Perhaps I’m a bit strange, but nothing has scared the hell out of me more than…
…Apocalypse Now.
Y’know? When the tiger jumps out of the plants? And they start shooting?
Causes me to require immediate medical assistance every single time.
big alex beat me to it, but the scene in Independence Day when they are doing the autopsy on the alien…everyone in the theater leans in a little and then BANG! jumps back. Even the second time (course that was when it was in the theaters, so I was 12).
In Alien when the facehugger first makes an appearance…that was intense.
This one isn’t really the same type of thing, more of a “HOLY JESUS! LET ME FORGET THAT!” than “YIKES! Didn’t see that coming!” but the hobbling in Misery
And I’ll throw another vote for Se7en’s Sloth.
I must admit being somewhat confused about everyone’s terror that The Ring invoked. There were some jumpy parts there, but the body in the closet…the real fast edit was kind of a shock, then we (and nearly 1/2 the theater) laughed at it. But, whatever. To each his own.
It’s really stupid, but there’s a scene in Gremlins when the ‘slimy’ Mogwai have just hatched, and the mother is sneaking through the house with a kitchen knife… and one of the Mogwai throws a glass against the wall! That gave me a scare, I can tell you.
One more vote for Sloth in Se7en. Shudder I watched it with my classmates, and every single one of them jumped. Most screamed.
In the Sixth Sense, pretty much every dead person got a jump out of me. Especially the woman in the kitchen. The hanging people got a prolonged shudder.
In Minority Report, when the Precog girl jumped out of the water and grabbed the man… I very nearly pissed myself.
Not really scary but creepy was the scene in Nightmare on Elm Street 1 when the wall looks like somethign flimsy and you see the points of the glove sort of poke out of the wall.
Another creepy one is in Jurassic park three that mother type person is looking in a giant glass with some greenish liquid and the raptor behind it on the other side blinks at her.
That little kid in Pet Cemetary gave me nightmares.
The scene in Unbreakable when the villin guy falls down the stairs and you hear EVERY BREAKING BONE as it breaks made me want to vomit.
The entire audience in the theatre screamed in unison at that scene when I saw it.
Yeah, that’s the one!!! I’ve seen the movie lots of times, and although I don’t jump anymore… I still flinch.
Since you took my first answer, I’m going to go with a scene from The Changeling. The whole movie is pretty tense/creepy, but the seance is some really good scariness.
Ok I know this is lame, but I was a kid when I saw it…in Crocodile Dundee, in the beginning,when the reporter woman (forget her name) is at the shore of the swamp and she squats down and washes her hands,face whatever…and the croc pops out of the water and grabs her by the camera hanging on her neck.Aaahhh!!
- Vertigo, right at the end in the belltower, when a figure comes out of the shadows. A girl in the audience involuntarily let out a small scream when she saw that; I jumped up as well
I have to agree, for three reasons.
- Shock factor, it was unexpected and she had a terrifying scream
- Psychological factor: The guy must be severely traumatized
- Innovative value: The credits occur less then 15 seconds after, utterly jarring us back into reality. Nothing is more freaky than sitting with a group of people who are scared as senseless as you are, and being forced to discuss it.
All those mentioned are fine for base shock value, but it’s a bit of a simple trick for film-makers. Just build up the tension and then have something jump out at you on screen. Been done a million times.
For me it was The Sweet Hereafter.
[spoiler]The scene when the school bus falls into the ice.
You start with a school bus travelling on a snowy mountain road. Behind the bus is a pickup truck. In the truck is a father following the school bus and waving at his children, who are in the back of the bus waving back. A very heartwarming scene.
But then, the bus takes a turn too fast and slides down the hillside and comes to rest on the ice of the frozen river. You are watching from the point of view of the father up on the road. In the distance you see the bus sit there silently for a brief moment, then the ice cracks and the bus plunges almost in slow motion and silently into the icy water.[/spoiler]
That one nearly gave me a heart attack, not a ‘start’, not a ‘jump out of my seat’ moment, no really, an OH MY GOD I’M HAVING A HEART ATTACK!
carry on
Has anyone seen Ring 2, the Japanese one? There were several scenes that really disturbed me. There was a scene that involved poolside psychokinetic experimentation. The thing that got me was the doctor in the background slowly edging into the pool holding some electrical equipment and grinning insanely. ugh. I have to stop thinking about it or i’ll freak out.
Has anyone seen Ring 2, the Japanese one? There were several scenes that really disturbed me. There was a scene that involved poolside psychokinetic experimentation. The thing that got me was the doctor in the background slowly edging into the pool holding some electrical equipment and grinning insanely. ugh. I have to stop thinking about it or i’ll freak out.
That would be … um (do I really want to admit this?) …
The Princess Bride
OK - here’s the deal - I was watching this in the theatre with some friends, and we came to the scene where Fezzic meets The Man In Black. TMIB is walking by a large boulder, and a rock suddenly smashes into the boulder. I jumped - my friends both jumped - and one of them managed to spill soda AND popcorn on ME.
grrr…
We all had a good laugh about it afterwards
Close Encounters of the Third Kind, when the UFO leaves Richard Dreyfuss alone at the railroad tracks, then he scares the crap out of himself when his flashlight turns back on.
Final Destination …I think it’s the second death. The kids are outside, I think at a cafe, and the blond girl gets pissed and starts walking away. She turns around to say something, turns back and steps into the street, and BAM! is nailed by a bus. The scene is a close-up, so you don’t see the bus at all until it runs right over her.
It made us all jump, then laugh hysterically.
Mine’s already been mentioned, the bathroom-and-kitchen scene in The Sixth Sense. I twitched horribly when Cole was standing at the toilet and the figure passed behind him, and again when he walked into the kitchen and the woman turned around.
Oh yes, and the scenes with the dead girl (the one whose mother poisoned her)?both got my heart going way over the top.
I was 8 or 9 when Alien came out on VHS and we rented it. The alien-birth scene scared me so much, I hid behind two chairs and a sofa, and could only peek at the screen every few minutes after that.
I thought that **The Ring[/b had an even more frightning moment than the closet corpse…
When the killer comes out of the TV and in the space of a millisecond crosses the 20 feet of floor to stand face to face with Noah…
No movie baddie ever felt more unescapable than that particular moment
Here is my formula for watching horror movies-
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Place thumbs in ears. This helps with gross sound effects.
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With thumbs still in ears, bring fingers around to cover face and peer between fingers. This allows for instant “eeek” coverage if something bad happens, and avoids possible nightmares later on.
I love horror movies, but I’m such a scaredy-cat. I have actually had nightmares from commercials.
How about the rape scene in Irreversible? Or the fight scene with the fire extinguisher…
Absolutely awful!
Six-O
I’m surprised nobody’s mentioned the shot from Exorcist III where the nurse making rounds locks a door, and then from that same door comes someone with surgical scissors (hedge trimmers?). To this day that shot scares the bejeezus outta me, and I KNOW it’s coming!