What 5 films in the last 10 years have scared you and why

[Danny]

So i was talking with a fellow movie aficionado about horror flicks and how i think there a bit better in the "aughties" than the 90's. That led onto favorites, as it does, and onto why you like them, as the most scary, and why and the why i think is always a "type" that certain viewers fall into. Personally i'll watch any horror film with myself imagining myself in that situation. i see what the protagonists doing and think how the last few minutes would occur if i was in the reins. Which is fairly evident in my top 5 horror flicks of the last 10 years, as follows: The Blair Witch Project: Now its a scary movie, one totally based on the "let the audience decide what they see, dont show them" rules, that appeals to me, but honestly this was a flick i see as a very indie level filmmaker and its an eerily similar situation that i find myself much more easy to imagine myself in than say, my i.t guy friend, or chef friend y'know? I've been out filming on camping trips, even for horror stuff were weve freaked each other out and this flick really resonated with me. Of course i think "i choose a visible landmark, or star at dusk and walk and ill reach something. which of course is very unlikely in the pine barrens from what i know, though that was the last broadcast but you get the idea. -anyway, yeah, as a filmmaker who knows people who ARE these characters, been in similar isolated filming shoots and this really struck the creepy chord with me. The Strangers: More a nihilistic drama with thriller overtones to be sure, but one thing that creeps me out is the notion of home invasion, i spent a year living alone on a rough estate and had people try to get in a few times, and again i resonated a lot with this whole "why are you doing this?" "you were home" in a big, creeped out way. Again its putting myself in the flick, i watch it and think "oh fuck, where do i run at this point", even ignoring the characters and just thinking about the situation and how i would evade the antagonists. -also a very creepy flick i recommend. The Grudge: yeah, a surprise one, but the remake starring buffy whatserface. though this is probably the only kind of remake i'll not dismiss off the bat because its made by the creator of the original, he was just offered Hollywood bank to make a version with bigger budget tools.- and the original was good, but slow, theres a subplot with some schoolgirls newspapering windows that is creepy but the director was right to leave it out in the second version of it. Also i had to right an essay on the scene where the woman is haunted form the office building to her own bed. Now THAT creeped me out in a very skin crawling kinda way. Again because i put myself in the situation, and in this flick you just CANNOT escape it, there aint no tape to copy, no body to destroy of internet access to escape. you cannot run, it willl always find you. its a hopeless situation, in some ways like saw minus the over glorification of paying to see dramatized torture, but thats a discussion for another thread no doubt, but yeah, no doubt this is a curveball but this shat me right up at points more than any other flick in this decade. 28 Days Later: Now this should be obvious, your alone, or damn close in the population center of the fucking country with things angrier, fueled by adrenaline and out for your blood and they CANNOT be dissuaded. like the grudge this scares me because i know if i was there it would be a hopeless situation for me, i am sure i would die eventually. R-Point: A korean horror flick about lost troops who venture upon an abandoned hotel in the warzone, designated r-point with a haunting that, if i was there i know i couldn't deal with it, if these are harden korean military and american gi's with all that training losing there shit and going private pyle on each others asses. a creepy flick that again i couldn't deal in i reckon. and thats my 5 that spring to mind, theres obviously gonna be others, but these all fall into the "if i was there i dont think i would make it" type fo scary movie, at least for me, what about you?

[MinionZombie]

Drag Me To Hell - that scared the bejesus out of me, and the entire audience. It was a hellla fun ride. Blair Witch Project - indeed. Although while I wasn't especially scared by the woodland stuff (except when their tents get attacked and they go batshit crazy and run for it), the whole bit in the house terrified me. The Hills Have Eyes 2006 - I found that really quite good, and it's one of the few remakes of the recent glut that have actually been worthwhile. The third act, in my view, is much improved by using the nuclear testing ground setting rather than just a bunch of rock formations. It did rely a lot on loud noises in the opening sections though. Switchblade Romance aka High Tension - another one by Aja, but it's bloody good. It's violent, it's convincing in it's horror stricken characters, the home invasion is graphic to say the least, and it's generally just an awesome horror flick. Right At Your Door - while not a horror movie really, it's the most convincing fictional terrorist attack movie out there, and it does a key thing in that it makes you think "what if I was in that position?" ... These are just five off the top of my head, I'm sure there have been other ones worthy of mentioning too, but I can't think of them right now.

[Danny]

im having troubel watching right at your door again, when im about to pop a dvd in i run it through my head and thats one like sunshine where i think "i dont wanna watch all of there for the ending", not saying its bad just not something i can watch as often as something like, say, zombieland or clerk 2 y'know?

[deadpunk]

I can only think of 2 that have actually scared me. The Grudge and The Ring. Honestly, both of these scared the bejeesus out of me. I made the mistake of watching both of these late at night by myself and wound up sleeping on the couch with the tv tuned to Comedy Central to ward off small asian children that were going to crawl out of my bedroom closet. Gah! Now, I do have to admit that the scene in King Kong where the film crew initially lands on the island scared me. But, for different reasons. My wife and I watched that one down in our basement bar with the surround sound on. If you haven't experienced Kong in surround sound, I highly suggest it. There are so many whispers and such, that it sounds like the savages are creeping up on you. We kept having to pause the damn thing and run upstairs to check on the kids in bed

[blind2d]

Blair Witch Project - Let's pretend this didn't have a sequel. It's a great movie, really unique, and really genuinely spooky. Kind of what reality TV could have been, if it were good. What exactly was it in that bundle of sticks, anyway? Ring - Haven't seen the original Japanese, but this... is just amazing. Random "special" kid is my favorite part. Seriously, what was the point of him? Awww... doesn't matter. Others - I don't know... not as cool as the previews made it seem, but still worth watching. Cool twist, no matter how obvious it may be. Orphanage - By the Pan/Hellboy guy. Another in the vein of creepy supernatural children. Very well done, though the ending... meh. Better than Others. Saw 1-5 - Why the hell not? Sure, it's just gore-ploitation for some bits, but really it's a good story that makes you think a bit about the human condition. Sort of. The puppet thing is soooo much cooler than Chucky. Just five? Shoot, I had like three more!

