The Scariest Sh*t I've Ever Seen

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Voyage. Welcome to watch this tonight. I'm your host, Dan Bettimore.

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I'm a produced writer of film and
television and now a podcast producer. And

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despite having every streaming service, I
never know what to watch. So anytime

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I watch something good, I talk
about it on the show. This way,

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you'll never have the same problem I
do. I watched this tonight.

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There's always something good to watch.
Let's get started. Today. In the

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show, we are talking about the
scariest shit I have ever seen, so

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I wanted to think, you know, I've been watching from I'm slowly making

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money through it, the MGM Plus
show, which is currently streaming on Amazon,

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and it's so legitimately scary. There's
at least one moment per episode,

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and I'm like five episodes in.
I'm taking me so long to watch it

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is that I refuse to watch it
unless it's like all the lights are off.

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I can really pay attention and kind
of lock into it because it's an

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experience. But I would say at
least once or twice every episode there's a

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moment that makes me go holy shit, like really just kind of sit back

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in my chair and just freaked out, skeeved out, just it's such an

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impressive achievement what they've done, and
that got me thinking about what are the

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scariest things that I've seen in both
film and television. Because the reason that

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I think from is so satisfying is
that it really integrates character storytelling with true

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horror, and there's something that's kind
of cathartic about that. And so that

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got me thinking, and I made
a little list for when you're in the

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mood for that kind of thing,
right, when you're in the mood for

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something scary but not like cheap.
Right, A lot of scary stuff is

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kind of cheap. It's not really
wedded to character. It's basically just how

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gross or how freaky can we be
that kind of thing? And you know

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that, I don't think that stuff
really ever excites me. So I think

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this is this list is going to
be more so horror films and TV shows

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that do a great job of wedding
character story with horror. So I've got

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six picks for you. First one
is The Haunting of Hillhouse. So this

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was the original Netflix series. If
you have not seen it, it's so

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good. Everything about it is great. The casting is great, all of

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the character plots are great, it's
genuinely frightening. The frightening elements of it

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are done in a very elegant way. When it pays off, it pays

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off big. The moments feel earned
all it's again it's a synthesis of character

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and horror. Like the character moments
that are built up that are just essentially

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like a character drama right about this
family and very relatable stuff about conflict between

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siblings and parents, and is then
really well integrated into the horror, you

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know, particularly the mom. The
stuff you find out about the mom and

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sort of what her motivation is and
all that stuff. It's like heartbreaking.

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It's so well done. It's just
I can't say enough good things about it.

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So that was my number six pick. My number five pick is True

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Detective the first season, so you
know, it's it's funny. Now obviously

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True Detective has gone on. They
did the second season, which I defend

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the second season is pretty weird,
but I kind of liked it, and

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then I the third season, you
know, they sort of calmed down because

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people were freaked out by the second
season. But the first season, I

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think everyone agrees is masterful, and
it really it felt like if suddenly you

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know it became supernatural, it wouldn't
have been a surprise. That's how effectively

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they created this feeling of horror and
you know, mystery, and like there's

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something here that seems more vile and
evil than just run of the mill criminals.

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They did such a good job of
creating that sensation, and obviously at

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McConaughey's performance plays into that a lot, because he feels like he's coming to

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you from the planet Mars. Like. But that first season I think is

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actually a really good horror show.
Kind of underrated in that sense. My

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number four pick is The Mist,
Frank Darabon's two thousand and seven film,

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obviously like one of the all time
just rip your gut out endings, which

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I won't spoil here just in case
you haven't seen it. I did an

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episode about this on my previous show
Movies. I love that no one talks

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about, so I did a specific
episode just about The Mist. It's a

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totally character driven, totally the antithesis
of Shawshank. Thematically, it is the

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antithesis antithesis of Shawshank. Everything that's
happening in that story takes you to and

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ending that is the opposite of the
experience of the Shaw, which I think

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is kind of true horror, right. It crushes your soul a bit,

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but it's so good man, I
mean, you will not be able to

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turn away from it. It's if
you haven't seen it, highly recommend it.

