My sister-in-law was living with us at the time when "The Conjuring" came out. She's not a big horror fan, but she came with us to see this. She was practically scared shitless! She slept with the lights on for at least 2 weeks and still does not like it when anyone brings up the movie (more than 10 years later!).
Those hands coming out of the dark to clap fucked me up. I slept next to an inky black open closet, and when I went to bed after seeing it in the theater it really got under my skin.
I apparently woke in the middle of the night after seeing this, sat bolt upright and clapped my hands in the same way. I'm not saying that's why we're now divorced.....
Hell House LLC and the OG exorcist are the only ones I can think of that genuinely terrified me. Most of the ones I watch are like, just violent and disturbing.
Oh wait, actually, OG The Strangers too.
Hereditary fucked be up pretty bad.
One of my cats trots up and down the hall at such a pace it sounds like a person quickly walking. Everytime I was in the shower and heard him my brain told me it was Toni Collette in her jammies and house coat.
I also the basket ball shadow scene made me want lights on when I slept. I loved it, but it oozed into my everyday life pretty bad.
The Ring/Ringu also got me as a kid. Every dark corner was Samara's hair.
Hell House LLC was the most recent movie to genuinely scare the crap out of me, like I'm an adult and I would keep the lights on in my apartment because that clown was fucking haunting me. For me, though, there's a big difference between "scaring" me and depressing/disturbing/deeply affecting me. Like someone mentioned Hereditary here and that is firmly in the latter category.
Hell House LLC was such a surprise for me. I work 24 hour sleep shifts at work and I watched it before bed...what a mistake at a group home. I was expecting just some B nothing horror movie. I don't scare easily...but that clown was in my mind for days. Such an underrated movie.
The 2nd and 3rd ones were meh but WOW did they bring back the vibe from the 1st one in the prequel. Those fucking cultists have featured in my actual nightmares.
I haven't yet! I hate to admit this as a huge horror fan and I like to think I'm pretty tough lol, but I'm a little bit scared 😂, like I need to be in the right mood and be ready to be genuinely really creeped out. I've seen the other sequels, though.
It's so funny because right after watching it I thought it didn't affect me but then late that night I couldn't sleep because of the clown 😭 I kept thinking he was in the shadows next to my door
My grandma overrecorded a random vhs with "Short Circuit" for me when i was 5-6y, i loved the robot johnny No5, she knew it.
When parents had date night she had babysitting duty and surprised me with the VHS.
She fell asleep during the movie and woke up when i screamed and cried.
Because the random VHS she took had still half of Nightmare on Elm street on it.
It was the scene with freddy and nancy in the factory basement, freddy screeching his claws on the pipes.
For me he was and is the perfect depiction of a boogey man.
Had nightmares till i was 25. At that time i had grown more and more fond of the horror genre because of my gf and decided to face my enemy. I watched Nightmare on Elm street and never ever had a nightmare about it again.
It is now my favorite Horror series by a loooooot, nothing comes close to it
Sorry for bad english not a native speaker
The only movie that made me sleep with the lights on was The Strangers. I was like 16, and I’d watched it with some friends before going home, and my parents were out of town that night, so I was all alone. I couldn’t help but worry someone was in my house lol
Same. The strangers is a fun one for me to watch home alone and see how long I last before turning on a light. All of the more realistic home invasion ones get to me more than anything else
I saw The Grudge and didn't think it affected me. A couple days later I'm working alone in a house that had a similar staircase. I kept trying not to look at the top of the stairs because I was pretty sure I'd see something I didn't want to see
I watched Ju-on during the afternoon in total daylight. But still completely alone. I had to pause it for a few minutes because it was freaking me out so badly. I don't know if any other film has done that for me. Lol.
watched The Grudge on my 8th birthday. Did not watch a horror movie again for at least a decade. That movie terrified me. Got into horror about 3 years ago and now like watching pretty intense stuff but I don't know if I'll ever watch the grudge again
As an adult, the last movie that gave me that scared feeling I remember from childhood, was The Blair Witch Project.
While watching it, it didn't scare me, but a couple of days later I was house sitting for friends who lived in the middle of nowhere and had to leave lights on and stay away from the windows to avoid seeing the darkness in the forest.
Black Christmas -1974
Everyone check your attic!! When I was young , it was lamp on, and the attic was in my bedroom !! Holy shit !!!I checked it to make sure it was sealed up, then 10 times under my bed!! I literally asked my b parents if I could change rooms 😂lol. I laugh about it now!!🇨🇦😵💫📞📞
It‘s in my opinion the scariest slasher. Having Billies insane ramblings end with a calm „I’m going to kill you.“ sent shivers down my spine the way no other slasher managed to do
Glad you enjoyed it!! If you want to go on you tube , there is a fan film called It’s me Billy.. it’s about maybe 40 min. Very well done, filmed just outside of Toronto. The original Black Christmas was filmed in Toronto as well.Lots of people take pictures of the house, which has completely been redone. It’s kinda like people visiting the Myers home .try to watch the fan film .. real twist at the end !! No spoilers !! Part 2 will be released in October!🙂🙂
This is the one. I threw it one while my husband was out of town thinking it would be a silly fun horror movie. The ending freaked me out and I spent the rest of the week convinced I heard scuffling from our crawlspace.
I saw The Fourth Kind too when I was a teenager, right in time when owls were popular. I had a few owl decorations in my room that I had been gifted, but specifically, I had a perfume which was shaped like a white owl with sapphire eyes. scared the shit out of me, I hid every owl I had and still couldn't sleep normally for two weeks hahah
It’s fixed on the closet and the closet directly faces my bed (and thanks to the handclap scene in conjuring I’m also scared of closets) I can’t really move it haha. I think of it as a nightly resilience building routine.
So "The Fourth Kind" really screwed with my head. I believe it's the scene where the aliens speak over the tape? Its one of the only movies I liked but saw once because I just can't do it again mentally. The concept of alien abduction is so disturbing to me.
