What spooks masters of horror?

One of the great things about childhood is how easy it is to access the distinct delight of being scared out of your mind. Adults just have more trouble getting goose bumps. That's because experience is the enemy of true terror. You might shriek the first time you see "A Nightmare on Elm Street," but the second or third time you might only shudder. That's why dedicated horror fans sometimes have a hard time finding a really nerve-rattling movie. They've already seen it all.

Those who make horror movies might face the greatest challenge. They know what goes into the engineering of a scary sequence, and they have a good idea what's coming around that corner.

The end of summer has lately been a bonanza for chillers: This weekend brings "Don't Be Afraid of the Dark," a remake of a 1973 haunted-house tale that Guillermo del Toro, a writer and producer of the new film, has called the scariest TV movie he ever saw. "Fright Night" and "Final Destination 5" opened earlier this month. Still to come is "Shark Night 3D" on Friday.

But what about all-time most terrifying? When polled about the scariest movie they'd ever seen, horror filmmakers' passionate answers made it clear that their standards were high.

Ti West (director, "The House of the Devil"): "The image of those two oddball little girls from 'The Shining' in their matching powder-blue dresses standing in a bleak, floral-wallpapered hallway has been burnt into my retina ever since the first moment I laid eyes on them. 'Come play with us, Danny ... forever and ever and ever.' ... To this day, I have never met a single person who when those twins are brought up doesn't shudder and share a personal terror story of their own. That is some achievement."

Herschell Gordon Lewis (director, "Blood Feast"): "Way, way back in prehistoric times, I saw the original 'Dracula,' Bela Lugosi's watermark on the pages of cinematic history. I recall only a few scenes, plus my insistence that the lights in my bedroom be left on all night long. The motivator had to be purely cosmetic, the way he glowered, plus the strange accent atop brutal word delivery. Some years later I saw this film again and laughed at the characterization. That's how sophistication spoils pseudo-reality.

John Landis (director, "American Werewolf in London"): "I am not a Catholic and do not believe that the devil exists, but William Friedkin created a complete suspension of disbelief in 'The Exorcist.' I was really scared, but then went home and slept like a baby. My friends, lapsed Catholics and former altar boys, had nightmares for weeks! The supernatural is not real, but psychopaths, murderers and cannibals are. Tobe Hooper's masterpiece ['Texas Chainsaw'] is a rough ride for the audience, although parts of it are very funny. The soundtrack and action are relentless."

Marti Noxon (writer, "Fright Night" remake and "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" TV series): "Many, many films kept me up at night as a child ... but I recall only two movies that have kept me awake as an adult: 'The Exorcist' and 'The Blair Witch Project.' Both stay really grounded in characters we like and relate to while delving into a supernatural world. Their helplessness and human failings in the face of something truly malevolent gets under my skin every time."

Larry Fessenden (director, "Wendigo"): "The scariest movie I ever saw was 'Night of the Living Dead.' A relentless and escalating sense of dread prevails over the film, as the horror keeps closing in. None of the old rules apply: One character after another meets a gruesome fate regardless of their heroism or function in the story. With its hopeless ending, it was a fulcrum between the morally ordered scary movies of my youth and the horror films to come."

John Sayles (writer, "Piranha"): "The scariest movie I ever saw was John Carpenter's 'The Thing,' with special effects by Rob Bottin. The theater was full, and I had to sit in the front row."

Guillermo Del Toro (director, "Pan's Labyrinth"): "Stanley Kubrick's absolute control over the medium turns his rock-solid framing and tense timing into real weapons pointed directly at the unsuspecting audience of 'The Shining.' ... He uses the soundtrack brilliantly, fusing concrete music with sound effects and score to unsettle and position the über-mannered, hyper-real performances of his actors. And, refreshingly, Kubrick is not above moments of Grand Guignol: the elevator doors spilling blood, the ax on the chest, the Grady twins bathed in blood or the old undead crone festering in the bathtub. He proves that great horror can be both shocking and a highly artistic endeavor."