What scares the people who make a living from scaring us? At the annual Fantastic Fest film festival in Austin, Texas, Polygon talked to a lot of horror directors about their new movies, so we took the opportunity to ask them about their own experiences with scary films.
When we asked a different group of directors the same question in 2023, they mostly focused on formative childhood scares. So this year, we specifically asked every horror director we spoke to, “What’s the most frightened you’ve been watching a horror movie as an adult?” Here are the movies that got into their heads and under their skins.
Bryan Bertino (The Strangers)
Bryan Bertino is the writer-director of the original 2008 version of The Strangers, as well as The Dark and the Wicked, The Monster, Mockingbird, and the 2025 movie Vicious.
I do not get scared very easily, but As Above, So Below — that was a great found-footage movie. I mean, tremendous. I love found-footage. There were two or three shots where they caught something with the camera and I jumped. It truly gave me that feeling I’m constantly trying to give audience members — they got me 100 percent.
Where to watch: As Above, So Below is available on rental platforms.
Alex Ross Perry (V/H/S Halloween)
Alex Ross Perry is a writer-director known more for emotional dramas (Queen of Earth), music videos and movies about musicians (Pavements), and combining all the above (Her Smell) than for horror. He joins the dark side with V/H/S Halloween’s “Kidprint.”
Do you know the movie Der Fan, about a teenage girl who’s obsessed with a pop star? It’s like a 10-out-of-10 masterpiece. But to even explain why it’s a horror movie would be to give away what happens in it. The first time I saw it, it was in a big old puffy VHS box from a video store. I was twenty-something, and it just felt illegal. I’d never heard of it, but there was a piece of paper taped to the back of the box saying, “Don’t read the description, it gives away what happens.” So I was like, This must be great.
And it’s become a real favorite. I feel like it’s still an unheralded film, but the places it goes… It’s completely grounded in reality, but it’s so extreme that I feel like, to this day, movies like Red Rooms are still doing 3-out-of-10 versions of what this movie does. It is just the real deal for me. And I was like, I can’t believe you’re allowed to watch this movie.
Where to watch: Der Fan is available on Blu-ray.
Scott Derrickson and C. Robert Cargill (The Black Phone 2)
Scott Derrickson and C. Robert Cargill are longtime horror partners, working together on Sinister and Sinister 2, The Black Phone and Black Phone 2, and Doctor Strange.
Scott Derrickson: The most frightened I have been watching a horror movie as an adult was the old-hag sequence in A Tale of Two Sisters. I watched it alone in the dark in my apartment. It’s the only time I actually reached for the remote and tapped out. I was so “Fuck oh fuck oh fuck!” that I was climbing up the couch. I got so scared, I paused the movie. I was like, I can’t believe I just did that, but this is so scary. That scene really got to me.
Polygon: Did you finish watching the movie, though?
Derrickson: Oh yeah, of course.
C. Robert Cargill: I don’t really have one per se, because I don’t get scared watching horror movies. But the most scared I’ve been as an adult as a result of a horror movie was the first time I watched Hell House LLC.
Derrickson: Oh, that’s actually up there. You turned me onto that one.
Cargill: Yeah, I’ll get to that! I watched it and then I got up and I’m like, I need to get a drink. And I walk into my living room, and the lights are off, and I’m just seeing shadows everywhere. I’m like, Nope, nope, nope, nope, nope. And a few months later, Scott texted me in the middle of the night, like, “What’s the scariest movie I haven’t watched?” I said, “Hell House LLC.” He goes, “Popping it in now.”
Derrickson: And I watched it, and actually, I lied. That’s the other time I tapped out. I was sitting outside on the patio. It was Kevin Sorbo’s rental house, because my house had burned down. I rented this house from Kevin Sorbo of all people, and I was on the back patio watching it on my computer, and the wind started blowing, and I got so fucking scared, I just eventually was like, “I can’t finish this movie. There’s no way.” And I just packed it in. Great movie.
Cargill: Yeah!
Where to watch: A Tale of Two Sisters is streaming on AMC Plus; Hell House LLC is streaming on Shudder.
