Chris, your right. I had forgotten that Andalusian Dog was shown first that evening. I'm going back close to 30 years ago. The other thing that made the scene so unsettling was the scalpel cutting the eye was cut with a shot of clouds passing in front of a full moon, then back to the eye. I saw the B & W version, probably on 16mm. Thanks for helping me remember a little of my youth.

Jeff

Thanks Jeff, I had completely forgotten about the clouds passing in front of the moon... definitely sets the stage for the gruesome scene which follows. I have a copy somewhere on VHS, sometime maybe I'll work up the nerve to see it again.

The Haunting
 

The original version of The Haunting remains the single most frightening experience for me. I got to interview the director Robert Wise a few years ago and I was surprised to learn that he was surprised at well it turned out. Sometimes all the planets just line up. The remake was simply awful.

The slicing of the eye is certainly one of my greatest shocks sitting in a theatre, along with the infamous shower scene, I saw the Dali/Bunuel short on a co-bill with Psycho in college (what a night).

Here's my list:

1) The Haunting (1964)
2) The Innocence (1963)
3) Alien (1979)*
4) The Terminator (1984)*
5) Psycho (1960)

*movie theatre

Correction
 

That's actually The Innocents from 1961. It starred Deborah Kerr and was directed by Jack Clayton. If you loved the original The Haunting, you'll love The Innocents.

I mentioned this thread to my colleagues working the Canon booth here at WEVA in Las Vegas. My very good friend Jon Sagud said that the scariest movie he saw in a theatre as a kid was George Pal's "War Of The Worlds." Early on when the preacher gets vaporized, you knew all bets were off and this was serious. I had the same reaction when I saw "Panic In The Year Zero" with Ray Milland. Kid stuff, but when you see it as a kid, that's when it really counts.

Un Chien Andalou was great, I think the eye they used was actually a cow's eye, I lent my Bunuel book to a friend but I'm pretty sure it was a cow they used. Found my copy of L'age d'or, now if I could only find the other tape. Anybody read the book by Bunuel, My Last Sigh. Great stuff.

old one
 

My scariest was Deer Hunter. man that was one scary movie. not the horror type of movie though.
12ed

"Hush, Hush Sweet Charlotte". I was about 6 years old and my sisters were babysitting while my parents were out. I could here that they were watching a movie in the living room while I was supposed to be sleeping, fat chance. They finally gave in to my incessant whining, I wish they hadn't! Woa! I wasn't ready for that flick. New meaning to "Betty Davis Eyes".

Woohoo, good one Eric, this one can be found occasionally on Turner Classic Movies. Sweet Charlotte is a really bizarre, totally wierd southern-style experience. Not a horror movie but, eh, definitely disconcerting.

I'll throw in another, a cheesy made-for-TV-in-the-70's that got my goat when I was about ten or eleven years old or so: "Bad Ronald" -- see http://home1.gte.net/res0a2u7/reelreviews/reviews/badronald.htm -- this is a great website by the way.

I went to see "The Kid Stays in the Picture" today, and I was reminded of the film that probably got to me the most back in film school (when I thought I couldn't be scared by anything). Rosemary's Baby scared the crap out of me, I think because the satanists win. But for pure creepy, twisted, strangeness, Polanski's earlier "Repulsion" takes the cake. Catherine Deneuve as a sexually-confused shut-in paranoic. Do a double feature with his little seen "The Tenant" and you'll probably not want to be spending much time around the house for awhile.

Barry

The original Diabolique where the guy sits up in the bathtub after being supposedly drownd. Fantastic. The whole theater in Santa Barbara, filled with college students like me, freaked. Just a few years ago. :-)

Not scary
 

Definitely wasn't "Salem's Lot"- that movied sucked. (but not as bad as, "Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things")

Scary
 

I don't agree that Salem's Lot sucked. In fact, the scene in the kitchen was a real shocker for me. There is a European version that's even darker but I think the TV version, directed by Tobe Hooper. was well down (so does Stephen King).

Make that "well done" not "welll down". Its early here...

What about the last shot in "Invasion of the body snatchers" where Donald Sutherland points and screams..?

This was one of the scariest moments I have ever seen on screen.

The scariest movie overall I have seen was Halloween. Home alone at the age of 15 at 11pm it scared me shitless.

Cheers, Peter