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Greatest Scariest Movie Moments
and Scenes
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Greatest Scariest Movie Moments
and Scenes
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Greatest Scariest Movie Moments and
Scenes |
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Movie Title |
Brief Scene Description | Example |
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Dial M For Murder (1954)
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The attempted strangulation scene (also filmed in 3-D) of wealthy Margot Wendice (Grace Kelly) reaching backwards and searching for a weapon (a pair of scissors) to defend herself and kill hired assassin Captain Lesgate (Anthony Dawson) by stabbing him in the back |
   
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Don't Look Now (1973)
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After the scary drowning death of his red raincoat-wearing daughter Christine (Sharon Williams) in an early scene, the final moment that architectural restoration expert John Baxter (Donald Sutherland) sights what he thinks is a small girl in a bright red hooded coat in a dark alleyway - who turns out to be his nemesis - a murderous, wizened-faced dwarf in the city of Venice who slices his throat with a long sharp knife |
  
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The tuxedo-garbed entrance of Transylvanian Count Dracula (Bela Lugosi) on a long staircase below a gigantic web (which he passes through as he exits), when he raises his eyes, and utters with a lilting Hungarian accent after hearing the sound of wolves: "Listen to them. Children of the night. What mu-u-u-sic they make"; also the scene of the discovery of crazed lunatic Renfield (Dwight Frye) on the ship Vesta that bore the casket of Dracula to England - Renfield emerges in the hatchway from the hold of the death ship, stares up giggling and totally insane - obviously infected with Dracula's madness |
 
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Dracula: Prince of Darkness (1966)
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The Carpathian crypt ritualistic resurrection scene in which Count Dracula's (Christopher Lee) creepy manservant, Klove (Philip Latham) suspends murdered vacationing English tourist Alan Kent (Charles Tingwell) (after stabbing him in the back) by his feet over Dracula's tomb-sarcophagus - he then slits the man's throat to let his gushing blood awaken Dracula's ashes from the dead |
 
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Duel (1971)
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The relentless highway road pursuit of traveling salesman David Mann (Dennis Weaver) in his red 1970 Plymouth Valiant by a killer diesel truck (a 1955 Peterbilt 281 towing a tanker trailer) driven by a hidden, faceless psychopathic driver (wearing cowboy boots) (stuntman and character actor Carey Loftin) |
 
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Dumbo (1941)
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The alcohol-induced 'Pink Elephants on Parade' sequence; also the scene of the capture and confinement of Dumbo's mother Mrs. Jumbo when she's thought to be a rogue wild elephant for "attacking" a bratty kid who is tormenting little Dumbo by pulling his large ears |
 
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Eraserhead (1976)
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The views of Henry Spencer's (Jack Nance) and girlfriend Mary X's (Charlotte Stewart) deformed, bleating, sickly and whining mutant baby, born prematurely; it has a hairless lamb-shaped head with a bulbous, bandage-wrapped body |
 
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Director Sam Raimi's debut film was the ultimate "cabin in the woods" story - evil spirits are unleashed after the reading of a forbidden book the Necronomicon; the scariest scene is the infamous (and gratuitous) predatory tree rape scene with quick POV tracking shots, when Ash's (Bruce Campbell) sister Cheryl (Ellen Sandweiss) is attacked in the woods outside the log cabin by vines and tree branches - one limb impales her in her crotch as she is chased back to the house - she is soon transformed into a demon zombie with a greyish white face; as a result, she floats above the floor, speaks with a ghastly voice, and grabs a pencil from the floor and jabs it into Linda's (Betsy Baker) ankle - so she must be confined in the basement cellar with a padlocked trapdoor |
   
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Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn (1987)
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The gory scene in which Ash (Bruce Campbell) cuts off his own possessed hand with a chainsaw - and it attacks him; and also the startling Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde-like scene when he stands in front of a mirror - and his reflection reaches out and grabs him by the throat |
  
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Evilspeak (1981)
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The scary scene of a herd of evil carnivorous pigs devouring the school's naked secretary Miss Friedemeyer (Lynn Hancock) in her bathroom shower - to secure her blood needed by nerdy and tormented military academy cadet Stanley Coopersmith (Clint Howard) for a black mass celebration; also the scene of demonic power twisting 180 degrees the head of the drunken school custodian Sarge (R.G. Armstrong); and the final slaughter sequence in the barricaded chapel including the Coach's (Claude Earl Jones) impalement in an overhead chandelier with spikes, a nail from a crucifix sailing through the air into the forehead of Reverend Jameson (Joseph Cortese), the bloody head-splitting of Colonel Kincaid (Charles Tyner) with a sword, more body-chompings by the ravenous pigs, decapitations, and the ripping out of Bubba's (Don Stark) heart by the reanimated corpse of Sarge |
    
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| The Execution of Mary Queen of Scots (1895) (aka The Execution of Mary Stuart ) | The controversial execution (decapitation) of Mary, Queen of Scots (Robert Thomae) on the execution block, using a dummy and a trick camera shot (substitution shot) - in the short sequence, Mary knelt down, and put her head on the block as the executioner raised a large axe; when the axe was brought down, her head rolled off the chopping block to the left - where the executioner picked it up in the final frame and held it up; this scene was shocking and scary for unsophisticated cinematic audiences |
 
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The Exorcism of Emily Rose (2005)
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In this true story of a priest charged with negligent homicide during the exorcism of a 19 year-old Catholic college girl named Emily Rose (Jennifer Carpenter), the frightening scenes of Emily's demonic spiritual possession in which she lashed out at the priest Father Moore (Tom Wilkinson) and displayed double-jointed and contortionist positions and grotesque convulsions as she moaned and screamed |
  
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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 -- 
