Has a movie ever truly scare you? Like stuck with you.

What's at the top?

For me, The Strangers (first movie) was terrifying because of just how practical it was. That one was in my head for a while.

My favorite horror movie of all time. Instant classic. So well done!

I also liked The Strangers from OP's post.

Blair Witch was also memorable from how well the marketing had convinced us it was true.

Halloween - I remember watching that for the first time in college. Luckily my roommates were not there and didn't see me with a blanket pulled over my head peeking out underneath to keep watching.

The ring - saw that in the theater with my wife. That last scene scared the doo out of me. I remember the entire theater was screaming. I had my hands over my face watching through my fingers.

Paranormal Activity - such a great movie building up the suspense. The scene where they put the flour down and saw the demon's footprints in the flour really heightened the suspense for me. Very scared most of the movie. Plus, the lead actor had an amazing first name though he mispronounced it the entire movie.


Sinister - a truly frightening movie. Relentless fright the majority of the movie. Loved it. Just so intense.


Conjuring - truly frightening, fantastic movie with great actors. Great story. Maybe not the scariest, but my favorite horror film and probably the one I have watched the most. Very rewatchable.

Insidious - really enjoyed the movie. The scene with the gas mask seance was awesome. The tiptoe song was such a fantastic choice for the movie.

The others - loved the plot, atmosphere, and acting. Nicole Kidman was amazing. The ending was fantastic both in fright and payoff. That's one movie I wish I could watch again without knowing the twist. Great movie.

Those are the horror movies that stand out the most to me. I did watch Nightmare on Elm Steeet as a kid at my cousins house. It scared me then, but does not hold up over time. Exorcist was more interesting than scary to me. I found exorcist 3 to be more frightening than the original. Used to watch horror movies all the time.

When I was very young I managed to somehow watch The Amityville Horror. That movie gave me nightmares for a long time, particularly the scene where Margot Kidder goes to shut the daughter's bedroom window and is confronted with the demon's glowing red eyes.

Years later I watched the movie again as an adult and found the whole thing just totally absurd. The practical effects were laughable to adult me.

Mine would be the first scary movie I ever saw. Poltergeist.

"You left the bodies and you only moved the headstones!"

The Shining. Also the Changeling with George C. Scott.

I have no desire to rewatch the Ring as scared the crap out of me.

Paranormal Activity is also up there for me I think mostly due to how I saw it the first time. A buddy of mine and I were doing field work around the Abilene area when this movie came out. Work was cancelled due to extreme weather conditions so we had the day to kill. We went to the theater and were the only two people in there, and we sat separately far apart. Neither of us said much walking out after as clearly both of us were a bit shaken.

A friend's older brother showed us The Texas Chainsaw Massacre when I was in 1st grade. That's always stuck with me. As an adult, I think about The VVitch a lot. Not that it was some kind of terrifying horror movie (Alien is the best in that regard), but because it was so well done you could really feel the building and inescapable terror.

The Ring and The Strangers were also a couple of mine. I would add IT as I watched it way too young and I avoided street drains for a good while after.

FancyKetchup14 said:

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For me it's Hereditary, and there's not even a close second.

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Same. Couldn't stop thinking about it for a long time after watching it.

Besides Hereditary, all these are memorable to me for the time they were released and the age/place I was when watching them.

Scream - Saw it as pre-teen, one of the ultimate 90's movies and had the school cafeteria talking for months
The Ring - Checked all the boxes
Paranormal Activity - Probably my favorite in-theater experience after Jurassic Park

I need to add Fire in the Sky.

My mainstream pick is The Exorcist.




My obscure pick would be Event Horizon.

Watched Event Horizon as a kid and it scared the hell out of me. I'm pretty sure if I watched it now, it would just seem absurd, but not to kid BQRyno.

AggieArchitect04 said:

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Has a movie ever truly scare you? Like stuck with you.

What's at the top?

For me, The Strangers (first movie) was terrifying because of just how practical it was. That one was in my head for a while.

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"Because you were home" is one of the creepiest lines in horror history

Alien is the scariest movie I have ever seen. I was 12 when dad took me to see it. I knew it was a monster movie but I went in thinking something more akin to Godzilla than The Thing (the 1951 movie, which I had not yet seen).

The Exorcist. I've seen it twice. I will likely never watch it again. The gross-out stuff with Linda Blair is not what I'm talking about when I say that is a damn scary movie. It's more the big black spot clearly visible behind a door in an already darkened room. WTF was that?

Poltergeist. Honestly, this one did not scare me much in 1982 through several viewings that summer and then an additional trip to the theater for its re-release before Halloween 1982. Flash forward several years to when I'm done with A&M and have started my professional career and bought my first house, before I was married. I watched it some time around Halloween. The result was a sleepless night in that house that I lived in alone.

The Shining. This one is scary for a different reason that Poltergeist. It's more about the atmosphere that Stanley Kubrik put together. There is absolute isolation for these people, and then Jack goes down a very dark path.

Paranormal Activity. I watched this once. I think this was scary because everything looked so familiar, in terms of the house. Could have been my house. Minimalist visual effects, we never actually see anything but we know it's there when the girl's hair is blown from something right behind her. Yikes.

The Strangers. This one surprised me. It was creepy more so than outright scary.

The Thing (1982). In that summer of 82, The Thing did not scare me or even creep me out. But in the years since, I've come to look at it for what it is - a monster movie where you can't identify the monster, you can't trust your fellow man, and the resulting isolation that John Carpenter crafted as a result of filming the original story (Who Goes There?, written in 1938) rather than remaking the 1951 movie.

