05/10/2004 Entry: "Shrek Loves Stamps & The Scary Movie Poll."

Well I'll be! Thanks to those who posted about Shrek's biggest victory of all: a partnership with the United States Postal Service. It's nuts and I still couldn't give less of a shit about the movie, but jeez, archiving the insanity sure is a lot of fun. Speaking of which, I picked up two larger Shrek items for review, but that'll have to wait for the weekend.

In fact, everything else will basically have to wait till the weekend, too. Got some schtuff to do this week, I'll tell ya about it later. I wonder if I'm having surgery? Anyway, this'll be a cold week in terms of the full length articles, but I'm going into the trenches prepared with enough materials to keep the blog rolling. On deck for tomorrow night right here is a small tribute to something cold, sweet and somehow Mexican.

Meantime, let's get another survey going. What's the scariest movie you've ever seen? I'm not talking so much about retrospect: what's the most you've ever been scared by a movie, even if later viewings didn't pack the same kinda punch? For various reasons, some illegal, my pick is always gonna be Jacob's Ladder. Not joking when I say that the film fucked me up for months, with brought-on complexes ranging from fears of mirrors, trains, passing cars and generally any open empty space. You need the right environment to really collect the feelings this one is capable of throwing at you, but when the mood's right, it's just damned disturbing and relentless. Your turn, in the comments.

Chestnuts roasted by KMC @ 05/10/2004 11:49 PM EST

Candyman scared me before I even saw the movie. I just heard about it and became piss scared of mirrors.

The book House of Leaves feaked me the fuck out though. I just read it for the first time recently too. I am also 21 and got scared by a book...yeah I am lame.

Chestnuts roasted by mindsuckr @ 05/11/2004 12:07 AM EST

The "Alien Autopsy" thing. I found it cleaning out my room the other day, and it resurrected memories of a slumber party during which we all slept in our glass-doored living room and just stared outside until one AM... the cats kept bugging me.

Chestnuts roasted by Goz @ 05/11/2004 12:11 AM EST

Haven't found a movie that really scares me.

Then again, that one movie with the fat green monster was weird...

Chestnuts roasted by Mathew Olson @ 05/11/2004 12:19 AM EST

I'd have to say the Dark Crystal one night also to do with illegal substances. Scared the bejezus out of me even tho I had seen it before. Lack of comprehension.

Chestnuts roasted by Ronald McTurdburgler @ 05/11/2004 12:22 AM EST

EEEEEEEEETTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT!!!!

I F**KING HATED THIS MOVIE! I was so scared of it I used to have Night Terrors every night for years because of it. I was so sure ET was going to kidnap me and molest me. He was so ugly And his creepy voice gave me the jibblies! Don't even get me started on when he turned all grey. I just hoped he'd die already! I remember one time my dad bought me some soda and some cotton candy that comes in those tin foil bags and sat me right down in front of the tv (in the rocking chair my grandpa made for me no less) telling me he rented a special movie for me. I hadn't done anything to deserve such treatment but I figured just to enjoy it. I was fine but something about it didn't feel right. When the opening of the movie started I literally began to scream my lungs out I was so scared... and ET wasn't even on tv yet. the music set me off. I cried and ran to my room (I was like 5) and didn't some out the rest of the day. My parent's way of fixing my fear was shock and awe. They'd call me out whenever the movie, Reeses Pieces commercials, or those Halloween safety specials were on tv, only to have me scream and run to my room. Give me the choice between a date with ET or Charles Manson... a guy with a swastica forehead looks pretty good.

Did I mention they got me that movie when I was 8 or so that came with a free poster w/ this huge shot of ET's face and hung it on the wall in my room? I think I had a mini heart attack at that tender age. Until I ripped it up and flushed it down the toilet did I feel purged.

Chestnuts roasted by Brite @ 05/11/2004 12:24 AM EST

SHREK IS EVERYWHERE

Chestnuts roasted by RESISTANCE IS FUTILE @ 05/11/2004 12:27 AM EST

I'm with Brite, ET, that movie still scares the shit outta me. My sisters got and huge poster of ET and Michel Jackson and used to torment me with it all the time.

-I hated Michel Jackson in the 80’s before he started touching little kids!!!

Chestnuts roasted by Jonas @ 05/11/2004 12:41 AM EST

I was very young when Ghostbusters was released on VHS. The beginning with the Librarian scared the shit out of me. It doesn't now, of course. But at the time...

Chestnuts roasted by Cameron @ 05/11/2004 12:47 AM EST

The GB Librarian scared the shit out of me as well, though I had the misfortune of living through it in theaters -- either at age four or five. I came back around by the time Stay Puft hit the screen, though.

Along the same lines, Jabba the Hutt frightened me so bad that I actually watched ROTJ in its entirety by staring at the 5" reflection coming off the projector up north in the back of the theater.

Chestnuts roasted by Matt @ 05/11/2004 12:50 AM EST

The Hogan Family.........that cracks me up!!! I used to be scared of the count on sesame street. The man was a FREAK. He was all purple andlooked evil and laughed maniacly about numbers. He was always just a little too happy...

Chestnuts roasted by phunqsauce @ 05/11/2004 01:10 AM EST

I can say one thing that scared me shitless was at the end of Bionic COmmando for the NES when they show the last boss's head explode in slow motion. I was 7 at the time. I can't believe Nintendo let that game slip through considering they were more of a family oriented company.

Chestnuts roasted by phunqsauce @ 05/11/2004 01:13 AM EST

When I was a kid nothing freaked me out more than either seeing the poster for Child's Play 3 (Those eyes! UGH!) or seeing the face of CyberJobe (The Lawnmower Man). I saw both of those movies when I was older and wasn't freaked out at all, but when I was a kid I couldn't bear to see either.

Chestnuts roasted by Teirusu @ 05/11/2004 01:35 AM EST

I would have to say Tetsuo, aka Iron Man. Japanese crazy shit, with metal wires getting ripped out of peoples faces, dudes getting raped by an evil demon dominatrix, and really scary effects, all in black and white. Add to that the acid I was on at the time, making the screen more colorized than Ted Turner's hair should be, and whew! That was THE scariest fucking movie I eveh done seen honey!

Chestnuts roasted by kidneyboy @ 05/11/2004 01:54 AM EST

oh yeah ps and shtuff at the risk of sounding crazy, but i'm just in that mood, if you were alluding to having surgery, good luck. i've gone thru a few or two.

Chestnuts roasted by kidneyboy @ 05/11/2004 02:00 AM EST

Holy crap, I just got an email from HP telling me about all the wonderful Shrek 2 HP Printing projects they have. WHEN WILL THE MADNESS STOP!!!!?!?!?

Chestnuts roasted by Cameron @ 05/11/2004 03:05 AM EST

Either the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre, or the Shining.

Chestnuts roasted by G4L @ 05/11/2004 03:20 AM EST

Choco Taco?

Chestnuts roasted by Bob @ 05/11/2004 03:51 AM EST

The Changeling. Geogre C. Scott. Circa 1980. Man, that kids voice .. creppy.

And thee Blair freaking Witch, I HATE that movie. Now I'm all thinking about it again, great, time to turn on the lights.

Chestnuts roasted by zero hero @ 05/11/2004 04:09 AM EST

JAWS. Growing up in Florida near the water, seeing that movie when I was like 3 or 4 years old in the theater (yes, that does make me one of the oldest people around here) seriously screwed me up for a looong time. I still get panicky when I'm in the ocean up past my ankles.

And speaking of screwed up, last night I saw three Shrek-merchandising tie-in commercials IN A ROW. As someone who found th first film moderately amusing, I'm already finding the sequel annoying as shit.

Chestnuts roasted by Hellpop! @ 05/11/2004 06:21 AM EST

The thing that scared me the most was actually a comic... There's an Italian comic named "Dylan Dog" that follows adventures of, well, Dylan Dog, who is some sort of horror detective. In the story that scared me the most, he encoutered some sort of Freddy Krueger knockoff character named "The Wax Man". This fella came to life from scary stories that parents would tell to their kids to make them behave properly, and the only thing that could make him disappear was some sort of light...
I was eight or nine when I read that comic, and afterwards I made all sorts of "safety measures" to make sure "the wax man" wouldn't catch me; I slept with a cross and a flash light under my pillow (I spent many evenings timing how long it takes me to pull out the flashlight from down there and switch it on), and also I made all sorts of bizzare rituals, like the famous "when I go to bathroom, if I'm not back in bed before the sound of water flushing goes away, I'm dead meat!" and many others.

Now, when I was two years old, we went to visit our neghbours (?) and their daughter, who was a year older than me, had one of those baby dolls that would cry if you pulled the pacifier (?) from their mouth... I was unaware such a beast existed, so when she gave me the doll to hold it, only to make it cry seconds afterwards, it scared the hell out of me... To this day I can't stand such toys, so I guess that's the reason why the scariest things I saw on TV would have to be that "Twilight Zone" episode where a doll comes to life and the clown scene in "Poltergeist"...
Also, some friends told me about "Hellraiser" a few months before I got to see it... The stuff I imagined was much scarier than the things I saw onscreen.

Whew, this is a long post...

Chestnuts roasted by Papa_Taz @ 05/11/2004 06:31 AM EST

I'm gonna have to go with legend of the overfiend..... very very spooky stuff especially with a headfull of acid and a bottle of wild turkey

Chestnuts roasted by Porkspam @ 05/11/2004 07:47 AM EST

The excorcist. My dad was watching it one night when I was supposed to be in bed, but I watched it while hiding behind his lazyboy. Man, I had to sleep next to the door with the light on for a week.

Chestnuts roasted by oldskool25 @ 05/11/2004 07:50 AM EST

I'd have to say Fire in the Sky with D.B. Sweeney as the guy who was abducted by aliens. I think what freaked me out was that they kept saying how it was based on a true story. And plus that whole probe thing made me remember me own abduction by aliens.

Chestnuts roasted by Brian @ 05/11/2004 08:06 AM EST

Holy Crap, Papa_Taz...I've done that bizarre ritual like geting back to bed and under the covers before the toilet is done flushing! I thought I was the only crazy person like that...

Chestnuts roasted by Stilewalker @ 05/11/2004 08:25 AM EST

Vampires used to scare the crap outta me when I was little. To the extent that I formed a habit of sleeping w/ my shoulder hunched up agsint my neck and my hands hidden under my pillow. Apparently, in TrajealWorld, vampires could also bite you on your wrists.

As for one single movie, I'd have to say either Night of the Creeps (slugs that jump into your mouth and eat your braaaaiiinnssss, Jaws (watched it at the drive-in while vacationing in Cape Cod, of all places), and Gremlins (I had to keep the lights on for a week to keep melting Stripe at bay). Wow, that was all one sentence.

Chestnuts roasted by trajeal @ 05/11/2004 08:37 AM EST

I have to have 2 movies listed here. The first story goes as follows: The first time I saw it, I was maybe 7 or 8 years old. We were on a vacation somewhere and staying at a hotel room. My parents decided to leave my brother (who is a couple of years older than me) and I under the care of the TV and go out for a few hours. We, of course, decide that HBO was the best choice for programing that evening. and there it was...anyone who has had HBO since the 80's knows that intro...It starts in a city with the camara zooming along and the music building up...then it shoots into space and the music crescendos into the HBO intro theme. God, I love that intro... The "H" slowly materializing as the animation follows the conours of the HBO logo...then everything zaps away like your entering hyperspace and you are left with the HBO Presentation! Good stuff...
Anyway, this was my first experience with Poltergiest. Sitting alone, in the dark, with nothing but an oversized TV and sitting next to a closet. My brother and I clinging to eachother for dear life. Afraid of the TV, afraid of any doors, afraid of the clown that sure as hell is under our bed right now. afraid of the stairs outside. The end of the movie comes and ends in a hotel room. They push the TV out of the room at the very end. My brother and I looked at eachother and...No we didn't push the TV out of the room...are you kidding? We couldn't even look at it much less touch it! So my parents came home to see us huddled there slightly freaked that the door opened, shaking and scared out of our minds. they really had to calm us down to get us to go to sleep.

Chestnuts roasted by Stilewalker @ 05/11/2004 08:43 AM EST

The next movie that freaked me out just as bad was a few years later. I have had insomnia since I was about 11, and this was one of the night I couldn't go to sleep. Both my brothers (The one from the above story and my eldest brother, who is about 5 years my senior) were allowed to stay up a couple of hours later than me, so I used to sneak over to my door and open it leading to a hallway with the TV in the family room at the other end hall. I had a straight shot down the hallway to the TV. I was nice a dark down the hall and in my room, so no one could see me peaking out.
My brothers decided to watch Aliens. I had never seen the original, so the whole premise was new to me. I was still at that stage where scary movies were watched through a couple of fingers as I covered my eyes with my hands. So have you seen Aliens? Starts out on a dark ship and they go to an even darker place. Down long corridors... Things moving in the shadows...noises coming from all around... THE WALLS ARE MOVING!!! At that moment, I was with them... in the dark, in that hallway. Now I was screwed, to afraid to move. Dark room with shadows behind me, dark hallway in front of me. I kept hearing things and seeing things out of the corner of my eyes. So I sat there, pearing out a little crack in the door, watching the movie down the hall and freaking out until it was over. My heartbeat was going a thousand miles an hour and I was breaking out in a cold sweat. So from then on there was not only a clown under my bed, but aliens hiding in every crevice my room had to offer. It is no wonder why I had insomnia!

Chestnuts roasted by Stilewalker @ 05/11/2004 08:57 AM EST

Yeah, I remember the Alien Autopsy video. That's some scary shit. And I was also very tense during The Blair Witch Project. I still don't try watching The Exorcist. But even do nowadays I love it, when I first watched Poltergeist (I was about 10), I could only get to the tree scene before turning off the TV. But the damage was done: had nightmares for well over a week.

Chestnuts roasted by Roddy @ 05/11/2004 08:58 AM EST

When I was little Darby O'Gale and the Little People scared the holy hell outta me. Something about the banshee just really freaked me out. Here lately the only movie that scared me at all was The Ring, and that was reallyl only because I watched it right before bed.

Chestnuts roasted by hugsnstuff @ 05/11/2004 09:03 AM EST

Well I expected to be the only person to post "Don't be afraid of the dark" and low and behold the very first poster mentioned it. Very very creepy movie that was made for TV, gave me (and apparently others) nightmares for years. I was 5 or so when I saw it, and think it was the first "scary" movie I ever saw. For those of you that haven't seen it http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0069992/
Also do a search for it on google, and see how many people this movie screwed up for life! Would make an awesome review Matt, Hint Hint!

Chestnuts roasted by Bizzar @ 05/11/2004 09:09 AM EST

Indiana Jones & the Temple of Doom

The heart ripping out scene fucked me up for months afterwards...I still get chest pains thinking about it...

Chestnuts roasted by B-Dawg @ 05/11/2004 09:20 AM EST

I was 3 when Jaws came out. Solidarity.

Scariest movie for me: 1st Gremlins. Not because it was that scary, and it was at times (fingers in the cage) I had already read the comic book adaption at Target and I REALLY wanted to see that movie. So I begged my parents. We go to the theater and on the ride over my dad turns to me and says. "this better not be scary, or else" I nearly crapped my pants. I knew I wasn't going to be scared by the movie, I knew what was going to happen. I was TERRIFIED of my fathers reaction, so when the scene with the candy bar and the fingers in the cage happened, I freaked out and excused myself to the bathroom. My parnets came to see what was worng. I couldn;t take the pressure of this mvie and not knowing how they would react to it. So I asked for them to take me home. To this day they laugh and tell how I was so scared of that movie. I still haven't told the the real reason why that movie scared me.

