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The first movie memory I have is of something horrible.
It made me wonder: Which scenes have been responsible for traumatizing the directors who make our horror cinema?
Of all the big scares, the one I oddly remember most was the sharks first big close-up.
Not just the moment he pops his head out, but the entire sequence.
Then the big reveal.
The shark pops out of absolutely nowhere with a music sting that made my feet sweat.
Then … the acknowledgement.
On Brodys sheet-white face, the other characters see just how formidable their foe really is.
You are now locked and loaded for a heart-pumping third act … if you could even make it through.
But they have a love affair.
But I experienced it as my first horror memory.
Anxiety can shrink a room.
Fear can make a city block seem like a mile.
Normal noises are suddenly harsh harbingers of doom.
Theres a scene where a giant turtle emerges, screeching, from behind a rock.
This is the first time I can remember feelingfearfrom a moving image.
I closed my eyes but could still see the image in my mind.
That unsettled me deeply.
The other scene I really need to mention is the Large Marge jump scare inPee Wees Big Adventure.
I was sitting at the back of the cinema when Marges face metamorphosed into a claymation ghoul.
The shock was like a wave you could see spreading through the audience as they screamed in terror.
That the possibilities are truly endless.
Jen McGowan,Rust Creek(2019)
The power of Christ compels you!
Can you hear it?
I still can.I was about 11 years old and sleeping over at a friends house after swim practice.
She lived in a really cool house with wooden shingles on the outside.
It was close to a main road but surrounded by woods.
I remember the living room had a wall of windows looking out into the woods.
It was really pretty.
Until it got dark.
We had basic TV and maybe had just gotten our first cordless phone.
I was transfixed, and completely traumatized.
To this day I can recite every line, mimic every sound, describe every image.
I generally have a horrible memory, but that movie was seared.
It was the first horror movie that wasnt just running around.
It was really serious and profound.
Bernard Rose,Candyman(1992)
It was March 1974.
I was watching TV at home.
The BBCsPlay for Todaycame on.
The music was Elgar, The Dream of Gerontius.
The film was calledPendas Fen, and was directed by Alan Clarke, written by David Rudkin.
I wont attempt a synopsis.
You should find it and watch it.
Knocked unconscious, his mind wanders to a formal garden.
We hear a repetitive chopping sound as he wanders among the topiary.
He comes to a manicured lawn with a sundial in its center.
Young girls stand around in pretty yellow dresses.
A smiling girl places her hands on the sundial.
A man with a chopper amputates her hands with one blow.
The severed hands are brushed off the sundial by the blade.
Everyone seems pleased by the ritual.
I can tell you I did not sleep that night.
Ari Aster,Hereditary(2018)
I was very young when I sawCarrie.
It has this deeply malignant sense of humor that serves to make it as disturbing as it is.
I realized that so much of that had to do with what De Palma was doing with audience sympathy.
Were in total sympathy with Carrie White, who is something of an irritating character.
She is such a victim, and the whole film we just want her to do something self-advocating.
So when Sissy Spacek finally turns and we no longer recognize her, it serves as a real betrayal.
It really took me about three years to even begin to shake it.
Those images followed me for years.
Sickly sweet piano and synth wash over the creamy pastels of 70s Fuji 400T.
Lovely daughter opens the curtains of her bedroom.
Lovely mom in a bathrobe sips tea by the living room window.
ItsRosemarys Babys mom, same Mia Farrow, older baby; her girl comes down and they hug.
Oh, domestic bliss.
Katie calls handsome dad Keir Dullea, fresh from KubricksSpace Odyssey.
They all sit down to eat.
Dad is dismissive, in a suit.
Mom and dad are a bit distant, but its a regular, everyday breakfast for our handsome family.
An apple chunk is stuck in her throat.
Mom asks off frame if shes all right.
Tries to help, pats her back.
Katie falls to the floor, dragging the tablecloth with her.
Katies eyes roll into her head.
Dad calls an ambulance.
