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 Posted:   Dec 8, 2017 - 8:57 AM   
 By:   Solium   (Member)

The release of Close Encounters by LLL brought back memories of how off the wall, climbing out of my seat terrified I was when the aliens abducted Barry. It's without question the scariest thing I've ever seen in a film. It's easy to pick a shocking or gory scene. The head popping out of the boat in "Jaws", or the chest buster in "Alien". Granted "Alien" was pretty damn scary in general. But those are to simplistic in it's emotional manipulation. There's whole films which are delightfully disturbing like "The Shinning" and "Misery", but Barry's abduction freaking scared the living crap out of me! I'll never forget that experience.

 
 Posted:   Dec 8, 2017 - 9:50 AM   
 By:   Paul MacLean   (Member)

That face in The Exorcist! eek

 
 Posted:   Dec 8, 2017 - 9:51 AM   
 By:   SBD   (Member)

Some might see it as a cheap jump scare, but the lawnmower scene in SINISTER freaked me out.

 
 Posted:   Dec 8, 2017 - 10:09 AM   
 By:   Octoberman   (Member)

All good examples, above.

I will add the the hallway jump-zoom shot in "Exorcist III".
A similar zoom shot in "Audrey Rose" (it works so well because it comes out of nowhere).

 
 Posted:   Dec 8, 2017 - 10:11 AM   
 By:   Octoberman   (Member)

"Carrie": her hand grabbing Amy Irving's wrist at the end, and right afterwards how Amy's awake but still sees it.

 
 Posted:   Dec 8, 2017 - 10:14 AM   
 By:   Octoberman   (Member)

"Psycho": the last shot of Norman slowly raising his face to the camera and the skull face is superimposed over his smile.
It was so subtle and quick that afterwards you're thinking, "What the Hell did I just see?"!

 
 Posted:   Dec 8, 2017 - 10:29 AM   
 By:   Octoberman   (Member)

There are numerous scenes in "Don't Be Afraid Of The Dark"--the original 1973 version.

And speaking of made-for-TV movies, an honorable mention goes to some shots from the last story in "Trilogy Of Terror".
You know the one....

 
 Posted:   Dec 8, 2017 - 10:39 AM   
 By:   mgh   (Member)

For me it was in The Shining when Wendy finds what Jack has been writing. Hundreds of pages of "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy."

 
 Posted:   Dec 8, 2017 - 10:55 AM   
 By:   msmith   (Member)

Torn between:



and

 
 Posted:   Dec 8, 2017 - 11:17 AM   
 By:   Bill Carson, Earl of Poncey   (Member)

The hand /grave in carrie. Expected these days. Back then it wasnt.

In Alien, for me, it was in the pipe when he turns the torch up and the creature is on top of him.

Some moments in Hellraiser were quite chilling.


Sorry oct, i took so long to post mine, your Carrie beat my Carrie!)

 
 Posted:   Dec 8, 2017 - 11:30 AM   
 By:   Solium   (Member)

It's what I don't see that scares me the most. For example in Alien when Ripely was gingerly climbing up and out of an access tube. Again I was on the edge of my seat, because I didn't know if the alien was "just out of sight".

 
 Posted:   Dec 8, 2017 - 11:31 AM   
 By:   Octoberman   (Member)

The hand /grave in carrie. Expected these days. Back then it wasnt.


It was genius.
I think it was made all the more powerful by virtue of the underscore for that particular shot being so pastoral and idyllic.
If you watch that same scene with no sound you can tell how f*cked up it's about to get.
With the sound on, it's all sunshine and fluffy clouds.
Brilliant score.

 
 Posted:   Dec 8, 2017 - 11:34 AM   
 By:   Octoberman   (Member)

It's what I don't see that scares me the most. For example in Alien when Ripely was gingerly climbing up and out of an access tube. Again I was on the edge of my seat, because I didn't know if the alien was "just out of sight".


I couldn't agree more.
The feeling of dread that builds during the whole 2nd half of the film really capitalizes on what we don't see.
I've got to focus on more examples of that.

 
 
 Posted:   Dec 8, 2017 - 12:10 PM   
 By:   Jim Cleveland   (Member)

That face in The Exorcist! eek



First thing that popped in my head.... that and the "spider walk" sequence, and that scene where they show a close up of Regan and they overlay a shot of Merrin coming to the house. Creepy as shit!

 
 
 Posted:   Dec 8, 2017 - 12:33 PM   
 By:   paulhickling   (Member)

A tv showing of Hammer's The Gorgon in the 70s. I found a sequence SO scary I actually hung on to my uncle. Strange since I was no Hammer newbie. But funnily enough whilst I was still at primary school (that's up to 11 year olds in the UK) after seeing a number of safe old Universal faves like House of Frankenstein on a Friday night when I was allowed to stay up because of no school next day, I was suddenly subjected to Brides of Dracula.

This was my first Hammer film, coming after those old movies, and whilst it didn't affect me during the running which I thought was amazing, I didn't want to go to bed until my mum went up stairs with me!!! Obviously something unnerved me as I watched it which I didn't think about until I suddenly realised it was bedtime...

I was a lot older (in my own terms) when I saw The Exorcist (after already seeing the sequel - yeah I know though I don't agree it's as bad as some say), and believe me, scary wasn't my word for it, although I liked much of what I saw.

 
 
 Posted:   Dec 8, 2017 - 12:35 PM   
 By:   joan hue   (Member)

Sometime what we HEAR instead of what we SEE is the scariest scene. In ALIEN, Lambert and Parker are loading up canisters near the end of the movie. Big Alien shows up and nails Parker, and we see its tail pulling in Lambert. Ripley is running through the maze towards them, and we HEAR through Ripley’s ears Lambert gulping, panting and finally screaming. Her audio terror is horrifying. That part is the scariest scene I’ve ever seen.

 
 
 Posted:   Dec 8, 2017 - 12:44 PM   
 By:   Tobias   (Member)

There is one scene in a movie that have haunted me for years, well ever since I first saw that movie. The funny thing is the movie itself is actually a comedy or rather an Alfred Hitchcock influenced comedy-thriller. The movie is Silver Streak. But the scene that scared me is the scene where Gene Wilder`s character holds a book and on the backside it is a picture of the author. Wilder turns and look outside the window of the train that he is on. What he sees is a man outside the window hanging upside down and that man is the same man who was on the picture on the book that he have in his hand.

I have seen a lot of scary horror movies and none of those have scared me more than that particular scene in Silver Streak. It still haunts me to this day.

 
 
 Posted:   Dec 8, 2017 - 1:26 PM   
 By:   Rameau   (Member)

Psycho, it got a wide re-release in (around) 1965 in the UK on a double bill with The War Of The Worlds. I went to see The War Of The Worlds, but I thought I might as well stay on for Psycho. God it really scared me, I wish I hadn't stayed on to see it, I've seen it a few times since, but wouldn't go out of my way to see it these days.

 
 
 Posted:   Dec 8, 2017 - 1:32 PM   
 By:   Thgil   (Member)

The third act of Bone Tomahawk really got to me. After two acts of exposition, the movie cut loose and didn't hold back.

 
 Posted:   Dec 8, 2017 - 8:43 PM   
 By:   Octoberman   (Member)

"The Ghost & Mr. Chicken".
As silly as this might sound, when I was a kid the organ playing by itself did a real number on me.
Of course, Luther's facials completely sold it.
It wasn't the visual so much as the insane tune it was playing.
It was the aural equivalent of running through a field in the pitch-black darkness.

 
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