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So, the other day, my cousins came over to visit and were rummaging through my collection. Both are fairly new to horror films and asked me for recs on the scariest horror films I have ever seen.

I gave them the DVDs of The Exorcist, The Evil Dead, Alien, The Changeling, and some others.

They returned them some days later and said they weren't the least bit scared of any of them.

Exorcist - slow, and effects looked fake.

Evil Dead - Very cheesy effects and not the least bit scary.

Alien - Had some "tingly & jumpy" moments but slow as well.

The Changeling - Not scary at all.

What was more worrying was that they thought the more recent lot of Rec & Rec 2, Silent Hill, Paranormal Activity 1 & 2, etc. were more scarier than the above.

Glad I didn't give them any of the vintage ones - House on Haunted Hill, Dracula, etc. God knows what their reactions would have been like.

I sat down to think over this. Maybe the classics DO look dated, or might have lost their charm. Sure, they had audiences screaming in their days but today's generation doesn't relate to the horror they portray. Or maybe there is a better explanation for this.

Thing is, I still sit down to watch Alien for the umpteenth time and still get sucked into that claustrophobic atmosphere which Ridley Scott's masterpiece creates. I have lost count by now - well over a hundred times - the times I have seen the film, and still the sequences and the climax give me goosebumps.

*sigh* Maybe I am getting old...