5. “Ringu” (1998)
The American remake, for once, is pretty good too, but there can only be one first time you see a black-haired demon ghost thingie crawl out of a television, and for those of us who saw Hideo Nakata‘s original “Ringu” first, that’s the one that will never be bettered. Especially since there’s something about the more lo-fi, un-glossy finish to this version that meshes well with the video/VHS aesthetic of that creepy tape, and makes the monster even scarier because she seems simultaneously kind of banal.
4. “Alien” (1979)
We all know now that the cast were not told in advance what was going to happen during the dinner scene on board the Nostromo in Ridley Scott‘s classic “Alien,” and that at least partially accounts for the scene’s immense impact: their reactions are nakedly human, and geniunely groosed-out and terrified. But then again, this scene has a vicious, screaming, eyeless, metal-toothed alien burst out of John Hurt‘s chest in a grotesque and violent parody of childbirth, so it’s kind of hard to imagine it was ever going to be ho-hum.
3. “The Blair Witch Project” (1999)
We always get a few derisive comments whenever we place Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez‘s found-footage horror on any list. It seems to have become terrible unfashionable to admit you were scared by it. But fashion schmasion, this film absolutely terrified me, perhaps more than any other I’ve seen in the theater, and this scene remains to this day one I only dare myself to think about when I want to test how brave I’m feeling. It’s the simplicity and rawness of the facing-the-wall conceit that is part of a mythology we hadn’t even noticed we were absorbing until that point, that makes this moment the one that defined for this cinemagoer, the actual feeling of “skin-crawling.”
2. “The Exorcist” (1973)
So many potential scenes to choose here, but only one can really get the ribbon. There’s the spider-walk (which did not actually appear in the original cut of the film) or the much-parodied head twist or the pea-soup vomit sequences, but all of those are such integral parts of the collective unconscious that there’s not really any point in calling them out again, and they have had a little of their shock value worn down through repetition. So we’ll go for the slightly less frequently referenced (probably because of, you know, the incest, sexual violence and blasphemy) scene below which still beggars belief that it actually ever made it in to any movie, ever.
1. “Don’t Look Now” (1973)
So many of the greatest horrors are a mixture of the uncanny, the horrible and the deeply sad, and Nicolas Roeg‘s peerless, heartbreaking and terrifying “Don’t Look Now” is surely one of the greatest horrors ever made. If perhaps over its whole length, it plays up aspects other than strictest horror, it still contains this one scene at its climax which in everything it is encapsulates everything this list is about: it’s first and foremost a shock, it’s grief made manifest, it’s inexplicable, yet it makes the weirdest sort of sense out of the foreboding and premonitions that have gone before. And it’s also, frankly, kind of gloriously, technicolor gory (the richest, reddest blood on record).
There are too many more to mention, so why don’t tell us which of your own favorite scary moments we missed out in the comments below, and a very creepy Halloween to you all.
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