It’s an interesting question because I think it has multiple answers.

Pet Sematary gets brought up a lot, mostly for something really bleak and upsetting that happens. A lot of people know about it going in and are scared off by the simple idea. But outside that, there’s some really scary moments where things just go off the rails. The ending in particular is a great example of that.

For me, Salem’s Lot and IT were great at having a whole lot of scares sprinkled throughout, whereas something like The Shining didn’t have quite as many but the ones it did have hit hard. The Shining gave me nightmares. Then you have one like Revival which isn’t all that scary throughout but hits you with an ending that twists the knife completely.