right there nose to nose.

[yardwork]

9. The Wizard of Oz.

It scared the hell out of me when I was a little kid. The scariest part was how the grownups were so unreliable and useless. At the end I was incredulous - you knew she could get home all this time and you put her through all this???!!! And you're claiming it was for her own good when it was obviously all to you alls benefit??!!!

I've never trusted grownups again.

[leftieNanner]

55. The flying monkeys

[KarenS]

10. The Tingler and Psycho

Both these movies scared me partly because I was 10-11 years old when I saw them,,,,,

Then 3rd place is the Exorcist,,,, Yikes!! don't forget Halloween,,,,
on edit,,,, adding Friday the 13th,,,,

I am an old lady now and I don't do scary movies anymore,,,,, I don't even like heavy duty drama anymore,,,,


I like boring,,,, slice of life kind of movies and TV series,,,,

[grumpyduck]

12. The Tingler was good.

Saw it on TV when I was maybe 12 and it scared the crap out of me.

[Ocelot II]

13. Prince of Darkness. It was kind of hokey but it scared the bejeebers out of me.

[Jeebo]

25. Do you mean Dracula, Prince of Darkness?

It is, IMHO, the best of the Hammer vampire movies. Scary, creepy. It would be on my list, but not at the top.

-- Ron

[Ocelot II]

26. No, this one, a John Carpenter film from the '80s.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_of_Darkness_(film)

[I_UndergroundPanther]

63. I love John Carpenter's movies.

[I_UndergroundPanther]

64. You should check out

Evil Dead and Mouth of Madness both are good movies. Scary too.

[rogerballard]

14. The Omen stands out for me...

Alice, Sweet Alice is another. So many worth a mention.

[Shermann]

16. My second answer is The Island (1980 film)

This is an obscure B-movie from 1980 that nobody remembers. I recall it because I was nine at the time and my grandparents had cable. So, when we visited, I would sneak downstairs and watch MTV, HBO, and Cinemax. This came on late at night and I was shocked by the level of violence in it. It's tame by comparison to modern gore-porn movies like Saw but I still remember the traumatic experience.

[LearnedHand]

17. Haunting of Hill House (original b&w)

It's a very subtle horror film. I didn't sleep for weeks.

[AllaN01Bear]

19. me likes your sig pic.

[Iggo]

22. I saw that at the movies when I was a little kid.

I can’t say it’s the scariest movie ever made. But I can say I was never more scared of a movie I was watching than that time. My dad eventually took me out of there before the movie was over.

[Skittles]

46. no blood, no gore, just super creepy

yes indeed

[AllaN01Bear]

18. dopleganger , or conversly journey to the far side of the sun. geery anderson film.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doppelg%C3%A4nger_(1969_film)

[cachukis]

20. Diabolique. The French version. Simone Signoret.

Sworn to secrecy.

[CanonRay]

21. The original Invasion of the Body Snatchers

Saw it as a kid and it really freaked me out.

[doc03]

41. +1

[RoadRunner]

23. The Babadook

Still scares me just thinking about it

[Jeebo]

24. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

The 1974 original. The best mad slasher flick ever made.

-- Ron

[BOSSHOG]

27. Friday the 13th. The first

Everything was done and everything was over and everything was peace and quiet at the end. Right?

[Ritabert]

28. The Exorcist

[blm]

30. Audition

[Polly Hennessey]

31. Five, 1951

This movie scared the bejeesus out of me when I was a kid.

“The world is destroyed in a nuclear holocaust. Only five Americans survive, including a pregnant woman, a neo-Nazi, a black man and a bank clerk.”

[yesphan]

32. As a little kid

The Blob. As a teen, The Exorcist. As a young adult, The Thing (80's remake with Kurt Russel).

[Chainfire]

34. The one that I remember from childhood was The Tingler. It scared hell out of me.

I don't go for horror flicks. I leave programs today when they involve rape or torture and I am not big on pyscopths either. I was an adult when Exorcist came out, I thought it was freaky, but not too scary. The Shining got my attention.

