Can you be scared?

Apreche

Halloween is upon us, and this brings a very interesting question to mind. Are there any movies, music, books, comics, games, etc. that actually still scare you?

I'm not talking about something jumping out and going boo. That is what we call surprise, not fear, and this isn't the inquisition. I'm also not talking about real world stuff. The thought of undergoing medical procedures or having grave illnesses scares me a lot. I'd also probably be scared if I were in a real dangerous situation. I might not let it control my actions, but if someone pointed a real gun at me, I'm sure I would feel fear.

What I'm asking is if it is still possible for entertainment media to scare you. When I was a kid, I was scared of all sorts of shit. Level 9 of Zelda 1 scared the hell out of me. Nowadays I can read any book, play any game, watch any movie and listen to any radio show without any fear. The thing is, I'd like to be afraid. If something is supposed to be scary, what's the point if I'm not scared?! Am I alone, or is everyone else also so fearless?

Andrew

The last thing that really scared me was 28 Days Later. The thought of some sort of highly infectious virus that has a keeps people alive for awhile but still has a 100% mortality rate just scares the shit out of me. I'm not really scared by media per say, but rather my imagination takes hold of me and I rationalize how the impossible could be possible.

ProfPangloss

The boo houses in the Mario games used to really freak me out. Of course, I still get on edge every time I play them, but that's really just natural.

baltmatrix

Alien/Aliens still scares the shit out of me.

Silent Hill 1 and 2 still scare the hell out of me.

EsonLinji

The first time I saw the episode of the Simpsons where the teachers were eating the students freaked me out big time (I had nightmares about it)

rampant glee

The last thing that really scared me was six years ago when I saw What Lies Beneath on the big screen. I used to get scared a lot more often... It's a lot harder to get to me now that I'm older. I would imagine this is true of most people. Especially if you consume a lot of 'scary' movies/games/whatever.

Kilarney

This doesn't scare you?

Any Nintendo fan should check out the rest of this article.

TheWhaleShark

I tend to get disturbed, unsettled, or grossed out moreso than scared. However, I remember one particular episode of Are You Afraid of the Dark that featured a clown really freaked me out when I was a little kid.

navelfluff

I'm easily scared. I have never bothered to play much FPS games because they are just too scary for me. I like scary movies a bit better because I'm not directly involved in the story, but I don't watch the Alien movies alone.

The first game I felt was unpleasant to play was Forbidden Forest on the C=64. Most of you are probably too young to know about that one, and I was fairly young myself. I would probably feel the same way about the game today, though. The pixelated monsters weren't creepy by themselves, but when you were hit your hero were burnt, stabbed or eaten for what felt like two minutes, while blood splattered everywhere, and a horrible song was playing. It was worse than listening to Whitney Houston, scary stuff! For that reason you really didn't want to die! :-)

tuttle88

When I was very young (under 10) I watched the cartoon of Watership Down. For years I had to run past it on the shelf in the video store and I still refuse to watch it.

That episode of the X-Files with the liver eating guy scared the shit out of me when I saw it the fist time.

More recently the Japanese version of Ring. HOLY FUCK, that terrified me!

Starfox

Watership Down was a sweet book!

Johannes Uglyfred II

Oh man. When I was little, lots of movies scared me. Two that I remember are the scenes depicting hell in All Dogs Go to Heaven, and the wicked witch in the Wizard of Oz (when she would light the Scarecrow on fire and her flying monkeys came out.) Pretty dumb, yeah, but I was 6 or so, what do you want? Also, to agree with Navelfluff, the Commodore 64 could be fackin' scary. I remember playing one of the Wizardry games, Bane of the Cosmic Forge, when I was in kindergarten or so, and good GOD did the zombies in that game make freaky noises. This huge reaper would also bellow when your party died, and to someone with a young, impressionable mind, it was terrifying. o.o

