The face pops up a couple of times, just as brief, almost subliminal flashes. The first appearance is during Father Damien’s dream, just after his mother comes up from the subway and calls his name. It appears again when the lights are flashing during the exorcism.
The music was disturbing as well.
One of my favorite scenes. 
(NSFW)
The things that make a movie scary, are an acceptable suspendment of disbelief, good makeup /effects, believable acting and the way the storys written.
As a zombie fan I’ve seen too many movies ruined by over the top zombie makeup, and the Zs themselves too easily beaten.
False alarms try my patience, and heroes who do stupid things that put them in danger, make me think that if they have to mess up to be at risk, then that diminishes the threat.
I saw the exorcist in Malta with all of the hype, medics in attendance and the devoutly Catholic audience either screaming or ready to faint throughout the film, and thought that it was a little bit silly, rather then anything else.
Alien was indeed tension building, as was Angelheart, another favourite that makes you nervous without understanding why much of the time.
Its just incredibly well done.
Also a Korean film called R Point is very effective in creeping you out.
But my vote goes to a little known film called Severance.
The film is actually a Black comedy, buildup is completely believable, makes you have second takes after some of the scenes, and goes from making you laugh one second before throwing you into complete shock and fear the next.
Other times it keeps you in suspense until what you fear is going to happen, does happen.
And you know that however lovable or innocent the character, they are just as likely to suffer a hideous death as anyone else.
So if you don’t fancy sleeping, try watching this before you go to bed.
Word. Only I wasn’t a kid or teen, I was twenty-nine. When I got home I checked in the closets . . . but not too closely.
On the TV side, the already mentioned Trilogy of Terror especially the last segment, most especially the last scene, where Karen Black is crouching in the corner, chunking a knife into the floor repeatedly . . . and smiling.
A friend told me the British film KILL LIST was the scariest movie he’d ever seen - it certainly was very disturbing but mine would be The Exorcist. In the cinema, aged 16, the two friends I went with exited after the lumbar puncture scene (!) leaving me alone in a packed theatre. Blimey.
MiM
Special bulletin is on youtube
I remember seeing Death Ship on cable with my oldest brother (11 yrs older) who laughed himself silly during the entire film.
I was about 7 when ABC originally showed Trilogy of Terror, and even the preview adverts scared me, as I was frightened of the dark when I was little. My other brother (9 years older) thought this was fantastic, and added scaring me about the Trilogy film to his repertoire of shitty tricks he’d play on me (my older brother was a bully who scared me more than film and tv monsters, the abusive fuck). Oldest brother tried to show me that it was all silly bits, and even showed me a magazine article about how they articulated the doll and that.
It made me afraid to go to bed at night; one night when both brothers were babysitting, older brother waited until oldest brother was putting me to bed, then went outside to smash his face up against my window to scare me. Oldest brother proceeded to go outside, grab our sibling, and thrash the crap out of him.
Ah, fond memories.
I remember as a kid being really scared at a movie called “Horrors of the Black Museum”, which had people getting killed with various items from a museum. The most memorable scene was a man looking through a pair of binoculars only to be killed when spikes shoot out. :eek: :eek:
Also, Vincent Price as Dr. Phibes scared the crap out of me as well.