[Jrose]

35. 'Jaws'... though not considered a typical 'horror' movie

I must have jumped out of my seat many times in the theater during that movie, when the creature suddenly appeared, full of jagged teeth!
... Oh. and that ominous music theme always gives me chills.

[DET]

38. Yes!

Wonderful movie - that almost didn’t get made. I was living on Cape Cod while Jaws was being shot on Martha’s Vineyard by a very young Steven Spielberg. The movie took so long to make that it became a running joke. The three mechanical sharks were constantly malfunctioning, the sea was rough, and the two main stars - Richard Dreyfuss and Robert Shaw - couldn’t stand each other. Shaw was constantly drunk, which caused a lot of problems. No one could have predicted that Jaws would turn out to be a huge hit and one of our most loved films.

[DET]

36. Another Vote for the Shining

The haunting location, the excellent acting, the psychological twists,… Just a wonderful scary movie. Second place for me is another Steven King movie - actually a made for TV movie - the Langoliers, based on the concept of hideous creatures that eat time. The movie wasn’t of the same caliber as the Shining, but it was scary as hell.

[Elessar Zappa]

37. It doesn't scare me as an adult but

the most scared I ever got from a movie was Child’s Play, which I saw when I was nine years old. I was in the hospital at the time and us patients with cystic fibrosis were given a VCR and Super Nintendo to hook up to the hospital TV (I usually had stays of 14 days). One of the nurses brought the movie cart in and I chose Child’s Play. When my mom found out she was so pissed at the nurse for letting me watch that lol. It scared the bejeezus out of me.

[MorbidButterflyTat]

39. Session 9

Super creepy, set in the old asylum in Danvers, MA.

The first time I saw it I had to spend the night at my friend's house, I was too freaked out to go home!

Scares the crap out of me every time I watch it.

[Niagara]

40. I'm sustained by horror movies. I always have been, it must be the way I'm wired.

My pick for the scariest non-fiction movie is Looking for Mr. Goodbar


and also


I found the movie Pinocchio frightening as a child. Yet, I had no issues watching movies like Looking for Mr. Goodbar or Poltergeist.

[wnylib]

42. I'm surprised by how many people mentioned The Exorcist.

I was 25 when I saw it with my then boyfriend. Neither of us had taken anything before seeing it. No weed, alcohol, or anything else. We laughed through most of it because, although the sound effects were very good, the visuals were not, IMO. They were not convincing enough to get caught up in the "suspension of disbelief" necessary for me to accept the existence of demonic possession.

I can't think of any terrifying movies that I have seen as an adult. The Shining was scary, but I'd read the book first, so not terrifying. I was disappointed in the ending, which differed from the book a lot.

As a child, though, I was terrified by two movies meant for kids. I was about 6 years old when I saw Disney's Alice in Wonderland. When the Red Queen yelled, "Off with her head," and chased Alice, I screamed so much that my mother had to take me out of the theater.

The other one was Wizard of Oz. I was about 10 years old. The flying monkeys attack scared the hell out of me.

[Elessar Zappa]

68. Yeah, the Exorcist is regularly voted the best/scariest movie of all time.

I saw it when I was little but I need to see it again to truly judge it.

[wnylib]

69. If I'd seen it when I was younger, I might have been scared.

But, I never did believe in demons and demonic possession, so the visual effects, script, and acting had to be really good for me to get caught up in the movie's make believe aspect, but it just didn't draw me in.

[IcyPeas]

43. another vote for The Exorcist.

Runner up is Last House on the Left.

Saw the Exorcist in the theater when it first came out. I was about 16, saw it with boyfriend. That night I couldn't sleep -- crawled into bed with my mother -- then started imagining her turning into the devil. Got up watched cartoons on TV. I was terrified. I hate Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells to this day.

I remember at the time people talking about subliminal images in the film.

I wonder if it has to do with my catholic upbringing? I dunno. Some deep seated fear of the devil.

