Fear in movies.

[Audley Strange]

Have you ever been frightened by a movie?

Mark Kermode and others have recently got a bit haughty about what they refer to as "cattle-prod" cinema.They suggest that too many horror movies these days rely on the shock cut, or quiet creepiness then BANG!. Cheap scares they seem to think. I personally don't like the term and would prefer "things that go bump" but that's beside the point. Certainly after seeing James Wan's Insidious and "The Conjuring", I think you can say those movies rely heavily on that type of scare, but not exclusively. Insidious has some creepy moments before Darth Maul turns up for some reason and "The Conjuring was better than I expected.

They startled me though more than they scared me.

I begin to think about what films I had seen that actually did scare me. There have been documentaries, but I've left them out because they were not meant as entertainment. Anyway For some reason "Blue Velvet" stood out. I like Lynch a lot, find his stuff creepy, weird and a bit clever, but for some reason "Blue Velvet" feels like a very tangible nightmare to me. Both Dennis Hopper and Dean Stockwell scare the living shit out of me in that movie, even more than Bob Mike and the Denizen's of Twin Peaks' Black Lodge, even more than Robert Blake in "Lost Highway".

(though just look at this fucking scene it's awesome.)



Blue Velvet reminds me that we are all at the mercy and whims of brutal madmen. I like the way that it starts like some kind of fifties thriller and then takes a wrong turn into a world filled with villains that seem more demonic than human. It's the template for a lot of his later work, but since it is told in a straight-forward linear manner. It's one of those films that has it's hooks in me. I'd mention the others but this is not Auds top ten scary movies.

So have you ever been scared by a movie? If so what and why?

[pErvinalia]

The Exorcist, and Wolf Creek.

eta: and The Omen, as far as I remember.

[Xamonas Chegwé]

The end of Carrie - the very end. I nearly shat myself in the cinema. At the time, you just didn't get false endings like this in films. Of course, after this, you ALWAYS did.

Robert Mitchum in Night of the Hunter. One of the creepiest films ever. Probably THE creepiest when I first saw it aged about 9. It still stands up though.

The leg-breaking scene in Misery. No supernatural bollocks, just good, old-fashioned insane human cruelty at its worst.

[orpheus]

Aud, I'm with you on David Lynch, and especially "Blue Velvet". And did you have to post that scene from "Lost Highway"? That gave me nightmares. I'm sure it will again.

[Seabass]

[Seth]

Only one movie has ever given me nightmares, and that was "Sybil" with Sally Field. I still cannot watch the whole movie, it's just too creepy.

The most heart-pounding film I ever saw was "Sorcerer" with Roy Schieder, tied with the first time I saw the original "Aliens" with Sigourney Weaver. Her escape in the shuttle with the cat had me about to piss my pants.

Slash and flash gorefests can be shocking, as in a surprise reaction, but they lose me in the "willing suspension of disbelief" contest.

My most common reaction to a slasher movie is "Well, here's another movie that would be over in the first three minutes if the dumb bimbo either knew how to run (think Julia Roberts in "Conspiracy Theory") or for fuck sake if one of the victims simply had a handgun and knew how to use it."

I then get bored right away and switch channels.

[orpheus]

Oh! I forgot "Dead of Night" (from 1945). Good movie, fairly creepy. But there's one scene - one shot of one scene, actually - that made my flesh crawl, it was so shocking. The mirror scene. That first glimpse of what the guy is seeing in the mirror that his wife doesn't see. Nothing gory, or even particularly scary about anything you see. Nothing. What you actually see is perfectly normal. But the timing of it, the unexpectedness of it, is perfect and chilling.

[SteveB]

More like: Who hasn't been frightened by a movie?

I remember being scared in theaters while watching The Faculty, The Mummy (with Brendan Fraser ) and The Exorcist (for it's zillionth re-release to cinema) when I was a youngling. Hostel when I was in college. Not sure if scary movies scare me anymore, mostly because scary movies aren't really scary anymore, or maybe I've simply adapted to them.

