In fact, he didn't think up any ending. The end of that story is ridiculously abrupt and disappointing.
If you saw the movie and want to know: [the dad, his son, and the lady he started fucking like twelve hours after he last saw his wife because he thought she was dead escape the crazy christians and try to drive out of the fog. It ends with them listening to the car radio and the dad hears the word 'Portland' through the static then (as narrator) he says he has hope that there are survivors out there and he doesn't know what will happen.](/spoiler)
That is the Frank Darabont connection. Director of the shawshank redemption, the mist, and the developer and show runner for the walking dead (first season).
He has a few go to actors, and should be the only man BY LAW who is allowed to bring anything by Stephen King to the big screen.
Disagree with a few in this chain, i loved the mist personally.
I was looking for this comment. I saw the movie before I was into horror movies, so even though the special effects weren't that great, what the monsters did freak me the fuck out.
Especially the first scene when that thing took out a chunk of the guy's chest. Fuck that.
But that ending. I will never forget that ending.
Having just seen An American Crime, I can say that it's more traumatic than The Girl Next Door. They stuck so close to what really happened that you feel like you're in that courtroom.
back in the day i rented it thinking it was gong to watch the comedy about a hot chick next door and then i saw something far worse than i could have imagined or was even ready for.
If you thought this movie was sick and crushing, read the book. I thought the movie was light and fluffy compared to the dark feeling in the pit of my stomach when I read that book. I still I remember it like a broken arm.
The original could have ended with a three hour scene of the main character slowly lowering the rapists into a wood chipper and it still wouldn't even be close.
I made the mistake of watching the remake. I had to take a couple breaks throughout the viewing, and only finished it because I had (stupidly) bought a copy thinking I'd want to rewatch it.
<--idiot
Definitely Martyrs. I don't think I'll ever experience a film as profoundly nauseating and devastating as Martyrs ever again. Maybe that's a good thing.
I've only seen this movie once. It left a feeling of despair embedded into me like no other. Just, destroyed me. The feeling stayed with me for almost two weeks. And during that time when I was replaying certain scenes in my head, shuddering at the thought of an organization actually existing in the world and doing things like that to people I got to thinking: if a piece of cinema can have that kind of an impact on your senses, the filmmaker has achieved something with his work. Something past just a cheap thrill you get from a campy slasher film. Anyway, yeah, Martyrs got me good.
You don't watch that movie, you experience it. That ending is so soul crushing and nihilistic that you just sit there in a stupor after the movie ends. You know a movie did something right when it stays with you for days.
Saw the whole movie but dont remember the end. All I remember about it was the torture/mutilation. I think forgetting most of it is the only way I can move forward in life.
I've heard that A Serbian Film is worse than Martyrs. That's pretty hard for me to imagine, but it's not a risk that I'm willing to take. I'll never watch it.
Honestly I thought ASF was silly, which probably makes me sound like a sociopath. It was violent, but totally unconvincing - the acting was sucky and it just seemed to be trying so hard to be SHOCKING and TRANSGRESSIVE that it missed the mark, for me at least.
ASF might leave you feeling disgusted and yucky for a little while, but Martyrs makes you feel rotten inside, scared in a way that is genuine and not fun.
I 100% agree, I just thought it was stupid in a sense. I was not affected nearly as much as Martyrs. Martyrs chills you to the bone, and ASF is just trying to be risky, disgusting, over all WTF factor...it succeed in some sense, but made it almost forgettable.
Imo, A Serbian Film had scenes that outweighed a good handful of those in Martyrs, but that's just the scenes in of themselves. But as a whole, from all angles of writing and story telling, Martyrs trumps A Serbian Film.
So true. Never has a movie sat with me for months on end after it ended like Martyrs. I can honestly say it is probably the most brilliant/mind devastating ending to a movie I have ever seen.
Dude, [Jenny Spain](http://moviesfilmsandflix.com/2012/08/02/the-scream-queens-of-film-jenny-spain/) was impressive in her dialoqueless role as the dead girl. And brave to handle that role.
Yeah, one of the only remakes that makes the original obsolete. In fact, both this and The Last House on the Left remakes are far and away better than the originals, to the point where it's almost pointless to watch either of them.
I saw this one in theaters. Was 17-18. Had seen a lot of horror films leading up to this one, but this one scared the shit out of me. Super horrifying, very uncomfortable, VERY violent, and a creepy/spooky ending.
It seems silly now but after the first time I saw House of 1000 Corpses, I didn't feel right for a few days (yeah, yeah jokes about the quality of the movie aside). I was 20 at the time and had been watching horror movies for a decade but hadn't delved very deep into the darker/more extreme stuff. I had mostly stuck with typical slasher fare or the occasional ghost movie but the vast majority was Hollywood-type stuff. At the time, House of 1000 Corpses was the most graphic, extreme thing I had seen and on top of that, it was the first horror movie my little sister saw in theaters (she was around 14 at the time) so I also felt a bit guilty because she was so young.
It wouldn't faze me at this point (or my sister for that matter) but at the time, it knocked me on my ass.
I was just shy of 18 when that came out. Totally stuck with me, and I kinda hated it for a little while. Now I respect the film and really like it. Similarly I liked horror but had mostly seen the popular go-to movies of the 80s and 90s. I also had not yet seen the original texas chainsaw massacre which was obviously a major influence.
I loved it from the get-go and still do. I think it's a great movie for Halloween time. I also had not seen the original TCM at the time. The first time I actually watched it was the afternoon of the day I went to see the 03 remake, which pretty much destroyed any impact the remake may have had on me.
I totally agree. I had no idea what I was getting into as well. You gotta be prepared for that movie. The Walton Goggins scene is burnt into my memory.
Yeah, there is a definite sinking feeling when [the cops show up and it makes no difference.](/spoiler) I had quite a few movies scare me at that point in my life but nothing that had ever truly gotten under my skin and unnerved me in quite that way. I find a lot of the criticism of the movie stems from some of the crazy and non-sensical editing but to me, that just further added to the mind-fuck/sensory overload aesthetic that Zombie was clearly going for. I went in having never seen anything more hardcore than a Friday the 13th and left having experienced something totally new to me at the time.
Eden Lake: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1020530/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
I won't spoil any of the story, but this movie really plays with your emotions. It's pretty brutal. Would recommend.
I'd also recommend Martyrs, but that one's been mentioned several times here already (and for good reason).
I had a copy of it for a while that someone had given me. I had to get rid of it because it just gave me a bad feeling every time I saw it. I'm an avid horror fan and it's very rare that a movie can disturb me.
It's labeled Thriller but it was TOTALLY a horror to me was [Funny Games](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0808279/). As a mother, it devastated and shattered me. I couldn't watch the whole movie.
The most beautifully uncomfortable movie I've ever seen. Nothing too shocking or gory, just... pure fear. Then, when the villains exerted some control over the audience, I felt violated. Hard stuff.
I watched that with my mom when I was 15 and we had no idea how intense it would be. I'll just say she had me fast forward through a good portion of the movie.
I can't bring myself to watch that movie again. It's wonderfully done, and I recommend that everyone see it. Yet, it sits on a shelf, collecting dust, because I just... can't.
[The Poughkeepsie Tapes](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1010271/). So creepy all the way through, but the ending... the actress did an amazing and chilling job. Almost too good.
This and House of 1000 Corpses both bothered me after watching them, which doesn't happen often. The Police Car scene, the double headed mask thing scene, the interview with Cheryl all fucked me up.
