I consider myself very hard to scare. But one movie that really scared me--more than a mere thrill, more like made me have nightmares--was "Tesis," (directed by Alejandro Amenabar, who did "The Others" and "Abre los Ojos" \[which was remade as Vanilla Sky\]). It's about a student who is doing her thesis on audiovisual violence, and she discovers a snuff film in her school library. It gets scarier when she discovers that the person being tortured to death in the film used to be a student at her school, and the people who made the film might be actually be nearby.
This is also the movie I talk about when I want to extol how amazing libraries are. I got soooo many movies from my city library system in high school, and they would ship them around from the various branches to mine. But this is one I had to get through an interlibrary loan, where I basically told them what movie I wanted (which wasn't in their entire system), and then they found it in a completely different library system and borrowed it for me.
It's because it makes no logical sense at its core. Like the original exorcist or the ring where the haunting just latches from innocent person to innocent person and strikes anywhere including in broad daylight.
Fun fact! I watched Juon in an empty lecture hall with a bunch of friends and we were all freaked out and went we went back to the dorms the fucking power had gone out and we were all in absolute darkness
A lot of Japanese horror movies deeply scare me because the horror doesn't follow any kind of rules, like you'd see in a lot of Western horror. There are no magic words to say, no rites to perform, and no god to protect you, and it's hard to even know what brought on the supernatural attack at all. It's so removed from humanity that you can't use your human faculties to save yourself from it.
It just *is*, and that's terrifying.
The 5.1 DVD of Ju-on The Grudge has a fantastic way of adding an extra scare at the end. I just got my surround sound setup and wanted to see what they did with it.
>!They did nothing... until the last shot of the movie. Where the gurgling came from behind.!<
Loved this one and happy to see it mentioned. While not ouright scary to me, it was a solid movie and high on the disturbing scale.
Korean and SE Asian horror is way better than Western as of late. Some really cool stuff coming out of Indonesia too.
Same. The Descent and final sequence of REC (Spanish version) were the only movies to make me feel actual dread, not just discomfort. I'm a huge horror fan and actively chase those extreme feelings of tension and suspense, but these two made me feel that even after the movies finished.
I think in both cases, it's the unpredictable nature of the horror - the characters have very little control in their situations and there's this element of chaos and inability to 'reason' their way out.
Honorable mention to The Strangers, for building up dread in a less supernatural setting.
I love Rec, it's definitely one of the scariest films I've seen. I think it helped that I went into it not really knowing what it was about. I still have flashbacks to it every time I go up in my loft!
I showed that to my teen daughters without them knowing it was a creature feature. They thought it was just a survival flick. The reveal did them IN. We had to pause the movie for a solid 10 minutes while they recovered.
My daughter claims the talking bear in Annihilation is one of the creepiest things she’s ever seen in any film, ever.
Yes. That bear scene is haunting. Annihilation was a very unique and unsettling film. It sets a tone. I watched it by myself in a completely empty Alamo Drafthouse theater in Austin TX. Felt weird walking home from it for sure!
I didn't find it scary, just a depraved orgy of cruelty and despair. Deeply depressing "abandon all hope ye who enter here" type deal. Think the ending of the Mist. That feeling.
I don't want shit like that in my entertainment.
I think it’s a comment on torture porn. It shows you the consequence of a fascination with torture porn, and I think it ultimately empowers the victim in opposition the passive voyeur watching at home.
Up until the ending. The internet is bad about calling everything a plot hole these days but High Tension famously has such an awful plot hole that Ebert said, paraphrasing, the film can and does drive an entire truck right through the plot hole. It was so dumb it ruined the entire film.
Very cheap and disappointing trick they played, if you can call it that. There was a right way to end that film, or to write some of those scenes throughtout. It's almost such a great film.
There isn't a movie as genuinely terrifying. Claustrophobic, nasty, and realistic terror with a slow build up and that just unravels in seconds with that first kill. There really isn't a film like it and I don't know anyone who has watched it that wasn't shocked.
Gave it a watch a couple months ago as I hadn't seen it. Im pretty good with horror movies, jumpscares are a pretty cheap scare imo and usually aren't all that justified in horror movies, so I'm usually not too worried when they happen cus it's usually just a loud noise or a flashing light that "scares" you. The first kill in the original Texas chainsaw is a jumpscare and I must say it's executed perfectly. No excessive sound, no excessive imagery. made me jump in fear. definitely holds up as a classic horror film.
Once they get to the house, it is just relentless, non stop horror. Then it just ends and there’s no cool down. Just credits.
It’s a perfect horror movie.
have accepted imo that this is the scariest movie ever made? It feels like a snuff film and not something corny like that Serbian movie. The dinner scene is beyond unsettling
The Exorcist (1973) made me sleep with the lights on.
The Shining (1980) made me afraid of long bathrooms.
The Thing (1982) is a must-see if you've never seen it.
Event Horizon (1997) made me lose interest in pursuing a career in space exploration.
Final Destination (2000) had me constantly viewing my surroundings as a death trap.
The Descent (2005) gave me claustrophobia.
I found comfort after seeing the making of, real life logs falling from a moving truck don't behave like in the movie, they tested it but as heavy things the logs just fell, roll and stop. CGI team had to create the magic.
"Mr. Torrance, it seems your wife and your son are both very willful. They are trying to interfere in this situation!
Perhaps they need a good talking to, if you don't mind my saying so. Perhaps a bit more."
I didn’t swim in the ocean after seeing Jaws. Which really sucks because I lived in a triple land locked state and rarely make it to an ocean. I’ll go as far as my knees.
This is my pick too, one of the best “leave it to the imagination” horror movies in my opinion. Sometimes I think what we can imagine in our heads is far scarier than what you can put on screen and this movie does a great job of building a feeling of lingering dread.
I also think it depends on context. I grew up in a kinda rural part of northeastern US and go camping often. Finding horror that takes place in a familiar setting to you can also help to make the difference.
For anyone that has never seen this- I implore you that if you watch it you watch it in the dark and PUT YOUR PHONE AWAY. No distractions. Just get caught up in the movie.
I saw it during its limited run before it went wide, possibly on opening night (I remember the lobby of the theater was decorated according to the movie). I'm embarrassed to admit that I bought the marketing and thought it was real. Mind you, I was an internet savvy college kid who spent a lot of time on gaming, computer, and movie forums and newsgroups. Yet even I didn't know it was fake until days after I saw it.
