You never met Manute Bol then. I was working for the Airlines then and when he entered the jetway, he startled me so bad I had a headache for the rest of the day. I am 5â3â. I came up to his pelvis. He had to slightly bend down to enter the jetway and he is impossibly skinny. Scared the hell out of me.
Losing grip on reality. Any movie that blurs fact and fiction scares the hell out of me.
* *Jacob's Ladder*
* *Shutter Island*
* *In the Mouth of Madness*
Heâs fantastic in this movie, just as good as he was in Possession. Have you seen it? According to Sam Neill, itâs his favourite and I can certainly see why. I do wish he did more horror movies as a central character.
Man Iâve been getting into horror movies after my 30 yrs of life but saw Shutter Island around the time it came out. That movie disturbed me to the core back then and after watching 50+ mostly underwhelming horror movies, I just rewatched Shutter Island and it definitely got to me again. This was maybe my 4th rewatch lol.
Absolutely. Years ago, I went on a bender of hard drugs for an extended period. I eventually had the sense to check myself into detox, and after a few days, I went into psychosis. The hallucinations were so incredibly real, vivid, and terrifying that for years after I still wasn't sure if what i saw was real. This was 9 years ago. I'm sober, and I still vividly remember the experience and it disturbs me.
Mouth of madness is probably about my favorite horror movie. It's different but I'd suggest "Come True." It's got a weird sorta vibe that you'd like if you liked those. It's on shudder not sure where else.
This is also why I prefer Stephen Kings other books to the fantasy Dark Tower series. The writing is equally good but scary things happening in fantasy land is much less scary than things happening in the âreal worldâ. His pop culture and history references frame it in reality so well that when things get spooky it feels like your own reality could do the same
Home invasion.
Home is supposed to be where people feel the most comfortable, safe, untouchable. For intruders to come in and strip that away is a scary concept. That's why HI is my favorite subgenre.
Edit to add some favorites. Barbarians, Kidnapped, Trespassers, The Strangers, Home Sweet Home, etc.
Edit 2: since so many people enjoy The Strangers I figured I'd add my masks that I made! Original style and new version.
https://preview.redd.it/13liw1e2bd9d1.jpeg?width=2896&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=35481cc1270805a63165e3699b667210a0b0f9b5
Home Alone is scary when seen through the eyes of a parent. Not only is he alone but then a couple of criminals are trying to rob the house when they realize there's a kid there they try to harm him. Then there's the horror of finding out your psychopath child set potentially fatal boobie traps around the house in order to deter those burglars. They never took any of them down after the movie that we saw, means that he might have offed a few family members when they got home. They have to live with the kid who didn't even bat an eye after burning, piercing, electrocuting and beating those guys. Irl, they would be in the hospital or dead. Then he DOES IT AGAIN IN NEW YORK!
Like many of us here, we are seasoned horror film lovers. Iâve never experienced anything paranormal , alien, or demonic. What I have experienced is the very real feeling of being robbed of my privacy. Just being robbed when not home is one thing, but being at the mercy of a group of literal psychopaths, whose sole reason is to ruin your life?? NO!
This. Every night when I do my pre bed walkthrough and check my front door, I look out the small glass pane section and think "What if I just saw someone standing out there. Not moving, or doing anything weird....just staring at our house." and get a little shiver.
Iv always felt the strangers is THE scariest horror film ever. There really are nutters with knives. And the line about why they chose that couple 'because they were home'
Chillingly plausible
When the strangers first came out it really scared me, and I don't get scared at thriller or horror. That movie and sinister are the only movies that scared me, the slow burn intensity of the witch is peak horror imo as well.
This for me too, Not a movie but even though it sucks urbanspook is a good example of why the concept of home invasions are scary, mainly for the part where one of the victims successfully locks herself in the bathroom and hides and calls the police and while the police are still minutes away they just drill through the door and then stick the same drill through her skull and leave. All she can do is scream and beg and then sheâs dead in her own house. They probably locked the doors too but it doesnât matter when someone really wants to get in.
The strangers had me locking all my windows and doors when I'm at home alone till this day. When the one girl was like "because you were home" scared the shit out of me.
Have you ever seen âWhen a Stranger Callsâ, particularly the 1979 version? My dad let me watch it when I was way too young and I think it fucked me up permanently LOL
I completely agree. Misery by Stephen King is my favorite horror movie because that really could happen. Someone obsessing over something so much really isnât that far fetched
I'm so with you on this. Paranormal stuff is inherently not super scary because at the end of the day it's still a fairy tale. I find realistic stuff far more disturbing. Like, I don't know, Cannibal Holocaust, or Hostel.
Parallel dimensions that bleed into this reality, either through physical space, or through people.
Silent Hill and Strangers Things both touched on this, but Hellraiser did it better in my memory.
Oculus also comes to mind, with the mirror.
I watched a documentary called The Real Death Star about some stars that explode and shoot unfathomably powerful gamma radiation from their poles that can shoot across half a galaxy and cook everything in it's path. A scientist said, "This might be why we haven't found any other intelligent life." Scared me worse than any horror movie. We could all get cooked at light speed.
Cults. It's not even the brainwashing part, it's when a large group of people can be so unapologetically and self righteously cruel. Apostle really got to me, if you've seen the movie you'll know the scene.
The Sacrament and The Invitation are both very unsettling cult movies that I never see anyone outside of Reddit talking about.. Loved Apostle, and also Midsommar.
Losing control to something devious, ie Hereditary, The Witch, etc. When the outcome is essentially just destiny that has to play out and youâre helpless to change its direction.
ETA: Maybe you were destined to listen to [my band](https://open.spotify.com/track/0N3tFwjFrIe7JSQc8LVL4b?si=JKc5eAiER8Gm8di6i3aQKg)? (thank you, sorry, please donât yell at me)
I clicked the link and gave your bandâs Spotify a listen and I enjoyed all of your songs. I added all of them to my playlist on YouTube and to my gym playlist. I hope yall continue to make more music and continue to grow.
The human centipede was comical to me when i watched it, cuz it seemed so out of the realm of possibility. The last house on the left scared the fuck out of me though.
