Harrison Ford names the scariest movie he’s ever seen
He might be best known as the star of blockbuster adventures, but Harrison Ford has explored a wide range of genres throughout his career. He’s appeared in comedies like Working Girl and Anchorman 2, romances like Random Hearts and The Age of Adaline, and even lent his voice to an animated dog in The Secret Life of Pets 2. At this point, he’s pretty much done it all.
One aspect of cinema Harrison Ford has never fully explored is horror. In the same year that Star Wars was released, he appeared in a TV movie called The Possessed, playing a teacher at a school under siege from a demonic spirit. In 2000, he starred alongside Michelle Pfeiffer in Robert Zemeckis’ What Lies Beneath, a film that flirts with the supernatural as Pfeiffer’s character becomes increasingly paranoid that their house is haunted. While the film has ghostly elements, it leans more towards psychological thriller than outright horror—though some might argue there’s only a thin line between the two.
In an interview to promote this movie, Ford was asked by Hollywood Report Card about some of his favourite scary films. The actor gave a typically Ford response. “You can’t talk to me about movies because I don’t really know that much about them,” he said. “I never was historically a moviegoer. I like making them, but I don’t go a lot.”
Ford explained his reasoning behind choosing What Lies Beneath, citing the screenplay, which was written by Avengers star Clark Gregg, as a highlight. “I always wanted to work with Michelle and Bob [Zemeckis],” he elaborated. “I look for just the best stuff available, not genre; best movie, best people to work with. It’s a matter of taste, what I like might not appeal to somebody else. I read it; it was a real page-turner. I was immediately drawn into the story and because I knew who the other players were, I called up and said ‘yes.’”
Many of the reviews of What Lies Beneath picked up on how similar it was to the works of Alfred Hitchcock. The hysteria that Pfeiffer’s character falls under reminded critics of the likes of Rebecca and Shadow of a Doubt, while the tension created by the potentially supernatural presence had loud overtones of the Master of Suspense. Ford, however, wasn’t convinced.
“I don’t see it as homage to Hitchcock,” he announced. “I frankly was never scared by Hitchcock films. I never really psychologically believed [Hitchcock’s] characters that much. These days we tend to make scary stores out of violence, but this film is more maturely developed.”
The interviewer then asked the Indiana Jones star what films scared him, if not Hitchcock. After giving a very curt answer of “the news”, Ford gave his real response: “The scariest movie I ever saw was Bambi.” That’s right. Bambi. The 1942 Disney movie about a baby deer and his chipper woodland friends.
Of course, Ford is absolutely bang on the money with this assessment. The scene in which the title character’s mother is hunted down and killed by vile poachers is still the subject of much debate amongst film fans, as well as the source of many a first nightmare. Even Stephen King considers Bambi to be a horror story…and he would know.
