Scary movies that are actually scary? (4+ Year Old Topic)

The only movie that truly scared me was the exorcist, and it was because of two scenes. Kind of spoilery if you know to look for these, so don't read if you have not watched it yet:

SPOILER WARNING: Click here to reveal hidden content.

1. Right at the beginning there was a camera pan across a room and if you look closely you can see a really faint demon goat head floating in the background. For some reason the demon goat has always terrified me, and it was just faint enough as it moved that it looked like it was on the TV itself and not in the movie.
2. There is a scene where out of nowhere the camera cuts randomly to the girl as she walks down a flight of stairs doing that weird crab walk. The way she moved just looked so natural to her, but my brain was telling me that human bodies don't move that way and it scared the crap out of me for some reason.

@Xdsk: Thanks for the suggestion, but next time don't tell me how the movie begins and ends before I watch it lol. I'll still check it out though. 

I really like a thai movie called Shutter. Keep away from the american one!
  

Let me think....

The Strangers is one of the more unnerving horror films of the last decade. It does have some jump scares to be sure, but it's also one of the most intense moviegoing experiences I've ever had. Insidious, a very recent one, was also great. It's a haunted house movie with some obligatory jump scares but man is the first three quarters of it scary.

The Shining sure scared the crap out of me. No amount of blood or creepiness scares me but cheap jumpscares or the fright thereof does. And I hate changing faces. I HATE them. Such as the one in Devil's Advocate.

The Thing and The Haunting (1963) scared me pretty good.

I think "Begotten" is quite a disturbing film. It's shot in a really grainy black and white and the score is just the sound of crickets. It doesn't explain the story in the film, mind so you will have to look it up. Also there is a quite disturbing/mindfuck film called "The Holy Mountain" If you are of christian faith I wouldn't recommend it as it has alot of sacraligious imagery. Some more conventional film I could recommend are "Jacob's Ladder", The movie adaptation of Silent Hill (Not that good a film but has a great atmosphere and sense of dread). There is a film called "The Poughkeepsie Tapes" that I have heard good things about also.

Another good creature horror was Splinter, no spoilers this time. Event Horizon comes to mind as cheesy but good horror (think dead space, in fact i think dead space took some cues from it or vice versa)

The real answer to the question "What movies are really scary movies" lies within each person.  The first question you really need to ask is "What am I afraid of", and then find a movie built around that.  Aliens, for example, is a particular horrific take on rape.  If you're not particularly afraid of being physically violated like that, then you're not going to find it too scary (campy special effects aside).

Maybe you might try Hitchcock; I don't know him personally, but I've heard he was something of a master of horror (making you genuinely afraid).

HOW ABOUT THE GRIFTER I HEARD IT WAS GOOD

Let's Go To Prison.

Yes, the comedy starring Will Arnett. There was just something about the way it took prison rape and violence so lighty, that made me feel uneasy.

Insidious is quite a scary film. also, [REC], The Others, The Blair Witch Project (if you haven't seen it before), Event Horizon, The Devil's Backbone, The Orphanage, and if aliens freak you out, Incident at Lake County is real fucked up if you can find it.

The only things that scare me in films are when somebody is trapped or hiding and the 'thing' is coming for them.  Saturn 3 scared me, you'll know why.  Wolf Creek I wouldn't say is scary but it's rancid.  It did leave me feeling bad and it's the first film in a long time to do that.  The House By the Cemetary also made me feel bad because it turns out that people you think were safe (can't say why without spoiling it) weren't safe.  Slasher films even though I watch them are just stupid fun.  I prefer spooky stuff.  I suppose The Fog also works because it was corraling people in, trapping them in houses and clawing at the door.

So yeah, films where "They're coming to get you!"  I used to have nightmare a lot where I'd have a gun and I'd pull the trigger and it just wouldn't fire, it was so hard to get it to go that last millimetre.  I think this was caused by a plastic disk gun I had that was far too old for me, had a really strong spring and it was a bad casting so the trigger didn't run straight.  I took all the skin off my finger trying to fire it.  Bastard gun.

The only movie that really scared me is The Ring.

The only film that has ever actually scared me is Jesus Camp. 