Chestnuts roasted by Zappadog @ 05/11/2004 09:23 AM EST

Sorry about the typing, I should proofread my posts :(

Chestnuts roasted by Zappadog @ 05/11/2004 09:26 AM EST

Poltergeist scared the hell out of me too. It made me never want to have a clown in my room. Also, it is sad that Heather O'Rourke died. She was my age and I bet she would have grown up to be hot.

The only thing scarier than Poltergeist was my Uncle Sticky for obvious reasons.

Chestnuts roasted by King Chachi @ 05/11/2004 09:30 AM EST

Star Trek II really freaked me out when I was a kid. I ran from the room when Khan was putting the worms in the ears of Chekov and the captain.

Chestnuts roasted by sillygolem @ 05/11/2004 09:31 AM EST

When I was young Large Marge was by far the scariest movie scene

Chestnuts roasted by PantsStoreDeluxe @ 05/11/2004 09:32 AM EST

critters scared the crap out of me when i was 4

Chestnuts roasted by mannik @ 05/11/2004 10:00 AM EST

Recently the scariest thing I saw was "The Lady in Black". There's this one scene that is so very creepy. ugh

When I was younger..hmmm...well, I know "IT" freaked me out, and I still don't want to watch the movie or read the book alone, even though it is my favorite Stephen King book.

Chestnuts roasted by Cobra Soldier #18 @ 05/11/2004 10:09 AM EST

Stilewalker - I'm with you 100%. Poltergeist screwed me up SO freaking much as a kid. And after that, the HBO feature-presentation-beginning, as you described, would send me into hysterics. I directly attributed that opening sequence to Poltergeist. It got so bad, my parents had to cancel HBO from their cable service... Now it's one of my favorite movies... one of those "I conquered my fears" sources of pride.

PantsStoreDeluxe - My mother, to this day, brings up how I cried and cried in the theater when Large Marge did her "transformation."

As an adult, the last movie to mess with my head was Eraserhead. Not scary, just a "what the f*ck?!" experience. I had to go to a bar afterwards just to drink myself to sleep. One of the very few times I've gone to a bar alone.

Chestnuts roasted by Nachokhaki @ 05/11/2004 10:24 AM EST

The scariest scene in Poltergiest was when the camera guy looks in the mirror and starts ripping his own face off. I just couldn't comprehend the insanity of peeling one's own flesh from their skull while watching in the mirror.

Oh, and the Bunyip from Dot and the Kangaroo scared me to death. I'm still afraid to watch that movie. I think there was scary music or a scary voice singing. I still remember it leaping out of the firepit, all yellow and orange w/ sharp fingerclaws, ready to kill.

Chestnuts roasted by trajeal @ 05/11/2004 10:29 AM EST

I seem to remember being pretty young and these older kids who were supposed to be babysitting me made me watch Nightmare on Elm Street. Well, just as Johnny Depp was getting eaten by his bed, one of the guys-- David grabbed me from behind in the dark with this Freddy Krueger glove he'd bought at the store.

FREAKED ME THE FUCK OUT!

I have been leary of that Freddy Krueger ever since.

Separately, and as revenge for that-- David Cleboski of Spring, Texas wet his bed until he was 16. No lie!

Chestnuts roasted by The Return of Long Duck Dong @ 05/11/2004 10:32 AM EST

You can still get Freddy Krueger gloves for sale and stuff on ebay.

Here is the 1984 one I found:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=19196&item=3192112326&rd=1

Separately, why the HELL would they market Freddy Krueger to a bunch of kids as a toy?!! Hoooo MAN! I still get the heabie jeebies thinking about that guy!

Chestnuts roasted by The Return of Long Duck Dong @ 05/11/2004 10:36 AM EST

I'm the kind of person who likes to watch the scariest, goriest movies I can find, and none of them actually scare me much, I just enjoy watching them. However, I can say that when I saw "What Lies Beneath" in the theater, for some reason, it freaked me out more than anything else I've ever seen. Except for maybe "The Changling." That is also one freaky movie.

Chestnuts roasted by a piece of milk @ 05/11/2004 10:58 AM EST

Or maybe "The ChangEling." Oops.

Chestnuts roasted by a piece of milk @ 05/11/2004 10:58 AM EST

the movie that has acctually scared me the most when I saw it was 13 ghosts, I don't know why, and it's hilarious to think that now, but it really did.

Gholies, at least the poster for Gholies w/ the grimlin coming out of the toilet scared me to pieces. I always had nightmares about not only the toliet coming to life and eating me, then burping up fruit loops, but also, a gholie crawling up my ass while taking a shit. if that's not a scarry thought I don't know what is.

And finnaly the creatur that terrorized my "going to bed" (read that as what I though was going to get me from under my bed if I steped to close w/ the lights off) was the little carnivorus mushroom from "Mom and Dad save the world." the rest of the movie was nothing, boring even, but those damn mushrooms haunted my bedroom for years. (i've never told that to anyone before)

Chestnuts roasted by brandon @ 05/11/2004 11:15 AM EST

I don't know about a movie that has scared me, but the freaking music from unsolved mysteries was a tramadic experience for me

Chestnuts roasted by Naveed @ 05/11/2004 11:27 AM EST

OT: the music from the HBO introduction from my youth always makes me think of Fraggle Rock. Oh, Sprocket, I knew him well.

Chestnuts roasted by trajeal @ 05/11/2004 12:05 PM EST

Pet Cemetary, although Jacob's Ladder is right up there, since it's so bizarre and depressing.

Chestnuts roasted by BaronVonHotPants @ 05/11/2004 12:09 PM EST

Some documentary about Nostrodamus I saw on HBO a long time ago. How long ago? I remember when HBO used to go off the air at like 2:00 in the morning. That and the melting Grimace ad in the 70's. I can usually explain my quirks, but I just don't have any reason for freaking out at a puddle of Grimace. Those "Blair Witch" kids got what they deserved, though. But being from a culture that gets much of the same attitude from tourists, and working here at a Native American art gallery might contribute to such feelings. As for "Poltergeist", I laughed at the peice of meat inching it's way along the counter. If you think those sentences were slightly disjointed, you should see what goes on inside my head.

Chestnuts roasted by kingklash @ 05/11/2004 12:12 PM EST

If you liked (if 'liked' is the proper word) Jacob's Ladder, I have a couple of recommendations.
The first is Kubrick's "The Shining." Man, everyone's seen it by now, but that movie creeped me out to ultimate levels as a kid. Those hacked up twin girls... the fellating man in a dog suit... but most of all, that decaying woman in the shower. Jeez.
The second is a relatively unpopular film: John Carpenter's In the Mouth of Madness. See it late one night in the dark. Parts are very silly, but... as a whole, the film is very, very effective. It is a grim, hateful little film on par with Jacob's Ladder for strange moments.

Chestnuts roasted by Master H @ 05/11/2004 12:27 PM EST

Silent Hill 3. It ain't a movie, but damn, that game was as scary as Van Helsing is bad. Playing it in a dark room with the sound turned way up... freaky as hell.

As for movies, probably the Exorcist. Saw it rereleased in theaters one Halloween a couple years back, and it was just spooky as anything. The only thing that really cheered me up after that was when we shut the group asshole/skeptic up afterward by reminding him that it was based on actual events. And even so, it was a loooooooong night. Honorable mention to The Last Broadcast, AKA the original (and far superior) Blair Witch Project. A lotta people raved about the Ring, but... enh.

Chestnuts roasted by The Lucky One @ 05/11/2004 01:15 PM EST

Matt, one last item you forgot to review is still out there. . . that crappy Shrek DVD! Eddie Murphy as a Jackass wasn't bad, but I hear now that Antonio Banderas will have a role as Puss in Boots - go figure!

Chestnuts roasted by Mugzy. . . @ 05/11/2004 02:19 PM EST

Oh, my scariest movie - had to have been the first Poltergiest movie - at the drive-in! Scared shitless as a little kid, and yet still had nowhere to run. All these cars surrounding you and only to go hide for solace was the woods near the big screen - F* That Shiznit!

Chestnuts roasted by Mugzy. . . @ 05/11/2004 02:21 PM EST

Illegal reasons made "Deep Blue Sea" pretty freaky for me, but in terms of gibbering childhood fear, that part in Dream Warriors where Freddy rips the veins out of the mute kid and puppets him around...ugh, it gives me the willies right now. Word to those who got scared of Are You Afraid of the Dark (Watcher's Woods, eeek!) but did anybody else freak out at the "Zeke the Plumber" ep of Salute Your Shorts? Most embarassing admissions: the commercials for Fire in the Sky (still haven't seen it, never will) and Night of the Leapahs. It nice to see that I'm also not the only person who could be sent into hysterics by a TV theme song, too.

Chestnuts roasted by squee4242 @ 05/11/2004 02:33 PM EST

The scene in Nightmare on Elm Street...I think 4, where Freddy makes this girl's face fall off and she turns into a giant cockroach before he squishes her. The funny thing is that I'm usually fascinated with bugs, but seeing them in extreme closeups is one of my greatest fears.

I was petrified by the head popping out in Jaws, the Nazi massacre at the end of Raiders, and Donovan aging to a skeleton in Last Crusade so badly that I avoided seeing them for a while. But when I finally did, I wasn't freaked out at all(Except for the head, which still makes me jump.).

The last two are from kids' movies, and they're ones I've heard countless times: The tunnel scene in Willy Wonka and Ursula in The Little Mermaid. I don't dare watch Willy Wonka unless it's on TV, where that scene is thankfully edited out, and I don't know if I'll still be scared of Giant Ursula since it's been a while since I watched that movie. The fact that she still gave me the willies when I fought her in Kingdom Hearts is a bad sign, though.

Chestnuts roasted by Behonkiss @ 05/11/2004 02:38 PM EST

two words.
large marge

Chestnuts roasted by zombone @ 05/11/2004 02:55 PM EST

Oops...I mean "The Woman In Black". And just thought of another, "Zombi 2" had a scene where a piece of wood slowly sank into a lady's eye which makes me freak out now anytime something comes near my eye.

Chestnuts roasted by Cobra Soldier #18 @ 05/11/2004 02:56 PM EST

You have good taste in films, Matt, assuming that you liked Jacob's Ladder in addition to being scared witless by it.

I don't scare easily, but when I was a kid the two films that scared me most were House and The Gate...the former because that witch thing was just too freaky, the latter because our house was newly built and I kept thinking that maybe one of the construction workers had died and had been sealed up in the walls. Plus new homes, like old homes, make all sorts of strange noises...

And Candyman didn't scare me much, but it sure terrified the crap out of the people I watched it with back in middle school...and my bravery was praised when I dared to go into the bathroom alone, turn out the lights, and summon the C-man myself. Alas, he never came, but I hear he likes to take his time with these things.

Chestnuts roasted by Wes @ 05/11/2004 03:17 PM EST

There's no way of knowing...
(he's singing)
Which direction we are going.
There's no earthly way of knowing...
(knowing)
Which way the river's flowing.
Is it raining? Is it snowing?
Is a hurricane a-blowing?
.
.
.
.
.
Who wants chocolate?

Chestnuts roasted by kingklash @ 05/11/2004 03:17 PM EST

Ok, here's another odd one - the Child Catcher in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. I haven't seen the movie in years, but I get the willies just thinking about him.

The guy had a pale face, sunken eyes and a long nose, and was dressed in a dark suit. He came around with this wagon that had lots of candy and toys, and lured the two children out of their hiding place. Once they were close, he trapped them in the wagon, which was really a cage. Whatever he was singing just added to the horrible feeling.

Oh man, he creeped me out permanently! And I've always been a huge fan of anything that's really scary - The Shining, IT, Poltergeist, Carrie, The Ring, etc. This guy just had an aura that said "I'm coming to get you."

Chestnuts roasted by Suelo @ 05/11/2004 03:28 PM EST

I accidentally saw "Killer Klowns from Outer Space" when I was around 6. That movie messed me up! Especially when they drink the peoples blood out of the cotton candy death traps! Ack! But I just watched it not too long ago...it's pretty damn cheesy...but to a 6 year old it's hell.
Oh yeah Childs Play freaked me out too. My mom even chased me out of a store with a Chucky doll. The Chucky trying to murder me nightmare's FINALLY Stopped!

Chestnuts roasted by Jenner @ 05/11/2004 03:39 PM EST

For some reason as a kid, Ernest Scared Stupid was the movie that freaked me out the most. I was real little when it came out, but I started screaming and crying in the theater from the monsters in the movie. Also the ghosts from the Mario Brothers games freaked me out, I would play till I got to the castle where the ghosts follow behind you, then I passed the controller to my brother to finish that part for me.

I was a wuss as a kid apparently.

Chestnuts roasted by Stacey @ 05/11/2004 03:58 PM EST

IT has to rank has to at the top for me: damn sure.

And for only a small related reason I was scared every time i flushed the toilet. I even jogged away...

Chestnuts roasted by CWH @ 05/11/2004 04:00 PM EST

You forgot to mention the Child Catcher's long, stringy hair, and weird stovepipe hat. And the fact that he can "smell" children. Ever notice out-of-place spooky things in kid's movies? Like the crows gang-flocking ScrewEyes in "We're Back," leaving only his screw behind? Or the Camel with the Wrinkled Knees freaky visions of home in "Raggedy Ann and Andy?" And the aformentioned Blue Meanies, especially the leader, the way he talks all quiet and sweet, only to SCREAM LIKE A CASE OF WORM IN BRAIN IN ITS LAST STAGES! Of course, there are those folk who hate Flying Monkeys.

Chestnuts roasted by kingklash @ 05/11/2004 04:00 PM EST

I remember when batman first came out, that movie scared the crap outta me! I was a youngin at the time and Jack playin the joker was more than any kid needs to be scared silly.

Chestnuts roasted by heeloyd @ 05/11/2004 04:01 PM EST

We watched The Amittyville Horror the night we moved into my dad's new house. That was pretty freaky. My dad was sitting by a window in the living room and a cat jumped up at the screen, just like it does in the movie. Woah! Then, there was the "Based on a true story" rumors - hey, anything could have happened in this house before we moved in.
Uh, yikes?

Was anyone else freaked out by the pink elephants in Dumbo?

Chestnuts roasted by trajeal @ 05/11/2004 04:02 PM EST

I also remember when the Muppet christmas carol came out and I went to see it. Me and a billion other little kids crammed into the theater, and the movie started, only it wasnt the movie we went to see. I don't remember the exact name of it but it was some Dracula movie and the first 5 minutes was shown to a theater of little kids, who were all crying afterwards and angry parents mobbed the manager. Those 5 minutes had so much blood and creepy stuff. Then they started the muppet movie and all was good again. It was a funny day. >:D

Chestnuts roasted by heeloyd @ 05/11/2004 04:06 PM EST

yeah the pink elephants freaked me out man!!! Little devils!!

Chestnuts roasted by heeloyd @ 05/11/2004 04:07 PM EST

David Spade movies scare me.