I have never seen The Strangers, but have added it to my watch list.

AggieArchitect04 said:

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Has a movie ever truly scare you? Like stuck with you.

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Based on how you are operationalizing scary as something that sticks with you, then I would say 3 movies that I didn't even watch until years after release, one made for tv movie, and one war film.

Jaws. Just being around older kids (my brother and his friends) who had watched it and merely listening to them talk about the movie had me terrified and thinking about shark attacks every time we went to the beach.

The Exorcist, which again, just listening to older kids talk about had me terrified of evil spirits when it was time for bed.

The Amityville Horror. Unlike Jaws and The Exorcist however, I watched In Search of the Amityville Horror with Leonard Nimoy, which aired the same year as the movie, again leaving me terrified with wild thoughts swirling as I lay in my bed.

The Day After (1983) television movie which had me terrified of nuclear war for several years after.

The Deer Hunter. Left home alone at the grandparents, my brother and I watched this on HBO. The Russian roulette scene and, albeit a child, my ability to grasp the reality of man's brutality to man, had me peeking through my fingers. This one had the biggest impact.

Prisoners...Not so much horror but certainly a thriller.

Jackman, Dano, and Gyllenhaal were all absolutely fantastic. Along with the storyline/plot it makes for a real gem. Edge of your seat suspense paired with some intense gruesome scenes and a dark sinister twist.

I remember watching it for the first time not knowing what I was getting into and it stuck with me for a while. Especially being a father of two young kids it really hit home.

Fantastic movie.

All those mentioned above I agree with.

The Ring - I was a Sr at A&M and the theater was packed and we were all screaming and jumping at the scary parts. Then what was fun is that after we all jumped and screamed there was this chuckle of relief, humor and embarrassment that we just got scared because of a movie around friends and strangers. Good times. For the youngsters on here, go to an opening weekend, night time scary movie in the theaters, nothing better!

Event Horizon- Scared me as a kid and haven't rewatched

Blair Witch - Pre internet, this was the bomb. And that end scene, wow, creepy.

My wife and I are somewhat horror junkies. Here are my tops, in no particular order:

The Ring
Hereditary
The Shining
Oculus
Sinister
The Conjuring

Very few times do you get real quality horror, but the ones above were well acted and scary and/or disturbing.

Micah97 said:

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Halloween - I remember watching that for the first time in college. Luckily my roommates were not there and didn't see me with a blanket pulled over my head peeking out underneath to keep watching.

The ring - saw that in the theater with my wife. That last scene scared the doo out of me. I remember the entire theater was screaming. I had my hands over my face watching through my fingers.

Paranormal Activity - such a great movie building up the suspense. The scene where they put the flour down and saw the demon's footprints in the flour really heightened the suspense for me. Very scared most of the movie. Plus, the lead actor had an amazing first name though he mispronounced it the entire movie.


Sinister - a truly frightening movie. Relentless fright the majority of the movie. Loved it. Just so intense.


Conjuring - truly frightening, fantastic movie with great actors. Great story. Maybe not the scariest, but my favorite horror film and probably the one I have watched the most. Very rewatchable.

Insidious - really enjoyed the movie. The scene with the gas mask seance was awesome. The tiptoe song was such a fantastic choice for the movie.

The others - loved the plot, atmosphere, and acting. Nicole Kidman was amazing. The ending was fantastic both in fright and payoff. That's one movie I wish I could watch again without knowing the twist. Great movie.

Those are the horror movies that stand out the most to me. I did watch Nightmare on Elm Steeet as a kid at my cousins house. It scared me then, but does not hold up over time. Exorcist was more interesting than scary to me. I found exorcist 3 to be more frightening than the original. Used to watch horror movies all the time.

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This list is solid. I'm a bit of a horror junkie and would list all of these (except Halloween, I hate that movie for some reason but understand why others love it). Paranormal activity is probably the one that stuck with me the longest, or the image of the dead girl in the ring which I saw 20+ years ago and still can't get out of my brain.

I would add the autopsy of Jane Doe.

Also, for newer stuff, Oddity was good and really creepy.
Heretic was pretty good but not really Horror I guess.

I've posted this before, but even the advertisements for "The Exorcist" scared me. And the theme song? No way.

Whenever "Tubular Bells" would come on the radio, I would quickly change stations.

When I was like 6 years old the original Child's Play was on HBO. I begged my dad to let me watch it and he finally agreed.

After the movie I was headed upstairs to bed and my dad said "Be careful…Chucky's waiting for you under your bed"

I was so scared I snuck out of my room every night for at least two weeks and slept on the couch

I've never actually seen the movie, but I remember seeing the poster for Children of the corn when I was VERY young, like 4 or 5. And it freaked me out for a while b/c there was a vacant lot across the street and I kept envisioning this big sickle coming out of the ground like the poster.

Also, not a horror movie but Red Dawn made me scared of Russians for a while.

The Ring for sure. The girl I went to see it with and I stayed up all night watching Disney movies to get it out of our head ha.

Also saw Jaws the summer going into 1st grade so that pretty much guaranteed I wouldn't have a job on the water.

Original Blair Witch also got me as I spent my summers camping with my dad and stepmom in New England.

zap said:

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My obscure pick would be Event Horizon.

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Oh damn, I fully blocked that movie out it scared me so bad seeing it as a kid!!!