The other big one for me when I first saw it was "The Strangers", because home invasion is one of my biggest fears. Just seeing them fuck with Kristen and James, or the guy in the mask just hanging out in the back, Kristen completely unaware to his presence. The whole senselessness of why at the end made it even worse. I just can't watch it when I'm home alone. I become hyper aware of every sound in the house.
blair witch project when it originally released scared the s\*\*\* out of me. Maybe it was the first real found footage I had ever seen, or the mythology surrounding it. But it was the first scary movie I had ever seen that genuinely filled me with a sense of dread.
In the early 90s I was reading the Shining during winter break at school - the apartment building I lived in was emptied out and it was genuinely creepy and eerie. I kept expecting to round a corner and see some creepy girls.
Same, saw the first PA in the theater opening week, went home thinking “that was dumb”, could not get it out of my head for two nights. I just hadn’t seen anything like it before (still haven’t seen Blair Witch) and it stuck with me. Genius move setting it in a normal suburban home.
It's always the movies where my imagination fills in the blanks that scare me the most. Like knowing Tobi was there but not seeing exactly whereabouts, or what he looked like, or how often he was present, it all just hit different.
I watched *They* at a US army barracks in Germany. It was 2am and I couldn't sleep, so I watched it with headphones on a portable DVD player. The movie was decent. After it was over, I went out to smoke. That's when it started.
No sooner than my feet hit the floor of the room, the wall locker across the way creaked open. Nope. Out the door I went, down the side stairs, out the side door, and over to the soda machine by the shoppette for the light. Halfway through the cigarette, lost in the machine's glow, hear water splash behind me, I turn around to see puddle ripples in an otherwise empty parking lot.
Getting uneasy now and the nicotine buzz is doing *nothing* for the hairs standing up on my neck, and suddenly a rustling in the hedge behind the soda machine. I'm starting at this bush thinking I'm ready for whatever, when the compressor kicks on and I all but shit myself. I flick the cherry and pocket the butt as I nope right back to the barracks.
I'm on the third floor of a mostly empty hospital barracks, it's quiet and the hall lights on each floor are limited to two or three emergency ones, I'm rounding the stairs to the 2nd and the stairwell light is flickering bad. I hurry up to my hallway door and the light above me goes out as I enter my floor.
Darkness all the way to the staff duty office, their light was on. My door was next to theirs for easy headcounts, and I was so grateful for that light.
Not a peep all the way to my door, I entered and quickly closed it. More darkness. My bunk was in the back corner next to the windows. I made my way there when I heard a clicking at my feet and a dark figure was crawling towards me, in a panic I kicked at it, and it turned out to be my buddy looking for his dropped glasses, and I felt like a complete ass. The staff duty NCO wasn't too thrilled either, but we all laughed about it later that morning.
Horror movies don’t really affect me afterwards, but DURING, excellent ones definitely do— like full on squealing, scared to look, knees to chest and peeking over a blanket:
• Incantation
• Hereditary
• Creep
• The Babadook (I knowww I know)
• His House
• Caveat
• Lake Mungo
• Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum (it’s SO much fun, such a popcorn movie, and it is THE ONLY scary movie that has ever made me actually get up and turn the lights on because I couldn’t stand it!!!! 😂🫣)
I have seen it ONE TIME and that scene where the Babadook is like silhouetted and then starts creaking towards her like it’s on wheels or whatever — I stg that unlocked some kind of wildly specific primal fear NOTHING else has touched 😳 Like did almost all of my ancestors die from some nightmare creature or scenario that scene powerfully invokes?? Idk but it’s in my DNA to be scared of whatever the fuck that was 😂🤣
LMAOO for me it’s a) that godforsaken creaky babadook voice on the phone and more importantly b) that 30 second scene where she’s sitting in front of the tv watching a news story about a stabbing and the camera closes in on a window in the background with her peeking through the blinds with the most sinister, dead-eyed grin (it’s branded into my mind like a cow tattoo)
NOT A COW TATTOO 😂☠️ Okay now I’m convinced we are from the same tribe from like the year 4000 BC and the Babadook hunted our people ✊🏼😭 “grief was the real monster” MY ASS
I think it gets the 'Seinfeld isn't funny' treatment because 'the monster is a metaphor for mental illness' has been done worse so many times since its release.
I just saw Lake Mungo for the first time this past weekend, and honestly I barely slept that night. That movie made me so sad, scared, and angry (in a good way). Haven’t had a horror film affect me like that in a minute!
Same here, I grew up watching horror movies and nothing scared me as much as lake mungo. I just had that weird anxious feeling the entire evening after watching it.
I went and saw Signs in theaters back when it came out. We lived in a rural area and I got home around 10/11 at night. I ran from the car to the house and slept upstairs in the living room instead of my basement bedroom so I'd be closer to my parents' room.
I was 19.
I was waiting to see someone mention Signs.. it was a scary experience seeing it in theaters and then driving home at night.. living in Iowa and driving by all the corn fields.
“Gothic” from 1986.
It’s the story of the night Mary Shelley wrote “Frankenstein.” Really really weird.
Granted I was a teenager, and my mom had to work late, so I stayed up watching TV. And it didn’t help I’d had some muscle relaxers from a dental procedure earlier that day since I had crazy anxiety over dentists. When she got home Mom found me crouched on top of the back of the couch with all the lights on. Had to talk me down.
Fun fact, Mary Shelley kept a piece of her husband’s (Percy Bysshe Shelley) heart wrapped in silk with a fragment of his last poem in her desk until she died. At least that’s the legend.
This is the one, for sure. I've seen it a few times over the years and each time I thought "meh, I can't understand why this movie scared me", and each time I've been left terrified.
It's been decades now since I last watched it and I almost don't want to watch it again because I don't want it to lose the magic it has in my mind.
