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.