She puts two, three fingers down Katies throat.
Katies lips are blue.
Mom takes a knife.
Gives it to dad: Make a hole!
Dad stands there, paralyzed.
Mom stands in the kitchen, eyes glazed.
Theres blood on her white T-shirt.
Shes shaking, but just a tiny bit.
Im watchingWilly Wonka and the Chocolate Factory the Gene Wilder version, not the Tim Burton one.
Despite being a horror filmmaker now, as a kid I couldnt really handle scary movies.
But Im told this is a movie for kids, and for a short time I believed it.
It starts out all shiny and bright.
But I guess I should have known better.
Mr. Slugworth is creepy as hell.
But I was naive and trusting, and oh, how wrong I was.
You get to that damn tunnel scene, and all bets are off.
I had to have been around 7 years old, and I was utterly petrified.
Looking back on it now, this scene really sets the stage graphically for ArgentosSuspiriasix years later.
(Yes, Im suggesting thatWilly Wonkamay haveinfluenced bothThe ExorcistandSuspiria.)
I dont entirely know whats going on, but Im engaged and enthralled, and I feel really weird.
Its that abstract feeling that David Lynch captures so well.
Its the best feeling in horror movies.
And its what Im perpetually seeking as a filmmaker.
During the scene, Grandpa Joe turns to Charlie and says, Its strange, Charlie … And that really sums up why I love horror movies.
Dad smiled at me, using the oldest trick in the book, but I didnt know it yet.
What is going on?
The terror that question implies is something I clumsily tried to capture with some of my earliest films.
It crystalized when I met Justin Benson and we started making what could be described as dark mysteries.
Its not the gore.
Its not the (amazing) creature FX.
Its not the flamethrower or explosions.
Thats when horror casts its strongest spell.
I was 7 years old and it was my cousins 8th birthday.
For the occasion, my aunt and uncle had rented a VHS player.
Dont look her in the eyes.
dont look her in the eyes.
This culminated in quite possibly the most impacting and terrifying breaking of the fourth wall of all time.
It was too much.
It wasnt the first horror film I had seen.
The stakes are insanely high.
The life of a child hangs in the balance.
What ensues is nothing short of pure movie magic, an emotional roller coaster.
She kisses her husband Steve goodbye (played by the equally amazing Craig T. Nelson).
They stand in profile, silhouetted in the strobing light.
The kiss is such a powerful affirmation of their unbreakable bond.
Diane finally steps through the gateway and disappears.
Carol Anne finally stirs and simply says, Hi daddy.
The impact of this scene (and this entire movie) on me cannot be overstated.
We love the Freelings and need them to get their daughter back.
I dont think anyone has been able to touch this movie on a pure, emotional-visceral level since.
I started hysterically crying and had to turn the movie off.
It was one of the more visceral reactions Ive had to a film.
Strange, I know, since I think its supposed to be funny?
I brought the tape back that same night.
It was the dog scene, right?
Yeah, a lot of people dont get past that one.
His words became a challenge.
About six months later I made it to the credits.
It has everything I love about a single horror sequence.
I was so obsessed, I basically went and made a giant fan film to the alien abduction subgenre.
It played Tribeca in 2014 and is calledExtraterrestrial.
Youll see theFire in the Skyinspiration all over it.
I saw it in my early 20s as part of a Michael Powell film festival in New York.
In it, Karl Boehm plays Mark, a serial killer who films women as he kills them.
She thinks hes talking about a fictional scene, but he isnt.
The visuals are also very striking.
Suddenly, as he lowers the paddles, his patients chest opens and eats his hands and arms!
And Norris transforms into horrible forms that twist his head and body.
Horror is really about sensations, about what the images make you feel at a very unconscious level.
I was 6, and it fucked me upgood.
I mean, Jesus.
Were in the middle of a film that, despite its edge (e.g.
Then comes the kicker: …And thats how I found out there was no Santa Claus.
This didnt just leave an imprint, more like a crater.
