 |
Greatest Scariest Movie Moments
and Scenes
|
|
|
Greatest Scariest Movie Moments
and Scenes
|
| Greatest Scariest Movie Moments and
Scenes |
||
| Movie Title |
Brief Scene Description | Example |
| Nosferatu (1922, Ger.)
|
The shadowy approach up the stairs of the hideous Nosferatu (undead) vampire Count Graf Orlok (Max Schreck) with his elongated, bony hand reaching out to a door and toward his victim - a sleeping and awaiting Nina Hutter (Greta Schroeder); also when the ghoulish vampire rises in his coffin |    |
| Oldboy (2003)
|
In this mysterious and visceral (double) revenge thriller by director Chan-wook Park, prisoner Dae-su Oh (Choi Min-sik) was released after 15 years in a dingy, shabby windowless cell -- without knowing the charges, although he learned over TV during his long imprisonment that he was framed for his wife's murder and that his young three year-old daughter was sent to live with foster parents; he sought revenge for his many unexplained years of being captive after being kidnapped from a phone booth, although he had only a few days (after being freed inexplicably) to find the enigmatic answers; he learned that the villainous, sadistic and insane captor-tormentor Woo-jin Lee (Yu Ji-tae), a former schoolmate, had blamed Dae-su for spreading a rumor about an incestuous pregnancy in his family (between young Woo-Jin and his sister Lee Soo-ah) that led to the humiliated sister's suicide - although Woo-jin's guilt-ridden memory (at the time of his own bullet-to-the-head suicide) revealed that he killed his own sister; there were two excessively vulgar and scary scenes of forcible tooth extraction (one with the claw of a hammer), and Dae-su cut off his own tongue with a rusty pair of scissors -- to show atonement and to prevent any further rumors or talk after taking the virginity of helpful female sushi chef Mi-do (Kang Hye-jeong) -- his own long-lost daughter!; there was also an amazing scene of Dae-su eating a squirming and wriggling live octopus headfirst in a sushi bar |    |
|
|
The scene of Damien's (the Devil's own son, the anti-Christ, with the 666 sign on his scalp) (Harvey Stephens) 5th birthday party, when his nanny (Holly Palance) goes into the mansion's attic, ties a noose around her neck, stands out on the ledge of the window, and jumps and hangs herself (and shatters the glass windows in the process) after calling out her final words: "Damien, look at me! I love you! It's all for you!" - Damien's view is shielded by his mother Katherine Thorn (Lee Remick), but a big smile is visible on his face; and the scene in a cemetery while investigating Damien's origins when Robert Thorn (Gregory Peck) and photographer Keith Jennings (David Warner) are attacked by a pack of vicious dogs; and later the scary demise of Jennings by decapitation when a sheet of plate glass flies off the back of a braking truck and neatly slices through his neck (viewed from many angles) - sending his body-less head flying through the air to rest on the ground where it can view itself in reflected glass; also the scene of the death of Father Brennan (Patrick G. Troughton) by a freak storm outside a church after warning Thorn that he has adopted Lucifer's son; and the scene in which baboons from the zoo instinctively recognize Damien's devilish-nature and attack the car carrying Damien and his mother; and the scene of Damien maniacally pedaling his tricycle and knocking his mother over the second-floor railing to the menacing sound of ''Ave Satani''; and the scene of a bloodied Thorn dragging his screaming son to a church altar to sacrifice him |      |
| Open Water (2003)
|
The terrifying extended scenes of vacationing couple Daniel and Susan (Daniel Travis and Blanchard Ryan) in the Caribbean accidentally left behind while scuba-diving, and their ordeal in the open, frightening, shark-infested ocean - especially when Daniel is first bitten by an underwater predator |   |
| The Others (2001)
|
The discovery by Grace's (Nicole Kidman) children that the graves outside are of the three servants that are newly employed (without a want ad) -- and Grace's discovery of their death portrait daguerreotype; and the moment when a little girl's voice comes from the mouth of a decrepit old woman ("Are you mad? I am your daughter") |    |
| Pacific Heights (1990)
|
The scene of psychotic tenant Carter Hayes (Michael Keaton) confronting new landlord Patty Palmer (Melanie Griffith) |  |
| Peeping Tom (1960)
|
The chilling scenes of Mark Lewis (Karlheinz Boehm), a shy studio cameraman (and serial killer) who films call girls and then kills them with the spiked leg of his hand-held camera tripod (with a mirror attached so that victims can watch themselves dying) |   |
| Pee Wee's Big Adventure (1985)
|
The scene of Pee-Wee Herman (Paul Reubens) hitchhiking in the desert and his startling and hysterical encounter with trucker Large Marge (Alice Nunn) - who is transformed into a bug-eyed ghostly victim of a horrendous auto accident | 
|
| Pet Sematary (1989)
|
