Earlier today, in regards to all this "scariest movie ever" hype around Paranormal Activity, reader Scott asked me "Locke, in your opinion, what is the "scariest movie ever"? Gigli? I kid, but that probably is a hard question, so what are your favorites?"
I started to write something in the comments, but soon my answer was longer than many full reviews here at redblog.
So here's my quick reply. A huge caveat: I was just answering off the top of my head--I haven't spent days compiling a thorough list or thinking over my choices and reasons. (If I had, like so many of my well-intended redblog columns, this piece probably would have never seen the light of publication.) But here's what I said:
Ah tough question, Scott...
First off, let me go on record as saying... Gigli? Not really a bad movie at all. Of course, I have a higher Affleck tolerance than most, but it's really quite watchable.
But scariest movie ever? Well, I guess my problem is with the label itself. Like "funniest movie ever," it's so utterly subjective--fear and laughter are such primal emotions and therefore so personal and so different for everyone.Also you get into questions of "scary" versus "good." And of "overall scary" versus "scariest moment/scene." I will hand that to Paranormal Activity--one of the things it does better than most is it maintains a strong level of creepiness and dread throughout. But for me personally there was never a really scary moment, and it did not haunt me (so to speak) later at night.
For example, I love The Shining and think it's a classic film thanks to Kubrick's cold direction, Nicholson's madcap performance, and King's story and characters. But if you're asking about what movies get me right in the gut, dig deep down in my lizard brain and scare the hell out of me, The Shining doesn't really do that. (The book did when I first read it in my teens, but not the film.)
Likewise, I watch Sam Raimi's Evil Dead 2 almost every Halloween, but I adore it for its humor and flat out Looney Tunes sense of gory, gross-out fun--nothing about it really scares me.
But the scariest moment on film for me, as I was saying a few months ago in the comments, is actually in The Exorcist III, directed by the author of The Exorcist novel, William Peter Blatty. I personally think it's a good film, though it has a completely different tone and style from Exorcist I (and a terrible, cheesy ending tacked on by the studio). (The Exorcist II: The Heretic is scary only in how much whiskey must have gone into keep Richard Burton upright and "functioning" during the shoot.) But Exorcist III has a scene in it that is utterly terrifying in its set-up and single-shot payoff of a very simple image that isn't terribly scary on its own, but horrifying in context. (Everyone who's seen the film knows exactly what I'm talking about.)
Another very well-made and low-key scary film is Peter Medak's The Changeling
from 1980 (not to be confused with Eastwood's from last
year--completely different stories and genres). Again, it builds most
of its scares from carefully constructed mood and atmosphere. (And,
like Exorcist III, stars George C. Scott.) A near-perfect ghost story, The Changeling
has no gore, no real "jump scares" and not even much in the way
horrifying imagery. But it takes a child's rubber ball and antique wheelchair and makes them both utterly chilling. Also, like Paranormal Activity and The Grudge, (and Robert Wise's The Haunting) it uses sound to get you nice and freaked out.
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(See What I Did There? "Possesses"? Heh...)