Chestnuts roasted by alfonso the bat @ 05/11/2004 04:18 PM EST

I don't mind the sight of worms,
Or even microscopic germs,
But Technicolor pachydems
Are really too much for me.
What'll I do?
What'll I do?
What an unusual view!

Chestnuts roasted by kingklash @ 05/11/2004 04:35 PM EST

Poltergeist 2 has this one scene that made me wig out as a kid and couldn't remeber what movie it was from until a few months ago. It is where the son goes in the bathroom to shave and his braces go haywire and pin him to the ceiling.

Chestnuts roasted by Brite @ 05/11/2004 04:59 PM EST

Large Marge, Judge Doom at the end of Roger Rabbit, poltergeist, anything with clowns

Chestnuts roasted by phunqsauce @ 05/11/2004 04:59 PM EST

stacey, I am very embaresed by it but Ernest scared stupid scared me too. we went to see it on holloween night at the theatres, and I had to leave about the time the demon thing caught the main little boy.

Chestnuts roasted by brandon @ 05/11/2004 05:21 PM EST

Pet Cemetary...

I snuck back out of bed to watch it on HBO with the sound really low in the middle of the night. It is really the only movie that made me afraid....ever.

I was into horror and rented horror exclusivly at the time.

The Serpent and the Rainbow freaked me out a little too the first time I saw it. ZOMBIES and it was a true story.

Chestnuts roasted by blucadet3 @ 05/11/2004 05:30 PM EST

Oh and I forgot about the GATE!

That movie was the bomb and made me afraid of geodes

Chestnuts roasted by blucadet3 @ 05/11/2004 05:31 PM EST

i remeber when i was like 5 or 6 my dad made me watch child's play and that movie freaked me out so bad that my mom had to get rid of my dolls and stuffed animals. i'm still afraid of dolls. i refuse to have them near me. also any alien movie freaks me out. and clowns because of IT. when the remake of texas chainsaw massacre came out i had to stop watching it because the sound of chainsaws scare the crap out of me.

Chestnuts roasted by redslurpee @ 05/11/2004 05:38 PM EST

Glitter scared me
The Witches scared me when I was younger, the scene where Angelica Houston pulled off her mask

Chestnuts roasted by ali @ 05/11/2004 05:57 PM EST

Funny, so many people are scared of Tim Curry as Pennywise in IT, but his performance as Darkness in Legend scared me as kid and still spooks me a little now. http://www.heycomputer.com/ref/legend/dark2.jpg My elementary school made the mistake of showing us Legend after it came out on video. The teachers got some nightmare complaints the following day from parents.

Chestnuts roasted by Richard @ 05/11/2004 05:59 PM EST

You think that was scary? Watch me now....
.
.
.
YOU WILL NOW HAVE IN YOUR HEAD THE FUSED IMAGE OF TIM CURRY AS BOTH DARKNESS AND DR. FRANK N. FURTER PRANCING AROUND IN YOUR HEAD. AND HE WILL BE ACCOMPANIED BY A MINI-ME OF PENNYWISE THAT LAUGHS AT YOU WHENEVER YOUR BACK IS TURNED. DREAM, IF YOU CAN.
.
.
.
Let me know how it turns out.

Chestnuts roasted by kingklash @ 05/11/2004 06:10 PM EST

I can't believe no one has said "Session 9" yet. I saw that on the big screen in a theatre that was empty except for myself and my brother, which definitely helped the atmo, but still.

Maybe i'm just super puss.

Chestnuts roasted by Serena @ 05/11/2004 06:16 PM EST

Hmm. I would have to say that Ghostbusters 2 scared the crap out of me. I was too young when the first movie came out to see it (I was only 2 cuz I was out in 84) but then they made the Real Ghostbusters cartoon which my brother and I LOVED. So we begged our parents to take us to GB2. Holy crap, I was convinced that pink ooze was going to come out of the faucet whenever I took a bath. I had to have my mom turn on the tap and stay in the bathroom until the tub was full. More recently, that Nostradamus documentary King was talking about (or one similar to it) scared the shit out of me. I saw it before the turn of the century (haha that makes me sound like some kind of old person) and it was predicting the end of the world in either 2000 or 2001. And some weird date in like 2012 or something like that... cue ominous music...

Chestnuts roasted by Gabbylicious @ 05/11/2004 06:22 PM EST

"You forgot to mention the Child Catcher's long, stringy hair, and weird stovepipe hat. And the fact that he can "smell" children."

Argggghhhhh!! Did you have to bring all that up, Kingklash?? I had successfully repressed the worst of him, but now, thanks to you, I don't expect to sleep well tonight.

Find a happy place, find a happy place...

Chestnuts roasted by Suelo @ 05/11/2004 06:37 PM EST

kingklash! You forgot the one other deeply disturbing Tim Curry role!! Tim Curry as the Grand Wizard in The Worst Witch!!! Insert that into the mix, and ... nighty-night!

Chestnuts roasted by Nachokhaki @ 05/11/2004 07:14 PM EST

'The Career of Tim Curry: Uncovering The Curse'
http://www.x-entertainment.com/messages/477.html

Chestnuts roasted by Richard @ 05/11/2004 07:46 PM EST

Another movie that left me shit-scared was Cat's Eye. Damn that little goblin trying to steal that kid's breath! (not to mention, I'm not fond of cats either)

Chestnuts roasted by Mugzy. . . @ 05/11/2004 07:58 PM EST

about a year ago i was on a school trip to marmot for a school ski trip and on the way there some kid brought IT along with them to watch, i swear this is the fuckin scariest movie ive ever seen mainly cause i cant stand clowns at all

Chestnuts roasted by Ryder @ 05/11/2004 08:24 PM EST

My dad took me to see Ghosbusters when i was 3. The librarian sceene scared the shit out of me and i didn't stay for the rest of the movie.

Recently, the ring scared me. While watching the movie i wasn't that scared. But right after the movie my friends cell phone rang so that freaked us out. And i also have a tv in my bedrom, right next to my bed.

Chestnuts roasted by Bright Noah @ 05/11/2004 09:08 PM EST

Scariest movie? No contest - "The Others." I saw it in a cramped, older theater with my boyfriend and shook for an hour after we left, I was so frightened. I'll clutched his arm the entire 90 minutes or so and I'll bet I left bruises. It's amazing how the little things that go bump and thump and whirr can scare more of the crap out of you than a thousand gallons of blood and gore. It took a while for me to see the trick ending coming, too...and I was still scared after I figured it out.

I haven't been able to bring myself to watch it since. I don't know if it's as scary when you're sitting in your living room and you already know the end, but I'm shivering just thinking about that evening, and it's at least 65 in my apartment.

Chestnuts roasted by starwenn @ 05/11/2004 10:08 PM EST

Hmmm, scariest movie....this is difficult, me being as much of a horror freak as I am. I'd say its a tie between the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre and the first Hellraiser.

However, every movie ever made could never beat System Shock 2 for being scary. That game is quite possibly the most freaky, frightening thing ever made.

Chestnuts roasted by Evil Urchin @ 05/11/2004 10:22 PM EST

It's a tough call as to what movie I found the scariest, but I'm going to give that title to Die Hard, which I tried to watch on TV when I was about 10. It was just so intense, especially in the parts when they shooted out entire office floors with automatic weapons. Oddly enough, I was more scared by things in general when I was 9 or 10 than when I was 3 or 4 (with one exception, see below)...from dogs barking to anything involving a large amount of breaking glass, etc. Maybe it was because I watched the evening news every day when I was 9 or 10...now THAT was scary! Fortunately, I've outgrown most of these fears in the years since.

Oddly, the scariest thing I recall from my early childhood was not a movie so much as a Tums antacid TV commercial from the late '80s or early '90s. At the end, a voiceover sang "tum-tum-tum-tum-TUMS" in a very imposing voice, accompanied by a picture of a bottle of Tums on-screen on a black background that abruptly got bigger and bigger with every successive utterance of "tum!" THAT SCARED THE CRAP OUT OF ME! In fact, whenever that commercial came on the air I'd leave the room and wouldn't come back until it was over.

Chestnuts roasted by Andrew T. @ 05/11/2004 10:57 PM EST

Damn, forgot how that Notradamus documentary scared the holy hell out of me as a kid, thanks for dredging up old memories! I would love to see that now to see if any of it came true :D

Chestnuts roasted by Bizzar @ 05/11/2004 11:00 PM EST

My List:

IT
Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
Pee Wee Herman's Adventures
E.T. (I still can't stomach this film, yet it's a classic?)
The Ring (you'd be scared too if you had to drive home in super thick fog after seeing this -although the horse seen made me bust out laughing, it was the *thunk sound the horse made falling off the boat)

And to add the commment about "House of Leaves" that book messed with my head too...I was tempted to start measuring the wall every evening to make sure they remained the same.

Chestnuts roasted by two_peep_army @ 05/11/2004 11:26 PM EST

Well, for me, and most probably consider it pretty tame, would have to be Creepshow. I was way too young to see that one. The cockroaches covering that dude, the meteorite turning Steven King (I realize now) into a plant, the...what was it a werewolf in some box? I hid under my blanket for most of that part.

Chestnuts roasted by jhnnywalkr @ 05/12/2004 12:32 AM EST

Why has no one mentioned the [The?] Sixth Sense? I saw it when it was on the big screen, and to this day I still refuse to let my feet dangle close to under the bed. :/

Chestnuts roasted by pacotaco @ 05/12/2004 12:45 AM EST

Arachniphobia. I'm not sure why, but this movie scared the crap outta me when I first saw it. That and when "Thriller" was first aired on TV (as the show, not just a video). It was Michael as the wolfman that scared me - dancing zombies are just fun.

Chestnuts roasted by James F.W. @ 05/12/2004 12:59 AM EST

When I was pretty young, I saw a very brief clip from a Freddy movie on some kind of MTV hilights show about horror or the movie itself I was watching. Freddie comes in to some shower and surprises some guy and of course slashes the crap out of him. This scared the shit out of me and for a year or two afterward, at least, I had to shower with someone in the next room to make sure that Freddie wouldn't sneak up on me in the shower. Pretty lame.

The movie that has spooked me the most as an adult is the old B&W version of The Haunting. Creepy. I would love to see it on the big screen.

Chestnuts roasted by Kit @ 05/12/2004 01:35 AM EST

AH! Arachnaphobia.. I still can't watch that movie. I am deathly afraid of spiders and like a fool I watched it, I still can't take a shower without thinking those damn things are gonna come crawling out. I thought I was getting better with the fear and then I watched 8 Legged Freaks.. it's not the movies that get me.. it's those damned spiders.

Chestnuts roasted by hugsnstuff @ 05/12/2004 01:48 AM EST

it's a toss up between Funny Girl and Showgirls.

Chestnuts roasted by Mighty Bob @ 05/12/2004 01:55 AM EST

There are a few things that stuck with me.

When I was 5 or 6, I saw Watcher in the Woods and was creeped out by the blindfolded girl Karen whispering and reaching out in that house of mirrors!

I saw the part where the Alien bursts out of the chest of that guy in Alien when I was 7. the first time I saw such a sickening bloody scene. I couldn't eat dinner after that. I was most disturbed by the guy moaning, screaming and writhing in pain and the first blood exploding from his chest, more then the actual bursting part.

at age 9 in 1985, my friends rented Ghostbusters and right after the Librarian showed her ugly side, I stayed in the kitchen!

The movie that gave me the creeps as an adult was Sixth Sense, in particular the boy shot in his head and the moment the women ghost in the housecoat passes by the door. It makes me feel as though I could look into my dark hallway and see someone not normal standing there!

Chestnuts roasted by rmjoots @ 05/12/2004 02:16 AM EST

shrek was at the post office today in the form of a cardboard display advertising priority mail evelopes. he had no presence at quizno's thankfully. Toasty flatbreads are the best!!

Chestnuts roasted by heeloyd @ 05/12/2004 04:04 AM EST

When I was about 6 or so there was an episode of Amazing Stories with a dude in it and every time he looked in the mirror he saw some guy behind him.
Each time the guy behind him was closer and closer until he is right in the back seat of the dude's car at the end.

I hate mirrors...

Chestnuts roasted by Cyanyde @ 05/12/2004 04:26 AM EST

The emergency broadcast system. That freaked me out. I would always run out of the room when that came on.

Chestnuts roasted by Yashiro @ 05/12/2004 04:46 AM EST

The movie with Nicole Kidman i think it was Others...when the kids were running from the maid and butler and ran into the graves which had the peoples name which were chasing them gave me the chills. matter of fact it still makes me sick thinkin about it.
/hides

Chestnuts roasted by Jason @ 05/12/2004 05:59 AM EST

Back when I was like... Three/four years old, I watched Friday the 13th Part 3(I think). There's this bit towards the begining, after the initial "killing spree" (read: I'd just watched a number of people killed in a number of ways) with some "suprise scare." A rabbit jumping out onto the screen. Well, at that moment I burst out crying and my mom stops the tape. Calms me down and asks what was wrong.

I was scared the bunny was going to get killed.

More recently... just the thought of From Justin to Kelly.... *shudders*

Chestnuts roasted by JasonA @ 05/12/2004 06:12 AM EST

Heeloyd, the movie that scared you so badly was probably Coppola's Dracula, which came out around the same time as Muppet Christmas Carol.

Every once in a rare while HBO busts out that old intro, and for some reason everytime I catch it seems like a momentous occasion, like I've just watched some rare astronomical event.

Chestnuts roasted by Hellpop! @ 05/12/2004 06:24 AM EST

Tremors was definitely the scariest. I think I was 4 when it came out (wasn't it 1990?) and that big ass worm scared the shit out of me. Like when the little snake things came out of the ground to feel around and whenever they did like the underground thing to show it chasing someone...scary 14 years ago, but damn funny now.

Chestnuts roasted by Kappin @ 05/12/2004 07:25 AM EST

Haven't really been "scared" by any movie...more like freaked out. Pet Cemetary was pretty freaky...as well as Sleepwalkers (which was more sick than scary).

While waiting for Matt's next Chia Plot installment, this should tide you over for a while: http://www.homestarrunner.com/cheatcommando.html

Even if you're not a fan of Homestar Runner, it's a pretty clever and funny GI Joe parody.

Chestnuts roasted by The Dragon @ 05/12/2004 07:28 AM EST

Children of the Corn was scary, that stupid little ringleader kid always scared me, never liked to go to the country after that... Ooh, Sometimes They Come Back was scary too for me, the part where the tarot cards slice open the chicks face... ughhh...

Chestnuts roasted by BettieBoo @ 05/12/2004 08:14 AM EST

Actually, you know what is always scary, HILLBILLIES.

Chestnuts roasted by BettieBoo @ 05/12/2004 08:16 AM EST

Actually, you know what is usually always scary, HILLBILLIES.

Chestnuts roasted by BettieBoo @ 05/12/2004 08:17 AM EST

Sixth Sense never actually scared me... definitely a great movie, but not really scary. I dunno, maybe 'cause I guessed the big secret halfway through. Oh well. But to whoever mentioned the Thriller video- totally agree, I'd forgotten all about that. I saw the initial sequence when MJ turns into a werewolf and got so scared I couldn't watch the rest. (Too bad, I'm sure I would've enjoy the dancing zombies.) I was always most scared of werewolves as a kid, and to this day can't understand how anyone could be afraid of vampires instead. (Seriously, a tiny bite in the neck, after which you live forever, or getting eviscerated? Even as a kid, I was waaaay too logical.)

