13 Scary Movies That Made Me Lose Sleep

• Lori Palminteri
• Uncategorized
• October 26, 2014

13. Poltergeist

While I now think Poltergeist is fun horror movie, I first saw it at a very young age.  I was a fan of the horror genre as a kid, and I saw Poltergeist in elementary school, and that movie scared the shit out of me (particularly the clown).  This is a favorite of mine.  When I briefly worked in real estate, I would quote this movie, telling people a house was built on a cemetery, and they removed the headstones but not the bodies.  No one ever got my reference.

12. Frailty

Frailty is a creepy movie, with a great ending.  I will say nothing more about it.  But if you haven’t seen it, put it on your Halloween viewing list, or just regular viewing list, because it’s great.

11. The Road

This is one of those cases where the book is better than the movie, but the movie is still pretty good.  It’s a post-apocolyptic movie that takes all the fun out of the apocalypse.  It’s heartbreaking and dreadful, and all too realistic.  The flaw of the movie, is the kid is not a great actor.  If he was good, I would’ve been bawling through the whole movie.  But the dreariness of Cormac McMarthy’s writing, and Vigo Mortensen’s acting will keep you on the edge of your seat in this film.

10. Antichrist

Lars Von Trier’s Antichrist is cinematically beautiful and one of those movies that crawls under your skin and after you’ve seen it you can’t shake it.  It’s so fucking weird.  It’s not a movie I’ll probably ever watch again because it’s so disturbing, but it is a movie that I love to discuss with other people because it’s so bizarre.

9. Paranormal Activity

Paranormal Activity scared the shit out of me.  Mainly because, you didn’t really see anything.  It plays with the idea that those little noises you hear in the house could be something more than just the house settling.  Also, I saw this movie when I was really high.  But when I got home, it took me a while to fall asleep because every noise I heard made my heart race.

8. What Lies Beneath

Psychological thrillers scare me more than slasher/gore porn movies.  What Lies Beneath has a great story, and it perfectly gives you enough jumps and suspense scenes.  I love this movie.  Plus, Harrison Ford and Michelle Pfeiffer.

7. Funny Games

Funny Games almost feels like a scene out of A Clock Work Orange, but it’s a whole movie that is totally twisted.  It’s sick.  And you feel guilty watching it. It’s the kind of movie you’ll enjoy if you’re fucked in the head.

6. 28 Days Later

28 Days Later is not my favorite zombie movie, and not the best either.  But it is the one that scared me the most.  Until this movie, I always thought I’d do pretty good in the zombie apocalypse, because zombies are slow and stupid, and I’m fast and smart.  Of course, in this movie, they’re not technically zombies, but they sprint at you then eat your face.  The scene when they’re changing the tire in the tunnel is one of the most suspenseful, edge of your seat zombie movie moments I can think of.

5. Alien

Alien is such a classic.  I love this movie.  It scared me as a kid, and it scares me now, even though I’ve seen it at least a dozen times.  Ridley Scott does such a good job making you feel trapped and claustrophobic, and virtually helpless along with Ripley.  I still jump in this movie, and I still feel dread when I watch it.  Also, big fan of Prometheus. 

4. The Ring

Honestly, just looking at the picture above scares me a little.  This movie really scared the crap out of me.  Even though I’ve seen it before, I would never watch it again alone.  But for horror fans, this is a must see.

3. Cannibal Holocaust

This movie is not for the faint of heart.  Actually, I don’t even recommend this movie because it’s so disturbing.  I wish I could un-see it.  It looks and feels like a snuff film because they actually killed a decent amount of animals.  It’s about four young documentary makers that go to film a cannibal tribe, but they aren’t satisfied, so they start staging things far more fucked up than anything the tribe is doing.  The director was arrested and brought to court because he was accused of killing people for the film because it’s so realistic.  The director had to prove he didn’t actually kill the actress who’s on a stake in the above screen shot.  I watched this movie with my jaw dropped the entire time, and even though I’m not religious, I wanted to go to church and cleanse my soul after watching it.

2. The Shining

Absolute classic.  Seen it a bunch of times, still scares me.

1. The Exorcist

As far as I’m concerned, The Exorcist is the scariest movie ever made.  I grew up in a devout Catholic home, and when I first saw this movie, I was basically told this could happen to you and I believed it.  Monsters aren’t real, but the devil is, and he can take over your body.  So, yah, this movie is absolutely fucking horrifying.  No movie has ever scared me more.