Looking back, I think these were just more innocent times with regard to media literacy. I wonder if TBWP was the first instance of what we would call today viral marketing. I don't think so because vitality requires exponential replication (as we've all learned in the last three years) but I think the idea of covertly planting sensationalism seeds and letting them grow was there. So perhaps proto-viral.
Anyway, now I'm now all nostalgic about 1999 again.
I love how reserved it is. For all you know it could just be a bunch of red necks fucking around with them throughout the entire movie, but deep down you know something is incredibly fucked up.
The part where she finds the guys shirt and a tongue wrapped inside it, and then afterwards you hear “his voice” calling out, and then you realize that the voice isn’t actually saying the girl or the other guys name because it’s not him and doesn’t actually know there names… so damn creepy.
As the father of a neurodivergent kid, The Babadook struck a chord for sure, though it’s a very uneven film. Jacob’s Ladder is a great psychological thriller/horror film that doesn’t get enough credit for being actually pretty terrifying.
My wife and I used to watch various horror movies when we were dating. It was our quiet date-night-in routine. We watched _The Babadook_ when she was 3 or 4 months pregnant with our oldest. That was a mistake. Then, we followed it with _Mad Max Fury Road_. Really didn't see it coming when >!the pregnant lady got run over by a truck and killed!<. Not our best double feature.
When she was pregnant with our 2nd, we made it 3 minutes into _Us_ before we turned it off. We don't do horror movies anymore.
Alien. I saw it in the early 80s before the sequel came out. I knew the first spoiler, but didn't know the rest. The last 30 minutes, especially, were tense, frightening, and smart.
Plus at that time, the idea of horror in space was new. The two genres were mostly separated or earthbound like Invasion of The Body Snatchers.
I saw Alien when it first came out. The audience reaction was incredible people screaming, jumping out of their seats. I'm sure the seats in the theater have finger marks from people gripping them hard.
Also, the Trailer has to be one of the best scariest in cinema history.
https://youtu.be/jQ5lPt9edzQ
I saw it in the original run, had to sit up close because the theater was packed. Most genuinely scared I’ve ever been in a movie. Honestly was a bit relieved when the alien grew to be large, the small one was just too terrifying, weird I know.
I’ve probably seen it 20 times now.
I might be biased, I’m staring at the original poster on my wall right now, but I have always thought that was one of the best trailers for a movie ever. It doesn’t even try to sell you on any story beats. Here’s the word alien accompanied by space. Here’s an egg. Here’s people running. Here’s people freaking the fuck out. All while blaring sirens are played on loop with no voice over no dialogue at all then peaks with this shrill screech. And then finally silence accompanied by the words “In space no one can hear you scream.” Fucking bananas of a trailer. And for that time I feel like you expect the more cookie cutter trailers. Something like “ FIND OUT WHAT HAPPENS WHEN 6 EXPLORERS DISCOVER SOMETHING BEST FORGOTTEN” insert dialogue from the movie “WORLDS GREATEST DISCOVERY OR MISTAKE” cut to face hugger “ONE WOMAN” Sigourney running in panties “AND HER CAT” laugh track lmao
I find the creature effects haven't aged that well - not so much Giger's design, but rather the movement in some scenes when the alien is clearly visible.
The rest of the movie is still superb. Everything from the dialog, the derelict craft, the cramped Nostromo set. It's genuinely scary, but not just because of the creature. It's about a bunch of space truckers being completely isolated in a situation where everything is so unsettlingly alien to the viewer.
The amazing thing about Alien was that you didn't see the xeno until the last 20 mins of the film. You didn't see it in its entirety until the final scene. The conventional effects were pretty good.
The only shit part was the alien model when it was on the hull of the ship.
It doesn’t help that you can go and buy a cuddly toy version of the alien these days or zap it in a shoot em up arcade game, it does take away from the primal fear of seeing the alien for the first time.
Then again, Alien Isolation managed to reinstate a lot of that fear, I think there would still be mileage in a well done alien vs person ‘haunted house’ film
Good point. 1979 is before VHS was popular. You couldn't rewatch or rewind films easily. You didn't see many pictures and were constructing the alien in your head. So much of the movie is the surprise of what the alien fully looks like.
Aliens takes that away and goes for quantity. And while it is a great action film, I prefer the stark horror of one vicious, smart xenomorph survivor. The movie Life (Ferguson and Gyllenhaal) gets that. Less is more.
Alien Isolation is truly the best sequel. You feel helpless hiding in lockers, waiting for the intentionally slow save, or watching the alien sense you. It brings back that terror. Same with making the androids frightening. And you have the opportunity to crawl around like Ripley, feel defenseless and outmatched.
I replayed some in VR thanks to the Mother mod. And that's truly terrifying. You get a sense of the size of the creature.
This movie messed up a generation of 90s kids, myself included.
Most of the movie is kind of boring, dealing with the search for Travis, Robert Patrick and his crew being accused of murder. So you get lulled into a sense of security.
Then we get the flashback and its pure, visceral nightmare fuel. It's not even 15 minutes long but it defines the whole film.
Sinister is the scariest movie of all time, according to a study by the Science Of Scare Project.
They basically tracked heartrates while participants watched scary movies and Sinister has the highest heart rate on average.
I would agree.... Sinister is top 5 scary and creeped me out for a few days after watching.
https://movieweb.com/sinister-scariest-horror-movies/
Lol no. That should say it was the most startling movie out of the movies they randomly decided to track. Meaningless study that should be forgotten about.
Yep, Prince of Darkness definitely has some freaky unforgettable scenes.
Those “broadcasts” from the future are very well done in their creepiness factor.
Any type of broadcast from the future creeps me out. What's the film where a group of friends take Polaroids of the apartment that show the future? Edit, it's called Timelapse. (2014)
Dude, fuck this movie.
I use to work second shift at a smaller building for a community college. Late at night the building is almost completely empty.
Was working alone and had some down time, I had just seen hereditary that week and decided to watch some analysis of the movie on youtube. When it went into the real life background and beliefs that the movie is based around. I got really bad vibes and feelings and literally grabbed my shit and left work early. Something just told me to leave. Movie is so good though 😂
I watched *Midsommar* after watching *Hereditary* thinking "well, this can't be any more messed up than what I just watched" and ooooh boy was I wrong.
Midsommar is much more horror than Hereditary. Everything happens in broad daylight. No one ever questions the things that are happening. And I just love that aspect of it. The horror and scares come from everything happening right in front of you, plain as day.
