Tonight, as the clocks go back and the winter nights roll in on Hallowe’en
week, huddle around the TV with us, as we celebrate the dark side of film.
Several weeks ago, The Knowledge team assembled a list of (unlucky) 13
scenes that have scared us witless at the cinema. Not all these scenes were
from horror films – the flying monkeys from The Wizard of Oz,
for instance, featured in more of our nightmares than any Hollywood slasher.
With our list done, we took a deep breath and invited your comments and
nominations via Times Online. Several other sites, notably the lively and
frequently ribald news site Fark.com,
took up the challenge on our behalf. Within days, we were inundated.
At the time of writing, we have received more than 1,000 replies to this piece
across the internet, some containing new nominations and memories, some
agreeing with our (and other correspondents’) choices, and some hurling
gratuitous abuse in our direction. You can see the original shortlist, and
the reader comments, here.
In all, more than 70 separate films were nominated, and from that list we have
selected the 50 scary scenes most frequently mentioned by our readers around
the world. Unscientific? Definitely. Comprehensive? Probably not. But
frightening? You bet. Thanks to all Times Online readers for taking part.
Please note that by the very nature of their parent films few of the clips
linked below are suitable for younger viewers. We have flagged the more
extreme examples but parents and guardians should exercise caution when
allowing minors to watch these, or any, film clips online.
50 BLUE VELVET (warning
- strong language in clip)
Frank (Dennis Hopper) gets his gasmask in Lynch’s surreal tale. He is, noted a
reader, “one scary mofo”.
49 CREEPSHOW (warning
- profoundly upsetting clip)
The last part, when a million cockroaches pour out of a dead body. “Still
gives me the willies.”
48 DELIVERANCE
“It is shocking and nightmarish. It is disturbing and painful and too real.”
47 THE DESCENT
The oppressive environment caused you more problems than the monsters. “The
whole thing was so damned claustrophobic.”
46 LES DIABOLIQUES
(warning - plot spoiler in clip)
The body in the bath. “The build-up is unbearable, the climax is terrifying.”
45 THE EVIL DEAD
“It was a classic. Still is,” said one admirer.
44 IRRÉVERSIBLE
Terrifying brutality. “This film could easily fill all places in this poll.”
43 JACOB’S LADDER
“There are a few disturbing scenes, but one I remember is the demon Tim
[Robbins] sees in the mirror for a split second as he is getting dressed.”
42 ROSEMARY’S BABY
A film revolving around a demonic rape and the resulting conception of Satan’s
child undoubtedly deserves a place in this list.
41 SCREAM
“Scream freaked me when I first saw it, ‘If you hang up on me one
more time I’m gonna gut you like a fish!’ ”
40 SLEEPAWAY CAMP
“The closing scenes haven’t left my mind in weeks.”
39 TRAINSPOTTING
This tale has one intensely terrifying moment. “Dead baby. Carved into my
brains for all time.”
38 THE AMITYVILLE
HORROR
This 1979 paranormal shocker left one respondent lost for words. “There are a
lot of scenes in that movie which are... bah!”
37 AUDITION
The climax. Nasty. “I’ve never had to work so hard to keep watching
something.”
36 THE BLAIR WITCH
PROJECT
“When the film-makers come out of the tent after hearing the faint sound of
children’s laughter. That got me.”
35 A CLOCKWORK ORANGE
(warning - disturbingly violent clip)
“I still can barely watch it...”
34 THE HITCHER
“The bloody finger, ‘french fry’. Enough said.”
33 MARATHON MAN
Dustin Hoffman under “the dentist drill”.
32 MULHOLLAND DRIVE
“The unnerving atmosphere just freaks me out every time.”
31 NIGHT OF THE LIVING
DEAD
Seminal zombie film, with “one of the greatest lines in horror history,
‘They’re coming to get you, Barbra!’ ”
30 THE OMEN
“Intelligent film-making from an era of classic horror.”
29 THE TEXAS CHAINSAW
MASSACRE
Either Leatherface’s first appearance, or “just about every second of the
original”.
28 WAIT UNTIL DARK
Blind girl pursued by killer in pitch-dark flat. But the fridge is open.
“Everyone jumped out of their seats.”
27 WILLY WONKA AND THE
CHOCOLATE FACTORY
“The tunnel scene is an acid trip gone horribly wrong.”
26 THE WIZARD OF OZ
“The flying monkeys scared the crap out of me.”
25 THE BIRDS
Alfred Hitchcock’s 1963 shocker is set in the coastal village of Bodega Bay.
So spare a thought for this correspondent. “Try actually being from Bodega
Bay! It’s still pretty creepy.”
24 THE CHANGELING
A professor finds that the ghost of a murdered child haunts his new home.
“Creepy.”
23 DAWN OF THE DEAD
“It freaks me out because my daughter wakes me up by standing at the foot of
my bed, just like in the film!”