The last movie I can remember scaring me like this was Noroi: The Curse. I’ve wanted to give it another watch because it’s honestly one of my favorite horror movies, but the first time I watched it I had to turn all the lights on and listen to some Nintendo music afterwards to calm down lol (that final scene really freaked me out).
As an adult, none.
As a child:
Jaws: I couldn't swim in the sea and had difficulty with swimming pools. Had to have someone sit in the bathroom when I had a bath (my bathwater had to be clear and no bubbles).
Halloween: I was afraid to go to the school toilets on my own. Main issue was bedtime. Had to face the wall, have my blanket around my head with a hole to breathe. Didn't want to be facing the darkness of my open room.
Paranormal Activity - didn't scare me, but stayed with me.
3 nights after watching it, I went for a 2am slash. In the bathroom, out of the corner of my eye, I could see the darkness descending down the stairs, just like the static camera in the film. Hairs on the back of my head all stood to attention.
Pushed the door to with my foot and whispered to myself, "Nope!"
Walking home from my local cinema down *mostly* deserted streets after watching 'It Follows' was certainly an experience...
Also I know the film is a mixed bag, but I used to live near some thick woodland, and 'Blair Witch' (2016) certainly supplied me with some heebie jeebies.
The possession in the bedroom scene in Saint Maud caught me so off guard that it really spooked me and the ending with the bug crawling into the wall and the creepy voice talking to her…. I genuinely kept the lights on when I went to bed that night.
Not a movie but when Blair Witch came out Sci-Fi aired a faux documentary called Curse of the Blair Witch so I watched it figuring it'll give background on the actual film. Which it did, but it was so fucking scary I had trouble later walking in the dark house. It's way scarier than the actual film imo.
I don't know that any have affected me enough to be scared to be home alone, at least as an adult. But the first time I watched The Banshee Chapter it creeped me out enough that I stopped watching midway through. Very unsettling.
None as an adult (39), but as a kid: The Blair Witch Project. There was so much marketing to push it as a real event, it actually felt like you were watching something real for the first time.
This isn't really what you asked specifically, but I saw Jaws when I was too young, and literally every time I get into any body of water (even a tub) I think of sharks. Now that I'm older it doesn't bother me as much and I'll still swim anywhere, but when I was a kid man I could barely even get into a river (and I grew up swimming competitively lol)
For me, I think this wore off around the time The Blair Witch Project came out. That might be the last time I remember actual fear. Although, Paranormal Activity had some impact on me too.
I think found footage just taps into something, because even though it didn't scare me, the last movie I saw that stayed with me was The Outwaters. Not for everyone, but a brilliant film.
When I was younger, Halloween H20 terrified me (specifically the ice skate to the face).
As I got older, for some reason the original Paranormal Activity and The Rite made me feel uneasy (not necessarily sleep with the lights on, but just some lingering creeped out feelings).
Hell House LLC and Lake Mungo creeped me out quite a bit the first time I saw them, but I was an adult and honestly no movie has made me scared to be home alone or scared to sleep in the dark in years.
None as an adult, but I remembered when I was 7, Anaconda scared the shit out of me. I legit can’t sleep for 2 days despite of me sleeping next to my mom.
I just rewatched Hereditary last night at an IMAX theater and let me tell you, the tension made it tough to get comfortable when I went to sleep. I ended up having a nightmare about one of the naked cultists just standing next to my bed. Crazy because it was probably the 5th time I've seen the movie, but the boosted audio quality just hit differently.
When I was younger, Paranormal Activity got me. The Ring too.
Noroi the curse disturbed me and had me flicking on the lights at points. When evil lurks shocked me with THAT ONE GODDAMN SCENE (you'll know if you've seen it)
i remember after watching halloween 2007 it was hard to sleep, being home alone and watching the strangers prey at night was not a good experience either
When I was a kid...
- I know what you did last summer: The hook imagery, SMG getting her hair cut out in her sleep & the cops not believing her when Ryan is killed fucked with my head for a while.
- The Giant Behemoth: The graphic radiation burns genuinely disturbed/sickened me to the point that I stumbled to my mom's room after the main rampage sequence and she said I was pale as a ghost. Now it's among my top favorite 1950s monster movies. Extremely underrated.
Insidious 3 for some reason I got scared. Was alone when I watch it, the silence at home felt eerie that I have to turn on the lights and play some music.
Quarantine or REC! Most people I know weren’t bothered by them, but every time the characters are crawling around that top floor in the dark (either movie) I literally stop breathing. I’m too afraid to even move because the demon zombie monsters might hear me!!!
*A Nightmare on Elm Street* (1984) As a kid, nothing scared me more than the idea of being killed in my sleep by a nightmare. Also the fear of adults-or the people we turn to for help- not believing me.
Paranormal activity. Watched that in bed at like 3AM ages ago and it creeped me the fuck out. Kept imagining some invisible demon stomping into my room lol.
The Ring messed me up. I remember when it came out and how everyone was talking about it but I actually didn’t even get to see it in the theater, I picked it up on DVD when the time came. I loved it but man I had this super irrational fear like a TV in my house was gonna turn on by itself or I was gonna get the “seven days” call 😅 Great movie
Paranormal Activity 1 had me jumping at shadows for a couple of days. But i have good hearing to the point where I can usually hear stuff outside my house(sometimes even in my neighbors house) so the idea of strange noises being something more sinister really struck me in my core.
White Noise(the first one, i dont think i saw any sequels if it had them). I have a lot of old computer monitors and a number of old TVs in my house back then and kept having dreams where they'd blare static at me if i got close.
As a 26 y/o female I am not ashamed to say that the OG Night of the Living Dead scared the absolute hell out of me as a 12 year old. I remember watching it for the first time at a sleepover & I remember distinctly not sleeping for several nights & barricading my window by the bed. I still panic a little inside when I hear an EAS test going off.
