The Scariest Movies We've Ever Seen
Happy Halloween!
After a short and unexpected hiatus, we’re back baby! To honor the spooky season, we’re sharing the scariest movies we’ve ever seen.
Livia
I think maybe half of my top ten all-time favorite movies are horror movies. But if you told 10-year-old me that, she would think you were crazy.
I used to be so terrified of scary movies that I actively avoided them. Now, I can’t get enough of them. I’ve seen so many horror movies, it’s become a part of my personality. I mean, I’m wearing a Hereditary shirt as I write this. But what happens in a young girl’s life that makes her go from being too scared to watch it to dying to see it? Let’s explore.
When we were thinking about topics for our Halloween edition of this newsletter, I realized the shift in my perspective on horror can be mapped out with the four scariest movies I’ve ever seen:
Signs
One of my first memories of going to the movies was when my parents took us to see Signs. I have a really bad memory, but watching the opening credits is so vivid in my mind. I thought we were rather young to have gone to a movie like this, so I did the math and yeah, I was 6 years old. My parents said that they didn’t know what the movie was about and didn’t think it was going to be scary based on the poster, so they thought it would be fine to bring us. Little did they know, that movie singlehandedly developed my fear of aliens. I’ve seen a lot of horror in my day and the only time I get nervous before I go to see a horror film is when I know it’s about aliens. Like many people my age, the birthday party scene specifically scarred me for life.
Paranormal Activity
When I heard about this movie, which at the time was a limited release that you had to request to come to your city, I was obsessed. I don’t know what about this movie made me desperate to see it, but I was completely hooked. My family and I got tickets to see a late showing and I was equally excited and terrified. The crowd was buzzing in anticipation (there were no seat assignments back then, we all got there maybe an hour early and had to wait in line to get our seats) and I realized how seeing a movie like this is an experience.
I remember the shift I felt in my brain after the movie ended, especially since the theater didn’t turn the lights back on, so we had to navigate out of the theater in the dark. After that experience, I completely understood the appeal of horror, especially seeing it in theaters.
The Fourth Kind
Back to aliens. I’d been good at avoiding them, then I saw this fucking movie. My aunt and uncle used to take us to see scary movies (The Mist is another notable one) and this happened to be one of them. Important context is we had Panda Express beforehand and it was not sitting well in my stomach nor my spirit. I had to run to the bathroom a couple of times throughout this movie and I was already terrified, so it was overall a terrible experience.
I had a lot of time between Signs and this movie, so I thought I was over the fear of aliens, but nope. If anything, The Fourth Kind made it more intense. Since then, I’ve only seen it one other time. It still made my stomach hurt.
Skinamarink
This movie either really works for you or it really doesn’t.
It 100% worked for me. The last time I physically cowered at a movie was when I saw Paranormal Activity, then I saw Skinamarink and felt like that girl who was terrified of everything again. Despite how awful it made me feel, I fucking love this movie. And I could talk about my love for this movie at length, but I’ll keep it short today.
It’s one of the scariest movies that I’ve ever seen because it transports me to a time when my imagination was more terrifying than what was actually in front of me. When the dress hanging in my closet was a man hiding and watching me. When trees hit the side of my house was an intruder trying to get into my room. It’s a movie that gives ultimate trust in the viewer to take their most terrifying thoughts and project it onto the screen. The atmosphere it creates is unlike anything I’ve ever experienced.
Like the other movies in this list, it both scared the shit out of me and reminded me why I love horror so much.
Anthony
Growing up, I was terrified of pretty much everything and anything. I slept with a nightlight because I was scared of the dark, I didn’t ride roller coasters because I was scared of heights, and at one point I was even scared of the board game Clue. Livia loves telling the story of one night when we were playing said game and I stopped to cry, “guys… I’m scared.” In my defense, it’s a game about murder.
I didn’t even start watching scary movies until my junior year of high school. Up until that point, I either had someone tell me the plot or I looked it up online. So no, Spooky season was never something I looked forward to. Since then, I’ve reclaimed many of my childhood fears. I can sleep in the dark, ride roller coasters, and yes—play Clue. I’ve also watched a lot of the movies that terrified me as a kid.
As we’re in the spookiest time of the year, I wanted to highlight some of the films that I think have scared me the most. We’ll start with one of the earliest horror films I remember actually watching and end with the most recent film that scared the shit out of me. These are some of the scariest movies I’ve ever seen.
Apollo 18
Apollo 18 is a 2011 found footage film comprised of the edited down 88 hours of footage from a secret lunar mission that was published to lunartruth.org (you can now own this domain for a cool $35k). This movie was a pivotal moment in my journey to watching scary movies because after seeing the trailer, it was the first horror movie I actually wanted to watch in the theater. Much to my family’s surprise, I asked them to take me with them to see it.
I didn’t make it passed the trailers before I started crying.
Rewatching it now, I can totally see why 11 year old Anthony saw all of it through his fingers. This movie certainly didn’t revolutionize the found footage genre but the premise is creepy. The idea of getting infected by an alien crab rock while being isolated millions of miles away from anyone else is still terrifying. Outside of that, this did not hold up well. I wish I had told a younger version of myself to pay attention to the editing because it hiliariously resembles a basketball game’s instant replay.
Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones
Up until this came out, I only had second hand knowledge about the Paranormal Activity franchise. This was the first that I got to experience myself—no tears this time around.
The main thing that scared me, in all of the Paranormal Activity films really, is the sound design. By itself, the low hum that signals the demon’s presence isn’t outstanding or unnatural in any way. The “scary” soundtrack is just ambient music. It’s the sound you hear right before you go to bed. It’s the sound that crescendos as your fear that something is hiding in the shadows grows. I think that’s why I was so hesitant to watch any of them to begin with. The sound would stick with me while I went to sleep for weeks after. Even now, there were some legitimate scary moments in the third act that’s still stuck with me. This walked so Hereditary could sprint.
Night House
Livia and I have already talked about Night House and how it scared the fuck out of us. At this point, I had long overcome my fear and hadn’t watched a movie that scared me this badly in years. There is one sequence in particular where Rebecca Hall’s character, lays her head in her friends lap. She’s slowly falling asleep and telling a story when there is a LOUD siren and we’re jolted awake with her. The noise went sent a chill up and down my spine like a windchime.
There are lots more movies that I’ve seen that have given me nightmares, maybe we’ll share a few more in future newsletters. For now, let us know what the scariest movie you’ve seen is!