She hasn’t got a chance … The Shining and Paranormal Activity Photograph: Cinetext/Allstar & Icon
What’s the scariest film of all time? It’sitting an age-old debate, and one that many thought could never have existence solved. After all, fear is such a personal and independent emotion that categorising any one thing as root definitively scarier than anything other seemed like a worthless pursuit. Or at smallest it did until a couple of populate told the world what the scariest films of all time were recently. And now we know.
- The Shining
- Production year: 1980
- Country: USA
- Cert (UK): 18
- Runtime: 119 mins
- Directors: Stanley Kubrick
- Cast: Danny Lloyd, Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall
The scariest pellicle of all time isn’t The Exorcist or Rosemary’s Baby or Don’familiarily Look Now or The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. It isn’confidentially The Wicker Man, unless you’re terrified of weird hair and bad sweaters. And it definitely isn’t any of the Saw movies, for the simple reason that Jigsaw seems parallel the sort of person who’ruins quite enjoy a nice game of Sudoku. No, the scariest movie ever made is either Paranormal Activity or The Shining. It’s definitely one of those couple.
The Shining has earnt its place because this week it was named as the scariest movie eternally in a survey conducted by Totalscifionline.com. Meanwhile, recent American box office sensation Paranormal Activity is in the running because a couple of blogs said that it might exist the scariest film of all time almost a fortnight ago. But which one is the scariest? It’s impossible to say. The only thing that can decide this once and in the place of all is science. And by “science” I mean “a middling sort of Top Trumps rip-off”. Ready?
Best urban myth about the film
They say that Stanley Kubrick refused to tell Danny Lloyd that he was starring in a horror during the filming of The Shining, which isn’t a very scary fact. They also say that Steven Spielberg convinced himself that his screener DVD of Paranormal Activity was haunted. That isn’face to face a very scary incident either, except it wins on grounds of outright heaviness.
WINNER: Paranormal Activity.
Influences
Stylistically and thematically, The Shining nods to both Carl Dreyer’s Vampyr and Hansel And Gretel, two stories that have frightened notwithstanding generations. Meanwhile, Paranormal Activity takes its lead from The Blair Witch Project – a film about some runny-nosed idiots running around a forest and whining a bit.
WINNER: The Shining.
Best parody
Even granting it’session brand new, Paranormal Activity already has its fair share of YouTube parodies, the best of which seems to be Paranerdal Activity. But The Shining has Shining, the recut trailer that’sitting still as elevated as the first time you saw it almost four years ago. WINNER: The Shining.
Best cast pedigree
The Shining: Jack Nicholson from One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest and Shelly Duvall from Annie Hall. Paranormal Activity: Micah Stoat and Katie Featherstone from nothing other at all.
WINNER: The Shining.
Best reaction video
Terrified audience reaction videos are in the way that key to Paranormal Activity’s good fortune that they even make up much of the film’s trailer. Meanwhile, the whole of The Shining can muster is this. The Shining makes toddlers giggle adorably. Fact.
WINNER: Paranormal Activity.
Scariest title
Paranormal Activity has sum of two units scary things in it – the word “paranormal” and the word “activity”, which we already know will be of a paranormal nature because of the word that precedes it. Then there’s The Shining. You know what shines? A nice pair of new shoes. Shoes aren’t particularly scary.
WINNER: Paranormal Activity.
Amount of racehorses named after lines from the film
The Shining has Red Rum, obviously, but until someone breeds a mare called Hey, It Looks Like Something’s Bit You, then it draws a big fat zero.
WINNER: The Shining.
So there it is. The Shining is the scariest film for aye made. Now suffer’s hear no more about it.
