I think I enjoyed them as a teen--heaven knows we went to enough of them at the Drive-In.

My daughter loves them, but I just don't enjoy them anymore. I have a hard enough time sleeping without that stuff in my head.

But I thought it would be fun to hear about your all-time scariest.

My Top Three:

1. The Entity

Went with my cute husband and college roomate. Us two girls probably screamed 4 or 5 times just walking to the car, plastered to my poor husband for comfort.

2. The Shining

Another film I saw in college. It took me a long time to see Jack Nicholson as anything but that crazy Innkeeper.

3. The Exorcist III

I was a little older when I saw it, but I thought it was scarier by far than the first one.

Honorable Mention

Blue Velvet

I will never get over being creeped out and terrified by Dennis Hopper. I can't even watch him on a talk show.

Poltergeist~ I was not prepared for that.

Night of the Living Dead~ Daughter with cement trowel. Nuff said.

Silence of The Lambs~ I can't watch Monk without thinking that Capt. Stottlemeier is Buffalo Bill.

Sixth Sense~ Some of the visuals creeped me out the second time, even when I knew they were coming.

Poltergeist was scary at the time. But I kind of look at it as campy now (maybe because of the sequels)

Creature from the Black Lagoon. Doesn't scare me now, but it scared the hell out of me when I was about 5. Some stupid babysitter (probably my aunt) let me watch it while the folks were out. At 44, I STILL remember being terrified.

Deliverance. No, not that part. The repeated vision that Ronnie Cox has of the hand slowly rising to the surface of the brackish water still haunts me when I swim in a lake.

Ghost Story. Really captured the creepiness of the book.

I notice all three have to do with water...wonder what that means.

Pointed that out to my wife and she couldn't believe it was the same guy. Glad to see Hollywood didn't condemn him to only playing psychopaths, but after the "hide the weiner" dance, it's pretty hard to see him any other way.

"It puts the lotion on its skin or else it gets the hose again."

Yeeek.

Ted Levine. Another fine Chicagoan!

I agree that "The Shining" was quite scary. But even earlier was another psychological thriller, "Repulsion," by good old Roman Polanski.

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Especially scary was the part where the main character imagines hands are reaching out from the hallway walls to grab her.

I also thought "Aguirre: The Wrath of God" was scary. (I think I scare easily.)

And, although you didn't ask, I think "The Monkey's Paw" by W W Jacobs was the scariest short story I ever read.

You reminded me of something

I watched the original "Little Shop of Horrors" once when I was maybe 7 or 8 on late night TV.

It took me thirty years to get over that "Feed ME" terror. And that movie wasn't even supposed to be scary.

was pretty scary.

One of my scariest books as a Kid (warning: Utah Centric) was Jay's Journal. It was billed as a true story--the real journal--of a Mormon kid who got caught up in Devil Worship.

Now after 35 viewings not so much but man that first time was scary as hell.

I hate them, but I base that completely on the ones that I've seen that have scared (and continue to scare) the sh*t out of me!

1. The Exorcist. Still can't think about it.

2. The Shining. I cannot believe I finished it. I think I was awake for three days afterward.

3. Silence of the Lambs. Girl in the pit, 'nuff said.

3 1/2. Halloween. But I left when it got really scary.

Saw The Birds as a kid too. I think I wet my pants when they came down the chimney

(Note to parents: leaving your younger children in the care of their 13 year old sibling when there are scary movies on Friday nights--not such a great idea)

A few of my scary or macabre notables:

The Changeling

Freaks

The Haunting

The Legend Of Hell House

Dead Of Night

Solaris (1972)

Inland Empire

Burnt Offerings

Psycho (1960)

The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living And Became Mixed-up Zombies

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(SPOILER ALERT. The scene I really remember isn't in that clip, though, but the one that is was sure heart-in-throat: blind Audrey Hepburn, home alone, has re-gained the upper hand on the intruder by removing -- she thinks -- all the light bulbs throughout the basement apartment . . . until . . . he fumbles into and opens the refrigerator that of course contains . . . guess what.)

Another thing we have in common.

Here is something to scare you tonight: I am off to a Halloween party taking some Pumpkin-infused Vodka that I did last night for the first time.

Wish me luck on not killing the host and her guests!