I googled this issue, and I came up with lists that had "Nightmare on Elm Street" and "The Descent" on them. Are you kidding me? 
Now, I'm not saying that those kinds of movies are bad. I just don't find them scary. I don't want something that uses "pop-outs" or popular shock stuff like "Saw."  

My mother and father always said that, in their time, movies like "The Exorcist" actually scared them. My mother slept with the lights on for weeks. I didn't have that sort of reaction to it, but I did find "The Exorcist" more frightening than most other scary movies. 

So does anyone have any scary movies that are actually scary? I mean, even something unnerving would be good. Maybe there are some indie films? I can imagine some of the indie shock stuff could be good. 

I want something I'll think about the night after. I want a reason to check my closet at night.   

To me, taking a stroll down in the ghetto of the man citystreets in the middle of the night, alone, packing cash & walking, would make me want to shit my pants!

The ending of [REC] freaked me out.

Nosferatu. That movie is still very scary, at least for me. The chilling atmosphere without voice, the dark black and white.
Love it! But scary^^

Cannibal Holocaust. That movie haunts me to this day. For most ppl it's more of a shock/gore movie, but i just found it scary in general.

Poltergeist and The Excorsist. Think they speak for themself :)

The Thing was scary, but everyone's seen it by now.

• Event Horizon
• Rec
• The Orphanage
• Fragile
• the original Nightmare on Elmstreet
• Brainscan
• The Grudge
• The Ring

REC and REC 2 are pretty frightening.

Also I remember some freaky shit going on in Jacob's Ladder. Watch that too.

I've always thought the original Halloween was terrifying. And not the sequels or the shitty Rob Zombie remakes. 

The harry potter series has always scared me, especially the one with the dude with the face on the back of his head.

synecdoche new york, never let me go.

the grifter

I'd also like to add one more movie to my list of shit I'm actually scared of...

The Mist and Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978).

Like others here, found footage movies generally scare me the most.  One thing I will add, though, is Signs.  Say what you will about M. Night, but that movie freaks me the fuck out. 

Especially this scene which you should not watch if you haven't seen the movie:

  

The Descent is probably the only horror movie to ever actually get a real reaction out of me. On top of the tons of admittedly-effective jump-scares, the claustrophobic atmosphere and sense of dread throughout the movie is what really does it for me. Don't know what to tell you if you don't find it "scary". I love horror movies but I wouldn't consider any of them to be "scary", nor do I ever expect any to be. However, there are a number of horror films that I would consider to be disturbing, but  "disturbing" and "scary" are two different things entirely.

@BigLemon said:

Troll 2

On that note, have you heard of "Best Worst Movie"? It's a doc about Troll 2. I remember watching Troll 2 on HBO when I was a kid. It was on Saturday mornings at like 7AM when nobody other than a stupid kid would be up. I can't wait to watch the doc, as I have fond memories of this movie. No more popcorn!

I went to Red State. It was scary shit.

I'll second Splinter as a decent scary movie. Also, sort of the same type of scary is The Midnight Meat Train. It has some fairly well-known actors in it, even: Vinny Jones, Bradley Cooper, and Leslie Bibb. For just disturbing and freaky, go with 3 Extremes. It's a Japanese movie that's 3 short stories. The first one is more disturbing than anything else, but the second two are a bit scarier. I haven't personally scene either of these, but a buddy of mine said The Martyrs and The Girl Next Door (not the Elisha Cuthbert one) are scary as shit. The Girl Next Door is even based on a true story.

House of the Devil
  

Creepy Asian chicks!

The only movie that left an impression on me was "The Ring"... I know it's laughable but the whole idea of someone crawling out of my tv really got to me.... 

Amnesia comes to mind immediately. That water scene is batshit crazy. 

The Nightmare on Elm Street's arent really that scary.

I haven't seen any good horror films for a good while. Paranormal Activity really wasn't scary, it was pretty rubbish.

I used to get  scared really easily when I was younger and couldn't watch that many horror films. Blade 3 scared me when I was like 11 :P

Nowadays, I can't seem to find anything scary.

i recently saw 'insidious' and was genuinely scared. and im the type who laughs at most horror movies. this was the first time i felt really scared in a movie. i may have shat a little.

Paranormal Activity and The Orphanage are worth a look.