I was recently discussing horror films with one of our resident Danes, @TheRottenLeprechaun and we got to talking about some of the classics. Now, I'm not the biggest horror aficionado - I love writing it, but watching it sometimes leaves me jumping at shadows afterward. Even if I do enjoy the movie. An enjoyable habit that I sometimes later regret, like drinking, or eating too many jalapeños.

One of the movies we discussed was The Ring, and the reason I brought it up is that that movie messed me up. Badly. I saw it when I was 12 or 13, and for years afterward it still creeped me out. I probably had about two weeks after watching it where I had to take down anything in my room that even vaguely resembled that damn girl's head. Sleep took a long time to come, at night, because I kept getting the sense that something was looming over me, watching me.

The images in that movie were so jarring, so disturbing, and what made it all more effective was that the movie didn't rely on jump scares, or excessive gore. The Ring built up an atmosphere that pulled me in and horrified me, and today, over a decade after seeing it, I still feel somewhat creeped out by it.

My question: Do you guys have a movie like that? Something that scared the crap out of you and stayed with you afterward? And why?

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The Descent 1 (and the sequel is actually really good if you watch it first) : The movies that first introduced me to the concept of the Wendigo. The way the story introduces these gaunt blind creatures makes you feel like the characters are hopeless. The environment is intimidating and just as dangerous as the creatures in it. The best part is that you see people start to slowly go into primal survival mode. Cutting off anyone useless and doing whatever it takes to survive.

What really got me was the clicking.... This was way before "The Last of Us" but to this day the clicking in these new games and movies only makes me think of these things.

Ill be honest, I've never had a scary movie make my skin crawl. But I do think about a lot of them.

I think The Babadook is one of the better horror movies I have seen in awhile. The feeling of something being there and other people thinking you're crazy is unnerving. I hate things that aren't tangible.

That movie also had a great atmosphere and, while maybe some people might disagree, I thought the imagery and story telling was a hell of a lot better than a lot of movies out there.

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Wendigo are scary as ****, and the lore behind them only increases the effect for me. There was a game that came out not too long ago, it played very much like an interactive movie, and it really drove home the horror of those things.

I saw the descent (never saw the sequel though) and it definitely stayed with me for some time afterward. You brought up a great point about the way the people adapted in order to survive. Faced with a threat like that, empathy goes right out the window. And as I watched it, I didn't think I'd end up any differently in that situation, which in itself was a little unnerving.



It was a creepy one, for sure. It comes up quite a bit when I discuss horror flicks with people - it definitely beats out a lot of the high budget stuff you typically see, and I definitely agree about the atmosphere.



Waking up at 3am sharp after seeing that is… yeah, that sounds scary as hell. I probably would've done my best to avoid looking at the clock. It helps that I have to squint if I don't have my glasses on. lol

The Elm street movies were alarming to me, probably because of how young I was at the time. I was not prepared for the gore, not by a long shot.

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I don't know if this counts as a lasting impact in scary movies since I never sat down to watch it. Back when I was in the third grade there were these fifth grades students who normally picked on younger children. Dumbest cliché ever, but here's the thing. There was a bunch of them spreading rumors, weeks in advanced, of the Chucky's Curse. Murmurs and whispers of the so-called 'curse' was coming, but no one knew what's the concept of the curse. At first, I ignored it until one day, during recess, a bunch of the fifth graders walked around with fake blood on them. Which was soaked red Kool-Aid that they used as blood. Somethin' I realized today. Though at that age it convince me that Kool-Aid was real blood.
Anyways they approached me, grabbed me, and pinned me to the grass behind some certain amounts of trees. Four or three of the fifth graders pinned me to the ground while the others, ten or more of them, whose counting, starting chanting the Chucky's Curse onto me. Out of all my might I tried my best to kick those kids off of me and scream for help, though I was covered and held back. Eventually, they poured the Kool-Aid (or fake blood) on me, laughed at me, then ran off. I recalled wearing a white dress, white socks, and Mary Jane black shoes and I was soaked. Even though that was the case, I don't remember crying. No, instead I approached the nearest adult that I could find, shivering cold, and told them what happened.
Of course, there was a round of detentions and school suspension sent around. However, from that experience I was frighten of the character Chucky and later learned he was from a movie called Child's Play.

To this day I haven't seen the movie nor do I want to. Not because I'm scared of the doll anymore. Perhaps because it's not my taste? I love sitting down, with my youngest brother especially, and watching scary movies. As much as some of them come off as cheesy. Honestly, our favorite is Psycho from Alfred Hitchcock.

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°o° A Dreamer °o°

Well, I enjoy watching horror movies with my husband.

The first time I saw "The Ring" it creeped me out. However, upon future viewings, it lost that effect.

"The Grudge" did the same thing. Really creepy the first time. In fact, my husband had a night terror that night we saw it about the black cat. But watching again, it's not as scary.

"Halloween" and its theme song scared me as a little kid. I also had nightmares about Freddy Krueger coming for me when I was a small kid and watched "A Nightmare on Elm Street" with my older brother.

"Sinister" has had a lasting effect on me. Both the original and its sequel. Probably because I'm a mom and my son is about the age of the kids in the movies. Very good movies, very creepy, and I hope they make a third one.

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Let's see. Today I watched something called "the Hallow." It surrounds Fae lore and does a very good job and making you not want to go into the woods ever again.

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The Grudge ****ing me up as a kid and gave me a huge interest in Asian horror. All those remakes of classic J-horror movies that flooded the movie market during that time period helped too.

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With everyone on my mum's side being Filipino, there were many cases when I was younger of visiting my cousin's houses and watching horror movies on TFC with the family. And holy moly, were they scary as hell. I don't remember specific titles, but the ones that felt remotely realistic to happen in real life, especially spooky things happening in the everyday household/mundane did the best to make me rethink how I was supervising my own life, ahah- One sec, I'm going to swivel around in my chair and lock my window real quick. omo

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