From Quinta Brunson to Bill Hader, 10 Celebs Tell Brett Goldstein the Scariest Film They’ve Ever Seen

Emmy-winning writer, producer, actor, and comedian Quinta Brunson loves to laugh, but hates being scared. The Abbott Elementary creator and star spoke with Goldstein on Episode 214 of Films To Be Buried With and revealed the scariest movie she’s ever seen was Gore Verbinski’s 2002 horror film The Ring.

“I don’t like being scared. I hate scary movies,” she told Goldstein. “The film that scared me the most was The Ring…the American [version]. This was during the time — I think I was maybe 14 or 15 — but scary movies were coming out left and right…it was just that time, and I think that’s how I learned I didn’t like scary movies.” Brunson explained that she watched the entire movie and “appreciated it,” but can’t get into horror as a genre.

“…I was like, I don’t enjoy being scared. That’s not for your girl,” she said. “So The Ring really did that for me. That might have been the last scary movie I have ever seen.”

WHERE TO STREAM THE RING

In Episode 190 of Films To Be Buried With, actor, director, comedian, and filmmaker Paul Feig told Goldstein his taste for horror films has evolved over the years, but he once consider himself a scaredy cat.

“I did not used to like being scared, and I can say only — honestly, literally like the last two or three years have I gotten into more scary movies and horror, because I sold this movie to Universal that I wanted to direct called Dark Army, which was a monster movie based on the old James Whale/Frankenstein/Dracula feel of movie. And so in writing that I was like, ‘I’ve really got to start getting into scary movies.’ Because I was terrified of scary movies as a kid,” he said.

“The two movies that scared me the most — I have to take two, there were two that traumatized me — one was Jaws…I was just terrified to the point where when I got home that night I took a bath, and I remember being in the bath tub looking around and like completely traumatized. I thought a shark would be in the bathtub, that’s how bad I was,” the Freaks and Geeks creator shared. “And then the other movie that absolutely killed me was Alien — the first Alien… From the very first second you go, ‘This is the scariest thing I’ve ever seen in my life, I’m going to have a heart attack.’ I was literally sitting there absolutely numb, numb with fear.”

WHERE TO STREAM JAWS

WHERE TO STREAM ALIEN

Hannah Waddingham, Goldstein’s Emmy-winning Ted Lasso co-star, hopped on Episode 114 of Films To Be Buried With and told the story of her terrifying-turned-lovely run-in with Robert Englund (Freddy Krueger himself) at Comic-Con one year. In case you couldn’t guess, Wes Craven’s 1984 slasher film A Nightmare on Elm Street scared the biscuits out of Waddingham.

“I mean, come on. Do people say anything other than Nightmare on Elm Street?” she asked. “The thing is, I hate scary films. I don’t know what is wrong with anyone who likes scary films. I hate them with a passion. I don’t know what’s wrong with you all. I’ve got such an overactive imagination as it is. How is that a pleasure? I don’t get it.”

Waddingham explained that her friend used to make her watch the film when they were teens, but one particularly traumatizing viewing sesh involved a horrifying dad prank.

“I would lie there and try and let her not see my face closing my eyes. And it’s all the bits particularly when he’s like running after people. That’s the bit I can’t cope with,” the Ted Lasso star explained. “And her dad thought it was brilliant to go outside the house and band really hard on the window and I swear to god I was a split second off of properly shitting myself. Horrific.”

WHERE TO STREAM NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET (1984)

Actor and stand-up comedian Patton Oswalt popped by Episode 121 of Films To Be Buried With and shared his scariest horror film experience, courtesy of “well-meaning 1970s parents who did not know what they were doing.”

Back in the 70s, Oswalt and his friend Bruce wanted to go Ralph Bakshi’s animated Lord of the Rings film in theaters. Bruce’s dad took them, but the movie was sold out, so his dad suggested they see the remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, because he saw the original and recalled it being “fun.” Sir.

“That movie — I had so many nightmares,” Oswalt told Goldstein. “I mean, for weeks I remember my mom even called Bruce’s dad…I couldn’t sleep.” The comedian said he even rewatched the horror film a few years ago “just to confirm it wasn’t just my 10-year-old head,” and his verdict still stands. “That’s a fucking terrifying movie and it’s designed to fuck with you,” he declared.

WHERE TO STREAM INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS (1978)

Succession star Sarah Snook is a member of one of TV’s most terrifying families, but she didn’t enjoy cozying up with a scary movie until she had to star in one herself. In Episode 79 of Films To Be Buried With, Snook shared her journey from fearing to accepting horror films — but she still isn’t a fan of scary movies that are too realistic.

“I had to do a horror film (Jezebel) a couple years ago and I had never seen any horror because I had been too scared to watch films that scare me. And also I think I’d been told by my mom not to watch them, or I wasn’t allowed to watch them, but I never had an interest in seeking out scaring myself. So I went on a whole binge of watching horror films and was like, ‘This is my research,'” Snook explained. “I found that I quite like horror films that scare you, because I know that it’s not real. But the one that scared me the most — that actually genuinely scared me — is American Psycho, because that’s possibly real. And I just want people to be nice [laughs] and I want us all to get along. And to have someone be so cruel and malicious for intent and personal gain and narcissism and all of that…I found that deeply unsettling and scary.”