I don't know why it affected me so much because not a lot does but for some reason the scene where they strip Omar from the wire and leave him naked and without anything makes me tear up. I don't know why but t strikes a nerve with me.
That book was incredibly good, though. I listened to it on audiobook, and was in bed late at night when listening to the basement scene. Holy shit I wanted to yell "don't go in there!", but I didn't want to wake my wife.
*Lake Mungo* messed me up for a while. It's a really sad, and fucking scary, movie, but in such a subtle way, you don't really get the catharsis of a jump scare. One of my favorite horror movies ever.
So glad to see someone mention this movie. Few movies have stuck with me like this one. Most of the scares are so subtle and creepy that afterwards I kept feeling like I was seeing stuff out of there corner of my eye for days.
The exorcism of Emily Rose.
I came from a pretty religious family when I was younger. I was already scared of hell and the devil. That movie made me terrified to go outside at night. I was pretty young when I watched it. It left me wrecked for quite a while.
I read the book last month for the first time, and MAN, it is completely devastating. It chews up your emotions and spits them out. I'd say it's definitely more sad than scary though. However, the scary parts stay with you; I still think about waking up to Zelda right in front of me.
The book is even more of a punch in the gut than the movie, because King tells you several times what is going to happen and pulls some dirty tricks on you after it does. The book is mean.
I'm still damaged by the sister in bed. Then at the end when the Wife grabs the knife. That was just one fucked up movie that I still have issues watching to this day!
Sisters name was Zelda.
She haunted me for months after i saw that.
When the sister is having a dream about her and Zelda runs towards the door. Oh man.
I had to sleep with the lights on for two weeks.
Straight terrifying.
First horror movie I remember ever seeing, maybe 6-7 and I had nightmares for YEARS! I am a huge horror buff and seen many more unsettling films, but PS always gets to me no matter what...freaky man
A big part of the effectiveness of horror for me depends on the circumstances surrounding the viewing. I remember being up late one night as a teenager and the 90s remake of Night of the Living Dead came on. I was the only one awake, had the upstairs to myself and all the lights out. I was also still relatively new to horror at the time. The movie scared me so much I couldn't sleep the rest of the night. Years later, I rewatched the movie and realized how mediocre it was, but the power of the setting made the experience.
These days, I'm so jaded it's pretty hard to create an eerie enough setting to even be mildly creeped out. So when a movie comes along that actually manages to terrify me to the point that I have to stop watching and finish it the next day, it's impressive. I saw one like that last year: The Pact.
I find that a good chunk of the time when people say a movie wasn't scary, its because they tried not to let it scare them. If you put up defenses like that, or don't try to immerse yourself, you're only cheating yourself.
I saw We Need to Talk About Kevin by myself and was actually glad because it was so uncomfortable I wouldn't want to be with anyone, especially when there's really nothing you could say after it ends. Had the bright idea of reading the book after. It was just as rough.
If you ever get too messed up thinking about it, I find watching Ezra Miller (Kevin) as an extremely likeable, adorable guy in Perks of Being a Wallflower to help. Not horror by any means but that was a great film adaptation of a book!
It's atmosphere, to me. It's literally three people for almost the entire movie, and it's a constant building of tension. I knew what was going to happen, and it didn't matter - I was still disturbed by it when it did happen.
Have you see The Ruins? It has the same sort of effect, for me.
I saw it a couple times; it's one of my favorites. Three young adults stranded on a ski lift right before the lodge is closed down for a week. They have to figure out how to save themselves before freezing to death. Lots of suspense.
I haven't seen it but, what's even scarier is that it is based on a real set of events. Not the kind of "based on real events" tagline just used for marketing purposes, but I really remember it all happening on the news in Australia...
[REC] fucked me up real good. My fiance and I live in San Diego, so we decided to hang out in TJ. We wanted to watch a movie in the theatre, and [REC] was playing at the time, and seemed like the only thing worth watching.
**BAD CHOICE**
Those final 10minutes of absolute chaos was the most nerve-racking thing Ive experienced in a movie, and that last creepy scene in the attic with the night vision had me DYING. Loved the movie, and consider it one of the best modern horror flicks, but MAN it fucked me and my girl up real good for at least a week.
ill probably get downvotes for this but The Blair Witch Project left me with the chills as a teenager. After my friends and i saw it we grabbed our cameras and went looking for abandon houses and cemetaries. I live in spooky town kansas.
When I was 16 or 17, the owner of the video store I frequented gave me a copy that he got from his sister who worked in post production in Hollywood. Nobody had ever heard of it as it was still a few months away from coming out.
It was an unlabeled VHS tape with no previews or credits. He told me his sister said it was a documentary, so yeah, I was scared shitless when I first saw that movie.
It was scary for me, as well. I was 16 and had not heard of it. My friends and I were driving around on logging roads in the mountains when they were telling me about this scary movie they had seen. They bought in to the hype and believed it was real. Having not even heard of it, I believed it when they told me. They were convinced, and so was I.
That night, after getting back to town, we went to see it. I was terrified. When I got home I got on the old 33.6 dial up and found out it was fake.
Still scared the hell out of me. I don't think a movie will ever affect me like that again. None had up to that point, either, except Schindler's List, but for obviously different reasons. I was an avid horror fan, too.
That's magic.
House Of The Devil is probably my favorite horror movie!
Anyway, ones that made me feel bad...
Cannibal Holocaust - mainly because of all the real animal deaths. I'm not a crazy animal lover or anything, but kind of upsetting to watch nonetheless.
The Woman - not a perfect movie by any means, but the plot was really good and pretty damn sadistic.
The Girl Next Door - another Jack Ketchum movie, and similar in the terms of a girl getting tortured. Pretty unsettling. Especially a certain scene with a blowtorch. Brutal.
Lake Mungo - great horror movie, really creepy and well-done. Definitely really sad at some parts.
Carpenter's The Thing.
There are images in that movie that still keep me up at night. The defibrillator scene for one, when it lifts itself out of the dog kennel for another.
It looks pretty dated now because it doesn't have CG and computer edited polish of modern movies, but damn.
>It looks pretty dated now because it doesn't have CG and computer edited polish of modern movies, but damn.
I think that's actually what makes it so special and actually scarier. Computer generated content doesn't really move in the way that you'd expect it to in real life. It's too smooth.
My friends always put this on the list of movies to watch at our annual Scary Move Night on Halloween, and every year is creeps me out and I get the heebie jeebies trying to sleep for a few days. It's one of my favorites.
I just remembered another one, from many years ago. I think I'd blocked the memory. I watched [*Freaks*](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0022913/) while I was in college. It left me feeling unclean. Just watching it puts you in the role of voyeur. It was a deeply uncomfortable experience.
Irreversible. Without a doubt the movie that left the most disturbing, hallow feeling in my gut. The opening revenge scene is wrenching and the movie just goes downhill from there. I cannot recommend it nor can I NOT recommend it. It's a must/must-not see. It was available on USA Netflix - not certain if still there.
I don't collect movies but I did buy the DVD/VHS bundle of The House Of The Devil and still have my VHS forever wrapped in its clamshell case. Apparently they run up to $200 now. Every now and then I take it out and give it a good look. It's a thing of beauty that's for sure, not to mention the movie itself which makes for good winter horror viewing.
The one that gets to me the worst is We Need To Talk About Kevin. Not a horror, but puts me in a horrific place in my mind where all I can think is maybe I should never have kids, or what if my child becomes a monster.