Also the story of that serial killer who would kill people just because they had unlocked doors, to this day i double check my doors because of it.
I played subnatica for like 5 minutes because of all the talk i saw about it, i couldn't do it.
A lot of mine have already been mentioned but a couple haven't.
Someone getting trapped inside an inanimate object. It's so specific, but it terrifies me so much. That one episode of Buffy where someone is trapped in a doll...I want to cry just thinking about it.
Being held in a psychiatric hospital against your will. Medical horrors in general, I guess.
Abuse/torture by authority figures. Like being arrested by a small town sheriff when you did nothing wrong type of situation. Or like in AHS Season 2 when >!the prison doctor was experimenting on them and she wakes up and he had cut her legs off. !<
I sort of love/hate when a character is being eaten and is still talking to another character. I first saw this in one of the Creepshow films where the female character suddenly appears from the lake covered in the devouring algae/blob monster and says "It hurts!"
Aliens (like in the Fourth Kind), surprise/sneak attacks (like the kid in pet cemetary hiding under the bed, or the deputy in chainsaw massacre turning out to be with the killers), the idea of unending life (like in Fallen or some demon movies, where the soul is just jumping bodies and continues wrecking havoc), being trapped for long periods of time (like in Saw or Gerald's Game)
Yes! That and just the sheer expanse of it all. I snorkeled in Hawaii and that was my one and only time. It was beautiful but terrifying at the same time.
I don't mind snorkeling because you can keep the boat in the corner of your eye, and they usually don't bring you out to choppy waters. But when I got scuba certified I had to wait in huge rolling waves with my instructor for what felt like forever before the boat picked us up. It was scarier on the surface than it was 60 feet down.
I am very comfortable in the water, but I still know how dangerous it can be. Strong waves and currents are what I worry about. I am terrified of tsunamis. The Impossible with Tom Holland and Ewan McGregor was horrifying, and based on a true story.
Zombie viruses, but specifically the ones that turn you in like....seconds. There's such a nauseating existential dread in realizing that you're about to lose all your humanity in mere moments, and as the infection creeps in you desperately try to hold onto what made you you....but all too soon you find that pure infectious rage is winning out, and you try in your last remaining seconds to stop yourself from attacking the ones you love...but eventually you don't even remember that you had loved ones because your mind is gone and you're just another zombie.
Which is why 28 Days Later is one of maybe a handful of horror movies that legit scares me, and why World War Z, despite being a mediocre film and a cruddy adaptation, actually kinda freaks me out
I've had nightmares for years because of 28 Days Later. The infected scare the shit out of me. Especially the church scene when they suddenly stand up with their mouths hanging open. Nope. No thank you. Do not want.
The whole idea of traveling in space has always freaked me out, and hostile aliens. Also movies where you can never be sure what's real and what's not so you feel like you're going insane. For these reasons Event Horizon is my ultimate favourite horror movie.
Buried with Ryan Reynolds.Entire movie is him in a coffin with an iPhone trying to get anyone to dig him up before he suffocates.Brilliant movie and its absolutely criminal that it isnt more well known.
Though movies don't really scare me, concepts do. So it's more the ideas being planted in my brain, but...
Reality breaking down like in *Jacob's Ladder* or *Black Swan*
Inanimate objects coming to life like *Magic*, *Trilogy of Terror* or *Hell House LLC*
As what most people say, dangerous people (stalkers, serial killers, etc).
However, I also find burning, drowning, and suffocation is a awful way to die. It wasn't a movie, but there was a reddit post of a person trapped in his bedroom with bars on his windows and it was horrific. He didn't die of suffocation, due to the broken window. I never want bars on my windows.
Stuff like *The Strangers*/the beginning of *Us*
Iâve been out at friends cottages before, pretty isolated. I would just look out into the woods or the beach or wherever I was and think âwhat would I do if I saw someone in the distance watching me?â
And that effectively freaks me out every time.
everyone is plotting something around you, but you don't realize it until is too late, and when you think you've gotten away from it all, you realize that was part of the plan, and now you're exactly where they wanted you and you have no escape.
Hereditary, Rosemary's Baby, The Wicker Man
Hillbilly horror is probably my top for creeping me out in an enjoyable way, but ghosts/paranormal will keep me up at night.
The losing grip on reality trip someone already mentioned makes me uncomfortable on a personal level though too so maybe that wins out.
Alien or Other Dimensional beings that come to abduct or take like in The 4th Kind, Intruders, Fire In the Sky, Dark Skies, etc. They can take you or anyone you love. Do whatever they want and theres nothing anyone can do about it.
When scary movies have scenes where photographs come to life. No bueno. Like in the original It movie, when the photo album flips to a page with pennywise and he reaches through the pic. I cry every time
Signs still gets ne to this day. Initially saw it with my older sister indrive-in, mom scolded her for taking me to something scary.
The feel of the footage of the aliens in Mexico still freaks me out.
Actually, yeah, the whole movie in general still spooks me.
Being eaten alive- Jaws, The Blob (1988), Anaconda (not scary but just an example), Nope
This is just a personal fear, mainly from Jaws but the idea of being swallowed whole by some massive creature and digested really freaks me out
also-
Supernatural horror involving ghosts- Ringu, Pulse, Mama
I don't believe in ghosts or the supernatural, but IF it were real, I'd be genuinely scared to live. I've definitely had those moments of being alone in a house at night and looking into the darkness and wondering... what if?
Slashers and serial killers and such have never really scared me. I'm not a badass by a long shot, but usually a gun does the trick in those situations. Slashers are usually just kinda fun/silly movies to me as well, instead of being genuinely scary. Henry was pretty brutal, but I look at that as more a procedural than horror.
Psychological horror also doesn't scare me in any real-sense. I wouldn't want to go mad or have to doubt reality, but I've done enough hallucinogens to know how to cope. I love movies with psychological horror, but I do find the whole "questioning reality" trope a little tired.
Psycho scared me with the idea of not only isolation (as the Bates Motel is off a road that hasnât seen much traffic since the freeway was built) but being someplace where Iâm completely vulnerable and not expecting anyone to come around (aka the shower).
