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Boo! What do you still find scary!

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Solitaire Rose as Tom Servo

06:14 / 14.07.02

Even know that I am considered to be all grown up, I still am scared by zombie movies. I mean chill up the spine, need to turn the lights on, wish someone was in the room scared. Mostly the ones that rip off Romero's work well, and if the people are trapped in a building with all of the zombies outside pounding on the windows and doors, I'm there, ready to be scared.

Vampire movies, monster movies, "Crazy guy who can't die with an axe" movies, those don't scare me. I LIKE them as horror movies and all, but I don't get SCARED.

As a teenager, I actually could get scared reading comics and books (which I hear even from horror fans don't scare many people). Stephen King's "Salem's Lot" had a lot of scenes that just scared me so much I had to quit reading, as did "The Shining." And while the old EC horror titles didn't scare me, there were issues of Alan Moore's Swamp Thing that made me close the book and put it away for a bit. I think the last comic that actually SCARED me was Neil Gaiman's "Hold Me" In Hellblazer.

What scares you, book, movie, real life, whatever?

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

09:21 / 14.07.02

The two little girls in "The Shining".
And that bit in "Paper House" when her dad holds up the hammer on the horizon and says "I'M BLIND!"
Oh yeah, and Lovecraft's "The Rats In The Walls".

The Apple-Picker

11:41 / 14.07.02

It's been awhile since I've read it, but Gerald's Game scared me. A lot. Especially when it got to the part where the chick saw the figure of some dude in the corner of her room at night, and couldn't tell if it was real or her imagination. 'Cause I've seen people who weren't supposed to be there, in my bedroom, at night, since I was a wee one.

*shivers*

The Return Of Rothkoid

14:54 / 14.07.02

That period when your eyes aren't quite adjusted to the dark - and you think you see an axe-murderer/cthulhu/ghost/whatever in the corner. Freaks the bejesus out of me every time.

And the twins from The Shining.

And things in a weirdly fucked-up scale. Like a Jeff Koons-style three-storey reproduction of an eggcup or something. It's innocuous, but the lack of scale (or rather, the variance with what's considered normal scale) just fucks me up. I run across it in dreams, mostly, but it's happened a couple of times in real life, too...

15:02 / 14.07.02

Scared? Me? Ha! I know no fear.

Excuse the sarcasm, but if I answered properly I'd be here all night!

15:45 / 14.07.02

Dobermans. I was attacked by one as a kid and they still give me the willies. Also hights but only over water for some strange reason..

15:55 / 14.07.02

Rollercoasters. Particularly at Alton Towers - Oblivion, Air and Nemesis. Although I was very brave and went on the log flume. It was ok, only having the odd flashback.

Dogs.

People messing about with their eyes or threatening to mess with mine. This includes wearing contacts (not natural could slide up and get stuck), doing that thing were you pull them down to show the red bit (ewww), and waving sharp objects near them (not big and not clever).

Horror films. Any.

That short film thing I saw when I was a kid with Michael Palin called Amazing adventures or sumfink. It was the one with the black claw in it. Kept me awake for ages...still don't like to think about it.

The time when I saw five minutes of Dr Who when I was little and there were these mens in silver costumes walking up a hillside...that kept me awake as well...

The fact that I have to hand in a big, important assignment on Thursday and I am wildly, wildly procrastinating.

Most large animals actually...and confident looking cats.

15:58 / 14.07.02

Also heights but only over water for some strange reason..

Well, I hope you are duly impressed by my log flume heroics. There was this huge drop, and loads of water, splashing about...not for the faint hearted...danger is my middle name...

16:39 / 14.07.02

Nemesis is a crap ride, btw - too fast to be scary, but instead you end up with a mild case of whiplash... the Zodiac at Thorpe Park is quite scary in a no fun way, because you are in a cage thing, no seat beats, upside down quite a lot, held in by centrifugal force.

Natural bodies of water - I swim well enough, but I hate being out of my depth in the sea, for instance. In Greece last summer I swam to shore from a boat and thought I would have to get an old lady or an 8 year old boy to escort me back. Snorkelling out of my depth is particularly bad - always think I am going to come face to severed eyeball, 'Jaws' stylee. I once got very stressed out on a pedalo... and lakes sometimes freak me the hell out too - what might reach out to grab my ankle, please?

16:43 / 14.07.02

Buk - was the Palin thing 'Ripping Yarns'?

17:02 / 14.07.02

Ripping yarns, yep that was the culprit. I don't know how they sneaked that past the censorship boards but it still haunts me. Getting over it now but the though of that back claw...eeurgh...

17:34 / 14.07.02

David Lynch films.

Nightmares.

Ring 2 scared me senseless for some reason..