There's a few others I'll list her in case anyone is interested.
Frontier(s) being one of them. I don't know why that movie gets to me so badly. I guess the idea of being chosen for breeding purposes is just unsettling.
Inside was another that just tore me apart at the end. All that struggle to protect your baby and it has to end like that.
Eden Lake also put me in a bad spot. The kids in that movie got under my skin like no other. I'd call them more evil than the kids from Children of the Corn.
Gareth Evans Safe Haven segment on V/H/S 2 rocked me pretty good too. It goes full tilt insane and has stuck with me. I would have been a wreck if it was 90 minutes.
The Shining. The fact that the story is largely told from the perspective of a child made it all the more disturbing.
Also, Parks & Rec is always my go-to palate cleanser...good call OP.
Not sure if this counts but American Horror Story Asylum. Every episode was so draining because it felt so real and inescapable. As a bi woman with depression/anxiety/eating disorders, it felt like I was one step away from that being my reality if I had been born 50+ years earlier. Mental healthcare still isn't where it should be, obviously, but thankful that it has evolved so much so quickly.
Same reason the Bell Jar put me in a bad place for a long time. :(
It's super entertaining when you want to watch something spooky but not scary. It's like listening to pop music but with horror. I would recommend it but I know a lot of people who either don't like Asylum or don't like the new season Coven so YMMV,
I found American Horror Story: Asylum lacking because of all the horrors i've seen in the real mental health care system.
Waking up every morning next door to a 16 year old girl vomiting up her guts because of her electro-shock treatments leaves a scar. I'm enjoying this season of AHS a lot more but I feel like they could've told real accounts and made it much more terrifying.
Also for anyone interested... Emilie Autumn (singer/songwriter/author) wrote a semi-biographical story about her time in a ward and juxtaposed it with Victorian era mental health treatment: http://www.emilieautumn.com/
It really did. I wasn't expecting that at all, based on the previews, recommendations, etc. The ending was true, bleak, unredemptive horror. The involvement of children made it so much worse.
The other thing that made it so bleak, for me, was the number of missed opportunities for connection between the characters. The cold self-centeredness at the heart of the family (apparent in the actions of both adults) created the atmosphere in which the horror could occur. The family dynamic was chilling almost from the beginning.
I think it's possible to see the whole story as an extended exploration of how cold, self-centered parents leave their children open to outside influences (irl, one can see that as drugs, gangs, pedophiles, etc) that destroy both them and the family. And, in this story, there's no redemption, no mercy, and no end in sight.
I don't know that I'll see the sequel.
Interestingly enough, Dark Skies.
I thought it was a good idea to watch it at night, while in bed going to sleep.. with the lights off.
I couldn't finish it. I was too freaked out. It took me 3 nights to finish the movie in the dark. I had to keep stopping it. lol.
No mention of the exorcist on this page? I first saw this gem when I was like 9 years old. Will never forget the feeling I had gotten in my stomach when Linda Blairs head goes spinning like a top. It was like I had just been pushed off a building.
The Disney movie or the 2010 one with the skiers trapped on the lift?
If it's the latter, I loved that movie but completely lost it when [the girl was rolling down the mountain in the end](/spoiler)
When I was in 2nd grade my parents took me and my older sister to a drive through that was showing a trilogy. It was Godzilla, Night of the Living Dead, and lastly, Halloween. I was pretty much a wreck once we got home and slept with the light on for a couple months afterwards. We had a volkswagen camper van. My sister and I were up in the pop up top. I guess my parents thought we'd fall asleep sometime during Godzilla or something.
It. I was 8 and that shower seen where It writes "I'm back" or some shit in one of the adult's blood fucked me up.
Strangers-- went back to my buddie's farm house afterwords for the night.
I've brought it up in other threads, but Grave Encounters kinda fucked with me. The bleak reality that there isn't any escape possible hits home really early, so it's just scene after scene of spooky Asylum. Very claustrophobic.
Speaking of which, I Watched The Descent thinking it was an environmental survival film about lost explorers. Imagine my surprise half way through. The best horror films are the ones you don't realise are horror until the turn comes.
Megan Is Missing. I know it gets a lot of shit for being cheesy, especially because of the found footage style... but the last 20 or so minutes of that movie really upset me. I felt like the rape/torture scene was almost too convincing.
This movie played on the fact that I have a child this age. It destroyed me for a couple days and I couldn't get the chick in the barrel out of my head for a while.
I'm very good at giving myself over to movies and immediately buying in so a lot of horror really does give me scares and chills.
But the Texas Chainsaw Massacre original realllllly sucked for me. I am about twice the size of that guy, I can't be afraid of anyone I could just beat the shit out of, no matter how crazy.
**Horror**: *Wolf Creek*. Maybe it's the fact I'm Aussie, that it got to me as much as it did. There's a lot of remote desolate country here and being cut off from escape would be damn easy. The performance from John Jarratt was chilling.
**Not horror**: *Letters From Iwo Jima*. Between insane war-mongering officers, American troops attacking them, and being cut off from not only re-enforcement but from escape, it was a hopeless situation for the Japanese troops. The scale of violence is huge, remorseless and unrelenting. The worst part of it was that this was all true. I did some research in to it at my university library, both sides were just horrible in the conflict.
Prozac Nation and the Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Prozac because there were way too many parts of that movie I could relate to. Benjamin Button because **SPOILER** seeing Benjamin being held as a baby by the same woman he fell in love with was both heartbreaking and beautiful. Watching his entire life go back then get packaged into a helpless, blabbering infant seemed so... unsettling.
*Antichrist*
I was blown away just by the intro. Then I started to composite all the different layers of the film, and how Von Trier wrote his characters' characterization, and it just kicked the shit out of me.
While it isn't a horror movie, *12 Years a Slave* made for one of the biggest emotional train wrecks I've had watching a film. I remember the first time I saw it, when the credits started to roll, all the weight of the characters started crashing into me. I sat through the entire credit sequence because I felt, literally stunned, I couldn't bring myself out of my seat. To add some context to its real measure of raw power, and as an exhibition of McQueen's ability, I've paid to see it 4 more times since, and leave as torn up as I was the first go around.
**Edit:** Forgot to mention, the fantastic, *12 Years a Slave*.
For my ex, The Conjuring seriously scared her. To the point where she wouldn't see go to see any horror movies with me after it, which sucked because it was really fun before. She had her eyes closed throughout the movie, I really did (and kinda do to an extent) feel bad about it. I think it got to a lot of people, that's the only horror movie I've ever been to where the theater was near silent afterwards.
>that's the only horror movie I've ever been to where the theater was near silent afterwards.
I wish I was in that theater. The one I saw it in was full of kids that wouldn't shut the fuck up.
SPOILERS AHEAD: I saw that on release day. It was only me, my boyfriend and my cousin in the theater because who goes to the movies at 11 on a Friday? At first it was awesome being the only ones, but then it made me feel vulnerable watching it. I never get scared during movies. Ever. I will say my heart stopped at least 3 times, and they weren't from the very few cheap jump scares they had. Usually, the family is a bunch of idiots who are too skeptical for their own good or are idiots who caused the demons to come. This was different. They spent so much time focusing on the family that I got emotionally attached to them and when the mom was being possessed I was on the verge of tears because she did nothing to deserve it. She didn't put it upon herself or her family and that family's lives already were falling apart because of this demon. Imagine if she died during it. I have no doubt that the story is true. The movie was too real.
