I’m not sure how many more articles I will be writing between now and Sunday morning so I decided it is time to ask a question I also asked last year around this time: What are the scariest movies you’ve ever seen?
Last year I also listed six movies I consider to be the scariest I have ever seen. Those six were Them (Ils), The Ring, The Orphanage, The Descent, Jaws and The Exorcist. Before writing that up I had not seen [REC], which I would certainly include along with this year’s Paranormal Activity, a film I consider to be the most frightening movie I have ever seen. I would also add The Others to the list.
While we’re on the topic, one thing I started thinking about lately, especially with the growing number of people commenting around the Internet about how much they hated Paranormal Activity and how it didn’t scare them at all, etcetera, etcetera… was how different films scare different people for different reasons. For instance, right now there is a group of people out there claiming the three theater release of The House of the Devil is a scary movie, but I got very little out of it, the least of which being scares.
I get scared more by what isn’t seen than by what is seen, which is one of the reasons Paranormal Activity gave me such a scare and why something such as Rob Zombie’s Halloween remake does nothing for me. I get a rush from the films that can deliver chills up my spine as opposed to those that can gross me out. So please, remember this when commenting and try not to insult one movie or another just because you didn’t find it to be scary, because what you may find scary may differ wildly from what will scare someone else.
For example, my stepmother will run and hide if you even attempt to show her an earthworm, and I’m not talking about just your typical frightened reaction to a spider climbing on the wall. I am talking about shit-your-pants, running away freaked! I don’t get it, but it’s the fact of the matter, and as a result I suggest anyone else scared of worms stay clear of the 1976 film Squirm… Watch the clip above and perhaps pick it up at Netflix, if you dare…. Booga, booga, booga!
Happy Halloween.