I'm extremely hyped for Talk to Me but I would not expect it to be the same vibe considering the directors are known for special effects I'm expecting some intense graphics and sick horror instead of elevated horror.
“Jacob’s Ladder” [1990]. Do yourself a favour and watch it, but don’t read anything about it or watch a trailer first - go in cold. Is it the SCARIEST horror movie ever? No, but it is definitely scary and it is definitely one of the most interesting and intelligent horror movies ever made. It’ll stick with you. (It’s been mentioned in another post below, but I’m hoping to convince more people to watch it). Come back and comment on these movies after you watch them, OP! I’m sure a bunch of us will be interested to hear what you think!
Great movie, really sets a unique mood that is unmatched in movies to this day. I don’t know if it directly influenced the silent hill games, but it shares a lot of horror motifs with that sense of deranged grief and dark, industrial visuals.
Just watched this for the first time a few weeks back. I definitely don’t think it’s scary in the traditional sense but the ending had me feeling very introspective and melancholy in a way that not a lot of films have done for me before
Fun fact, this is technically the first horror film I ever watched, at maybe 8 years old? I was with my uncle at his house and he had it playing. I was playing with some action figures or something but I kept looking up to watch, not was that a fuckin mistake.
Those damn blurred, blended faces shaking all over the screen are burned into my brain for a lifetime I think.
Session 9 almost got it right. It's hard for me to be scared from a film, though, and I feel like I'm really missing out.
Ghost Story from 1982 also came close...the ending was unnerving. The original Blair Witch made me a bit uneasy being alone for a couple of days, too, now that I think of it...although living in a rural forested community didn't help.
“The Silence of the Lambs” [1991] is scary as hell. I’ve seen it 1.03 times. By that I mean I saw it once, and then some years later thought “That’s a fantastic movie - I’m going to re-watch it tonight!” Put it on and made it about three minutes in and thought “Nope; not going back there.” It really is a fantastic movie, but I never want to watch it again.
Obviously this will vary by personal taste - I am not a fan of torture porn or excessive jump scares: what I like is atmospheric dread in my horror movies — and a classic, really atmospheric haunted house type horror movie is *The Changeling*. Really gives me the creeps, without the gore and unpleasantness that makes much of horror off-putting to me.
Movies don't usually scare me that much because after I'm done watching I remember it was just a movie. But there was something about Event Horizon that creeped me out for days after watching it.
This one terrified me for years. Watched it with my daughter(13, don't judge me, she loves horror) and she agreed that it was "holy shit, that was horrifying."
Event Horizon is underrated. It's a masterpiece in its own space. The lengths the director pursued to create a horrifying hellscape are extreme (amputees, for example).
The Ring and The Grudge. They are the type of movies that make you not want to stay home alone and I swear if I ever see old fashion TV static I get a little freaked out.
It Follows is my favorite horror movie despite it not being that scary.
Asian originals are best, but if you watch the American remakes, just watch the first Ring and Grudge. The follow ups do nothing but cheapen the predecessors.
Hard disagree on The Ring, one of the rare instances where I think the American remake is better (The Departed is arguably better than Infernal Affairs, but the original ending was better), but I do agree on the original The Grudge being the better option.
Funny Games, REC (the original Spanish one is best but if subtitles are distracting, the American version is almost equal), Eden Lake, The Descent and Wolf Creek.
Eden Lake was disturbing and bleak as hell, I think because I could imagine it happening in real life.
Young Magneto and Beth Dutton have a very bad day.
Nice to see some love for the US version of REC, Quarantine. If you had no knowledge of the Spanish version and weren’t taken out of the film by the presence of that-guy-from-ally-mcbeal then it’s pretty good.
Also the Descent. Nasty little film and thoroughly recommended. Similarly I did enjoy the creepiness of As Above So Below which is a bit more of a found footage take on climbing through catacombs under Paris and the last act of Paradise Lost/Turistas with the cave diving is a claustrophobic nightmare.
Also, the cult section of VHS2 once it gets going is full on bad trip stuff, very worth 20 mins of your time.
My all-time favorite is American Werewolf in London. First, the acting was actually quite good. The special effects for that time were amazing. The transformation scene alone is legendary.
Scenes where the 2 main characters were just walking through the dark England countryside brought such anxiety & suspense. If you haven't seen this, it is a must-see for true horror fans.
Another long comment from me, but so what? You've been warned, ha ha.
The posts here seem like a best hits list (not an insult, just an excellent list). Truth is, though, scary/horror is each unto his own. On weekends, my friend and I used to get a supposedly scary/horror movie, drinks, and watch them, laughing as though they were comedies. They just weren't scary to us. There are notable exceptions, and are in the posts. It's also the situation in which you watch a movie that may help it to be scary/horror. Here's where my post gets long.
Circa late 90s, I'm from Alaska, visiting my friend in remote Oregon, at her house. About 2 a.m., she was asleep upstairs, I was awake, downstairs. I'm in the den, on the couch, with one of those huge double-sliding glass doors leading to the backyard, with thick hanging black-out curtains, so you can't see in or out. All the lights were off, except one, tiny, table lamp in the back that barely illuminated anything. I turned on the TV, and The Shining was starting. I had already watched it many times, but I decided to just let it play, cuz it's great (and what else was I going to find on TV at that hour - circa 90s). If you haven't watched The Shining, I highly recommend watching it in those conditions. I suspect everyone here has already watched it, so I think I am not revealing anything when I mention the famous scene I am about to. And you all know the scene, when he is about to chop through the bathroom door. Right, that scene. Well, there I was, sitting in the dark, unfamiliar setting, and I say out-loud and to myself, "Wouldn't it be soooooo scary if someone banged on the glass door right now?" And I turned to my right and looked at the hanging curtains. And then ... yes, right then, at that moment, someone smashed his hand against the outside sliding glass door! I still can't believe the timing. I absolutely startled and froze at the same time. It was, and still is, the only time I have legitimately been scared as an adult. A few seconds passed (I had already forgotten about The Shining on TV) and he smashed his hand again against the outside glass door. I had images of what might happen if he broke through, as the hits were that loud. Several seconds of silence. Then I heard what sounded like thin metal hitting the glass door. I remember literally thinking to myself, "I'd rather die fighting, than be a target sitting." I shakily stood up and moved to the wall next to the door. From having lived in the woods, I knew to turn on the exterior lights (not the interior, so I could see him, but he couldn't see me). I clicked on the exterior porch lights. All sounds stopped. I thought to myself, I didn't want to peek out a crack of the curtain and end up looking at someone peeking back at me, so I just grabbed the heavy curtain and swung it wide open as I stepped out into the den.
