I'm not asking what movie is the scariest of al time. There's too many lists and websites out there that have decided "the scariest" to have any decent discussion about that.

What I am asking is what movie scared you first and still scares you? Where you in a cheap theater or a multiplex or a drive in or was it a Saturday night on a cheap, B&W TV with veg-o-matic commercials?

My first scare was those giant insects. I hate crawly things. THEM from 1954. On late TV one Saturday night.

Another movie I find scary came later and it was "Wait Until Dark" from 1967. A brilliantly conceived and executed thriller. I saw it in a lecture hall filled with college kids and the whispers of fear that floated through the audience were astounding.

"Wait Until Dark" was a very scarey movie. The original "Alien" when the creature burst out of the guy's stomach I was scared and grossed out. "The Sentinel" about the guardian of the gates of hell was scarey.

I remember the catchline for THE SENTINEL:

"There must always be a sentinel at the gates of hell"

I've always wanted to make movies, and I've always watched them with that in mind.. The most "scary" movie for me must have been the original Funny Games from 1997. I taped it one night when it was first shown on TV, I was not old, and watched it the next day after school with my best friend.. We totally "got it", and discussed it afterwards, and we both agreed that it was one of the most genius movies ever made. Funny Games toys with your expectations of the established conventions and klishés of the thriller genre. It is two movies in one, all at the same time, as there's the fiction part from the killers' points of views, while there's the reality part, which is what the tormented family is experiencing.. The killers even say so themselves, that they are kind of "trapped inside a movie" and will therefore do whatever they want to since it's all make-believe! Or is it? So it's also "meta", breaking the fourth wall at at least five times or so throughout, by adressing the audience with a wink straight into the camera, etc. It's the message in the movie (which can't be missed no matter how dumb or smart you are) that is the brilliant part of it, how the point is made. The acting is more than Oscar worthy, and it HAS to be, otherwise it wouldn't have worked. This movie is a much harsher experience than for example Saw.. I believe it is because movies like Saw only desensitize us, while Funny Games is a.. or rather THE movie that tries (and succeeds) to "re-sensitize" us! Luckily, it's not being a hypocrite either, because none of the violence is ever shown, just the reactions, which works even better, and the violence itself actually has consequences, and feels utterly.. well, EMBARASSING, for a change. Yes, how refreshing!

"Mom, there's someone at the door": www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzpzpe_8gHQ (trailer)

Several entries.

1. Alien.

2. John Carpenter's The Thing.

3. The Hellraiser movies.

I am now morbidly curious to see The Sentinel.

If it existed...

Sarah Palin and the big red button

--LT

Brilliant, the best response I have ever seen to any post.

I truly wish I could give you points several times for this one.

Thanks, I needed a good laugh

River

Creature from the black lagoon, 1954 I was a kid, scared the hell out of me,

River

I wasn't afraid of the creature. I wanted to be kidnapped by the creature and turned into it.

I'm surprised no one mention "The Exorcist" (the original, not the sequels). That is one intense movie.

Although you would have to be fairly old to have seen it in the theaters, and today, it would seem pretty tame, Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho" was pretty scary for when it was made.

For me, no question.

8 or 9 years old, Saturday night, "The Posiden Adventure" plays on TV for the first time. Babysitter that was with me let me watch it.

Result: screaming nightmares, fear of pools, and a refusal from me to get on any boat for the rest of the summer. Dear ol' Mom never let me watch any sort of scary movie again!

However, since I became an adult, "The Shining" wins the scariest-movie award for me. I still get the creeps when I think of lonely hotel hallways and cute little girls in blue dresses.... <shiver!>