I've been looking around desperately, and want to find a few movies that could make me myself, or at the very least make me jump out of the seat once or twice. I'm talking truly atmospherically scary movies here.

I keep reading and reading, and looking up different lists, and other forums, but I wanted to start my own thread to really get to the bottom of it.

I'm not looking at all for movies that only have blood and gore. Or movies that are "torture porn", (movies with a lot of gore/nudity).

I recently saw "Martyrs", which I thought was pretty good, and also just now saw "Silent Hill". I'm talking about movies like that. Movies that you have no idea what's to come, and the suspense is the scary part.

Some of the posts I've been reading lately people suggested movies such as "Stir of Echoes", some mentioned the Saw movies. I didn't think Stir of Echoes was in any way scary. I mean it did have its moments of suspense, but that's all it was- suspense. I didn't find Saw to be scary either, more just curious of how brutal each death would be, and why they were going to die, the point is in Saw you knew they were going to die before they did. I'm talking movies where you don't know whether every character in the movie is going to die, main character or not.

Some also reported "Shawn of the Dead" to be scary. What the hell is that? Shawn of the Dead was clearly a comedy, and as I said with Stir of Echoes (which had more scary value than Shawn of the Dead), it was more suspenseful than anything, and not even really suspenseful because you were waiting to laugh instead of waiting for scary parts, which is different entirely.

Some people say Blair Witch was scary, and although it certainly has atmostphere to be scary, its just plain not. I watched that movie in theaters at midnight when I was 9 years old and it might have had an element or two of scary, but didn't even come close to going all the way. Mostly it bored me, and I kept thinking to myself "I would just run to civilization, anybody whos not a retard would have a good enough sense of direction would just run out of the woods".

Some (for some reason?) actually thought the Scary Movie parodies were scary. I don't even need to delve into that one, it speaks for itself.

A few times I've heard people say that "Premonition" was scary, which couldn't be further from the truth. Premonition offers its element of "scary-ness" at the beginning of the movie. Is he dead or isn't he? Who gives a , your going to sit through an hour and a half of boredom to know anything more, and you already know the "monster", or (bad guy, [death]) of the movie.

I've even heard that "Stay Alive" is supposed to be scary. I will admit there are one or two parts that certainly do well to make that movie scary, but C'mon, Shia Labouf in a scary movie? They should've known nobody would buy it. And though it seemed like a good plot, a video game "monster", (bad guy), get a grip.

So enough about bad horror films with crappy plots, blood and gore with no element of surprise, and movies that don't even classify in any category that would scare.

Here's the question folks. What is the SCARIEST movie of between 1990 and now??

I don't want anything before 1990, in fact I was going to make this a 2000's to now question, but the 90s had a lot of good ones too, and weren't too far back in the graphics and effects department. And of course, I can't have seen them all so I must ask.

I mean really scary, seriously terrifying, movies that made you praise the man who wrote the script for terrifying you that much. (I would say "Horrifying", but Stephen King once said "terror is scary because it could happen, horror is scary because its actually happening", or something directly to that affect.)

Thank you, and I look forward to any answers I may receive this question.

SIDENOTE: I'm looking for US titles, but will be more than happy to hear what other countries have to offer, as long as they're ACTUALLY scary as I have asked.

Here is a thread with a list of a scary movies.

I was looking for scary movies a while back: I still go back to this thread when I'm in the mood for a scary film.

https://www.askmehelpdesk.com/movies/scariest-horror-movie-mood-one-tonight-351262.html

I don't know how you'd get it but my friend told me about a movie called "bhoot" and that it was banned from usa... my friend said he mom threw up because of it and it made another go into labor... I don't know if my friend was lying or not but my goal is to find this movie and watch it...

Thank you for the previous thread, although I started a new thread to get some fresh opinions, not old ones, and to have the movies be within a certain range and type.

In any case I will certainly check them out and thank you!

And lovebird although that sounds like just a bunch of blood and guts, I will give it a look, and try to find more about it.

Have you seen 'the grudge?'