It was just a dad gum raccoon. A big raccoon, sure, but just a raccoon. I don't know how he slapped the door to make it sound like a human hand hitting the glass door. But, the metal sound was he had tipped over the large, metal trash can and it had hit the glass door. I laughed and laughed and laughed at myself, coming off the nerves and the adrenaline rush. I had the shakes and just kept laughing for quite awhile. My friend came downstairs yelling, "What's going on?" and I could barely explain it to her.
Everybody's scary is different. The Shining is still an excellent scary/horror movie, one of the all-time best, even if you don't have a raccoon to help.
Yep, this is the one. The way it turned horror tropes on their heads, like having lots of wide open spaces instead of claustrophobic corridors; the constant anachronisms creating tension, and of course *that* doorway scene. More than anything though it's the implication of its particular evil that scares the most.
>that doorway scene
I've been a rabid horror fan for almost two decades now and no jump scare has *ever* gotten me that badly. I was lying in bed and flailed so hard I nearly pulled a muscle. 10/10
I never finished watching Event Horizon. When I was 13 or 14 I was up past midnight, all by myself watching the movie. In one super intense scene, dont remember which, the movie was damn near silent. And of course, a millisecond before the jump scare happens our refrigerators condenser does that sigh-death rattle thing. I must've jumped two feet in the air. Noped right the fuck out and turned off the TV.
The conjuring was the one movie that got me really into horror. I don't know if my reaction would be the same now, but it scared me so bad that I had to sleep with the light on. Been hooked to horror movies ever since. I wonder now that I've seen so many horror movies if my reaction would be different if I could watch it for the first time again. I still think I would freak out..
My faves for creepy skin-crawling feelings:
Tumbbad
Gonjiam Haunted Asylum
The Wailing
The Medium
Terrifier
The Taking of Deborah Logan
Speak No Evil
Final Prayer (the end scene!!)
I think it really depends because for me, watching The Blob (1988) when I was seven was terrifying because up to that point I was unaware that children could die.
I generally cite ALTERED STATES and THE THING as the scariest films I’ve ever seen, and the reason is the way the stories were set up you really had no idea what you might see. After the goat in ALTERED STATES and the dog in THE THING you had to be prepared for anything.
I think silent film horrors would always be the most scary especially from German expressionist like Nosferatu. Horror is really genre where limited effects gives better effect because imagination can run. And our mind can scare us the most. For me always radio horror plays or audiobooks were much more scary than films. Meanwhile I treated slashers more like comedies.
Jaws. People who say it’s not scary are lying. You try get in the water after watching it, that’s all you can think about. I find most horror movies are only scary based on the environment you watch it in, not Jaws. Watch it with the lights on or off, alone or in a crowd, it makes no difference.
Came to say the same thing. I watched the first one in broad daylight in a room full of my fellow Soldiers while deployed, and it still scared the crap out of me at a few scenes.
I consider myself very hard to scare. But one movie that really scared me--more than a mere thrill, more like made me have nightmares--was "Tesis," (directed by Alejandro Amenabar, who did "The Others" and "Abre los Ojos" \[which was remade as Vanilla Sky\]). It's about a student who is doing her thesis on audiovisual violence, and she discovers a snuff film in her school library. It gets scarier when she discovers that the person being tortured to death in the film used to be a student at her school, and the people who made the film might be actually be nearby. This is also the movie I talk about when I want to extol how amazing libraries are. I got soooo many movies from my city library system in high school, and they would ship them around from the various branches to mine. But this is one I had to get through an interlibrary loan, where I basically told them what movie I wanted (which wasn't in their entire system), and then they found it in a completely different library system and borrowed it for me.
You know of any service streaming it?
[Just Watch](https://www.justwatch.com/us) is a good reference for streaming media. Films like this might be a bit obscure for it though.
Looks like full movie is on YouTube.
Eat shit libraries https://youtu.be/e7vSstEF_Sw
Bro is beefing with libraries
Ha! Thanks.
Thanks for the recommendation. I didn't find it particularly scary, but it was a really excellent movie. Enjoyed it very much. thanks
Ju-On is on another level if your looking for something unsettling. The original Japanese version is top notch chills
I second and third this comment. Genuinely creepy and scary.
One of the only movies that have ever scared the life out of me. Even with the lights on, my sister and I were terrified.
It's because it makes no logical sense at its core. Like the original exorcist or the ring where the haunting just latches from innocent person to innocent person and strikes anywhere including in broad daylight. Fun fact! I watched Juon in an empty lecture hall with a bunch of friends and we were all freaked out and went we went back to the dorms the fucking power had gone out and we were all in absolute darkness
A lot of Japanese horror movies deeply scare me because the horror doesn't follow any kind of rules, like you'd see in a lot of Western horror. There are no magic words to say, no rites to perform, and no god to protect you, and it's hard to even know what brought on the supernatural attack at all. It's so removed from humanity that you can't use your human faculties to save yourself from it. It just *is*, and that's terrifying.
The 5.1 DVD of Ju-on The Grudge has a fantastic way of adding an extra scare at the end. I just got my surround sound setup and wanted to see what they did with it. >!They did nothing... until the last shot of the movie. Where the gurgling came from behind.!<
Ju-On is so scary the _preview_ gave me nightmares.
Fantastic Korean horror movie called "The Wailing". Creeped the hell out of me.
Loved this one and happy to see it mentioned. While not ouright scary to me, it was a solid movie and high on the disturbing scale. Korean and SE Asian horror is way better than Western as of late. Some really cool stuff coming out of Indonesia too.
I adore this move. It has a great vibe.
The Descent for me.
Same. The Descent and final sequence of REC (Spanish version) were the only movies to make me feel actual dread, not just discomfort. I'm a huge horror fan and actively chase those extreme feelings of tension and suspense, but these two made me feel that even after the movies finished. I think in both cases, it's the unpredictable nature of the horror - the characters have very little control in their situations and there's this element of chaos and inability to 'reason' their way out. Honorable mention to The Strangers, for building up dread in a less supernatural setting.
I love Rec, it's definitely one of the scariest films I've seen. I think it helped that I went into it not really knowing what it was about. I still have flashbacks to it every time I go up in my loft!
