They’re the writers, directors and producers who have brought nightmares to life onscreen including the gaunt undead, murderous clowns, creepy dolls, damp torture chambers, and much more. But when it comes to what terrifies the filmmakers behind these killer creations, the answer might surprise you, make you laugh, or scare you to the core.
Just in time for Halloween, the staff at SSN Insider took time out of analyzing box office and development slates to sit down with the best and brightest, or should we say the most horrific and darkest, of the horror film genre to hear what scares the bejeezus out of them.
From powerhouse producer Jason Blum to Saw creator James Wan and the legendary John Carpenter, they all took the time to chat with us and answer the question: What’s the scariest moment you can remember from either film or your own life? Read below for the answers.
“I was 4 years old. I barely knew what a movie was. I went to see It Came From Outer Space in 3D. I put on the glasses. The movie began. A meteor (actually a space ship on fire) came out of the night sky and blew up right in my face. I jumped up and ran up the aisle in terror .By the time I reached the lobby I slowed down, then returned to my seat. From then on I was hooked on movies.” -John Carpenter, filmmaker of Halloween, The Fog, Escape from LA and Ghosts of Mars
"For me, the two scariest things I have ever seen in film are from two Japanese movies. The first was in the Japanese version of The Ring where Sadako (Samara in the American remake) crawled out of the television set.
The second was in the Japanese version of The Grudge where Kayako came crawling down the stairs at the end of the movie. Both of those scenes were terrifying." -Roy Lee, principal at Vertigo Entertainment with credits on The Grudge, The Ring, Oldboy and the upcoming The Woman in Black: Angel Of Death "Seeing The Blair Witch Project on the big screen after I passed on it." -Jason Blum, president of Blumhouse Productions behind the Paranormal Activity, Insidious, and Purge franchises and the just released Ouija "The scariest things ever are real. Watching 9/11 live was probably the most terrifying thing I can imagine. But the thing that I have seen that just scared me again and again and again, even thinking about it upsets me, is the documentary Man on Wire. The guy tightrope walking between the Twin Towers … I can’t even contemplate it without getting nervous shakes. And the fact that he lay down on the wire? WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT?! (laughs) That just freaks me out, so much." -Neil Marshall, Director of The Descent, Doomsday, NBC’s Constantine, and the upcoming Hellfest)
"When I was about 10 or 11, I saw the original Amityville Horror on VHS and freaked out…The thing that tormented me most was at the same time every morning in the Lutz house (3.15am), all manner of supernatural shit would go down.
So, of course if I would wake up on or around that time, I would watch my bedside clock in a state of abject terror, just waiting for something awful to happen. It got so bad I had to swap rooms with my sister because I couldn't sleep in my old room...I'm pretty sure it's not even really that scary, but I still can't watch it!" –Jennifer Kent, writer/director of The Babadook
“The very first horror movie I ever saw was Poltergeist at the age of seven and the clown-doll in that movie scarred me for life." -James Wan, filmmaker behind the Saw and Insidious franchise and director of the upcoming Furious 7
"There is nothing scarier than real life and I've had to read a lot about serial killers in my research for writing scripts and most of what I've read over the years about real cases would not be believable if anyone put it in a movie. It's so beyond anything you can imagine, and sometimes even the most hardcore movies you see are in fact a very soft version of how twisted the human mind can be. Sometimes you regret reading all of that because those stories stay in your mind." -Alexandre Aja, writer/director of The Hills Have Eyes, Piranha 3-D and director of the upcoming Horns
"I would go to three different points of my life. When I was young, the scariest thing I ever saw were the flying monkeys in the Wizard of Oz. That terrified me. It was utterly terrifying to me. Then, when I was a teenager, it was The Exorcist. That was profoundly disturbing on many levels.
And as an adult, I don’t know why, but … (laughs) The Blair Witch Project still scares me. There’s something about the reality and how they sell it, I fall for the found footage and the whole ethos of it somehow. I used to go camping when I was a kid, and maybe it’s just playing on our own fears, but there’s something about the woods, and getting lost … I don’t know. I’m not easily frightened, but those films somehow have a grip on me." -Dan Gilroy, writer on The Bourne Legacy and director/writer of the upcoming Nightcrawler
The scariest thing I ever saw was Ben Gardner’s decapitated head bursting through the hole in the boat in Jaws. When I found myself screaming along with the rest of the audience, and then chuckling together as a tension-breaker, I knew that I had found my calling. - Don Mancini, creator of Chucky and writer of the Child's Play series