Of course, I'm grown up now, so most things just disturb me, which is a lot more quiet and civilised.

The whole physical-fear-as-fun thing with rollercoasters, bungee jumping etc. I just don't get. Not so much "I'm scared!" as "I don't want to do that, it makes me feel like shit!".

17:57 / 14.07.02

Still scared of:

The dwarf in the red coat, with the knife, in Don't Look Now.

And snakes.

Used to be scared of everything but I got sorted out at the Emerald City.

18:00 / 14.07.02

Ring 2 scared me senseless for some reason

Bizarre. I found Ring 2 really quite laughably awful. Now Ring 1...that's a whole different kettle of fish.

I'm with you on Mr Lynch however. Eraserhead was just a tad too unsettling.

Book-wise, I found parts of The Exorcist quite disturbing, as well as - for different but no less frightening reasons - the Dave Pelzer trilogy.

Oh, and my partner is kinda scary once a month...

18:20 / 14.07.02

"That period when your eyes aren't quite adjusted to the dark - and you think you see an axe-murderer/cthulhu/ghost/whatever in the corner"

no, rothkoid - they are there. that period when your eyes are adjusting to the dark is the only time your eyes really see....

Murray Hamhandler

19:22 / 14.07.02

When I saw a preview screening of Blair Witch, a month before it was released theatrically and, most importantly, before I'd heard a thing about it. No one in the audience moved for several minutes after it was over. I feel really sorry for everyone else who had to see it after all of the hype, because it was terrifying without.

The scene in The Exorcist when Karras is dreaming about his dead mother and the face of Pazuzu briefly flashes on the screen. Still, to this day, I have to shut the movie off and/or turn on the lights when this scene comes up.

Zombie movies don't scare me per se, but they do invariably give me the most interesting nightmares. In a similar vein, though...when I was a kid, I saw a bit of a documentary about the assasination of JFK, wherein they showed his autopsy photo, his eyes staring blankly ahead. That night, and intermittently through the rest of my life, I vividly pictured the corpse of JFK sitting up next to my bed in the dark and staring at me w/those same glassy eyes, brains dribbling out of the back of his head. And thinking about it now will almost absolutely assure that I see it tonight while I'm lying in bed. Fuuuuck...

P.S. to The Apple-Picker...if that "people where they shouldn't be" thing creeps you out and you like to be scared, you should watch Repulsion. It's a good film and it's probably where King got the idea (he's mentioned the film in the past as an inspiration, I believe). Not gonna tell you any more than that...

19:36 / 14.07.02

Large bodies of water; lakes, pools, oceans. I can't stand them. Every time I get near the things I just see myself floating facedown in the water, being dragged out, and stuck in a body bag. I don't know why, I guess it's one of those irrational fears. The few times I went to a pool, I either had to be dragged, thrown, or pushed into the water.

19:53 / 14.07.02

The sea at night. The idea of such a huge, deep, black watery mass quietly sitting there. Freaks me out.

And that "scary thing at the bedroom window" thing in movies. Brrr...
e.g. Remember that bit in Twin Peaks when Bob climbs in the window? Scared the hell out of me.

21:21 / 14.07.02

The dwarf in the red coat, with the knife, in Don't Look Now.

Really? I'd go for 'baffling' on that one, rather than 'scary'.

I know that there's stuff out there that scares me, I'm just having trouble remembering what. The Haunting (Robert Wise version, natch) gives me the willies every time I watch it. I've got a slight phobia when it comes to blades being left out in the room I'm sleeping in (from an old, popular bit of playground storytelling). Heights get me, but that's more of a full-on, physical woah-dizzy vertigo thing than a fear.

Oh, and having to mix with groups of strangers on my own. Once I get to know people I'm fine, but I hatehatehate the lead up to that.

21:23 / 14.07.02

The little women in 'Little Women'. I have to stop reading and put the book in the freezer compartment.

gentleman loser

21:26 / 14.07.02

George W. Bush still has a 68% approval rating.

Hey, it still scares the living fuck out of me!

My mommy always said there were no monsters, no real ones, but there are.

Dreams don't really scare me at this point since I've been shot, stabbed, electrocuted, lethally injected, gassed, vaporized, crushed, poisoned, hanged, drowned, fallen to my death, etc. in my dreams. If you get killed enough in your dreams, things look a lot less scary.

23:28 / 14.07.02

Carnies.

Murray Hamhandler

23:59 / 14.07.02

Warewullf said: "The sea at night. The idea of such a huge, deep, black watery mass quietly sitting there. Freaks me out."

