The Monday Or Thursday Poll
Scariest Movie
The current question:
What is the scariest movie you've ever seen?
The Responses:
Well, Poll Fans, I know it's been a long week, but, I gots ta tell ya, it was worth the wait. Lots of great responses, that's what ah'm talkin' 'bout! Shiver-city, haha!
We'll start out with that pea soup special...
The Exorcist
Tiera wrote, "Without a doubt, the movie that scared me the most was "The Exorcist"!
I was in 8th grade when it came out, but didn't see it until I was a junior in college. That night, I slept with my light on, clutching my bible and a rosary I inherited (I'm not Catholic, so I don't know why I thought that would help)!"
sjmcos added, "“The Exorcist.” That movie had people re-thinking their lives. Close second is ”Alien.” Seeing it in a darkened theater is very different from watching a DVD at home." We both wrote and talked together about reading this book, front to back, all night long, non-stop. Talk about scary stuff! I read that book non-stop and then saw the movie. Somewhat of a let down after reading the book first, however...
Marian the Teacher related, "The Exorcist...scared all of us at the beach. First we watched Jaws and that scared all of the kids. Then we watched the Exorcist and my son came in with his clothes on backwards and he was only four..I grabbed him and then........... we all ran out onto the beach...It took about five minutes for our hearts to stop pounding and then another ten for me to stop screaming at him...and then I realized that he was really only a baby trying to put on his pajamas. But I can't watch either of the movies to this day!!
Next, the Hitchcock classic 'Psycho'
Psycho
Ted, obviously freaked, simply said, "Psycho, eeeek!!"
Forbidden Planet
Baron Dave went back to his childhood with Forbidden Planet.
"The only movie that scared the shit out of me was Forbidden Planet.
I saw it on tv altogether too young, and the Id Monster had me
running to mommy. It's still scary, though for different reasons. Otherwise, I tend to avoid horror movies and the like. If I want to be scared, I'll watch the "news" on tv..."
(He's got a point there, don't ya know)...
Alien
Alien got a vote by rsill1 (no comment included)
The Screaming Skull
The Screaming Skull got a vote by Vic in AK
"It used to be the "Screaming Skull" Gave me nightmares forever after having seen it when I was a child. But when I became a horror host and got to use it for the first halloween special of my old horror show the "TwoFatGhouls" I realized that after not seeing it for 30 odd years that it was just campy ,goofy and more humorous than horrorible. but the MEMORY of the Screaming Skull of my youth remains the scariest movie."
The War Game
Brian Cady struck a chord with me as an ex-Cold War(rior) with...
The War Game Academy Award winner in 1967 for Best Documentary, it recreates in horrific
detail an atomic bomb attack on Kent, England. The fact that what you see
happen could happen to you at any moment makes this the scariest movie ever
made.
The Power
TomReed chose The Power...
I can't take gore. As a victim of PTSD, thanks to a robbery, I can't stand horror films at all. And for those who can't, gore is overdone; we all know the blood is corn syrup and red food dye. For me, the most devastating horror film was George Pal's "The Power." It's about a number of people at a psychological testing lab who are being killed by a telepath - one of their own number. A man is in a room where the doors and walls disappear, then he dies of a heart attack. The protagonist (George Hamilton) is trapped on a merry-go-round that turns into a centrifuge, is shot at by toy dolls (done by George Pal's famous Puppetoon animation) and other death traps. But the most devastating part, for me, was NOT a murder. A woman who was in love with the secret telepath is hunted down by the protagonist. She isn't dead. The telepath has warped her into a pathetic, drunken failure, living in a trailer, unable to remember the details about the telepath, doomed to a life as a cheap whore and alcoholic. There are worse things than death, and for me at least, destroying a person's soul is just such a fate...
Next up, one of my all time favs... Night of the Living Dead
Night of the Living Dead
Adam in NoHo said, "'Night of the Living Dead'- I was 12 when I watched it alone in my bedroom one night. I was scared to leave my room right after..
He also gave a nod to The Twilight Zone and Dr. Who with this observation, "Movies don't really scare me, but there are two television episodes that
gave me the creeps- the old Twilight Zone episode about the woman who was receiving telephone calls from her dead husband (I find dead air on the telephone
unsettling for some reason), and the recent Dr. Who 'Blink' with the statues that move when you don't look at them. Scary."
Jack the Ripper
Jack the Ripper was Jim Ds choice (I'm not sure which version) "When I was a kid (long long ago) I snuck in to see “Jack the Ripper”. The entire movie was black and white until he was crushed under the elevator and the blood turned red. Uggh!!"
The Haunting of Hill House
And finally, ducks says... "The scariest movie I’ve ever seen was
The Haunting of Hill House with Julie Harris, Claire Bloom and Russ Tamblyn. No gore, no slash, just pure mind game scary. I think don’t you need gore and guts and blood squishing all over the screen to be scary. Less is more. I found the Exorcist boring."
Part 2
The Responses:
Here are the rest of the responses to the 'scariest' movie question. They were more political in nature and didn't fit in with yesterday's responses (not that it's a bad thing, mind ya)...
Fahrenheit 9/11
Sally P wrote, "my official reply to your poll, "The scariest movie you've ever seen" is: Fahrenheit 9/11 by Michael Moore.
While I have always been, "political," this movie really frightened me as to the state of this country. In the movie, Moore illustrates his argument about how this failed businessman (GWB) with deep connections to the royal House of Saud (Saudi Arabia) AWA the Bin Laden's (same) got elected under fraudulent circumstances, then proceeded to blunder through his duties while ignoring warnings of the looming betrayal by his foreign partners. Moore explains how Bush failed to take immediate action to defend this nation, only to later cynically manipulate the attack on 9/11 to serve his wealthy backers' corrupt ambitions. Through facts, footage and interviews, Moore illustrates his contention of how Bush and his cronies have gotten America into worse trouble (and on the path to financial destitution) than before 9/11.
How scary is that premise - I ask you?
The Last Temptation of Christ
KitchenRat had this take on... Martin Scorscese's The Last Temptation of Christ... "scared the shit out of everybody. (notice that capitalization of Christ? [there's another one] that's how pernicious the fairy tale has become. i didn't cap it, my computer did.) church leaders around the world condemned this movie and railed against it daily in the press before it was released. few, if any, who denounced the film had bothered to see it first. what they perceived as an attack on the established order of spirituality, that is, we preach, you pay became a dire emergency in their eyes. as a result, what is scorscese's best work and one of the finest films of all time was denied an audience. now that's a scary movie."
The Reagans
ang was brief with this answer... "The unauthorized biography of the Reagans that conservatives had banned from showing on CBS."
And finally, Joe had this to say about the whole issue... "Ok, I don't have to think about this one bit. I don't watch scary movies any more, not since I was about 10 years old, that would have been about 1954. The last scary movie I saw was about space invaders that looked like a giant bald eyes with gooky stuff on 'em. I just don't see the point of scary movies, I have enough stress in my life without adding to it artificially. Do I need No Country for Old Men? No, I have mortgage payments, car payments, roof repairs, property taxes, George Bush, John McCain, stuff like that to contend with. In a world with Dick Cheney (before he dicks you) do we need scary movies? I think not.
Well, that's it then! Thanks to all responders! I hope the 'funniest' question does as well!
Yer Pal,
BadtotheboneBob
The NEW question:
What is the funniest movie you've ever seen?
Send your response to BadtotheBoneBob ( BCEpoll 'at' aol.com )
