(WXYZ) - In honor of Halloween, the one day of the year where participants play "dress-up," and acting like a kid--no matter what your age--is the norm, we thought it would be fun to share some of our scary movie experiences. And, we want to hear from you! What movies made your heart beat faster and your pulse quicken?
OK, I'll start.
First on my list is
Jaws--When that head came rolling down into the hole in the boat, my popcorn went flying. Absolutely one of the most memorable movie experiences of my life.
Next, is
Psycho--I didn't see this movie until I took a film class in college, but I was completely drawn into it by the mastery of director Alfred Hitchcock. The deliberate pace at the start makes the middle and end of the movie even more powerful. I've read a lot of books about the making of
Psycho, and apparently the second-to-last scene in the psychiatrist's office (with its rather dull explanation of why Norman Bates turned out the way he did) was deemed necessary because audiences in the theatre couldn't stop screaming after seeing the previous scene. Remarkable.
My final choice is
The Skull--I think there was a remake, but I'm talking about the one that came out in the 1960s. I don't remember much about it; my sister took me to see it, and I was so scared that I begged her to take me home. To this day, I have never wanted to watch it. Yikes!
I asked Chief Investigative Reporter Steve Wilson to participate. Only fitting, huh? When Steve shows up at your office or front door, he can scare the taste right out of your mouth. Steve said the one movie that came to mind was:
The Silence of the Lambs--"I thought Anthony Hopkins gave us one of the most frightening and unpredictable characters I've ever seen on screen."
I couldn't agree more. Our next participant is Bill "Call for Action" Spencer. And reading his responses, you can tell he's a movie-watcher and movie-lover:
The Exorcist—"Absolutely horrifying movie. I was working as an usher at The Farmington 4 Cinemas when that movie was released. I must have seen it 40 times and every time it shook me right to my bones. The reason it scared me so much is that is seemed so real. The unbelievable sounds of the demons that rattled Linda Blair's bedroom, as the bed jumped up and down all by itself. Her head spinning completely around 360 degrees, ghastly. And what can you say about that pea green vomit spewing from her mouth. Still in my mind, the most frightening movie I have ever seen.
Rosemary’s Baby— "What scared me most about this movie is what you didn’t see, what the producers kept from the audience. You never actually saw the baby. But the faces of every one of those devil worshipers was hideous enough. The actors were superbly horrifying. I remember Maurice Evans and his spine-tingling voice and his sickly eyes and waxen complexion. Ruth Gordon was just grotesque as well. If she were my mother, I would run as far from home as fast as possible and never come back.
The Shining--"With Jack Nicholson, what a frightfest of evil folks. The entire movie, the producer and director made the incredibly shrewd move of shooting every scene in ridiculously bright light. The opposite of most horror movies, but the effect was ghastly. One scene I remember is where suddenly oceans of blood started pouring out of the elevator doors and the blood started washing over everything. Also the nude zombie woman that Nicholson encountered in a guest room in the bathtub. Sick!!!! But the most terrifying part was the two little twin girls standing there in bright, warm, nauseatingly hot light. Stanley Kubrick is a genius. Shoot a horror movie in hot white light.
Well done, Bill. Vic Faust has also picked a couple of movies that have caused him a few sleepless nights:
Amityville Horror-- I can't tell you how scared I was to be alone in my house after seeing that movie as a child. My father should have been grounded for taking me to see that at the drive-in when I was a child. Sinister and creepy!
The Shining--The little girls popping up around the hotel, and "redrum" was enough to spook me to the point I couldn't sleep if I thought about the movie near bed time!
The Exorcist--Heads spinning and beds floating would scare anyone. Plus it was a true story with ties to a hospital in my hometown of St. Louis.
Now we want to hear from you! Share your scary movie favorites with us in the comment section below!