So am I really the only one here who's seen "The Last Broadcast"? (Not surprising; I think my Mom had to special-order it for Christmas a few years ago.) Man, you guys are missing out. I actually liked the Blair Witch Project when it first came out (and was scared), but man, the story of 2 radio hosts and a supposed psychic who go looking for the Jersey Devil in the Pine Barrens -- and the actual revelation of what really happened to them, rather than just a guy standing in a corner -- just blows it out of the water. And the BWP people admitted to having watched it before making their movie, too... ripoffs.

Chestnuts roasted by The Lucky One @ 05/12/2004 09:49 AM EST

I'm going to have to agree with Matt on Jacob's Ladder... that is one masterful, fucked up movie--one of my favorites. I hope I'll be able to change my answer to Silent Hill in the near future...

Matt, I don't know if you have access to a Playstation or a PS2, but if you liked Jacob's Ladder, I think the Silent Hill series would be right up your alley. It's very heavily influenced by JL, very cerebral, and it's about the best argument (in my opinion) for the video game as a new artistic medium.

Uh, close second? Event Horizon. I saw it while I was in theaters (with the sound turned up really loud). That is one messed up film, I tell you what.

Oh, and when I was a lot younger, Killer Klowns from Outer Space bothered the shit out of me. It still scares me today, for entirely differnet reasons.

Chestnuts roasted by Night_Trekker @ 05/12/2004 09:59 AM EST

Rhinestone -
Rocky singing country - 'nuff said.

Chestnuts roasted by Joe @ 05/12/2004 11:05 AM EST

The bit at the end of Raiders of the Lost Arc scared the crap out off me, with the opening of the arc of the covenant opening and all those spirt type things coming out killing the Nazis.
And someone earlier said the tunnel scene in Willy Wonka is edited out on tv, well not on English T.V.

Chestnuts roasted by Gorm @ 05/12/2004 12:04 PM EST

Pink Flamingos didn't scare me, per se, but it was probably the most disturbing movie I've seen. The funny thing was that they didn't have a copy of it in any of the video rental places around here, but surprisingly my university's library had it. However, they don't loan their non-print media out; you have to go to a row of cubicles with dvd players and a tv and watch it there. People can pass by you and see what your watching, which is okay when your a music major and you're watching Amadeus or something, but with Pink Flamingos I think you need some privacy. During the most "interesting" scenes, I had to keep stopping it while people walked by. An interesting time, all around.

Chestnuts roasted by Yep @ 05/12/2004 12:08 PM EST

Ok, add a Grand Wizard Mini-Me to the mix, singing his little music-video song. Great, now a song by They Might Be Giants is running through my brain.
Where your eyes don't go
A filthy scarecrow waves his broomstick arms
And does a parody of each unconcious thing you do.
When you turn around to look
He's gone behind you,
On his face he's wearing your confused expression.
Where your eyes don't go...

Chestnuts roasted by kingklash @ 05/12/2004 12:10 PM EST

Geez I guess IT scared a lot of people! I love that movie! But Tim Curry's googley eyes are a bit freaky in that movie.

Chestnuts roasted by Jenner @ 05/12/2004 01:03 PM EST

Last Broadcast and Blair Witch fans should try to find a BBC "documentary" called Ghostwatch. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0200659/ My British cousins told me I would love it and are sending me a copy.

Cyanyde, Amazing Stories had some great episodes. I looked up the episodes and here is my favorite spooky episode with Bill/Grasshopper starring:
http://www.scifi.com/amazing/season_02.html
Thanksgiving
Eighteen-year-old Dora is miserable living in an isolated desert town with her dour stepfather, but their discovery of mysterious "hole people" in a dried-up well changes each of their fates by Thanksgiving Day.
David Carradine (Calvin), Kyra Sedgwick (Dora Johnson)

Chestnuts roasted by Richard @ 05/12/2004 01:28 PM EST

In The Mouth of Madness did a number on me. It gives a glimpse of what it may be like to be insane. If everyone around you is acting insane...then maybe they aren't and you are the crazy one...That got to me. The scene that freaked me out the most was when he kept waking up over and over. Stuck in a dream loop. That is scary.

Chestnuts roasted by Stilewalker @ 05/12/2004 01:33 PM EST

I just thought of another scene from a movie that freaked me out. I was watching House from the popular House Quadrilogy (House 1 and 2 are by far the best) and there is a scene where a beautiful girl reaches under a table to pick something up and when she comes back into the camera view, she is a hideous monster. My friend and I jumped so bad that he accidently shut off the TV and the room went dark. We briefly freaked out, turned the lights back on and then laughed histerically for the next 10 minutes as the adrenaline slowly left our systems.

Chestnuts roasted by Stilewalker @ 05/12/2004 01:37 PM EST

Definately 'The Ring'

The zombie girl in the black dress walking out of that well...*shiver*

even the parody they made of her in Scary Movie (3?) freaked me out

All those stiff joints and black tangled hair

I barely remember Poltergeist, I only know that it freaked me out and gave me nightmares when i watched it. Should rent that and see if it still has the same effect.

Chestnuts roasted by -Jen- @ 05/12/2004 01:44 PM EST

Stilewalker- that thing about the guy waking up over and over, stuck in a dream loop, sounds a lot like what happens to one character in the first Sandman collection, Preludes and Nocturnes. (Every time he wakes up from a horrible nightmare, he finds out that he's actually in an even worse one... and then another... and another...) Definitely recommended to anyone who's a fan of horror; the first story arc samples, issue by issue, various different popular styles of horror.

Chestnuts roasted by The Lucky One @ 05/12/2004 01:47 PM EST

I got this movie kairo and I haven't been able to get past the first 5 minutes, its one of those super creepy japanese movies http://www.midnighteye.com/reviews/kairo.shtml plus that dude from Phantasm allways scared the crap out of me

Chestnuts roasted by dr mindbender in a speedo @ 05/12/2004 01:58 PM EST

richard, that episode of amazing stories is my favorite too, probably because It's only one of a few I've seen. recently I found I have it on a tape with some old mst3k episodes. that's now my favorite vhs I own.

Chestnuts roasted by brandon @ 05/12/2004 02:21 PM EST

Our scientists have determined this to be: Turkey.
Can you send more?

Chestnuts roasted by kingklash @ 05/12/2004 02:29 PM EST

Forgot to mention Toon Judge Doom at the end of Roger Rabbit. ACK.

Oh, and I found this short film in a link. Do NOT watch it in a desolate area and/or in the dark:

http://zed.cbc.ca/go.ZeD?CONTENT_ID=9176&FILTER_KEY=477094&page=content

Chestnuts roasted by Behonkiss @ 05/12/2004 02:50 PM EST

Pet Cemetery is great.

Chestnuts roasted by shuffleboarderhere @ 05/12/2004 03:10 PM EST

Scariest movie evar:

Faces of Death!

And they're all real!

/snopes lies!

Chestnuts roasted by Waitin' for the Olsen Twins @ 05/12/2004 03:14 PM EST

At the time that I saw the movie, Evil Dead was the scariest, bar none.

When Evil Dead came out on HBO, I was like 3 or 4. At that time I was pretty confident that I could watch it, heck, I had seen quite a few horror movies and had no problems. But when I watched that one, holy crap! I couldn't even finish it, I had to turn it off. Just too much for my little mind.

Honerable Mentions:

Pet Cemetary on acid - Still to this day this movie gives me the creeps. I just don't like Pascow -HE FREAKS ME OUT!! The part where they zoom into the pet cemetary the first time in the day time...hehe I was so high my brain told me I was actually being sucked into the pet cemetary, complete with weather and lighting effects (all inside my friends house)...Weirdest part is we left this movie running over and over while we did other things as well, and the movie (we swear to God on this one) never showed the part where Gage is run over. We watched it like 4 times in a row. Of course it was the drugs, but it's a nice story.

The ankle slashing scene - eep! I actually watched this movie in the theater when I was 5 - I closed my eyes during this scene. For being such a big time horror fan, I conceded alot with that gesture.

IT - The scene where they look at the book got to me for some reason.

Jacob's Ladder

Watcher in the Woods

Chestnuts roasted by eyeless @ 05/12/2004 03:55 PM EST

*ahem*
Candyass
Candyass
Candyass
Huh, nothing happ...
Whoops!

Chestnuts roasted by kingklash @ 05/12/2004 04:05 PM EST

Yeah that sounds like it must have been it Hellpop!. I just remember all the screaming kids in there and all the moms yelling at the manager. >:D

Haha I saw the ring last year. I thought it was funny. That guy that electricutes himself in the tub, that was just a bit overkill. All those appliances and cords. all it takes is one cord to do it, but i guess he wanted to go with a bang.

Chestnuts roasted by heeloyd @ 05/12/2004 04:33 PM EST

When it was released, the ending of Time Bandits totally freaked me out. Also, the "V" miniseries gave me nightmares as a child...

Chestnuts roasted by spectre @ 05/12/2004 04:41 PM EST

Watcher in the Woods is sooooooo scary. Especially the funhouse scene where she can't escape the ghost in the maze of mirrors. That scene still gives me the creeps to think about.

As a little kid I was absolutely terrified of the Garfield Halloween special. The part where garfield and odie hide from the ghost pirates freaked me out as a kid!

I love to watch other people play Silent Hill but I totally can't play them myself...it makes me too nervous.

Chestnuts roasted by lain @ 05/12/2004 04:48 PM EST

Oh man... i wish i hadn't watched "the cat with hands". Damn you Behonkiss!

Scariest movie evar? Well, most recent one is The Ring, cuz it was just me and one of my friends in the WHOLE THEATER. we were just running up and down the aisles when i hear a weird noise from the screen and BAM, dead girl in the closet! We decided to sit down.

I saw The Gate when i was about 7.... we had just moved into a new house, and it looked almost identical to the one in the movie. Couldn't sleep for a week.

Haven't seen The Exorcist... haven't really had a chance. the Silent hill games are my favorite games of all time. Pyramid head (from the second one) creeped the hell out of me. I used to think he just popped up in random places, which really freaked me out, but now i know he only comes in certain places to make you piss yourself.

Chestnuts roasted by Gooble74 @ 05/12/2004 04:59 PM EST

I don't like scary movies. I have a very overactive imagination. So I generally stay away from that genre. But I have been exposed to two movies that scared the skittles out of me when I was kid.

"The Gate" somewhat obscure 80's flick where this kid accidently digs up the door to Hell in his backyard.

All sorts of disturbing stuff happens, dead dog, satanic lyrics. There are these little demons that bite this kid, freaky freaky shit, and then this part where these arms are reaching out from under the bed and this kid has an eyeball in his hand and he stabs it with a shard of glass.

Anyway I was like really young when I saw this. I rewatched it a few months ago, it was tame, but man did it screw with me when I was kid.

Chestnuts roasted by Don't Touch, Willy. @ 05/12/2004 05:45 PM EST

They - That was soooo creepy, and despite my better judgement had me on edge far more than any film i have ever seen except...

Arachiphobia: Im shit scared of spiders,and when i was a kid and saw this the mere fact that spiders touched actors made me creeped out sooo much. I still look in lamp shades before i turn the lights off.

Chestnuts roasted by Vyle @ 05/12/2004 05:50 PM EST

Second movie. So this one my mom brought home, slipped threw the cracks as a kid movie. Howie Mandel in "Little Monsters."

Ok some of you are laughing at this one. But it was really disturbing as a kid. Fred Savage and some kids go to the world of monsters under there bed. There are evil ones too.

The part that really disturbed me was this kid was walking along. And then this monster ripped her head off and put it on a boys body. The monster said that boys were better.

I dont know man. It was just totally disturbing, my mind was wrapped around the idea of switching bodies, and decapitation. To me decapitation is one of the scariest things I can think of. To this day still wont watch that damn movie.

Fuck you Mandel, I even liked "Bobby's World" but no you have to go and make a sick movie and pass it off for kids.

Chestnuts roasted by Don't Touch, Willy. @ 05/12/2004 05:51 PM EST

Richard, BBC has a couple of video clips and cool stories of how people were affected by Ghostwatch.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/ilove/tv//ghostwatch/index.shtml

Chestnuts roasted by The Other Hand @ 05/12/2004 05:51 PM EST

What movie was this - a bunch of kids get kidnapped by guys wearing Halloween masks or something like that. Would have been in the early-mid 80s. There was a horrible scene were the kids had to swim through a flooded cave and it was a long distance with no place to come up for air. Thinking about it still freaks me out. *shudders*

Chestnuts roasted by yuki @ 05/12/2004 06:11 PM EST

Oh, I have to say that The Ring was bad too, despite me being "too old to be scared by movies." I just couldn't shake the creepy, on-edge feeling. It didn't help that I have the exact same TV as the old one they found in the barn (the one the girl used to develop her powers or whatever). One person I saw it with said the scene with the horse on the boat was the most disturbing thing she'd ever seen.

Chestnuts roasted by yuki @ 05/12/2004 06:18 PM EST

When the horse jumps off the boat, Yuki? Me and my friends couldnt stop laughing at that in the cinema, although the girls with us didnt find it amusing at all.

Chestnuts roasted by Gorm @ 05/12/2004 06:55 PM EST

When I was really little Time Life books had some commercials for a series on the parenormal - it had fairly regular looking women claiming to be Actual Witches. My family was pretty hardcore christian and my mom was a big fan of Mike Warnke (sp?) a christian speaker who claimed to have once been a high priest of satan or something. (it turned out to be all lies. surprise surprise.) Anyway, between the time life commercials and Mr. Warnke's stories about tables walking around on thier own and such, I was terrified of witchcraft as a kid.

I was also really terrified of an episode of Little House on the Prairy where Laura sees-or-thinks-she-sees a head roll down the stairs. I don't remember *anything* else about it. Maybe it was a Halloween episode? All I remember is watching a bag that supposably contained a head roll down the stairs. Nightmares for *years*.

And, Yay! Happiness. I always thought I was the only person in the universe who was actually frightened of Alien Autopsy. Hmmm... maybe I was the only *adult* in the universe who was scared of it.

Chestnuts roasted by elfstar6X18 @ 05/12/2004 07:28 PM EST

It was the last movie that scared me. after that i havent seen a movie that really scared me in a good while. i saw it when i was 12 i think

Chestnuts roasted by troy smoe @ 05/12/2004 09:14 PM EST

The Sound of Music. That's a fucking scary movie. On a serious note I'm not a big "Scary" movie fan, I pretty much have seen the screams and I know what you did last summers, completely ignoring movies such as Nightmare on elm street, halloween, you name it. In theatres, The Ring, scared the buhjesus out of me. But I was most scared of "Christina's House" Just cause it was my first actually leaning on the scary side movie, I had seen, without the thrown in teen humor and commercialism. Now i just laugh at that movie for how terribly written it was.

Chestnuts roasted by Ally @ 05/12/2004 09:36 PM EST

The bunny from Donnie Darko. You could never get a really clear shot of his face, but you could see his teeth. Far-eaky.

Anything that has strobe filming (or whatever it's called), like the NIN video Closer. The video feedof the ghost doctor from House on Haunted Hill did that, and to this day, just thinking about it gives me the heebie jeebies.

