Magic (not the Mike kind)
This is a movie that scared the mess out of me when I was a teenager. First of all, I am no fan of ventriloquist dummies. I can’t stand them, they scare the heck out of me. Give me a movie with a dummy and you’ve got me scared.
A looooooong time ago, back in 1978, there was this movie trailer that ran on television. Mind you, this was back in the fun 70s where the cars waiting in line for gas would queue in front of my parents’ house. This trailer wasn’t anything NEAR Silent Hill 3d (which by the way also frightens me with its grotesqueness) but was creepy just in the fact that it featured a dummy.
The movie was directed by Richard Attenborough, the kindly old John Hammond in Jurassic Park. You’ll also find Burgess Meredith, Ann-Margaret, and
Here’s the creepy trailer.
According to Wikipedia (that bastion of totally true facts) : “The trailer for this film was pulled from TV due to calls from parents who claimed that it gave their children nightmares.” Oh, most certainly.
Seriously, it may not scare you now, but imagine a 10 year old watching this on the late night movie or Chiller Theatre (remember channel 9 Chiller with the six-fingered hand?)
This was Anthony Hopkins before he was Hannibal Lector, a failed magician who is basically going off the deep end. Yikes!
The movie is on YouTube if you want to watch it. Warning, it’s 70s cheesy, but the story itself is disturbing.
The Shining
I’ll be honest, I saw the movie “The Shining” before I read the book. Saw it on channel seven, ABC’s channel here in the New York area. I’m not sure how old I was, but I must have been in high school because the movie was in the theatre in 1980.
That movie frightens me to this day, even when they show it on the Arts and Entertainment channel. I’m not sure if
I’ve never seen the theatrical version and I’m not sure I want to.
The whole idea of being snowbound and trapped while the “strongest” of your party goes slowly mad and there’s nothing you can do about it is frightening enough. The fact that the HOTEL itself is making it impossible for you to escape from him is even scarier.
The scene that scared me the most was not the famous and too-often-quoted “Here’s Johnny!” scene, but it’s the scene where Jack is menacing Wendy on the stairs and says:
Wendy Torrance: Please! Don’t hurt me!
Jack Torrance: I’m not gonna hurt you.
Wendy Torrance: Stay away from me!
Jack Torrance: Wendy? Darling? Light, of my life. I’m not gonna hurt ya. You didn’t let me finish my sentence. I said, I’m not gonna hurt ya. I’m just going to bash your brains in.
[Wendy gasps]
Jack Torrance: Gonna bash ’em right the fuck in! ha ha ha
The miniseries remake with Steven Weber (from the show WINGS of all places) didn’t half faze me. I mean, this is the dude from Wings against Jack Nicholson for heaven’s sake. It’s a no brainer.
The movie was made in 1980, but I’ll say SPOILER ALERT anyway.
The Shining is an example of chillingly great horror movie. The final shot of Jack Nicholson frozen in the hedge maze…that haunted me for quite a few nights after that!
Blacula
Laugh if you want at the 70s clothes and kinda bad acting, but this was one of my first scary movies. Again, I ask, how were they showing this stuff on network TV in the 1970s? Viewing it now, it’s not as scary as it was (of course). However, I loved the relationship between the police officer and his wife, especially the conversations they had about “moving out of the city”. I’ve posted the trailer, and I realize that it ruins one of the scariest moments in the movie, but since the movie is over thirty years old…oh well.
28 Days Later
I had to watch this one at noon. I simply cannot watch scary movies at night (when you’re supposed to, I know). It’s just TOO scary for me! Gah, even the trailer scares me now, LOL.
Jeepers Creepers
Before the sequel ruined the Creeper, this….just wow. I actually watched this at night, like a fool, and was up half the night staring at the closet door that I forgot to close. I just KNEW the Creeper was in there waiting for me and I was too creeped out to get up and open the door. Mind you, my husband slept peacefully next to me, oblivious to the fact there was dangers right under his suit jackets.
So what’s YOUR favorite scary movie????
Horror movies about dolls and dummies are pretty scary. Especially ones like “Dead Silence.” However, the one scary movie that really, really terrified me is “The Exorcism of Emily Rose.” I refused to be left alone for three days. And even until now, I couldn’t watch that movie alone. Actually, I just couldn’t watch that movie. Period. Lol.
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I have never even seen The Exorcist, so The Exorcism of Emily Rose is totally off my list. I know my limits!!! And my goodness, I just ran a search for Dead Silence and wished I didn’t. That cover alone…. yikes!!