Moments in films/entire films that legitimately scare you

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LemonMelon

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To get in the Halloween spirit, I've been seeking out all sorts of horror films/psychological thrillers. Mostly, they're entertaining but don't do much for me on a scare level. For the more seasoned moviegoers in ZS, I'm curious to know what moments/films still really make them jump.

I'm pretty cynical on horror at this point, but a few scenes are still borderline unwatchable for me after all these years:

-The dog/bear/pig creature in The Shining. This mutated mask took me so much by surprise the first time I watched the film that I still can't get over it. That shit is so fucked up looking. The scariest thing I've seen in a film.

-The gangrenous body in the bag in Audition. Holy shit, that is a brilliant jump scare after an hour of fairly innocuous drama.

-The needle scene in Audition. This fucking movie.

-The rotting horse corpses in Un Chien Andalou.

-Any of the imagined rape scenes in Repulsion. The free jazz implemented throughout the film really ratchets up the tension.

Can't think of any more at the moment, but maybe I'll have some films to add to the list over the next week.
 
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The shower scene from the original Psycho still freaks me out whenever I see it.

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The part in Blair Witch Project when Heather opens up the bundle of sticks and finds Josh's hair, teeth, and part of his shirt. That part creeped me out so much, just because the thought of teeth getting pulled out freaks me out.


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many of the moments from Blair Witch freaked the shit out of me. The last few minutes, and especially that last shot literally made me not want to go to sleep that night. That's the only scary movie that's had that effect on me.
 
I didn't really enjoy Blair Witch much because the characters annoyed me, but that ending is fantastic, particularly the last shot. A lot of tension there too.

I remembered another one: the hallucinations in Jacob's Ladder. That movie is terrifying.
 
So I know the Paranormal Activity movies are all about the shock and awe but the underlying story across the 5 movies actually intrigues but also scares the shit out of me.
 
Oh, on another note, I'm someone who generally doesn't get scared during horror movies and stuff, but the one thing that actually did get to me when I was younger were some of Unsolved Mysteries ghost stories. The way they produced their reinactments were freaky as shit sometimes.
 
YES. omg.

The first two freaked me out. I didn't like the 3rd one as much.

The only reason the 3rd one freaked me out was because my daughter whispers in her room sometimes. I of course know she's probably just wispering about ponies or cake or something, but that part of the movie literally sent chills up my spine.
 
So I know the Paranormal Activity movies are all about the shock and awe but the underlying story across the 5 movies actually intrigues but also scares the shit out of me.


Yeah, I think the story of the Paranormal Activity films is very interesting. Although the first time I saw the original movie, I watched it with the alternate ending that involves Katie getting shot by the police. I thought that ending was great because it made you wonder what was really going on.


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I didn't really enjoy Blair Witch much because the characters annoyed me, but that ending is fantastic, particularly the last shot. A lot of tension there too.

I remembered another one: the hallucinations in Jacob's Ladder. That movie is terrifying.


Blair Witch is great because it's all psychological. The film never shows you anything. Plus the way the tension builds up every day they're out in the woods is fantastic. It just slowly gets worse and worse for them. An absolute classic, even though the characters are kind of annoying.


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I can't watch the last segment of Creepshow. It's the only thing I've ever seen in a movie that made me cry from being so scared/bothered.

When I was younger, 15 or so, and I can't put an exact scene on why, after I first saw IT, I couldn't sleep for three days, I was so terrified.
 
Oh, and one scene that particularly messed me up for a few minutes after watching it was the one from the remake of House on Haunted Hill, where Geoffrey Rush is trapped in the insanity machine.
 
Using a flashbulb to see in Saw.

The terrifying score in the second half of Insidious.

The entire orgy sequence in Eyes Wide Shut.

Those three pop out at me right off the bat.
 
The spider walk from the Exorcist. It took me until last 2012 before I could watch the whole film. Not sure why Mum let me watch it (most of it from behind the couch) when I was like 10!
 
The end of Chinatown where John Huston whisks away his granddaughter/daughter... fuck.
 