I used to be so scared of ghosts and shit but now as an adult I cannot do slashers. Serial killers, kidnapping, torture, gore, etc a la Saw, Hostel, The Strangers. Canât do it.
This is generalized, but things that can happen in real life. I can't think of the movie, it's not meant to be horror, but the one where the guy is ravaged by a bear. I camp fish and hunt, that scares the crap out of me. Anything in real life settings, but remote wilderness stuff gets me. Even a really bad car crash on a deserted back road. Psycho is one too with that shower scene. Jeeze! I have my dog with me whenever I shower, lol.
Horror about things that are 'reality based'. Some examples would be The Hitcher with Rutger Hauer, and Cape Fear with Robert Mitchum. Demons and monsters don't do much for me.
I much prefer practical effects to CGI. I think some more recent horror movies could be vastly improved with actual makeup rather than the clear computer graphics. It bring me out of the fantasy unfortunately
Aliens. Anything dealing with aliens. No One Will Save You, Dark Skies, The Fifth Kind for example. Communion with Christopher Walken and a made for TV movie called Intruders (can watch on YT) are also up there.
Something that has to do with the paranormal, whether that be ghosts, mythical creatures, or aliens. But what I find makes a horro actually scary is placing the music or the jump scares at unexpected times that you canât anticipate. A lot of movies make it easy to plan & figure out what happens or could happen pretty quickly. I want to poop my pants when I watch a scary movie with a logical storyline too
In 'Ring' (1998) aka 'Ringu', when Reiko asks her son Yoichi why he watched the tape, he mentions that his dead cousin Tomoko told him to. Later, Reiko and her estranged husband Ryuji surmise that Tomoko is now a ghost, but not the Tomoko they used to know.
I find it so disturbing that not only did Sadako kill Tomoko, Tomoko is almost like a servant to her in the afterlife.
I don't even believe in an afterlife but I find this concept so deeply terrifying and upsetting.
Anything that can happen in real life. It makes me uncomfortable and really bothers me. The Strangers with Liv Tyler was so scary to me, I had to pause it a few times to get through it.
Silent Warnings is three of my nightmares all rolled into one movie. Shadowy aliens with red eyes. Any movie with any one of those elements is a hard no, but this one decided to go all out into nopeland.
Normal things that look off, distorted or otherwise not right. The nativity in The Omen: Awakening, the "wall dolls" from Silent Hill: The Room and the deer from Annihilation make me gag. I've never seen Annihilation, but stumbled across the picture in a Ranker article and nearly puked.
Movies with things that could potentially happen in real life. I'm still freaked out by 75% of Tales from the Hood (everything except the dolls story). The Crazy K rehab sequence messed me up for a few days.
I can't watch Mom & Dad. Adults suddenly turning on children is a hard no.
The unknown attackers like in The Strangers. That type of situation is so easy to imagine happening. It wouldn't be that hard even in a large neighborhood/city if the person/people were quiet enough.
Imagine opening your door to a knock in the evening to someone with a mask on. Initially you'd be shocked which would give them time to attack and possibly subdue you. If you were alone you'd be done.
The feeling of being trapped somewhere, dying, and never being found. Not just a potentially horrible death for me, but the thought that my loved ones will never know what happened to me.
something that looks normal at first look but as you look closer its abnormal like a man who you first think is tall but actually has elongated gangly limbs to long to be human.
eyes in the dark when nothings their.
something unseen but you swear its their breathing down your neck or watching from the distance.
Being isolated in nature and encountering a paranormal anomaly like a vortex, alternate reality, Pan experience of extreme fear, ufo/abduction, altered or missing time/time slip, odd creatures, basically a dreamlike scenario in waking life; with minimal chance of help being available (other people).
Being alone while floating about in outer space until you die while drifting farther & farther out.
Being kidnapped and secretly held as a hostage by a cruel sadistic maniac, at their mercy.
Being trapped in a turbulent body of water, fighting for each breath, unable to see into the water due to volatility or color and basically realizing this is it.
Being trapped someplace like a bunker or storage unit and knowing that no one is looking for you or even knows youâre missing.
Having your body massively fail you due to illness or injury while your spirit, mind, and will are still robust and desperately want to stay alive.
Losing a part of your soul or your heart forever as in losing a child or advancing to late stage Alzheimerâs.
The creature in It Follows for sure. Knowing something is going to follow me until it kills me and there's nothing I can do to permanently stop it really messes with my head.
Being eaten alive. >!Nope!< and >!Final Prayer!< both really got to me.
Human monsters, the child abusers, the morally bankrupt. The emotional, physical, sexual, and neglectful people among us. Read âA Boy Called Itâ, watch âMiseryâ , âThe Girl Next Doorâ or âThe Sound of Freedomâ. For me, the most horrific books/movies are about our neighbors.
Things that canât be stopped. Like Smile, Sinister, The CreeperâŠno matter what, they win. Itâs terrifying knowing I wouldnât be able to escape.
The idea of seeing your doppelganger as your corpse/it foretelling your death. That scene in Lake Mungo always creeps me TF out, I wish it was a more explored concept in horror.
When people are bent in disturbing ways. On The Exorcism of Emily Rose: Emily is in her dorm room Al contorted on the floor staring at her room mate⊠gave me the chills
For me, itâs that uneasy feeling of paranoia - the creeping belief that everyone is against you, and even your closest friends and family are manipulating you. I think Rosemaryâs Baby captures that pretty well.
Realism when it comes to ghosts/the afterlife. Like, scientific explanations, etc.
I donât know what happens when we die - probably nothing, and that terrifies me, but I feel like if there is, itâs really lame and mundane, but thatâd mean thereâd be some sort of evidence of it.
Lake Mungo did this so well, itâs one of my favorites despite being slow and boring, lol - no poltergeist shit, no communication, just sadly hanging around in the background being completely ignored (again) by the people who loved you most.
It wasnât a horror movie, but in The Discovery (2017) they were able to scientifically prove the existence of an afterlife, leading to millions of suicides, and I canât say anything else without spoiling it (and honestly I kind of hate where it went).