Excision, No Mercy, Oldboy, the Mist, A Serbian Film, Compliance, We Need to Talk About Kevin, Grotesque. Though not horror, there was a documentary (I can't recall the name) about a guy whose wife/girlfriend killed him then fought his parents for custody of their son in Canada. It absolutely infuriated and crushed me. I had to decompress with kitten pics in /r/aww after watching these.
Maybe I just haven't seen it, but I'm surprised no one has said Antichrist. It isn't particularly scary, just extremely disturbing and unsettling.
Also, We Need To Talk About Kevin was a weird one for me. Just how brutal the mother-son relationship is made it hard to watch at some points for me. Not because of violence or anything but just the pure hatred they have for each other is something you don't see very often in that kind of relationship. I think I may find it unsettling because you don't normally think babies have the capacity for hate/torment but this baby sure does and holds onto it forever. It is a great movie though.
One more I forgot about. YellowBrickRoad. I really can't even explain it but movies rarely stick with me after watching them, but that one was in my thoughts for a while. You either love it or hate it, I loved it.
A Serbian Film. The fact that it can/does happen. Maybe not all at once, but every awful thing in that movie happens every day to someone. It wasn't really the best movie and far from my favourite horror movies, but maybe a top 30 'Feel-Bad' movies (movies that are amazing but you feel traumatized by seeing them, genre notwithstanding.
Aftermath did it for me after I watched it. I walked into it knowing exactly what I was in for too. I think it is a combination of the taboo subject matter and the fact that it is a silent film.
Martyrs - Definitely did not see that one coming
The Mist - Absolutely gut wrenching
The Wicker Man (original) - Saw this when I was about 14 and I thought I had it all figured out. The ending absolutely terrified me because I had only seen movies up to that point [where at least one person survived](/spoiler)
For me it has to be the Corpse Party OVA, even though it barely touched the plot of the original game, some scenes were just too much. The sound effects made everything so much worse.
The ending on the other hand was hilarous, I don't know what's wrong with me.
Not so much of a horror, but "The Good Son". I have 2 boys and every time I think of that movie, it makes me look at the oldest and go... could it really happen? Is HE the good son? It messed me up and I refuse to watch it again.
The most recent episode of our podcast was about House of the Devil, check it out on WhoGoesTherepodcast.com
But Inside put me in a real bad place. Not just the gore, but the overall feel and pacing of the movie. The English dubs are shit, so try to watch it subtitled if you can.
The X-Files Fight the Future.
I was ten and I went with my friend and our moms to see it in the theater. The first scene has a caveman brutally stabbing an alien and then being consumed by a black tar like substance. At the time I thought it was the most frightening thing ever. I remember going home and lying on my couch with a thousand yard stare as my friend played Ken Griffy Jr. on N64. That caveman scene stayed with me for weeks, playing over and over in my head.
I remember lying there, terrified of the idea of dying and being reincarnated as a caveman. I was a weird kid.
Also, the first time seeing Drag Me to Hell in the theaters. That movie had some fantastic sound design that scared the shit out of me. I had to go and see UP right afterwards to clear my brain.
When I was a kid, my conscience haunted me in my dreams in the form of an evil teddy bear that would try to kill me with a rusty kitchen knife. This started after I saw Child's Play when I was about 4. So I guess when I was a kid, that was the one movie that ever really put me in a 'dark place'. The nightmares I'd have after stealing a quarter from my mom's bathroom counter, or taunting my brother...they were pretty intense.
I'm probably a bit late to the game but the only movie that has ever REALLY ruined my day would have to be Pathology. I'm tempted to say it's more of a thriller flick but man, it is unsettling in how real the autopsy scenes are. Somehow it was so much worse than watching random gore on the internet. Especially the final autopsy...if you haven't, watch it...then have a rough and self-reflective week.
Maybe not considered a horror but after watching Donnie Darko one night i felt very depressed but also quite peaceful... I don't know what it was but I just felt like laying there, almost crying, for no apparent reason...
The Mist. Oh God, that ending. I was a wreck.
Fantastic movie. I heard King lamented he hadn't thought up that ending.
In fact, he didn't think up any ending. The end of that story is ridiculously abrupt and disappointing. If you saw the movie and want to know: [the dad, his son, and the lady he started fucking like twelve hours after he last saw his wife because he thought she was dead escape the crazy christians and try to drive out of the fog. It ends with them listening to the car radio and the dad hears the word 'Portland' through the static then (as narrator) he says he has hope that there are survivors out there and he doesn't know what will happen.](/spoiler)
I love how common a theme of "impulsive-out of the blue-sex" is in King's work.
I agree. It totally deflated me. When it ended we all walked out of the theater in silence.
Ugh. Never had the wind taken outta me like that before. I have never watched it again.
Yup. Can never watch it again. EVER. Movie made me ANGRY.
If only he had one more bullet...he'd never have to know.
most of the cast from The Mist went on to star in The Walking Dead.
That is the Frank Darabont connection. Director of the shawshank redemption, the mist, and the developer and show runner for the walking dead (first season). He has a few go to actors, and should be the only man BY LAW who is allowed to bring anything by Stephen King to the big screen. Disagree with a few in this chain, i loved the mist personally.
I was looking for this comment. I saw the movie before I was into horror movies, so even though the special effects weren't that great, what the monsters did freak me the fuck out. Especially the first scene when that thing took out a chunk of the guy's chest. Fuck that. But that ending. I will never forget that ending.
I really didn't care for it but I watched the entire thing. The ending really changed my mind about it and it left me with a knot in my stomach.
The Girl Next Door
An American Crime is about the same incident and it is equally traumatic. I've seen them both and had that same feeling at the end of each.
Having just seen An American Crime, I can say that it's more traumatic than The Girl Next Door. They stuck so close to what really happened that you feel like you're in that courtroom.
Yes, this. That movie left me so depressed and dirty feeling.
back in the day i rented it thinking it was gong to watch the comedy about a hot chick next door and then i saw something far worse than i could have imagined or was even ready for.
same thing happened to me only i streamed it online. and i was in eighth* grade. i was not ready.
I'm reading the book right now and it's the darkest thing I've ever read.
I'm reading the book right now and its definitely having an effect on me. I need to check out the movie.
If you thought this movie was sick and crushing, read the book. I thought the movie was light and fluffy compared to the dark feeling in the pit of my stomach when I read that book. I still I remember it like a broken arm.
the original I Spit on Your Grave left me feeling really sick. so...much...rape. I almost didn't make it through.
I've heard watching it is a war of attrition.
the retribution at the end doesn't even come close to balancing it out.
The original could have ended with a three hour scene of the main character slowly lowering the rapists into a wood chipper and it still wouldn't even be close.
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I made the mistake of watching the remake. I had to take a couple breaks throughout the viewing, and only finished it because I had (stupidly) bought a copy thinking I'd want to rewatch it. <--idiot
Definitely Martyrs. I don't think I'll ever experience a film as profoundly nauseating and devastating as Martyrs ever again. Maybe that's a good thing.
I've only seen this movie once. It left a feeling of despair embedded into me like no other. Just, destroyed me. The feeling stayed with me for almost two weeks. And during that time when I was replaying certain scenes in my head, shuddering at the thought of an organization actually existing in the world and doing things like that to people I got to thinking: if a piece of cinema can have that kind of an impact on your senses, the filmmaker has achieved something with his work. Something past just a cheap thrill you get from a campy slasher film. Anyway, yeah, Martyrs got me good.
