Many people love watching horror movies, although these days I often find them amusing because of the idiocy of the events and the characters. However, there are still films that genuinely scare me.
Today, I found myself thinking about which horror films scared me the most—those that truly frightened me, even if they weren’t necessarily made with that intention. I quickly remembered three such movies, but the top one became clear almost immediately, with a huge lead. But let me start with the “weaker” ones, if you can say that.
In third grade, some classmates and I went to the cinema to watch a new sci-fi film — the 1987 Polish-Soviet production The Curse of the Snakes Valley. I think we even skipped a class or two for it. Technically, it’s an adventure movie with some science fiction elements, but I clearly remember how terrified we were when this beauty showed up on screen. One of the kids even crawled under his seat in panic:
The process itself was truly terrifying. Sure, today I’d probably just laugh it off — but back then, it left a serious impression.
The next example comes from a completely different genre. The Soviet documentary Triumph Over Violence (Obyknovennyy fashizm) is essentially a compilation of archival footage from Nazi Germany and their crimes. I was around 10 or 12 when I saw it on TV. My parents didn’t send me out of the room, and I just kept watching. I was scared, and at some point, everything I saw overwhelmed me so much that I lost consciousness. Even now, I believe that despite its somewhat pretentious narration (which I view a bit differently after rewatching it as an adult), this is one of the greatest films ever made. And it’s something everyone must watch — to remember what real fascism is and what we must never allow to happen again:
But the scariest film for me — and probably always will be — is a fantasy movie that, surprisingly, is technically considered a children’s film. It was even shown regularly in Soviet pioneer camps. I’m talking about The Story of Voyages (Skazka stranstviy), a 1983 co-production between the USSR, Czechoslovakia, and Romania. Despite the international collaboration, the cast was mostly made up of well-known Soviet actors — Andrey Mironov, Lev Durov, Vladimir Basov, Veniamin Smekhov, and others.
In fact, it was in a pioneer camp where I watched it for the first time. And it left such a deep impression on me that I still remember that screening vividly. The second time I came across it was on TV at my grandmother’s house. I didn’t just turn off the television — I physically left the room. That old fear was still so strong.
The entire film is shot in completely un-fairytale-like settings. It’s all the grimy reality of the Middle Ages. And it opens with a deeply unsettling scene — a young girl’s little brother is kidnapped by strangers. That alone terrified me as a child, and now, as a father, I understand that fear even more viscerally — the fear of losing a child.
But it only gets worse from there. In her search for her brother, the girl finds a companion, played by Andrey Mironov. Together, they travel the world for years, desperately searching. At one point, they arrive in a city ravaged by the plague — a not-so-uncommon fate in medieval times. But the way that scene was shot… it didn’t just leave me shocked — it filled me, as a child, with a quiet, creeping horror.
And the film doesn’t end on a cheerful note, either.
This movie is firmly number one on my list of scariest films of all time. No horror movie has ever topped it. And even now, at 45 years old, I still can’t bring myself to rewatch it. The childhood impressions are just too strong.
P.S. What films are the scariest for you?