For some reason, the sound that they play on The Price is Right when the contestant spinning the wheel goes over - BBRRRRZZZZTT!! I can't stand that sound.

yuki I know what movie you're talking about, but I can't remember the name. It was a teacher and her students, all trapped in an undergound well/hole by guys in Santa Claus masks and whatnot. It was Australian, I think.

Chestnuts roasted by trajeal @ 05/12/2004 09:41 PM EST

I watched Alien when I was four years old...

Let me repeat that. I watched Alien when I was four years old...

Chestnuts roasted by Mr. Mr. Mr. @ 05/12/2004 10:52 PM EST

I can't ever remember really being scared by a movie.. though I remember the game Silent Hill.. scared the crap out of me.. only while playing though, no lingering fears..

Chestnuts roasted by Toxicitiy- @ 05/12/2004 11:35 PM EST

as a small kid, the scene in Sleeping Beauty where the bad fairy turns into a dragon. i literally refused to watch this movie until it came out on DVD this year, whereupon i watched it and was not very scared.

i remember the scene where the sneaker gets melted in Roger Rabbit really scared me, but nothing else about the movie. i know Cocoon scared me but i don't remember why. and that Disney movie about the tiny robot UFOs. ET too.

i still won't watch Close Encounters of the Third Kind. i had nightmares about everything in my house shaking and the lights in the windows... in elementary school i read a bunch of those 'true' books about aliens and alien abduction and it just scared me shitless.

in recent years, Seven really bugged me. and Perfect Blue, the first time i saw it.

the scene in The Sixth Sense where the boy's at his friend's party and there's a voice whispering behind a door and urging him to come in... it's making me sick to my stomach just thinking about it.

and actually, some one in my Humanities course last year showed a clip of Nightmare on Elm Street. i've never seen it-- i was prohibited from watching scary movies as a kid. anyway, the part where the girl whose friend just got killed falls asleep and starts dreaming about seeing the trail of blood and seeing her friend squirming around in a body bag and following a trail of blood down the hall, that was all very scary. once Freddie showed up, though, i wasn't scared at all.

the two things i would say scare me the most in movies are aliens and anything you can't see but can hear.

Chestnuts roasted by the gender deity @ 05/13/2004 01:22 AM EST

Oh man I feel like such a damn pussy telling this story but The Ring scared the shit out of me. Something about the music in the video and the weird images just made it really psychologically disturbing for me. Me and my ex-boyfriend were in the theatre and at one point I actually started hyperventilating. He took me home and inside my house and when my dad asked me how the movie was I just started crying. I honestly don't know why it scared me so bad, but I do know that I slept in my living room that night with the tv and the lights on. I didn't want to fall asleep.

Anyway, when I was little I had a recurring dream about Freddy Krueger killing my little brother. My parents always made me look away in the last Indiana Jones movie when the guy turns into ash, Blair Witch Project scared me a little cause my g-parents live 5 miles back into the woods.

During Unsolved Mysteries, the music would always freak me out and I would have to sit on the floor between my mom's legs so I could hide when the sketches of the criminals came on to the screen.....

Chestnuts roasted by Emmaaaaa @ 05/13/2004 02:18 AM EST

Well, almost everything I might put has been done, so I'm putting the one very real scare that I had very young.
First note, read every single one of your posts people, and after reading some fears I was sure were mine alone, some vague stuff, I'm actually a little suprised what I'm about to post wasn't mentioned, but kudos for me cause now I have a new post.
Second note, I still can't decide if this was inplied and I'm pretty sure it wasn't said plainly, but the HBO intro that more people remember than I would think always (and still when it is shown) gives me real creeps.

Now, my apparentally uniqe movie toatal life ending scare was Twilight Zone: The Movie. Maybe you all havn't seen it or don't remember it if you did (I trust you are fully aware of it Matt) but if you didn't think Dan Aykroyd could be scary, you need to see this movie. Not even a star of the movie, but and intro and outro thing, but man. I'm not gonna spoil it, (somebody else probably will) but see it if only for that.

"Wanna see something REEALLY scary?"

Chestnuts roasted by Spooky @ 05/13/2004 02:38 AM EST

Oh man, I forgot "Tales from the Hood"!

^_^

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114609/usercomments-25

Chestnuts roasted by Night_Trekker @ 05/13/2004 02:56 AM EST

I'd have to say that John Kerry was kinda freaky in Re-Animator... Especially the close ups where he looks like he's about to bite you.

Oh yeah - and Mitchell... Joe Don Baker's ass still gives me nightmares.

Chestnuts roasted by MightyBob @ 05/13/2004 03:44 AM EST

.... KNARF! vote Kerry.

Chestnuts roasted by MightyBob @ 05/13/2004 03:57 AM EST

Yuki,

The movie you were talking about how the teacher and students got kidnapped by those Australian guys in masks is called "Fortress." That movie always used to scare me too.

Chestnuts roasted by G4L @ 05/13/2004 04:52 AM EST

When I was a little kid, EVERYTHING scared me!

MJ's Thriller - during the wolf transformation scene...

Ghostbusters - Not the librarian part, but when Dana became possesed by Zhuul.

and Ghostbusters II - Vigo. Just Vigo.

I mean, It wasn't until I was a teenager until I realized they were COMEDIES.

Chestnuts roasted by D-Nugget @ 05/13/2004 05:05 AM EST

when i was about 6 my sister let me and my sis' watch 'IT' by steven king. that was some scary clown.

even scarier was childs play one and 2. i saw that when i was 9 but im a wuss. im not the type of person that can watch scary movies. is anyone else like me?

Chestnuts roasted by Rachel Cakes @ 05/13/2004 06:06 AM EST

OK I'll admit it...Audrey 2 from Little Shop of Horrors scared the shit out of me. I was 6 year old at the time and my mom thought it would be a good idea to take me to the movie. Oh well, at least I got a transformer out of the deal....

Favorite Ghostbusters 2 quote is when that dude from the museum who was trying to get on Sigourney Weaver asked Bill Murray "WHY ARE YOU CAME?" Shit makes me crack up every time i think about it but is still not as good as "TASTES SO BUTTERY!!!!!"

Chestnuts roasted by phunqsauce @ 05/13/2004 09:18 AM EST

following up on Little Shop. When I watch it now Steve Martin's character is the one who kinda freaks me out, I mean c'mon he was not only a masochist but he was a DENTIST too! The scene where Bill Murray is the patient getting his teeth drilled with no anesthetic is somewhat disturbing because of how much he enjoys the pain...

Chestnuts roasted by phunqsauce @ 05/13/2004 09:24 AM EST

Oh yeah, I almost forgot. When I intially saw that Shrek stamp at the top of the page I thought Shrek was giving us the bird....He might as well be.

Chestnuts roasted by phunqsauce @ 05/13/2004 09:26 AM EST

I think the scariest movie I remember seeing was when I was 6 years old. I saw the original black and white Night of the Living Dead. I think a combination of the grainy black and white footage and the concept scared me for a couple of years. It was a long time till I watched it again (ive seen it like a million times now though). On a side note another movie that scared the hell out of me way back when was the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark. I mean melting faces, shrinking heads, electrocution, burnings... was that an adventure movie or a horror movie? Ha

Chestnuts roasted by Wompdevil @ 05/13/2004 09:54 AM EST

Yeah, Spooky, The Twilight Zone movie freaked me a bit too... the gremlin story, yes, but mostly the one about the kid that lived in a cartoony world... the scenes of the Tazmanian Devil-type creature from the TV and the 'uncle' pulling the snarling rabbit from the hat really upset me as a wee lad.

Chestnuts roasted by Nachokhaki @ 05/13/2004 10:33 AM EST

Dr Mindbender: KAIRO is fairly freaky, but to be honest I expected more than I got. Don't misunderstand, I certainly thought it a skillfully crafted and effective movie, but I was a little let down in the scare department.

The Otherhand: I actually bought a region free dvd player partly in order to see GHOSTWATCH, but I haven't gotten around to ordering it yet. I'm lazy. Certainly one of the films I am most anticipating seeing.

In answer to the original question; I'm not sure I have on answer. ZOMBIE, THE BEYOND and DAY OF THE DEAD scared the piss out of me at an early age, but I can barely remember seeing them for the first time, so I think that a borderline acceptable answer at best.

Recently the movie that has bothered me the most was DARK WATER. I have my own reasons for why it upset me so, but it shook me up pretty badly when I saw it for the first time.

Chestnuts roasted by Benjamin @ 05/13/2004 11:28 AM EST

There used to be a great video store nearby that had bins of cast off videos, but they've gone all streamlined now. Before it changed, though, I snagged a bargain bin copy of George C. Scott's The Changeling, and was surprised that it did have a few creepy moments. I've finished watching the Alien movies, and I liked them, but wasn't really scared by them because, I think, I'm usually more scared by humanoidy type villains. Or uncertain/unknown villains. Like in House of Leaves. I'd sort of like to see the Hellraiser movies, but I think I'd be scared of them too. Anyway, things that scared me:

When I was eleven or twelve I'd just started getting into the Romero Dead movies and asked my dad to pick up a copy of Dawn of the Dead for me when he went to the video store one night. It was out, but he brought me back a copy of The Evil Dead. The tree thing didn't really bug me, but the make-up effects were a lot more realistic than Romero's. I don't remember much about the movie, now, since I haven't seen it in fifteenish years.

The other movie that scared me was Donald Sutherland's Invasion of the Body Snatchers. (Partially because Veronica Cartright has always looked creepy to me). I'm always creeped out by no escape/no hope/no recourse movies.

Sixth Sense was scary in the "Hi, I'm casually walking around with my head blown off. How you doin'?" way. For a month, I felt the same way that rmjoots did everytime I had to pee in the middle of the night.

And, on a related note, I was just listening to an old radio program where Boris Karloff plays a scientist who has found a way to bring people back to life. He ends up trying the technique on his wife (after she'd been embalmed) as she had wanted him to do if she'd died, but his friend kept wondering about what happened to her soul? As she came around, her fucked up babbling and screeching voice made my skin crawl. Just when I got to the point where she'd been revived and was screaming in horror, I heard a back door in the next room being crashed open by the wind. I thought, "Oh great. Now I'm in a horror movie, and I can't remember any of the advice I gave to those other people in horror movies about what to do when a door flings itself open. That'll learn me to be so cocky."

Chestnuts roasted by Molten @ 05/13/2004 11:31 AM EST

I don't watch too many scary movies because I find them dull and unimaginitive for the most part. That bieng said I do really like thriller movies though. Like The Ring, Frailty, The Sixth Sense, and Stir of Echoes.

The Blair Witch Project did bug me a little though. I think it was more about the situation though. When I first watched the movie I thought it was based on a true story. Not just the witch, I thought that three kids had actually went into the woods to make a movie and got lost, and then people found the video footage. I knew it wasn't the actualy footage, I just thought that whoever made the movie had seen it, and then made the movie similair. Also, the day after I watched it I went camping with a bunch of friends. It was definitely a little spooky walking through the woods in the middle of the night alone the day after watching that movie.

Chestnuts roasted by Beerstalker @ 05/13/2004 11:32 AM EST

Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

Its gritty, old-school look still terrifies the fuck out of me. Moreso when I'm drunk and eating pulled pork sandwiches.

Chestnuts roasted by Hypnotix @ 05/13/2004 11:53 AM EST

I think when my post is posted, anyone worried that they are 'lame' or 'pussy', need not fear...I think i have it topped.

Yeah, the scariest movies in my book would be the exorcist, and poltergeist...
but I only saw the previews for the exorcist and it's sequels, and so when I was a kid and I had to go to a catholic church, I couldn't look at jesus or any statues for fear of them becoming animated.

And poltergiest, scary indeed, I think i watched it and eventually grew out of being scared, but RECENTLY saw a picture of the spectre, and had a hard tome walking around in the dark halls of our house. I dare anyone to top being that lame!

Chestnuts roasted by Jackie Crow @ 05/13/2004 12:10 PM EST

Dark Water was pretty scary but I thought the ending was a bummer, kind of like The Eye but both movies had really scary elevator sequences which I think is a requirement of japanese horror movies

Chestnuts roasted by dr mindbender in a speedo @ 05/13/2004 12:12 PM EST

All of this talk about Steve Martin's character in Little Shop of Horrors reminds me of the movie The Dentist. I don't actually remember much about the movie, except one part where the dentist takes this long tube type thing w/ a rotating blade at the end, and jams it down someone's throat. The idea of my stomach being chopped up from the inside, UCKLGE (that's the sound of choking and grossness).

Chestnuts roasted by trajeal @ 05/13/2004 12:17 PM EST

During the filming of Poltergeist II, I think, people started getting ill with no apparent cause. Somebody noticed that the one who were sick had worked in or around the subterranian cave set, the one with all the skulls. Checking with the prop department, on a hunch that it was a biological cause, they found that the supply house keep the noggins clean, seeing as how some were used to make molds for demon skulls and other effects. But the heads themselves were obtained out of country, from India in fact. In the meantime, ironically enough, there seemed to be an increase in polter-activity on the set. Didn't take long for the more ghost-minded to put boo and boo together. (there is nothing "new" about new age) Will Sampson was like "Well, Duh, white folk." and performed a Blessing/Purification/Spirit binding ceremony, whatever you're comfortable with, on the set and crew. Seems the bulk head purchase from India may have involved grave robbing from mass graves. After Will's ceremony, everything settled down. Two lessons learned: Check out your seller of skulls, and take a Native American out to lunch.

Chestnuts roasted by kingklash @ 05/13/2004 12:19 PM EST

Oh man this isn't a movie but what about the HBO show Tales From The Crypt Creeper...? I was never allowed to watch it but one time I saw a preview and it scared the shit out of me.

Chestnuts roasted by Emmaaaaa @ 05/13/2004 12:42 PM EST

Jackie Crow, I have you beat by a mile in the scared like a wimp category. You know what always creeps the hell out of me? THe song "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies" from the Nutcracker. I think it might have been used in some horror movie that freaked me out as a kid, but I know longer have any recollection of the movie, just the song. I can barely sit in a room where the stupid song is playing without feeling panicky.

Chestnuts roasted by Hellpop! @ 05/13/2004 01:22 PM EST

For some reason in my choir class junior year, we had to watch Little Shop of Horrors. I didn't find it scary but this one girl did and started crying and hyperventalating and had to leave the room. I think that was the scariest part, hearing this scream come from the back of the room in a completly dark and quiet classroom.

Chestnuts roasted by Stacey @ 05/13/2004 01:53 PM EST

Which version? The original black and white one or the Rick Moranis one? I just spent lunch hour at home, watching BET on mute with a classic rock station on the radio. It was fun seeing Prince sing Led Zepplin.

Chestnuts roasted by kingklash @ 05/13/2004 02:26 PM EST

Leprechaun 3: Don't laugh. I was pretty disturbed by the part where he gets revenge on a casino worker who made a wish on his coin for a makeover by inflating her breasts,buttocks, and lips 'till she blown up. Hard to eat pizza after wittnessing that.

Also, when I was young, I watched a bad 70's movie of "Alice in Wonderland" on the Disney channel. there was just something creepy about watching a baby turn into a pig, and someone must've had creative liberties when they had Alice get chased by a guy in jabberwocky suit during a thunder storm.