The Santa Claus part was one thing.
I put that on some way-back mental shelf of denial and went on trying to believe.
That intrigued me, and would later inspire me to try mixing those same things up.
I immediately loved them, and my love of the horror genre started to grow.
I was a little intimidated by the title, but I tried not to show it.
How scary could it be?
It was black-and-white so it couldnt bethatbad, right?
Honestly, from the minute the opening shot started and the score kicked in, I was totally freaked.
Then the zombie attacks Barbara!
Johnny jumps in to save the day, but gets his head bashed in!
The zombie looks up to Barbara… setting his sights on HER!
A sting from the score!
She runs and he immediately goes after her!
And all of that happens within the first seven-and-a-half minutes of the film.
Sure enough, I was completely entranced and mesmerized with the feeling the film had created for me.
The tension, indeed the body horror itself, exists simply through suggestion.
The best horror film doesnt need to show something scary.
My mum had taped a couple of films the night before.
It had a good Scottish actor in it and wasThe Wicker Man.
She came home from work and asked, Did you watch the film?
My reply was, They burnt him.
Thats why the climax is so utterly terrifying.
And when he wakes up, trapped underground in a coffin, you are totally shocked.
Youre shocked because you realize thats what happened to his girlfriend shes dead.
But you are also wondering hoping that hes going to get out.
The claustrophobia is incredibly effective.
The panic is real.
You cant end it like this movies arent supposed to do this to us.
Of course he doesnt make it out.
Its like experiencing your own death.
He brought dignity and gravitas to the part, as well as the ability to be terrifying!
For years I would think of this scene whenever I was alone in the house at night.
I dont think anything else I saw as a kid had such a lasting impact as that image.
It still gives me chills to think about it.
The only light source in the room is a TV.
In front of the TV is another person chained to a chair.
Chunk wants to communicate with the adult, but the adult makes funny noises, moaning and groaning.
He finally turns to Chunk, and you see Sloths disfigured face for the face time!
I was so scared that I turned it off, and I could only watch it the next morning.
This gave me nightmares, despite falling in love with Sloth.
Ive since dreamed of making a childrens movie one day with darker elements, and using horror movie cliches.
And I finally did.Girl With No Mouthwill be out in 2019.
To this day, every time I hear Indy shout, Shut your eyes, Marion!
I feel as though hes barking those commands at my 6-year-old self.
Neither of these things scared me, though.
I sincerely dont think Ive ever really been scared of anything before.
Okay, well … thats actually a lie.
It was the first thing in my life that created such fear deep within me.
The photo gave me such a paralyzing fright that I physically couldnt launch the book to that page.
The craziest part is that I still have never watched the film.
Even to this day, I shudder when I think of it.
But sometimes, what we see in the distance can be far more harrowing.
In Wes Cravens originalNightmare on Elm Street, theres a perfect example.
When Nancy walks around the corner, we see the body bag on the ground in the distance.
Rather, he let you witness it as a helpless spectator.
At the time, I was unaware the impact that such a class would have on my creativity.
It just seemed like an interesting way to fill my Thursday evenings.
The film revolves around a serial killer who stalks and strangles women.
At this point in the film, we as the audience know his M.O.
As they enter, the camera stops, and then begins to descend back down the stairs.
But we, as the audience, know that she is getting brutally killed inside that building.
We feel helpless, just like her.
How often have I been going about my day, unaware of things that were happening around me?
It scared me in a very unique way.
In that sense, he was scarier than any slasher villain Id ever seen.
Whoever this eyeball belonged to was so broken, so truly insane that one obviously couldnt reason with them.
Theyre going to do the very bad thing that they want to do to you, no matter what.
That scene taught me more about constructing a creepy setpiece than anything else Id seen, before or since.
Id heard stories before seeing the picture.
Did I mention she pukes?
Pazuzu wears down Father Damien Karras over the guilt of his sickly mother and the grief of her death.
Destroying what we love.
