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Best Scary Movie or Book Ever (Read 2290 times)
Rat Man
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Best Scary Movie or Book Ever
Nov 1st, 2019 at 1:49pm
 
     Though it's been copied, sequeled, and parodied countless times, when the Exorcist was first released there had never been anything like it. For those of us old enough to remember, it had quite an impact. 
    One of my favorites is an old Black and White haunted house movie; The Haunting of Hillhouse, sometimes called just The Haunting.  Superior directing and acting.  With almost no special effects they put together a real nail biter.  There was a remake in the 90s that totally sucked so don't confuse the two. 
     The Amityville Horror was a very good movie and an even better book.  Good stuff.
     Finally I'll mention The Shining.  Like many of Nicholson's movies, without him The Shining probably would have been nothing.  It was the Shining that made me realize that Nicholson is my favorite actor.  He did crazy soooooo well. 
     So what are your favorites?
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Morphy
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Re: Best Scary Movie or Book Ever
Reply #1 - Nov 1st, 2019 at 3:50pm
 
I remember putting on The Ring one night shortly after it had come out on video. It had been awhile since I had watched a scary movie and this one was based on a Japanese movie called Ringu that was like nothing I had seen before. I was totally unprepared for it. For some reason it caught me off guard and really scared me lol. I later watched The Grudge and some other similar movies but none of them had the same effect as watching The Ring that night.

When I was young Disney was going through a strange phase of putting out scary/thrillers movies that were way too scary for their usual market of younger kids. This was back when Disney was almost completely just for kids so I'm not sure exactly why they decided to go in this direction. One movie, The Watcher in the Woods scared the hell out of me. I think I watched that movie like 5 times as a kid and everytime it was through squinted eyes or hands half covering my face lol.

As far as best scary book I really enjoyed IT. Although I like both iterations from the movie/tv they can't do the book justice. Before I read that book I never thought a book could scare me, but it is in fact pretty creepy.
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NooneOfConsequence
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Re: Best Scary Movie or Book Ever
Reply #2 - Nov 1st, 2019 at 8:13pm
 
I binge read Cormack McCarthy’s The Road in an airport waiting hours for my flight to Seattle. When I landed, a storm had rolled in along with the worst flooding in Washington state in 70 years. It felt like I had landed in the book even at the airport, but then I spent the next few days at an old decommissioned nuclear power plant. It would have felt extremely post-apocalyptic even without reading the book, but with the dreary rain... I was just waiting for some cannibal to lean out of a broken window and shoot me in the leg with a makeshift sharpened-spoon arrow.
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“My final hour is at hand. We face an enemy more numerous and cunning than the world has yet seen. Remember your training, and do not fear the hordes of Judas. I, without sin, shall cast the first stone. That will be your sign to attack! But you shall not fight this unholy enemy with stones. No! RAZOR GLANDES!  Aim for the eyes! May the Lord have mercy, for we shall show none!“  -Jesus the Noodler
 
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Re: Best Scary Movie or Book Ever
Reply #3 - Nov 2nd, 2019 at 4:35am
 
The movie FREAKS made in the 30s. With no special effects. And in that time, totally different.
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Re: Best Scary Movie or Book Ever
Reply #4 - Nov 2nd, 2019 at 12:01pm
 
NooneOfConsequence wrote on Nov 1st, 2019 at 8:13pm:
I binge read Cormack McCarthy’s The Road in an airport waiting hours for my flight to Seattle. When I landed, a storm had rolled in along with the worst flooding in Washington state in 70 years. It felt like I had landed in the book even at the airport, but then I spent the next few days at an old decommissioned nuclear power plant. It would have felt extremely post-apocalyptic even without reading the book, but with the dreary rain... I was just waiting for some cannibal to lean out of a broken window and shoot me in the leg with a makeshift sharpened-spoon arrow.


The Road is... tough. Both book and film are fantastic but I find them more emotionally devastating rather than scary. I haven't read The Shining but the movie, as well as being one of the greatest movies ever made, is freaking terrifying. I have watched it all the way through once. I'm not sure I could do it again.

One book I really wasn't expecting to get to me is The Night Land by William Hope Hodgson. It's a really weird book. It's hard to explain, but it opens with a man from around the 1700's describing how he met the love of his life and then tragically lost her and then goes on to explain a strange "dream" he has. The whole thing is written in a faux 16th century style so the language is very flowery and old fashioned but the "dream" is set millions of years into the future after the Sun has gone out and the Earth is almost barren, pockets of life existing only in former oceanic trenches being sustained by a strange power emanating from deep within the Earth. The last humans are living in a giant pyramid that shelters them from horrific monsters and mutants and supernatural powers that stalk the Night Land and would like nothing more than tearing the last humans to pieces and utterly annihilating their souls. To avoid spoilers, all I'll say is that the main character has to go on a quest across the Night Land and there is a point where there is an attack by giants. The hairs on the back of my neck are prickling just thinking about it. Even with the old fashioned language, it's visceral.

