The Sixth Sense with Bruce Willis.

The Shining with Jack Nicholson

The Thing. The 1982 John Carpenter version.

Jodi-

The black & white "The Haunting (1963 film)". The later remake was a piece of junk. "The original has consistently made lists of the top 20 most frightening films of all time."
Clare

When I was a child it was The Blob.
As a adult, Psycho, Poltergeist and Sixth Sense.

Sorry, couldn't pick just one.

The first version of "The Haunting of Hill House" with a young Roddy McDowell.

When I was in high school, 3 of us went to see The Exorcist.
One of my friends sat through most of the show with her coat over her head. She was terrified!

But I also remember the television movie...Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte. I was a kid and I had a girlfriend over for the nite. When the actress stepped on the hand that was laying on the stairs, the hydro suddenly went out! We ran out of the house screaming at te top of our lungs. I always equate that movie with one of my scariest.

Blair Witch Project

Two old Black and White movies:The Haunting (1963) and The Uninvited (1943). Both are powerful ghost stories, no gore at all.

War of the Worlds, the old version from the 50's. Scared me so much as a kid, I don't think I could even watch it now.

The old version of the Blobmade a lasting impression on me and so did "The Night of the Living Dead "

Here is a link that might be useful: night of the living dead

Another vote for "The Sixth Sense."

aptosca, I agree. The original "The Haunting" is my #1 pick. I can still remember the night I saw the movie and how darned scared I was.

I'm with several of you on this. The original Haunting was wonderfully scary and almost as good as the book.

When I was younger, The Blob was a great favorite and I still watch it everytime it comes on. I am a Steve McQueen fan and even named one of my cats after him!

But for me the scariest, peek-between-my-fingers, feet-tucked-up-under-me-on-the-sofa, movie of all time is the first Alien movie. It still scares me.

Kate

jasdip, I read the book The Exorcist when it first came out and I was terrified. I read half of it, nervously went to bed, and finished the book the next morning. I had one young son and I kept thinking that that could happen to him. LOL

Just saw Halloween (with a very young Jamie Lee Curtis) again and found myself laughing! It scared the dickens out of me in 1978, when it came out, because I was just at the age of those baby-sitting girls. But it is really a very badly made horror film, compared to today's standards. The all-time horror film for me is Black Christmas. Does anyone remember that one? I haven't seen it in years--no doubt it's badly made, too--but it sure was frightening. About a woman's college house where the psycho killer is actually in the attic and calling the girls downstairs. Honestly, I don't even remember the plot.

Sixth Sense and the original Psycho.
Don't watch most of the new stuff, too violent.
JoanMN

When a Stranger Calls.

I can be just as scared watching it every time, as I was the first.

Just thought of another one ... Rear Window. Made me a nervous wreck the first time I watched it.

Jodi-

The Shining....(shudder)

The Tingler, in B&W with Vincent Price, made about 1960. It (and he) creeped me out big time!

Not really scary, except when I first saw it as a boy, but I have the original King Kong on DVD.
"Yeah, blondes ARE scarce around here."

I hate horror movies but I love the ones that mess with your mind. I enjoy: The 6th Sense, The Village, Dead Again.

Salem's Lot with David Soul far better than the remake IMHO
Still scary

I don't watch scary movies--I end up just laughing at the ridiculous plots and unbelievable (and unscary) special effects.

Although, if I had to vote, it would probably be the one (which some of you have mentioned) that was written by a classmate of my husband. The author used my husband's name for one of her characters (obviously, I'm not telling you which movie it is, now), and killed him off grusomely. Probably the result of him not realizing she had a crush on him in high school--he only learned that years later