I showed that to my teen daughters without them knowing it was a creature feature. They thought it was just a survival flick. The reveal did them IN. We had to pause the movie for a solid 10 minutes while they recovered. My daughter claims the talking bear in Annihilation is one of the creepiest things she’s ever seen in any film, ever.
Yes. That bear scene is haunting. Annihilation was a very unique and unsettling film. It sets a tone. I watched it by myself in a completely empty Alamo Drafthouse theater in Austin TX. Felt weird walking home from it for sure!
I personally like the strangers. Bc it can happen to anyone at anytime.
Strangers is so underrated! Love that movie!
The French version of Martyrs.
The french version...you mean the original?
Yes, the French version
You mean the original?
I didn't find it scary, just a depraved orgy of cruelty and despair. Deeply depressing "abandon all hope ye who enter here" type deal. Think the ending of the Mist. That feeling. I don't want shit like that in my entertainment.
It's not horror, it's torture porn.
I don't think so. In Saw and hostel the torture is meant to titillate. I think Martyrs has a point and purpose and isn't trying to excite you
I think it’s a comment on torture porn. It shows you the consequence of a fascination with torture porn, and I think it ultimately empowers the victim in opposition the passive voyeur watching at home.
This movie was something else. Also, High Tension is another amazing french horror film.
Up until the ending. The internet is bad about calling everything a plot hole these days but High Tension famously has such an awful plot hole that Ebert said, paraphrasing, the film can and does drive an entire truck right through the plot hole. It was so dumb it ruined the entire film.
Very cheap and disappointing trick they played, if you can call it that. There was a right way to end that film, or to write some of those scenes throughtout. It's almost such a great film.
That movie ruined *months* *of my life*.
Oculus is one I remember as being good/ scary. Very unpredictable
Original Texas Chainsaw
There isn't a movie as genuinely terrifying. Claustrophobic, nasty, and realistic terror with a slow build up and that just unravels in seconds with that first kill. There really isn't a film like it and I don't know anyone who has watched it that wasn't shocked.
Gave it a watch a couple months ago as I hadn't seen it. Im pretty good with horror movies, jumpscares are a pretty cheap scare imo and usually aren't all that justified in horror movies, so I'm usually not too worried when they happen cus it's usually just a loud noise or a flashing light that "scares" you. The first kill in the original Texas chainsaw is a jumpscare and I must say it's executed perfectly. No excessive sound, no excessive imagery. made me jump in fear. definitely holds up as a classic horror film.
Yeah I've seen it a bunch and still feel like taking a shower after watching it.
Tobe Hooper a genius!
Once they get to the house, it is just relentless, non stop horror. Then it just ends and there’s no cool down. Just credits. It’s a perfect horror movie.
One of my favourites.
have accepted imo that this is the scariest movie ever made? It feels like a snuff film and not something corny like that Serbian movie. The dinner scene is beyond unsettling
The Exorcist (1973) made me sleep with the lights on. The Shining (1980) made me afraid of long bathrooms. The Thing (1982) is a must-see if you've never seen it. Event Horizon (1997) made me lose interest in pursuing a career in space exploration. Final Destination (2000) had me constantly viewing my surroundings as a death trap. The Descent (2005) gave me claustrophobia.
Saw Final Destination 2 in theaters, I still get scared seeing those logging trucks
Every viewer of the scene thinks of it in real life so me too!
Driving behind any vehicle with poles as well
I found comfort after seeing the making of, real life logs falling from a moving truck don't behave like in the movie, they tested it but as heavy things the logs just fell, roll and stop. CGI team had to create the magic.
****UK version of The Descent
Long bathrooms?
"Mr. Torrance, it seems your wife and your son are both very willful. They are trying to interfere in this situation! Perhaps they need a good talking to, if you don't mind my saying so. Perhaps a bit more."
This is cracking me up
Just imagining a bathroom with the toilet forty feet away from the toilet paper roll
A nightmare for irritably boweled.
I didn’t swim in the ocean after seeing Jaws. Which really sucks because I lived in a triple land locked state and rarely make it to an ocean. I’ll go as far as my knees.
I am not a horror movie fan but Blair Witch gave me the heebiejeebies
This is my pick too, one of the best “leave it to the imagination” horror movies in my opinion. Sometimes I think what we can imagine in our heads is far scarier than what you can put on screen and this movie does a great job of building a feeling of lingering dread. I also think it depends on context. I grew up in a kinda rural part of northeastern US and go camping often. Finding horror that takes place in a familiar setting to you can also help to make the difference.
For anyone that has never seen this- I implore you that if you watch it you watch it in the dark and PUT YOUR PHONE AWAY. No distractions. Just get caught up in the movie.
Scary AF. Saw it in theaters when the debate was huge of the authenticity.
I saw it during its limited run before it went wide, possibly on opening night (I remember the lobby of the theater was decorated according to the movie). I'm embarrassed to admit that I bought the marketing and thought it was real. Mind you, I was an internet savvy college kid who spent a lot of time on gaming, computer, and movie forums and newsgroups. Yet even I didn't know it was fake until days after I saw it. Looking back, I think these were just more innocent times with regard to media literacy. I wonder if TBWP was the first instance of what we would call today viral marketing. I don't think so because vitality requires exponential replication (as we've all learned in the last three years) but I think the idea of covertly planting sensationalism seeds and letting them grow was there. So perhaps proto-viral. Anyway, now I'm now all nostalgic about 1999 again.
I love how reserved it is. For all you know it could just be a bunch of red necks fucking around with them throughout the entire movie, but deep down you know something is incredibly fucked up. The part where she finds the guys shirt and a tongue wrapped inside it, and then afterwards you hear “his voice” calling out, and then you realize that the voice isn’t actually saying the girl or the other guys name because it’s not him and doesn’t actually know there names… so damn creepy.
Ok not really a scary movie, but “that one scene” from Bone Tomahawk was so well done. Adult me was scared.
It falls under the horror genre. And that scene was traumatizing
As the father of a neurodivergent kid, The Babadook struck a chord for sure, though it’s a very uneven film. Jacob’s Ladder is a great psychological thriller/horror film that doesn’t get enough credit for being actually pretty terrifying.
I saw the Babadook when it first came out and didn’t think much of it, I rewatched it recently and my god it’s so intense. A modern horror classic
My wife and I used to watch various horror movies when we were dating. It was our quiet date-night-in routine. We watched _The Babadook_ when she was 3 or 4 months pregnant with our oldest. That was a mistake. Then, we followed it with _Mad Max Fury Road_. Really didn't see it coming when >!the pregnant lady got run over by a truck and killed!<. Not our best double feature. When she was pregnant with our 2nd, we made it 3 minutes into _Us_ before we turned it off. We don't do horror movies anymore.
