What scares you? (movies, books, stories, etc.)

[Rojo]

*Acid-washed horror movies from the late sixties and early seventies. My favorite was Dan Curtis' "Burnt Offerings" with Karen Black, Oliver Reed, Bette Davis, and Burgess Meredith.

Creepy indeed. And how could it not be with the creepiest acting corps ever assembled? How did Christopher Walken not get a call?

Scarier still was Race with the Devil with Peter Fonda, Warren Oates and Loretta Swit.

Also, I remember a TV movie from childhood that wasn't scary but very creepy. And I don't know the name of it. A teenage kid kills another kid and his mom hides him from the law by creating a room for him behind a false wall. The kid's an artist and draws all day but goes crazy from the solitude.

Does this ring any bells for anyone?

[19braves77]

There is one website were the members post photos that have been obtained from police people to help solve murders. One thread is like over a 100 pages long of nothing but photos taking by this one man that acted like a photographer across California and Europe. People post the pics asking for help in identifying the kids pictured or locations. Some of them are bound and look like they know they aren't leaving the woods. Its scary stuff.

[cumberlandreds]

The scary thing that gets me is the unknown. What is lurking in the dark or behind that door or in the cellar? You know something is there but what is it? The unknown is the best scare tatic any movie,TV producer or writer can ever use, IMO.

[Spazzrico]

After reading 1984.....Rats.

And I'll agree on the Poltergeist comments. The film had a lasting impact on me.

This scene not only ruined clowns, but the thought of putting my feet down next to my bed at night for fear of what lay beneath:


And this one made me not be able to sleep if there was a tree outside my window, no shade...or worse a shade that showed a silhouette of a tree. Or the worst, a thunderstorm with a tree outside tapping its branches on the pane with the wind. So much lost sleep.......:

[Spazzrico]

[QUOTE=cumberlandreds;2998136] What is lurking in the dark or behind that door or in the cellar? [QUOTE]

Remember having to run up basement stairs after you turned off a light, because as soon as the light is off out come the creatures to get you. And worst is if it was a staircase with no backs open to some void behind. Then you were sure to be dragged down to Hell by your ankles.

[CoachBombay]

I wish they still made scary movies...And stopped remaking older movies. Too many times I end up saying "really?"

[marcshoe]

That thing that lives in my closet.

[marcshoe]

The whispered voices that I may or may not hear.

[marcshoe]

The figure I see out of the corner of my eye, the one that vanishes almost as soon as I turn around.

Almost.

[marcshoe]

Remember having to run up basement stairs after you turned off a light, because as soon as the light is off out come the creatures to get you. And worst is if it was a staircase with no backs open to some void behind. Then you were sure to be dragged down to Hell by your ankles.

Feeling compelled to look back after you turn off that light. Fighting that feeling time and time again, until one day the compulsion becomes too strong, and you turn and look back into the darkness.


And you see what waits there.

[marcshoe]

The dark.

No, not the dead-of-night all around me, but rather the darkness inside.

[Joseph]

Clowns.

For real. Just like a little kid. Well not that bad, but still they make me do a double take.

[marcshoe]

The terror that wakes me in the small hours of the night, forcing me to face my own mortality.

The terror that causes me to wake, screaming.

[marcshoe]

LITTLE ORPHANT ANNIE

by: James Whitcomb Riley (1849-1916)

INSCRIBED WITH ALL FAITH AND AFFECTION

To all the little children: -- The happy ones; and sad ones;
The sober and the silent ones; the boisterous and glad ones;
The good ones -- Yes, the good ones, too; and all the lovely bad ones.

LITTLE Orphant Annie's come to our house to stay,
An' wash the cups an' saucers up, an' brush the crumbs away,
An' shoo the chickens off the porch, an' dust the hearth, an' sweep,
An' make the fire, an' bake the bread, an' earn her board-an'-keep;
An' all us other childern, when the supper-things is done,
We set around the kitchen fire an' has the mostest fun
A-list'nin' to the witch-tales 'at Annie tells about,
An' the Gobble-uns 'at gits you
Ef you
Don't
Watch
Out!

Wunst they wuz a little boy wouldn't say his prayers,--
An' when he went to bed at night, away up-stairs,
His Mammy heerd him holler, an' his Daddy heerd him bawl,
An' when they turn't the kivvers down, he wuzn't there at all!
An' they seeked him in the rafter-room, an' cubby-hole, an' press,
An' seeked him up the chimbly-flue, an' ever'-wheres, I guess;
But all they ever found wuz thist his pants an' roundabout:--
An' the Gobble-uns 'll git you
Ef you
Don't
Watch
Out!

An' one time a little girl 'ud allus laugh an' grin,
An' make fun of ever' one, an' all her blood-an'-kin;
An' wunst, when they was "company," an' ole folks wuz there,
She mocked 'em an' shocked 'em, an' said she didn't care!
An' thist as she kicked her heels, an' turn't to run an' hide,
They wuz two great big Black Things a-standin' by her side,
An' they snatched her through the ceilin' 'fore she knowed what she's about!
An' the Gobble-uns 'll git you
Ef you
Don't
Watch
Out!

An' little Orphant Annie says, when the blaze is blue,
An' the lamp-wick sputters, an' the wind goes woo-oo!
An' you hear the crickets quit, an' the moon is gray,
An' the lightnin'-bugs in dew is all squenched away,--
You better mind yer parunts, an' yer teachurs fond an' dear,
An' churish them 'at loves you, an' dry the orphant's tear,
An' he'p the pore an' needy ones 'at clusters all about,
Er the Gobble-uns 'll git you
Ef you
Don't
Watch
Out!

"Little Orphant Annie" is reprinted from Complete Works. James Whitcomb Riley. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1916.

[Dom Heffner]

that X-Files "Home" episode...that was just...I'll never unsee it, that's for sure.