The Exorcist (and other scary films)

[aubrey]

The Exorcist has always had a really good reputation as a horror film - the most scary thing ever, people fainting and throwing up in the cinema, people having nightmares for months afterwards, etc. I have always (with no evidence) thought that this reputation had more to do with the fact that a lot of people who saw it had never seen a horror film before than any real scariness. I also thought it would be a piece of Catholic propaganda

Anyway, I watched it last night for the first time, and I think I was right, on both counts, though with one addition: someone who believes that demons exist, and are always looking for a point of weakness (Ouija boards, Meditation, Yoga) through which to enter a human consciousness - someone like that would have been really scared.

I think that a lot of people who were really scared by The Exorcist would have been both of these types: so that they couldn't be sure that what they were seeing was not, or at least could not, be happening (a bit like the story of the old Jewish woman whose first experience of theatre was the play The Golem, and who thought that a real golem had been created on the stage, and ran out of the auditorium in panic).

Anyway, I watched it knowing that no demons exist (except for the white one with the ginger tail who howled and scratched on the door as the end titles were running, and who then stared at me until I gave up the chair I had watched the film in), and also understanding the conventions of horror films; and I was not a bit scared - for me, the worst bits were when she was having tests in the hospital. Though I did enjoy it; I really liked the Autumn feel of it.

Anyway: what was your scariest film?

Mine was Night of the Living Dead (the original, naturally).

(no, I don't think that Zombies exist; but if they did, this is what it would be like)

[motorist]

Hmmm, I've seen shitloads of horror films but only two were scary to me

ALIEN when I first saw it on telly at age 13. Not so effective if you have seen it before or, indeed, any other alien film

Paranormal Activity. Also good for one viewing as, after that, you know what will happen

[Weyland]

Aug 15, 2010 15:16:10 GMT motorist said:

ALIEN when I first saw it on telly at age 13. Not so effective if you have seen it before or, indeed, any other alien film

I agree, and I was over 30. At the Odeon in Newcastle.

Aliens is still one of my top three favourite films.

"Get away from her, you bitch!" -- Ellen Ripley

[motorist]

Yeah, the 2nd film was my favourite as well, though I would consider that an action movie rather than the horror kind the 1st film was

[everso]

If we're talking about the film that affected me most at the time, rather than all time scariest, then I would nominate "Dracula Prince of Darkness" a Hammer horror film that I saw in 1965 with my pal Linda. We were 15 at the time and came out of the Odeon Cinema in Romford (or it might have been The ABC Ritz, I can't really remember) scared witless. It really played on my mind afterwards.

Of course, I've watched it since and it's pretty pathetic and extremely hammy.

I suppose my all time scariest would be "The Shining". I like a nice ghost film but don't really like the slash and kill type of horror. Also "The Omen" and "The Exorcist" are quite scary, I suppose. However, these films didn't really affect me like the Dracula one did when I was 15.

I remember when "The Exorcist" was released in the 70s and a relative of mine seeing it (she's catholic and very much a believer) and it really affected her.

[Alpha Hooligan]

Alien was pure claustrphobic "haunted house in space" horror (as were the first few acts of "Event Horizon").

Aliens was more of an action orientated "fry half a city with this puppy" kinda thing.

Films like ".REC" and "The Descent" really ratchet up the "shit your pants factor" IMO.

"Jacobs Ladder" cut deep with it's psycological assault on your senses as well.

Films like "Texas Chainsaw Masacre" & "Wolf Creek" had a really sadistic nastiness about them also.


AH

[Deleted]

leprachaun in the hood. terrifying.

[motorist]

I didn't think much of Descent myself. I noticed there was a sequel to it in the shops, not tempted lol!

[riotgrrl]

I was about 12 when I saw 'Jaws', and it scared me.

[riotgrrl]

Incidentally, I never found the Blair Witch Project frightening, but then I have only watched it at home and not in a cinema. I think it might have been more frightening in a cinema situation.

Anyone see it at the flicks?

[Deleted]

i've never seen Jaws. i've seen bits of it, over the years, but never seen it all the way through. Any of the Jaws films in fact. Or E.T. weirdly, E.T was my my most sucsessful ever panini sticker book attempt.. i only needed about 16 or so to complete the book.. perhaps it was the fact i had never seen the film that piqwued my interest so.. ENNEEWWAAYY, still never seen it.

[everso]

Aug 16, 2010 9:52:19 GMT @riotgrrl said:

Incidentally, I never found the Blair Witch Project frightening, but then I have only watched it at home and not in a cinema. I think it might have been more frightening in a cinema situation.

Anyone see it at the flicks?

I always meant to see it at the cinema but never got round to it. However, when I saw it on t.v. a year or so ago I did find it scary and weird - especially the ending. I think it would have been much more powerful on the big screen (like all films are of course)

[everso]

I saw "What Lies Beneath" and "The Others" at the cinema and I thought they were pretty scary, but on t.v. they seemed very mild.

[Deleted]

i recorded 'what lies beneath' the other night cos ive never seen it

[everso]

Have you watched it yet? I really enjoyed it.

[Patrick]

Aug 16, 2010 10:37:22 GMT everso said:

I saw "What Lies Beneath" and "The Others" at the cinema and I thought they were pretty scary, but on t.v. they seemed very mild.

They are a genre of their own almost aren't they. "The Others" is lifted by the great performance by Eric Sykes - you just think what a waste all those humdrum comedies were when you see that. Not that he's on that much - but. Especially when his sight is bad and he's pretty deaf without his glasses (which are only there as sound resonators to help him hear properly). I think I spend half the movie trying to work out if it was Eric Sykes or not and the other half thinking "Good God! That's Eric Sykes!"

[Patrick]

Aug 15, 2010 18:52:42 GMT Alpha Hooligan said:

Films like "Texas Chainsaw Masacre" & "Wolf Creek" had a really sadistic nastiness about them also.


AH

Yes, I remember we talked about it before - but Wolf Creek is a horrible movie - It didn't dawn on me at first but the more I thought about the way it was done the more it just seemed like 'horror porn'. I'm surprised they even show it on telly. <shivers>

[everso]

Yes, exactly. Those types of films (slasher films, I call them) are horror porn. Lots of men seem to like them though.

I prefer being scared witless by ghosts. Not that I really believe in that sort of thing, which is odd.

[trubble]

I loved The Others. I thought it was exactly the right level of scary and story. A good old fashioned spooky tale told very, very well.

But then I am a scaredy cat and hate horror movies as a rule. Mini-T and I had to leave the cinema a few years ago when we went to see The Ring (I think); after about ten minutes both of us were hiding behind the chairs shaking and although she held it together pretty well I knew I was only seconds away from actually crying. So we snuck out of that and into Finding Neverland which was all Peter Pan and Tinkerbell and much more suitable.

But even I wasn't scared by Blair Witch, Riot. It was so bad that I geuninely thought it was an Art Project by some very clever Emin/Hirst type students who were trying to show us something about out belief in media hype and the way we manipulate our own fear. I was devastated to find it was not art but just a crap film. And yes, I saw it at the flicks.

Aug 16, 2010 10:47:49 GMT Patrick said:

Aug 16, 2010 10:37:22 GMT everso said:

I saw "What Lies Beneath" and "The Others" at the cinema and I thought they were pretty scary, but on t.v. they seemed very mild.

They are a genre of their own almost aren't they. "The Others" is lifted by the great performance by Eric Sykes - you just think what a waste all those humdrum comedies were when you see that. Not that he's on that much - but. Especially when his sight is bad and he's pretty deaf without his glasses (which are only there as sound resonators to help him hear properly). I think I spend half the movie trying to work out if it was Eric Sykes or not and the other half thinking "Good God! That's Eric Sykes!"

Did you ever see Eric Sykes talking about a two-hander play he was in once where he couldn't wear his hearing aids and took all his cues from lip reading and his fellow actor's stage movements? Each night, his fellow actor would throw in something to put him off, from turning his back on Eric while he spoke his lines, I forget the specifics, to things like deliberately giving him the wrong arm signal, to miming his lines... eventually this got to be known and the audiences would come to see what jape would be thrown that night and how Eric would deal with it. I think this is a very famous story. I just forget all the pertinent details. ;D

[trubble]

Aug 16, 2010 9:51:38 GMT @riotgrrl said:

I was about 12 when I saw 'Jaws', and it scared me.

On TV? If so I bet I saw the same broadcast. I was sitting on my chair, my face behind a cushion, with my legs pulled up (out of the sea, you see, so the shark couldn't bite me) and too scared to run out of the room to safety (because the shark would bite me if I did, for sure).

I went to the cinema to see Jaws 3D and we were so busy enjoying wearing the glasses and marvelling at the way the severed arm seemed to be floating right over our heads that we didn;t have time to be scared - I suspect it was not scary though, you never see it repeated anywhere.