Even thought I'm 21 now, there are still more things that frighten me than I would like to admit. I'm quite wigged out by the X-files and pretty much any type of horror movie, especially the "Saw" films because they are so gruesome. My sister also gave me a book about Vlad the Impaler, which also discussed Bram Stoker's book and Elizabeth Bathory, and it made my skin crawl to read it (even though it was fascinating.) However, my biggest fear, embarrassingly enough, is still the dark. Or rather, not the dark itself, but what could be lurking in it. My imagination is already quite wild, and it wasn't helped any by growing up with urban legends about the killer in the backseat, "the man with the hook," or rapists and carjackers lying in wait under your car in the dark. All of those stories scare the shit out of me. So do stories about anything occult or supernatural. I'm not sure I've ever believed in ghosts or anything of the sort; I've always taken the stance of "if they exist, I don't want to see one." But if someone recounts a brush with the supernatural they've supposedly had, and provided they are an effective enough storyteller, I get cold and shakey. It's not rational to feel that way, I know, but ohhh goodness does it remind me I'm human.

I don't know, maybe my easily-induced fear comes from having an inconsequential stature. But I do know that my downstairs has no closeable curtains. And that my house is big and empty, and when I'm the only one in it and there are weird noises, and nothing to keep the cold, deep darkness from staring in through the windows, that's creepy shit.

tuttle88

Watership Down was a sweet book!

And I may read it one day when I get over the image of that rabbit in that trap squealing. *shudder*

my quay

I don't think I get scared from the entertainment industry anymore. I'm definitely prone to surprise and likely to be perturbed by themes but that's about it.

I will agree about watching Watership Down and finding that disturbing as a child. I seem to recall the Goodies doing a spoof of it but I can't be sure and You Tube doesn't have that clip.

navelfluff

However, my biggest fear, embarrassingly enough, is still the dark. Or rather, not the dark itself, but what could be lurking in it.

I was very scared of the dark when I was a kid. Then one day, or night, I decided to fight it. First of all, I had realized was that there were never anything there (apart from a cat now and then). I also realized that if I were hiding behind a hedge or something, then I would be the one that people feared. I would be in control.

So for a few weeks I went out after dark and hid in the bushes in the neighbourhood and spied on people. I befriended the dark and got rid of most of my fear.

I should add that I was living in a very safe neighbourhood.

Corbin

The "Secret of Nimh" movie scared the ever living shit out of me as a kid: I haven't watched it since.

HeavyCruiserLost

We watched Friday the 13th this past Friday the 13th on account of the occasion and because I had never seen it. The movie was a fun 80's horror film but the ending caught me completely by surprise. I screamed, and I mean screamed, for 5 whole seconds! My roommate laughed until his stomach hurt . . . I'd called it a successful night.

As for real fears: velociraptors.

Edit: You beat me, by like 10 seconds. Well done!

Cramit

I have trouble being scared by movies, because, well they are just movies; that being said the fire extinguisher scene in Irreversible and the Nine Inch Nails Borken movie scared me some because they seemed very real. Irreversible because of the special effects were just that good, and Broken because it really felt like a snuff film.

Rob From the Army

I have been scared by a few movies. The first one that came to my mind was watching Full Metal Jacket. I watched it for the first time right before I left for Basic Training, and wanted to no longer join the military. The other movie that scared me a lot was The Ring. I watched this with a buddy from High School, and we watched this at a very late show. Once the movie was over, my mother called me on my cell phone, and I freaked out.

Ilmarinen

Oh man. When I was little, lots of movies scared me. Two that I remember are the scenes depicting hell in All Dogs Go to Heaven, and the wicked witch in the Wizard of Oz (when she would light the Scarecrow on fire and her flying monkeys came out.)

I was scared out of my mind of those flying monkeys when I first saw Wizard of Oz.

Brineshrimp

The thing that scares me the most is loud, repetitive noises when I don't know where they're coming from; such as a CD skipping at high volume in my sister room. This fear is accentuated in a dark room... but I'm not at all afraid of the dark.

Hitman Hart

I don't watch a lot of horror movies because I was one of those kids who was pretty well sheltered from the real world for a long time(but not as bad as some folks, I once helped a lady in my store who didn't know if Wallace and Gromit would scare her 2 kids) nor do I play a lot of horror based games, so I may sound silly, but Resident Evil 4(my first RE) has scared me several times, especially the chainsaw maniacs. Also, any scene with injections in a movie, I usually cover my eyes, I don't deal with injections in any form well.