It's a really long book (so long it's been edited down numerous times) and the language can get tedious (so tedious there has been a fan rewrite that puts it into modern language) but the world of the Night Land is one of my favourite fantasy worlds and boy, is it horrible.
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You are a great guy Kick but also slightly scary at times. - Morphy
"Nothing matters, but it’s perhaps more comfortable to keep calm and not interfere with other people." - H.P. Lovecraft, in a letter to Frank Belknap Long, 7 October, 1923
 
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Rat Man
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Re: Best Scary Movie or Book Ever
Reply #5 - Nov 3rd, 2019 at 3:59pm
 
     The Road is the kind of book that stays in  your head long after you finish it.  Very real and disturbing. 
     Steven King's "The Stand" was an excellent book.  I found it more fascinating than scary, but it was a very enjoyable read just the same. The movie was OK I guess but no where near as good as the book. 
     One of my all time favorite horror movies is Motel Hell.  A lot of people don't get that it's a parody.  I'll be laughing my butt off and people will be looking at me like I'm insane.  "Meat's meat and man's gotta eat!" If you've never seen it you have to watch Motel Hell.
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Re: Best Scary Movie or Book Ever
Reply #6 - Nov 8th, 2019 at 6:58pm
 
If I could have any movie redone for the big screen it would be "The Stand". I loved the miniseries but being truthful it is still a little unpolished. With the recent success of IT. I'm hoping they make a triology out of The Stand.
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NooneOfConsequence
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Re: Best Scary Movie or Book Ever
Reply #7 - Nov 8th, 2019 at 8:51pm
 
Ah the great Stephen King... if only I could forget I ever watched The Langoliers.  It’s only saving grace was that Balki Bartokomous got eaten by really bad CGI.
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“My final hour is at hand. We face an enemy more numerous and cunning than the world has yet seen. Remember your training, and do not fear the hordes of Judas. I, without sin, shall cast the first stone. That will be your sign to attack! But you shall not fight this unholy enemy with stones. No! RAZOR GLANDES!  Aim for the eyes! May the Lord have mercy, for we shall show none!“  -Jesus the Noodler
 
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Morphy
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Re: Best Scary Movie or Book Ever
Reply #8 - Nov 8th, 2019 at 11:12pm
 
I never did see Langoliers. I think Stephen King is only capable of making instant classics or instant crap. Not much room for in between with him. There was a miniseries on TV awhile back I think with James Franco about going back in time to the Kennedy assassination called 11.22.63 that is really interesting. If you are looking for good Stephen King stuff it's worth a watch. I also liked the first and second IT that came out. Pretty good movies all things considered.
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slingbadger
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Re: Best Scary Movie or Book Ever
Reply #9 - Nov 9th, 2019 at 6:38am
 
Anything by the Master, H.P Lovecraft.
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The greatest of all the accomplishments of 20th cent. science has been the discovery of human ignorance  The main difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has it's limits.-Einstein   I'm getting psychic as I get older. Or is that psychotic?
 
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Re: Best Scary Movie or Book Ever
Reply #10 - Nov 9th, 2019 at 10:39am
 
Talking of Stephen King, The Mist is a fantastic film. Everyone talks about the ending but the whole thing is just incredible. Love that film. Haven't read the book.

slingbadger wrote on Nov 9th, 2019 at 6:38am:
Anything by the Master, H.P Lovecraft.


My favourite writer. I can't believe I forgot to mention him. In my opinion, his best is The Rats in The Walls. Along with The Night Land, it's the only written friction I've read that's sent a shiver down my spine. A lot of what he wrote was... problematic as the kids say these days (the name of the cat in The Rats in The Walls for instance...), but it's also undeniable that he was a twisted genius of horror and it's a shame he died so young and unknown.
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You are a great guy Kick but also slightly scary at times. - Morphy
"Nothing matters, but it’s perhaps more comfortable to keep calm and not interfere with other people." - H.P. Lovecraft, in a letter to Frank Belknap Long, 7 October, 1923
 
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Rat Man
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Re: Best Scary Movie or Book Ever
Reply #11 - Nov 9th, 2019 at 2:38pm
 
     I love Lovecraft.  I wish he had been more widely accepted/acclaimed in his time so there would be more of his writing around today.  Of course he was a blatant racist but somehow that doesn't detract from his stories.  Every few years I'll go on a Lovecraft binge and reread everything.  I'm about due for that now.
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Rat Man
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Re: Best Scary Movie or Book Ever
Reply #12 - Nov 9th, 2019 at 2:50pm
 
Robert A. Heinlein is an author I've enjoyed over the years.  His genre is mainly Science Fiction. Good stuff.
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Re: Best Scary Movie or Book Ever
Reply #13 - Nov 9th, 2019 at 4:08pm
 
I think in a lot of ways his racism is very much tied to his idea of horror. He said it was the fear of the unknown that was the oldest and strongest fear of man and he was a reclusive, sickly child that was scared of the outside world intruding on his idea of New England. It's one thing that makes him interesting and so difficult. If he wasn't so incredibly, horribly racist I don't know if he would have been twisted into such a great horror writer. He was very strange, an anti-Semite that married a Jewish woman, a racist that lived in the poor quarters surrounded by immigrants.
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You are a great guy Kick but also slightly scary at times. - Morphy
"Nothing matters, but it’s perhaps more comfortable to keep calm and not interfere with other people." - H.P. Lovecraft, in a letter to Frank Belknap Long, 7 October, 1923
 
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Re: Best Scary Movie or Book Ever
Reply #14 - Nov 10th, 2019 at 2:50pm
 
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