The little girls at the end of the hallway in The Shining. I’m not sure what’s so creepy about that moment, but there’s always a sensation of panic when I see it. The movie Twister has a scene in which the The Shining plays in the background at a drive-in theater, at that precise moment of the movie. Even in that context I feel creeped out, and I assume its use in Twister means I’m not alone.
omigosh, that is one of the worst!If you look at a closeup it’s not really that bad but one minute the the scene is quiet with the mom talking and when she says “I saw her face” and we get a quick shot of . . . that, coupled with that psycho stab music. I think that was the biggest reaction of a theater audience I’ve ever witnessed.
Speaking of The Ring, I think the American remake is far superior to the original but Samara has nothing on Ringu’s Sudako or whatever her name is. I watched that movie exactly once and in general it was kind of boring. The end scene, which I will not google nor watch, caught me off guard and really messed me up for the rest of the evening.
The biggest scare I ever had was when Jack Nicholson took an ax to Scatman Crothers in The Shining.
Second place goes to the scene in Hellraiser when the cat jumped out of the closet. (Yes, I know, it’s an old cliche, but I fell for it, that time.)
There is a scene in Robocop II where the scientists dissect the body of the villain. They remove his brain from his skull (eyeballs still attached) and put it into a jar. Then the camera shows you the scene from his point of view.
A more subtle creepiness is the scene in The Creature from the Black Lagoon where the woman is swimming, completely unaware that the Gill-Man is swimming beneath her, watching her every move.
Not really scary, but very cool, is the scene in The Wolf Man where Lon Chaney runs off into the night. The camera follows his trail, as his footprints gradually become pawprints.
That creepy Snickers commercial from a few years back. Particularly the part where "she" caresses the woman’s face. shudder
Not gory, but scary as anything was the scened from The Silence of the Lambs, when Clarice first interviews Hannibal. My God, Anthony Hopkins creeped me right out.
I KNEW it was just a movie, and even if it WASN’T he was behind thick glass. There was no **WAY **he could endanger ME.
Both Foster and Hopkins deserved their Oscars, for creating characters so real that I was scard in spite of myself.
The ol’ clown puppet under the bed from *Poltergeist *(1982) freaked a preteen Gordon Urquhart right the hell out, even though he was watching it on HBO or Cinemax at 8 AM when it premiered on the first day of the month.
Also, this scene from ITV’s production of Susan Hill’s The Woman in Black (1989) is very effective (more effective taken in context of the whole movie, of course).
I suppose because it had such an impact on me when I saw it because I was so young, The Changeling still gives me the chills. I give you the ball on the stairs.
Ben Gardner’s appearance in Jaws
In the same movie when the girl crawled out of the TV, not sure what it was about that scene, but it creeped me out.
The Night of the Living Dead creeped me out too the first time I saw it. Maybe it’s because I was working nights so I watched it around 1am one Saturday night.
The original Omen when the photographer was neatly decapitated by a sheet of glass that came off a truck.
How bout the hand coming out of the grave in the original Carrie? I didn’t see that coming.
Mine were when I was really little and watching made-for-TV movies. All are from the early 70s and used to scare the snot out of me. It began with “House on Greenapple Road” where it starts with a young girl coming home to find (I think) the washroom splattered with blood. The swell of the music juxtaposed over her almost skipping in the door and then the harshness of the light, made me think that was what the Manson murder scene was like.
Next was “Don’t be Afraid of the Dark” with Kim Darby. It had these little apple-headed, tiny creatures that lived in the recesses of this home that were constantly up to horrific shenanigans. You only got glimpses of them for the most part, which made it worse, but it was their whispering and giggling that drove me batty. The remake of this (solidifying that others were equally creeped out) sucked terribly.
Last was “Gargoyles.” When the main winged, evil beastie jumped on top of that car with a loud thud and squeal, I almost wet my pants. I yelped like the little girl I was.
Oh, and although I didn’t see The Exorcist until I lived on my own as an adult, the pictures of Linda Blair as Reagan, in full possessed regalia, were all over the tabloids at the grocery store. She is what haunted my nightmares. I used to sit up in bed, staring out the window, to prevent her from coming and doing awful things to me while I slept. Now that was a powerful image.
The nurse station scene from Exorcist III is legendary.
:eek::eek:I just watched it with the sound turned down and let out a little squeal. I can’t imagine how scary that must have been when seen in a theater. I am definitely watching that one (though I might have something to do in another room when that scene comes on).
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How bout the hand coming out of the grave in the original Carrie? I didn’t see that coming.
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I still can’t watch that without keeping my hands over my eyes. Even if I leave the room, I can always imagine it happening because of the sudden swell of music and those accursed bells. Now it’s a cliche to have one last jump scare but back then it was a pretty surprising and horrifying trick.
The Night Gallery series was always good for a scare. I remember it being on in the late afternoon when I was home alone and the opening music was enough to paralyze me. You’d think I’d learn not to watch it but nooooooooooo. The first episode had the story with Roddy McDowell as the greedy nephew of a dying millionaire and Ossie Davis as the loyal butler. There was a painting of the family mansion that kept changing, first showing a grave yard, then an open grave, than a casket, etc. . . . until we see one of the dead uncle angrily pounding on the door, while at the same time real, urgent knocking is heard at the door. Thisis the best shot I can find but there’s one where the old man has a mean scowl on his face and you just know he’s going to release his wrath. Messed my shit up bad, that did.
John Carpenter’s The Thing. Of course, the scene where the guy’s head becomes a crab-creature and scuttles away is horrible.
But I found just as terrifying the dogs trapped in the kennel with the Thing as it was transmogrifying into . . . something. It has been awhile and I’m not remembering it quite clearly, probably because I was holding my hands in front of my face. The poor doggies couldn’t get away from the hideous thing!
There’s a scene in Jaws where Jaws eats someone, and then you see a severed leg bouncing off the sea floor. My gosh, that’s going to be in my head until the day I die.