Well now I'm all creeped out

That scene in Exorcist 3 is a masterclass in building tension. The silence, and little details like the policeman entering and leaving the hall, so you think 'it's OK, there's a cop', then he's gone again..

Sharke,
 
Had you set your watch for Pedro's comment too?

Moshkito
Hi,
 
There are films, FAR BETTER, for shaking your inner anything, than those. In fact, I would think that the simulation in those is way too cartoonish for me, and that's not suggesting that it can not be done, since time immemorial for us!
 
Many a monster (as we call it) has swallowed us whole in the many million years! And so will the universe one day!

I don't think I need anything intellectually deep to creep me out. The brilliance of the two scenes I referred to above is that they tap into the kind of fears you had as a kid. Being eaten by monsters is one of them. The old lady in the movie has a kind of Hansel and Gretel vibe to her, and the way the scene is shot is deeply macabre without being gory. I don't find goriness creepy at all. The hallway scene in the Exorcist 3 is similar, in that it taps into the kind of fear you feel in dreams without showing a single drop of blood. It's the fast and sudden camera zoom which does it. Many years ago I had very vivid dream in which I got out of bed to go to the bathroom and had to pass the living room on the way - the door was open and it was dark inside. I had this crushing fear that something was in there and that I shouldn't look, but I couldn't help myself and turned my head to see this macabre figure sat on the sofa staring straight at me. And at that moment my dream decided to zoom right up to the guy's face, like some magnetic force driving me in. Woke up in a cold sweat feeling utterly horrified. That's the kind of fear these movies exploit.