I don't watch scary movies, I don't see the point: over my working lifetime I've spent enough time being properly scared, with real events, that there is no buzz from fear, and most certainly no pleasure from it. I've found myself being the only person in a situation to be able to do anything at all for someone in dire straits - it's horrible, it doesn't always go right in the end, and has taught me not to go looking for fear, not even the "safe" fear of a movie.

Sometimes the scary events in my real life do go well - but oddly enough, despite the enormous relief and satisfaction of a job well done, the fear element of it all still will be enough to upset me for the rest of the day. I'm a professional, it won't show, and I can work okay, but boy, do I welcome home-time on those thankfully rare occasions.

I'm the same anacrusis - undoubtably not in the same way, but I have felt real 'white hot' fear before, and I wouldn't dream of trying to emulate it in any way.

That's not to say I scorn anyone who does - I just can't do it.

Perhaps I have a low scare threshhold, the way some people have a low pain threshhold

In relation to an earlier post of mine, I watched The Ring earlier...nah, not scary anymore, I put it down to the utter anticipation of seeing one of my first ever horror films

I can't say I've felt terrified even trying skydiving, bungee jumping, karting and flying planes... I love the feeling of adrenaline pumping through my veins, it's highly addictive!

I might just be a crazy ****nut though. *shrug*

The only thing that truly terrifies me is the thought of ever having to spend time in hospital...

I now don't scare easily as far as films are concerned. But I still remember the sheer terror I experienced when, aged ten or elelven, I was taken with a school party to see the old black and white "Great Expectations". We had not been a film going family and had acquired our first television relatively late so I was very impressionable. The opening scenes of that film are forever engraved on my memory.

When I was fairly young, I watched an old film, probably black and white. Some people were in a haunted house, and had to stay the night, not sure why. In the night they hear noises along the corridor and bar the door.............the door bulges in a most disgusting way that would be scientifically impossible, like it stretches all ways. That scene bothered me at the time.
Anyone know what the film was called?
Bev

Ditto!!!

Every so often, as some sort of edifying experience, my school would trot out some ancient film of a classic for us to watch - and that was the one that sticks in my mind the most.

A WONDERFUL film - but, yes, very scary (not just the beginning!)...

@ Bev

Not "House on Haunted Hill" is it?

I'm afraid that one doesn't ring any bells at all. Sometimes all it takes is one scene - I remember watching the Twilight Zone movie years ago, and in one of the stories a girl had somehow removed the mouths from the faces of her family, so that when they turned round, they had eyes and noses and then - just skin, and desperate expressions in their eyes. It wasn't the scariest part of the film, but I found it really disturbing and it was the bit that stayed with me the longest

I was channel hopping during ad breaks last night and found and managed to watch two two-minute bits of Hannibal - that was plenty for me

I read The Silence of the Lambs on the flight home from Vancouver one time. I couldn't sleep, so thought I may as well read something. Nasty.
It might be House on Haunted Hill. If that's the 1959 version, and has the bulging door. I would find it funny now.
Real life murderers and real situations are far scarier than silly ghost stories to me now.
MY "friend" gave me Coma to read when I went into hospital to have my tonsils out at the grand old age of 23. Nice girl

Bev,
I'm fairly sure it was called The Haunting. It was well scary! One of the scenes that was quite heart stopping was where an old lady poked her head out of a loft hatch - apparently she was lost in the attic somewhere! So in this film, the living characters were just as scary as the supernatural ones.

Yes, I googled it and had a look at a trailer. That looks like the one. I wonder if the remake was as good as the original?

I remember an old Disney movie (feature film, not animation) called The Watcher in the Woods, must have seen it when I was 12 or 13, scared the living daylights out of me, and stayed with me for YEARS. Also a miniseries on TV called The Mad Death, about a rabies outbreak, also another miniseries (true story apparently) about a US military guy who killed his whole family. Very disturbing

They just showed the briefest clip of this on The Culture Show - they're talking to the writers of the play Ghost Stories that's on in the West End, and the writers were talking about films, books and TV programmes that influenced (and scared) them when they were young. They just showed the bulging door....