Chestnuts roasted by Cheaptrick @ 05/13/2004 02:32 PM EST

dr mindbender: Yeah, I thought the elevator scene in THE EYE was just about the scariest part of that movie. That was actually another one that I was expecting more from than what I got. The calligraphy scene and the elevator scene were really the only scares that I thought were effective.

If you're a fan of Japanese horror I'd suggest checking out AUDITION. Since you know DARK WATER and THE EYE you've probably at least heard of AUDITION. It's scary as fuck. Another you should check out is UZUMAKI. Not scary, but really cool and fairly gory.

Cheaptrick: I remember that version of ALICE IN WONDERLAND. It used to scare me to death as a kid too. The jabberwocky haunted my nights for years after seeing that.

Chestnuts roasted by Benjamin @ 05/13/2004 03:09 PM EST

phunqsauce, if you're a real fan of the dentistry scene you might want to check out the original Shop of Horrors movie, the b&w, nonmusical, serious Corman version. Jack Nicholson (yeah, that one) plays the masochistic dental patient, and also pretty much the only reason for watching that snorefest. Although it's pretty creative a movie for being filmed in two weeks on a shoestring. Wasn't this the movie that Corman filmed on a bet? (Something about finishing filming before the sets were destroyed?)

Chestnuts roasted by squee4242 @ 05/13/2004 03:14 PM EST

let me ask a SHREK QUESTION?

does anyone know any way of getti8ng that stuff in uk? from america?

or any place that sells american type stuff in the uk?

and ive tried ebay.

Chestnuts roasted by big mr jimmy @ 05/13/2004 04:35 PM EST

To Dont Touch, Willy

Dude... Decapitation is a terrible thing. It freaks me out too.

Hey, check out my website!

By the way, that big green Noggin of Shrek's-- I don't know if I'm going to get to see Shrek 2, the way I'm headed.

I think Shrek's ahead of his time.

I feel like I was cut-off at my prime.

Fuck the guys who did this to me!

Chestnuts roasted by Nick Berg's Ghost @ 05/13/2004 04:41 PM EST

This is your only warning.

Chestnuts roasted by Karmic Justice! @ 05/13/2004 05:18 PM EST

Oh yeah, I completely forgot about this one. Way back when Doom came out, I used to watch my brother play. For some reason your character's head and facial expressions freaked me out...so much so when I played, I'd always play full screen.

Chestnuts roasted by The Dragon @ 05/13/2004 08:10 PM EST

well, as a relocated brit, i must say that poltergeist and nightmare on elm street were the only films that gave me nightmares, but i do remember when ghost watch was first aired...

to see it on dvd will be one thing and i don't know how it will hold up. i saw it when i was twelve and the people in it, especially sarah greene who did a lot of kids tv, were people who i grew up watching.

that was part of what made it scary these were people we knew... unfortunately i got sent to bed before the ending which gives the game away to a degree, because i was too scared... and everyone was talking about it the next day.

the other thing you need realise as well is how awful the uks response to halloween was back then and arguably still is. if they showed one of the halloween sequels you were lucky... that they'd stage something like this was unthinkable. it really was landmark tv, but i don't know how it will have held up.

finally, i see no one has mentioned short circuit 2. see, i saw that when i was 8 and johnny 5 was as real to me as any of the people in the film, and when he gets the crap beaten out of him, and he's bleeding all over the place... and he nearly dies...

yeah. that scene really did a number on me.

Chestnuts roasted by plagiarise @ 05/13/2004 09:08 PM EST

Mine would have to be the Exorcist. I didn't actually see it till I like a year ago when I was 22. Now I"m sure I've been scared more when I was a kid but, here I was 22, in the army, in kuwait of all places about to go to Iraq (right before the war started) and I'm getting scared of a stupid movie. Don't know why but it scarred me enough that I went to sleep and just kept thinking of it, so I put it back on and set it to the directors commentary to ease my mind while I drifted away.

Chestnuts roasted by EdthaCow @ 05/13/2004 09:42 PM EST

King- it was the Rick Morannis one. Nothing with the dad from Honey I Shrunk the Kids in it can possibly be scary.

Chestnuts roasted by Stacey @ 05/13/2004 09:58 PM EST

HAHAHAHAHAHA what are we writing about...id have to say the vegetales are the scariest things ever...cmon what else could be more scary than religious talking vegetables

Chestnuts roasted by Your mom @ 05/13/2004 11:07 PM EST

E.T. scared the jumpin' heezie-whatsis out of me as a kid. So badly that I had to make up a new word for it. We went to see it in the theaters when it was originally released and I couldn't even bear to see the first few minutes of it without shrieking my head off. Gremlins, too. Those little monsters terrified me. Then there was Child's Play. I never saw the movie, but the ad spots frightened me. Oh, and House! I was spending the day with this family from my church and the movie was on... idiots thought a 7-year-old kid would find the movie "funny." Let's see, I was also horrified of... well, everything. I admit it, I was a paranoid child.

I think the being that horrified me the most as a child, though, was the "Clean me! CLEAN ME!" toilet bowl monster from a series of commercials about toilet bowl cleaner. And vampires still scare the crap out of me. So does that demented new British kids show, "Boobah." Check it out. It's from the makers of Teletubbies. Frightening crap, yo. http://pbskids.org/boohbah/boohbah.html

So, yeah. All my life I was horrified of monsters around every corner. No surprise I write comics about stuff like that now, eh?

Chestnuts roasted by The Mysterious Dr. X @ 05/14/2004 12:09 AM EST

Man... Where do I start...?

Well, out of the many things that scared the crap out of me as a child, the most memorable thing that terrified me was the level "Mystic Cave" in Sonic the Hedgehog 2! Why? Because I had the odd feeling that a monster would burst out of the level and kill me... And not just any monster, oh no! It was E.T. of all things!

As a child, nearly EVERYTHING scared me to death. Now, however, I can take a lot... Except zombies... Ugh... Zombies!

In full honesty the Evil Dead spooked me out. Stupidest horror movie ever, but zombies were in it! Oh and the tree scene... But that scared me for other reasons, which I'm sure anyone who has seen it will know what I mean!

Chestnuts roasted by Seth Garner @ 05/14/2004 01:10 AM EST

Forgot to mention: Ernest Scared Stupid and the Resident Evil games. The movie was dumb as heck, but the games are horrifying. Figure that out.

The final level in Simpsons: Hit & Run gave me the heebie-jeebies too. Yes, a darn SIMPSONS Halloween story scared me! Of course, I was also playing at 3 in the morning but... Ugh... those pale, creepy zombies everywhere... and all the dark, spooky colors... and the creepy music and fish-eye lens effect... and the whole time the zombies are moaning "braaiaaaiinssss..." or just your standard "uururaarrruuoogh..." Guh! Spooky stuff at 3 am!

And any anime fan will agree here. FLCL. Haruko is one of the flat-out most demented, scary people in the entire Universe. I still get the creeps over the way she looks in that last episode... Those eyes... and those teeth...

... oops. I wet 'em. Probably should have gone to the bathroom earlier instead of holding it for hours...

... people write strange things online at 1:18 am...

Chestnuts roasted by The Mysterious Dr. X @ 05/14/2004 01:17 AM EST

hey, I'm just glad someone acknowledged me... yeah...i TOTALLY forgot to mention Indiana Joens and the Temple of Doom.. Kalimaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!! EWWWWW!!!!! Pretty gory for a pg 13 movie but from what i understand that was the FIRST PG-13 movie ever....anywho....so anytime you see someone's heart gettin' ripped out in a pg-13 movie, i guess you could understand, although you'd be FUCKED UP for AGES

Chestnuts roasted by phunqsauce @ 05/14/2004 02:41 AM EST

Guy built authentic Proton Pack
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3815314978

Chestnuts roasted by Larry Storch @ 05/14/2004 06:01 AM EST

Somebody give me $3-grand quick!! I wanna buy that proton pack!

Chestnuts roasted by Wompdevil @ 05/14/2004 10:04 AM EST

Choco Taco! Choco Taco! Choco Taco! Choco Taco! Choco Taco! Choco Taco! Choco Taco! Choco Taco! Choco Taco! Choco Taco! Choco Taco! Choco Taco! Choco Taco! Choco Taco! Choco Taco! Choco Taco! Choco Taco! Choco Taco!

Chestnuts roasted by Choco Taco @ 05/14/2004 10:18 AM EST

Ditto E.T. For me. The poster where he is peeking out of the closet and you can see his long creepy fingers reaching around the door. Scared the pee out of me for years.

Yoda from Empire strikes back had me terrified for years. The scene that was the nail in the coffin for convincing me that Yoda wanted to kill me is where Luke Skywalker says he isn't scared and Yoda says in a very creepy voice "You will be.....you WILL be.". after that I had two nightmares about Yoda, one where my family was on a plane and Yoda crawled out from under my dads seat and shoved a spoon through his head (hand to God, he disturbed me that much) and another one where we were at a drive in (ironically) and he popped out from my dads seat and started attacking me. Maybe there is some freusidan connection there with Yoda and my dad...dunno.

The last long limbed alien from Close encounters still gives me the heebeejeebies to this day, I just know that creepy bald bastard has bad intentions for Richard Dreyfus. That scene where they come take the kid also lead me to keep watch over my newborn sister in her crib because it was by a window (this was back in '83).

Finally I had a muppets toy drum set as a kid and accidentally ripped the paper on one of the drums, when I looked inside there was the creepiest picture of Dr. Teeth looking back at me. THAT was scary.

Chestnuts roasted by gl2899 @ 05/14/2004 10:50 AM EST

Any new people just tuning in are probably thinking, "What's wrong with these guys? They're just a bunch of pussies!" Well, yeah. We spent a huge portion of our sentience watching TV shows about paranormal phenomenon, reading EC horror comics, and going to see slasher movies. You want us to be unaffected? Now THAT would be too scary. I think that's how serial killers spend their honeymoons. Or not. "The postings are coming from INSIDE YOUR HOUSE!!!!" EEEEEEKKKK!

Chestnuts roasted by kingklash @ 05/14/2004 12:24 PM EST

As a kid, I was scared to death of the clown scene in Pee Wee's Big Adventure. The most recent movie that scared me was Joyride. I do a lot of driving on the highways at night, and I have always been leary when passing semi's. This movie just brought out that phobia. I didn't help that I almost got killed by one a week before I saw the movie.

Chestnuts roasted by SuperCalo666 @ 05/14/2004 01:07 PM EST

Hey gl2899, I know what you mean about that Yoda scene...He has a weird almost cross eyed look to him. and the way he says "you will be..." is just chilling.

Chestnuts roasted by phunqsauce @ 05/14/2004 01:41 PM EST

"But you're just a Muppet! Nothing but rubber and foam! I don't believe in you!"
"That is why you fail...."
(sounds of spoon gouging)
"Have your eyes, I do."

Chestnuts roasted by kingklash @ 05/14/2004 02:21 PM EST

these blog entries just get insane sometimes

Enkrabulatrix, Matt!

Chestnuts roasted by khjgjg @ 05/14/2004 02:46 PM EST

w00t for 200 comments! :)

Question for anyone else out there...is all of the text in the blog flush against the left side of the screen for anyone else? I don't think it used to be this way...is it on my end, or is it the site?

Chestnuts roasted by The ORIGINAL Paul @ 05/14/2004 02:57 PM EST

Yeah, the text is all smashed over to the left on this end of the Internet, too. I think it used to look like ripped paper on both sides.

Here's a question (Question of the Day, if you will): what would be your ultimate horror movie? What combinations of spooky characters and dim lighting would keep you saucer-eyed in the bright light of your bedroom until well after 3 am?

For me, I'd have to say, anything concerning small, practically invisible bad guys. Like sand. Killer sand. It could crawl along the ground, hide inconspicuosly, get into your tiniest pores, and multiply like mad. Also, how would you kill sand? Get He-Man to wipe his hand on top of it until it turned to glass? I just don't see He-Man traveling this far away from Castle Grayskull, though. Unless he has some vacation time coming.

Chestnuts roasted by trajeal @ 05/14/2004 03:16 PM EST

The ultimate horror flcik would have to star Bald Bull, the second incarnation of dracula in the first Castlevania, eggplant wizard from Kid Icarus, John Basedow (fitness made simple), and the juice man. Just think of the possiblilties!!! I mean the juice man alone is enough to scare the piss outta you. I guess i would have all the characters go on killing sprees using the obligatory bad puns. In the end would be the ultimate showdown of all these characters with entrails and guts galore. The last two standing would probably be eggplant wizard and the juice man. I think you see where this is going....Juice man totally liquifies the eggplant wizard but in a suprise twist(isn't this also obligatory?) Dave Coullier comes outta the shadows and rips juice man's heart out and puts it in the juicer and feeds it to the juice man. Just think, Dave Coullier wins in the end....now THATS scary.

Chestnuts roasted by phunqsauce @ 05/14/2004 03:29 PM EST

O. Paul, my screen is doing the same thing. I think it's definitely the site.

Chestnuts roasted by J-Dog @ 05/14/2004 03:50 PM EST

hey, phunqsauce, so you know poltergeist and gremlins were the pgs that got people outraged enough that the ratings board came up with the pg-13 in the first place.

as i believe, they had to cut down raiders to get a pg anything as the original cut got an R stamped on it. no wonder lots of people are mentioning those three :)

Chestnuts roasted by plagiarise @ 05/14/2004 03:56 PM EST

I was also terrified of Madame (the puppet).

For ultimate horror movie... anything involving the supernatural... not like occult, just ghosts and such... anything that seems within the grasps of reality like ghosts and whatnot totally freaks me out... Unsolved Mysteries always freaked me out when they had segments about Haunted Houses... (realistic) movies about haunted houses always freak me out... keep it low budget, "ghost hunter"-type (like Ghostwatch seems to be)... have things going on in the periphery - just out of view... subtle sounds and movements.

I think Fox or WB or a channel like that had a special on ghost hunting about four years ago, I believe,... they went into a haunted house with a psychic, some experts, cameramen... some tech equipment (e.g., infrared camera)... and they caught footage of "cold spots", cabinets opening, a plaster doll formed condensation on its face, the impression of someone's backside appeared on a bed... Anybody see this special? And I'm not talking about the "Fear" gameshow that had kids go into supposed haunted locations to perform "tasks" as part of "dares".

All I'm saying is -- ghosts are scary.

Chestnuts roasted by Nachokhaki @ 05/14/2004 04:37 PM EST

Oh, the reason I brought up the ghosthunting special was to ask, if anyone saw it, whether it was real or not... a lot of weird stuff went on, nothing TOO over the top, but I never could tell if it was real or staged...

Chestnuts roasted by Nachokhaki @ 05/14/2004 04:39 PM EST

Its all a conspiracy...

Chestnuts roasted by phunqsauce @ 05/14/2004 05:22 PM EST

Just had a good laugh over at FARK reading a item about kids freaking out over cicadas and running into walls, hitting each other with baseball bats, and stabbing each other with knives trying to kill the big ol' bugs. Amazing that fear and surprise can turn one's life into a Three Stooges moment. If it was Zombies what showed up, and people started busting each other upside the collective noggin with bats, wouldn't the shambling undead change what's left of their minds about eating those brains? And what happens when a Zombie eats a stoner's brain? Would it taste like a fried egg? Or if you inject them with a serum derived from marijuana, would they eat more brains, or overrun convience stores for the chips and Twinkies? Yes, I do shift mental gears like this all the time.

