Best and/or Scariest and/or Creepiest Scenes Ever (from horror films or TV shows or whatever, I don't care)

The dismemberment scene in Looper still freaks me out to this day

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxqe8Xq6LBQ

doesn't make a lot of sense (like most time travel shit) but I'll give 'em this, it's a really clever scene

Oh yeah, that Looper bit was rough. I had to turn away during the video in Annihilation.

The face slice in Pan's Labyrinth

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5le9sYdYkM

Jesus christ, give a warning before you terrify me like that!

bean sí in darby o gill

tunnel in kill list

beach conversation in it follows

beach scene in Under the Skin. final scene with the coven in The Witch

There's a slew of Lynch scenes that I'm sure I don't even have to specify.

Green Room is filled to the brim with intense and terrifying scenes but the one that burned itself in my brain is the girl slowly unzipping the dude with a box cutter. Blasé, offhanded violence in a movie probably unnerves me more than anything.

Large Marge is all-time. Probably aided by lunch table mythologizing from the kids who'd seen it and built it up into the biggest scare imaginable.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2Y5tgCBAvQ

for reference
The Haunt Of Fear: ILX Top 100 HORROR Movies Poll Results Thread

The blood testing scene in The Thing is up there with scariest of all time for me.

The scene I'd pick from Under the Skin would be this one where the two guys meet while floating in the void. One of the few times while watching a movie where I really felt like I was seeing something otherworldly.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UCPwlNd3Js

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AdIlLn52Oak

Not really scary, but very, very creepy: Rosemary and Guy in bed when you hear the chanting next door for the first time. Can't find a clip, can't even find a still. The camera movement--a slow tilt up from Rosemary and Guy to the wall above--is beautiful.

a lot of the unremarkable domestic scenes in that movie are somehow terrifying

Furry fellatio

xxp yeah I just saw that, it was great

I hate to derail this early, but imo "scary scenes not in horror movies" should also be a thing we discuss here

Can't find a decent video of it, but one episode of Luther there's an extended opening of a woman coming home to her flat, brushing her teeth, taking off her shoes, getting into bed, drifting off to sleep. Then this man with a knife slides out from under her bed with this sort of stealthy wiggle. Absolutely horrible.

If you have a fear of mannequins/dummies/dolls suddenly springing to life, Tourist Trap is riddled with effective instances of just that. Movie makes zero goddamn sense but it does what it does well.

Plus these fuckers in old Doctor Who
https://cdn-static.denofgeek.com/sites/denofgeek/files/styles/article_width/public/autons_1.jpg
https://cdn-static.denofgeek.com/sites/denofgeek/files/styles/article_width/public/daffodils.jpg

Oh, the scene with the bag in Audition

Full body shivers the first time I saw that

Co-sign the subway sequence from The Wiz. Total nightmare fuel for my 7-year-old self.

yes to both under the skin scenes for sure

the b&w pictures of previous 'martyrs' in martyrs are haunting af, as is the entire last few minutes of body horror shading into cosmic nihilism and back again

Martyrs is all time and relies on its cumulative build to that pay off

That scene towards the end of Bone Tomahawk is the thing that's fucked me up the most recently. It's the audio track as much anything. Yeesh.

The ghost at the end of Personal Shopper is pretty extraordinary and had a huge effect on me - physically and emotionally.

The 'daylight stabbing' in Zodiac is horrible.

Yes, there's something about the overuse of darkness/nighttime as the setting for scary scenes that makes scary things happening in broad daylight even scarier.

when Matthau kneels on broken glass proposing to Elaine May in A New Leaf

(people do scream)

The 'daylight stabbing' in Zodiac is horrible.

― Good cop, Babcock (Chinaski), Friday, May 10, 2019 9:42 AM (twenty-two minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

oh god zodiac is a very scary non-horror movie

just the sight of the killer stepping out from behind a tree in a long, kinda indistinct shot is terrifying even before the methodical stabbing happens

yeah cosign that scene, horrible

the end of this scene from the eye never fails to literally raise the hairs on the back of my neck for some reason

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIiVlAJ6Fqw

The elevator scene in this movie is awesome too

i'm not a horror buff, but i feel like that one scene in inland empire, a couple hours deep when things are getting almost nauseatingly dreamlike, where laura dern's face temporarily morphs into a digital doom mask, should be in this thread

the first appearance of BOB

yes

and behind the cafe in Mulholland Drive

Yes, I was alluding to those scenes and more in my earlier 'Lynch is the master of this' post. See also: Winkie's, Maddy's death, etc., etc.

deems knows

BOB terrified me the first time i saw it when it aired originally and didn't happen long after i watched Bedroom Window (mentioned upthread)
i guess i am terrified of creepy men hiding behind things and then revealing their faces

I want to include haunting and uncanny scenes in this list, as well! Even if they aren't (finger quotes) SCAAARY.

