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October 31, 2005
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What scares you the most in movies?

— Posted by John Campea

Sadako-Ringu.jpgI recorded a programme on UK TV this weekend about the technicalities of scares in movies. In the first five minutes I watched John Carpenter and John Landis talking about the things they believe scare people in movies.

Since it’s Halloween I thought it a good idea to ask you what you find scary in the movies? I don’t mean the film itself, but what actual techniques and physical things scare you? Here’s a few from my list that I thought of…

Creepy kids
Not seeing what should be seen - hidden faces, action off camera
Seeing something the character can’t
…and similar to that one, seeing something before it happens
Thick forests at night
Noises off camera

There’s a few, are some of these the ones that scare you the most? Is there anything else? What are the vehicles and devices that scare you?

Update:
Here’s an excellent quote from John Landis during the Channel 4 show exploring the scariness of movies (the show was pretty poor)…

What really scares me? People. People really scare me because people kill people. I don’t know one person killed by a vampire or a werewolf or Godzilla. I really don’t. People scare the shit out of me.

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  • sup3rbuck

    As a child, around 1985 The Fog creep’d me out.

    But in recent time, i think the Texas Chainsaw Massacre was pretty scary. That scene where he haunts them to a small house, the guy hides in a closset and the girl hides between walls.

    My god, awsome scene, he finds them and the big fella put his foot on the girl, holds her down like an animal while he prepares to chop up the poor boy (bottoms up)..

    Very nice indeed.

  • Brian

    The fear of dolls, mannequins, and ventriliquest’s dummies is called “automatonophobia”. (Ever see Dead Of Night?)

    When I was a kid I got frightened by someone on the other side of a darkened window. To this day movies with scenes of faces behind glass (eg. Carnival Of Souls, The Innocents) usually freak me out pretty soundly.

    I’ve noticed that very tight camera framing which blocks out the character’s peripheral vision always gets the nerves jangling. You know that there’s something just offscreen about to pounce.

  • JohnIan

    “White Chicks”.

    Not women. Not Men. I don’t know. Freaky. Kinda in Ragner country. Scary.

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