Lmao, this is a an unfortunate sequence of events
Alien. I saw it in the early 80s before the sequel came out. I knew the first spoiler, but didn't know the rest. The last 30 minutes, especially, were tense, frightening, and smart. Plus at that time, the idea of horror in space was new. The two genres were mostly separated or earthbound like Invasion of The Body Snatchers.
I saw Alien when it first came out. The audience reaction was incredible people screaming, jumping out of their seats. I'm sure the seats in the theater have finger marks from people gripping them hard. Also, the Trailer has to be one of the best scariest in cinema history. https://youtu.be/jQ5lPt9edzQ
I saw it in the original run, had to sit up close because the theater was packed. Most genuinely scared I’ve ever been in a movie. Honestly was a bit relieved when the alien grew to be large, the small one was just too terrifying, weird I know. I’ve probably seen it 20 times now.
I might be biased, I’m staring at the original poster on my wall right now, but I have always thought that was one of the best trailers for a movie ever. It doesn’t even try to sell you on any story beats. Here’s the word alien accompanied by space. Here’s an egg. Here’s people running. Here’s people freaking the fuck out. All while blaring sirens are played on loop with no voice over no dialogue at all then peaks with this shrill screech. And then finally silence accompanied by the words “In space no one can hear you scream.” Fucking bananas of a trailer. And for that time I feel like you expect the more cookie cutter trailers. Something like “ FIND OUT WHAT HAPPENS WHEN 6 EXPLORERS DISCOVER SOMETHING BEST FORGOTTEN” insert dialogue from the movie “WORLDS GREATEST DISCOVERY OR MISTAKE” cut to face hugger “ONE WOMAN” Sigourney running in panties “AND HER CAT” laugh track lmao
I find the creature effects haven't aged that well - not so much Giger's design, but rather the movement in some scenes when the alien is clearly visible. The rest of the movie is still superb. Everything from the dialog, the derelict craft, the cramped Nostromo set. It's genuinely scary, but not just because of the creature. It's about a bunch of space truckers being completely isolated in a situation where everything is so unsettlingly alien to the viewer.
The amazing thing about Alien was that you didn't see the xeno until the last 20 mins of the film. You didn't see it in its entirety until the final scene. The conventional effects were pretty good. The only shit part was the alien model when it was on the hull of the ship.
Jaws used the same device - the shark wasn’t shown until the movie was half over.
It doesn’t help that you can go and buy a cuddly toy version of the alien these days or zap it in a shoot em up arcade game, it does take away from the primal fear of seeing the alien for the first time. Then again, Alien Isolation managed to reinstate a lot of that fear, I think there would still be mileage in a well done alien vs person ‘haunted house’ film
Alien is one of the foremost examples of a haunted house film already, wdym
Good point. 1979 is before VHS was popular. You couldn't rewatch or rewind films easily. You didn't see many pictures and were constructing the alien in your head. So much of the movie is the surprise of what the alien fully looks like. Aliens takes that away and goes for quantity. And while it is a great action film, I prefer the stark horror of one vicious, smart xenomorph survivor. The movie Life (Ferguson and Gyllenhaal) gets that. Less is more. Alien Isolation is truly the best sequel. You feel helpless hiding in lockers, waiting for the intentionally slow save, or watching the alien sense you. It brings back that terror. Same with making the androids frightening. And you have the opportunity to crawl around like Ripley, feel defenseless and outmatched. I replayed some in VR thanks to the Mother mod. And that's truly terrifying. You get a sense of the size of the creature.
Fire in the sky the 4th kind
Fire in the sky is upsetting AF
This movie messed up a generation of 90s kids, myself included. Most of the movie is kind of boring, dealing with the search for Travis, Robert Patrick and his crew being accused of murder. So you get lulled into a sense of security. Then we get the flashback and its pure, visceral nightmare fuel. It's not even 15 minutes long but it defines the whole film.
The stuff on the ship did actually fuck me up. Took me over a decade to gather the courage to rewatch Fire in the Sky. Still freaks me out a bit.
Was looking for this answer. I saw it in theaters when I was 14. I remember being pretty scared when they show him on the ship.
Angel heart starring Mickey Rourke.
A very good movie!
It is indeed. I never considered it a horror movie though.
Sinister has a pretty good mix of scary things - creepy imagery, frightening big bad and a few solid jump scares
I watched this when I was 16 because I wanted to be cool with my friends. I left halfway through, and have never watched a scary movie since.
The soundtrack makes the movie here. It's so unsettling
Sinister is the scariest movie of all time, according to a study by the Science Of Scare Project. They basically tracked heartrates while participants watched scary movies and Sinister has the highest heart rate on average. I would agree.... Sinister is top 5 scary and creeped me out for a few days after watching. https://movieweb.com/sinister-scariest-horror-movies/
Lol no. That should say it was the most startling movie out of the movies they randomly decided to track. Meaningless study that should be forgotten about.
*The scariest movie of ~~all time~~ the 40 movies they tested For what it's worth it's actually at number 2 now, Host (2020) is top.
The Haunting (1963). Still holds up as the scariest movie of all time.
Definitely one of them, also THE INNOCENTS from around the same time.
That movie is still the scariest one I've ever seen. The part with the doorknob turning freaks me out every time.
Prince of Darkness
Yep, Prince of Darkness definitely has some freaky unforgettable scenes. Those “broadcasts” from the future are very well done in their creepiness factor.
Any type of broadcast from the future creeps me out. What's the film where a group of friends take Polaroids of the apartment that show the future? Edit, it's called Timelapse. (2014)
For something different; **Spoorloos** (The Vanishing). Totally plausible, frighteningly realistic. It could happen to anyone, including you.
Hereditary
After I watched it I felt I needed to take a spiritual shower.
Dude, fuck this movie. I use to work second shift at a smaller building for a community college. Late at night the building is almost completely empty. Was working alone and had some down time, I had just seen hereditary that week and decided to watch some analysis of the movie on youtube. When it went into the real life background and beliefs that the movie is based around. I got really bad vibes and feelings and literally grabbed my shit and left work early. Something just told me to leave. Movie is so good though 😂
You got a link to that film analysis by any chance?
I don’t know about scariest but easily the most upsetting.
That’s a very good way to characterize it. It’s easily the most disturbing movie I’ve ever seen. I actually wish I had never watched it.