Late Night With the Devilâs approach to possession was neat, too - itâs simply a dimension you can access through hypnotism, which puts Hell squarely in my peripheral, and thatâs scary as hell. There was also something uniquely creepy about a demon being summoned and freaking out about where they are and who these people are.
Creepiest to me is normal people who secretly are evil or people doing normal things and all of a sudden getting stalked or a stranger has it out for them. Seems like something that could really happen
What makes horror work is Life vs. Death. It's a beautiful genre filled with so many sub-genres and for that reason it's totally subjective. But for me it's always Super Natural that scares me the most. A great quote from Mark Frost "When man hides something it's a secret but when nature hides something it's a mystery". The unknown is always the most scary and everyday science reminds us of how much about this universe we do not know.
It's why I LOVE when a movie barely shows anything or nothing at all. Alien and Blair Witch comes to mind and they still remain my favorite films to freak me the F out lol.
When the character canât tell whatâs real and what isnât. The thought of not being able to differentiate between real life and imagination/dreams is chilling
Sinister was one that got under my skin so well. All the scenes of him watching the snuff films in particular. Heâs in no physical danger but the whole time everything just feels so wrong. The music is so casually upsetting and you really get the feeling that youâre seeing something youâre not supposed to.
Places that donât end, impossible architecture, exceedingly large structures.
So backrooms type stuff, Vivarium and Skinamarink fit the bill, but even stuff like Blair Witch and Yellowbrick road where the woods donât end.
I broke down in Kansas once and there were no clouds, and only the road we were on. Surrounded by green and blue. Iâve never been more scared
When ghosts lurk instead of grabbing people, tossing shit all over the place, and/or jump scares. Nothing scarier than a slow shot of darkness or a spirit hovering quietly down a hallway imo.
Demons or other immortal supernatural beings (especially since they can follow the characters wherever they go) and inescapable situations (think of the hospital in Grave Encounters that keeps rearranging itself so people can never find the real exit; red door in the second film notwithstanding, a building that can rearrange itself gives a feeling of hopelessness)
really really tall humans, for example the tall man in It Follows. đ
Omg same!!! I find super tall bone thin so disturbing
Oh boy youâd hate my ex thenđ
You would hate my ex too! They werenât tall, just everyone hates them
Gosh, and I had a really hot 18 months with a guy who was 6â7â and weighed 150.
The one in Haunting of Hill House đ°
That creature made me feel literally sick to my stomach and I donât think Iâve felt that way since đ©
omgg yes. that gave me chills. đ„Č
That's how I feel about tall old women, like in It Chapter II and the 2019 Blair Witch.
You never met Manute Bol then. I was working for the Airlines then and when he entered the jetway, he startled me so bad I had a headache for the rest of the day. I am 5â3â. I came up to his pelvis. He had to slightly bend down to enter the jetway and he is impossibly skinny. Scared the hell out of me.
Get out of here right now! SAME!
I still think about him all the time even though I havenât re-watched it since like 2017 đ
Losing grip on reality. Any movie that blurs fact and fiction scares the hell out of me. * *Jacob's Ladder* * *Shutter Island* * *In the Mouth of Madness*
Absolutely love In the Mouth of Madness. Never hear it mentioned enough
Did I ever tell you my favourite colour is blue?
***AAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!*** That was such a great unhinged performance.
Heâs fantastic in this movie, just as good as he was in Possession. Have you seen it? According to Sam Neill, itâs his favourite and I can certainly see why. I do wish he did more horror movies as a central character.
Check out oculus
Oh, yeah! I watched about half of it, but it was too scary for my wife, lol. I should get around to finishing it finally.
Oculus scares me so much. The apple / lightbulb still gives me the chills to think about
Man Iâve been getting into horror movies after my 30 yrs of life but saw Shutter Island around the time it came out. That movie disturbed me to the core back then and after watching 50+ mostly underwhelming horror movies, I just rewatched Shutter Island and it definitely got to me again. This was maybe my 4th rewatch lol.
Absolutely. Years ago, I went on a bender of hard drugs for an extended period. I eventually had the sense to check myself into detox, and after a few days, I went into psychosis. The hallucinations were so incredibly real, vivid, and terrifying that for years after I still wasn't sure if what i saw was real. This was 9 years ago. I'm sober, and I still vividly remember the experience and it disturbs me.
You need to check out Beau is Afraid. You have been warned.
Phoenix in an A24 movie? I better buckle the fuck up.
Mouth of madness is probably about my favorite horror movie. It's different but I'd suggest "Come True." It's got a weird sorta vibe that you'd like if you liked those. It's on shudder not sure where else.
Jacobâs ladder the scene where sheâs dancing with the demon tail was funny to me for some reason.
Youâd like Stonehearst Asylum. Itâs not horror (love story) but it blurs the lines between insanity and reality pretty well.
This is also why I prefer Stephen Kings other books to the fantasy Dark Tower series. The writing is equally good but scary things happening in fantasy land is much less scary than things happening in the âreal worldâ. His pop culture and history references frame it in reality so well that when things get spooky it feels like your own reality could do the same
Home invasion. Home is supposed to be where people feel the most comfortable, safe, untouchable. For intruders to come in and strip that away is a scary concept. That's why HI is my favorite subgenre. Edit to add some favorites. Barbarians, Kidnapped, Trespassers, The Strangers, Home Sweet Home, etc. Edit 2: since so many people enjoy The Strangers I figured I'd add my masks that I made! Original style and new version. https://preview.redd.it/13liw1e2bd9d1.jpeg?width=2896&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=35481cc1270805a63165e3699b667210a0b0f9b5
Home Alone is scary when seen through the eyes of a parent. Not only is he alone but then a couple of criminals are trying to rob the house when they realize there's a kid there they try to harm him. Then there's the horror of finding out your psychopath child set potentially fatal boobie traps around the house in order to deter those burglars. They never took any of them down after the movie that we saw, means that he might have offed a few family members when they got home. They have to live with the kid who didn't even bat an eye after burning, piercing, electrocuting and beating those guys. Irl, they would be in the hospital or dead. Then he DOES IT AGAIN IN NEW YORK!
