Probably been many other shocks from the movies if I took the time to think on it, but the one I remember is from Serenity (the movie follow-on from the TV series Firefly), where one of the main characters is killed. No foreboding, no ‘see it coming’, just…violently dead.
I think many are confusing shock and surprise. A shocking moment (like way damn to many in Schindler’s List to recount) isn’t smiled or laughed at, it comes like a sucker punch and blows you away.
IMHO as always. YMMV.
We watched Serenity without knowing Firefly was a thing, so we were somewhat puzzled by that moment. Only after we later watched Firefly were we like, “omg they killed ___!”
I observed the same audience reaction in the US (see post 21).
There’s also the mathematical notion that if we’re one in a million—well wait, how many stars are there that could support a solar system? Why are we so vain to think that life couldn’t exist elsewhere?
Wikipedia says:
So we naturally assume if they traveled for all that time, they’re far away from where they started.
English is problematic, but I think audiences of the time were willing to overlook that. If the writer had given them a magic widget that decoded any language and the apes had something similar, it would fix that.
It is possible to make a movie in a language that no audience can understand.
I think it was Robert Frost who said people use scare and startle interchangeably. Having a gun pointed at you should scare you because there’s real danger; having your six year old granddaughter jump out when you’re not expecting t isn’t scary, though it startles you.
I was going to mention Schindler’s little girl in red…when you realize she’s among the dead bodies. No blast of dramatic music, no sudden monster’s face on screen, etc. IMO that silent, unexpected moment was just brilliant. A similar scene happened in the movie Rosewood when you realize Jewel (Akosua Busia) has been killed.
I knew about it when I saw it in the theater, and attended with a male friend who hadn’t even heard that there was a major plot twist. He was quite freaked out.
(Not spoilered because chances are, people reading this have already seen them, or at least know about them): The “choking on vomit” scene from “This Is Spinal Tap”, the “That’s not what it was like, penis breath!” scene from “E.T.”, and the nude scene in “About Schmidt” featuring one Kathy Bates.
I was in college when I first saw it, and it scared the hell out of me. I watched the movie several times over the years, and was past 50 when I looked at the screen again.
A lapse of only 2006 years implies the journey was not long enough for a race of intelligent apes to have evolved, since this would normally take much longer. Ergo, they were probably on a planet like Earth, but not Earth itself.
Of course, we know now how this evolutionary leap occurred, but the audience back in 1968 didn’t. Which is why they were so easily fooled into thinking it was another planet entirely.
I saw the movie when I was 30, and it freaked me out too. My daughter had the same reaction when I showed it to her at age 15. 
Saw Aliens at the AAFES Theater in Bamberg Germany in '86, so there was a very heavy G.I. presence.
Then Hudson said, “Oh, man… and I was getting short! Four more weeks and out!”
About 90% of the theater patrons groaned in sympathy; then laughed their asses off.
A scene from the Firefly episode “The Train Job” when Mal deals with the penultimate bad guy. I did NOT expect that and it got quite the delighted whoop out of me.
I never saw Carrie in a theater, but this very scene was shocking to me when I first saw it on my 32-inch television screen at home.
It still gets me, even though I’ve seen it several times.
Might have missed this one above (my biggest complaint with Discourse is quick and easy searches of longer threads), but the end of Don’t Look Now with Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie. I saw it uncut on late night TV at a somewhat young age and it sincerely shocked me and freaked me out.
Daylight road tunnel is filling with water and Stallone is there to save the day. There’s a scene in the middle where some young person is drowning and yelling for help and the situation is desperate so Stallone lets them die.
Dante’s Peak The entire audience has been watching lava melt nearly an entire town worth of people for half an hour and in the middle Pierce Brosnan saves a dog and the audience suddenly cheered. I thought that was bizarre.
While the first thing I thought of was a scene in Alpha Dog, my next thought more along the lines of your example: Keri Russell’s piano-playing scene in Austenland. I watched it with my mom, who was familiar enough with my brother’s taste in music to get the joke, and we both laughed our butts off.
I saw this as an adult at an art-house theater, and it had the same effect.
Similarly, there was a scene in Episode IX between Rey and Kylo Ren Ben Solo. Although that wasn’t shock and awe so much as disgust and revulsion.
I saw Jaws three weeks after it came out, at a midnight showing that was still full. I knew where all the spoilers were, or so I thought. But the “bigger boat” scene triggered the whole theater to scream. As I screamed I looked around and lots of us were making “pushing away” motions with our hands.
I cried when Kirk died in Amok Time…my mom called me stupid.
I like the film, but I thought that scene was really over the top. I guess they were trying to set up how traumatized and fragile the Florence Pugh character was as a result. So she would be extra clingy toward her boyfriend, and also more susceptible to the influence of the villagers.
Maybe I’m talking myself into it. A horror movies is supposed to be horrifying, and that scene certainly was. Still seems excessive for an art-house film.