Your comments about The Messengers are funny to me because I had a full out argument with one of my co-workers about how much that film disappointed me. She kept trying to tell me why it was a good film and I kept pointing out all the reasons it wasn't.
Anyway... I'm pretty picky when it comes to horror. I need some kind of psychological aspect to my horror in order for me to really get freaked out by it, and I prefer if it starts off kind of just with one or two things going wrong... like 1408 was very freaky to me for this reason, even if I think the film took it a little too far. It's all about knowing when is too far and when is just enough. I can't stand gore for that reason because most of the time they just try to go to the extreme instead of actually thinking about impact or presentation. Then it just becomes "how can we gross you out" instead of "how can we really get under your skin". I really think that presentation is important.
I can't really point to one film or what have you that scared me, but the original Haunting probably got me the most, then there are aspects of Ju-On and even to a lesser extent The Grudge... but I think Ju-On had it better because they used more psychological themes about what happened in the house and the anger of the ghost of the father. Tome also has it's moments for me... but I think Japanese horror is more freaky to me because they don't rely so much on gore.
I totally think video games and stories are way more scarier than films though, because you are more actively engaged in the first two. My all time best "this scared the shit out of me" is Silent Hill 3... I don't know something about that game just really, really messed with my head. I can't even pinpoint what it is, the whole thing is just... freaky. It might be because you get more into the cult... or maybe that was just me because I played SH4 before I sat down and played SH3 and I loved Walter so much that I really started looking into the series and discovered all the things the cult believed and did (the main reason for me that movie FAILED >[) and then the little bit of what I have seen of the Fatal Frame games... Gawd. >.
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Anyway... I'm pretty picky when it comes to horror. I need some kind of psychological aspect to my horror in order for me to really get freaked out by it, and I prefer if it starts off kind of just with one or two things going wrong... like 1408 was very freaky to me for this reason, even if I think the film took it a little too far. It's all about knowing when is too far and when is just enough. I can't stand gore for that reason because most of the time they just try to go to the extreme instead of actually thinking about impact or presentation. Then it just becomes "how can we gross you out" instead of "how can we really get under your skin". I really think that presentation is important.
I can't really point to one film or what have you that scared me, but the original Haunting probably got me the most, then there are aspects of Ju-On and even to a lesser extent The Grudge... but I think Ju-On had it better because they used more psychological themes about what happened in the house and the anger of the ghost of the father. Tome also has it's moments for me... but I think Japanese horror is more freaky to me because they don't rely so much on gore.
I totally think video games and stories are way more scarier than films though, because you are more actively engaged in the first two. My all time best "this scared the shit out of me" is Silent Hill 3... I don't know something about that game just really, really messed with my head. I can't even pinpoint what it is, the whole thing is just... freaky. It might be because you get more into the cult... or maybe that was just me because I played SH4 before I sat down and played SH3 and I loved Walter so much that I really started looking into the series and discovered all the things the cult believed and did (the main reason for me that movie FAILED >[) and then the little bit of what I have seen of the Fatal Frame games... Gawd. >.