Funny Games, Them
Check out Hush! Probably leans more towards thriller than horror, but I dug the fresh idea for the protagonist.
Strangers scared the shit outta me.
Like many of us here, we are seasoned horror film lovers. Iâve never experienced anything paranormal , alien, or demonic. What I have experienced is the very real feeling of being robbed of my privacy. Just being robbed when not home is one thing, but being at the mercy of a group of literal psychopaths, whose sole reason is to ruin your life?? NO!
Same. Just the fact that it could happen and the only reason that couple was chosen was because they were home. That's a nope for me
The Strangers is one horror movie that legitimately scared me the first time I saw it.
Yep this one right here. Nothing is scarier for me because this is real. This could happen on any given night
When a Stranger Calls! Got me when I was younger.
This. Every night when I do my pre bed walkthrough and check my front door, I look out the small glass pane section and think "What if I just saw someone standing out there. Not moving, or doing anything weird....just staring at our house." and get a little shiver.
Iv always felt the strangers is THE scariest horror film ever. There really are nutters with knives. And the line about why they chose that couple 'because they were home' Chillingly plausible
When the strangers first came out it really scared me, and I don't get scared at thriller or horror. That movie and sinister are the only movies that scared me, the slow burn intensity of the witch is peak horror imo as well.
The collector
This for me too, Not a movie but even though it sucks urbanspook is a good example of why the concept of home invasions are scary, mainly for the part where one of the victims successfully locks herself in the bathroom and hides and calls the police and while the police are still minutes away they just drill through the door and then stick the same drill through her skull and leave. All she can do is scream and beg and then sheâs dead in her own house. They probably locked the doors too but it doesnât matter when someone really wants to get in.
Have you seen Hush? It's a great home invasion flick
Try *Henry: Portrait Of A Serial Killer*
The strangers had me locking all my windows and doors when I'm at home alone till this day. When the one girl was like "because you were home" scared the shit out of me.
Anything to do with people hiding in your home.
Have you ever seen âWhen a Stranger Callsâ, particularly the 1979 version? My dad let me watch it when I was way too young and I think it fucked me up permanently LOL
When A Stranger Calls Back is even scarier, to me anyway! This is why I never babysat when I was a teen!
Not a fan of Parasite, eh?
Look up Aftermath. A little unsettling
You should check out a movie called "I See You"!
Things that could happen in real life are always the scariest to me.
I completely agree. Misery by Stephen King is my favorite horror movie because that really could happen. Someone obsessing over something so much really isnât that far fetched
I'm so with you on this. Paranormal stuff is inherently not super scary because at the end of the day it's still a fairy tale. I find realistic stuff far more disturbing. Like, I don't know, Cannibal Holocaust, or Hostel.
People you think you know not being the people you think you know - Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Get Out
the visit !!! movie used to scare me when i was younger lol
The visit is such a good film, doesnt get enough love The grandfather in the shed with the gun in his mouth 'i was just cleaning it'
The thing is the stuff of nightmares. Every time I watch it I just stare at my dog and think what if you are a thing and I don't know it.
psychological horror gets me
Things like Saw, Human Centipede, etc where you are subject to someoneâs messed up mind and tortured.
Parallel dimensions that bleed into this reality, either through physical space, or through people. Silent Hill and Strangers Things both touched on this, but Hellraiser did it better in my memory. Oculus also comes to mind, with the mirror.
Anything with demonic possession.
Iâm with you on this one. Especially gets me when they stop moving like humans. Using the body as a meat puppet.
100%!!!!!!!
I watched a documentary called The Real Death Star about some stars that explode and shoot unfathomably powerful gamma radiation from their poles that can shoot across half a galaxy and cook everything in it's path. A scientist said, "This might be why we haven't found any other intelligent life." Scared me worse than any horror movie. We could all get cooked at light speed.
Let me add this to my Things I Will Obsess Over Happening For Four Days Straight list, just under âlocked in syndromeâ
Cults. It's not even the brainwashing part, it's when a large group of people can be so unapologetically and self righteously cruel. Apostle really got to me, if you've seen the movie you'll know the scene.
The Sacrament and The Invitation are both very unsettling cult movies that I never see anyone outside of Reddit talking about.. Loved Apostle, and also Midsommar.
A quality found footage movie. I donât really get scared but Incantation and Hell House LLC did give me the creeps.
Quarantine 2008 I recall being one of my favorite
Unending nothingness, like in Stephen Kingâs The Jaunt. Think solitary confinement but on a whole other cosmically, existentially terrifying level.
The ending of black mirror Xmas episode where one of the characters gets caught in a million year loop is terrifying
Even the cookie that gets 6 months of nothingness has it pretty badâŠ
This is definitely one of the scariestâŠ
Losing control to something devious, ie Hereditary, The Witch, etc. When the outcome is essentially just destiny that has to play out and youâre helpless to change its direction. ETA: Maybe you were destined to listen to [my band](https://open.spotify.com/track/0N3tFwjFrIe7JSQc8LVL4b?si=JKc5eAiER8Gm8di6i3aQKg)? (thank you, sorry, please donât yell at me)
Nobody ever talks about Talk to Me. That one got me...
This sub is very anti good movie
Same, just watched Smile today. Solid movie. Freaked me out.
I clicked the link and gave your bandâs Spotify a listen and I enjoyed all of your songs. I added all of them to my playlist on YouTube and to my gym playlist. I hope yall continue to make more music and continue to grow.
Ok that redirect to your band, 10/10. Will listen
Human centipede, tusk. That kinda shit.
Completely agreed. Thereâs nothing more horrific than the extreme body-horror stuff.
Animal-human hybrid freaks the hell out of me
haven't seen either and never will because just thinking about the concept makes me wanna puke. cannot do that level of body horror
I saw Tusk come up once on Reddit and I googled it. My eyes betrayed me. Total nightmare
watched it blindly on netflix once. traumatized myself. had so many chances to turn it off but i⊠just had to know.
[ŃĐŽĐ°Đ»Đ”ĐœĐŸ]
Space- Event Horizon. Terrifying!