Yeah, I forgot about that. I was in San Francisco earlier this year and, one rainy night, I went to the beach. The sky and the water were the same deep pitch black, and the only thing discernable on the horizon was the thin, off-white line of the breaking of the waves . It was like looking at the edge of the world. I felt a strange animal terror looking at that sight. It's hard to describe, but I can safely say I never want to feel that way again.

01:25 / 15.07.02

The luck dragon from the Neverending Story. *shudders*

The Natural Way

08:22 / 15.07.02

Films: Lynch, Shining, Ring,

DON'T LOOK NOW!

I agree 100% w/ Zocher - Roeg, up until 'Walkabout', can really put the shits up me: the aborigine's dance of death, the Pinter-like menace of the baddies in 'Performance'.

13:22 / 15.07.02

13:30 / 15.07.02

Oh, fuck, and that scene in Rosemary's Baby when Rosemary looks in the cradle, we see her eyes and her expression, going from curiosity to confusion and then abhorrent understanding. Man, that look she gives, and the way she covers her mouth, and the way she stands there, in the floor, shaking her head slowly, crying, repeating to herself, lonelier than ever: "This can't be! This can't be!"

Gotta watch this movie again...

A

13:45 / 15.07.02

I'm scared of losing or breaking my teeth. I think I'd rather lose an arm than a tooth. People with missing teeth creep me out slightly.

13:53 / 15.07.02

nothing. maggots make me queasy, and I worry about my kid a lot.

when I was little, I was pretty damn claustrophobic, but I had gotten stuck in a storage closet for a long stretch to blame that on, and gradually grew out of it (though I still dont think Id ever be tempted to go spelunking [sp])

Tuna Ghost: Pratt knot hero

20:32 / 15.07.02

The little women in 'Little Women'. I have to stop reading and put the book in the freezer compartment.

You're just an entire episode of "Friends", aren't you?

Crazy thing: If I'm with someone, I'm not scared of anything. The more frightened they are, the more calm I am. It's like "okay, they're taking care of the whole 'pissing myself I'm so scared' deal, so I can focus on the 'thinking like a rational being' part..."

On the proper drugs, I'll spit in a alligator's eye and stick a giant spider down my pants while pissing on some zombies before admiting I'm frightened, and I'll do it twice if someone says "I still think you were scared for a bit...pussy". Three times if an attractive girl said it (I'm such a tool). I try not to do those drugs.

When I'm sober and alone, though, all it takes is a dark room and a creepy memory. I can be perfectly fine sitting in the dark, until I remember the time when I was five and watched a giant spider crawl across my hand when I was in bed, or the first Stephen Kind novel, and then I'll get to the lights so quick I'll be back before the room brightens.

20:54 / 15.07.02

Clowns. Fucking clowns.

09:09 / 16.07.02

You know, late the other night I was walking alone along a deserted riverbank with a big cresent moon reflected in dark, oily looking water and a phenomenal amount of fog obscuring just about everything, and bats flying around in the tree's and the ruins of a supposedly haunted cottage looming up on my left (no really, I'm not exaggerating) and scary goth freak-out rock on my walkman..

..and I wasn't scared at all, I felt totally at home. It's great living in the countryside sometimes..

09:23 / 16.07.02

there was a short, short thunder storm the other day that put me instantly back into scared kiddie mode. an intense flash of lightning was followed by an unbelieveably loud bang of thunder - like the storm was right overhead - that had me running up the stairs, really freaked out. then i remembered the cats were downstairs and i thought they might be frightened, so i put my adult hat back on and legged it down to find them.

they didn't give a shit, unsurprisingly enough.

09:44 / 16.07.02

E. Randy Dupre: The dwarf in the red coat, with the knife, in Don't Look Now. Really? I'd go for 'baffling' on that one, rather than 'scary'.

You're so big & tough, ERD. I had recurrent nightmares of awakening in the middle of the night to find that evil little face peering at me from beside the bed, just as the knife scythed down through the air towards my somnolent self...

I think the nose has something to do with it. The conventional Wicked Witch physiognomy: the old crone face, the hooked nose, the pronounced chin, they always disturb me. & in that film, when she's expecting to see her own child but instead... brrrrrr...

There are also "The Gentlemen" from the silent Buffy episode Hush, floating blend of evil Victorian queens and psychotic, sadistic surgeons. For some reason they scare the shit out of me and hold a menace the usual prosthetic-forehead demonettes don't.

But I'd second Gentleman Loser re George Dubya too, and Margin Walker's bang on about Clowns (evil, evil, evil!)

The Natural Way

09:50 / 16.07.02

Yeah, but clowns are a bloody cliche. They go w/out saying.

E Randy - just a short hop, skip and jump from baffling to disturbing: there's a dream logic at work in that film - there's always a sense that there's something terribly wrong. Crone heads. Yes. Like Mr. Punch heads: just wrong.

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