Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Protection built in.

Meet the Other Phone.
Protection built in.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think 'The Exorcist' is the least scariest horror ever?

69 replies

Sallystyle · 28/08/2016 22:49

Well, maybe not ever but it is hardly scary is it?

The first time I watched it I was quite nervous because my mum and MIL watched it when they were in their 20's and they both said they couldn't sleep for weeks after. I thought it was quite funny and very tame.

My sister is here and she is now watching it for the first time.

I read something earlier that said it is still rated as one of the scariest films ever made.

OP posts:
HelenaDove · 28/08/2016 23:42

I like horror films The Legacy is a good one.

Back in the 90s ITV did a series called Chiller. Different story each week.

Around 1980 there was a Hammer House of Horror series. I still remember Denholm Elliot feeling up his secretary in a phone box.

Always used to stay up for the Hammer double bill on Friday nights in the autumn as a kid.

ijustwannadance · 28/08/2016 23:43

I found it quite funny, but I had already watched the Leslie Nielson spoof version so that was stuck in my head.

Boogers · 28/08/2016 23:49

I saw The Omen when I was about 8. For some reason my dad thought it was ok for me to be in the room when it was on, and it terrified me, quite understandably. And this from a man who wouldn't let me watch Grange Hill because it was a bad influence! Hmm

I still think they were very good psychological horrors, and I even enjoyed the remake in 2006, though not as scary as the original.

Ginkypig · 28/08/2016 23:50

Does anyone happen to have a copy of the book they no longer want? I'm so sorry im being cheeky

Iv never really found any horror affects me. I jump when I watch them (but I do at unexpected things anyway including the phone) but Iv never not been able to sleep or still been thinking about it hours later.

Iv always been a massive horror fan even when I was very young!

HearCerseiRoar · 28/08/2016 23:52

YABU, but just my personal opinion. I love horror films and novels, and I rate The Exorcist quite highly as both.

The thing I always found most disturbing about it was the idea that Regan was always there, IYSWIM. She was only a little girl and she was there the whole time, throughout it all, trapped inside her own body with Pazuzu. We saw what was happening on the outside but what the hell was going on inside her head? What mind games and mental torment did the demon put her through? Like I said, that always freaked me out, even more so now that I have recently given birth to my own PFB.

To paraphrase;
Karras: "Where's Regan?"
Pazuzu: "In here, with us."

Ugh Sad

For reference, my top ten favourite horror/horror-sequel films are;

  1. An American Werewolf in London.
  2. The Exorcist.
  3. Rosemary's Baby.
  4. Blood on Satan's Claw.
  5. John Carpenter's The Thing.
  6. Dog Soldiers.
  7. JAWS (although it's more of a commentary on American class structure and society IMO).
  8. Nosferatu.
  9. Hellraiser.
10. Silence of Lambs.
StarryIllusion · 28/08/2016 23:54

I watched it at 10 and it scared me shitless. I wasn't a particularly easy child to scare either. My favourite film at age 7 was Poltergeist. I still have a soft spot for it. The Exorcist doesn't scare me now but for it's time it was terrifying. The Enfield Haunting is good. Not frightening but a bit disturbing. Centipede was just sick. Some of the Paranormal Activity films, I think the 3rd but can't remember, are very jumpy. I can't really think of any films that have actually scared me as an adult.

DaughtersofTriton · 28/08/2016 23:56

Ginky I think the audiobook might be on youtube. It definitely was on there last year, I listened to it on holiday.

I also like the original versions of The Omen, The Howling and The Amityville Horror, cheesy as they are. The original Wicker Man is one of my all time favourite films, although I don't really view it as a horror film. Not keen on many modern horror films, although The Descent and Insidious had a few good jump scares in them.

Sorry for derailing the discussion, I can't resist a good film natter Blush

I'll be quiet now Grin

HelenaDove · 29/08/2016 00:00

When i was 8 i did get it into my head that Christopher Lee might me hiding in my wardrobe waiting to pounce. The man was well over six foot tall and my wardrobe was only about 4 feet with a cupboard on top. He would have put his back out.

wouldnt say no if i happened to find Gary Oldman in there now

Keepingupwiththejonesys · 29/08/2016 00:04

I've always watched horror films just because I enjoyed them but was never really scared at all by them. I was a bit freaked out by the grudge but none of the horror films I watched (and I watched a lot) really bothered me. The past few years though I just can't watch them. I get seriously scared, not by the gory type but the 'jump' type ones like insidious, sinister etc. I watched them and was scared for weeks! Latest thing was me seeing a trailer for a new movie called lights out. I haven't watched the film, just the trailer and it really scared me. Like, to the point I'm nervous going to the toilet (which happens every night, pregnancy joys) and I look behind the shower curtain them run back to me bed Blush

DaughtersofTriton · 29/08/2016 00:05

Helena I would have loved to find Christopher Lee in my wardrobe. Wicker Man era Christoper Lee was still is one of my crushes. Wouldn't say no to Peter Cushing either Wink

I like 'em tall, dark and gruesome, with killer cheekbones and a voice to die for Blush

DaughtersofTriton · 29/08/2016 00:06

I liked the short film Lights Out is based on. It's on YouTube, under the same name.