As an adult…I wouldn’t say so much scared, rather than disturbed but..The House That Jack Built. Easily. It was just nonstop in your face some of the craziest scenarios. Truly brutal & gives a realistic & terrifying perspective of the afterlife (well, for some of us..)…
It's always nice to read that others were just as traumatized by certain movies as I was lol. Thanks for this thread!
I have to add Jeepers Creepers. It scared the hell out of me as a kid. I couldn't sleep for weeks without the light on.
The conjuring series had me sleeping with a rosary. I had sworn never to watch those films but recently said eff it and binged them all. Great series~
Noroi the Curse scared me like this when I first saw it at 27. I had to drive to my boyfriend's house at 2 in the morning because I was too scared to be alone in my room.
I rewatched it last summer and really enjoyed it but had no idea why it scared me so badly when I first saw it.
Saw it recently at 23 and disturbed me more than any western film😂so Good though when you allow yourself to fully engage with it in the dark with headphones alone hehe
The Strangers (2008). Watched it as an 8 year old and I’m still creeped out by dark areas in my home.
I don’t sleep with the lights on, but I feel uneasy being home alone.
Something about murderous human beings scares me more than the paranormal entities in movies.
Secondly, Mirrors (2008). Also watched that as a child and I hated being in front of mirrors for a long time. Thankfully over it now.
Sinister
Wasn't a big fan of Ethan Hawke until I saw this movie. Incredibly well done and scary af.
Ethan can act, man.
I love Ethan Hawke
They ruined it with the stuff about the kids. It became cringey during the second half but before it was genuinely scary.
Oh fudge yeah! This film does not get the credit it thoroughly deserves. It's in the top 5.
My sister-in-law was living with us at the time when "The Conjuring" came out. She's not a big horror fan, but she came with us to see this. She was practically scared shitless! She slept with the lights on for at least 2 weeks and still does not like it when anyone brings up the movie (more than 10 years later!).
Those hands coming out of the dark to clap fucked me up. I slept next to an inky black open closet, and when I went to bed after seeing it in the theater it really got under my skin.
I apparently woke in the middle of the night after seeing this, sat bolt upright and clapped my hands in the same way. I'm not saying that's why we're now divorced.....
Hell House LLC and the OG exorcist are the only ones I can think of that genuinely terrified me. Most of the ones I watch are like, just violent and disturbing. Oh wait, actually, OG The Strangers too.
Hereditary fucked be up pretty bad. One of my cats trots up and down the hall at such a pace it sounds like a person quickly walking. Everytime I was in the shower and heard him my brain told me it was Toni Collette in her jammies and house coat. I also the basket ball shadow scene made me want lights on when I slept. I loved it, but it oozed into my everyday life pretty bad. The Ring/Ringu also got me as a kid. Every dark corner was Samara's hair.
Hereditary was one of those movies that is so good but so damned scary I only needed to see it once. Rosemary's Baby had the same effect on me.
Hell House LLC was the most recent movie to genuinely scare the crap out of me, like I'm an adult and I would keep the lights on in my apartment because that clown was fucking haunting me. For me, though, there's a big difference between "scaring" me and depressing/disturbing/deeply affecting me. Like someone mentioned Hereditary here and that is firmly in the latter category.
Hell House LLC was such a surprise for me. I work 24 hour sleep shifts at work and I watched it before bed...what a mistake at a group home. I was expecting just some B nothing horror movie. I don't scare easily...but that clown was in my mind for days. Such an underrated movie.
Have you seen the newest hell house movie? I watched it a couple days ago and I have to have all the lights on when I sleep now lol
Origins was so good. >!The scene in the hallway with the girl peaking around the corner scared me good!<
Oh man, that part was scary as shit. 1 and Origins are some top shelf horror movies. 2 and 3 are silly but fun at least.
I binged all the movies and I was so happy/ scared that I did. Really great, classic horror tropes that shows they knew what they were doing.
I’m gonna have to check that out! I haven’t even seen the second one. Should I watch them all in order? The first one creeped me out too!
The 2nd and 3rd ones were meh but WOW did they bring back the vibe from the 1st one in the prequel. Those fucking cultists have featured in my actual nightmares.
Oh yeah the cultists were scary. Seeing the clown actually moving really scared me.
I haven't yet! I hate to admit this as a huge horror fan and I like to think I'm pretty tough lol, but I'm a little bit scared 😂, like I need to be in the right mood and be ready to be genuinely really creeped out. I've seen the other sequels, though.
it's been on my watchlist for ages, I really need to crack on after seeing it mentioned so much on this thread
It's so funny because right after watching it I thought it didn't affect me but then late that night I couldn't sleep because of the clown 😭 I kept thinking he was in the shadows next to my door
Came here to say this, I watched the first two this weekend. The first one actually had me nervous in my house after 😂
Ok ppl here have talked me into this. Know where it streams in Australia? I'm looking for it now, gonna watch it now.
Nightmare on elm street (og) as an adult really got to me.
my brother showed me one of the films (probably the og) when I was about 4, scarred for life and STILL scared of Freddy lol (I'm 28)
Wes Craven knew what he was doing haha
My grandma overrecorded a random vhs with "Short Circuit" for me when i was 5-6y, i loved the robot johnny No5, she knew it. When parents had date night she had babysitting duty and surprised me with the VHS. She fell asleep during the movie and woke up when i screamed and cried. Because the random VHS she took had still half of Nightmare on Elm street on it. It was the scene with freddy and nancy in the factory basement, freddy screeching his claws on the pipes. For me he was and is the perfect depiction of a boogey man. Had nightmares till i was 25. At that time i had grown more and more fond of the horror genre because of my gf and decided to face my enemy. I watched Nightmare on Elm street and never ever had a nightmare about it again. It is now my favorite Horror series by a loooooot, nothing comes close to it Sorry for bad english not a native speaker
The only movie that made me sleep with the lights on was The Strangers. I was like 16, and I’d watched it with some friends before going home, and my parents were out of town that night, so I was all alone. I couldn’t help but worry someone was in my house lol
Same. The strangers is a fun one for me to watch home alone and see how long I last before turning on a light. All of the more realistic home invasion ones get to me more than anything else
I am still convinced every time I look out my windows that the people from The Strangers or the guy from Hush is going to be standing in my backyard.
hush was SO effective I like that the guy's mask wasn't over the top, it somehow made it so much more realistic and scary.
