I have a plan...
shhhh.
GET HER!!
(those who know what I'm on about... i nearly shit my pants)
Those who mentioned the Ring... I thought it was pretty good the way Sadako would lurch around a corner suddenly, her bones cracking as she moves. That was freaky.
I'm usually not scared easily by graphic gore or imagery, or traditionally "scary" concepts really. But things that suddenly make me jolt out of my seat seem to get me every time! I'm quite uncomfortable watching a movie that uses it well.... films that try it every 3 seconds make you start to expect it. If a film has subtle well timed use of the jolt-effect, I remember it!
One set of films that had an impact: I never looked at mirrors the same way since the Poltergeist movies.
Things that could apply in real life would probably scare me but you rarely see it in movies. Not done in a way that would creep me out anyway. I can think of a few ideas that you could shoot, making them look like every day acts or scenarios before you start throwing in the horror element. I think they should really strive to terrify the home owner, or child living at home:
For example... you know when it's dark outside and you have the lights on inside? And whats outside is obsured by both the darkness outside, and the reflection of indoors upon the glass? I had this recurring nightmare where I'd turn out the light ready to go up to bed and see some psycho(s) outside, unafraid to stand in full view to let me know they're coming in... similar things.. lying in bed, passified - arms at your side or with one under your head/pillow, when someone could come in and bludgeon you to death... that'd be horrible to watch. I like stuff like the shower scene in Hitchcock's Psyho. There's literally nothing she could do. The act she partakes in removes any hope of her sensing danger until it's too late - and her surroundings are as such she's helpless when it comes. And the dagger wounds somehow seem palpable. It might be tame violence by todays standards -- but I think it has a much better effect than Freddy's knife fingers reaching out from some mystical void, ripping someone's insides out while they lay in bed -- when he's already killed about 10 people with the knives before. But then: that's what slasher movies are all about I guess.
I also like twilight zone esque scenarios were people you know and trust with all your heart for the majority of your life mean you or others harm. Conspiratory thrillers where people in power that could make you disappear too. Another good scenario which is candidate for more horror movies is the war film... there have been ones made before of course. I watched a good one recently where a bunch of German troops go mad... but the very basics of war: invasion by a military power, with undiscriminate deadly violence occuring, with no-one to tell or get help from, and no repurcussions for the murderers. That could be scary shit on a more regular basis also.
These kind of flicks were Zombies or Monsters come from beyond, are still some of my favourite movies - but they're only so because I find them funny or just highly entertaining.