Chestnuts roasted by kingklash @ 05/14/2004 05:37 PM EST

Dude... Labyrinth. That little English Catterpiller freaked me out. And those things that would rip off their heads and toss them around? When they tried to steal Sarah's head? C'mon... All that AND DAVID BOWIE'S PENIS BEING VISABLE THROUGH THE WHOLE MOVIE! I was like 6 when I first saw it and even though I didn't know the details of sexuality, I knew something scary was going on...

Chestnuts roasted by Malevolent Mogwai @ 05/14/2004 05:56 PM EST

phunqsauce- Your Ultimate Horror Flick would most definitely own. And I'm glad to found out someone else is terrified of the juice man.

Once I was flipping through channels and I came upon a Juice Man infomercial THE EXACT MOMENT when he stares at the screen and says, "Death... death, dying!" it was late at night and I was frightened.

Did someone say conspiracy? The Tuscon division of Majestic-12, man. They're everywhere (in Tuscon) and they know everything (about people living in Tuscon). Fear them!

Chestnuts roasted by Night_Trekker @ 05/14/2004 07:24 PM EST

I hope Matt doen't mind the following taking up space. Let me pull a ME (No offense meant towards ME) here with the following list of links I have found.

Here is a US seller site with Ghostwatch www.xploitedcinema.com/dvds/dvds.asp?title=806

Going through BBC's site for Ghostwatch, the writer mentioned a major influence was another BBC production called The Stone Tape. The stuff I found on it makes me want to see more than Ghostwatch now because it sounds interesting, but it also has a connection with director John Carpenter's Halloween III (writer) and Prince of Darkness (similar story). www.imdb.com/title/tt0069316/
DVD review: www.dvdtimes.co.uk/content.php?contentid=3707
Same seller site from above also has this DVD: www.xploitedcinema.com/dvds/dvds.asp?title=1122

www.roogulator.esmartweb.com/horror/halloween3.htm "Kneale is a particular idol of Carpenter’s - Carpenter, for example, took the name Martin Quatermass on his script for Prince of Darkness (1987), makes Kneale references in In the Mouth of Madness (1995) and was at one point attached to direct a remake of The Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954) from a script by Kneale. But Kneale departed after differences of opinion with Carpenter over the taking of his ideas in slasher directions and refused credit on the finished film. But there are many ideas present that are clearly Kneale-like - the idea of magic and the supernatural having scientific explanations; while the reactivated dolmens is a plot idea that was used The Quatermass Conclusion (1979)."

http://offthetelly.users.btopenworld.com/interviews/nigelkneale.htm
"OTT: The Guinness Book of Classic Television describes The Stone Tape as 'one of the most frightening pieces of television ever made'. Was this your objective when you set out to write it?

NIGEL KNEALE: No. Never never. Why would I want to do that? I wanted to write a story that demanded the viewer's attention. The magic word here is 'paradox'. You set up a story and it turns inside out and that is, for me, the most exciting sort of story to write. The viewer thinks it's going to be about something and it does the opposite. Now if the more simple-minded people found that a frightening experience well, too bad. Real horror movies are dead easy.

20 years ago I was in Hollywood to write a script for John Carpenter. He'd made Halloween I and II and wanted another. I told him 'I didn't like the first two but I'll write you an original and quite different story'. I just told him the story in a café and he said, 'Yes let's do it!' (which is not the reaction you ever get in this country). So I wrote a very good script - if I say it myself. It's one of the best I've ever written. But he was busy working on The Thing. Now the object of that film is to frighten and it did so beautifully - very stylish. So in the meantime, the thing I'd written was being sidelined and Carpenter handed it over to a buddy of his called Tommy Lee Wallace who had never directed anything. So they took my script and to bring it down to the price they reckoned they could spend on it, they ruined it - they took all of the invention out of it. So I took my name off it and was contacted by the American Writer's Guild who said 'Do you really want to take your name of it? People here are trying to get their names on things!'

It would have been the only good Halloween film too. What they put into it was slashing and cutting of eyebrows and all the standard crap for a horror movie, precisely the stuff I avoided. They shortened the thing by about half and everybody hated it. But that's show business I suppose.

OTT: Turning back to The Stone Tape. You said you didn't set out to write a story that frightened people. What do you think it was about that drama that scared people so much?

NIGEL KNEALE: I don't think it did scare people. It is unusual. Certainly, it isn't a ghost story where people go into a haunted house. There have been two or three made on that basis, but I didn't want to do that. The Head of BBC Drama asked me if I could write him a ghost story for Christmas. I said 'yes I probably can' and I worked this thing out. For me I found it very interesting to get away from the haunted house convention and things like the ghastly American film The Haunting (it makes me slightly sick to think about it, it's such junk). The thing about The Stone Tape was to turn it inside out so that the people involved are in fact scientists attempting to uncover a new recording medium. By happy chance they find one all too soon and it's ghosts. However initially they're not in the least frightened. At first they are just angry at the hold up in their work and only become frightened when they get out of their depth at the end of the story. We as the viewer know far more then they do, because we are let in on something that is never in their sights. That's the paradox - the whole story takes a twist. This greedy bunch of people who are after a new recording medium think the ghostly phenomena might be the way to do it. The stone is the medium."

Chestnuts roasted by The Other Hand @ 05/14/2004 08:36 PM EST

I remember two movies that really stick out as keeping me up all night, constant nightmares and checking the shower to make sure there was no one there waiting to jump out at me.

IT - Based on the Steven King novel which features an evil clown that terrorized and killed children.

Fire in the Sky - Based on actual events of an alien abduction.

I've seen both since then and I really enjoy both movies to this day. But I still remember how much they both scared me back in the day.

Chestnuts roasted by DMC @ 05/14/2004 09:15 PM EST

Thanks for the compliment Night_Trekker. Indeed the juice man is insane and has insanely large eyebrows. The thing he said alot in his one infomercial that made me cringe was the fact that juice "stimulates the bowels!!!" And the way he said it was very Charlton Heston-like but even more overdramatic. Ugh.... maybe we could put him in a cage match with Don Lupre (the guy who made MEEEEELIONS of dollar just by placing TINY little ads in newspapers) or maybe that bastard Matt Lasko (the dude who wears all the question marks). Maybe put them in the ring with some great 80's wrestlers like Hillbilly Jim or Koko B. Ware. Just a thought....

Chestnuts roasted by phunqsauce @ 05/15/2004 12:43 AM EST

i was watching pee-wee's big adventure on HBO today and i remembered being really scared when pee-wee was picked up by the trucker "large marge" and she told the story... then at the end her face went all claymation and her eyes bugged out! that freaked the hell out of me.
but the movie DID have Mr. T cereal in it... so it's not all bad
-john v

Chestnuts roasted by John V @ 05/15/2004 01:48 AM EST

Ok, it's not a movie, but when I was a little kid (maybe like 5), the Haunted Mansion in Disney World gave me the heebie-jeebies. I remember balling my eyes out, screaming, and not wanting to go into the place with the rest of my family. I covered my face for the whole ride, but decided to go back on and then loved it.

Ba-Chomp, Ba-Chewy-Chewy-Chomp!

Chestnuts roasted by Mutant Stan @ 05/15/2004 11:51 AM EST

The It's a Small World ride at Disney World still gives me the creeps. I went on it when I was 13 and all the creepy dolls singing that horrible song still makes me shudder. Also the Alien thing, if they still have it. That was scary.

Chestnuts roasted by Stacey @ 05/15/2004 01:40 PM EST

On the subject of rides, once there was a theme park in San Jose called Frontier Village (Fastest Fun in the West!) that had one of those haunted house rides. It was called "The Lost Dutchman's Mine" and it was borderline cheesy. half the time, it was pitch black, the other half was loud noises and black light dioramas. You know the kind. Even then, I wasn't too keen on certain kinds of surprise. BLAM! AHH-HA-HA-HA! yeeeoww! Now, I can go into most Haunted houses and my MST reflexes take over.

Chestnuts roasted by kingklash @ 05/15/2004 02:38 PM EST

On the subject of movies scaring you...okay, I wasn't exactly a kid (I was 14), and the movie probably wasn't intended to be scary, but it freaked me out. The movie was the 1976 made for TV movie "Sybil". Something about it scared the bejesus out of me. I maintained, and still do, that it's far too intense of a movie to be showing to a bunch of 14-year-old Health Class students. It freaked me out for a long time, and I finally got over it very recently by reading the book that the movie was based on. My own form of catharsis, I guess.

Chestnuts roasted by Jeremy @ 05/15/2004 04:16 PM EST

Roses are red,
Violets are blue.
I have multiple personalities,
And so do I.

Chestnuts roasted by kingklash @ 05/15/2004 04:35 PM EST

When I was young I sat and watched Silence of the Lambs with my parents. OMG! they let me watch it with them b/c they knew I never really freaked out with scary movies, but when it comes to things that could acutally be true, my mind starts to think about ppl that would actually eat other ppl, and guys that take girls and stick them in their basement!!

Also when I was really young, I was scared of the old bird lady in Marry Poppins, the reason is she was so old and poor, it made me think about death. My mom told me I used to run out of the room crying when that part came on.

And in the movie The never ending story, I didnt like it when Artex the horse was sinking in the mud :(

what about the movie Labrynth(SP?) I loved it but, David Bowie was pretty freaky in some spots!

And thats about all I can think of right now!

Chestnuts roasted by Marzi @ 05/15/2004 08:37 PM EST

Mutant Stan, Trey Parker and Matt Stone based your name sake on a real person from Camp Jabberwocky in their Executive Produced "How's Your News?"

http://www.howsyournews.com/crew.html?PHPSESSID=014de3086384503dff6133c02191235d
"Robert Bird or 'Bobby', as most of us know him, is 48 years old and lives in Massachusetts with his mother. He works in a pet store, caring for the animals and cleaning. He has downs syndrome and an interesting speech impediment which makes all of his words sound like gibberish. He understands everything which is said to him however."

Chestnuts roasted by Citizen X @ 05/15/2004 09:05 PM EST

Oh, I forgot to mention...there was a scene in one of Stephen King's movies (I think it was Pet Cemetary) in which the main character has a flashback of when she was a child. She had a sickly older sister (might have had anorexia I think) whom she had to take care of...she'd go into the room only to find the older sister squirming in her bed screaming for her sister...she was very skinny, pale and in so much pain. Just the sight of the sickly girl gave me the heebie Jeebies...

Chestnuts roasted by The Dragon @ 05/15/2004 09:30 PM EST

>>The It's a Small World ride at Disney World still gives me the creeps.

try having the freakin' ride break down for 30 min.'s with the music still playing and the dolls still moving and junk. now THAT is creepy!

Chestnuts roasted by randomness @ 05/15/2004 10:07 PM EST

Twilight Zone: The movie.
I was five years old. Good idea, Mom.

Chestnuts roasted by Midi Amin @ 05/16/2004 12:25 AM EST

This is gonna sound really lame but the Nightmare on Elm St films always freaked me out.

Chestnuts roasted by Meatwad @ 05/16/2004 12:29 AM EST

The creeping flesh kept me awake for a few nights after I saw it the first time. Great idea dad, letting a little kid see a movie about a giant skeleton that grows green flesh!

Chestnuts roasted by Jeff A @ 05/16/2004 01:53 AM EST

its so late and im so tired but i cant sleep because something in my mind wont let me get into bed until a certain time. It is on a schedule that wont let me go to bed early. i think my mind is conspiring against me. Im watching the world strong man competition at 12:30 am PST half asleep while doing crap on the computer. just thought i'd let you all know even though it doesnt matter. hey lokok the guy is pulling a train. hehe ok im gonna go now see you tommorrow at autozone.

Chestnuts roasted by heeloyd @ 05/16/2004 03:27 AM EST

I gotta agree with matt on this one...Jacob's ladder is one disturbing flick..also for whatever reason the Ring really scared the hell outta me on the first viewing..dont know why but it did...

Chestnuts roasted by Pozzy @ 05/16/2004 03:30 AM EST

Has anybody seen the movie The Serpent and the Rainbow? Bill Pullman plus crazy voodoo fucks equals shit in your pants. Marci X was pretty scary as well

Chestnuts roasted by Jericho @ 05/16/2004 04:00 AM EST

Bill Pullman? Did someone say BILL PULLMAN? Ever since the days of Spaceballs has my heart ached for Mista Bill Pullman. C'mon ladies...give it up...I know you feel that strange attraction. Maybe it was his protrayal of Walter in "Sleepless In Seattle", or maybe the hotter, carpenter/ jack of all trades type-guy in "While You Were Sleeping". Whatever your pleasure, you can not deny that the man look gooooooood :)

Chestnuts roasted by Bill Pullman's Bitch @ 05/16/2004 04:17 AM EST

I wholeheartedly agree with Ms. Bill Pullman's Bitch. He is one fine piece of ass!

Chestnuts roasted by Kristal @ 05/16/2004 04:20 AM EST

"Stand by Me." My babysitter thought it would be a good movie to let a 4-year-old and his 2-year-old brother watch. (I guess, in her mind, she was being responsible. After all, she had rejected "Return of the Living Dead.") Anyway, that scene at the end where they see that kid's dead body--he had been hit by a train--scared me for years. I saw it on some movie channel the other day, and damned if that kid doesn't really look like he he got hit by a train. I was fascinated with Lardass vomiting on everybody, though.

Chestnuts roasted by PlaidCamel @ 05/16/2004 04:41 AM EST

I guess all the Shrek crap finally did Matt in...

Chestnuts roasted by Teirusu @ 05/16/2004 12:27 PM EST

I'm late as hell, but Fire In The Sky. Scared the shit out of me.

Also, when I was younger, Large Marge in Pee-Wee's Big Adventure always had me behind the couch.

Chestnuts roasted by david @ 05/16/2004 03:50 PM EST

Ok, so I'm with Willy and D-Nugget who are scared of scary movies. But I'm glad to see that even some of the scary movie watchers were scared of the Sixth Sense. Also, Blair Witch didn't scare me until the VERY end. I was laughing for most of it, but for some reason the dude standing in the corner scared the bejesus out of me. That image messed me up for like a month! I had to put on Disney movies so I could sleep at night! (If that's not a puss, I don't know what is). Even those stupid dolls that look like they're playing hide and seek freak me out, BAD!
Also, the other things that got me when I was little was the Garfield Halloween episode. Yeah freaky! And according to my mom, I didn't care for the witch in Sleeping Beauty either. I guess I hid behind the chair the whole time she was on screen. The "V" theme sent me running out of the room. This movie "Lady in White" brings back heebies, but I don't recall exactly why. I just remember being freaked out. When the Joker in the Batman movie died and his laugh box kept laughing, yeah, tripped me out! The shower scene in Arachnaphobia had me inspecting the shower head for months! Oh and recently, in Gothika, which was pretty tame, just twisted, when Halle sees the chick and she's like stutter walking down the hall. That gave me a few sleepless hours.
I can't play Resident Evil or even watch someone play it, the music terrifies me.
Scary music always gets me. Like I remember seeing this TV movie Small Sacrifices where Farrah Fawcett hacks up her kids cause her b-friend doesn't want kids. Well, while she's hacking them up, "Hungry Like a Wolf" by Duran Duran is playing in the background. That song still gets my hackles raised.
I don't like clowns either. I think it's because I saw this TV show (I think it was Twilight Zone) where this little girl had a really mean babysitter that used to lock her in the closet. Well, the little girl had a clown doll, and one day the babysitter was being really mean, and the doll came to life, and grew to like 6 ft. tall, and killed the babysitter. Yeah, great TV for a 6 year old.
And last, but not least, the Alien Quadrilogy. I used to be terrified of Aliens, but now it's one of my favorite movies. I also went to see Alien on big screen when they re-released it, and it still made me scream in the theatre. It was great!
Oh, one last thing, has anyone been to the Mummy Haunted Movie Set at Universal Studios in Hollywood? I hate haunted houses, but I didn't know that's what it was. I was shaking like a leaf, and hyperventilating when I came out. I now know what it means to have the piss scared out of you, literally!

