A friend just asked me what the scariest horror movie was and I couldn't think of one so I decided to ask here.
Please don't move this to the VIP section.

What one person finds scary, may not be to the other. This is a totally subjective question which your friend must answer for him/her self.

The gold medal for the scariest movie I've seen would probably go to Audition. The Japanese know how to do horror.

Event Horizon certainly cured me of any desire to go into space, but to be fair, I was 8 when I saw it.

Oh, and the soundtracks to Company of Wolves and the Shining give me the willies.

Audition was a very disturbing movie and very well done.

I personally like movies that I feel can happen such as Last House on the Left, The Strangers, and the French film, Inside.

However, while not a horror movie, but a documentary, I will have to say that Jesus Camp scared the Hell outta me!

John Carpenter's The Thing disturbed me in some deep way. I was uncomfortable and off balance for a few hours after it ended.

I watched lots of horror movies which I really enjoyed but I didn't find them particularly scary, except one, "The Fly" by David Cronenberg. It was so horrible that I couldn't sleep the whole night and so disgusting that I could hardly eat anything the next day.

Probably because I watched it at the theatrical premiere in Oslo, Norway, while I was very young and impressionable (15), but also because I smoked a good deal of pot at the time, John Carpenter's "Halloween" scared me profoundly. The next thing that made me really jump was "Hellraiser". That didn't even make any sense -- as far as realism goes (whereas the homicidal lunatic from "Halloween" could actually happen in real life, right around where you live, although it's unlikely) -- but the sadism and inhumane characters from wherever the fuck they came from kept me mesmerized much like the gaze of a snake is supposed to do. Only this time it wasn't fear, it was attraction. I felt kinship with the fuckers.

In recent times the only horror movies that have impressed me was, respectively, "Ringu" (The Ring) and Saw. Saw was fucking awesome, man. Perhaps mostly because I didn't really see how any "horror" type of movie could surprise me any more. Nowadays I mostly watch twisted cineographic types of displays, such as "Black Kiss", for their aesthetic value, like a pungent scent of ripe roses in a warm afternoon breeze. I havent felt fear for many years. I kind of miss it.

"Cure" by Kiyoshi Kurosawa is real masterpiece of uncomfortable dread. It's the last movie, and only movie I've seen as an adult, that has really scared me. Event Horizon also did it for me when I was a kid.

Nosferatu and Psycho were both frightening for their times but pop culture may have diluted them to the point they're not even considered horror anymore. Still I would love to see their effects on an untainted viewer who watches them alone in the dark. Alien is also quickly losing its raw horror to cultural familiarity, but again should scare the shit out of anyone who doesn't know what's coming.

Darabont's "The Mist" isn't the scariest horror movie but it may be the most effective and traumatic to watch in recent history, I'd put it on par with Audition.

Why not? We have a whole movie section for the purpose of talking about movies.

As for my answer, I'm not going to fudge this question by saying "Well it's a matter of opinion", blah blah blah. I do however believe that to truly give a good scare, you have to connect with the viewer on some personal, subjective level. That's when it's most effective. I've watched some horror movies that truly gave me a great scare while it didn't do a thing for other people, and vice-versa. For example, I saw Texas Chainsaw Massacre as a kid and wasn't really phased. Ditto for The Hills Have Eyes. But seeing Poltergeist in the theaters sure scared the crap out of me.

The brutal realism of HENRY: PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER was very chilling to me when I first saw it as a kid.

Also, when I saw the scene with the dog in THE THING, it may be the only time I remember looking away.

And it's TV, but many episodes of The Twilight Zone also have a genuinely creepy vibe, even today.

I agree with you. Even seeing it now gives me the creeps. It has that realistic feeling to it.

I agree with Delta on the potential of Alien. When I first saw it I was creeped out.

Another movie that really gave me chills when I first saw it was Fire in the Sky. Not the kind of "oh shit I just jumped" scared, but the "Looking around to see if there are any ali-OH GOD A SHADOW!" scared.

A more recent film that had the same effect on me, albeit on a less intense level, was The Fourth Kind.

Guess what I'm afraid of.

The Others, with Nicole Kidman. It gave me the willies. And the Asian, original version of The Eye. I got whiplash from looking behind me so many times watching that thing.

When I was a kid I really got scared by The Shining.

It's still one of my favourite films

I don't find many horror movies to be too scary.

Event Horizon was definitely on my list as well, though. Gave me the willies big time, and some scenes still do.

The Descent provided some very creepy claustrophobia.

The Mothman Prophecies creeps the hell out of me.