Whether you get scared when watching a movie depends very much on who you are, as what scares you may not scare others and vice versa. Personally I rarely get scared in a horror movie and am far more unsettled by films such as Scum and American History X. However I have a friend with a morbid fear of sharks and the thought of sitting through Jaws or (heaven forbid) Open Water fills him with dread. So when Bravo and UK TV station Channel 4 both came up with ‘100 scariest moments’ lists, I thought it might be worth a look into how they compare and see what scared them.
Now to be fair, Bravo chose their list only from film and Channel 4 took theirs from film, TV, advertising and pop culture, but this does not affect the top 10 which we shall look at first. Interestingly, Channel 4 placed Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining at the top of the pile with Bravo placing it in sixth. Bravo decided that the daddy of the summer movie, Jaws, was top dog (or should that be shark?). Both top fives are really a remix of each other; except for Channel 4’s curious inclusion of The Blair Witch Project at number five. Bravo put this at a much more realistic 30. Creepy and disturbing on the first viewing, but once you know nothing happens until the last 2 minutes, it rarely has the same impact again.
William Friedkin’s timeless and honestly scary The Exorcist came third with Bravo and second with Channel 4. Ridley Scott’s haunted house in space movie Alien ranked second with Bravo and fourth with Channel 4. Both these are safe choices that are still pretty scary today, let alone the 25 years ago that they were released! Highest placed Japanese horror goes to the original Ring at number six with Channel 4 and Audition at number 11 with Bravo. Dodgy VHS tapes and longhaired girls didn’t scare Bravo until number 20!
Both countdowns represent excellent reference material, perhaps adding a few movies to your ‘must-see’ list as you go along, and if I was forced to choose the better of the two, I would have to go with Channel 4’s. This is not because I agree with their placing’s more (on the contrary, Bravo did a far better job), but more because their entries are more varied. Returning to what I said at the start of this article, it may not be horror films that scare or disturb the viewer the most.
Channel 4 have placed Chitty Chitty Bang Bang at 37 due to the frightening Child-Catcher, the extremely scary BBC production Ghostwatch at 41, Aphex Twin’s nightmarish Come to Daddy music video at 35 and comedian Chris Morris’ surreal TV show Jam at 26. None of these are your generic horror film or production, but all of them have enough power to disturb, shock and remain in your memory for sometime after watching. This is the essence of the horror show, the best will allow a level of paranoia to seep in and physically force you check behind yourself in an empty room. Don’t watch them alone!
