Abob Teff

Rival11

May I ask what you consider actually scary? There are only a an extreme few horror movies that really the shit out of me.

rbrown498

I totally understand that "scary" is a subjective term. What I find scary may be comedic gold for some, and vice-versa. I don't think that desensitization has anything to do with it. Here are some movies that scared me:

It Follows
Audition
Dark Water (the Japanese version)
Ringu
The Conjuring
The Orphanage
The Innkeepers

For me, gore is not scary. It's grotesque, but not frightening. Also not scary to me: the not-quite-appropriately named "jump scare." (Our own Mr. Cellophane once termed horror films full of jump scares as "startle films," which is probably the best way I've ever heard it put.) Jump scares are startling, but they're not scary. There's also a distinct difference between a horror movie and a thriller. Horror touches a much deeper nerve; thrillers exist at surface level. It: Chapter Two, for me, was a thriller, not a horror film. If it hadn't been so incredibly long, I would have found it to be a fairly fun film. The difference between It: Chapter Two and a truly scary film is, for me at least, like the difference between a riding a roller coaster (thrilling, and fun while it lasts) and walking through an unfamiliar stretch of woods at night and hearing strange sounds nearby (deeply unsettling and apt to pop up in nightmares later).

I think the films that frighten me the most are the ones that cause me to envision being in the situation presented and which hit subconscious pressure points (like the fear of being abandoned entirely, or the fear of what might lurk in the dark) that I sometimes didn't even know I had. To take one example from It: Chapter Two, I can't put myself into a headspace where fortune cookies are terrifying, no matter WHAT they may morph into. I would have found that scene a hundred times scarier, however, if it had only shown a little blood leaking from one of the cookies, and maybe another one or two rocking back and forth, and stopping the scene there. Taking the creep factor up to the outlandish extremes that the film did totally kills the horror inherent in the scene. The unknown is always, for me, much scarier than the known. Wondering what might be in one of the fortune cookies, and coming up with all sorts of unsavory prospects, is much more horrifying to me than seeing one of the cookies sprout wings and flop around the table. Likewise, the last part of the film wherein Pennywise has morphed into some sort of spider-clown requires too much of a suspension of disbelief for me to be scared by it.

On the other hand, Audition got under my skin in a way that very few movies have. The gore in the film didn't scare me; what scared me was the possibility that someone that I think that I know, someone who looks and acts very sweet and demure, could actually be a monster. THAT could happen to me. THAT requires very little suspension of disbelief. THAT is disconcerting in the extreme. In fact, I moved to Japan very shortly after seeing Audition, and I was somewhat apprehensive of befriending any Japanese women for weeks. That's how badly it affected me.

Brack

rbrown498

This is why I wrote "to me." Startling? For me, yes. Scary? For me, very, very rarely.

Brack

rbrown498

Just because a film happens to have jump scares doesn't automatically make me dislike it; you're right in that The Conjuring has a lot of jump scares, and It Follows has a terrific jump scare in it, but if the jump scares had been the only thing that these films had going for them, I'm 99% sure that they wouldn't have scared me. I still might have been entertained, but I most probably wouldn't have been scared.

Brack

Tom Banjo

TomOpus

I agree with this list except The Innkeepers. Know of it, haven't seen it.

mrhan

This movie is something I think you will really like unless you have already seen it. Scared the fuck out me. It needs to be watched in the dark with a surround system. There was a U.S. remake but it was a POS.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0440803/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

rbrown498

I've seen it, but it didn't make much of an impression on me. It's on my shelf; I'll watch it again during the October Horror Movie Challenge and see if it resonates with me this time. It's been over ten years since I watched it, so it's due for a rewatch anyway.

Thanks for recommending it!

Abob Teff

lopper

I wish I liked this movie more than I did. The nicest thing I can say about it is that it was 'just okay'. And I feel like that's being a bit generous.

The first movie had a general sense of unease throughout the whole thing. It was unsettling. The part when Beverly goes back to her old house was the closest Chapter 2 came to replicating the vibe of the first movie. The rest felt more sci-fi than horror.

Aside from just being a cheap, low effort scare, why did Pennywise even kill that kid under the bleachers? Who was that? Why should I care?

Rival11

All good, that's why I asked. Full on horror for me is the exorcist - I refuse to even keep that movie in my house and it still really freaks me out to this day. It's not just all "The scenes" it's the elements from the time frame in which it was made - the sound, look, and without question, the buildup.

On the lighter side, the conjuring 2 really got to me as well.

Yes, IT chapter 2 wasn't scary but it was a well made horror movie and a fun one.

I have a couple of movies if you haven't seen them yet that will probably bother you - most here have seen them:

Irreversible
Kidnapped (2010 - Spanish)
Martyrs (Original French movie not the horrible US remake)

Thamacman

story

Welcome, Themacman, I hope you have a good experience here.

He said in his letter than he knew everyone would have to confront Pennywise but the others wouldn't remember until they got to Derry. Meanwhile, he remembered early, right there on the phone with Mike, and because of that he couldn't go through with it. Since it takes everyone on board, he "took himself off the board."

Decker

asianxcore

Saw this last weekend.

Enjoyed it, mostly due to the strong cast.

Even though it was unavoidable, I thought the CGI/De-Aging & voice dubbing on The Loser's Club flashback scenes were distracting.

Brack

Why So Blu?

Likewise.

jpcamb

I saw this at the drive in this past weekend paired with Annabelle comes home and really didn't find the movie scary, more of an action adventure with a few attempts at jump scares. Not really horror either per se, it was kind of weird in that regard. I have to say I was somewhat hoping for Amy Adams in this as well but in seeing Jessica in the role she really nailed it as Bev and I have some trouble seeing Amy do the "action scenes" jumping off the cliff and running etc. - not that Amy couldn't do it, but its sort of not her style. I gave the movie 3.5 out of 5. It was definitely too long and the whole wander Derry alone to get my groove back part of the film was way too long. Loved seeing the cameo by Stephen and the director who I recognized as an actor more so than a director. Somehow Pennywise just was never particular scary, menacing sure, but seeing this guy would not make me afraid of clowns. Really never understood how his "jig" was scary last movie or the head bobbing was scary this one. I'll watch it on HBO or netflix down the road to fill in some blanks as I had some trouble with the sound at the drive in but the Annabelle movie was way scarier than Chapter 2.

Rival11

Yeah, why? I though it was funny and has some good jump scares. It was way better than most recently released horror flicks right? Not sure why the smart ass meme.

Why So Blu?

And both Chapters will have cleared about 1.2 billion worldwide by the end of it's theatrical release(s).

dex14

This is CGI'd: