Monday, October 23, 2006

Most Wonderful Time of the Year

I’m still in search of a scary movie.

It could be my general emotional invariability, but I have yet to find a movie that scared me. Sure I can find ones where I’m startled, but that is hardly what I’m going for. I have also found movies that I find gross. I watched the first thirty minutes of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre and gave up on it. It wasn’t too scary, it was just entirely unappealing. I like eerie movies, but again eerie isn’t scary. For instance I quite enjoyed Silent Hill from earlier this year. I was never scared during the two hours of film, but I enjoyed the unsettling atmosphere conveyed. Startling, gross, eerie, but scary these films are not.

My latest attempt was Open Water. For those unfamiliar, this was from a couple years back and is about two scuba divers that were accidentally left at sea by their diving group. It’s based on a true story, which is supposed to make it scarier, as is the home-video-esque filming, a kin to that of Blair Witch. Sadly neither of these factors worked for me. Sure I’d freak out if I had sharks nipping at my legs, but watching these characters in peril didn’t convey anything for me. So it failed to elicit a scare in any way. Furthermore I didn’t like the movie. I’ve liked many of the movies that have failed to put a shiver through me, but this one just wasn’t very good.

Some friends invited me to watch Saw 1 and 2 with them this weekend and I declined. I suspect that these follow more in the gross out than scary category. But I’m running out of ideas. Any suggestions?



Ring – moderately creepy
Ring 2 – lame
Grudge – Super lame
Blair Witch – best I’ve found, but I can still go camping without trepidation.
Pscyho – silly
Silence of the Lambs – great, but not scary
Alien – great, not scary
Excorcist – need to see all the way through
Omen – ditto
The Shining – too slow, and Jack isn’t scary
Nightmare on Elm St – silly
Seven – saw on TV, so a lot was removed.
28 Days Later – great, not scary
Dawn of the Dead – old, too slow. New, entertaining but not scary.
Night of Living Dead – original was too fake. Remake was pretty good.

2 comments:

Amy-Alisa said...

Maybe you are dead inside. Not the "I can't cry" kind, but the jaded, nothing scares me kind. You didn't have 'What Lies Beneath' on that list or any M. Night Shyamalan, too artsy to be scary? Pretty much everything scares me (including 'Tarzan' which also made me cry in the first 5 minutes). I may be on the other side of the spectrum.

Anonymous said...

The blair witch was shit! and saw 1 and 2 and 3 were good.