Sorry, I should have been more specific. I didn't mean The Shining and Silence of The Lambs turned into laughably bad films.

I think what I find laughable in both films is the performances. Jack Nicholson has turned into a caricature of himself over the years; both he and Anthony Hopkins' performances were so good and I've watched them so many times--and done impressions of the characters so many times--it kinda takes me out of the movies at this point unless I block all of that out and really focus to be sucked in again.

Who here hasn't done the ol' "I'd fuck me so hard' bit to make friends laugh? Now try watching that scene again to be creeped out. Hard to get back to that creepy place when you've parodied it. But, it's easier to do with The Shining, for me, because there's such a variety of scary/creepy things going on and there's no way to soften the blow of their nightmarishness.

I definitely get where you're coming from on this and there are several films that I can recall where it's been done so much or parodied so much that it really takes away from the intended impact it's supposed to have on the viewer. I think specifically for me the film Alien has lost its ability to affect me the way that it used to because of how overdone the concept has been since that film was released. It really takes a bit of effort on my part to become really involved in it anymore. I would also like to address the fact that with the information age being the way that it is you could unintentionally ruin the impact of films you haven't even seen yet because of how prevalent it is in society and our pop culture minds. Silence of the Lambs is a bit of a shining example of this. Who hasn't seen a parody of Hannibal Lector, or Frankenstien or Dracula. That's why anymore I try to keep myself as in the dark as possible to plot elements and themes of upcoming movies because it's become far to easy for a film to be ruined merely by browsing the internet for a certain amount of time. :(

To an extent, I get what you guys are saying, but I have to say that spoofs do not really take away from films I have already seen. In my opinion, if something is scary then it is scary. No amount of parody will make it not scary. At least that is the way I feel about it.

Personally I find that overexposure to anything naturally will lead to lessening ones ability to take the material seriously, is what I'm getting at.

Different strokes for different folks, though.

I definitely agree with that. If for instance, I am terrified of Paranormal Activity (which I am) and I would watch it one hundred times in one week. Then, its effect would likely be greatly diminished.

I agree, BUT there are a few movies that seems to scare me no matter how many times I watch them (which is a big reason WHY I keep watching them). Such as the deadites from the original Evil Dead. Or The Shining - because I've had more than one "Jack" in my family.

Also, certain movies are more scary to me NOW than they were when I first saw them. In some cases, because I am older and more sensitive to certain things that I didn't really understand as a kid or a teenager. For example, the thought of physical pain becomes much more disturbing when you've actually experienced it yourself.

YES! That library ghost definitely scared me and while I wouldn't necessarily say that part scares me now, it is still definitely successfully creepy.

So I saw Tremors when I was in the second grade and scared the bejesus out of me. I was on a swim team and kept thinking that they were going to burst out of the deep end and devour me. :o

Of course now I think the movie is soooo cheesy...

The films that scared me when i was younger was The Child's Play films. But Now I just laugh at how Funny Chucky. Now there's no way I could be scared

Sooooooo... The first time I saw The Grudge remake, it literally kept me up all night because I was so scared ::embarrassment:: (ok, admittedly I may or may not have been incredibly drunk and watching it alone AND living in an apartment all by myself - the first time I had ever lived alone)... I just watched it today and most of the scares just seem cheap to me (although the corporeal ghost that just won't quit is such a horrifying concept).

I wouldn't say that the movie is laughable... Actually I think it's quite successful at being scary... I just can't believe how much it scared me at the time...

A perfect example of such a film is Roman Polanski's Dance of the Vampires/ The Fearless Vampire Killers.