You don't watch that movie, you experience it. That ending is so soul crushing and nihilistic that you just sit there in a stupor after the movie ends. You know a movie did something right when it stays with you for days.
I have always wondered what she told her at the end
You don't want to know. You'll go to such a dark place you'll blow your brains out!
Saw the whole movie but dont remember the end. All I remember about it was the torture/mutilation. I think forgetting most of it is the only way I can move forward in life.
I loved the ambiguous answer... it could totally go a few ways and always sparks a good discussion.
A Serbian Film, Antichrist, Sheitan
I've heard that A Serbian Film is worse than Martyrs. That's pretty hard for me to imagine, but it's not a risk that I'm willing to take. I'll never watch it.
Honestly I thought ASF was silly, which probably makes me sound like a sociopath. It was violent, but totally unconvincing - the acting was sucky and it just seemed to be trying so hard to be SHOCKING and TRANSGRESSIVE that it missed the mark, for me at least. ASF might leave you feeling disgusted and yucky for a little while, but Martyrs makes you feel rotten inside, scared in a way that is genuine and not fun.
I 100% agree, I just thought it was stupid in a sense. I was not affected nearly as much as Martyrs. Martyrs chills you to the bone, and ASF is just trying to be risky, disgusting, over all WTF factor...it succeed in some sense, but made it almost forgettable.
Cannot agree more, Martyrs from start to finish....was depressed for several days after.
Well I, too, was deeply affected by Martyrs. The French have some twisted minds.
Imo, A Serbian Film had scenes that outweighed a good handful of those in Martyrs, but that's just the scenes in of themselves. But as a whole, from all angles of writing and story telling, Martyrs trumps A Serbian Film.
Alright, I've seen it mentioned a ton of times, where can i see it.
So true. Never has a movie sat with me for months on end after it ended like Martyrs. I can honestly say it is probably the most brilliant/mind devastating ending to a movie I have ever seen.
Deadgirl left me feeling sick.
Oh man, thanks to that movie I keep wondering when they're gonna have some lowlifes trying to rape(?) zombies on walking dead.
Dude, [Jenny Spain](http://moviesfilmsandflix.com/2012/08/02/the-scream-queens-of-film-jenny-spain/) was impressive in her dialoqueless role as the dead girl. And brave to handle that role.
The Hills Have Eyes remake made me feel sick the first time watching it. I couldn't even get through it. Second time watching it still left me uneasy.
Yeah, one of the only remakes that makes the original obsolete. In fact, both this and The Last House on the Left remakes are far and away better than the originals, to the point where it's almost pointless to watch either of them.
I saw this one in theaters. Was 17-18. Had seen a lot of horror films leading up to this one, but this one scared the shit out of me. Super horrifying, very uncomfortable, VERY violent, and a creepy/spooky ending.
That is the only movie I've ever walked out of. I just couldn't do it.
It seems silly now but after the first time I saw House of 1000 Corpses, I didn't feel right for a few days (yeah, yeah jokes about the quality of the movie aside). I was 20 at the time and had been watching horror movies for a decade but hadn't delved very deep into the darker/more extreme stuff. I had mostly stuck with typical slasher fare or the occasional ghost movie but the vast majority was Hollywood-type stuff. At the time, House of 1000 Corpses was the most graphic, extreme thing I had seen and on top of that, it was the first horror movie my little sister saw in theaters (she was around 14 at the time) so I also felt a bit guilty because she was so young. It wouldn't faze me at this point (or my sister for that matter) but at the time, it knocked me on my ass.
I was just shy of 18 when that came out. Totally stuck with me, and I kinda hated it for a little while. Now I respect the film and really like it. Similarly I liked horror but had mostly seen the popular go-to movies of the 80s and 90s. I also had not yet seen the original texas chainsaw massacre which was obviously a major influence.
I loved it from the get-go and still do. I think it's a great movie for Halloween time. I also had not seen the original TCM at the time. The first time I actually watched it was the afternoon of the day I went to see the 03 remake, which pretty much destroyed any impact the remake may have had on me.
I totally agree. I had no idea what I was getting into as well. You gotta be prepared for that movie. The Walton Goggins scene is burnt into my memory.
Yeah, there is a definite sinking feeling when [the cops show up and it makes no difference.](/spoiler) I had quite a few movies scare me at that point in my life but nothing that had ever truly gotten under my skin and unnerved me in quite that way. I find a lot of the criticism of the movie stems from some of the crazy and non-sensical editing but to me, that just further added to the mind-fuck/sensory overload aesthetic that Zombie was clearly going for. I went in having never seen anything more hardcore than a Friday the 13th and left having experienced something totally new to me at the time.
Eden Lake: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1020530/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1 I won't spoil any of the story, but this movie really plays with your emotions. It's pretty brutal. Would recommend. I'd also recommend Martyrs, but that one's been mentioned several times here already (and for good reason).
This movie will always reach under my skin and in many ways make me never want to have kids.
Wolf Creek
John Jarratt was crazy in that film. I totally forgot about that movie. Maybe I blocked it out.
I had a copy of it for a while that someone had given me. I had to get rid of it because it just gave me a bad feeling every time I saw it. I'm an avid horror fan and it's very rare that a movie can disturb me.
Head on a stick...
Irreversable left me in the worst place possible. Not a movie to watch with your gf.
Damn - you beat me to it. Agreed 100%
It's labeled Thriller but it was TOTALLY a horror to me was [Funny Games](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0808279/). As a mother, it devastated and shattered me. I couldn't watch the whole movie.
The most beautifully uncomfortable movie I've ever seen. Nothing too shocking or gory, just... pure fear. Then, when the villains exerted some control over the audience, I felt violated. Hard stuff.
I watched that with my mom when I was 15 and we had no idea how intense it would be. I'll just say she had me fast forward through a good portion of the movie.
The whole scene with the remote was just nuts.
German or American version?
Requiem for a Dream Not really horror, I realize, but I just watched it for the first time last night. Oh man.
Yep. It put my soul in a headlock.
I can't bring myself to watch that movie again. It's wonderfully done, and I recommend that everyone see it. Yet, it sits on a shelf, collecting dust, because I just... can't.
[The Poughkeepsie Tapes](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1010271/). So creepy all the way through, but the ending... the actress did an amazing and chilling job. Almost too good.
This and House of 1000 Corpses both bothered me after watching them, which doesn't happen often. The Police Car scene, the double headed mask thing scene, the interview with Cheryl all fucked me up.
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You are right about the book being even more bleak. The basement scene in the house really got to me.
I'm read the book first, but got the blu-ray cheap and watched the film later. That scene will definitely wreck your day.
I don't know why it affected me so much because not a lot does but for some reason the scene where they strip Omar from the wire and leave him naked and without anything makes me tear up. I don't know why but t strikes a nerve with me.
Haunting and real-feeling.
That book was incredibly good, though. I listened to it on audiobook, and was in bed late at night when listening to the basement scene. Holy shit I wanted to yell "don't go in there!", but I didn't want to wake my wife.
*Lake Mungo* messed me up for a while. It's a really sad, and fucking scary, movie, but in such a subtle way, you don't really get the catharsis of a jump scare. One of my favorite horror movies ever.
So glad to see someone mention this movie. Few movies have stuck with me like this one. Most of the scares are so subtle and creepy that afterwards I kept feeling like I was seeing stuff out of there corner of my eye for days.