Like I'm thinking of Kwaidan atm. The scenes of Hoichi singing as the camera slow pans across his spectral audience...nothing like it. And the freeze frame at the end of 'The Black Hair'. Movie is dope, yo.

as i said in the Stephen King thread i think Lynch is underrated by a lot of folks for his mastery of dread-including atmosphere and framing. the original Twin Peaks was a tough show to watch at night as a kid living in a rural somewhat desolate town with a couple of lonely intersections and a road traveling into town covered by a tunnel of thick trees for a mile-plus. the woods and traffic lights swaying in the wind at night, no thank you for some reason!

the end of this scene from the eye never fails to literally raise the hairs on the back of my neck for some reason

because it's 100% nightmare fuel, jesus! though i think this scene from the 1989 woman in black just about tops it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhuc-ot7Ryg

linus roache’s face slowly, almost imperceptibly morphing into andrea riseborough’s and back again in mandy is very effectively creepy/trippy, while we’re on the topic of weird face stuff

^^^ almost brought up this scene

That diner scene in MD is so fucking terrifying. I've only seen it once but it's imprinted on my mind's eye. Lynch is master of the uncanny.

Re that stabbing scene in Zodiac, there's a documentary with the extended edition that details just how forensically rebuilt the park so it fitted the descriptions just so - to the point that he dug up and replanted a tree. That obsessiveness makes its way into the scene, somehow.

And god yes, that scene from Woman in Black is shriek-inducing. The stage version of WiB is one of the best scary experiences of my life. Had to sleep with the light on for a week the first time I saw it.

*xp just how forensically *Fincher* rebuilt the park

i put that scene on until the camera started panning across the bed with the voice and nope

Sister Ruth's eyes in the final part of Black Narcissus

Rewatched The Innocents recently and even knowing the the plot, the final scene still had me white knuckled. Speaking of scary stuff in broad daylight tho, this shot from the film has never failed to scare the shit out of me when it comes up:

http://dailygrindhouse.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/THE-INNOCENTS-600x300.jpg

Yessssss, I couldn't think of anything specific but there are definitely some effectively spooky moments in The Innocents.

there are probably loads of 'hiding behind the shower curtain' scenes through cinema though

Yeah, it immediately occurred to me after posting that riffing on the Psycho shower scene is probably among the most played-out tropes in cinema.

I've got mixed feelings about when people bring in types of disturbing that are too mundane for my tastes (as I'm always hoping for something on the eerie, awesome, pleasing terror side) but here I go...(I think I talked about a few of these recently, most are from childhood)…

Since when has doubleclicking the return button meant "post"?

Fantasy films like The Labyrinth, Willow and Dark Crystal depressed the hell out of me when I was a child. Legend has some awesomely creepy imagery but it also fell into depressing for me too.
I found these films deeply ugly in a way I just couldn't deal with and I just hated that it was so easy to slip into a hole or chasm and die. I was painfully aware how often characters survived by luck.
And the bog in Labyrinth with just too much. I could never find it funny, the idea of smelling like especially foul shit for the rest of your life was some of the rawest horror I'd seen from a film.
I remember vividly a sleepless night thinking about Dark Crystal and just feeling nauseated and hopeless about it.

More in a minute...

I had a similar sleepless night after watching the John Cleese comedy Clockwise. Maybe I thought it was an overpoweringly bleak vision of adult life.

The Mighty Max cartoon had a bit where the deformed clown Freako magically turned Max into a severely deformed person. Extremely disturbing.

3D cartoon Reboot when Dot is cornered in the streets and has her hair shaved off by the police robots of a new dystopia. Feels like a rape scene. Really troubled me.

