Scariest Props/Elements

[Lifetime]

Since its the Halloween season and there's a thread for scary books, villians and games..

What makes something scary? What gives you the chills? What element of a book or movie makes you shiver?
I dont mean Scream-style "jump-out-of-a-corner-and-go-boo" things..
I mean genuine horror..

I know I get scared by those damn picture ghosts..
Anyone ever see "the Haunting"?
There was a scene where the heroine flips through an old photo album with photos of a woman, and as she flips faster it becomes something of a picture show, where the woman moves slightly in every consecutive picture. So basically, its the effect of a woman looking at the camera, then in slow motion slowly drawing her hand to the fireplace in the picture and calling for help..
Damn freaky..

The Sixth Sense was just all-around chilling, so lets just leave that one out.
What about "What Lies Beneath"?
That was another really freaky show, with the words suddenly being scratched out on the steamy mirror like someone was writing on it..

So what spooks you?

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No-Name Face

[Debaser]

for something to be genuinely scary, it can't be overly gory and it has to be somewhat understated. the examples you gave are pretty good......on the flipside, a movie like Evil Dead isn't scary, it's just so so gruesome it becomes a farce.
i thought the first Candyman movie was freaky as hell, the first time i saw it. it did a good job of twisting reality in a way that really messed with your head. the Exorcist, though, is the best example of scary movie imagery.


here's a story i heard which i've always found pretty scary. the first time i heard it i got goosebumps. supposedly true, happened to "a friend of a friend", you know how it is...but who knows. still, it's freaky as hell. anyway, this guy was driving on a back road at night, it was pretty dark and there was, like, woods and trees on both sides of the road. he was just cruising down this road, and he saw this girl walking on the side of the road. it struck him as pretty sketchy that some girl would actually be walking at this hour on this backroad, so he slowed down and rolled down his window to ask her if she needed a lift somewhere. the guy said that she was walking kind of weird, like with a limp but not quite. as he got closer, he noticed her feet looked backwards (like left on the right, and vice versa). she was wearing little more but this dress, and her hair was long and kind of matted, and he couldn't really see her face because it was in the way.
so he rolled down the shotgun side window, and asked her "do you need a ride somewhere? you shouldn't really be walking out here at this time of night." she didn't answer or really even acknowledge him...he inquired the same thing a couple more times, all the while following her slowly in the car as she kept on walking. finally, just as he was about to just roll the window up and leave, she stopped walking and turned to him. as she lifted her head, her hair didn't obscure her face any more, and what the guy saw was that her eyes were missing, and there was streams of blood dripping down her cheeks from the empty sockets.
the guy in the car freaked out (of course!), and kept on his way down the road, infinitely disturbed and horrified at what he had just seen.
he kept driving down the road, cussing to himself and trying to come to grips with it. his eyes looked up at the rear-view mirror........

and he saw her face in it. she was sitting in the back seat.

from what i was told, the guy started SPEEDING down this road, trying to get to this one gas station that he knew of. when he finally got there, he looked up at the mirror again, still feeling chills from what he had seen.
she was no longer there.

[Epona]

For me the scariest thing is not knowing what is going on.
That makes horror films that concentrate on the supernatural much better than gory slasher pics. The Sixth Sense was brilliant.

The scariest film I ever saw was about a couple moving out of their apartment, and their last night there. I can't remember what it was called, but MY GOD it was scary. Even just thinking about it gives me goosebumps.

Hold on, I'm off to check the IMDb to find out what it was called.

EDITING: OMG, I can't find what the film was called. It was brilliant, but I can't remember who was in it. I will edit the name in if I can find it. In the meantime, if anyone knows more about this film (plot: couple moving to a new apartment, leaving their old one. All their stuff is packed up ready to go. They settle down for one last night in the apartment. They are woken up several times during the night, seeing ghosts in their flat - scenes of someone being murdered, and a body hidden in a trunk in the closet. There is a real twist at the end, which I won't divulge) please post what it is called, because not knowing is doing my head in.

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Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so.

Epona of The Laughing Hyenas
Proud winner of the 'Most Useless Post 250 Has Ever Seen' Award 2001. "I'd just like to thank my friends and family, without whom none of this would have been possible..."

[This message has been edited by Epona (edited 10-30-2001).]