#1 would be the grainy dream transmissions in John Carpenter's Prince Of Darkness. The way they reveal a bit more each time, that ghostly telephone voice, and the idea that various characters are sharing the same experience.

#2 Father Karras' dream in The Exorcist, particularly the shot of his dead mother descending the subway steps.

#3 Definitely have to Gimli the final shot of Blair Witch Project. That is beyond unsettling.

#4 The underwater scene near the beginning of Dario Argento's Inferno

*I haven't seen Candyman in ages, but it's one of the few horror films I remember scaring the hell out of me

*The underrated Exorcist III has an abundance of scary moments, but one I'd single out has to do with the lobby and a nurse wielding a scissors IIRC
 
I can't put a finger on why Camdyman scared me, but Travis suggested watching it, the other day, right before I would've gone to sleep and I was just, 'no,' about that one.
 
Not many films truly scare me, though I'll never forget watching The Exorcist alone as a teenager at night on cable and just about the end of the film one of my friends knocks on the front door of the house and that scared me.

The Exorcist and The Omen both have a number of disturbing and frightening scenes. Probably the 2 films I would point to as answers to the question with regards to the entire movie.

Individual scenes, the scene in Alien where the alien busts out of John Hurt certainly ranks up there.

I couldn't stand the Blair Witch Project. The whole shaky camera thing annoyed the crap out of me and ruined the film for me well before the climax.
 
OK, on rewatch, The Shining is absolutely the scariest entire film I can think of. Fuck, everything about it feels disturbing and disorienting, right down to the building itself and the eerie soundtrack that pervades every scene, even the innocuous ones. I just can't look away once it's on. It's a masterpiece of atmospheric horror.

It's also worth mentioning that the first time I saw the movie, it was the dead of winter on top of my isolated hill in the Maryland sticks. My dad often calls that house The Overlook when it starts getting cold.
 
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The moment when the demon appears at the end of The Exorcist, the demon we saw a staute of at the beginning.

Obviously any scene with the twins in the shining.

The Blair Witch projecy in it's entirety.

I loved the first 3 paranormal activity films, the scariest scene is in the 3rd one, where there is a camera on an oscilating fan, and as it slowly goes left to right, in the space of 5 seconds everything in the room goes from being totally normal, to upside town and piled intricately balanced on top of eachother.

Amityville Horror 2 is fucking disturbing, freaks me out everytime i watch it.

Pretty much every David Lynch film has a few terrifying moments, in no particular order they are:

The scene in Twin Peaks FWWM where Laura enters the photo of a wall she was given by Mrs Tremond.

The scene in Mulholland Drive where the man having a panic attack sees a fucking weird monster behind a pizzeria.

Last but not least the scene in Lost Highway, when that weird little man approaches the protagonist at a party saying "we've met before", he replies" i don't think so, where?" At your house, in fact I'm there now", and proceeds to pull out a phone and says" call me, dial your home number" and when he does the weird man does indeed answer from his house.
 
The Shining and The Exorcist as mentioned. Ringu also freaks me the fuck out (that close up of her eye near the end seals it).

But Pinnochio reigns supreme. The shot of the kid transforming into a goat (in silhouette) with a final cry of 'MAMA' still haunts me. And all those kids turned into donkeys are sent to the mines for the rest of their lives, crying. Bleak and memorable.
 
I simultaneously can't believe and am glad that nobody has mentioned either Jacob's Ladder or 28 Days Later, as it gives me a reason for this post.

Jacob's Ladder (not strictly a horror film but whatever) partly for the creeping mood of escalating confusion, partly for the then-new effect of 'really fast moving/spinning' of people's bodies and heads. That's just scratching the surface of the film's bigger story, but I remember watching parts of it many years ago and genuinely not being sure I could stick it out. Just like being in a nightmare.

28 Days Later is not a zombie film. But if it were, it would be the best one ever made. Those scenes when their car breaks down in the tunnel while hightailing it out of London, and you see the infected coming, shadows in the distance. They're running real, real fast.
 
I guess I wasn't the only one, must have overlooked that.

"But if you've made your peace, the devils are really angels, freeing you..."
 
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