In the frightening horror spoof "Scream," the killer calls his victims and asks in a fiendish voice, "What's your favorite scary movie?"

In real life, we called victims and asked in a pleading voice a similar question that went like this: What one scary movie utterly scared you, devirginizing you in the way of movie frights? (For me: "Alien" in 1979. "Jaws" is a close second.)

For this Halloween lark, calls went out to local and national personalities from the quadrants of film and, far scarier, politics. Our victims bared their souls. Here's what they said.

Ray Harryhausen, legendary stop-motion animation pioneer who created the creature effects in classics such as "Jason and the Argonauts" (1963), "The Golden Voyage of Sinbad" (1974) and "Clash of the Titans" (1981):

When I was about 10 or 12 years old, I saw the first talking version of "Frankenstein" with Boris Karloff. It scared the hell out of me, particularly when the Monster turned around at the doorway to face the camera for the first time. His face looked so alien and out of this world that it stuck in my memory for years thereafter.

Tim McCanlies, Austin area writer-director of "Secondhand Lions," writer of "The Iron Giant" and co-founder of Fantastic Fest, a horror/sci-fi film festival:

What got to me more than any other film was "The Exorcist." In most horror movies the worst that can happen is they kill you. In "The Exorcist" it seemed like what could happen to you was much worse than that. It was so much more about your immortal soul, and being a lapsed Catholic, it hit me on all these levels. I was probably 15 or 16, just the right age, and it blew me away. The problem I have with most horror movies is that you can separate yourself from the characters because the mechanics of the plot requires them to do really stupid things no one in their right mind would do. But in "The Exorcist" everybody was in their right mind and heroic. It's just that they were up against the worst, most threatening creature you ever met — the devil itself. You can't get much scarier than that.

Chris Elliott, funnyman, actor, writer and co-star of "Scary Movie 2":

It was "Steel Magnolias." Thank you very much. I saw "Psycho" when I was very young and that scared me. The idea of hearing somebody's voice and thinking it's one person but it's actually someone else really scared me after that. Like anytime I was in my room and I heard my mother talking in the other room, it reminded me of it. As a little kid, I didn't see that twist coming. The shower scene kind of stuff never really got to me as much as the more subtle things, like just seeing a figure in a window who shouldn't be there.

Will Wynn, Austin mayor:

Back in high school, me and some buddies watched "The Hills Have Eyes" on a TV we had set up out in a very wooded backyard late one night. Scared the HELL out of us. We didn't drink any more beer for . . . a day or two. Also in high school, I took my girlfriend to see "Aliens" at the Gaylynn Theatre in Beaumont. Midway through the movie, during a rare calm moment, she put her Coca-Cola cup up to her mouth for a drink. Unfortunately, a big tree-flying swamp cockroach (like they can only grow in Beaumont) was on the lip of the cup and flew into her mouth just as she opened wide. She let out a blood-curdling scream that several fellow members of the audience didn't survive.

James Franco, co-star of "Freaks and Geeks" and the "Spider-Man" movies and writer/director of "The Ape," in which a talking, clothed gorilla torments Franco's character:

I had nightmares after I saw "Gorillas in the Mist." When (Sigourney Weaver) put on that mask and scared the little kids, and then when they killed the gorilla and held up the torso of the gorilla. I remember being really scared.

Kat Candler, Austin writer-director of "Cicadas" and "Jumping Off Bridges":

This might sound a bit ridiculous, but when I was a kid I was terrified after seeing "Lady in White," starring Lukas Haas and Katherine Helmond. Ghosts have always been my biggest weakness. Blood and guts make me nauseous, sure, but ghosts, especially little kid ghosts, freak me out big time. I think I made every one of my elementary school friends watch that film. It was a must-see at all my slumber parties.

Philip Seymour Hoffman, star of "Capote" and co-star of "Boogie Nights" and "The Talented Mr. Ripley":

I remember watching "Dawn of the Dead" when I was really young and that scared the (expletive) out of me. But the film I remember the most being really frightening was "Burnt Offerings." It has Oliver Reed, Karen Black and Bette Davis. You gotta watch it. I can't ruin it for you. Now you've gotta go get it.

