Writer's Block: Scary movie

[cupcake_goth]

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Ahahaha. I love the horror genre; you people know that, right? Some of the movies that I find comforting in times of emotional distress include things like 30 Days of Night, Jennifer's Body and Zombieland. But. I am kind of a big wimp about suspenseful horror. Gore, monsters? Great, bring it on! Creepy suspense? I will cower behind clovisdvlbunny while watching, and not sleep because of being freaked out.

So, I have two answers for this question.

Scariest horror movie #1: Poltergeist. I have not seen this movie since ... the late 80s. This movie terrified me so much when I first saw it that I didn't sleep for three days. (Of course, that may have had something to do with when, on the way home after seeing it, Dad asked me what I thought the scariest part was. I answered "The clown doll,", because even then I Did. Not. Like. Clowns. My Mom replied, "But you used to have a doll just like that! I think it's in the attic ..." Thanks, Mom. No sleep for me!) I also had an unreasoning fear of TVs tuned to static for a very long time, but I'm (mostly) over that now.

There is a part of me that wonders if the scares of Poltergeist still hold up. But I'm not willing to watch it again to find out.

Scariest horror movie #2: The Blair Witch Project. Yes, really. No, I never believed it was a "true story". But the movie was a very clever play on the types of ghost stories I constantly read when I was a child, and the mounting tension of weird things happening and no one knowing what was happening? Yeah, that hit all the right (wrong?) terror buttons in my hindbrain. Plus the final scenes in the movie included a bit of imagery that was, I kid you not, straight out of a recurring nightmare I have had for decades. (The bloody handprints on the walls of the house. When the camera first panned across them, I think I tried to whimper and curl into a fetal position. I don't really remember.)

We saw The Blair Witch Project right after we had moved into the house, and about a week before the Stroppy One went out of town to go to Gen-Con. So there's me, in a heightened state of freak out, by myself in a newish house, not yet used to the creaks it made. One day, when I was about to go into the mostly-finished basement to feed the cats, I called my parents and made them talk to me, in the hopes that I would be less creeped out.

But I still love horror movies. Oooh, maybe I'll watch 30 Days of Night again tonight.

Comments

[elfstar18.livejournal.com]

I got to see Blair Witch in Chicago, a few weeks before it was widely released. I hadn't seen any of the ad campaign, although I had heard about it from a friend, which is why I went to see it. I never quite believed the 'true story' bit, but still. In my top 3 as far as real frights go.

[masie.livejournal.com]

"God......? No God."

[sirriamnis.livejournal.com]

Ravenous is the movie I always watch when I'm depressed and need a pick me up. "He's licking me!"

I don't know if I replaced the last copy I loaned out and never got back, though.

[staxxy.livejournal.com]

Poltergeist was fine for me. I had been living with a poltergeist of my own for so long, by the time it came out, that my response was "wow did they mis-name THIS movie, cause that's not at all what it's like."

Poltergeist 2? that was the scary one. Not because of the story (they built the house on graveyard, blah blah blah), but because of the villain character - Julian Beck (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0065191/), as Kane. Kane was scary as fuck, and looked enough similar to some hostile ghosts I had encountered that he freaked me right out.

[ozitonaranjo.livejournal.com]

Julian Beck was one creepy dude. *shudder* I can still see and here him in my head during that scene where he came up to the house and spoke through the screen door.

[staxxy.livejournal.com]

*shudder*

[spotzle.livejournal.com]

I don't much care for scary movies because even though I know it's fake and I know it's usually not even remotely possible - my imagination goes berserk afterwards. When the Blair Witch Project first came out I randomly hoped on their website. It was late at night and everyone else was asleep. One hour later I'm ready to go to bed. But the rooms were dark. And I was alone, sorta. So I did what any red-blooded woman would do in the face of her hyper-active imagination. I turned on every single light on the way to my bedroom. Woke up my husband so he could turn off the computer, then turn off all the lights after me while I huddle under the blanket.

I still haven't lived it down.

[gloomsan.livejournal.com]

After I watched paranormal activity (I am a huge horror fan and watch lots) I woke up my boyfriend and made him walk me to the bathroom and stand guard out side lol

[duane-kc.livejournal.com]

I agree with you on Blair Witch. I was watching it the first time on DVD, on a 15" laptop screen, playing a video game on my other computer, and it *still* creeped me out for two days straight. The other one that gets me, for some reason, is "Phantasm".

[theeverydaygoth.livejournal.com]

Oh, The Blair Witch Project is scary, no doubt about that, but have you seen 1408? That's the kind of horror movie that gets me, it's not necessarily what's going on on the screen that's scary, but when you imagine what would happen if you took the place of the main character, that's the scariest to me.

[ghost-girl.livejournal.com]

I'm so glad someone else loves Jennifer's Body. Megan Fox wears my wedding dress in that movie (purely coincidental), and I love Amanda Seyfried. :) It's like the comfort food of horror movies. :)

[cupcake-goth.livejournal.com]

I'm watching it right now! I think it's so much fun.

