20. “Under the Skin” (2014)
Another very recent addition to our canon of unassailable terrifying moments, we wrote at length last year about our love for this sequence from Jonathan Glazer‘s masterful “Under the Skin” (it was our favorite shot of the year, in our favorite film of 2014) — particularly the last section of this clip in which Scarlett Johansson’s alien drags the swimmer’s lifeless body past the wailing baby on the beach. It’s so completely extraordinary and, well, alien, that in one simple, unadorned moment, we glimpse a perspective that is light years removed from our own humanity.
19. “Psycho” (1960)
No, not the Bernard Herrmann-accompanied, brilliantly edited shower scene, not the tricky clever camerawork that has us push Martin Balsam down the stairs, but this simple, relatively static end shot is the moment we’ve picked from Hitchcock‘s indelible “Psycho.” Why? The answer is obvious: it’s in that totally deranged smile. The tiny flash dissolve to a skull, the mad voiceover, the isolation of the shot — all this is the icing on the cake, but that insane smile from the remarkably handsome Anthony Perkins is single scariest thing in a very scary film, period.
18. “Silence of The Lambs” (1990)
We may have a disagreement here: there are folk who would unhesitatingly choose Hannibal Lecter’s grotesque escape as their scare-highlight of Jonathan Demme‘s genius horror. Others might suggest one of the quid pro quo exchanges between Lecter and Clarice Starling. But we’re going for the bit in Buffalo Bill’s basement which is neither gory nor particularly psychologically rich. It’s just damn frightening, as we see through the eyes (and night vision goggles) of the murderer, and know that Foster’s Starling is blind and helpless in the dark.
17. “The Thing”(1982)
With a few notable exceptions, we’ve largely avoided effects-heavy sequences as oftentimes they’re gross rather than scary, or reliant more on jump scares than actual creepiness. But it could also be because with this brilliant scene from his “The Thing” remake, John Carpenter simply set the bar for effects-based scares too high for anyone else to clear. Starting with the chest caving in during defibrillation, the scene just gets wilder and wilder, and the practical creature effects (mostly by Rob Bottin) totally keep pace.
16. “Se7en” (1995)
Maybe not the most disturbing moment in David Fincher‘s great “Se7en,” (that would maybe be the glimpse of the Lust apparatus, or the ending with the box), still if you don’t leap out of your skin when the fetid, skeletal remains of what was once a man shudder back to life well, we’d advise someone check your pulse too. In fact almost any one of the inventive deaths that John Doe cooks up could feature here (Gluttony’s obese engorged ankles tied with rope is another impossible-to-forget image) but this scene has all that atmosphere and a good old-fashioned YIKES too.
The pursuit by the hand-eye monster in Pans Labyrinth was intense, scary and creepy. Also Johnny Depp being consumed by his bed and the crawling up the wall slicing in Nightmare on Elmstreet were terrifying to a 12-year-old me.
I\’d throw the first Paranormal Activity on there, as well as the Babadook. Otherwise good list.
Terrence is correct. The Exorcist III has the single greatest scare of any movie I\’VE ever seen. It didn\’t help that it was one of the first horror movies I watched, at a very young age, in someone\’s home theater with a big projector screen. That turned me off from horror movies for years, but I think ultimately made me get hooked to them later in life.
Von Trier\’s Antichrist – \’Through the autopsy and old photos, he becomes aware that she had been systematically putting Nick’s shoes on the wrong feet, resulting in pain and deformity.\’
The Sentinel (1977). The scene where Cristina Raines goes upstairs to investigate the source of some sounds coming from a supposedly empty apartment.
I work in a movie theatre, and one night after recently watching \’Don\’t Look Now\’ I jokingly imagined walking into the theatre and seeing someone wearing a red cape still sitting there. When I go to tell them that we\’re closed, they turn around and it\’s the killer gnome. The problem is, many times since then I remember this scenario as I\’m shutting things down alone at night, and it still freaks me out.
The Eye (Japanese version)- old man in elevator
The Changeling- the ball and wheelchair
Ju-On- ghost in attic
Good call on the finale of "Friday the 13th," which was pretty shocking the first time I saw it. Also, the scene mentioned above in "The Shining" was a scary one, but I thought equally horrifying were the scenes in which Danny was having a spell and the little girls in the hallway and river of blood.
I know it´s just a jump scare, but the original "Friday the 13th" ending at the lake is exemplary and glorious (and iconic). Worth to be mentioned, at least at comments. And "Ringu" is a must, but I want to remind everyone "Dark Water", also Hideo Nakata´s, whose elevator climax still haunts me, due to its simplicity and drama.
I saw The Blair Witch Project the night it opened. I have no problem admitting to being scared in general, but the movie didn\’t scare me. I think I was more enthralled by the mystery in the story to acknowledge that something was attempting to scare me. I didn\’t buy into the whole "this is real" nonsense, but I was hooked on the rest of it – the lore/etc. As I\’ve reflected back on it through the years, it still holds up as a moderately compelling story even if time and critical reception to it have beaten it down to where it\’s often referenced as little more than "that movie that paved the road for films like Paranormal Activity". Overall, I have the same appreciation for it that I do for The Last Broadcast, which managed to pull off much of the same tricks with its story despite its ending being wildly different from the rest of the film itself.
If we\’re going to put THE VANISHING in here, I think we need to at least consider the ending to BURIED (2012). What a gut punch…
What, no Pulse (Kairo)?
Excellent choice for #1. I saw "Don\’t Look Now" for the first time years ago in the middle of the night and that ending nearly traumatized me.
Come on, now but how can you have a list of scariest film moments and not have the Exorcist 3\’s hospital scene with the giant shears?
yes! the final Blair Witch scene! absolutely terrifying. Classic