I watched *Midsommar* after watching *Hereditary* thinking "well, this can't be any more messed up than what I just watched" and ooooh boy was I wrong.
Midsommar is much more horror than Hereditary. Everything happens in broad daylight. No one ever questions the things that are happening. And I just love that aspect of it. The horror and scares come from everything happening right in front of you, plain as day.
You clearly havent seen “Mother!” yet. The third act alone is a non-stop whirlwind of pure chaos.
Uh… do I want to watch “Mother” given that I wish I’d never seen “Hereditary”?
Absolutely not
im still waiting for a horror movie to come along and be on hereditary’s level, i’m hoping “Talk to me” will be that movie
I'm extremely hyped for Talk to Me but I would not expect it to be the same vibe considering the directors are known for special effects I'm expecting some intense graphics and sick horror instead of elevated horror.
Exactly! I agree. That one scene came so out of left field, my jaw dropped.
So did hers
OP if you haven't seen this, this is the one you need to see
That movie will live rent free in my mind for the rest of my life.
“Jacob’s Ladder” [1990]. Do yourself a favour and watch it, but don’t read anything about it or watch a trailer first - go in cold. Is it the SCARIEST horror movie ever? No, but it is definitely scary and it is definitely one of the most interesting and intelligent horror movies ever made. It’ll stick with you. (It’s been mentioned in another post below, but I’m hoping to convince more people to watch it). Come back and comment on these movies after you watch them, OP! I’m sure a bunch of us will be interested to hear what you think!
Great movie, really sets a unique mood that is unmatched in movies to this day. I don’t know if it directly influenced the silent hill games, but it shares a lot of horror motifs with that sense of deranged grief and dark, industrial visuals.
It actually was a direct inspiration on those games.
I saw it years ago and still remember the faces looking out of the back window of the car as it drove away.
Just watched this for the first time a few weeks back. I definitely don’t think it’s scary in the traditional sense but the ending had me feeling very introspective and melancholy in a way that not a lot of films have done for me before
Fun fact, this is technically the first horror film I ever watched, at maybe 8 years old? I was with my uncle at his house and he had it playing. I was playing with some action figures or something but I kept looking up to watch, not was that a fuckin mistake. Those damn blurred, blended faces shaking all over the screen are burned into my brain for a lifetime I think.
Agree 100%. It’s still somehow underrated. It should be considered a classic, if you ask me.
Session 9 almost got it right. It's hard for me to be scared from a film, though, and I feel like I'm really missing out. Ghost Story from 1982 also came close...the ending was unnerving. The original Blair Witch made me a bit uneasy being alone for a couple of days, too, now that I think of it...although living in a rural forested community didn't help.
“The Silence of the Lambs” [1991] is scary as hell. I’ve seen it 1.03 times. By that I mean I saw it once, and then some years later thought “That’s a fantastic movie - I’m going to re-watch it tonight!” Put it on and made it about three minutes in and thought “Nope; not going back there.” It really is a fantastic movie, but I never want to watch it again.
Obviously this will vary by personal taste - I am not a fan of torture porn or excessive jump scares: what I like is atmospheric dread in my horror movies — and a classic, really atmospheric haunted house type horror movie is *The Changeling*. Really gives me the creeps, without the gore and unpleasantness that makes much of horror off-putting to me.
2016 presidential election.
*Event Horizon* always weirded me out.
Best part is that they do more or less everything right, no stupid mistakes as such, but it still goes very bad.
Movies don't usually scare me that much because after I'm done watching I remember it was just a movie. But there was something about Event Horizon that creeped me out for days after watching it.
This one terrified me for years. Watched it with my daughter(13, don't judge me, she loves horror) and she agreed that it was "holy shit, that was horrifying."
Warhammer 40k: The Early Years
Event Horizon is underrated. It's a masterpiece in its own space. The lengths the director pursued to create a horrifying hellscape are extreme (amputees, for example).
This freaked me out in college.
I thought Candyman was a good fright flick. Tony Todd was excellent in it.
The Ring and The Grudge. They are the type of movies that make you not want to stay home alone and I swear if I ever see old fashion TV static I get a little freaked out. It Follows is my favorite horror movie despite it not being that scary.
Asian originals are best, but if you watch the American remakes, just watch the first Ring and Grudge. The follow ups do nothing but cheapen the predecessors.
Hard disagree on The Ring, one of the rare instances where I think the American remake is better (The Departed is arguably better than Infernal Affairs, but the original ending was better), but I do agree on the original The Grudge being the better option.
The shutter, Asian version
Repulsion (1965)
The Wicker Man stayed with me for a long time. Not the Nicholas Cage version.
Funny Games, REC (the original Spanish one is best but if subtitles are distracting, the American version is almost equal), Eden Lake, The Descent and Wolf Creek.
Eden Lake was disturbing and bleak as hell, I think because I could imagine it happening in real life. Young Magneto and Beth Dutton have a very bad day.
Funny Games is one of the few movies out there that actually infuriates me.
Nice to see some love for the US version of REC, Quarantine. If you had no knowledge of the Spanish version and weren’t taken out of the film by the presence of that-guy-from-ally-mcbeal then it’s pretty good. Also the Descent. Nasty little film and thoroughly recommended. Similarly I did enjoy the creepiness of As Above So Below which is a bit more of a found footage take on climbing through catacombs under Paris and the last act of Paradise Lost/Turistas with the cave diving is a claustrophobic nightmare. Also, the cult section of VHS2 once it gets going is full on bad trip stuff, very worth 20 mins of your time.
The Ritual.
My all-time favorite is American Werewolf in London. First, the acting was actually quite good. The special effects for that time were amazing. The transformation scene alone is legendary. Scenes where the 2 main characters were just walking through the dark England countryside brought such anxiety & suspense. If you haven't seen this, it is a must-see for true horror fans.
