The Nurse’s Station scene in Exorcist III. You know a “BOO! moment” is coming, but the where, when, and how keeps you on edge.
In Alien, when Tom Skerrit is crawling around in the airshafts looking for the alien and can’t find it.
Then it finds him.
The “blood test” in John Carpenter’s The Thing. Just enough “negative” results to lull the audience, so that when Palmer tested “positive,” the entire theater audience jumped three feet straight into the air from the seated position.
Not a traditional horror movie, but in Sleeping With the Enemy when Julia Roberts suspects that her abusive husband has found her and she flings open the cupboards to see if the soup cans have all been alphabetized and straightened up…ack! For whatever reason, that had me jumping out of my seat, spilling popcorn all over the place.
Good one. It’s especially effective in that the actual scene is only a few frames long. It makes you jump in your seat, panting “What the hell was that?”
This practical joke, involving showing the Japanese version of The Ring to members of Japanese girl-group Morning Musume is pretty good:
Poltergeist clown scene.
I know what you mean–that dumped so much adrenaline into my system that it left me shaky.
Worse than that, though, was in The Forgotten, when Telly and her friend (forgot his name) are driving at night and out of absolutely NOWHERE come blinding headlights and the car is suddenly broadsided. I still don’t remember what happened immediately after that, because I was too busy doing my Fred Sanford impression–staggering and clutching my chest!
I haven’t seen that movie in years. Just thinking about that scene still scares me.
Another one from Fellowship of the Ring: When Gandalf gets mad at Bilbo after the party. The way he yells “BIL-BO BAGGINS!” makes me jump every time. Note to self: do not anger the wizards.
The librarian ghost in Ghostbusters (I always thought she was a librarian because she “shushed” Bill Murray but on second thoughts maybe she used to be one of the regular visitors). Anyway, I knew there was a BOO moment coming and was prepared for it but I still screamed like a 5-yr old girl when it finally came.
Not a movie, a TV show. When Blackadder is simultaneously entertaining his Puritan aunt and uncle (with an eye toward staying in their will), and hosting a beer-swilling contest upstairs and the clergyman comes down into the dining hall and says “Great Boo’s up, Edmund!”
I believe it was a Season Two offering called “Beer”.
When the bag jumps in Audition.
A Korean film called R-Point where a unit of Korean soldiers are sent to look for a lost patrol in Vietnam.
One of the BOO moments is when they look at a photo of their section,see that they are all in it and that the bloke who took the pic was an already dead member of the patrol that they have been sent to find.
Wait Until Dark, Alan Arkin’s jump.
American Werewolf In London.
The main character walks to the bathroom in the middle of the night. He’s washing his hands and looking into a mirror.
You know his dead, mangled buddy is going to show up behind him in the mirror. You now this for a fact. And yet when it happens, you still jump and scream like a little girl.
the Shining - Halloran (Scatman Crothers) comes to rescue Danny & Wendy, but has a run-in with Jack instead.
Invasion of the Body-Snatchers (late 70s remake) - the hobo / dog. If you saw it, no explanation is necessary.
There’s a great one at the beginning of Tremors after the monster has eaten the old couple. Pause for a moment then the toaster (i think) shoots out of the ground at high speed. Funny.
My favorite moment from that movie, sort of a boo, was when Jack’s wife read his manuscript. I think I shouted “Jesus Christ!” when that happened.
Another TV show: from the Buffy episode “Hush,” Giles’s girlfriend looks out the window on a peaceful neighborhood at night, and something quiet happens.
Daniel
The car alarm in 28 Days Later. Scariest bit of that movie.