The Top 5 Scariest Movies of All Time

Any list of the top 5 scariest movies of all time is bound to be controversial. What frightens me may make you laugh. One person may prefer blood and gore in their horror film while another appreciates atmosphere and letting your own mind do part of the work. Generally, however, there do seem to be a handful of movies that invariably show up near the top of almost every list of the scariest movies: Psycho, The Exorcist, The Shining, Jaws, etc. Will any of those make this latest addition to the time-honored tradition of quantifying frights? We'll see.

5. The Exorcist.

To be completely honest I don't really view The Exorcist as all that scary. It is incredibly well-made and contains scenes of horror that are impossible to forget, but I was able to watch this movie for the first time all alone in a dark house when I was barely a teenager. The Exorcist at times has the feeling of a horror parody towards the end when it kicks into special effects overdrive. Actually, the scariest scene in the movie to me is when Regan begins talking to Father Karras in the voice of his mother. The film tends to go over the top after brilliantly establishing an atmosphere of horror that didn't rely on special effects. As an example: Regan coming downstairs, threatening the astronaut's life and urinating has remained in my memory far more than anything that takes place once Max Von Sydow arrives. Overall, The Exorcist just isn't quite fright-inducing enough to qualify as the scariest movie of all time.

4. The Ring.