[Audley Strange]

Oh! I forgot "Dead of Night" (from 1945). Good movie, fairly creepy. But there's one scene - one shot of one scene, actually - that made my flesh crawl, it was so shocking. The mirror scene. That first glimpse of what the guy is seeing in the mirror that his wife doesn't see. Nothing gory, or even particularly scary about anything you see. Nothing. What you actually see is perfectly normal. But the timing of it, the unexpectedness of it, is perfect and chilling.

We seem to have similar tastes, Dead of Night is a brilliant movie.


The Exorcist seems to be a favourite amongst people I've asked. However the scariest scene in that movie, to me, is when Pazuzu/Reagan repeats the words of the beggar on the subway, the suggestion that the Demon is everywhere, fucking with Karrass so it can have a rematch with Merrin, really creeps me out more than the visceral imagery.

@Seth. I think slasher flicks are movies for virgins about penetration angst, so perhaps you ain't the target market.

@ SteveB Yeah when you know the tropes they do lose their power, but I found as I got older, some movies which didn't scare me when I was younger are fucking terrifying.

[pErvinalia]

Only one movie has ever given me nightmares, and that was "Sybil" with Sally Field. I still cannot watch the whole movie, it's just too creepy.

The most heart-pounding film I ever saw was "Sorcerer" with Roy Schieder, tied with the first time I saw the original "Aliens" with Sigourney Weaver. Her escape in the shuttle with the cat had me about to piss my pants.

Yeah, Alien and Aliens are probably the two most suspenseful scary movies for me. Aliens is just fucking brilliant.

[pErvinalia]

Anyone ever get scared reading books? I have on occasion. The Wamphyri series of books by Brian Lumley. One or two of them had me shitting myself reading it alone at night. And of course the Shining by Stephen King. In fact pretty much anything from Stephen King. And a book by Dean Koontz that I can't remember the title of.

[pErvinalia]

Glowing eyes used to scare the bejesus out of me when I was young. There was a character in the Thunderbirds whose (who's?) eyes glowed. I had to hide under my blanky when those scenes were on..

[Seabass]

I just don't scare anymore, unfortunately. In fact, the only movie that ever scared me was The Blob. I know, I know, The Blob was ridiculous, but I was maybe 5yo at the time, give or take. That fucking Blob scared me so badly that I covered my head with my blanket for weeks afterward when in bed with the lights out. As if a blanket would stop the Blob from devouring me...

But shortly after that, I guess I just got to that age when scary things ceased to frighten me.

That's not to say I don't like any horror movies though; the good ones always have more to offer.

[JimC]

FEAR

by: Rudyard Kipling

Ere Mor the Peacock flutters, ere the Monkey People cry,
Ere Chil the Kite swoops down a furlong sheer,
Through the Jungle very softly flits a Shadow and a sigh--
He is Fear, O Little Hunter, he is Fear!
Very softly down the glade runs a waiting, watching shade,
And the whisper spreads and widens far and near;
And the sweat is on thy brow, for he passes even now--
He is Fear, O Little Hunter, he is Fear!
Ere the Moon has climbed the mountain, ere the rocks are ribbed with light,
When the downward-dipping tails are dank and drear;
Comes a breathing hard behind thee, snuffle-snuffle through the night--
It is Fear, O Little Hunter, it is Fear!
On thy knees and draw the bow, bid the shrilling arrow go;
In the empty mocking thicket plunge the spear;
But thy hands are loosed and weak, and the blood has left thy cheek--
It is Fear, O Little Hunter, it is Fear!

When the heat-cloud sucks the tempest, when the silvered pine trees fall,
When the blinding, blaring rain-squalls lash and veer;
Through the trumpets of the thunder rings a voice more loud than all--
It is Fear, O Little Hunter, it is Fear!
Now the spates are banked and deep; now the footless boulders leap;
Now the lightning shows each littlest leaf-rib clear;
But thy throat is shut and dried, and thy heart against thy side
Hammers: Fear, O Little Hunter--this is Fear!

I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain.

[Audley Strange]

Bollocks to Rudy and James. Fear is the great motivator.