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Tuesday 30 September 2008

New Yorker Film Festival: The 5 Scariest Movies Ever?

This from Boing Boing:

Ben Greenman of the New Yorker presents his list of the five scariest movies of all time. They are:

1. “Texas Chainsaw Massacre,” Tobe Hooper (1974)

2. “The Silence of the Lambs,” Jonathan Demme (1991)

3. “The Body Snatcher,” Robert Wise (1945)

4. “Night of the Hunter,” Charles Laughton (1955)

5. “Mulholland Drive,” David Lynch (2001)

David Lynch is the master of the eerie, which has also been called the uncanny, and his strongest films successfully deliver shock-horror at the conclusion of scenes that are either comically mundane or traditionally suspenseful. The film’s signal moment comes in the Winkie’s scene, which uses a highly traditional location (a diner) and traditional suspense tricks (P.O.V. shots, menacing background music) as prelude to one horrible moment. One respondent to the in-office survey put it this way:

I have seen the movie many times, and every time my chest tightens up and it occurs to me that I might actually die.


The 5 Scariest Movies Ever?

Here's the Mulholland Drive scene mentioned above and I must agree it cranks up the creeping horror as it moves on.

What do you think of the selection? What's the scene from any movie that creeps you out the most?

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5 comments:

Anonymous said...

TCM is my favorite film of all time so I couldnt agree more with that. Not sure I agree with 2-4, Silence Of The Lambs is awesome but I dont consider it to be too awfully scary. The Body Snatcher I find a bit too melodramatic and moody to be scary and Night of The Hunter I never even really ever considered scary at all. I think all are good films just dont know about scariest. I absolutely agree with Mulholland Drive, for that scene alone. In fact as soon as I saw it on the list I knew it had to be in reference to the tramp. Of course that all being said I respect his list if only because I dont think I could nail mine to a top 5. I can only come up with a 3 off the top of my head those being 1. TCM 2. Dont Look Now and 3. Mulholland Drive

Live for films said...

I've been thinking on this all afternoon and still not sure. I couldn't really pick whole films. More like scenes from films - The bit in 2010 when HAL says he has a message and that message is something like "Turn around" is spooky. The Mulholland Drive bit is scary. The bit at the end of Audition where she is using the needles on the poor bloke makes me cringe every time. I know there will be a load more that I will remember when I am away from the computer

Anonymous said...

I almost mentioned Audition in this thread as well but didnt want to go to J-horror as it might just take over my whole list especially if were talking just moments from films. The end of Ju-on with the dad just staring into the camera for like 10 minutes is seriously disturbing and actually scared me so bad I ran around turning all the lights on in my house. Of course 2010 is high on the list as well if only for Douglas Rain's voice work. I could never nail a top 5, maybe like top 100...maybe.

Anonymous said...

I still don't understand this film?

Live for films said...

Which one Durny? Mulholland Drive, Audition or 2010?