The first hint of resuscitation of the dead in a pet sematary (Indian burial ground) near a busy highway filled with trucks, when the Creed family's dead cat named Church is resurrected as undead - with a foul stench and glowing eyes; and the 'rebirth' of a grotesque corpse of patient Victor Pascow (Brad Greenquist) - a college student and highway accident victim with a nasty head injury; later, toddler Gage Creed (Miko Hughes), after a truck tragically killed him on the highway, is transformed into an evil undead, soul-less stalker who murders people (neighbor Jud Crandall (Fred Gwynne) and his mother Rachel (Denise Crosby)) with a sharp surgical scalpel; also the character of emaciated, terminally-ill and crippled Zelda Goldman (Andrew Hubatsek) who was kept bedridden in a room for her entire life until her death from spinal meningitis - and the haunting of her sister Rachel with threats of: "I'll break your back!" and "You'll never walk again! NEVER WALK AGAIN!"; in the film's climax, husband Louis (Dale Midkiff) unwisely kisses his undead wife Rachel - she murders him with a long knife |      |
| Phantasm (1979)
|
The menacing, disturbing Tall Man (Angus Scrimm) who haunts a young boy and his friends with a flying metal ball that has deadly spring-loaded blades |  |
| The Phantom of the Opera (1925)
|
The frightening, eerie moment that the mad Erik (Lon Chaney, Sr.), the horribly disfigured phantom of the opera, is unmasked and shows his "accursed ugliness" to Christine Daae (Mary Philbin), a soprano understudy at the Paris Opera; his grotesque face with artfully-applied makeup shows round, darkened eyes, jagged decayed teeth, flaring nostrils, and a corpse-like visage |  |
Pinocchio (1940)
|
The scary Pleasure Island sequence in which bad boys (who smoke and drink), such as Lampwick, sprout donkey ears, hooves and a tail, bray like a donkey - and frantically cry out for their Mommas - and are ultimately sold to the salt mines; also the sequence involving Monstro the Whale |  
|
|
|
The scene of seductive listener/fan and possessive, murderous psychotic stalker Evelyn Draper (Jessica Walter), recently released from a mental institution, awakening all-night DJ Dave Garver (Clint Eastwood) in the middle of the night in his bedroom to the sounds of 'Misty' being played - she appears above him with a butcher knife ready to stab him - and stabs his pillow; by film's end, he is again lured to the crazy woman when he realizes that his ex-girlfriend Tobie Williams' (Donna Mills) recently-acquired roommate is Evelyn, and she has been tied up and terrorized in a dark house as bait - in the final scary confrontation, he is attacked and badly wounded by Evelyn - after being slashed many times, he punches her in the jaw, sending her through the balcony to her death in the ocean below |
   |
|
|
The early terrifying scene in which the arm branches
of the gnarly tree outside a bedroom window during a thunderstorm become animated, crash through the glass,
and seize 8 year-old
Robbie (Oliver Robins) from his bed - and half-devour him before he is saved by his father Steve Freeling (Craig T. Nelson); also the concluding scene of distraught suburban
California mother Diane Freeling (JoBeth Williams) running outside into
the yard for help - in the rain - and making a wrong step - she slips
into the muddy, excavated pit next to the house, dug for their swimming
pool, slides down the slippery slope into the dirty water, and surfaces
with skeletal faces of corpses (with silent, screaming expressions) rising
behind her; also, the earlier scene of a frightening, evil-grinning, long-armed
clown doll vanishing from its customary chair across the room, grabbing
owner Robbie, pulling him under the bed and attempting
to strangle him; or the kitchen scene of the self-stacking chairs, or
the scene of young, five year old blonde nursery-schooler Carol Anne (Heather
O'Rourke) communing with TV static and exclaiming: "They're here!";
also the scene of the ghostly apparition named The Beast emerging from the children's bedroom closet; and the ghastly scene of para-psychologist Marty (Martin Casella) spotting a
left-over steak moving on its own and a turkey leg infested with maggots
- and then looking into a bathroom mirror and having a morbid, hallucinatory
experience - his face deteriorates as he claws at his face and peels back
the rotting flesh with his fingers, pulling off gobs of skin down to the
bone |
      |
Created in 1996-2008 © by Tim Dirks. All rights reserved.
Many sites and horror books have attempted to compile listings of the
scariest scenes in film history. In late October 2004, the Bravo
cable network first presented a countdown of 100 movies that contained
the 100 Scariest Movie Moments in Film History, later supplemented with
30 Even Scarier Movie Moments in October, 2006. Other sites and film
critics have presented their own compilations of cinema's scariest scenes,
such as the UK's Channel Four and RetroCrush. The selections
of Entertainment Weekly for the "20 Scariest Movies of All
Time" in October 2004 are marked with this symbol -- 
