Since Simple American tagged me for this Horror Movie meme, here we go! Sorry for it being a few days after Halloween but my days have been pretty hectic lately!
In all honesty, I’m seriously a coward when it comes to horror movies. The supernatural just freaks me out for some reason! I mean, give me a good old blood and gore flick, and I’m totally fine, but throw in any element of the supernatural (ghosts, ghouls, ESP, whatever) and I’m outta there. I used to have nightmares when I was little, so I stopped watching horror movies. I can’t even be the last person downstairs and walk upstairs turning the lights out as I am convinced “something” will jump out of the darkness and get me, or that if I look back, I will see red eyes shining right back at me. But, since Jerry wanted to know what scares the bejeebers out of me, I’ll put out the list. 🙂
Let’s get to the 10 Scariest Movies that I’ve seen:
1. The Shining – This guy made me watch this movie “it’s a classic, you MUST see it”, never mind that I told him that I can’t take the horror genre. Anyway, we watched it late at night, a group of us. I ended up shivering and scared at the end of the movie (the others had seen it before, so fell asleep sometime during the show, leaving me hiding under the blankets by myself). I am so scared of this movie I have blocked out portions of it. Guess what, I will NEVER go and house-sit for anyone in any place. Especially not in the winter. K? I avoid thinking about it. In fact, as I’m writing this, I’m carefully skirting mentioning any portion of the movie that scared me to bits.
2. Jaws – This was a movie that I watched when I was younger. Again, portions of the movie has been blocked from my conscious memory, but because of this movie, I cannot swim alone at night. Not even in a swimming pool. Ishhhhh. And one of the first things I tried to play when I took cello lessons (briefly) as a child, was the 2 semitone Jaws theme.
3. Alien – OMG this one is TOTALLY Hisham’s fault! I watched it late night with Hisham (I want to say it was New Year’s Eve, one of the few nights we were allowed to stay up past our 9:30 PM Bedtime at the time). That whole face-hugging, chest-bursting, acid-bleeding alien shit is frakking scary, OK? Another one that I dreamed about for years. I tried to read Alan Dean Foster’s book, and literally could not get through it. I was scared shitless. I couldn’t even put my foot on the floor because I was convinced one of those danged critters would skitter out from under my bed.
4. The Omen – I actually read the book first. Scared me to bits, but my friend Azura from ACS dared me to watch this show (the cowardly Sila would have preferred to just have been completely unaware of this). Another one of those movies where I just wanted to wet my pants with fear.
5. The Exorcist – This one and the next two movies were all completely my own decision (as opposed to accidentally watching or some friend or other making me watch the movie). I thought that I was lacking in some cultural references so I went ahead and watched some of the classic scary movies. I found out the hard way why they were scary and classic.
6. Poltergeist – Totally resonated with me because the ACS Primary field behind the old school hall used to be where prisoners were tortured and killed during World War II. We have had stories of hauntings and the unrestful dead causing trouble at that area for years. Add to that the rumors (which I think are true) that my boarding school was built on this hill after graves had been exhumed. There are all kinds of scariness going on in that place, too. I heard it with my own ears one night, and ever since then slept with my Walkman on full blast in the dorms. And tried never to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night (thank god for young bladders, these days I would have been a goner for sure).
7. Psycho – I had seen clips of the shower scene with the classic “eeng eeeng eeeng” music in the background since I was a child, so finally I watched it myself. It has certainly stood the test of time, and I much prefer the original Hitchcock to the remake. I didn’t find the remake as frightening as that old black and white movie. This is why I try to stay in reputable chain hotels. 😉
8. Friday the 13th – Actually I didn’t see the whole movie. I was pretty young at the time (6/7?) and was not allowed to watch horror movies as they brought on nightmares and tears. So one night I woke up, I must have been thirsty or something. I went looking for my mum. And my parents were watching this movie. I came into the room just in time to see a red-headed woman get beheaded in a most dramatic fashion. This scene has haunted me since then! I think I ended up screaming and scaring my parents! I have seen this scene since then, as an adult, supposedly to confront my fears. The scene turned out not to look at all realistic in the movie when I saw it, but the scene in my memory is still vivid, bloody, and the fear I felt as the little girl seeing this occur has not gone away.
9. Millenium (the TV Series) – Holy cow, I used to dread Friday nights and yet could not look away because I promised Hisham I would tape these shows for him (this is way before DVRs and downloading from the internet and such). It’s also a reflection of my lack of social life in college (I stopped dating for a couple of years – what can I say, nobody caught my eye) that I was watching TV on Friday nights ;-). But there were really some bloody scary moments on this show. One time there was a thunderstorm going on outside, and I was watching this show. I ended up having to turn the TV off (while continuing to record the show) and going into my roommate’s room and hiding under the blanket with her because I was so scared. Plus Lance Henriksen was in Aliens and one cannot help but think of him being cut in half by the Queen yet still hanging on for dear life and saving little Newt. He has the kind of face that just makes you think he can be veeery veeeery scary.
10. Pushing Tin – I realize this is not a horror movie. But it falls into the horror genre for me. At the time I watched it, I was flying weekly in and out of Boston to various parts of the country for my project work. Let me tell you, a movie about rival air traffic controllers who play “chicken” with planes taking off and landing is seriously not something you want to be watching the night before you have to get up early to go and catch a plane. OK? Petty rivalries and backstabbing with air traffic controlling as being their weapon of choice – so not funny. I couldn’t stop thinking about planes colliding and whatnot for months after watching this movie. Especially during take offs and landings. Ugh!
That’s it for my 10 scariest movies. It’s probably just about as many horror movies as I’ve seen in my life. I read about half a chapter of Stephen King’s “It” and swore off horror genre I watched Shaun of the Dead, but I wouldn’t classify that as horror. Ditto Scream. But that’s about it.
Who to tag? Who to tag?
1. LiLiaN
2. Athena
3. Purple D
4. Selena
5. AtukZ
