“What scares the masters of horror?”
Nifty feature for you horror fans: The NYT asked several filmmakers who have been involved in the production of projects in the genre what movies most scared them. A few examples:
TI WEST, director of “The House of the Devil” and “The Innkeepers”: The image of those two oddball little girls from “The Shining” in their matching powder-blue dresses standing in a bleak, floral-wallpapered hallway has been burnt into my retina ever since the first moment I laid eyes on them. “Come play with us Danny … Forever and ever and ever….” I can still hear the chorused voices of those little Grady twins almost as well as I can recall some of my favorite songs. “The Shining” was the first film to actually make me uncomfortable with the idea of ever watching it again. To this day I have never met a single person who when those twins are brought up doesn’t shudder and share a personal terror story of their own. That is some achievement. Way to go Kubrick, you ruined us all.
LARRY FESSENDEN, president of Glass Eye Pix, director of “Habit” and “Wendigo”: The scariest movie I ever saw was the “Night of the Living Dead.” A relentless and escalating sense of dread prevails over the film, as the horror keeps closing in. None of the old rules apply: one character after another meets a gruesome fate regardless of their heroism or function in the story. With its hopeless ending, it was a fulcrum between the morally ordered scary movies of my youth and the horror films to come.
ERIC RED, screenwriter of “The Hitcher” and “Near Dark”: Having a little girl hacking her privates bloody with a crucifix, sticking her mother’s face in it, and then turning her head 180 degrees around is without question the most horrific and transgressive set piece in American horror. That the sequence in “The Exorcist” was staged in broad daylight added to the terror, as did the incredible subliminal sound work. This unequalled masterpiece remains a great influence on my work, and I’m always trying to achieve that sense of reality and suspension of disbelief.
What movie scared you the most? Hit comments and let us know.
For more of the article, including the thoughts of John Sayles, John Landis, Edgar Wright, and Guillermo Del Toro, go here.