[Paladin]

71. A number of my Catholic friends were traumatized by it. (nt)

[Shermann]

44. My third choice is Evil Dead

There was a movie night at my college back in the early 90s and the original Evil Dead was featured one night around Halloween. This was a very memorable movie experience for me. It starts off with a very transparent premise: horny kids are trapped in a cabin overnight with the bridge back to town washed out. There are no Shyamalan twists or delays in setting things up here. But it still manages to surprise the audience with jump scares and other assorted frights. There is some slapstick humor which as I understand it was unintentional. Best movie night ever! With Evil Dead 2 they played up the humor aspect and made a franchise out of it.

[nuxvomica]

45. It's between "The Exorcist", "Night of the Living Dead", and "The Tingler"

I didn't swear for three days after seeing The Exorcist.

I was afraid to walk back to my dorm room after a screening of Night of the Living Dead on a tiny screen in the school cafeteria, where Romero himself had just given a talk about how they made the movie -- the guy who made the movie is like ten feet away revealing how all the scary gags were done and the movie still scares the hell out of me.

I saw The Tingler on TV when I was a kid at a sleepover at my cousins' and none of use slept that night.

Honorable mention to The Black Sleep (1956), which gave me nightmares.

[debm55]

58. I was a zombie in the Night of the Living Dead. It was shot in the Pittsburgh area.

[beaglelover]

47. The Changling. The movie with George C Scott. Very scary in places but overall it was a very good story.

[grumpyduck]

60. Good one.

I wouldn't call it a horror movie, but it was a good story and very creepy as it moved along.

[global1]

48. The Original 'Invasion of the Body Snatchers'...nt

[Jrose]

49. Must mention 'Psycho'...

So many women, after seeing that movie, never showered again without keeping the bathroom door locked and curtain open!

[Arne]

51. Altered State had me going pretty good.

[FalloutShelter]

52. 28Days Later

That’s when the zombies started to RUN.

[FarPoint]

53. Texas Chairsaw Massacre got me good when it came out.

More of a terror film I believe than horror.

The Original Night of ther Living Dead is my favorite....

[Freethinker65]

54. Repulsion

I try to avoid horror movies, unless they are over the top campy, like Motel Hell.


I think last time there was a post like this I said Robocop. The one scene where the robocop "malfunctions" still upsets me.

[Emile]

56. Motel Hell, OMG I thought that one

was funny as hell.

[Voltaire2]

57. Carnival of Souls.

Totally creeped me out.

[Rebl2]

59. Went and

saw Cujo by myself. Thought that was pretty frightening way back then.

[AuntyGravity]

61. The January 6th Committee Report

And any footage of the desecration of our capitol

[I_UndergroundPanther]

62. Goodbi

Last edited Sat Apr 27, 2024, 08:46 PM - Edit history (1)

It’s a psychological thriller and it is about psychosis on the inside.
If you are germaphobe or scared of filth don’t watch this movie. It is truly scary. You really can’t tell what is reality in this movie that’s what makes it scary

[MissB]

65. Cube

I like horror, but that one just scared me.

[hunter]

66. The Big Chill (1983). Scariest zombie movie ever.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Big_Chill_%28film%29

With a few exceptions, like The Wizard of Oz, I've managed to avoid most of the movies in this thread.

My mind is already a circus of horrors. Too many flying monkeys keeping me awake at night that I should add more.

[Celerity]

67. Srpski Film (2010), runner up: Ringu (1998) 3rd place: Hereditary (2018)

[The Polack MSgt]

70. Ju-On, the original Japanese movie released in 200, not the US remakes - The Grudge series

Along with Cure and Ringu this movie popularized (and was the peak of) super creepy Japanese horror

I still get the skin crawls 24 years later

?si=pXGEXhsiXa42fvF-

[rurallib]

73. A seldom mentioned movie I think from Disney "Something Wicked This Way Comes"

Haven't seen it for a long time, but I remember it scared me to the quick.