WHERE TO STREAM AMERICAN PSYCHO

Emmy-winning comedian, actor, and writer Bill Hader loves horror. In Episode 202 of Films To Be Buried With, the mastermind who co-created, writes, and stars in HBO’s Barry told Goldstein about how one of the most feared horror films from his teen years came back to haunt him (in a good way) as an adult on the set of his hitman dramedy.

“I love horror films…I remember watching on late-night television when I was 12 or 13 Sam Raimi’s The Evil Dead, and there’s a scene in that film where this woman is looking out a window and she’s guessing the cards that her friends are playing, and they don’t understand how she’s doing it. And then she turns around and her eyes are white. That scared the hell out of me,” Hader explained. “And then the irony is that actress, Ellen Sandweiss, her daughter is an actress named Jessy Hodges, and she’s in Barry. She plays Sally’s agent. And so when I met her and we were talking she said, ‘My mom is in a little horror movie called Evil Dead,’ and I’m like, ‘Wait who is your mom in Evil Dead?‘ And that was her.”

“Another scene that scared me was in the film Marathon Man with Dustin Hoffman. There’s a scene where he is in a bathtub. He has a washcloth on his face, and he’s just kind of decompressing from all this stressful stuff that happened to him, and then very, very subtly you hear people whispering,” Hader said. “And it’s done so well that you think — still, when I’m watching it and I’m watching it with other people — I kind of go, ‘Oh someone’s whispering in the room.’ And you kind of look over your shoulder…”

WHERE TO STREAM THE EVIL DEAD

In Episode 137 of Films To Be Buried With, actor, comedian, and Ted Lasso superfan Yvette Nicole Brown shared the horror she not only tolerates, but enjoys, and the one film she can’t deal with to this day. Goldstein then blows her mind by telling her the film she’s most afraid of is…rated PG?!

“I do not like being scared, and it’s so funny because I’m a huge fan of The Walking Dead, and that whole television show is just about being scared. So I don’t like being scared. I just love great stories,” Brown said. “The movie that scared the bajesus out of me, and to this day it does, is Poltergeist. And this is why, Brett. I saw other scary movies. I saw The Omen and I saw The Exorcist. And those killed me. Nightmare on Elm Street, all of those. But there’s something about Poltergeist. It happens in your house, and it happens through your television, and it happens because something happened on the land your house is on before you even moved in, so you had nothing to do with what’s happening. You don’t understand what’s happening. And you don’t find out why it’s happening until you almost die. So everything about that to this day is scary.”

WHERE TO STREAM POLTERGEIST

On Films To Be Buried With Episode 160, Moonlight director Barry Jenkins explained how his mom’s love of horror films helped expose him to the genre and shared the one movie that felt too realistic to get over.

“The film that scared me the most was Texas Chainsaw Massacre, which was a film I saw — I remember I got into film school and some kid said, ‘Hey, you should watch Texas Chainsaw Massacre,‘ and I was like ‘Why would I watch that?’ and he goes, ‘It’s actually a really good film.’ And I watched it and I was like, ‘Yo, this is a really good film. Also, this is fucking insane!’ Because it felt so real,” Jenkins explained. “I watched it again maybe like a year ago, and it’s almost like a snuff film? I mean it’s very, very hardcore, and it freaked me out, man.”

Goldstein agreed, and Jenkins added, “Thinking about the world right now, it doesn’t seem so farfetched, which is crazy. I remember watching it and going, ‘This shit could happen.'”

WHERE TO STREAM THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE

In Films To Be Buried With Episode 151, Game of Thrones star Maisie Williams told Goldstein that she enjoys watching scary films and “freaking herself out” now, but that wasn’t always the case.

“I think it’s probably because I watched Signs by M. Night Shyamalan when I was maybe like six or five,” she said. “So my mom and my dad have always been divorced, and at my mom’s house we would watch Iron Giant, and at my dad’s house we would watch Signs. So I just have this really awful memory when one of the aliens just like comes in front of the porch and all of the kids are at the party and they’re all screaming, and it just like ruined my life. I’ve never been the same.”

WHERE TO STREAM SIGNS

On Films To Be Buried With Episode 208, actor, filmmaker, and Ted Lasso director Zach Braff announced he hates horror movies because he’s highly sensitive. (Same.)

“I never got into horror movies. I do remember liking one though, even though it scared me, and it was The Exorcist III,” Braff said. “I remember it being a horror movie that I was forced to watch probably in my 20s or teen years, and I remember thinking, ‘Man, I hate this. I hate being scared. I hate jump scares. I hate when there’s a thing around the corner. But wow, this movie is sort of bizarrely good.'”

WHERE TO STREAM THE EXORCIST III