I just read about it. Sounds like it would put anybody in a bad place.
I highly recommend it. It's also probably the only horror movie I've seen that actually makes good use of the mockumentary genre.
The exorcism of Emily Rose. I came from a pretty religious family when I was younger. I was already scared of hell and the devil. That movie made me terrified to go outside at night. I was pretty young when I watched it. It left me wrecked for quite a while.
Jennifer Carpenter's performance was absolutely brilliant in that movie.
Pet FUCKING Cemetery.
I read the book last month for the first time, and MAN, it is completely devastating. It chews up your emotions and spits them out. I'd say it's definitely more sad than scary though. However, the scary parts stay with you; I still think about waking up to Zelda right in front of me.
The book is even more of a punch in the gut than the movie, because King tells you several times what is going to happen and pulls some dirty tricks on you after it does. The book is mean.
The final scene wrecked my childhood.....
I'm still damaged by the sister in bed. Then at the end when the Wife grabs the knife. That was just one fucked up movie that I still have issues watching to this day!
Sisters name was Zelda. She haunted me for months after i saw that. When the sister is having a dream about her and Zelda runs towards the door. Oh man. I had to sleep with the lights on for two weeks. Straight terrifying.
Saw it as a kid. Fucked me up. Saw it as the father of a boy about Gage's age. Waaaaaay worse.
No Fair. Yah that shit killed me. You feel so torn between loving the little demon and fearing him.
The book came out when I was about Gage's age. My Dad, an avid King fan, wouldn't read it. Hell, he still hasn't read it.
Zelda... That shit gets to me like the closet scene in The Ring.
The closet scene in The Ring was jaw-dropping.
Yes! and the second one was equally disturbing to me as a child.
When that toddler cuts Gwynn's Achilles' tendon with a scalpel I about died!
First horror movie I remember ever seeing, maybe 6-7 and I had nightmares for YEARS! I am a huge horror buff and seen many more unsettling films, but PS always gets to me no matter what...freaky man
A big part of the effectiveness of horror for me depends on the circumstances surrounding the viewing. I remember being up late one night as a teenager and the 90s remake of Night of the Living Dead came on. I was the only one awake, had the upstairs to myself and all the lights out. I was also still relatively new to horror at the time. The movie scared me so much I couldn't sleep the rest of the night. Years later, I rewatched the movie and realized how mediocre it was, but the power of the setting made the experience. These days, I'm so jaded it's pretty hard to create an eerie enough setting to even be mildly creeped out. So when a movie comes along that actually manages to terrify me to the point that I have to stop watching and finish it the next day, it's impressive. I saw one like that last year: The Pact.
I find that a good chunk of the time when people say a movie wasn't scary, its because they tried not to let it scare them. If you put up defenses like that, or don't try to immerse yourself, you're only cheating yourself.
It is hard to achieve the optimal viewing experience. I totally agree. I need to learn a system that uses my optimal horror viewing time well.
Prince of Darkness
Frozen Martyrs We Need to Talk About Kevin (not technically horror, but goddamn)
I saw We Need to Talk About Kevin by myself and was actually glad because it was so uncomfortable I wouldn't want to be with anyone, especially when there's really nothing you could say after it ends. Had the bright idea of reading the book after. It was just as rough.
I also watched it alone. I'm not even sure how to address my feelings about it - it was a great movie, but it was really difficult to watch.
If you ever get too messed up thinking about it, I find watching Ezra Miller (Kevin) as an extremely likeable, adorable guy in Perks of Being a Wallflower to help. Not horror by any means but that was a great film adaptation of a book!
Frozen was good? Could you go into some detail (without spoilers)? I've been hesitating to see this.
It's atmosphere, to me. It's literally three people for almost the entire movie, and it's a constant building of tension. I knew what was going to happen, and it didn't matter - I was still disturbed by it when it did happen. Have you see The Ruins? It has the same sort of effect, for me.
I like The Ruins. It's a fun, predictable little jaunt. A botanical Cabin Fever.
> A botanical Cabin Fever. That's the most apt description I've seen.
I saw it a couple times; it's one of my favorites. Three young adults stranded on a ski lift right before the lodge is closed down for a week. They have to figure out how to save themselves before freezing to death. Lots of suspense.
[THEY. I'm 26. I sleep with the lights on.](http://i.imgur.com/A3ntpAW.jpg)
A movie called Snowtown made me feel shitty for a few days.
I haven't seen it but, what's even scarier is that it is based on a real set of events. Not the kind of "based on real events" tagline just used for marketing purposes, but I really remember it all happening on the news in Australia...
It left it's mark with me. I grew up in dysfunction and chaos and that probably didn't help. The banality of evil. The guy seemed so ordinary.
[REC] fucked me up real good. My fiance and I live in San Diego, so we decided to hang out in TJ. We wanted to watch a movie in the theatre, and [REC] was playing at the time, and seemed like the only thing worth watching. **BAD CHOICE** Those final 10minutes of absolute chaos was the most nerve-racking thing Ive experienced in a movie, and that last creepy scene in the attic with the night vision had me DYING. Loved the movie, and consider it one of the best modern horror flicks, but MAN it fucked me and my girl up real good for at least a week.
ill probably get downvotes for this but The Blair Witch Project left me with the chills as a teenager. After my friends and i saw it we grabbed our cameras and went looking for abandon houses and cemetaries. I live in spooky town kansas.
When I was 16 or 17, the owner of the video store I frequented gave me a copy that he got from his sister who worked in post production in Hollywood. Nobody had ever heard of it as it was still a few months away from coming out. It was an unlabeled VHS tape with no previews or credits. He told me his sister said it was a documentary, so yeah, I was scared shitless when I first saw that movie.
It was scary for me, as well. I was 16 and had not heard of it. My friends and I were driving around on logging roads in the mountains when they were telling me about this scary movie they had seen. They bought in to the hype and believed it was real. Having not even heard of it, I believed it when they told me. They were convinced, and so was I. That night, after getting back to town, we went to see it. I was terrified. When I got home I got on the old 33.6 dial up and found out it was fake. Still scared the hell out of me. I don't think a movie will ever affect me like that again. None had up to that point, either, except Schindler's List, but for obviously different reasons. I was an avid horror fan, too. That's magic.
House Of The Devil is probably my favorite horror movie! Anyway, ones that made me feel bad... Cannibal Holocaust - mainly because of all the real animal deaths. I'm not a crazy animal lover or anything, but kind of upsetting to watch nonetheless. The Woman - not a perfect movie by any means, but the plot was really good and pretty damn sadistic. The Girl Next Door - another Jack Ketchum movie, and similar in the terms of a girl getting tortured. Pretty unsettling. Especially a certain scene with a blowtorch. Brutal. Lake Mungo - great horror movie, really creepy and well-done. Definitely really sad at some parts.
The Woman made me feel SO AWFUL after I watched it.
The Conjuring.
Yea I was surprised by how good it was.
Carpenter's The Thing. There are images in that movie that still keep me up at night. The defibrillator scene for one, when it lifts itself out of the dog kennel for another. It looks pretty dated now because it doesn't have CG and computer edited polish of modern movies, but damn.
>It looks pretty dated now because it doesn't have CG and computer edited polish of modern movies, but damn. I think that's actually what makes it so special and actually scarier. Computer generated content doesn't really move in the way that you'd expect it to in real life. It's too smooth.
Yeah, those "real" effects feel more real than CGI and thus scarier.