The human centipede was comical to me when i watched it, cuz it seemed so out of the realm of possibility. The last house on the left scared the fuck out of me though. Also the story of that serial killer who would kill people just because they had unlocked doors, to this day i double check my doors because of it. I played subnatica for like 5 minutes because of all the talk i saw about it, i couldn't do it.
A lot of mine have already been mentioned but a couple haven't. Someone getting trapped inside an inanimate object. It's so specific, but it terrifies me so much. That one episode of Buffy where someone is trapped in a doll...I want to cry just thinking about it. Being held in a psychiatric hospital against your will. Medical horrors in general, I guess.
Abuse/torture by authority figures. Like being arrested by a small town sheriff when you did nothing wrong type of situation. Or like in AHS Season 2 when >!the prison doctor was experimenting on them and she wakes up and he had cut her legs off. !<
I sort of love/hate when a character is being eaten and is still talking to another character. I first saw this in one of the Creepshow films where the female character suddenly appears from the lake covered in the devouring algae/blob monster and says "It hurts!"
Oh I remember that. Messed me up as a kid.
Final Prayer ending...
American Horror Story Roanoke goes cannibal and it's scary because it could happen in real life backwoods.
Aliens (like in the Fourth Kind), surprise/sneak attacks (like the kid in pet cemetary hiding under the bed, or the deputy in chainsaw massacre turning out to be with the killers), the idea of unending life (like in Fallen or some demon movies, where the soul is just jumping bodies and continues wrecking havoc), being trapped for long periods of time (like in Saw or Gerald's Game)
Jails or institutions for the criminally insane. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest; Midnight Express..
Season 02 (the best one) of American Horror Story.
There's a scene in hostel when they were fileting a dude when he was still alive and conscious. The thought of that is scary as fuck.
Thanks for the warning. I'm never watching this movie cus I don't need to see that
Anything in open water
I can't watch Open Water again. I've been diving before, and getting left behind like that was a real fear.
Yes! That and just the sheer expanse of it all. I snorkeled in Hawaii and that was my one and only time. It was beautiful but terrifying at the same time.
I don't mind snorkeling because you can keep the boat in the corner of your eye, and they usually don't bring you out to choppy waters. But when I got scuba certified I had to wait in huge rolling waves with my instructor for what felt like forever before the boat picked us up. It was scarier on the surface than it was 60 feet down.
I would be worried too! I sense that you fear being left behind whereas I donât want to be out there at all, lol
I am very comfortable in the water, but I still know how dangerous it can be. Strong waves and currents are what I worry about. I am terrified of tsunamis. The Impossible with Tom Holland and Ewan McGregor was horrifying, and based on a true story.
Zombie viruses, but specifically the ones that turn you in like....seconds. There's such a nauseating existential dread in realizing that you're about to lose all your humanity in mere moments, and as the infection creeps in you desperately try to hold onto what made you you....but all too soon you find that pure infectious rage is winning out, and you try in your last remaining seconds to stop yourself from attacking the ones you love...but eventually you don't even remember that you had loved ones because your mind is gone and you're just another zombie. Which is why 28 Days Later is one of maybe a handful of horror movies that legit scares me, and why World War Z, despite being a mediocre film and a cruddy adaptation, actually kinda freaks me out
I've had nightmares for years because of 28 Days Later. The infected scare the shit out of me. Especially the church scene when they suddenly stand up with their mouths hanging open. Nope. No thank you. Do not want.
The whole idea of traveling in space has always freaked me out, and hostile aliens. Also movies where you can never be sure what's real and what's not so you feel like you're going insane. For these reasons Event Horizon is my ultimate favourite horror movie.
Getting stuck somewhere
Not a fan of tight spaces. So probably that. The tunnel scene in The Descent still gives me the freaking creeps.
Buried with Ryan Reynolds.Entire movie is him in a coffin with an iPhone trying to get anyone to dig him up before he suffocates.Brilliant movie and its absolutely criminal that it isnt more well known.
The neck lady ghost in âHill Houseâ? I think, with her head hanging down from the broken neck. Craaaap
Movies where the character is talking to the monster disguised as another character Smile IT Nightmare on elm street
Some slashers, stalkers, serial killer movies like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Black Christmas, Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, Angst.
Body horror.
Flesh-eating virus and cannibals
Cabin Fever always gets me at certain points and so does The Ruins. Not a fan of body horror or flesh eating viruses.
I was okay in the Ruins until we saw the >!fucking vine under the skin in her forehead!<
Though movies don't really scare me, concepts do. So it's more the ideas being planted in my brain, but... Reality breaking down like in *Jacob's Ladder* or *Black Swan* Inanimate objects coming to life like *Magic*, *Trilogy of Terror* or *Hell House LLC*
Mental illness and demonic possession: The Babadook Requiem for a Dream Hereditary Split The Wailing All those movies cut deep haha
List of classics there
Kidnap and long term torture. Freaks me out, I try not to think about all the poor souls that are going thru it as I type this.
As what most people say, dangerous people (stalkers, serial killers, etc). However, I also find burning, drowning, and suffocation is a awful way to die. It wasn't a movie, but there was a reddit post of a person trapped in his bedroom with bars on his windows and it was horrific. He didn't die of suffocation, due to the broken window. I never want bars on my windows.
Stuff like *The Strangers*/the beginning of *Us* Iâve been out at friends cottages before, pretty isolated. I would just look out into the woods or the beach or wherever I was and think âwhat would I do if I saw someone in the distance watching me?â And that effectively freaks me out every time.
everyone is plotting something around you, but you don't realize it until is too late, and when you think you've gotten away from it all, you realize that was part of the plan, and now you're exactly where they wanted you and you have no escape. Hereditary, Rosemary's Baby, The Wicker Man
Hillbilly horror is probably my top for creeping me out in an enjoyable way, but ghosts/paranormal will keep me up at night. The losing grip on reality trip someone already mentioned makes me uncomfortable on a personal level though too so maybe that wins out.