Chestnuts roasted by Scaredy Cat @ 05/16/2004 04:04 PM EST

Both mentioned by other already, but...

My first big movie scare was Aliens. First attempt at viewing ended during the opener, when they tease an alien "eruption" during Ripleys dream. Had to take the tape over to a friend's house (he'd seen it before) and watch it with him.

Last scare was The Ring at the theater. Damn, I thought I was way passed getting scared like that by horror flicks, but it really did a number on me. To this day I refuse to watch it on video; once in the theater was enough.

"Seven days... "

Chestnuts roasted by Rattus @ 05/16/2004 05:00 PM EST

Just thought of another one: Nostradamus on The Secret of NIMH. He was blind, but his eyes were RED. Freaky.

Chestnuts roasted by trajeal @ 05/16/2004 05:21 PM EST

Unsolved Mysteries messed me up fairly well, especially thanks to their "reports" of alien sightings and abductions. I was never worried about monsters under the bed/in the closet, those were my friends. But the aliens? YIKES! At the same time I was still fascinated by them; I vividly remember reading Communion and even carrying around a magazine ad for the film--facing my fears through knowledge and whatnot. I've got those big eyeballs burned into my brain by now, but it's for the better and no longer scares me (at least not in a terrifying bad way).

Oddly enough, nowadays I'm obsessed with Giger's designs and my current drool-worthy favorite character is an alien, so go figure.

This movie didn't scare me, but does anyone remember this sort of funny, sort of cheesy movie about the Boogieman? Like, he'd leave green footprints everywhere? And I think they finally got rid of him by sucking him up in a vacuum? I recall even seeing this film at school of all places--although I think the film was intended to be goofy, not scary (but I remember a few kids being scared when he'd show up).

Chestnuts roasted by Sil Erdel @ 05/17/2004 02:05 AM EST

The last true Boogyman (that sounds like a movie title or name for a rock band) I ever saw was in the 70's, but let's leave disco out of this.

Chestnuts roasted by kingklash @ 05/17/2004 11:49 AM EST

For me, the scariest things I ever saw were on TV, not the movies.
1) An episode on the Twilight Zone called "the devil's doll", featuring Talking Tina, an evil doll that tries to kill Jack Klugman
2) An episode of the original Star Trek where aliens stole Spock's Brain. The image of Mr. Spock walking around being controlled by a little hand-held box operated by Dr. McCoy just terrified me as a child.
3) An old children's show, the land of the lost, featured some kind of primitive reptile men, the sleezaks. They weren't too bad, except the father on the show kept going into their caves, over and over. I was so scared they would catch him .

Chestnuts roasted by percula @ 05/17/2004 11:58 AM EST

What happened to the Choco Taco entry? Was it just a dream? Where'd it go?

Chestnuts roasted by gl2899 @ 05/17/2004 12:19 PM EST

I saw Aliens in the theater when it first came out in 1986. Me, my dad and my 9-year old brother went to see it. I had seen a bunch of horror movies and scary movies on VHS before then, but seeing Aliens in the theater scared me to death. I actually got so freaked out partway through that I asked my dad if we could leave, and he had to take us out.

Chestnuts roasted by beSharp @ 05/17/2004 12:28 PM EST

I tell you the JUICEMAN is behind this...he stole our lovely choco taco blog!!! BLASPHEMY!!!

Chestnuts roasted by phunqsqauce @ 05/17/2004 01:54 PM EST

When I was little, it was characters in the so-called 'safe for kids' movies that scared me most. The librarian from Ghostbusters, ET, Yoda (I was afraid of his teeth), Large Marge from Pee Wee's Big Adventure.

As an adult, the movies with lasting affects are The Ring, Psycho, Night of the Living Dead (They're coming to get you Barbara!), and Creepshow 2 (where the woman hits the hitchhiker with her car).

Chestnuts roasted by Alison @ 05/17/2004 04:24 PM EST

I can’t really think of a movie that scared me, but I can think of two things that I reacted pretty badly to. The first one is the Twilight Zone episode, the Gremlin on the Wing, I think its name was. I was 4 or 5, and I walked in just as you saw the creepy black and white image... I remember screaming and ducking to the floor, covering my face in my hands. And then my mother yelled at me to turn the TV off, but I just ran out of the room.
Other than that, Michael Jackson’s Thriller creeped me out pretty well also... When I saw it, I think I was around 7, and of course his transformation into the werewolf was just a little too much for me. Now, of course, the man scares me more...

Chestnuts roasted by Simone @ 05/17/2004 05:28 PM EST

Is the blog broken again? Or am I just having problems on my end? I can't access the last two blog entries, and the posting times all say CST instead of EST. Huh.

Chestnuts roasted by trajeal @ 05/19/2004 05:06 PM EST

Was nobody else fucking scared shitless of Chucky when 'Child's Play' first hit the movies?

Other things that fucked me up:
-Part in 'The Gate' when Glen's friend is all posessed in the closet or something
-Seeing the dead girl in the closet when her mother says 'I saw her face' in 'The Ring'
-At the end of 'Blair Witch' when Mike is just standing there silent in the corner while Heather's screaming
-Large Marge (interesting how many others were freaked out by that)

Chestnuts roasted by Rasta @ 05/19/2004 06:31 PM EST

That'd be "Ghostbusters" I was what, five or so and mom and dad LEFT me in a theater with my older sister.. I had nightmares about Slimer for YEARS...

Chestnuts roasted by bearfoot @ 05/19/2004 07:05 PM EST

That'd be "Ghostbusters" I was what, five or so and mom and dad LEFT me in a theater with my older sister.. I had nightmares about Slimer for YEARS...

Chestnuts roasted by bearfoot @ 05/19/2004 07:05 PM EST

Salem's Lot.

I saw it when I was 10 or 11, the same age as the boy whose recently murdered best friend comes scratching on his window asking to be let in. My bedroom window had tree branches that frequently be scratching against it, and it freaked me out for months.

Also, the Creepshow movie with the Werewolf in the crate was pretty devestating.

Chestnuts roasted by Chum Dinger @ 05/21/2004 05:40 PM EST

Ahhh... I absolutely abhor Shrek, considering that it was a bunch of bad animation with the same joke played over and over again, but maybe I was just to old for such mindless crap when it came out (although I thought I was a college freshman at the time). Irregardless, I must admit that when I first saw The Ring late at night for the first time, this time when I was a sophomore at college, I had to run out to the car and speed home. It really scared me, although I can't really say why. I think it may just have been the flash of the girl's corpse and the fact that they made the beginning seem like it was going to be a stupid, teeny, slasher-type movie really got me off guard.

As for when I was little, I have to agree that Ghostbusters gave me many nightmares, although I loved Stay Puft to death. I still do.

Chestnuts roasted by Shelly @ 05/22/2004 11:12 AM EST

Anybody remember that old Sesame Street skit where Kermit got teeth?

To a two year old, there's nothing scarier, I assure you.

Chestnuts roasted by Al @ 05/22/2004 02:03 PM EST

Ok, so I was just reminded by my mom how I used to FREAK OUT when the Hulk came on TV. It used to come on Saturday mornings right after cartoons, and if I wasn't paying attention, the opening would come on where he transformed and I'd freak. I wouldn't even touch the TV to turn the channel (I swore he'd reach out and grab me!) I'd yell for my mom to change the channel.

Chestnuts roasted by Scaredy Cat @ 05/22/2004 04:06 PM EST

Does anyone remember a fake documentary thing on UPN that was composed of fake home video footage of a family that was supposedly abducted by aliens?
That messed me up. I'd love to see it again and laugh at how bad it is.

Chestnuts roasted by Mwarg @ 05/23/2004 01:18 AM EST

I'm really not sure what the scariest movie I've ever seen is, but I'm watching Mars Attacks, and it really doesn't scare me now, but when I saw it in theaters when I was six, I was scared to death of anything in the sky, especially planes and stars. Aliens are really the only thing that really freak me out to the point where I'm afraid to go into the bathroom when nobody's home because something might be behind the shower curtain. Oh great, now I think I'm scarred for life.

Chestnuts roasted by Meat Pöpsicle @ 05/23/2004 07:25 PM EST

Oh, I forgot. When I was about five, I remember going to my cousin's house and watching him play this one game on his SNES...Zombies Ate My Neighbors. It was a really dumb game but it really did a number on me.

Chestnuts roasted by Meat Pöpsicle @ 05/23/2004 07:29 PM EST

Nightmare on Elm Street. I was 9 or 10 when it came out, and heard about Freddy from cooler friends who went to see it with older syblings, etc. Tweeked me out, I was so scared to go to sleep, and of course I dreamt about the bastard. Second place? Blair Witch Project (I go camping alot).

Chestnuts roasted by Brian Adams @ 05/24/2004 01:14 PM EST

I remember that "Phantasm" freaked me out for a few days when I first saw it at the drive in. Now, it's kinda cheesy, but I was 10, so I was sure the Tall Man was around the corner

Chestnuts roasted by Francene Beck @ 05/24/2004 09:37 PM EST

oooh, Lucky One. The Last Broadcast was great!!!! Those guys got ripped off.

Chestnuts roasted by Francene Beck @ 05/24/2004 09:40 PM EST

Hysterical. Retailers are complaining that people aren't buying things at their stores b/c potential customers are all out seeing shrek 2. Ridiculous. Half the crap at my local store is shrek crap anyway.

http://money.cnn.com/2004/05/25/news/economy/weeklysales/index.htm?cnn=yes

Chestnuts roasted by Pedro @ 05/25/2004 02:07 PM EST

I'd pick the Unnameable as the movie that scared me the most. You never get a good look at the creature to the end of the film.

Chestnuts roasted by Whisper @ 06/02/2004 04:14 AM EST

I can only sort of believe that I'm the first to name these three (I did read through all of the posts; how sad)...

Lord of the Flies - the black and white version. I saw this when I was eight, and I haven't seen it since. I'd like to, but I can't find it anywhere... Anyway, it was the pig's head on a stick along with the dia(mono?)logue. I was creeped to death (somehow I understood the psychology behind the story when I was eight years old) but within a year, I had read the book anyway. It's still my favorite, partly because the ending is ambiguously dark. I don't believe in happy endings when it comes to humanity...

28 Days Later - Say what you will, but Jeebus Cripes Almighty, THE MUSIC. Even though the army guys are ten times creepier and more sick than the infected are, it's the music that really pushes this movie over the edge for me. The best parts for music are the empty London scene and military compound in the rain after Jim sets all hell loose. Not a scary movie, persay, but I don't think it was intended to be. It's more the psychological aspect and the ickiness of human nature that makes it scary. And the infected in the church. That still gives me goosebumps to think of...

The Wall - Ok, so I'm biased, being a huge Pink Floyd freak. This movie *is* rather creepy, though, especially considering my first exposure to it being at 2am when my brother tuned into the meat grinder scene. I couldn't function for three months. That was a few years ago, so I'm over that, but I *still* can't watch the part where Little Pink goes down into the bunker and finds Big Pink and Big Pink turns around and makes...that...face... I get chills just thinking about it. Eww. Inspired by and recounting real events and people from Roger Waters's life, too.

Admittedly, I'm a sissy. I don't care for pointlessly gory movies. I do like psychological stuff (obviously from my three choices), and for some reason, I have a sick fascination with creeping myself out during the day so I have to sleep with my head under the covers every night. I'm also a music nerd, so anything with eerie music, movie or not, really gets me...

As far as games go, has anyone played Parasite Eve? The first one, not the plotless and soulless sequel. Now that is a creepy game. The CG movie sequences are especially good. It's also perfect for anyone who wants to fear their own mitochondria...

On a somewhat related note... If anyone is still on the fence about getting into anime or avoiding the craziness of it all, I'd have to say that anime and manga tell some of the best stories I've heard. There's something for every taste. It's *not* all hentai and schoolgirls, believe me.

Chestnuts roasted by EludedSunshine @ 06/04/2004 12:08 AM EST

Killer Clowns from Outer Space.
:sigh:

Chestnuts roasted by OhGodtheRats @ 06/06/2004 10:45 PM EST

NES game called "The Uninvited" - I always got the creeps when the Southern Belle turns around to reveal a leering skull face. Does anyone else remember this? Oh, and after renting Maniac Mansion (NES), I had nightmares that I couldn't get out of Dr. Fred's dungeon.

The Ring flippin' terrified me. At age 22 I had nightmares for weeks after seeing it on video (granted, it was late at night). It probably bugged me so much because I remember a video my uncle put together of my grandfather's old movie-camera tricks - stop-motion stuff that looked like blocks were moving around, a house was building itself, etc. I hate to admit how much The Ring's effects reminded me of that tape (which I now never want to see again!)

The only way I stopped being afraid of The Ring was to use my mom's old trick of "make the scary thing seem nice" (funny, Prof. Lupin from Harry Potter does the same thing)... by making the dreaded "ring" shape appear like a happy smily face! :)

My sister and I used to be terrified of the Dr. Seuss Halloween Special with The Grinch and Yukariah Who (I think it was called "Grinch Night"). I just remember those creeeepy voices chanting "Yu-ka-ri-ah! Yu-ka-ri-ah!" over and over again!

When my family first sat down to Pee Wee's Big Adventure (on video), my sister freaked out when Large Marge did her claymation stunt - sis bolted, wide-eyed from the room, stricken by silent fear.

Chestnuts roasted by Team Rocket Rose @ 06/14/2004 09:41 PM EST

too bad this is your last installment, i recently photographed an enourmous inflatable shrek taking over our local Burger King. im pretty sure the bigger-than-life ogre would have scared away any children that the marketing execs wanted to lure in. it even scared me alittle. he was huge

im not sure why they had a shrek at a burger king. maybe to promote the new green colored whoppers? who knows.

you can see my pic here:

Shrek

Chestnuts roasted by Donkey Dick @ 06/15/2004 03:53 PM EST

Well, someone may have already said this, but I'm sure as hell not going to read an upwards of two hundred and fifty posts, so here goes:
There used to be this show on Nickelodeon called "Are You Afraid of the Dark?" and one episode scared the living shit out of me. I don't even remember it all that well now, but I DO remember like, this anamatronic clown that would stand right outside the door of this kid's bedroom, and open the door somehow (even though its arms were throughly welded to its body).
Now it wasn't the clown that scared me so much as seeing that door handle turn with the PROMISE of that damn clown on the other side, so I have left my bedroom door open slightly ever since I was about six. Only recently have I been able to shut it.

Chestnuts roasted by Trout Spanker @ 10/28/2004 01:00 AM EST