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Posted at 2:21PM on 14 Apr 09. Permalink.

I can handle a little uncanny valley. It's splatter/torture stuff that I hate; I have seen none of the Saw or Hostel films, and don't plan to, ever. Imagination is already overactive and I'm not feeding it that kind of stuff - just don't need it.

Posted at 2:30PM on 14 Apr 09. Permalink.

I can totally handle splatter and gore (I am just not interested in Saw et al). In fact there is some gore in Quarantine that I sat through quite happily. Well not "happily"

Posted at 2:37PM on 14 Apr 09. Permalink.

Hadyn, what happened to our division of labour policy? Not only are you now keeping my hours, but you're scared by what scares me too?

Alien = scary
Aliens = gory not scary

My kids have almost open access to my bookshelves. I've told my son to let me know when he doesn't want to sleep for a week and I'll give him The Shining .

Posted at 2:49PM on 14 Apr 09. Permalink.

The Shining is, hands down, the scariest film I have ever seen (I never read the book despite being a big King fan as a teenager). The scene where Shelley Duvall walks up the stairs and sees a person in a bear suit is fucking terrifying.

Posted at 2:51PM on 14 Apr 09. Permalink.

The Shining = most definitely not scary. Stephen King in fact colourfully lambasted Kubrick for his total cluelessness in this regard on more than one public occasion.

Posted at 2:55PM on 14 Apr 09. Permalink.

I've seen The Shining several times over the years, and still find it terrifying. The twin girls: "Come and play with us Danny, forever and ever and ever"...

Posted at 3:07PM on 14 Apr 09. Permalink.

The scene where Shelley Duvall walks up the stairs and sees a person in a bear suit is fucking terrifying.

You are incorrect. Anything with anyone in bear costumes is awesome. It is a Truth Universally Acknowledged!

My kids have almost open access to my bookshelves.

Give them Lunar Park or The House of Leaves if you ever miss them sleeping in your bed...

Posted at 3:11PM on 14 Apr 09. Permalink.

werewolves ever were the ones in Harry Potter (followed by the Nazis in American Werewolf in London)

I only recall being totally freaked out by a fillum once as a kid - a TV movie called 'Satan's Triangle'.

It showed on NZ tv in about 1977. Kim Novak had an evil smile and turned into the Devil at the end. It was freaky.

American Werewolf in London didn't scare me because it had what seemed at the time to be a really hot sex scene in it. (Come on, I was 16...). That's all I remember about it. I haven't seen it since.

Posted at 3:12PM on 14 Apr 09. Permalink.

The scariest "book" I read was a Stephen King short story (his best work was in short stories) about a kid who meets the devil in the forest somewhere in (surprise!) Maine.

The Shining = most definitely not scary

Giovanni you tough old bastard. What is the scariest film then?

Posted at 3:27PM on 14 Apr 09. Permalink.

Giovanni you tough old bastard. What is the scariest film then?

Can I also say that I'm the whimpiest man on earth? But evidently I don't cover the whole spectrum because while I enjoyed The Shining, part of the reason why I enjoyed it is that it didn't scare me, and being scared makes me fill ill. But you can see everything happen such a mile off, and I'm sorry but the twins, the bear suit... they really are barely perturbing, let alone scary.

As for the scariest film, I don't know, I can say that as a lad I was quite honestly terrified by the early Dario Argento flicks, which I more or less saw as a dare. Profondo Rosso... cripes.

I'm with you on the Nazis in American Werewolf in London. While the rest of my family laughed it off as a kitsch romp, I was under the table.

Posted at 3:41PM on 14 Apr 09. Permalink.

I've heard good things about Suspiria . And by good I mean bricks were shat.

Posted at 3:44PM on 14 Apr 09. Permalink.

I heard 'Rec' was supposed to be the 'scariest movie ever made'...but then when I watched it, it took me straight to Letdown City. Yaaaawn...

Scariest story I've ever read was a Stephen King short story about a guy talking to his therapist about how the Boogie Man had stolen his family...and then his therapist turns out to be the Boogie Man. BOOM! Never even saw it coming...

Posted at 3:45PM on 14 Apr 09. Permalink.

I can remember going to see Texas Chainsaw Massacre in the early 80's. About the same time was when Friday the Thirteenth et al came out as well, I think. I discovered I do not like horror movies. Surprise.

Posted at 3:46PM on 14 Apr 09. Permalink.

I've heard good things about Suspiria. And by good I mean bricks were shat.

Oo, thanks Sam, I'd forgotten about Suspiria, that was well creepy.

Posted at 3:54PM on 14 Apr 09. Permalink.

Suspiria: The Only Thing More Terrifying Than The Last 12 Minutes Of This Film Are The First 92.

Sounds interesting, but if it's actually scary I'm probably not going to see it. Any zombies in it?

Posted at 4:00PM on 14 Apr 09. Permalink.

No zombies in Suspiria, no. Some pretty vicious killings. Boy.

Posted at 4:04PM on 14 Apr 09. Permalink.

No zombies in Suspiria, no. Some pretty vicious killings. Boy.

A review of this movie appears in Peter Nicholls' Fantastic Cinema under the heading 'Are Italians Sadists?'

I'm just sayin'.

It's vicious, but it's also... eerie. Unsettling. Uncanny valley, except the valley is an art deco ballet school.

Posted at 4:04PM on 14 Apr 09. Permalink.

Funny thing is, horror films have always bored me. If any films do make me jump, they'd probably be political dystopia films such as Sleeping Dogs or V for Vendetta.

