I didn’t want to hijack madsircool’sthread about Halloween movies so I started this. I’m talking about those standout images or moments in films that still haunt you. They don’t necessarily have to be gory or graphic, just things that made / make an impact.
The earliest one I can think of is from the original Poseidon Adventure. When they get to the engine room they come across a burned body. This shot is the only one I can find but in the movie there’s a closeup when one of the women (Carol Lindley?) sees it and screams. I have seen so much worse since then but I will never forget how traumatized my six year old self was. I pictured that face for months<shudder>.
Another one from back in the day is the final scene in Trilogy of Terror.** Sure, that creepy ass doll was scary but you got somewhat desensitized to him after awhile. No, the most horrifying sight was the lovely Karen Black, baring her now razor sharp teeth and stabbing at the ground with a knife as she waits for her unsuspecting mother to show up. Brrrrrrrrrr.
Finally, another one featuring Ms. Black, brought to you by the same Dan Curtis who was responsible for Trilogy. No one who has seen Burnt Offerings can forget the scene just before the end when we finally see "Mrs. Allerdyce ". The build up and then the reveal made a packed theater positively shriek in terror. It took me years before I could watch that scene again.
None of my examples are particularly graffic, and of course these are all old movies that I saw as a kid so that might have dialed up the scare factor, but these had such an impact on me I was a little apprehensive even Googling them.
I have more modern examples but I’d rather hear / see what freaked you out the most. Try to link to a picture if possible but if not please describe it in oogie detail.
Well that was unpleasant. I can’t believe I’ve never seen Salem’s Lot.. On the Halloween watch list it goes. (Was the kid whose room it is played by Lance Kerwin?)
Be happy you’re an adult. I was ~12 when I first saw Salem’s Lot. I couldn’t sleep for at least a week, probably longer. It’s still the first thing that comes to mind when someone talks about nightmare fuel.
The movie Serpent and the Rainbow is about making zombies in Haiti using voodoo drugs.
There is one scene where Bill Pullman is tied to a wooden chair and the evil cop hammers a spike into his scrotum. I cringe when I hear the hammer hit the spike. Freaks me out more than any other scene in any horror movie. Maybe because I can imagine the pain so vividly.
Its not so much one scene in Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte, but the entire theme of trying to drive Bette Davis insane warped my eight year old little mind.
FTR please feel free to hijack the other thread. You helped make it what it is today.
I remember this. Made me cringe and I’m a chick. Blech.
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The botched electrocution in The Green Mile.
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Hells yes. The description in the book was excruciating and I was dreading it when I saw the movie. It was almost as bad.
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Its not so much one scene in Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte, but the entire theme of trying to drive Bette Davis insane warped my eight year old little mind.
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This movie made a big impression on me. Its dark tone was so mesmerizing and the way Bette Davis played her role made you feel repelled yet sympathetic at the same time. Still, if I have to pick out one image that sent my eight year old self into a frenzy, it would be John Mayhew’s severed hand. It’s not even realistic yet I screamed just as loud as Charlotte did.
I’m always, always, always creeped out by the “ghost passing quickly behind someone” trope. I almost always know it’s coming, based on the way the shot is framed (and the fact that someone is walking through a house in dim lighting, usually), but it gets me EVERY time.
I’m not sure what we’re looking at (?) We see a building and zoom in on a dark figure and the last time the figure is a woman(?). Help me to see the creepy goodness!
In the original Nightmare on Elm Street, hands tore through Johnny Depp’s bed and pulled him down through the mattress. Then a geyser of blood exploded upward.
I was about 12 when I saw that on HBO. I don’t recall sleeping that night.
If you’ve not seen Prince of Darkness, basically there’s a church in LA that is housing a mysterious cylinder in its basement which apparently contains the corporeal embodiment of Satan (but they don’t know this at the time, of course). A professor and a group of his students are at the church studying the cylinder, and during their stay at the church they all have the same dream, which is not actually a dream but a message sent from the future.
The full message is says:
The first two times in that video is before the liquid in the cylinder escapes and possesses some of the students. Near the end of the film, a student, Catherine, tackles one of her possessed colleagues and they both fall through a portal, seemingly trapping them both on the “other side.” The last occurrence of the dream shows Catherine emerging from the church instead of the other guy.
Did she save them from doom? Or did she just bring it back with her?
Anyone who has seen Mulholland Drive is familiar with the scene that takes place at Winky’s Diner. I’ve seen the film at least a dozen times and I cannot watch that scene, the buildup and quick reveal is just too much :eek: But if you look at the actress (did you know it was a woman?) outside of the setting and the sense of dread that the scene creates, she just looks like someone with a lot of schmutz on her face.
The girl in the closet in “The Ring.” Nope, not gonna go look for pictures. It wasn’t just that her face was bad, it was that suddenly that mouth moved.
Gahhhh, that scene and the one from The Ring are the two biggest scares I’ve seen.
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