upon first watching, "the exorcist" was definitely terrifying however "nightmare on elm street" used to give me nightmares at night. then again so did ursula from "the little mermaid" (she steals voices!)

E.C. Henry's scariest movies of all-time:

1. "Halloween" (1978): The image of Michael Myers' white masked in the background does it to me. Best horror cinematography EVER! How close is he? Is she safe? Ut-oh, where'd he go? She isn't safe anymore...

2. "The Amutyville Horror" (1979): The image of the doll's eyes red gave me one of the worst nightmares I have had as a kid. Acually dreampt that doll was in in my room, telling me it was going to kill my family -- or something like that.

3. "28 Days Later" (2002): Red eyed infected really got under my skin. Had several hybrid nightmares off this movie. VERY scary.

4. "Jaws" (1975): Who can't go swimming -- even in a public lake without hearing that haunting music...

5. "Hellraiser" (1987): Whenever Pin head and crew showed up in this movie, I got squamish. Good idea NEVER to run into him or any of his posse.

- E.C. Henry from Bonney Lake, WA

I know King hated it, but Kubrick's "The Shining" always gives me a deep chill. I love how Kubrick takes his time in letting the audience settle in and establishing how isolated the characters are.

That, and there's this Japanese movie called "Uzumaki" that's so viscerally disturbing it burrows into your brain and lays eggs.

"Phantasm" blew my mind wide open when I first saw it around age 12 or so. A tall man stalking a mausoleum? Killer Jawas? A silver sphere that grew spikes, embedded itself in your skull, gored a hole in your forehead, and drained all your brain juice?!

UZUMAKI is amazing, kgmadman! Death by spiral-obsession?!?! What?!?!

Anyone else think it's weird that the Ed Gein murders spawned some of the most frightening classic horror films that we judge all modern horror films by?

Two of the thirteen in Friedkin's list were based on them. Texas Chainsaw Massacre being the other.