Posted at 4:40PM on 14 Apr 09. Permalink.

There are a few common factors to horror and suspense movies that I have thought about over the years. Some affect me more than others.

Warning - Here be spoilers

1. Made you Jump! - example : the hand-from-the-grave in Carrie , any of the Friday the Thirteenth series. Good for an adrenaline shot but almost always followed by a laugh.

2. Corruption of the Loved - example : The Omen . This one really gets me. I know my son can be a handful, but even if he was actually the spawn of Satan, could I bring myself to do what Damien's father tries to do? (See, I can't even type it out un-euphemistically)

3. Corruption of the Body - example : The Fly . The original scared the bejeesus out of me as a kid. The remake (with Jeff Goldblum) was more revolting than scary. But as a metaphor for the inevitable breakdown of the body due to the aging process, it becomes more scary as you get older.

4. Who Can you Trust? - example : The Thing . With no outside help available how do you tell who is the monster when they all look like normal people? Don't fall asleep or you'll find out the answer... most unpleasantly.

5. The Unseen Threat - example : Alien , of course. Unfortunately the monster can never remain concealed and this spoils 99% of monster movies as the revealed creature is usually a bit of a laugh.

I'm sure Geoff Lealand in his expert capacity can expand on this brief list.

Posted at 5:04PM on 14 Apr 09. Permalink.

Watership Down = Hands Down most traumatising film ever experienced by kids of our generation. That beating exposed heart in the drain pipe. Holy Sheeat. WTF were my parents thinking.

The Omen - Still have memories of sneaking down the stairs and peaking through the rails to see the journalist beheaded by the panes of glass.

Ahh I love reminiscing about reminiscing.

Posted at 5:06PM on 14 Apr 09. Permalink.

There are a few common factors to horror and suspense movies that I have thought about over the years

Here are the three ingredients to most horror films (no spoilers):

1. Sin - someone does something ethically questionable (sex, drugs, stealing, murder)

2. Punishment - the evil whatever (undead dude with a machete for example) kills a bunch of the people who did the sinning

3. Redemption - one of the sinners kills the evil and, through some measure of penance, is redeemed.

Unsurprisingly these line up perfectly to a three act structure.

Posted at 5:12PM on 14 Apr 09. Permalink.

@haydn, I agree compeletely.

Sin, Punishment, Redemption/Salvation - is a whole horror sub-genre all by itself.

Posted at 5:14PM on 14 Apr 09. Permalink.

Sin, Punishment, Redemption/Salvation - is a whole horror sub-genre all by itself.

Nothing Mel Gibson couldn't have told us...

Posted at 10:28PM on 14 Apr 09. Permalink.

So the Communist threat of the Bodysnatchers became the consumer-culture zombies of Dawn of the Dead which became the anger-fuelled hordes in 28 Days Later which became (for some reason) CGI vampires trying to kill Will Smith.

It should be noted that I Am Legend in various forms predates the crappy Will Smith version by quite a bit. I've only seen The Last Man On Earth with Vincent Price but it was much, much better.

Saw The Shining the other night, it had some genuinely creepy parts, mainly because of Kubrick's wonderfully unsettling sense of timing.

Posted at 8:29AM on 15 Apr 09. Permalink.

Watership Down = Hands Down most traumatising film ever experienced by kids of our generation. That beating exposed heart in the drain pipe. Holy Sheeat. WTF were my parents thinking.

Oh yeah. I remember watching that as a kid and realising suddenly that the world was a very cruel place. I still feel sad whenever I hear the cheesy theme song (I recall it was a minor hit at the time), remembering those poor fluffy rabbits and how they all snuffed it.

The Shining is one of the better horror films. I also remember being freaked out by The Exorcist, although it has been parodied so many times it's probably no longer scary.

Posted at 8:42AM on 15 Apr 09. Permalink.

I avoid scary movies, actually most movies to be honest.
The book that freaked me out the most was American Psycho , absolutely no desire to see that movie despite Christian Bale. I had to put the book down every few pages to recover.
Another story that scared me I don't remember the name of or the author, but involved a person climbing a circular tower, never getting to the top and unable to stop as there was 'something' behind them. Of the 'nameless horror' genre I guess.

Posted at 9:06AM on 15 Apr 09. Permalink.

Another story that scared me I don't remember the name of or the author, but involved a person climbing a circular tower, never getting to the top and unable to stop as there was 'something' behind them.

The story was called "Copyright Must Change".

Posted at 9:09AM on 15 Apr 09. Permalink.

something that looks like a person but isn't moving or acting correctly.

The sequel to '28 days later' - '28 weeks later' - is not a particularly good film (or particularly scary), but some of the extras on the dvd are interesting.

Most of the zombie extras were played by professional dancers or people from that sort of background. People who were trained in body movement and could easily add a sort of unnatural jerky twitchiness to their movements, with their limbs or head moving in the 'wrong' manner when they run or attack.

By far and away the most unsettling thing to watch in the film.

Posted at 9:19AM on 15 Apr 09. Permalink.

The story was called "Copyright Must Change".

Horrible. You long for someone to step on the zombie's face, just to put it out of it's misery, but the awful petty-pointscoring yibbling continues right through the end credits.

Posted at 9:25AM on 15 Apr 09. Permalink.

By far and away the most unsettling thing to watch in the film.

Wait a minute, more unsettling than the crazed husband gouging his wife's eyes out in her hospital bed? That sort of stayed with me.

I quite liked Dead Ringers for creepy, unsettling but not overly gory body horror.