Two things that seemed especially horrible because they were played for laughs:
In the sitcom Frasier, Roz getting full-on kissed by a creepy friend and she clearly wasn't okay with it.
The old ladies in Harry Enfield raping young men.

my favorite riff on the shower scene

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6uPdZTiGoGc

(that's Barry Levinson as the bellhop)

There’s a harrowing scene in the (otherwise rather tame) Stephen King adaptation Doctor Sleep where a cadre of serial killers/psychic vampires ritually sacrifice a kidnapped young boy to harvest his suffering.

I’m not easily disturbed by horror movies, but the scene was surprisingly effective and harrowing.

Harrowing enough to use the word “harrowing” twice, even

THE HARROWING

Prepare...to be harrowed.

if we're talking about creepy stuff in generally non-creepy media: there is a lot of low-key terrifying stuff in both avatar and legend of korra, cf. bloodbending

It's not generally thought of as a scary film, but the first abduction scene in Communion used to freak the hell out out of me, and still kinda does. I dreaded the alien on the book cover as a child, so maybe watching it was never the best idea.

But I do like the somewhat surreal, dream-like approach is takes in regard to the experience, which is a nice contrast to the literal-mindedness of most UFO/abduction depictions on film and TV. There's the sense of intrusion from some "other", akin to the Diner monster in Mulholland Drive and the subway/passing car people in Jacob's Ladder.

The scene in Paul Schrader's "Blue Collar" where Yaphet Kotto is slowly asphyxiated by spray paint

The scene where Peter Weller gets shot at the beginning of Robocop made me queasy at age 14 in the theater, especially when his hand gets blown apart by the shotgun. Ugh!

Yeah, that scene has stayed with me too. The 'knife across the chest' in First Blood had a similar, visceral impact.

Midsommar - ritual suicide scenes

This piqued my interest, as I somehow hadn't heard of Midsommar. I took myself over to YouTube, where someone has helpfully uploaded an edit titled "All the deaths in Midsommar".

I really wish I hadn't watched it.

child-catcher scene in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

There's a scene in The Exorcist that terrified me, no pea soup vomit, no head spinning, just the expression on Regan's face watching the priest walk across the room. Still haunts me, and I haven't seen the movie since 1974.

Hardly original but the Wheelers and the creepy statue setting is just perfectly terrifying (Return to Oz)

I mean hardly original in that it's probably been suggested already

isn't Midsommer the movie with the cliff diving scene

remember being like..."uh you're supposed to cut away from that"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_Catcher

the character does not appear in Fleming's book itself. In fact, Roald Dahl, co-author of the film version's screenplay, originated the Child Catcher (as well as almost all of the Vulgarian scenes).

The Child Catcher is very very Roald Dahl.

uh i am apparently only now learning that chitty chitty bang bang is roald dahl's second film adaptation of an ian fleming novel, the first being you only live twice? which is very off-topic but blowing my mind regardless

A tiny moment that gave me a chill--Richard Gere's face hitting the water in Days of Heaven.

Re The Exorcist, the scene where they're doing tests on Regan & put something into her neck and blood spurts out always makes me shudder. Realism/physicality I guess. The sound in that scene also plays a role.

thread just reminded be about ghostwatch

i think it did genuine fuckin damage to me for a while, that did. i was put to bed screaming, and woke up the same way, for about a week.

It's not generally thought of as a scary film, but the first abduction scene in Communion used to freak the hell out out of me, and still kinda does. I dreaded the alien on the book cover as a child, so maybe watching it was never the best idea.

But I do like the somewhat surreal, dream-like approach is takes in regard to the experience, which is a nice contrast to the literal-mindedness of most UFO/abduction depictions on film and TV. There's the sense of intrusion from some "other", akin to the Diner monster in Mulholland Drive and the subway/passing car people in Jacob's Ladder.

― Duane Barry, Thursday, 21 November 2019 12:53 (three days ago) link

Totally. “IS THAT SOMEONE THERE?”

Underrated movie.

Christopher Walken giving the most Christopher Walken performance ever only compounds the strangeness further.

Perhaps not as surreal but certainly justc as scary is the alien abduction flashback from Fire in the Sky. The movie itself is mediocre but that sequence could stand on its own as one of the greatest sci-fi horror shorts ever made. It masterfully captures the pure animal terror of being treated like a lab rat by beings with unfathomable motives.

Forgotten to mention the scary bits in Beyond The Black Rainbow

As this thread seemed to expand to include 'disturbing or upsetting' I'm going to nominate the beating dished out to Ray Liotta in Killing Them Softly. Brilliantly acted and really quite horrible.