[DeadJonas190]

So I had a long response written, grabbed my drink, bumped my mouse which has a back button on it and it was all deleted. Basically I have been let down by most of the horror movies in the past 10 years and find that they have become increasingly reliant on gore and special effects over having an actual story behind them. I prefer horror movies that have more of a psychological or supernatural aspect to them than something that is just a bunch of stupid people running around being slaughtered. I can appreciate the special effects, but there comes a point where there has to be an actual story, anybody can film people running through the woods/a big house/an abandoned town being killed by the local cannibal/monster/inbred.

[Ghost Of War]

Ooooh, good question. Let's see..... [REC] - Scared the shit out of me, I thought it was brilliantly done for a film of that style. Eden Lake - Even though the main couple were a bit annoying, I felt myself rooting for the woman, but the situation they were in was terrifying, and pretty realistic IMO. Drag Me To Hell - Hilariously scary, great fun. Martyrs - Awesome French flick, more shocking than scary, but the idea behind it gave me the creeps. It left me sitting with my mouth open in shock for about 5 minutes after it had finished. I honestly can't think of any more off the top of my head at the moment, but I'm sure there's a few.

[MinionZombie]

DeadJonas - you could have hit "forward" on your browser, then clicked in the text box and pressed CTRL+Z to "undo". That might have brought all or most of your text back. It's worked for me in the past, but then I also copy all the text by going CTRL+A and CTRL+C just in case there's any bugger up so I don't have to write everything all over again. Ghost - Martyrs - that's a damn good choice right there, as is [REC]. Martyrs, which I saw recently for the first time, really freaked me out. [REC], the original version, scared me - especially the bit where they put the camera up into the attic and swivel it around. I knew they'd do what they did, so I just couldn't look at the screen and turned the audio down, hehe. Did the same with the same scene in the remake, which didn't scare me as much - in part as it was like seeing the same movie all over again, and in part because maybe it just wasn't as scary in general. However, with the remake, Jennifer Carpenter (the chick from Dexter) did a fantastic job. I've never seen anyone so convincingly terrified on screen before, she was just out-there, man.

[Ghost Of War]

DeadJonas - you could have hit "forward" on your browser, then clicked in the text box and pressed CTRL+Z to "undo". That might have brought all or most of your text back. It's worked for me in the past, but then I also copy all the text by going CTRL+A and CTRL+C just in case there's any bugger up so I don't have to write everything all over again. Ghost - Martyrs - that's a damn good choice right there, as is [REC]. Martyrs, which I saw recently for the first time, really freaked me out. [REC], the original version, scared me - especially the bit where they put the camera up into the attic and swivel it around. I knew they'd do what they did, so I just couldn't look at the screen and turned the audio down, hehe. Did the same with the same scene in the remake, which didn't scare me as much - in part as it was like seeing the same movie all over again, and in part because maybe it just wasn't as scary in general. However, with the remake, Jennifer Carpenter (the chick from Dexter) did a fantastic job. I've never seen anyone so convincingly terrified on screen before, she was just out-there, man. Quarantine was ok, and agreed about the chick, she was really good. I think because I'd seen [REC] first, Quarantine didn't scare me as much. Still pretty good, though. I've thought of another one to complete my 5...Sheitan (or Satan). Not a particularly good film, but Vincent Cassel is genuinely frightening in this. Just his constant manic grin throughout the film scares me poopless.

[bassman]

Grindhouse - Say what you will, but the suspense before the first crash in Death Proof had my teeth chattering. It was almost like a slasher waiting around the corner to gut his victim. You knew some serious shit was about to go down....and oh did it go down. Requiem For A Dream - Not a horror film, but the last 30 or so minutes of this flick are horrifying. Blair Witch Project - Already been covered.... Right At Your Door - The clausterphobic feel. Saw - Just the first one. I couldn't care any less about the seven thousand sequels.

[thxleo]

The Blair Witch Project and By the People: The Election of Barack Obama

[MinionZombie]

Interesting about Grindhouse. I didn't find it scary at all, but I found Planet Terror very gross at times, hehe. Although the trailer for "Don't" freaked me out a bit - Nick Frost as a demented adult baby in a nappy in a spooky dungeon/basement ... freaky. Saw - damn straight, that movie is awesome - I was a bit freaked out by it, but I was really more enthralled by it, and then the ending just blew my mind ... and then freaked me out.

[Danny]

Although the trailer for "Don't" freaked me out a bit - Nick Frost as a demented adult baby in a nappy in a spooky dungeon/basement ... freaky. i for one would love to see edgar do that as a feature, and make it look like a 70's hammer era horror flick.

[AcesandEights]

R-Point: A korean horror flick about lost troops who venture upon an abandoned hotel in the warzone, designated r-point with a haunting that, if i was there i know i couldn't deal with it, if these are harden korean military and american gi's with all that training losing there shit and going private pyle on each others asses. a creepy flick that again i couldn't deal in i reckon. Sounds good, Hellsing! Added to my list of must-sees. Thanks!

[krakenslayer]

R-Point was good! I can;t think of any film that's scared me recently, though.