What’s Halloween without a top ten scary films post, ammiright? I always find these posts interesting to read because we’re all scared by different things. Take a gander at the ten films that have freaked me out (as always, in no particular order) and let me know what scares you on the big screen. I’ve tried to keep this spoiler-free.
The 1976 film, not the recent re-make, obvs (is it a re-make if it’s an adaptation?). I saw this for the first time when I was about 13 years old at a sleepover. How freakin’ scary is her mum? That bit with her behind the door has stayed with me far longer than the pig’s blood scene.
I saw this in the cinema and when the original body swap was revealed I was so disturbed! I’ve not seen it since and can’t really remember the context but I couldn’t look in the mirror at night for a good couple of weeks after.
I haven’t seen this in years but man, that ending stayed with me! My little brother bailed before the end because he was so scared, bless him.
I saw this for the first time at a sleepover with the same people I saw Carrie with. We also saw Texas Chainsaw Massacre but that doesn’t make the list. Being 13 or so when The Sixth Sense came out, I wasn’t smart enough to predict the ending. It’s the dead kids that I remember though – poor vommy Mischa Barton and that kid who was shot… *shudder*
You know how some people refuse to watch foreign films because they can’t fully immerse themselves in a film with subtitles? So not the case for me, even with horror flicks. I deliberately shut myself upstairs and watched this in the dark on my own when the DVD was released. If you’re gonna watch a scary film, do it properly, right? Oh my gosh, when it finished I had to turn the lights on and go straight downstairs! Little kid ghosts are the worst!
A bloody classic and a must for anyone’s top ten horrors list. I first saw it a long time ago but watched the extended cut a few years ago at home with some friends. The bit with her scuttling down the stairs? Ahhhh! We watched it in the dark and Luke came home not long after it finished to find us still a tad freaked out. One of the girls had to drive back home along a load of back roads on her own – not fun!
Saw this in the cinema with a friend and there were just two other people there. It was one of the most immersive cinema experiences I have ever had and I jumped feet.
I’m not a fan of Nicole Kidman at all but this film still makes the list. I didn’t see the ending coming at all. And that seance/exorcism woman? Freaky as fuck!
Hands down, the best horror film of all time. I am terrified of birds and, living in Cornwall, I reckon this could totally happen in real life. Just you wait. Tourists in St Ives feeding the seagulls will be the death of us!
I saw this with my little brother and our babysitter one night not long after it first came on Sky Movies, so it was quite a while ago. Little kid ghosts again, the fuckers! Those cherub faces give me the heebie jeebies.
What’s your favourite scary movie?
I am so not into the horror genre at all… but I have seen the Sixth Sense, The Birds and The Exorcist (only for Gregory Peck!). All of them scary and I can’t bring myself to watch more than those.
When I was in my teens I saw the beginning of the 1979 Nosferatu film with Klaus Kinski as Dracula and that scared the living daylights out of me, I was never able to finish watching it and have never been able to watch it since (and I am in my 40s now!). To me that is the scariest film ever… and I have never even really seen it!
I love it when a film can move people that much!
Carrie, The Decent, The Others and The 6th Sense I found to be really enjoyable and not scary – which is odd seeing as I hate horror films!