I didn't find it scary while I was watching it, but it messed with my head afterwards.

Yeah I've seen The Grudge, the commercial was scarier than the movie. The movie only had the one scary part, ironically, the scary part was the hand (which you saw in the commercial anyway.)

Thanks again Sarah for the post on your previous thread. It helped a little, but after searching on my own for a few hours, and going through 13 of the pages on that thread, I need some sleep.

Hopefully there are some seriously good pants-ter movies out there.

Haha

I've always found Candyman quite creepy.
If you saw the US remake of The Grudge, try the Japanese original - much scarier. Same goes for the Ring movies.
Quarantine is quite good, but again the original version, called (Rec.) is better.
The messengers has some good creepy bits, and is quite a good film.
Shrooms is quite freaky!
The Descent would be good if you're claustrophobic!
Drag Me To Hell has a few good jumps, but is quite jokey overall.
8mm is very dark, but not scary as such.

The bottom line though, is that there are no truly scary movies! I've been in search for nearly 30 years (first horror movie was Dawn of the Dead when I was 4 years old - I loved it!).

The scariest thing I've seen is a BBC drama called Threads. I suppose it depends what your personal demons are.

Let me know if you find anything that really does it for you!

I agree that the Japanese counterparts are better. "Martyrs" is Japanese with Eng. Subs I believe, and that was pretty good. The Descent was good, and I'm not even claustrophobic.

See I'm looking for movies similar to the descent. Dark, and scary.

Movies that have something you can't kill or don't know how to kill, or is really hard to kill, and no means you can think of that are available in the prior scenes of the movie will do it.

The Descent was good because they couldn't just hide behind a rock, there weren't a million parts where they could have just shut a door, or hide behind a tree when the killer is driving 70 miles an hour trying to run them over, so it didn't simply annoy you. They actually had nowhere to go and almost not one good option. There might've been one part where one or two of the characters was arguing and they should've been looking around them with the flashlight, but its easy to forget the world your in and stick to your own, so it didn't really annoy me, seemed more logical than stupid.

They also had no chance of killing all the monsters in that movie, short of miraculously caving the place in and making it out in the nick of time.

The fact that you could see it happening to you, and watching the monsters come at you and the characters could do nothing about it but run or die, made it pretty scary.

I want more movies like that. More movies where you have no idea what the characters are going to do to make it out of the mess. Not movies that are insanely predictable, or even close to predictable.

Silent Hill was good like that too, the darkness had more powers than one, and there was no place to hide, and you didn't know what was coming until it did.

I realize I may be being kind of picky here, but I'm sure there are movies out there like this, and many movies with the kind of scary I'm talking about like these two films.

I have just been having a hard time finding movies like this specifically with all the posts people have made on other sites, with movies such as "Stir of Echoes", and "Premonition", as their "scary" movies, so I figured I'd get as many second opinions as I can, on the kind of movie I consider scary.

If I wanted to find Premonition and Stir of Echoes, I would've looked up "creepy but not scary at all" movies.

Have you seen 28 Days Later? Made by the same guys as The Descent.

Eraserhead
The brood
Session 9
House on haunted hill
Mothman prophecies
'janghwa, hongryeon (a tale of two sisters)
The silence of the lambs
Cannibal
The original Texas chainsaw massacre
The orininal halloweens
Hellraiser
The exorcist
The shining
The thing
I'm guessing you've seen all the freddies and jasons as well?
And I'm sure you've seen all the saws they are gruesome but they are twisted and suspensful

Hope no one took my ideas while I was writing... hehe

I haven't seen 28 days later yet. Out of the list just above me, I've seen The Shining, (yes all the Saw movies.), Session 9, House (and return to) on Haunted Hill, Silence of Lambs and Cannibal, the orignal Texas Chainsaw, all the Freddies, Jasons, and Halloweens, (I think) all the Hellraisers, and The Excorsist.

Thanks for the ideas guys, keep them coming!! More the merrier!