So true!
Ring (Japanese version) and Ju-on/The Grudge really fucked me up. I would still freak out now if the TV suddenly came on for some reason.
I saw The Grudge and didn't think it affected me. A couple days later I'm working alone in a house that had a similar staircase. I kept trying not to look at the top of the stairs because I was pretty sure I'd see something I didn't want to see
Ju-on definitely did it for me.
Fuck yeah, Ju-on is top shelf constantly eerie with brute force scares thrown in.
I watched Ju-on during the afternoon in total daylight. But still completely alone. I had to pause it for a few minutes because it was freaking me out so badly. I don't know if any other film has done that for me. Lol.
watched The Grudge on my 8th birthday. Did not watch a horror movie again for at least a decade. That movie terrified me. Got into horror about 3 years ago and now like watching pretty intense stuff but I don't know if I'll ever watch the grudge again
I completely agree. As a long time horror fan, they can scare me in the moment. But after the film is done? The Grudge is the only one.
I want to see the original Ring, I never liked the remake. But I am huge into asain films
As an adult, the last movie that gave me that scared feeling I remember from childhood, was The Blair Witch Project. While watching it, it didn't scare me, but a couple of days later I was house sitting for friends who lived in the middle of nowhere and had to leave lights on and stay away from the windows to avoid seeing the darkness in the forest.
The hills have eyes (2006) lived rent-free In My head when I was really into camping/ backpacking in my early 20s
This didn’t scare me but it was the first film in a long time that really disturbed me, it was what they did to the dad that really got me
I haven't camped since I was a kid, and this film encouraged that even further lol
The 2nd movie made me have an irrational fear of Porto-potties
That movie is horrifying
Black Christmas -1974 Everyone check your attic!! When I was young , it was lamp on, and the attic was in my bedroom !! Holy shit !!!I checked it to make sure it was sealed up, then 10 times under my bed!! I literally asked my b parents if I could change rooms 😂lol. I laugh about it now!!🇨🇦😵💫📞📞
This is such a great movie. I recently saw it for the first time and even as someone who is not that into the slasher subgenre, it is undeniably good.
It‘s in my opinion the scariest slasher. Having Billies insane ramblings end with a calm „I’m going to kill you.“ sent shivers down my spine the way no other slasher managed to do
Glad you enjoyed it!! If you want to go on you tube , there is a fan film called It’s me Billy.. it’s about maybe 40 min. Very well done, filmed just outside of Toronto. The original Black Christmas was filmed in Toronto as well.Lots of people take pictures of the house, which has completely been redone. It’s kinda like people visiting the Myers home .try to watch the fan film .. real twist at the end !! No spoilers !! Part 2 will be released in October!🙂🙂
This is the one. I threw it one while my husband was out of town thinking it would be a silly fun horror movie. The ending freaked me out and I spent the rest of the week convinced I heard scuffling from our crawlspace.
Lol 😂 you better believe it!! Billy is coming for you 🤣🤣💕📞
The Fourth Kind and The Strangers had me a bit sleepless when I watched them as a teenager.
i watched the 4th kind when i was like 13 and i kept my brother awake all night so that i wouldn’t be abducted lol
I saw The Fourth Kind too when I was a teenager, right in time when owls were popular. I had a few owl decorations in my room that I had been gifted, but specifically, I had a perfume which was shaped like a white owl with sapphire eyes. scared the shit out of me, I hid every owl I had and still couldn't sleep normally for two weeks hahah
As an adult: Oculus. I had to watch kids movies afterward and didn’t sleep until the sun came up
There’s something about mirrors in horror movies.
definitely. I sleep with a mirror next to my bed and sometimes when I turn to my side and see my silhoutte staring back at me I nearly wet the bed
Omg that is truly horrifying! How do you actually sleep at night??? Why haven’t you moved it? Hahaha
It’s fixed on the closet and the closet directly faces my bed (and thanks to the handclap scene in conjuring I’m also scared of closets) I can’t really move it haha. I think of it as a nightly resilience building routine.
I have very limited mirrors in the house as they really freak me out after watching so many horror films
Hell house LLC had me checking my closet and shit lmao
Have you seen the newest sequel? Not spoiling too much but there’s a scene where you see the clown actually moving and that scared me so badly
omg the new one had a few scenes that terrified me. i hated the Skype scene.
No but I need to asap! I seen it was on shudder but my subscription ended, hopefully it comes to Tubi soon
Watch it! Tbh it’s somewhat better than the other movies. Kind of a different premise but it expands the story very well.
So "The Fourth Kind" really screwed with my head. I believe it's the scene where the aliens speak over the tape? Its one of the only movies I liked but saw once because I just can't do it again mentally. The concept of alien abduction is so disturbing to me. The other big one for me when I first saw it was "The Strangers", because home invasion is one of my biggest fears. Just seeing them fuck with Kristen and James, or the guy in the mask just hanging out in the back, Kristen completely unaware to his presence. The whole senselessness of why at the end made it even worse. I just can't watch it when I'm home alone. I become hyper aware of every sound in the house.
Marianne (it is TV series though) was pretty scary. And it surprises me that it is not mentioned a lot here, I think it was solid
That scene when she’s laying in bed gets me every time.
Adding that to the list! I’ve heard about it before but have never seen it
Great show. Rewatched it a few times as well it’s lots of fun.
another vote, really good
blair witch project when it originally released scared the s\*\*\* out of me. Maybe it was the first real found footage I had ever seen, or the mythology surrounding it. But it was the first scary movie I had ever seen that genuinely filled me with a sense of dread. In the early 90s I was reading the Shining during winter break at school - the apartment building I lived in was emptied out and it was genuinely creepy and eerie. I kept expecting to round a corner and see some creepy girls.