[Ronn_Bman]

The scariest thing to me in any movie, whether it be horror, thriller, or even comedy, is when something JUMPS out at you suddenly.

Even when this isn't intended to scare, it makes me jump in my seat.

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"Your right to swing your fist ends where my nose begins."

[AliCat]

As much as I've "tried" to believe in ghosts, I've never seen any evidence, so the "writing on the mirrors" bit doesn't impress me. Heck, if you write on the fog in your car windows, it often shows up again next time it fogs. I do enjoy both the ghostly and sci-fi/"Aliens" types of books and movies, as the unknown is generally frightening, yet still somehow safe, because these creatures don't really exist (well, I'll be kind and say the ghosts could exist, I just haven't encountered any).

What truly scares me is the evil which men DO do. I still can hardly watch "Silence of the Lambs", and refused to see the sequel. First, that deliberate stalking of prey is horrifying (in real life or movies), and second, because sick people like this really do exist and there is nothing you can do to protect yourself.

[Lifetime]

Alicat, if you saw What Lies Beneath, you'll know that the words were slowly scrawled onto the mirror, as of some one invisible were writing it. Ronn_Bman, I sorta mentioned that Scream-type horror issint really horror. You dont leave the cinema feeling scared.
Im talking about element here..
like something horrible behind you(just turned around just in case ), like in Debaser's story,
or something hidden. I know in the game Undying, the use of a scrye spell actually gives you sight beyond sight. You hear paranormal whispering whenever you enter an area where you may use this spell, and when you use it your vision turns askew and you see things that are hidden from the normal eye.
One example is a hall of potraits..on the outside they look creepy enough, but with use of a scrye spell they all turn into ghastly figures with blood, evil eyes and visions of hell. Something like an innocent girl suddenly turning into a blood-drenched eyeless banshee or something..
And then you see this figure floating in the hall in front of you. When the spell wears off, everything returns to normal, and the figure is gone...
Tell me that aint scary.

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No-Name Face

[Liliara]

O.K., I know I'm going to be laughed at, but the first time I saw this now over rated movie, I had been led to believe by the one taking me that it waas true. They new all along it wasn't. I was living in Michigan right on the edge of the woods, and they said that when the movie was over, they had something to tell me. I thought while the movie was on that they were going to say it happened in Michigan. Well, the movie was Blair Witch, and I don't know if it was his intention, but I was practically climbing into his lap from fear throughout the movie! Like I said, this was when it first came out in the theatre. Come to find out, what he had to tell me was that it was written by a bunch of college kids. I would have been mad if I wasn't so relieved!

As for props, for me it's usually what you DON'T see that's scary. That and erratic movements. Like the weird thing with the head movements in Jacob's Ladder.

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Captain of Bouncers, Boogre Bar

LH Member


"I've had it up to here, listening to a small segment of people try to put down America! America's the greatest land on Earth, and we oughta be proud of what we have! I'm proud of America, I'm proud of our people, and I'm gonna prove it. We're American and DAMN proud of it! Frankly I'm getting a little ticked off...go ta ****"... Dink (if anyone knows who originally said this, please let me know!)

For me, the scariest thing is to wake up at night, go to the bathroom and on getting back to bed, have my sister scare the hell out of me by hiding behind the door and making this very weird, sudden noise. Once I really jumped up the ceiling.

[Lifetime]

LOL Mistos..
Thank god I dont have siblings

Liliara.. I was practically gasping for breath at Blair Witch Project's ending.
It wasnt that scary for me (city boy here), but the ending when everything came together in that creepy old house..

I think the best and most overused prop in the horror biz is an empty, creepy house.
Anyone else know specific elements in movies/books that REALLY scare the crap out of you? I'm looking for elements in general. People said imagery in Salem's Lot scared them..so is it an induced fear of looking at windows that scares you?
Opinions please! I've heard from movies but nobody's mentioned books..so what makes a good horror book scary?

I hate things you see out of the corner of your eye. My room is set up that at the end of the room, there's a mirror, and directly at the other end is my computer..so I always see my own reflection out of the corner of my eye..creepy.

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No-Name Face

Vampires. Count Dracula, Lost Boys, Dark shadows, Blade ... There ability to change forms and super human strength. Stench of darkness..charming ability. I only watch these kind of movies to see them get snuffed in the end.

[This message has been edited by Conan (edited 10-31-2001).]