[dark-phoenix54.livejournal.com]

Sadly, like all other scary movies, Poltergeist doesn't keep being scary. About the third time through, you're laughing at the crawling steak, which was the bit that really did it to me. Which is a shame, because the first time I saw it, that movie managed to scare me (and that's really, really hard.)

The only other movie that's ever scared me was The Haunting of Hill House- the original one. Those breathing doors? The whatever holding the girls hands in the dark? Holy crap. But even that one didn't hold up, alas.

[cupcake-goth.livejournal.com]

I have never watched the movie of The Haunting of Hill House, because it's one of the books that terrifies me. I love it, but I have learned the hard way that I cannot read it if I am alone in the house, or if it's after dark.

OH GOD THE CRAWLING STEAK. I had forgotten about that.

[weaselmom.livejournal.com]

I think that's really for the best. I read the book and then watched the movie, and having *read* the book made the movie much, much scarier - especially the line, "Oh God, God! Whose hand was I holding?" Just typing these words gives me goosebumps.

I cannot watch any of the new crop of Japanese horror films such as The Ring or Ju-on. The images creep me out - the way the ghost-things pose and move. It's very simple but it's just too much for me.

Shawn, who cannot help himself, will sometimes stand in the corner of the basement, just so I can never forget. The boy ain't right.

[m-cobweb.livejournal.com]

Poltergeist is one of the scariest I've even seen, and I remember thinking how surprised I was that it wasn't even rated R. Heh. It was also awful the second time I saw it because I knew what to be afraid of. Maybe I won't see it again, because I'd be disappointed if it really didn't hold up.

In high school I used to watch horror movies on cable after everyone else was in bed. Getting down the hall to my bedroom past the study with THE OPEN SHADES almost did me in every time. And then one day my mom suggested I close the door before I turned on the TV, and I realized if I did that, I would miss out on half the fun of my movie routine.

[ozitonaranjo.livejournal.com]

I've watched it recently. It holds up. The third one... not so much.

[ozitonaranjo.livejournal.com]

I watched the Blair Witch Project at my roommate's boyfriends apt late at night and had to walk through a dark wooded area to the bus stop home. I was freaked out. I think I own a copy but I can't bring myself to watch it. So I am in total agreement with that choice.

[blutsauger.livejournal.com]

Blair Witch was freaky all right (BWP 2 was just... incredibly bad), but Paranormal Activity really made me feel awkward when I went to the bathroom in the night...

For some reason I cannot get myself to see one of the Alien movies. Maybe I should.

But movies as Helloween, I Know What You Did Last Summer and the lot don't manage to scare me one bit, usually I'm rather bored.

[icprncs.livejournal.com]

Poltergeist really got me when I first saw it as a teen, but hasn't had as much effect in subsequent viewings. The effects don't quite hold up, and a lot of the "scary" parts rely on unexpected shock, so once you know they're coming they don't hold as much power. That said, the last time I watched it (a few months ago), I was surprised at how much of it was still effective.

Blair Witch didn't get me for the most part (I saw it after months of following the hype, near the end of its theatrical life, and was doing it for a review, so I pretty much knew what I was getting), but man, that final sequence--that's pretty unsettling.

That entry I made on Halloween last year about what movies have scared me was an interesting exercise in how my perception of "scary" has shifted with age and experience. Gore films don't really get me anymore, because I can distance myself from the visceral aspects (pun kind of intended) and recognize that it's not real, but for that reason I'm not as interested in those. Suspense or psychological horror is much more likely to have a lasting effect on me now, but perversely that makes me prefer it, because there's a greater chance I'll be immersed in it rather than standing aside and critiquing the effects work. ;)

[masie.livejournal.com]

The one movie that really disturbed me was "Silence of the Lambs" I had just read the book when the movie came out. Funny thing, I had pictured Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lecter. I was totally freaked out when we got home and was afraid to get out of the car and go into the house. Because there are real human monsters in this world and you never know who or where they may be.

[theosakakoneko.livejournal.com]

I <3 Poltergeist. It was my favorite movie when I was 9. Yeah. I dunno, man. XD

[scarysammiekae.livejournal.com]

I would have enjoyed the Blair Witch Project more if the camera hadn't moved around so much. I get motion sickness easily and I had to leave the theater to go be sick in the restroom.

Poltergeist has always been a special favorite. While 28 days makes me jump, I can say that it is the second movie to ever make me jump.. Seeing the Exorcist when I was nine was the first.

[blackrosemortal.livejournal.com]

I just saw this post. I am not even 30 yet...my parents let me watch Poltergeist when I was 4, multiple times! I keep meaning to rewatch but I still remember being horrified

[girlghoul.livejournal.com]

Are you going to see the new one coming out today?