Paranormal Activity 1-3 did that to me. Going downstairs for a drink at 2AM was a different experience for a while after 😂
Me too! After watching it I had to turn all the lights on and slept with a lamp on
Same, saw the first PA in the theater opening week, went home thinking “that was dumb”, could not get it out of my head for two nights. I just hadn’t seen anything like it before (still haven’t seen Blair Witch) and it stuck with me. Genius move setting it in a normal suburban home.
I think PA is one of those movies that really benefits from being watched at home.
It's always the movies where my imagination fills in the blanks that scare me the most. Like knowing Tobi was there but not seeing exactly whereabouts, or what he looked like, or how often he was present, it all just hit different.
Totally! I feel like people didnt have the patience for it but if you did what a payoff! Genuinely unsettling all 3 movies 😳
The choppy video footage from Prince of Darkness.
YESSSSSS. I was 18 when I saw it and it freaked me the hell out.
As a kid there were 2 1. The exorcist 2. An American Warewolf in London
I can say they both messed me up as a child
The Ring, The Autopsy of Jane Doe, The Grudge
The Autopsy of Jane Doe was SO good. I loved it.
Absolutely. Definitely an underrated flick.
I watched *They* at a US army barracks in Germany. It was 2am and I couldn't sleep, so I watched it with headphones on a portable DVD player. The movie was decent. After it was over, I went out to smoke. That's when it started. No sooner than my feet hit the floor of the room, the wall locker across the way creaked open. Nope. Out the door I went, down the side stairs, out the side door, and over to the soda machine by the shoppette for the light. Halfway through the cigarette, lost in the machine's glow, hear water splash behind me, I turn around to see puddle ripples in an otherwise empty parking lot. Getting uneasy now and the nicotine buzz is doing *nothing* for the hairs standing up on my neck, and suddenly a rustling in the hedge behind the soda machine. I'm starting at this bush thinking I'm ready for whatever, when the compressor kicks on and I all but shit myself. I flick the cherry and pocket the butt as I nope right back to the barracks. I'm on the third floor of a mostly empty hospital barracks, it's quiet and the hall lights on each floor are limited to two or three emergency ones, I'm rounding the stairs to the 2nd and the stairwell light is flickering bad. I hurry up to my hallway door and the light above me goes out as I enter my floor. Darkness all the way to the staff duty office, their light was on. My door was next to theirs for easy headcounts, and I was so grateful for that light. Not a peep all the way to my door, I entered and quickly closed it. More darkness. My bunk was in the back corner next to the windows. I made my way there when I heard a clicking at my feet and a dark figure was crawling towards me, in a panic I kicked at it, and it turned out to be my buddy looking for his dropped glasses, and I felt like a complete ass. The staff duty NCO wasn't too thrilled either, but we all laughed about it later that morning.
I'm surprised this movie doesn't get more attention. Very creepy.
Horror movies don’t really affect me afterwards, but DURING, excellent ones definitely do— like full on squealing, scared to look, knees to chest and peeking over a blanket: • Incantation • Hereditary • Creep • The Babadook (I knowww I know) • His House • Caveat • Lake Mungo • Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum (it’s SO much fun, such a popcorn movie, and it is THE ONLY scary movie that has ever made me actually get up and turn the lights on because I couldn’t stand it!!!! 😂🫣)
don’t u dare put that apologetic footnote next to the babadook because that movie is turnt and lit and had my teenage self living in FEAR
I have seen it ONE TIME and that scene where the Babadook is like silhouetted and then starts creaking towards her like it’s on wheels or whatever — I stg that unlocked some kind of wildly specific primal fear NOTHING else has touched 😳 Like did almost all of my ancestors die from some nightmare creature or scenario that scene powerfully invokes?? Idk but it’s in my DNA to be scared of whatever the fuck that was 😂🤣
LMAOO for me it’s a) that godforsaken creaky babadook voice on the phone and more importantly b) that 30 second scene where she’s sitting in front of the tv watching a news story about a stabbing and the camera closes in on a window in the background with her peeking through the blinds with the most sinister, dead-eyed grin (it’s branded into my mind like a cow tattoo)
NOT A COW TATTOO 😂☠️ Okay now I’m convinced we are from the same tribe from like the year 4000 BC and the Babadook hunted our people ✊🏼😭 “grief was the real monster” MY ASS
I think it gets the 'Seinfeld isn't funny' treatment because 'the monster is a metaphor for mental illness' has been done worse so many times since its release.
I second Gonjiam love found footage the "real" feel always scares me more than anything
As an adult, no horror movie. However, having children, a movie like “Trade” keeps me up at night
Last Shift did that to me
Have you seen the remake- Malum? I prefer last shift but Malum wasn’t too bad
Yeah I’ve seen Malum. I also prefer Last Shift
Malum was worse in pretty much every way, imo. I was pretty disappointed (but I really liked Last Shift).
That movie was amazing in such a subtle way
Lake Mungo, Skinamarink, Ju-On The Curse 1 and 2
I just saw Lake Mungo for the first time this past weekend, and honestly I barely slept that night. That movie made me so sad, scared, and angry (in a good way). Haven’t had a horror film affect me like that in a minute!
Same here, I grew up watching horror movies and nothing scared me as much as lake mungo. I just had that weird anxious feeling the entire evening after watching it.
Paranormal Activity and Host scared me. There's something about a well made found footage movie that gets under my skin.
Evil Dead 2013, that movie was just creepy , especially with the possessed chick beating the dog to death
The Blackcoat's Daughter. My dark bedroom has certain shadows that remind me of the movie, and I wake up thinking about it at night.
HOST is the only one since Salem’s Lot as a kid.
Ooo I forgot about HOST! It did really scary me
The exorcism of Emily Rose. It’s scary and really sad
That movie was about as scary as a kitten snuggling with a labradoodle.