How about The Hills Have Eyes (remake is actually better than original), Eden Lake, Last House On The Left, Dying Breed, Salems Lot (either version), and I haven't seen it yet, but Antichrist is meant to be really good.

I've just remembered one I saw as a kid that was a bit freaky - called The Witch here, possibly known as Supernatural in the US.

Hi, I highly recommend Black Christmas (1974) and Session 9 (2001)

Session 9 was pretty good, although almost nothing to make you jump or want to hide under a desk.

Eden Lake was really good, those kids are hot-damn sadistic as hell!

I haven't seen any others on the list but I will be sure to keep checking out the recommendations.

Edens Lake was good because it brought out inner anger. The ending really pissed me off, but in a good way I guess.

Eden Lake was a bit scary to me, because there are a lot of kids like that where I live!

Yeah I totally hear you on that. The kids in Eden Lake are completely sadistic and twisted. Crazy part is I could actually see that happening and the kids getting away with it.

What is this world coming to?

All it takes is one or two sadistic freaks, and a couple people who don't lead, but follow.

I would've been so mad if they took my car. The one thing that annoyed me was when the guy was driving fast and crashed the damn thing. I mean C'mon, your in a car, your safe, your on the road leading to safety, smarten up already and don't drive like a dumb f*** for pete's sake.

I mean I understand the sense of Urgency, but kids vs jeep we know who's going to win. You could be doing 10 miles an hour and if you swerve just right, boom! one less kid to worry about lol.

There is a movie that is sooo much like silent hill called the dark from 2005- Sean Bean who plays the father in silent hill is the father in this movie also

I just got done watching "The Last House on the Left", that was really good. I tend to be really really into revenge movies, so if anybody could throw any of those out while we're at it, please do!

"Taken" was a really good one for that. There was another one with Kevin Bacon that was all right, called "Death Sentence".

Kill Bill was good for revenge, but I like there to be more leading up before the revenge plan/plot starts, instead of revenge being the theme from the beginning because of a previous (before the movie) plot.

The way Taken led up to the father deciding to get his revenge was perfect. I absolutely loved that movie.

Any movies where one of the main characters is brutally murdered/hurt, and a family member/friend/whoever takes revenge for them, is good in my book.

So lets get as many of those as we can too!

Other movies that were good for revenge, even if they didn't lead up to it as well as I'd of liked, (and don't be afraid to look for/throw in more), were V for Vendetta, Man on Fire, The Crow, The Hills Have Eyes, THE PUNISHER (had a very good downfall, followed by a very good revenge), and someone mentioned Rocky IV, which was a good suggestion.

And remember the more the merrier, don't be afraid to add your favorites in, and don't be shy!

Very cool, "The Dark" you say? I will have to give that one a look, and as always, thank you for your participation, I watch an insane amount of movies, within the week I will probably have seen every movie currently on this list!

I've already seen a good few of them, but am eagerly keeping my eyes open for the others.

Yeah, I liked The Dark. Very good ghost story.

I haven't watched Last House on the Left yet. I got the DVD for christmas but I'm waiting for the Mrs to go out, because she doesn't want to see the rape scene. The original version was good at the time, but dated now.

Other revenge movies I rate are I Spit On Your Grave, Straw Dogs, Deliverance (which was directed by my uncle), and Southern Comfort.

Wow that's cool that your uncle is a director. And yeah the rape scene is certainly a horrifying depiction of the evil in some men. Made me furious. If I were her I wouldn't want to see it either. But I enjoyed the (overall) movie. It's the revenge that does it.

I've not seen straw dogs yet, its pretty hard to find. I've heard of Deliverance, which is supposed to be good, haven't heard of Southern Comfort or I Spit on your Grave yet.

Love all the help. I want this thread to get as long as it can.

Why is everybody being shy? At this point its more like a conversation between you and I than a thread on a forum lol.

Yeah, I know what you mean. Maybe there aren't that many devoted horror fans on this forum? There are a lot of dedicated horror forums out there, but they tend to be populated by pre-pubescents who want to argue about whether Jason could beat Michael in a fight! So I tend to steer clear.
Straw Dogs is quite easy to come by here, maybe because it was shot in England. Have you tried Ebay?