22 DON’T LOOK NOW
(warning - distressing subject matter)
“The final scene haunts me – a certified classic.”
21 PRINCE OF DARKNESS
“Makes me jump every time. The last scene is traumatising.”
20 PSYCHO
“While the shower scene is scary, it can’t match the creepy factor of the
scene before it in which Marion suggests that Norman put his mother in an
institution.”
19 SUSPIRIA
“The most terrifying horror film of all time.”
18 CARRIE
The scene when pig’s blood is poured over the titular prom queen (Sissy
Spacek).
17 JAWS
“I saw it at a friend’s house and was afraid to walk home... on the grass.”
16 A NIGHTMARE ON ELM
STREET
“You can’t escape, you have to sleep some time.”
15 PEE WEE’S BIG
ADVENTURE
“To this day I am afraid to watch this because that trucker lady just
terrified me to death. I saw her face in my dreams for months.”
14 THE SILENCE OF THE
LAMBS (warning - bloopers reel containing frequent and sustained
thespian swearing)
“When Jodie Foster is trying to find the killer in the dark – I was too scared
to watch!”
13 THE HAUNTING
“The scariest scene is when Julie Harris and Claire Bloom are confronted with
the ghost of Hill House late at night. You never see it, but you hear it.”
12 SALEM’S LOT
The TV movie of Stephen King’s vampire horror is full of faces at windows. And
it stars David Soul.
11 28 DAYS LATER
“The spookiest part is when Selena is asking Mark if he has been injured by
the infected. He’s not sure. But she goes survival insane and slaughters him
anyway.”
10 WATERSHIP DOWN
This 1978 animated children’s classic tells the story of brave rabbits
attempting to survive in the face of constant peril. Like several other
films that make surprising appearances on this list, Watership Down
seems to have had a significant impact on its young audience. One
correspondent said: “To this day Bright Eyes makes me cry like
the traumatised child I was after watching that. How my parents regretted
that cinema trip.”
9 HALLOWEEN
John Carpenter’s heavily influential 1978 horror film centres on Michael
Myers’s murderous rampage after escaping from a psychiatric hospital, and
its omission from the original list made one correspondent furious. “How the
hell is the closet scene from Halloween not on that list? I’d put it
at number 2!”
8 EVENT
HORIZON
It did not perform particularly well at the box office in 1997, but this tale
of a revolutionary spaceship that is mysteriously abandoned has since become
a cult success. A party sent to explore the ship experience macabre visions
which give life to inner demons. Here’s a recommendation from one reader:
“Cannot watch that movie... scared me as a youngster, can’t do it now.”
7 THE SHINING
Where does one begin? The teaming of Stanley Kubrick and Stephen King gave us
bath-tub bodies, the ghosts of dead twins and a mad, axe-wielding Jack
Nicholson in a haunted hotel that fills with the blood of its past victims.
And REDRUM. “The two little girls standing in front of the elevators give me
the willies,” wrote one reader. “I still have marks in my arm from my then
girlfriend’s talons as we sat in the theatre and just watched the trailer.
The blood terrified her,” added another.
6 THE THING
An alien crash-lands at an Arctic base and engages the scientists and military
personnel who are stranded there. It needs human blood to survive and will
kill them all to ensure it does so. Howard Hawks’s original was praised by
one reader: “I’ll never forget the scene where the silhouetted creature
kills the camp’s sled dogs.”
5 SIGNS
In at number 5 is this crop circle chiller from M. Night Shyamalan. Mel Gibson
plays a former priest and widower whose beliefs are tested by the mysterious
appearance of crop circles on his land. Shyamalan keeps the audience in a
suspended state of uncertainty, before revealing the truth in a
characteristically sly way. “ Signs scared the s*** out of me,”
one writer explained. “Somebody gave it to me and said there were no aliens
in it, it was just some guy dealing with these crop circles in his yard. I
then proceed to watch it, alone in the dark, at around 1am... and an alien
just walks across the screen. I pretty much started freaking out.”
4 THE EXORCIST III
Your top 5 contains a couple of surprises, not least this 1990 second sequel. The
Exorcist author William Peter Blatty here directed an adaptation of his
own novel Legion, and was reportedly reluctant to have the film
marketed as an Exorcist sequel. It is the scene in the hospital that
seems to have got to you. “The old lady coming up behind Nurse Keating with
the medical shears... to chop off her head.”
3 POLTERGEIST
Like your number one choice, The Exorcist, Tobe Hooper’s twisted tale
of suburban demonic possession has something to scare everyone. Here’s a
short list: “The chairs getting stacked up in the kitchen. The moment the
spirit jumps out of the TV and goes into the wall. The infamous face scene.
The giant head coming out of the closet.” It also has a clown. “The clown
from Poltergeist ruined my childhood,” lamented one reader.