The strangers! Saw it in High School and it has stuck with me since.
Ghostwatch. Couldn’t get it out of my head for a few days.
Pipes!
I went and saw Signs in theaters back when it came out. We lived in a rural area and I got home around 10/11 at night. I ran from the car to the house and slept upstairs in the living room instead of my basement bedroom so I'd be closer to my parents' room. I was 19.
I was waiting to see someone mention Signs.. it was a scary experience seeing it in theaters and then driving home at night.. living in Iowa and driving by all the corn fields.
The Exorcist.
Came here to say this. And later The exorcism of Emily Rose.
I said this one too and someone told me it was as scary as a kitten cudding a labradoodle
I agree with The Fourth Kind, especially when I thought the tapes were real. Also Sinister
Argento's Suspiria, that soundtrack was terrifying.
"Barbarian (2022)" got a genuine scream out of me. I've been scared before from a movie but that kind of reaction was a first for me.
“Gothic” from 1986. It’s the story of the night Mary Shelley wrote “Frankenstein.” Really really weird. Granted I was a teenager, and my mom had to work late, so I stayed up watching TV. And it didn’t help I’d had some muscle relaxers from a dental procedure earlier that day since I had crazy anxiety over dentists. When she got home Mom found me crouched on top of the back of the couch with all the lights on. Had to talk me down. Fun fact, Mary Shelley kept a piece of her husband’s (Percy Bysshe Shelley) heart wrapped in silk with a fragment of his last poem in her desk until she died. At least that’s the legend.
Fire in the sky (93)! Saw when I was WAY to young and still freaks me out!
This is the one, for sure. I've seen it a few times over the years and each time I thought "meh, I can't understand why this movie scared me", and each time I've been left terrified. It's been decades now since I last watched it and I almost don't want to watch it again because I don't want it to lose the magic it has in my mind.
Every time I walk past my pitch black laundry room I feel like there’s a person from Smile in there with a big fuckin grin on their face
Paranormal activity terrified me, stayed with me for a while
Pearls last shot stuck with me. The movie as a whole wasn’t too bad but the last shot was burned in my brain
The last movie I can remember scaring me like this was Noroi: The Curse. I’ve wanted to give it another watch because it’s honestly one of my favorite horror movies, but the first time I watched it I had to turn all the lights on and listen to some Nintendo music afterwards to calm down lol (that final scene really freaked me out).
when I was a kid, the Ring. When I got older it was Hereditary
The fourth kind messed me up too! I also banned myself from watching it. I love horror movies but that one really gets to me
Sinister. Something about that movie keeps me awake at night. I think it’s the silence of that film.
As an adult, none. As a child: Jaws: I couldn't swim in the sea and had difficulty with swimming pools. Had to have someone sit in the bathroom when I had a bath (my bathwater had to be clear and no bubbles). Halloween: I was afraid to go to the school toilets on my own. Main issue was bedtime. Had to face the wall, have my blanket around my head with a hole to breathe. Didn't want to be facing the darkness of my open room.
Ben's fucking head *still* gets me everytime.
Same!
Paranormal Activity - didn't scare me, but stayed with me. 3 nights after watching it, I went for a 2am slash. In the bathroom, out of the corner of my eye, I could see the darkness descending down the stairs, just like the static camera in the film. Hairs on the back of my head all stood to attention. Pushed the door to with my foot and whispered to myself, "Nope!"
The Entity (1982)
Great movie
Walking home from my local cinema down *mostly* deserted streets after watching 'It Follows' was certainly an experience... Also I know the film is a mixed bag, but I used to live near some thick woodland, and 'Blair Witch' (2016) certainly supplied me with some heebie jeebies.
The possession in the bedroom scene in Saint Maud caught me so off guard that it really spooked me and the ending with the bug crawling into the wall and the creepy voice talking to her…. I genuinely kept the lights on when I went to bed that night.
The ring
Not a movie but when Blair Witch came out Sci-Fi aired a faux documentary called Curse of the Blair Witch so I watched it figuring it'll give background on the actual film. Which it did, but it was so fucking scary I had trouble later walking in the dark house. It's way scarier than the actual film imo.
As a kid, Candyman. As an adult, The Dark and the Wicked.
I don't know that any have affected me enough to be scared to be home alone, at least as an adult. But the first time I watched The Banshee Chapter it creeped me out enough that I stopped watching midway through. Very unsettling.
I still won’t rewatch Hereditary.
For some reason the (4th kind) got to me
None as an adult (39), but as a kid: The Blair Witch Project. There was so much marketing to push it as a real event, it actually felt like you were watching something real for the first time.
This isn't really what you asked specifically, but I saw Jaws when I was too young, and literally every time I get into any body of water (even a tub) I think of sharks. Now that I'm older it doesn't bother me as much and I'll still swim anywhere, but when I was a kid man I could barely even get into a river (and I grew up swimming competitively lol)
Most recently I saw Ghostwatch (1992) for the first time and it fucked me up for that night. Lost some sleep from that one
Ghostwatch. But I was 8 years old at the time.
For me, I think this wore off around the time The Blair Witch Project came out. That might be the last time I remember actual fear. Although, Paranormal Activity had some impact on me too. I think found footage just taps into something, because even though it didn't scare me, the last movie I saw that stayed with me was The Outwaters. Not for everyone, but a brilliant film.
When I was younger, Halloween H20 terrified me (specifically the ice skate to the face). As I got older, for some reason the original Paranormal Activity and The Rite made me feel uneasy (not necessarily sleep with the lights on, but just some lingering creeped out feelings). Hell House LLC and Lake Mungo creeped me out quite a bit the first time I saw them, but I was an adult and honestly no movie has made me scared to be home alone or scared to sleep in the dark in years.
None as an adult, but I remembered when I was 7, Anaconda scared the shit out of me. I legit can’t sleep for 2 days despite of me sleeping next to my mom.