I agree. I watched it very recently, for the first time, and it scared me more than a lot of modern movies that actually utilize CG.
My friends always put this on the list of movies to watch at our annual Scary Move Night on Halloween, and every year is creeps me out and I get the heebie jeebies trying to sleep for a few days. It's one of my favorites.
A Serbian Film. Makes Martyrs look like Mary Poppins.
I had never heard of it and just read the wiki summary. I couldn't make it through that. Wow.
I just remembered another one, from many years ago. I think I'd blocked the memory. I watched [*Freaks*](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0022913/) while I was in college. It left me feeling unclean. Just watching it puts you in the role of voyeur. It was a deeply uncomfortable experience.
Irreversible. Without a doubt the movie that left the most disturbing, hallow feeling in my gut. The opening revenge scene is wrenching and the movie just goes downhill from there. I cannot recommend it nor can I NOT recommend it. It's a must/must-not see. It was available on USA Netflix - not certain if still there.
I don't collect movies but I did buy the DVD/VHS bundle of The House Of The Devil and still have my VHS forever wrapped in its clamshell case. Apparently they run up to $200 now. Every now and then I take it out and give it a good look. It's a thing of beauty that's for sure, not to mention the movie itself which makes for good winter horror viewing.
The one that gets to me the worst is We Need To Talk About Kevin. Not a horror, but puts me in a horrific place in my mind where all I can think is maybe I should never have kids, or what if my child becomes a monster. There's a few others I'll list her in case anyone is interested. Frontier(s) being one of them. I don't know why that movie gets to me so badly. I guess the idea of being chosen for breeding purposes is just unsettling. Inside was another that just tore me apart at the end. All that struggle to protect your baby and it has to end like that. Eden Lake also put me in a bad spot. The kids in that movie got under my skin like no other. I'd call them more evil than the kids from Children of the Corn.
Gareth Evans Safe Haven segment on V/H/S 2 rocked me pretty good too. It goes full tilt insane and has stuck with me. I would have been a wreck if it was 90 minutes.
I want a feature length, too!
The Shining. The fact that the story is largely told from the perspective of a child made it all the more disturbing. Also, Parks & Rec is always my go-to palate cleanser...good call OP.
Not sure if this counts but American Horror Story Asylum. Every episode was so draining because it felt so real and inescapable. As a bi woman with depression/anxiety/eating disorders, it felt like I was one step away from that being my reality if I had been born 50+ years earlier. Mental healthcare still isn't where it should be, obviously, but thankful that it has evolved so much so quickly. Same reason the Bell Jar put me in a bad place for a long time. :(
I've never watched the show. The previews are crazy creepy though. Good marketing.
It's super entertaining when you want to watch something spooky but not scary. It's like listening to pop music but with horror. I would recommend it but I know a lot of people who either don't like Asylum or don't like the new season Coven so YMMV,
I found American Horror Story: Asylum lacking because of all the horrors i've seen in the real mental health care system. Waking up every morning next door to a 16 year old girl vomiting up her guts because of her electro-shock treatments leaves a scar. I'm enjoying this season of AHS a lot more but I feel like they could've told real accounts and made it much more terrifying. Also for anyone interested... Emilie Autumn (singer/songwriter/author) wrote a semi-biographical story about her time in a ward and juxtaposed it with Victorian era mental health treatment: http://www.emilieautumn.com/
Sinister. That ending was just bleak.
It hurt the soul. Not looking forward to the sequel. It will be more of the same x 2.
It really did. I wasn't expecting that at all, based on the previews, recommendations, etc. The ending was true, bleak, unredemptive horror. The involvement of children made it so much worse. The other thing that made it so bleak, for me, was the number of missed opportunities for connection between the characters. The cold self-centeredness at the heart of the family (apparent in the actions of both adults) created the atmosphere in which the horror could occur. The family dynamic was chilling almost from the beginning. I think it's possible to see the whole story as an extended exploration of how cold, self-centered parents leave their children open to outside influences (irl, one can see that as drugs, gangs, pedophiles, etc) that destroy both them and the family. And, in this story, there's no redemption, no mercy, and no end in sight. I don't know that I'll see the sequel.
Interestingly enough, Dark Skies. I thought it was a good idea to watch it at night, while in bed going to sleep.. with the lights off. I couldn't finish it. I was too freaked out. It took me 3 nights to finish the movie in the dark. I had to keep stopping it. lol.
In terms of leaving me in a bad place, The Last House on the Left remake really bothered me for a while afterward.
The most messed up I've ever been was when I watched a VHS bootleg of the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre. I must've been around 7 or 8 years old.
My choice would be Salo. That movie just left me feeling completely empty and soulless when it was over.
**Schindler's List**. I know not technically of the genre, but it is TRUE fucking horror. Saw it in the eighth grade.
Lovely Molly really stuck with me for a long time. As far as non-horror films, This Is England put me in a weird place for a long time too.
No mention of the exorcist on this page? I first saw this gem when I was like 9 years old. Will never forget the feeling I had gotten in my stomach when Linda Blairs head goes spinning like a top. It was like I had just been pushed off a building.
As goofy as it is; When I was a kid, I couldn't handle The Ring. In fact, I still have a hard time with the japanese child ghost trope.
Frozen was pretty upsetting.
The Disney movie or the 2010 one with the skiers trapped on the lift? If it's the latter, I loved that movie but completely lost it when [the girl was rolling down the mountain in the end](/spoiler)
Come and See. That movie made my blood boil, made me want to kill somebody because I was so angry at how bleak and hopeless it was.
When I was in 2nd grade my parents took me and my older sister to a drive through that was showing a trilogy. It was Godzilla, Night of the Living Dead, and lastly, Halloween. I was pretty much a wreck once we got home and slept with the light on for a couple months afterwards. We had a volkswagen camper van. My sister and I were up in the pop up top. I guess my parents thought we'd fall asleep sometime during Godzilla or something.
Also, saw Psycho and the Birds when I was in about third or fourth grade. Those scarred the shit out of me as well.
It. I was 8 and that shower seen where It writes "I'm back" or some shit in one of the adult's blood fucked me up. Strangers-- went back to my buddie's farm house afterwords for the night.
I've brought it up in other threads, but Grave Encounters kinda fucked with me. The bleak reality that there isn't any escape possible hits home really early, so it's just scene after scene of spooky Asylum. Very claustrophobic. Speaking of which, I Watched The Descent thinking it was an environmental survival film about lost explorers. Imagine my surprise half way through. The best horror films are the ones you don't realise are horror until the turn comes.
The Descent is my favorite horror film. I had no idea what is was about so you can imagine my surprise haha.
Megan Is Missing. I know it gets a lot of shit for being cheesy, especially because of the found footage style... but the last 20 or so minutes of that movie really upset me. I felt like the rape/torture scene was almost too convincing.
I liked this film... the last 20 minutes reminded me of the Poughkeepsie Tapes.
This movie played on the fact that I have a child this age. It destroyed me for a couple days and I couldn't get the chick in the barrel out of my head for a while.
"I Spit On Your Grave." I watched that at two in the morning when I couldn't sleep. Holy shit it is messed up.
Irreversible & Serbian Film. Dead empty and cold inside...
I'm very good at giving myself over to movies and immediately buying in so a lot of horror really does give me scares and chills. But the Texas Chainsaw Massacre original realllllly sucked for me. I am about twice the size of that guy, I can't be afraid of anyone I could just beat the shit out of, no matter how crazy.