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My number three pick is The Thing, the nineteen eighty two The Thing,

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which you know, it's so interesting. You think this when we came

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out in nineteen eighty two, you
would think that it's point somebody would have

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figured out how to redo it and
beat it essentially, and no one has.

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Obviously the practical effects, the effects
of the creature and all that remain

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just make your skin crawl. But
there's just something about it, you know.

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It's just it's they haven't figured out
how to do it again. It's

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not as it sounds simple in theory, but it's not. It's it really

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is a one of one, and
I think it's still one of the scariest

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movies ever made. And now my
number two and number one picks are more

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recent. Number two is Midsomar,
which I think I walked out at and

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I like had to be talked off
a ledge like I just sometimes you'll have

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a movie that so affects your mood
that it actually like crashes your mood,

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like you need time to shake it
off. And I think that's what Midsomar

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was for me. The fact that
it all takes place like in the bright

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light of day, I think also
makes it way scarier. When things are

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at night, you can almost in
your mind dismiss them like a dream or

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a nightmare, right, But when
something horrific is shown to you very clearly

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in the bright day sun, it
has a different impact on you. It's

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like you can't hide from it.
And that's I think the big thing that

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Midsomar does great. And obviously the
arc of Florence Pugh's character is super disturbing

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and it's a real sort of slow
burn of dread. That's just ratchets and

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ratchets and ratchets. Look, anytime
ari Astra makes another movie like this,

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I don't know, it's almost like
it's so good you're afraid to see it

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because it's so upsetting. But Midsomar, for sure, for me, is

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one of the scariest things that I've
seen in my adult life. It's just

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really profoundly upset me. And then
my number one pick is the Witch twenty

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fifteen, Robert Egger's film. I
remember turning this on and there's something that

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happens at the beginning of the movie
with a baby that was so bracing in

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its sort of bluntness, like they
just weren't hiding from it all. And

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I remember just being like, there's
a feeling with horror films that you get,

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and maybe this is part of the
appeal to enduring appeal of horror,

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especially as we've become increasingly desensitized as
a society. Right if someone really does

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horror, well, you turn it
on and you're a minute into it,

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and this is what happens to the
Witch. You're a minute into it and

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you're like, I have to finish
this just to have the catharsis of resolution,

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because it's so upsetting, and the
Witch does that great, incredible use

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of a goat. It's so the
tone that it accomplished is so impressive.

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It really puts you in a place
in time, and it doesn't feel you

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know, sometimes those movies that are
period like that can feel sort of dusty

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and really slow, and this didn't
feel like that to me at all.

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It's you know, it's so interesting. I think Robert Eggers has done some

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really different stuff, like he's kind
of refused to be boxed in, which

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is I think great, admirable,
but I kind of wish you would do

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another movie like this because he's so
good at it. The which again is

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like when I think of movies that
I turned it on and I was so

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profoundly engaged that there was just no
way I wasn't going to finish it,

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you know, the which comes to
mind pretty quickly. So you know,

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it's weird. It seems counterintuitive that
we as human beings would like this stuff,

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all that stuff that I've just talked
about, but there's something about it

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that actually weirdly makes you feel good. And maybe it's just well, thank

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god, my life isn't like the
lives of these characters, but it's it

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is thrilling, and it does sort
of shake you out of complacency and it

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just challenges you in a way that
other genres can't. So yeah, those

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are six picks for the scariest shit
I've ever seen in my life. I

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would love to know what your picks
are. I'm sure there's movies that I'm

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either not thinking over to have not
seen. It's also obviously affect by my

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age and my frame of reference and
all that kind of stuff, but those

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are the ones that jump out for
me. So I would love to know

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what your scariest movies or TV shows
you've ever seen in your life are.

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You can always reach me at benamore
Dan on Twitter, watch this Len on

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Instagram, watch This Night podcast on
TikTok, or you can join our Facebook

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group. That is the show for
today until next time. Bye bye,