They trusted us and educated us in a way that these experiences were entertaining, frightening, but pleasant.
This is whats printed in my brain until this very day.
Everything in that scene felt so real, because it actually was!
What makes it so terrifying is the truth behind it.
And she has to watch her suffer every day, helpless.
Instead, it was induced by a childrens film.
Design aside, its their performances which makes them so scary.
They cackle like maniacs, screaming and howling as they chase down poor Dorothy.
And then, amid this fun, a face appears in the window.
Its Andrea, the ghost of another pupil from the school.
The scare is incredibly effective in its delivery, but theres something else to it.
Having that curtain pulled back inThe Exorcistwas unimaginable.
For me, however,The Exorcistwas scariest when in conversation with the Devil.
Yes, Regan claimed to be possessed by the Devil himself.
The Devil would taunt and ridicule the priests, spitting out half-truths and manipulations.
He said, Yes.
But rarelyallduring the same exorcism.
The films action unfolds masterfully by writer-director Catherine Breillat.
At the films end, the family is driving home with a heaviness in the air.
Then suddenly, the windshield is smashed by a lunatic with an ax.
The murderer kills the sister and strangles the mother.
All while the sister watches in the backseat.
When the police come to the crime scene, she insists she wasnt raped and the film ends.
Its an incredibly eerie moment, but nothing I couldnt handle.
I was too terrified to run.
When it comes down to the final confrontation between Arkin and Hepburn, our nerves are truly frayed.
And then there is a sudden image of Arkin leaping through the dark that takes your breath away.
It is one of the great jump scares in film history.
It is singular, affecting, hard-earned moments like that that made me fall in love with cinema.
Its probably the scariest PG movie Ive ever seen.
I would sit directly in front of the TV and still lean in.
(Something my mother was always telling me to stop doing.)
Watching TV was my blissful escape from my fears of my haunted apartment and the dark.
TV was supposed to be a happy place.
This film turned it into some terrifying entity that I no longer sat too close to.
Brad Elmore,The Wolfmans Hammer(2011),Boogeyman Pop(2018)
Its 1992.
EnterSilence of the Lambs.
To be sure, if she wasnt there I would have dutifully hit the STOP button on the VCR.
The scene that nearly made me tap out was the abduction of Catherine Martin by James Gumb.
And it starts out with the most unlikely of elements: Tom Petty.
Is there anything more achingly human than singing your own backing vocals?
What a wonderful way to give somebody who weve spent no time with an immediate connection to us.
We go inside the van, with Gumb huffing and grunting in shadow, set about his work.
(Thanks Mom.)
But thats a nightmarish blur.
My first horror scene that was truly formative was inAlien.
Harry Dean Stanton searching for Jonesy the cat in the loading dock.
The steady clinking of chains hanging from the ceiling.
Spaceship condensation dripping onto the brim of his hat.
I was 12 and pissing myself and that scene is why you will never see me wearing a hat.
Still the greatest use of costume design in a horror movie.
Mariama Diallo, Hair Wolf (short, 2018)
I remember I was 10 years old.
I dont know where my brother or my father were.
In this memory, it is just me, my mother, and the TV.
We were watching a black man chauffeur a car.
Even the dandy beside her shrugged culpability.
Everything turned on the chauffeur.
It was not only his responsibility; it was my own.
Already, I had an idea of how it would end.
Panic-stricken, I followed the many intervening details, each one more wrenching than the next.
To silence her, to save himself, he held a pillow to her face.
She was dead within moments.
I was bowled over by the stunning inevitability of this scene, the hopelessness of it all.
The dread that crept over me was one far greater than any ghost story.
I thought to myself, how right.
The shot is terrifying.
What I love about it is how casually it is presented, how matter-of-fact.
I still get goosebumps thinking about that scene.
Parents instill in children a fear of getting lost and the dangers that lurk.
I found it much scarier to watch this stuff alone.
Every Friday the 13th the local TV station played a horror movie marathon.
