The "recommend a scary movie" for Halloween thread

[--Pete]

Hi,

My recommendation goes out to something more suspense then horror, The Shining. . . . I might be wrong, but I think Pete should like the movie also.:)

Oh, my. Technically, it was a great movie, but I've only seen it once, didn't like it (to put it mildly) and never wanted to watch it again. I'd be hard pressed to say just what it is about that movie, but it punched all the wrong buttons for me (ghosts, madness, isolation) and it punched some of them in just too intense a manner. Largely, I get irritated when I feel that I'm being manipulated, and The Shining, like much of Stephen King, is just too blatantly manipulative.

I don't know if I can explain that, but it lies with the difference between an author (or director) telling a story with the result that I get scared and them telling a story to scare me. Somehow, some stories feel forced and to those I react with irritation bordering on anger. The Shining, along with all Steven King's books and movies made from his books (except for Salem's Lot which I enjoyed in both forms) rank way up there in obvious manipulation. So, they rank waaaaay down there in my personal list of favorites.

Obligatory link: the ending of A Clockwork Orange is perhaps the scariest (in a disturbing way) movie experiences ever (at least for me).

--Pete