h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

"It scared you by suggesting stuff and by being generally ethereal and creepy."

Definition of a good scary movie

Gore is usually a cheap trick to get a reaction.

Halloween

*hides behind sofa*

Fire in the Sky

in eye bit gave me a panic attack, my boyfriend of the time was going out and wouldn't stay around to help, so I ended up ringing the samaritans!

Sixth Sense I loved, didn't find it scary, I find gore scary. Not very good at seperating fiction from life. If I see gore on the tv, its like I have seen it in reality, and I react as such.

Bit delicate me!

Oooh, forgot one

Child's Play.

Haven't seen any sequels but the first scared the pants off me

Blues Shark. What did you expect of a film made from a computer game? The Godfather? (In reference to Resident Evil of course - twas a cracking computer game though )

I expected to see something a little better than a crass re-hash of two classics of the genre.

Fair enough, I personally wouldn't bother seeing any film of the computer game until I heard some decent reviews. I can't think of a single decent one that's been made to date.

Blues Shark, re: Resident Evil the movie. I think this may be the first time I completely agree with you

The zombies were the best thing in it, but they actually didn't have much screen time A lot of it was Milla Wossername looking scared and talking to some bad-acting "soldier" types. It was far too flash, like a music video, and crappy nu-metal kept playing everytime something happened. As I was leaving the cinema there was a teenager in front of me in a "Slipknot" t-shirt. I thought "This film was tailored towards you, that's why it sucked".

Why Jaws - anyone? Unless you're watching it on a boat, of course. I do find the Jaws films offensive though, due to vilification of a mostly harmless animal and the number of s that were killed as a result.

Slightly OT: re: Orcus and computer games made into decent movies.

Final Fantasy was alright, I reckon, and of not for the story then for the graphics

*skips briefly through backlog*

Lets see:

The Shining (why was that women receiving cunnilingus from a dog?)
Sixth Sense (not scary at the time, but somebody crept up behind me when I was watching it again on video and made me jump so high my head literally went through the ceiling)
Alien (the cod Shakespeare was perhaps more scary than the aliens)

I didn't get particularly freaked out by Jaws, except that great bit where his head comes through the bottom of the boat. The book was better.

I was making out when Hallowe'en was on last year, so I have very fond memories of that film.

B

I'd have to disagree Tube I'm afraid. Total pants in my opinion. Sorry

For some reason people always seem to come up with Mortal Combat as a good example. They obviously have a more expansive definition of the word 'good' than me.

Where's onemantidalwave when you need him?

I tend to find books more scary, generally. Jaws, as mentioned above...the Midwitch Cuckoos was better than Children of the Damned.

Erm...whats the one with the Nanny who's sees ghosts...Dammit...anyway, that's a scary book too.

B

"Silent Hill was *seriously* spooky arsed in the dark with stereo up full blast, or close to..."

Hurrah! Something I can disagree with. Silent Hill, Silent Hill 2, and all those Resident Evil games suck, unfortunately. Not scary in the least. I can appreciate that there's been quite a bit of effort put into them, and that they're pretty slick, but they always fail utterly to even unsettle me. And as for the dialogue, and 'acting' - hah!

"Don't shoot, I'm a human!"
and, even better: "There was this... incident... involving... zombies..."

Sorry, the only thing that scares me is the price tags on these sorry games...

Scariest game I've ever played would be Thief - especially level two in those mines. You have to play it in a darkened room for the best effect.

Back to films - I think the worst I saw was way back, Hitchcock's 'The Birds'.

Generally I avoid any horror/scary films as I don't really enjoy them. This list is very helpful so I know what to avoid!

Bluesshark, I am amazed. Halloween? I had expected you to come up with some of your usual snobby movies, and you mention a slasher flick

Why did people love Birds so much? Seeing people being hit with a stuffed bird on a stick just didn´t do it for me.

House on Haunted Hill was quite good. Except for a few of the characters I could have lived without.

Sixth Sense was really good, also because I could identify a bit with that kid.

The first time I watched American Werewolf In London I fell asleep. One of the few movies where the sequel was better. Though they were also quite different.

Thief is horribly scary and tense. It's definitely the most immersive game I've ever played. In the level on the mines, I was expecting zombies, but just not sure of which buzzing corpse would rise up to attack me...

Event Horizon freaked me out. I've seen it twice now, and always have to shut my eyes when it comes to the video log bit.

Has anyone seen the TV version of 'The Shining'? It was pretty bloody scary when I saw it. I have a vivid memory of one scene when all the chairs simultaneously fall off the tables in the abandoned dining room...creepy for reasons I can't quite remember. I don't think the film had the same effect.

Sixth Sense gave me goosebumps, it's a good goosebump movie, but it never outright scared me. Saw it on a crowded bus of 17 y/o boys. *That's* scary.

>The first time I watched American Werewolf In London I fell asleep.<

Burn the heretic!! (perhaps in a nice wicker effigy?)

Sixth Sense was superb, very moving, but not one of my scariest, nearly all of which I watched when I was younger.

I have to agree about the Birds though - it hasn't aged well at all.

Snobby movies? I think that assesment may say more about you than me, Xanatic.

And, yeah, Hallowe'en may be a slasher flick, but it's the first, the grand-daddy of slasher flicks (or at least certainly the first to be seen by a mass audience, before some smart arse comes and babbles about Last House on the Left or Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Both of which are , btw. ). Originality counts.

Don't know if anyone outside of the US has seen this one yet... but M. Night Shamalyan (creator of The 6th Sense and Unbreakable) came out wih a movie a few weeks ago called "Signs."

See it when you can. I know in my case, it kept me up half the night.

-Eagle 1