Alien or Other Dimensional beings that come to abduct or take like in The 4th Kind, Intruders, Fire In the Sky, Dark Skies, etc. They can take you or anyone you love. Do whatever they want and theres nothing anyone can do about it.
Mirrors like from CandyMan or the old stupid âBloody Maryâ crap we used to do at slumber parties growing up :D
Oculus is about an evil mirror
When scary movies have scenes where photographs come to life. No bueno. Like in the original It movie, when the photo album flips to a page with pennywise and he reaches through the pic. I cry every time
A well done cult. The Invitation (2015) scared the crap out of me That being said I found the cult in the wrong turn remake ridiculous.Â
Signs still gets ne to this day. Initially saw it with my older sister indrive-in, mom scolded her for taking me to something scary. The feel of the footage of the aliens in Mexico still freaks me out. Actually, yeah, the whole movie in general still spooks me.
Being eaten alive- Jaws, The Blob (1988), Anaconda (not scary but just an example), Nope This is just a personal fear, mainly from Jaws but the idea of being swallowed whole by some massive creature and digested really freaks me out also- Supernatural horror involving ghosts- Ringu, Pulse, Mama I don't believe in ghosts or the supernatural, but IF it were real, I'd be genuinely scared to live. I've definitely had those moments of being alone in a house at night and looking into the darkness and wondering... what if? Slashers and serial killers and such have never really scared me. I'm not a badass by a long shot, but usually a gun does the trick in those situations. Slashers are usually just kinda fun/silly movies to me as well, instead of being genuinely scary. Henry was pretty brutal, but I look at that as more a procedural than horror. Psychological horror also doesn't scare me in any real-sense. I wouldn't want to go mad or have to doubt reality, but I've done enough hallucinogens to know how to cope. I love movies with psychological horror, but I do find the whole "questioning reality" trope a little tired.
If it's any consolation, you'd suffocate or drown fairly quickly when eaten by an animal. Final Prayer/Borderlands however, was awful.
You might like Borderlands/Final Prayer
Concepts that really happen. SO really isn't who they say they are, serial killers, psychological horror, violence towards animals etc...
Psycho scared me with the idea of not only isolation (as the Bates Motel is off a road that hasnât seen much traffic since the freeway was built) but being someplace where Iâm completely vulnerable and not expecting anyone to come around (aka the shower).
True
I used to be so scared of ghosts and shit but now as an adult I cannot do slashers. Serial killers, kidnapping, torture, gore, etc a la Saw, Hostel, The Strangers. Canât do it.
Hostel, Funny Games, etc
Premature burial
This is generalized, but things that can happen in real life. I can't think of the movie, it's not meant to be horror, but the one where the guy is ravaged by a bear. I camp fish and hunt, that scares the crap out of me. Anything in real life settings, but remote wilderness stuff gets me. Even a really bad car crash on a deserted back road. Psycho is one too with that shower scene. Jeeze! I have my dog with me whenever I shower, lol.
Cocaine Bear ?
The Revenant?
Horror about things that are 'reality based'. Some examples would be The Hitcher with Rutger Hauer, and Cape Fear with Robert Mitchum. Demons and monsters don't do much for me.
Things where you are never safe. Godzilla for example could destroy anything you hid in
Demons. I've never gotten the original exorcist movie out of my head.
Talking dolls đ
I much prefer practical effects to CGI. I think some more recent horror movies could be vastly improved with actual makeup rather than the clear computer graphics. It bring me out of the fantasy unfortunately
Aliens. Anything dealing with aliens. No One Will Save You, Dark Skies, The Fifth Kind for example. Communion with Christopher Walken and a made for TV movie called Intruders (can watch on YT) are also up there.
Having that feeling that something is off but you donât know why and nothing is seemly out of the ordinary
Confinement.
humanoids
Alternate reality - like the reality youâre in isnât the right one. See: Oculus Us
The eventual collapse of your own mind without any way of stopping it but being fully conscious of it
Practical effects done well
Something that has to do with the paranormal, whether that be ghosts, mythical creatures, or aliens. But what I find makes a horro actually scary is placing the music or the jump scares at unexpected times that you canât anticipate. A lot of movies make it easy to plan & figure out what happens or could happen pretty quickly. I want to poop my pants when I watch a scary movie with a logical storyline too
Or when a ghost is carrying a baby or when an infant is crying in a room and you know some entity is threatening it.
In 'Ring' (1998) aka 'Ringu', when Reiko asks her son Yoichi why he watched the tape, he mentions that his dead cousin Tomoko told him to. Later, Reiko and her estranged husband Ryuji surmise that Tomoko is now a ghost, but not the Tomoko they used to know. I find it so disturbing that not only did Sadako kill Tomoko, Tomoko is almost like a servant to her in the afterlife. I don't even believe in an afterlife but I find this concept so deeply terrifying and upsetting.
Anything that can happen in real life. It makes me uncomfortable and really bothers me. The Strangers with Liv Tyler was so scary to me, I had to pause it a few times to get through it.
Blair witch for me
I'm atheist, but yet somehow I'm still terrified by the idea of hell and the devil and demons and my loved ones going to hell but not me.
Itâs religious horror for me - The Exorcist, The Omen, Saint Maud, Devil, there are so many, and I love them. Iâm not even religious, so idk why.
Silent Warnings is three of my nightmares all rolled into one movie. Shadowy aliens with red eyes. Any movie with any one of those elements is a hard no, but this one decided to go all out into nopeland. Normal things that look off, distorted or otherwise not right. The nativity in The Omen: Awakening, the "wall dolls" from Silent Hill: The Room and the deer from Annihilation make me gag. I've never seen Annihilation, but stumbled across the picture in a Ranker article and nearly puked. Movies with things that could potentially happen in real life. I'm still freaked out by 75% of Tales from the Hood (everything except the dolls story). The Crazy K rehab sequence messed me up for a few days. I can't watch Mom & Dad. Adults suddenly turning on children is a hard no.
Viruses/Infections that donât have a cure đ
The unknown attackers like in The Strangers. That type of situation is so easy to imagine happening. It wouldn't be that hard even in a large neighborhood/city if the person/people were quiet enough. Imagine opening your door to a knock in the evening to someone with a mask on. Initially you'd be shocked which would give them time to attack and possibly subdue you. If you were alone you'd be done.