2 THE RING
Many correspondents’ favourite scary scenes depended as much on the
circumstances of first viewing as on the content of the scene Itself. In the
case of this film, which – like Poltergeist (see number 3) –
integrates technology into a tale of possession, we recommend that you do
not follow this reader’s example: “I watched the movie in the dark at a
friend’s house in the middle of the woods... I saw that movie five years ago
and it still gives me the creeps.” Of the nominations received for
this film, two-thirds were for the Japanese original, rather than the 2002
American remake.
1 THE EXORCIST
Nearly 35 years since it was made, the director William Friedkin’s demonic
shocker still drew the most reaction. In the words of one online
correspondent: “I dare anyone to watch it alone at night with the lights
off, and not be affected (what’s that noise?) when going to bed afterwards.”
One of the keys to the film’s total dominance appears to be that it contains
something to frighten everybody, so if the religious theme leaves you cold,
there’s always Linda Blair’s spinning head, projectile vomiting and spider
crawling to fall back on. The film was unavailable on video in Britain until
1999, when an uncut version was finally passed by the BBFC.
At least one of you might have preferred it to stay censored: “ The
Exorcist has everything. It is the only horror film to give me
the jibblies.” One can only speculate what the film might have been like had
Stanley Kubrick (who later made The Shining) directed, as originally
planned.
Compiled by Michael Haddon, Nigel Kendall and Michael Moran. To read the
winning entry in The Times Ghost Story competition, click here.
OMIGOSH, THe Thing!!! awesome list, love it. . . .
Rizky, Jakarta, Indonesia
were is alien the chestburster scene!
marcus, morgan hill,
How many people were NOT scared when they first saw Good Fellas during the scene where Tommy DeVito (played by Joe Pesci) asks, "How am I funny?"
joe, bitzburg,
I love The Ring! I love scaring myself. It's the perfect movie!
Monica, Mechanicsville, America
Some pretty good choices. Missing classics were :-
The Prophecy
The Hitcher
Witchfinder General
Prison
The Vanishing ( original version)
The Seventh Victim
Kiss Me Deadly
The Manchurian Candidate
Into The Mirror
Sweet dreams to all those who watch these movies....
Rob J, Herts, United Kingdom
where is Alien??? thats is easily one of the best and most chilling films ever.
rhubarb, london, england
Its funny no one bothered to mention "The Grudge - Ju-On" in this list. Most of the movies above r not even Horror. . the only movies I consider as Horror are:
1) Grudge
2) 1 Missed Call
3) The Ring
4) The Exorcist
I feel funny to see movies like Signs & Event Horizon under Horror ? Whats wrong !
Aseem, Dubai, UAE
"Audition" (1999) - started out as a comedy, became a wierd thriller and by the time the needles were being inserted under the eyeballs I was watching from between my fingers. If there had been a sofa in the cinema, I would've been behind it...
Keith Devereux, Aveiro, Portugal
"IT" should be in there, Tim Curry made a truly scary Pennywise!
Having said that, the book was worse, as I turned each page, I got more scared!
Alien should be there too, the first film, still makes one hide behind a cushion, when Ripley is trying to get the Cat in the shuttle................................For it's time, absolutely genius.
Carrie, London, England
what about when in the grudge, the girl climbs in the closet, and the grudge is right there?!?!
bill joshua, mayfeild hts, , usa, ohio
...and what about Pet Cemetary? There is some really scary moments in that movie.
Laca, Kaposvar, Hungary
The scene in the first Saw film where the child tells her mother there is something in her room, is not believed, then see the eye of her assailent peeping out of the warderobe is deeply unsettling. This film had far less gore than the following Saw films, and, possibly for this reason, remains the most terrifying of the films.
Eleanor Davies, Gloucester, England
The TV ads for THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE gave me nightmares when I was 12 years old. I finally saw the movie as an adult and it isn't as explicitly violent as legend would have it, but it is a deeply unpleasant, joyless, heartless film. No subtle scares, no depth of characterization, not even some good visceral excitement. Just pure agony. I'm not a prude and I'm not all that squeamish (I made it through SHAUN OF THE DEAD without losing the lunch I'd just eaten), but I have never understood the appeal of this movie. Tobe Hooper did go on to make POLTERGEIST, though, so I'm sort of willing to forgive him . . .
Matt, Deltona, Florida, USA
I don't recall the scene quoted as being from Dawn of the Dead - at least, not the original, which I watched again the other night.
Maybe you're thinking of Night of the Living Dead?
Charlie Kells, Northampton,
Are you kidding me where is "IT"
"We all float down here"
James , torquay, uk
Silent Hill, Alien, Stir of Echoes, American Werewolf in London, Wolf Creek and Hollow man should all be on here i think.
