I have a hard time recalling the last time I watched a movie and was genuinely frightened and found myself looking over my shoulder or under the stairs when it was done.
Perhaps you grow out of it as you get older and your brain tells you that there’s just no way things that used to shock you are real.
I suppose times change and as technology changes so do our ideas of what’s terrifying. My dad tells the story of the time he went to the movies as a young lad and saw a film that scared the living bajeezus out of him. The movie he saw that day was “Abbot and Costello Meet Frankenstein” which came out in 1948. The first thing I have to question, were movies actually around when my dad was a kid? The second is how could a movie about two comedians meeting a monster be scary? Perhaps I could convince my dad to take some time to elaborate on that some day. Now "Psycho" was a classic thriller but other than the shower scene...I don't think it was all that scary.
Some movies that scared me when I was younger just don’t have the same influence on me anymore. One picture that comes to mind is “The Exorcist” from 1973. When Linda Blair’s head twisted all the way around while she was possessed by the Devil, I have to admit I was peaking out from under the blanket. Today, knowing what I know about special effects, it just doesn’t have the same effect.
As a kid I can remember plenty of movies that freaked me out. Those flicks include “Nightmare on Elm Street” (the original), “Poltergeist”, “Carrie”, “Jaws”, “Alien”, “Friday The 13th” and “Halloween” to name a few.I think sometimes the movie makers get too caught up in using special effects to try and create scary creatures when most times the fear comes not from seeing something scary but rather the anticipation and build up to a chilling moment.
Sadly in the last 20 years there hasn’t been one movie that has just terrified me like the good old days. That’s not to say there haven’t been some interesting horror movies that I thought were well done and provided some suspenseful moments. “Silence of the Lambs” and most of the movies about Hannibal Lecter were very good. He is just a great character.
“The Blair Witch Project” was probably the movie that has freaked me out the most since I was a young lad. When the kids started banging on the tent and the main characters went running into the dark, it frightened me a little and that was awesome. Of course I should mention that I watched this movie by myself late at night on Halloween. The best time to be scared.
There are some more recent movies that I’ve seen that have tried to keep the horror genre alive and succeed to some degree. “The Mist” based on the Stephen King short story was very well done and I would recommend it. The ending in particular is shocking. I won’t ruin it for you. “Cloverfield” is another movie that kind of takes us back to the days of Godzilla without the Japanese style of humour and cheesy special effects of a guy in a costume devastating a small fake Tokyo. The movie is entirely from the perspective of a guy filming the events with a home video camera as they happen. It’s really quite well done and they don’t overdue it by mostly hinting at the presence of the monster.
It’s too bad movies today just don’t seem to have the same impact when it comes to fear. To be honest, the most horrifying movie anyone could make today would be if they filmed the signs at the local gas station as the price continues to rise. Now that’s a terrifying story with no end in sight.
For fun, here are a couple of movie trailers of scary or not so scary movies.
Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein
Carrie
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