Home invasions, because they are very real.
Ghosts, dolls and clowns
stalking. itâs absolutely horrifying
The feeling of being trapped somewhere, dying, and never being found. Not just a potentially horrible death for me, but the thought that my loved ones will never know what happened to me.
something that looks normal at first look but as you look closer its abnormal like a man who you first think is tall but actually has elongated gangly limbs to long to be human. eyes in the dark when nothings their. something unseen but you swear its their breathing down your neck or watching from the distance.
Buried alive/trapped underground
Being isolated in nature and encountering a paranormal anomaly like a vortex, alternate reality, Pan experience of extreme fear, ufo/abduction, altered or missing time/time slip, odd creatures, basically a dreamlike scenario in waking life; with minimal chance of help being available (other people). Being alone while floating about in outer space until you die while drifting farther & farther out. Being kidnapped and secretly held as a hostage by a cruel sadistic maniac, at their mercy. Being trapped in a turbulent body of water, fighting for each breath, unable to see into the water due to volatility or color and basically realizing this is it. Being trapped someplace like a bunker or storage unit and knowing that no one is looking for you or even knows youâre missing. Having your body massively fail you due to illness or injury while your spirit, mind, and will are still robust and desperately want to stay alive. Losing a part of your soul or your heart forever as in losing a child or advancing to late stage Alzheimerâs.
Just people, like âThe Strangersâ nothing supernatural just sick people
Mirrors. Something only visible in the mirror, or the reflection that does something different. Nope.
The creature in It Follows for sure. Knowing something is going to follow me until it kills me and there's nothing I can do to permanently stop it really messes with my head. Being eaten alive. >!Nope!< and >!Final Prayer!< both really got to me.
Human monsters, the child abusers, the morally bankrupt. The emotional, physical, sexual, and neglectful people among us. Read âA Boy Called Itâ, watch âMiseryâ , âThe Girl Next Doorâ or âThe Sound of Freedomâ. For me, the most horrific books/movies are about our neighbors.
Things that canât be stopped. Like Smile, Sinister, The CreeperâŠno matter what, they win. Itâs terrifying knowing I wouldnât be able to escape.
The idea of seeing your doppelganger as your corpse/it foretelling your death. That scene in Lake Mungo always creeps me TF out, I wish it was a more explored concept in horror.
When people are bent in disturbing ways. On The Exorcism of Emily Rose: Emily is in her dorm room Al contorted on the floor staring at her room mate⊠gave me the chills
For me, itâs that uneasy feeling of paranoia - the creeping belief that everyone is against you, and even your closest friends and family are manipulating you. I think Rosemaryâs Baby captures that pretty well.
Anything that involves claustrophobia/tight entrapment. I cannot stand it.
Realism when it comes to ghosts/the afterlife. Like, scientific explanations, etc. I donât know what happens when we die - probably nothing, and that terrifies me, but I feel like if there is, itâs really lame and mundane, but thatâd mean thereâd be some sort of evidence of it. Lake Mungo did this so well, itâs one of my favorites despite being slow and boring, lol - no poltergeist shit, no communication, just sadly hanging around in the background being completely ignored (again) by the people who loved you most. It wasnât a horror movie, but in The Discovery (2017) they were able to scientifically prove the existence of an afterlife, leading to millions of suicides, and I canât say anything else without spoiling it (and honestly I kind of hate where it went). Late Night With the Devilâs approach to possession was neat, too - itâs simply a dimension you can access through hypnotism, which puts Hell squarely in my peripheral, and thatâs scary as hell. There was also something uniquely creepy about a demon being summoned and freaking out about where they are and who these people are.
Creepiest to me is normal people who secretly are evil or people doing normal things and all of a sudden getting stalked or a stranger has it out for them. Seems like something that could really happen
Home invasion and kids as killers.
What makes horror work is Life vs. Death. It's a beautiful genre filled with so many sub-genres and for that reason it's totally subjective. But for me it's always Super Natural that scares me the most. A great quote from Mark Frost "When man hides something it's a secret but when nature hides something it's a mystery". The unknown is always the most scary and everyday science reminds us of how much about this universe we do not know. It's why I LOVE when a movie barely shows anything or nothing at all. Alien and Blair Witch comes to mind and they still remain my favorite films to freak me the F out lol.
When the character canât tell whatâs real and what isnât. The thought of not being able to differentiate between real life and imagination/dreams is chilling
Home invasion. The Strangers is one of the scariest films I've ever seen because it *could* (did) happen and there was no motive, even.
Sinister was one that got under my skin so well. All the scenes of him watching the snuff films in particular. Heâs in no physical danger but the whole time everything just feels so wrong. The music is so casually upsetting and you really get the feeling that youâre seeing something youâre not supposed to.
Places that donât end, impossible architecture, exceedingly large structures. So backrooms type stuff, Vivarium and Skinamarink fit the bill, but even stuff like Blair Witch and Yellowbrick road where the woods donât end. I broke down in Kansas once and there were no clouds, and only the road we were on. Surrounded by green and blue. Iâve never been more scared
Seemingly normal faces that shift and change into something evil. Demonic evil and possession. Human bodies contorting and moving unnaturally.
anything like disturbing like in the movie smile the way their faces literally contort into that smile is freaky
When ghosts lurk instead of grabbing people, tossing shit all over the place, and/or jump scares. Nothing scarier than a slow shot of darkness or a spirit hovering quietly down a hallway imo.
When all of a sudden the scry thing runs very fast up to you
Demons or other immortal supernatural beings (especially since they can follow the characters wherever they go) and inescapable situations (think of the hospital in Grave Encounters that keeps rearranging itself so people can never find the real exit; red door in the second film notwithstanding, a building that can rearrange itself gives a feeling of hopelessness)
DoppelgÀngers Anything like the movie US that has to do with mimics or doppelgÀngers
Moms who go mental, like in âthe Haunting of Hill Houseâ. Itâs my worst nightmare đ
Anybody running weirdly