Carly Jones, Bangor, Wales
More to add to my list :
Thirteen Ghosts
Ghost Ship
Candyman
The Craft
Carly Jones, Bangor, Wales
Sixth Sense, although not the most gruesome film ever released, certainly kept my heart pounding the entire film, and left me feeling unnerved and confused for quite a while afterwards - but there again, I am a blonde.......
Louise Hardy, Mirfield, West Yorkshire,
Ichi the Killer has a number of truely gruesome moments for those of you who need a little more scaring!
Jon Dawkins, Bristol,
The film that would scare me the most, is a video of Watford's 's season last year in the premiership. Ugly ugly ugly
Uche george, London , UK
How on earth is the Wicker Man not included? The scene where Edward Woodward is confronted with the cage scared the hell out of me...
Kate, London, UK
I too cannot believe "The Alien" is not on this list. I saw it in a cinema in Glasgow in 1979 when I had some time to kill. I hadn't read any of the reviews, didn't even know the movie was out, but when I saw the poster outside that said, "In space no one can hear you scream", I was hooked. The music was eerie, the photography was ghostly, and the sense of impending doom chilling. When the 'alien' burst out of John Hurt's stomach, the whole cinema leapt out of their sets. It was an unbelievable moment. Truly unforgetable.
Nick Ferriman, Bangkok, Thailand
What about the Japaneses original of 'Dark Water'? Very creepy apartment block, a lift that you can never understand why anyone uses, the wet footprints in the school coming towards the littlel girl and an ending which emphasises that the central theme of abandonement will go on. The lift scene in 'The Eye' and the preceding scenes in the hospital as the
heroine fortunately cannot see the spectre coming towards her as it groans that it's soo cold. The final scenes of The Eye 2 as the pregnant mothers at the exercise class mercifully can't see what hovers above them. The brief
excerpt I saw on TV of The Hour of the Wolf by Bergman which has haunted me to this day.
Carole, London, UK
The Exorcism of Emily Rose. The exorcism scene that goes from the bedroom to the barn. The priest is reading the scripture and the demon(s) state their names (including Satan). This is by far the scariest scene ever put on the screen. Cold chills just thinking about it.
Lary, Trenton, OH
There were a few scary scenes in Seven that should have made it.
I also think the Child Catcher from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang should be in there.
knackers, Worcester, England
"Pee Wee's Big Adventure" makes the list but the chest-bursting scene in "Alien" doesn't? I liked "Pee Wee's Big Adventure" but come on, people, let's get serious.
John Yaya, beverly hills, USA
I very much agree with the 'The Ring' being at number 2. The first scared me so much that when I was in London & The Ring 2 was released - I wouldn't even go near a cinema until it finished being shown just in case they had an ad for it. Evil children are the scariest!
Em, Roma, AUSTRALIA
Glad to see The Changeling on the list, that red ball was very scary.
I'd like to add The Curse of the Demon -- great film, very subtle and scary, loved it as a kid, still see it once a year for fun.
Sylvia, Denver, CO
Channel 4 have just screened something on similar lines, but in their arrogance, or ignorance, managed to give away the endings of Don't Look Now and The Vanishing, thus rendering new viewings pointless.
Incidentally, shouldn't the original version of the Vanishing be in this selection? Creepiest villain and most frightening and disturbing denouement of any film.
jeff connor, Barrow, Cumbria
Jagged Edge - when the hand smashes through the glass next to the door. Or when she finds the typewriter and types "He is innocent". Even though you know what's coming in both cases, scary as anything.
ja, London,
The finale of Hammer's "Quatermass Experiment," when the astronaut has turned into a monstrous quivering vegetable, and is toasted by an massive electric current in the rafters of Westminster Abbey, ought to be here too!
K Philips, London, UK
No Wicker Man? (I mean the original with Edward Woodward).
The tension built from the very start as he searches for the missing child -to the awful horror of his first glimpse of the Wicker Man.
It still gives me the Hebbie Jeebies every time I watch.
Grumbles, Aberdeen, UK
Agree with Kieran. Where is 'Alien'? A truly astonishing omission.
DeeJ, Sheffield,
Where's Stephen King's "It"? May not have been the best translation to film, but Tim Curry freaked me out as Pennywise the Clown!
Mike, Johannesburg, South Africa
Nobody has nominated the day that George Bush was sworn in to the Presidency. One of the scariest moments in my lifetime.
Paul S. Webb, Alicante, Spain
The scariest thing about this list is that there's no mention of "Alien". Truly unnerving.
Kieran, Leeds, UK
I´m surprised to learn that "Angel Heart" is not listed. Great film noir and my all-time favourite of this genre.
Asta, Hamburg, Germany
Silence of the Lambs at 14, Watership Down at 10-"Unscientific? Definitely. Comprehensive? Probably not"!!!
Toby, Brighton, Sussex