Anna Zlokovic (V/H/S Halloween)
Anna Zlokovic is the director of Appendage and the V/H/S Halloween segment “Coochie Coochie Coo.”
David Lynch’s Eraserhead. I saw it in college. It gave me this deeply unsettled feeling, and I was like, Wow, I’ve never felt this way before. A week later, I was still feeling strange and horrified and What the heck, man? I was like 19. Now I’m like [giggles gleefully] about it, but at the time, I was very disturbed. I didn’t know movies could make you feel that way. I do still find that movie disturbing.
Where to watch: Eraserhead is streaming on HBO Max.
Casper Kelly (V/H/S Halloween)
Casper Kelly is the director of Too Many Cooks, The Fireplace, and the particularly memorable V/H/S Halloween segment “Fun Size.” He’s also the creator of the TV series Your Pretty Face Is Going to Hell.
Mine’s kind of basic, but I watched Paranormal Activity at night by myself, while living alone. I liked the film, but then I was having a hard time going into my bedroom. I’m like, Are you serious, dude? The snobby part of my brain was like, Dude. Why are you scared? But I was scared.
Where to watch: Paranormal Activity is streaming on Paramount Plus and for free with a library card on Kanopy and Hoopla.
Jalmari Helander (Sisu)
Jalmari Helander is the writer-director of Sisu, the 2025 sequel Sisu: The Road to Revenge, and Big Game.
It was when I was watching the first Scream. When Drew Barrymore died at the beginning — I was in a theater thinking, Oh, this is something where now I don’t know what to expect anymore. They broke the rules, so that’s something I remember.
Has that stuck with you as a filmmaker, that idea of how much mileage you can get out of breaking rules?
I always try to do something different, so probably.
Where to watch: Scream is streaming for free with ads on Pluto TV.
Ryan Prows (Lowlife)
Ryan Prows is the director of Lowlife and the upcoming horror/crime drama Night Patrol.
I went to the theater for the American version of The Ring, because I love mysteries and that kind of tone. But when everything clicks by the end of the movie, when she’s in the actual well, I literally remember the hair standing up on my arms. I was like [comically prim voice] “Oh my goodness!” So that got me. I also suspect the theater cranked the AC to give us all chills.
Where to watch: The Ring is streaming on Peacock.
Martín Mauregui (Pickpockets)
Martín Mauregui is the writer of Angélica and Pickpockets, and the director of Love (Part One) and the upcoming Crazy Old Lady.
I’m a scaredy-cat. A lot of things scare me. When I was a teen, I loved all the gore, the exploitation, all these really subversive genre things. But now, as an adult, that taste has changed, and my fears have changed.
I don’t see new movies very much. I’m kind of slow as an audience. But one of the movies that scared me the most is The Blair Witch Project. I’m not saying anything new here — we’ve all watched that movie. But building that movie with so few elements, and still being really scary is interesting. I’ve done a lot of good things with that fear sensation. That image of a kid standing in the corner, looking at nothing, it’s a very strong picture.
Sometimes you watch a movie and one image gets stuck in your mind. Every time I see a kid play hide and seek, or someone in detention, I remember that scene, and how sometimes people can create just one simple image that can make you shit your pants out of fear.
Where to watch: The Blair Witch Project is streaming for free on Plex and with a library card on Kanopy.
John Adams and Toby Poser (Hellbender)
John Adams and Toby Poser are the married filmmaking team behind Hellbender, Where the Devil Roams, Hell Hole, and The Deeper You Dig. They are the co-stars, writers, and directors of the upcoming Mother of Flies.
Toby Poser: I was oddly terrified in the movie Watcher. I don’t think of myself as a paranoid woman, but there was something about that — the insidiousness of being watched and not believed — that got under my skin, and for a week, it was still crawling there.
John Adams: The Harbinger. That movie — the spiritual concept really shook me and bothered me a ton. The idea that you can be erased. You’d have to see it, because it’s really well done — it’s a terrific movie. And it’s about the idea that maybe you could be erased in all things, and the people that you love would never know you were there. And that’s a terrible, terrible, horrible thing.
What to watch: Watcher is streaming on Netflix; The Harbinger is streaming for free on Plex.