John Kelso, humor columnist for the American-Statesman:

"Psycho" is the one that messed me up. I could tell by the uneasy looks on the faces of the people coming out of the Colonial Theater in Laconia, N.H., in 1961 that I was in for an unsettling ride. They looked liked they'd just witnessed a corpse sitting up at the funeral home. By the time the skeleton in the basement wheeled around on the screen, I was hiding behind the seat. It was during this movie that I discovered that if you just keep your eyes shut, nobody can tell you're hiding from the movie — as long as you don't cover your ears. The bathing scene in which Janet Leigh is diced for cooking explains why I still won't shower without automatic weapons handy.

Kinky Friedman, Texas gubernatorial candidate, novelist and humorist:

"Village of the Damned," in which young children fry people's brains. Those little schoolchildren with those bangs. I don't think anything has scared me as much. Since then, the only thing I've been afraid of is that I may have to stop talking about myself for five minutes. It's a great movie, a really frightening movie. And it reminds me a bit of the political campaign. Young people are our future, you know.

Jason Schwartzman, actor in "Rushmore," "I Heart Huckabees" and "Shopgirl":

"The Neverending Story," because in it the characters are on the run from this thing called the Nothing. When they show the Nothing it's a bunch of clouds rolling at you. It's basically nothingness that just comes and takes over the land. How scary is that? It's not like a monster or a ghost. It's so bleak. It's just nothingness, turning everything into quiet, sad nothingness, leafless trees and low morale. It takes away all spirit.

Spike Gillespie, Austin journalist, author and documentary filmmaker:

When I was little, I saw this movie on TV called "Scream Pretty Peggy," starring the guy who played Marlo Thomas' (possibly closeted) boyfriend, Donald, on "That Girl." In "SPP," the guy hires young women to come and be "maids" for him, his elderly mother and his mysterious sister who lives in the garage apartment and is NEVER to be disturbed. Long story short, the "maids" get turned into "sculptures" by closeted boyfriend man who covers them in plaster. I guess Peggy must've been the "maid" who figures it out and realizes that the mysterious sister is really the closeted boyfriend man in drag. So many plot lines! Anyway, Peggy confronts the guy and as he's about to kill her, his mother comes in the room and shoots him. That must've been what made Pretty Peggy Scream. God, that movie scared the hell out of me.

Harry Knowles, genre film expert and founder of Ain't-It-Cool-News Web site:

Mine was "Night of the Living Dead." I was about 3 when I saw it. It also became my favorite horror movie. I saw it so many times as a kid, because it was playing all the movie conventions my father was taking me to, that I had an ongoing phobic fear of graveyards. I'm sort of over it, but I won't go to a graveyard on an overcast day. What got me was the idea of being abandoned in some out-of-the-way place where you couldn't get help. The part that always scared me was when they were trying to get gas and they were so nervous and scared that things just got out of hand and the truck explodes, so they're stuck out in the middle of nowhere surrounded by zombies in the dark.

Robert Rodriguez and Elizabeth Avellán, directing-producing team of "From Dusk Till Dawn," "Spy Kids" and "Sin City":

My wife, Elizabeth, and I compared stories, and hers won. When she was 6 years old, she attended a Halloween party at her crazy aunt's house. They had made a makeshift theater in their courtyard and showed all the children a 16 mm film print of "The Mark of the Vampire." The adults sat in the back of the courtyard, making the kids all sit in the front. They were not allowed to get up from their seats.

When the film ended, the place went dark. All they could hear was the snapping sound of the tail of the film print hitting the projector. When the kids turned around, they saw all the adults with glow-in-the-dark fangs coming at their throats. The result was a 6-year-old's version of a nervous breakdown. Understand that she grew up in Venezuela where vampire bats are indigenous, and they slept with their windows open at night. For years, she would only fall asleep with the lights on and with her hands protectively grasping her throat. Making "From Dusk Till Dawn" was therapy for her, and she finally got over some of her vampire fears.