(The commando crawl was probably unnecessary but seemed vital to the subterfuge.)
It was during one of these movie marathons I first saw John CarpentersHalloween.
Cut to: theres a goat waiting to be eaten in the T. rex paddock.
I deploy my paper-towel shield, and it tears.
For whatever reason, Id forgotten that closing my eyes was an option.
I remember this being the first time I was ever afraid in the theater.
I didnt want to see the T. rex anymore.
Im proud to admit Im no longer afraid of the scene.
It was the first time I can remember being aware of the details in cinematic language that create mood.
Also came the awareness that fear doesnt have to be perpetrated by jump scares.
Fear can fill a spectator drop by drop until they float in a sea of unease.
The tourist season is over.
When they enter the hotel and walk into the sheet-covered lobby, something shifts.
The structure around them is falling away and being replaced by what?
Venice, or the facade that the city presents for its tourists, is no longer a known quantity.
RIP Nic Roeg, one of the all-time best.
It was a characters telepathic vision from Brian De PalmasThe Fury.
In the scene, teen psychic Gillian (Amy Irving) stumbles while walking up a staircase.
Her doctor (Charles Durning) quickly grabs her hand to steady her.
The virtuoso filmmaking dovetailed with the supernatural event in the story, creating an unforgettable moment.
The scene showed me the possibilities of the horror genre, and of cinema itself.
It completely captivated me.
I dont remember ever being in a POV like that before.
Then putting the mask on, I clearly remember going Whats this?
This is no good.
I dont like this.
I remember kind of seizing up.
I felt like I was in the mask and kind of claustrophobic, because I couldnt see anywhere.
It was just absolutely horrifying to me.
Carpenter made you go on that journey, and that to me is horror.
It still to this day remains utterly terrifying, utterly claustrophobic, and perfect.
The parallels were just huge for me.
Its partly because the emotional stakes are much higher at this point.
Riley Stearns,Faults(2014)
I didnt come from a household that obsessed over film.
Horror was a particularly tricky category for me to appreciate.
Most of that was me looking down on a genre that I thought I was too smart for.
(I wasnt.)
It wasnt until my early 20s that I realized I was the problem, not the genre.
One shot in particular did it for me, inRosemarys Baby.
As she gets back to the apartment, she slams the door shut and locks the men out.
She runs to her room and grabs the phone to frantically call for help.
As shes talking, she stands in the hallway.
In the background of the shot, two figures tiptoe across the frame, unseen by Rosemary.
There is no score or sting of strings.
There is no camera movement.
We dont cut to their POV or a closer angle of them.
There is nothing overtly horror about the shot.
But I hesitated to follow, and when they finally coaxed me in the images rushed back.
Suddenly Chrissies legs were my legs; her impending peril was my impending peril.
From then on, I refused to swim in natural water.
Then we run with it, and it grows like a tornado wreaking havoc over our minds.
Before we know it, were facing a life of never feeling the salt water splash against our faces.
(Quien puede matar a un nino?).
Everything in it is original and powerful, hence its incredible influence on the works of filmmakers worldwide.
Im fascinated by the mastery with which Chicho perverts all which is quotidian.
He also does this in broad daylight, turning an idyllic and bright island into the worst of hells.
It starts with a wide shot of a hallway inside a hospital.
By the way, is there a scarier building than a hospital?
And so we go back to the wide shot of the hallway, to the silence of the scene.
Like a very good sleight of hand from a great magician, the nurse turns around and BAM!
The killer is right behind her, ready to chop off her head!
But … but … we saw her end the door.
Thats my formative scare stuff.
My God, in the 80s when I was a youth it was scarier thanThe Shining.
There was one show calledWorzel Gummidgethat was about a scarecrow that comes to life.
It scared the shit out of me!
The American version of childrens television was like a motorbike that could talk.
They were doing karate like, Hey, Steve!
Lets get over here and get this guy!
Youre going to die tonight.
I would say that these were definitely the things that sent shivers down by spine.
