We take our scares very seriously here at Trailerdownload.net, so deciding on the scariest 13 EVER took a lot of time, gnawing of teeth and rewatching a lot of scary stuff. So I guess I won't be doing much sleeping for the next month or so. We did however discover a pattern: the things that make us scream the most are small children and Naomi Watts...

1 The Ring (Japan) (1998)
Number one because it made a rather macho male friend of mine sleep with the lights on for over a week!
An extremely scary little girl is trying to get out of the well where she was drowned and slaughter people, especially Naomi Watts and her son. The bit where she crawls out of the TV is so incredibly scary it's bound to scar you for life. So be warned! And don't get suckered into watching The Ring 2, it just ain't scary at all.


2 The Shining (1980)
It's a classic and after all these years, small children on tricycles still scare the pants off me. People find different things frighten the life out of them in this movie: is it Jack chasing his wife with the axe? The small child talking with his finger? The creepy hotel? For me it was definitely the scary twin girls who go “Come and play with us. For ever and ever...” Nothing quite as scary as little girls in matching dresses. Yikes.


3 Jaws
It certainly is time to get out of the water. I still can't swim easily in murky water, even if it's a swimming pool, I still expect to see that fin appearing out of nowhere.  Jaws made history in many ways, for being the first summer block buster and for being Steven Spielberg's big break through. Little useless, but cute detail: the big mechanical shark was called Bruce.


4 The Grudge (VS)
This'll spark some debate, we know, but we wanted our mommies more while watching this than while watching the Japanese original Ju-on. Whenever a person dies in a big rage a curse is born and hovers in the place where that person has died. Bad news for Sarah Michelle Geller and Bill Pulman.


5 Blair Witch Project (1999)
Three film students get lost in haunted woods, never to return.
Wonderfully original, way back then, the documentary styled Blair Witch sprouted a whole new genre of spooky movies and revolutionized the way movies are promoted online, sparking a whole movement before it was even out.  This one's still the best, and seeing piles of stones in a forest still gives me the heebie jeebies.


6 Alien (1979)
Not often attempted, but highly effective nonetheless: horror meets sci fi. Sigourney Weaver takes on an alien that spouts out of someone's guts. Nasty, especially as nobody knows who the shape shifting little creep went into next. Paranoia on a spaceship: Yep, that's pretty scary. This was Weaver's first big screen role, as she had previously mostly worked on stage.



7 The Thing (1982)
Bit of a flop when it first came out, over the years John Carpenter's The Thing has found a strong cult following. As it should, because it is very creepy indeed. A team of scientists on Antarctica get attacked by a shape shifting alien. The scary bit is that nobody knows who the killing creep is. Very disturbing once the little legs start growing. Now being remade under the same title, but we doubt it'll be as scary.


8 The Birds (1963)
We've seen killer bees, piranhas, giant anacondas, but everyday birds that turn evil are guaranteed to spook you. Made by his highness, the master of suspense, Alfred Hitchcock. Birds in a bay town take an instant dislike to Tippi Hedren and go on a killing spree. There's been talk of a remake with Naomi Watts for years, but so far no dice. Which I think is fine.


9 Halloween (1978)
If Jamie Lee Curtis is to remembered for one single role it should be her very own little scream fest, Halloween. Six year-old Michael Myers kills his sister with a big knife. He's locked up in an asylum, but manages to escape fifteen years later. Just in time for Halloween.
One of the most profitable independent films of all times, made for a mere $320.000 and raking in over $100 million. Seen as the mother of all slashers, it introduces many things we now take for granted: teens having premarital sex will always get themselves cut to pieces and lone chaste heroines run around screaming, but survive. A true classic.



10 Paranormal activity (2007)
If nothing else, watching Paranormal Activity will teach you not to mess with demons! If you manage to get over the whole “why does that guy keep taunting the demon that's been haunting his wife since she was a toddler”-thing, this is an amazingly uncomfortable movie. Presented as found footage, it's a whole new take on The Blair Witch Project which I thought was very clever. Made at a very low budget it is rumoured to be the best ROI (return on investment) ever in the movie world, though no exact figures are known.


11 Mulholland Drive (2001)

Not often found on any of these scariest-lists, though I did find a list that, amazingly, included Willy Wonka and the Chocolate factory! Mulholland Drive kept us up for a night or two, feeling as if we'd done a load of bad drugs. Complex and deeply disturbing, but then that's David Lynch's calling card. Naomi Watts stars as Betty, an aspiring actress, who befriends a very hot amnesiac Laura Elena Harring, who calls herself Rita. They try to find out who Rita really is by going through her purse, which contains a whole wad of cash and a blue key. Lynch was actually pitching Mulholland drive as a TV series. When they turned him down he tacked on an ending that explained nothing and all of a sudden it was a brilliant, very scary, surrealist movie.


12 Invasion of the body snatchers (1956)
In a small town people are accusing their nearest and dearest of being imposters. Doctor Miles Bennell goes to check it out and finds that everybody is being replaced by their doubles, grown from giant plant-like pods. If this doesn't scare you, there's no hope for you. Bit of debate on whether the 1978 version wasn't better, as this 1958 version has that regrettable happy(ish) end tacked at the back, but we went with the original anyway.



13 Dark Water (2002)
Hair coming out of the tap. Long, dark hair. As an avid bather, that would be enough for me. Add a red bag with a bunny that won't go away, and that horrendous water tower on the roof and you've got the makings of a classic. 2005 saw a remake with Jennifer Connelly but it wasn't nearly as creepy.