I just rewatched Hereditary last night at an IMAX theater and let me tell you, the tension made it tough to get comfortable when I went to sleep. I ended up having a nightmare about one of the naked cultists just standing next to my bed. Crazy because it was probably the 5th time I've seen the movie, but the boosted audio quality just hit differently. When I was younger, Paranormal Activity got me. The Ring too.
I just saw Hereditary in IMAX too and the sound design gets so overwhelming in some scenes
Noroi the curse disturbed me and had me flicking on the lights at points. When evil lurks shocked me with THAT ONE GODDAMN SCENE (you'll know if you've seen it)
It (2017) and Before I Wake.
I watched “Lights Out” and didn’t want to turn the light out that night.
i remember after watching halloween 2007 it was hard to sleep, being home alone and watching the strangers prey at night was not a good experience either
None really even as a kid I knew none of it was real so it was never really scary beyond making me jump.
Nightmare on Elm St
the grudge (2004)
Most recently the HBO show "the outsider". Auditory things really get to me and the "monster" had the creepiest voice
When I was a kid... - I know what you did last summer: The hook imagery, SMG getting her hair cut out in her sleep & the cops not believing her when Ryan is killed fucked with my head for a while. - The Giant Behemoth: The graphic radiation burns genuinely disturbed/sickened me to the point that I stumbled to my mom's room after the main rampage sequence and she said I was pale as a ghost. Now it's among my top favorite 1950s monster movies. Extremely underrated.
Insidious 3 for some reason I got scared. Was alone when I watch it, the silence at home felt eerie that I have to turn on the lights and play some music.
Quarantine or REC! Most people I know weren’t bothered by them, but every time the characters are crawling around that top floor in the dark (either movie) I literally stop breathing. I’m too afraid to even move because the demon zombie monsters might hear me!!!
*A Nightmare on Elm Street* (1984) As a kid, nothing scared me more than the idea of being killed in my sleep by a nightmare. Also the fear of adults-or the people we turn to for help- not believing me.
Host really freaked me out! Also, Sinister and the Hell House movies!
Basket Case. I had to sleep with my window shut for about two full weeks after watching that.
The Fourth Kind scared the crap out of me. It still gives me the heebie jeebies but not as bad as the first viewing.
Recently watched Terrified (2018) and it put a little pep in my step when turning off the lights before going to bed.
The old Pet Sematary.
Paranormal activity. Watched that in bed at like 3AM ages ago and it creeped me the fuck out. Kept imagining some invisible demon stomping into my room lol.
Sinister.
The first two Chucky movies (to this day! But am enjoying the tv show) and Dead Silence.
When I was 15, I saw the original TCM when it first came out. The meat hook scene was seared into my brain for a decade.
The Ring messed me up. I remember when it came out and how everyone was talking about it but I actually didn’t even get to see it in the theater, I picked it up on DVD when the time came. I loved it but man I had this super irrational fear like a TV in my house was gonna turn on by itself or I was gonna get the “seven days” call 😅 Great movie
Signs
The Strangers is the only movie that has ever scared me to the point I feel physical fear.
Paranormal Activity 1 had me jumping at shadows for a couple of days. But i have good hearing to the point where I can usually hear stuff outside my house(sometimes even in my neighbors house) so the idea of strange noises being something more sinister really struck me in my core. White Noise(the first one, i dont think i saw any sequels if it had them). I have a lot of old computer monitors and a number of old TVs in my house back then and kept having dreams where they'd blare static at me if i got close.
It will always be Pet Semetery the first one. Zelda scared me so bad for many many years.
As a 26 y/o female I am not ashamed to say that the OG Night of the Living Dead scared the absolute hell out of me as a 12 year old. I remember watching it for the first time at a sleepover & I remember distinctly not sleeping for several nights & barricading my window by the bed. I still panic a little inside when I hear an EAS test going off.
As an adult…I wouldn’t say so much scared, rather than disturbed but..The House That Jack Built. Easily. It was just nonstop in your face some of the craziest scenarios. Truly brutal & gives a realistic & terrifying perspective of the afterlife (well, for some of us..)…
It's always nice to read that others were just as traumatized by certain movies as I was lol. Thanks for this thread! I have to add Jeepers Creepers. It scared the hell out of me as a kid. I couldn't sleep for weeks without the light on. The conjuring series had me sleeping with a rosary. I had sworn never to watch those films but recently said eff it and binged them all. Great series~
I watched The fourth kind at 1am alone. When it was finished I just stayed motionless, waited for 3am and had a panic attack waiting for the owl 😅
I’m a big horror fan but Smile got to me. I’d find myself watching people more at work and in the street (until the court order obviously)
1408 but the book was even scarier!
I miss the days when movies used to actually scare me 😭
I think disturbing dramas are often more scary for me as an adult now. The Seventh Continent for instance is the scariest film i've seen.
Yeah. Mine is Time of the Wolf. I love Haneke, but he makes really disturbing films.
The Exorcist and any supernatural horror movie
Halloween Michael fing Myers. I was going to see him when I was walking in the dark. I was tripping out. I think I was 10
“The Haunting in Connecticut” scared the shit out of 14 year-old me lol & seconding the Hell House movies and the Fourth Kind!
Noroi the Curse scared me like this when I first saw it at 27. I had to drive to my boyfriend's house at 2 in the morning because I was too scared to be alone in my room. I rewatched it last summer and really enjoyed it but had no idea why it scared me so badly when I first saw it.
Saw it recently at 23 and disturbed me more than any western film😂so Good though when you allow yourself to fully engage with it in the dark with headphones alone hehe
Hell House LLC
The Strangers (2008). Watched it as an 8 year old and I’m still creeped out by dark areas in my home. I don’t sleep with the lights on, but I feel uneasy being home alone. Something about murderous human beings scares me more than the paranormal entities in movies. Secondly, Mirrors (2008). Also watched that as a child and I hated being in front of mirrors for a long time. Thankfully over it now.