COMMENTS

24 responses to “Open Thread Update: A Senior Planet Spooky Film Festival”

1. The Shining was so spooky to me. Almost from the start it gave me the creeps!

   Reply to Kim

2. I was young maybe 9 or 10 and went with friends and saw The Pit and The Pendulum. Very first scary movie. As a young adult I saw many more scary movies; but Wait Until Dark was the one that really scared me. I do not not watch horror films at all now.

   Reply to Carlyn

3. Well, the Twilight Zone episode with the toy dolls that came to life and did evil things…Play Misty For Me is definitely up there…but the movie that I
   still think about today, and I still get goosebumps, was watching the original The Thing from my childhood. My bedroom was next to our back porch and I had a hard time sleeping with the thought that ‘the Thing’ would come through my bedroom door! Also from the 50s was the TV series called Inner Sanctum–lots of scary episodes with that one!

   Reply to Karen Gardner

4. No doubt showing my age, but I LOVE the classic monster horror films with the Draculas, Mummies, Wolf men, and Creatures. Aliens, too! The Thing From Another World, The Blob, etc. But my all time favorites are ghost stories with 1944’s “The Uninvited” with Ray Milland, Donald Crisp and Ruth Hussey at NUMBER ONE. Not all blood and gore, which isn’t really my thing, but suspenseful and interesting. Actual plots. Others have mentioned great films like: Play Misty, Hush Hush, Hitchcock.

   Reply to Dr. Zan Clare

5. Carnival of Souls nearly did me in as a kid.
   Also, The Haunting (how could a twisting doorknob be that scary?!)

   Reply to Wendl

6. When I was six years old (1951), I begged my older brother to take me to see “The Thing From Another World.” No sooner than the movie started, I screamed “take me home!” I was horrified, scared out of my wits. I cried so much we had to leave the theater. It was simply the acting and the unknown that was so frightening. I was probably 13 years old when I felt brave enough to watch the movie on TV and hid behind a living room chair just to be safe!

   Reply to Susan Kanowith-Klein

7. Rosemary’s Baby, I was much too young to watch it alone while babysitting

   Reply to Kim V

8. I was warped at age 12 when I saw Alfred Hitchcock’s “Psycho” on the big screen. I have stayed away from horror and scary movies ever since. Seriously, if it’s advertised as scary, I run the other way. However, if the horror is in snippets (as in some streaming shows) I’ll watch because it’s engrossing, and I can turn it off.

   Reply to Carol

9. I love scary movies that are too bad to be true like aliens, ghosts, haunted houses,
   Frankenstein, etc. However, I watched “Thirteen Ghosts” once and I’d say that is the scariest movie I have ever seen because it was like you were trapped in a glass house with a maze and all these ghosts were trying to get you. Very good scary story if you like horror!!

   Reply to Leigh Churion

10. Hands down “The Exorcist” it took me along time before i would look at her face and when she came down those steps upside down did it for me….The demon voice was horrific. SCAREY

    Reply to Deb

11. Scariest moment ever was in Wait Until Dark, when Alan Arkin, who was thought to be dead, leapt up off the floor and continued to come after blind Audrey Hepburn. The movie theatre turned off even the exit lights to simulate blindness for the audience!

    Reply to Chris

12. Night of the Living Dead. It was the second feature (remember those?) in the theater so I wasn’t expecting what it was. I still don’t watch zombie movies.

    Reply to Cleta Bradwell

    1. Ciera, Same for me. I was not expecting what happened in this movie. To this day, I will not watch zombie movies or shows. The second movie that frightened me so much that I walked out of the theater was The Exorcist. My husband had to take me home. I have never seen the entire movie.

       Reply to Denise

13. I was weaned on scary movies and TV shows. My family sat around on Saturday nights to watch Chiller. I thought The Exorcist was silly. For that reason I never watched it again. I would say Jaws was more scary for me because it was more feasible than zombies or devil possession. I don’t know if this is more about Jaws or the fact that I never learned to swim; but I can’t look down into deep water (not even computer generated water) without feeling queasy.

    Reply to Virginia S

14. I saw The Exorcist at a young age. I remember feeling dazed when I exited the theater. I’ve never seen it since.

    Reply to Gilbert

15. Not an in-your-face gorefest by any means, but The Night of the Hunter is one of the most terrifying films I’ve ever seen. Brilliantly directed by Charles Laughton, Robt Mitchum plays a murderous psychopath stalking two young children. Shelley Winters, Lillian Gish and Peter Graves all help make this unforgettable, but Mitchum will haunt your dreams for a long time. Maybe even forever…

    Reply to Ellen Ross

    1. I just put that on my watch list.

       Reply to Virginia

    2. Agreed! Robert Mitchum terrifyingly cool and controlled and MENACING!

       Reply to Chris

16. I recall having heightened fear during the psychological thriller Play Misty for Me (1971) with Clint Eastwood and Jessica Walter. I was in college and saw it with 8 friends. We were all clutching each other for practically every scene. Jessica Walter’s character was terrorizing Clint Eastwood’s character after a casual affair. She became obsessive and volatile with repeated attempts to kill or harm him in very violent ways.

    Reply to Ellen Reynolds

    1. OMG, Same here! I remember sitting in the lounge of my dorm with a bunch of other gals and screaming!

       Reply to Virge

17. IT really scared me. Will never look at clowns the same way.

    Reply to Loretta L Magner

18. Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte! I was 12 and thought I was going to a beach movie. I was so traumatized by that opening sequence that I spent much of the movie in the bathroom.

    Reply to Dianne Shorett Harlow

19. This is a hard one because I love horror movies, and I writer horror stories. Off the top of my head, I’d say the Japanese horror movie Shikoku. But, I have seen it more than once. Of course, there’s Train to Busan. Like it said, this is a hard question.

    Loretta H. Campbell

    Reply to Loretta H. Campbell

    1. On your recommendation I saw Train to Busan. It was awesome, one of the best zombie movies I’ve ever seen!

       Reply to Virge