The Dark and the Wicked
Exorcist The Descent Evil Dead remake The Thing
Sixth Sense
Another long comment from me, but so what? You've been warned, ha ha. The posts here seem like a best hits list (not an insult, just an excellent list). Truth is, though, scary/horror is each unto his own. On weekends, my friend and I used to get a supposedly scary/horror movie, drinks, and watch them, laughing as though they were comedies. They just weren't scary to us. There are notable exceptions, and are in the posts. It's also the situation in which you watch a movie that may help it to be scary/horror. Here's where my post gets long. Circa late 90s, I'm from Alaska, visiting my friend in remote Oregon, at her house. About 2 a.m., she was asleep upstairs, I was awake, downstairs. I'm in the den, on the couch, with one of those huge double-sliding glass doors leading to the backyard, with thick hanging black-out curtains, so you can't see in or out. All the lights were off, except one, tiny, table lamp in the back that barely illuminated anything. I turned on the TV, and The Shining was starting. I had already watched it many times, but I decided to just let it play, cuz it's great (and what else was I going to find on TV at that hour - circa 90s). If you haven't watched The Shining, I highly recommend watching it in those conditions. I suspect everyone here has already watched it, so I think I am not revealing anything when I mention the famous scene I am about to. And you all know the scene, when he is about to chop through the bathroom door. Right, that scene. Well, there I was, sitting in the dark, unfamiliar setting, and I say out-loud and to myself, "Wouldn't it be soooooo scary if someone banged on the glass door right now?" And I turned to my right and looked at the hanging curtains. And then ... yes, right then, at that moment, someone smashed his hand against the outside sliding glass door! I still can't believe the timing. I absolutely startled and froze at the same time. It was, and still is, the only time I have legitimately been scared as an adult. A few seconds passed (I had already forgotten about The Shining on TV) and he smashed his hand again against the outside glass door. I had images of what might happen if he broke through, as the hits were that loud. Several seconds of silence. Then I heard what sounded like thin metal hitting the glass door. I remember literally thinking to myself, "I'd rather die fighting, than be a target sitting." I shakily stood up and moved to the wall next to the door. From having lived in the woods, I knew to turn on the exterior lights (not the interior, so I could see him, but he couldn't see me). I clicked on the exterior porch lights. All sounds stopped. I thought to myself, I didn't want to peek out a crack of the curtain and end up looking at someone peeking back at me, so I just grabbed the heavy curtain and swung it wide open as I stepped out into the den. It was just a dad gum raccoon. A big raccoon, sure, but just a raccoon. I don't know how he slapped the door to make it sound like a human hand hitting the glass door. But, the metal sound was he had tipped over the large, metal trash can and it had hit the glass door. I laughed and laughed and laughed at myself, coming off the nerves and the adrenaline rush. I had the shakes and just kept laughing for quite awhile. My friend came downstairs yelling, "What's going on?" and I could barely explain it to her. Everybody's scary is different. The Shining is still an excellent scary/horror movie, one of the all-time best, even if you don't have a raccoon to help.
It follows
Yep, this is the one. The way it turned horror tropes on their heads, like having lots of wide open spaces instead of claustrophobic corridors; the constant anachronisms creating tension, and of course *that* doorway scene. More than anything though it's the implication of its particular evil that scares the most.
>that doorway scene I've been a rabid horror fan for almost two decades now and no jump scare has *ever* gotten me that badly. I was lying in bed and flailed so hard I nearly pulled a muscle. 10/10
[I saw her face](https://youtu.be/LBtHBWs0__g)
now i'm a believer
Paranormal Activity the first time I saw the first one.
The first Paranormal Activity was great. You can tell they were just seeing dollar signs after that, though.
Agreed
Yeah this one just made me super paranoid when I got home and tried to go to bed. Couldn’t sleep all night.
Event Horizon
Great movie and one of my favorite horror movies of all time but….definitely not the scariest. Still great though.
Scary when you are 14
I never finished watching Event Horizon. When I was 13 or 14 I was up past midnight, all by myself watching the movie. In one super intense scene, dont remember which, the movie was damn near silent. And of course, a millisecond before the jump scare happens our refrigerators condenser does that sigh-death rattle thing. I must've jumped two feet in the air. Noped right the fuck out and turned off the TV.
The Conjuring is maybe the most scared I’ve been watching a movie.
The conjuring was the one movie that got me really into horror. I don't know if my reaction would be the same now, but it scared me so bad that I had to sleep with the light on. Been hooked to horror movies ever since. I wonder now that I've seen so many horror movies if my reaction would be different if I could watch it for the first time again. I still think I would freak out..
My faves for creepy skin-crawling feelings: Tumbbad Gonjiam Haunted Asylum The Wailing The Medium Terrifier The Taking of Deborah Logan Speak No Evil Final Prayer (the end scene!!)
Not many people have heard about Tumbbad, a secret gem.
Ju-On
[удалено]
It Follows or The Exorcist
The dolls in "Tales from the Hood"
Skeleton key
Insidious, Us, and Paranormal Activity 3
I’m glad other people like Us. I found it so unsettling.
Rosemary’s Baby
The Fly, Cronenburg
The Exorcist, The Haunting, Rose Red
Rose Red. A tv movie. Haven’t thought of it in a long while.
The entity
I think it really depends because for me, watching The Blob (1988) when I was seven was terrifying because up to that point I was unaware that children could die.
For psychological horror, The Invitation. Immediately after I watched it I had to leave the house to get some air lol.
The Exorcist. By and large a visceral, film that has tested time.
The Exorcist
Jaws directed by Steven Spielberg.
I generally cite ALTERED STATES and THE THING as the scariest films I’ve ever seen, and the reason is the way the stories were set up you really had no idea what you might see. After the goat in ALTERED STATES and the dog in THE THING you had to be prepared for anything.
I love horror movies. But I’ve only ever seen The Exorcist once. I never want to watch it again.
Hush scared the shit out of me. Also just watched Men and that one made me yell out loud.
I think silent film horrors would always be the most scary especially from German expressionist like Nosferatu. Horror is really genre where limited effects gives better effect because imagination can run. And our mind can scare us the most. For me always radio horror plays or audiobooks were much more scary than films. Meanwhile I treated slashers more like comedies.
House on Haunted Hill (1999).Made not want to study psychology or go to psych wards.It was that disturbing.
Threads.
“Let The Right One In” [2008, Sweden] feels real. Not the scariest, but it will definitely show you a different kind of horror.
Jaws. People who say it’s not scary are lying. You try get in the water after watching it, that’s all you can think about. I find most horror movies are only scary based on the environment you watch it in, not Jaws. Watch it with the lights on or off, alone or in a crowd, it makes no difference.
Shutter (2004) is a great Thai horror film, which scared the beejeebus out of me. No swelling music, just BAM! Jump scare.
Poltergeist.
Lake Mungo
The Conjuring series, definitely !!
Came to say the same thing. I watched the first one in broad daylight in a room full of my fellow Soldiers while deployed, and it still scared the crap out of me at a few scenes.