Until relatively recently there was a lot of cencorship here when it came to horror movies. I Spit was banned outright, so was the original Last House, and most of the cannibal films... and The Excorcist didn't get a video release until it was 25 years old. That made it more fun though, trying to track down pirate copies!

Well that's most of why I couldn't find straw dogs, torrentz.com didn't bring up anything reliable :-)

And I agree about the Jason Vs Michael ordeal, that went on for years, even in conversation.

The first ones that broke the ice were the best.

By the time it got to Freddy Vs Jason and the later Jason/Michael/Freddy movies, they weren't as good.

I also used to like The Leprechaun.

And to answer your earlier question, (I couldn't remember if it was the one I was thinking of), I saw 28 days later in theaters, and 28 weeks later later on.

There was talk of a 28 Months Later, I haven't heard anything for a while though...

Paranormal Activity
The Car
Race with the Devil
Strangers
Pet Semetary & 2
Exorcism of Emily Rose
Stigmata
Butterfly Effect 2,3
Pulse 2,3
Wrong Turn 2,3
The Mist
The Gift
Ghost Ship
The Haunting
Hell Night
The Entity
Fallen

Just to name a few I Have!

hi,
well if u like suspense scary, I would suggest House, Thr3e, The Ring, Pet Sematary(sorry but it is 89'), The Mist, Silence of the Lambs, Audition, Jeepers Creepers. And all stephen kings are all right... excpet the whole alien envasion thing in his movies are quite disturbing cause it gets to a good part then its like '? ' lol

that's all I can think of. Hope it helps =)

Any opinion helps, and its funny you mentioned Pet Cemetery, even though its older I just picked that one up at a thrift shop in town today..

Madman mentioned ghost ship, which is a good call. I really liked that one. The way it starts so gruesome really hit me well, and turned me on to wonder what was coming, which was also good. Completely didn't expect the ending.

And yes, suspense horror is mostly what I'm looking for, with a side of extreme jumpy moments, though not the average some guy comes out of a corner and you expect it, more like the "holy sh**, wasn't that monster/ghost/scary guy like 10 miles away?" kind of jumpy, where you don't expect it at all.

A lot of people keep raving about Paranormal Activity, but I didn't rate it. The last few minutes are excellent, but I think the ending seemed more shocking than it really was because you've just sat through over an hour of very little going on. Even Blair Witch was better (imo), and Quarantine or (Rec.) is the best of the found footage type films.

I liked the first half of Jeepers Creepers, but then it got a bit silly.

I have over 1500 movies so I went home and went through them, some more are:

High Tension
Orphan
In Dreams
Hide and Seek
Secret Widow
The Stuff
Joy Ride
Body Parts
IT
Premonition
Cursed
Skeleton Key
American Haunting
The Happening
Valentine
Silent Night, Deadly Night
Minehunters
Stay Alive
Venom

Name a few movieS!

Just thought of something else - Creep. Made me jump a few times!

Watched Paranormal Activity last night. Wasn't the least bit scary. Kind of stupid... the guy ruined it for me. If you are looking for scary, that is not the movie.

Most of those movies listed above scared me as a kit (Poltergeist 1 being the scariest). Not sure if they would scare me now as an adult.

Like someone else mentioned nothing is really scary anymore!

Well its all based on what a person thinks is scary, and although for the most part I agree with you, there are certain movies/parts in movies that scare me. They've just become harder to find :-)

HBF, thank you for your input on Paranormal Activity, I've been wondering about that one for about a month now, and heard good/bad the whole time with no definitive "it sucked", or "it was awesome".

Recently saw "Lady in the Water", not really scary, but I most deffinately liked the suspense of it!

Suspense is good with me, and if you ask me, it's the start of scary.

Just watched The Final Destination last night. While not scary, it sure was gruesome. Just like the other ones.

Other movies that was pretty scary was Mothman Prophecies and Strangers had my wife freaked out for a week!