Keepingupwiththejonesys · 29/08/2016 00:08

I won't be watching it as I'm already on the verge of pissing the bed at night Shock

Boogers · 29/08/2016 00:09

Argh, Rosrmary's Baby! Read this whilst pregnant with DS and again read it in one sitting because, being 7 months pregnant with my first baby and all, it freaked me out! Never seen the film though.

Middleoftheroad · 29/08/2016 00:17

Hear Good list - no The Omen?

I love horrors, but agree that The Exoricst has never really scared me. In the 80s The Odean in Brum would air a late night showing, but by then I had seen The Hills Have Eyes, A Nightmare on Elm St, Halloween etc. Which I found more disturbing.

From my 70s/80s childhood, great horrors include
The Thing
Alien
The Fog
The Omen
Poltergeist
And lots of hammers/the film house that made Asylum etc.

HearCerseiRoar · 29/08/2016 00:22

middle Yeah, I do quite like The Omen (the original with Gregory Peck of course). It didn't quite make the cut for my top 10 but would definitely be in top 20. The scenes in the Italian graveyard were quality horror.

Middleoftheroad · 29/08/2016 00:34

Hear those scenes still work.

Ooh forgot about An American Werewolf. The Wicker Man too. Salem's Lot, The Shining, IT etc.

Last decade or so
28 days Later
Kill List
REC films
Pan's Labyrinth
The Others

Watched Babadook the other day - not as a horror but as an interesting piece of commentary on mental health issues.

70isaLimitNotaTarget · 29/08/2016 01:50

They're doing a remake

Oh, heck no , can't they leave well alone?

I have a DVD of The Directors Cut which I haven't watched yet, it has the scene where she spiderwalks down the stairs !

Who's in the remake BTW --nosy but not taking an unhealthy interest , oh no Wink

HelenaDove · 29/08/2016 01:55

Peter Cushing was a lovely bloke by all accounts.

Apparently when his wife died he ran up and down the stairs several times trying to induce a heart attack because he couldnt face life without her.

HelenaDove · 29/08/2016 02:00

"The effects of his wife's death proved to be as much physical as mental. For his role in Dracula A.D. 1972, Cushing had originally been cast as the father of Stephanie Beacham's character, but had aged so visibly and lost so much weight that the script was hastily re-written to make him her grandfather: it was done again in the last Dracula film from Hammer, The Satanic Rites of Dracula.[10] In a silent tribute to Helen, a shot of Van Helsing's desk includes a photograph of her."

DaughtersofTriton · 29/08/2016 07:50

Helena Yeah, Carrie Fisher said she almost couldn't bring herself to insult his character in Star Wars because he was so lovely to her and smelled of lavender. Sigh Smile

jellyhead · 29/08/2016 07:57

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

celeste83 · 29/08/2016 08:02

I love a good horror film. I think the trick is not to believe the hype of these films too much and go in expecting to be scared. If you go into a film with an open mind and non critical you will probably get into it more.

Thanks for the list HearCerseiRoar there are some in there i will have to dig out Smile

HearCerseiRoar · 29/08/2016 08:37

YW celeste

PNGirl · 29/08/2016 08:45

The only cast member I recognise is Geena Davis. It's a series rather than film. Alfonso Herrera and Ben Daniels are priests apparently. I don't think it's a remake exactly as in based on the book now I look, as the character names are different.

efeslight · 29/08/2016 09:35

Another fan of horror here.
I agree, The Shining on the big screen is very impressive, lots os sweeping landscapes at the start, but I always found the wife character irritating.

Blair witch was scary at the cinema, i remember the whole crowd walking out in silence at the end of it, looking shaken. Watched it again years later by myself at home, still terrifying and had to turn it off.

Modern horror films generally leave me disappointed, but watched Paranormal activity recently and that terrified me, but not in a good way! Couldnt sleep for a while...

Love many films already mentioned, 70s/80s horror was scary
The Fog
The Thing
Poltergeist
Alien

Any recent ones I should look out for in this genre, dont like all the gory super violent stuff.

There is a recent film, American i think about a woman whose husband disappears. she is pregnant and her sister comes to stay. Eventually the husband turns up, but is a broken man. I think other people disappear too. Its all to do with a really scary subway tunnel in the area. I really recommend it, but cant remember the name

Swipe left for the next trending thread