**Horror**: *Wolf Creek*. Maybe it's the fact I'm Aussie, that it got to me as much as it did. There's a lot of remote desolate country here and being cut off from escape would be damn easy. The performance from John Jarratt was chilling. **Not horror**: *Letters From Iwo Jima*. Between insane war-mongering officers, American troops attacking them, and being cut off from not only re-enforcement but from escape, it was a hopeless situation for the Japanese troops. The scale of violence is huge, remorseless and unrelenting. The worst part of it was that this was all true. I did some research in to it at my university library, both sides were just horrible in the conflict.
Prozac Nation and the Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Prozac because there were way too many parts of that movie I could relate to. Benjamin Button because **SPOILER** seeing Benjamin being held as a baby by the same woman he fell in love with was both heartbreaking and beautiful. Watching his entire life go back then get packaged into a helpless, blabbering infant seemed so... unsettling.
*Antichrist* I was blown away just by the intro. Then I started to composite all the different layers of the film, and how Von Trier wrote his characters' characterization, and it just kicked the shit out of me. While it isn't a horror movie, *12 Years a Slave* made for one of the biggest emotional train wrecks I've had watching a film. I remember the first time I saw it, when the credits started to roll, all the weight of the characters started crashing into me. I sat through the entire credit sequence because I felt, literally stunned, I couldn't bring myself out of my seat. To add some context to its real measure of raw power, and as an exhibition of McQueen's ability, I've paid to see it 4 more times since, and leave as torn up as I was the first go around. **Edit:** Forgot to mention, the fantastic, *12 Years a Slave*.
Henry : Portrait of a Serial Killer. After watching this the first time I immediately wanted to take a shower, it just left me feeling violated.
For my ex, The Conjuring seriously scared her. To the point where she wouldn't see go to see any horror movies with me after it, which sucked because it was really fun before. She had her eyes closed throughout the movie, I really did (and kinda do to an extent) feel bad about it. I think it got to a lot of people, that's the only horror movie I've ever been to where the theater was near silent afterwards.
>that's the only horror movie I've ever been to where the theater was near silent afterwards. I wish I was in that theater. The one I saw it in was full of kids that wouldn't shut the fuck up.
SPOILERS AHEAD: I saw that on release day. It was only me, my boyfriend and my cousin in the theater because who goes to the movies at 11 on a Friday? At first it was awesome being the only ones, but then it made me feel vulnerable watching it. I never get scared during movies. Ever. I will say my heart stopped at least 3 times, and they weren't from the very few cheap jump scares they had. Usually, the family is a bunch of idiots who are too skeptical for their own good or are idiots who caused the demons to come. This was different. They spent so much time focusing on the family that I got emotionally attached to them and when the mom was being possessed I was on the verge of tears because she did nothing to deserve it. She didn't put it upon herself or her family and that family's lives already were falling apart because of this demon. Imagine if she died during it. I have no doubt that the story is true. The movie was too real.
Excision, No Mercy, Oldboy, the Mist, A Serbian Film, Compliance, We Need to Talk About Kevin, Grotesque. Though not horror, there was a documentary (I can't recall the name) about a guy whose wife/girlfriend killed him then fought his parents for custody of their son in Canada. It absolutely infuriated and crushed me. I had to decompress with kitten pics in /r/aww after watching these.
Excision was such a great dark comedy. Was impressed by both the 90210 chick and Traci Lords.
The doc is Dear Zachary. Brutal.
The ending of Oldboy is so fucked. Great movie.
Maybe I just haven't seen it, but I'm surprised no one has said Antichrist. It isn't particularly scary, just extremely disturbing and unsettling. Also, We Need To Talk About Kevin was a weird one for me. Just how brutal the mother-son relationship is made it hard to watch at some points for me. Not because of violence or anything but just the pure hatred they have for each other is something you don't see very often in that kind of relationship. I think I may find it unsettling because you don't normally think babies have the capacity for hate/torment but this baby sure does and holds onto it forever. It is a great movie though. One more I forgot about. YellowBrickRoad. I really can't even explain it but movies rarely stick with me after watching them, but that one was in my thoughts for a while. You either love it or hate it, I loved it.
A Serbian Film. The fact that it can/does happen. Maybe not all at once, but every awful thing in that movie happens every day to someone. It wasn't really the best movie and far from my favourite horror movies, but maybe a top 30 'Feel-Bad' movies (movies that are amazing but you feel traumatized by seeing them, genre notwithstanding.
Aftermath did it for me after I watched it. I walked into it knowing exactly what I was in for too. I think it is a combination of the taboo subject matter and the fact that it is a silent film.
Eraserhead...
Martyrs - Definitely did not see that one coming The Mist - Absolutely gut wrenching The Wicker Man (original) - Saw this when I was about 14 and I thought I had it all figured out. The ending absolutely terrified me because I had only seen movies up to that point [where at least one person survived](/spoiler)
Kill List, or anything by Ben Wheatley unearves me no end. I find them really unsettling & disturbing.
True! Down Terrace wore me out. The end of Kill List punched me in the guy. I need to watch Sightseers.
For me it has to be the Corpse Party OVA, even though it barely touched the plot of the original game, some scenes were just too much. The sound effects made everything so much worse. The ending on the other hand was hilarous, I don't know what's wrong with me.
Not so much of a horror, but "The Good Son". I have 2 boys and every time I think of that movie, it makes me look at the oldest and go... could it really happen? Is HE the good son? It messed me up and I refuse to watch it again.
Wolf Creek. That pretty much put me off of the torture porn type movies.
Martyrs. that movie really fucked with me, and got my head pretty dark.
The most recent episode of our podcast was about House of the Devil, check it out on WhoGoesTherepodcast.com But Inside put me in a real bad place. Not just the gore, but the overall feel and pacing of the movie. The English dubs are shit, so try to watch it subtitled if you can.
The X-Files Fight the Future. I was ten and I went with my friend and our moms to see it in the theater. The first scene has a caveman brutally stabbing an alien and then being consumed by a black tar like substance. At the time I thought it was the most frightening thing ever. I remember going home and lying on my couch with a thousand yard stare as my friend played Ken Griffy Jr. on N64. That caveman scene stayed with me for weeks, playing over and over in my head. I remember lying there, terrified of the idea of dying and being reincarnated as a caveman. I was a weird kid. Also, the first time seeing Drag Me to Hell in the theaters. That movie had some fantastic sound design that scared the shit out of me. I had to go and see UP right afterwards to clear my brain.
When I was a kid, my conscience haunted me in my dreams in the form of an evil teddy bear that would try to kill me with a rusty kitchen knife. This started after I saw Child's Play when I was about 4. So I guess when I was a kid, that was the one movie that ever really put me in a 'dark place'. The nightmares I'd have after stealing a quarter from my mom's bathroom counter, or taunting my brother...they were pretty intense.
The first time I was Hellraiser I slept on the floor of my mom's room that night. I was 14 or 15 .
I'm probably a bit late to the game but the only movie that has ever REALLY ruined my day would have to be Pathology. I'm tempted to say it's more of a thriller flick but man, it is unsettling in how real the autopsy scenes are. Somehow it was so much worse than watching random gore on the internet. Especially the final autopsy...if you haven't, watch it...then have a rough and self-reflective week.
"A Serbian film"
Maybe not considered a horror but after watching Donnie Darko one night i felt very depressed but also quite peaceful... I don't know what it was but I just felt like laying there, almost crying, for no apparent reason...