As it’s the season to be terrified, we set ourselves the terrifying task of gathering up our favorite scary movie moments of all time. Ok, it’s not quite “venturing alone into a darkened mansion during a thunderstorm” frightening, but it is a daunting task, mainly due to the entirely subjective nature of what is “scary.” Most of you must have experienced it at some point: you’re watching a horror film, paralyzed by fear while the flesh creeps slowly off your bones, then you glance in terror at the person beside you and they are mid-yawn. Or vice versa, perhaps, if you’re one of those “don’t scare easy” types (personally I take great pride in being a total wuss). It’s a phenomenon explored in “Fear Itself” a new docu-essay about horror films and their effects on us, which is streaming now on BBC iPlayer, and it’s one that haunts the fringes of this list like a knife-wielding psycho hiding behind a door. Or is it just a cat?
Yet, laughing blithely in ignorance of the terrors ahead like a car full of teenagers heading for a weekend in the woods, we embarked on this folly nonetheless. Our only real rules were to try and keep repetition down to a minimum (so no two moments from the same film) and to try to stay roughly within the horror/thriller genre. Some of the examples below are whole scenes or sequences and some just tiny little stabs of panic; some are stomach-churningly gross, others just wildly creepy. Either way, these are 40 moments that we count among the scariest we’ve ever seen.
Warning: MASSIVE **SPOILER ALERT** for this entire list (do not watch the clip if you haven’t seen the film)but otherwise, if you’re brave enough, turn the lights off, and enjoy.
40. “Salem’s Lot” (1979)
So yeah, you know that subjective thing mentioned above? We’re prepared to admit that this scene is no longer particularly frightening, and its TV movie provenance could have kept it off altogether, yet for quite a few of us this was one of the first horrors we ever saw largely because it was on TV (and syndicated everywhere, every Halloween in the 1980s). This scene therefore warped a lot of minds so young they really shouldn’t have been watching.
39.”Freaks” (1932)
Tod Browning‘s cult classic is brilliant in its reversals, especially for how it more or less demands you share the director’s evident sympathy for the “freaks” of the title — including an entirely limbless man, dwarves, pinheads and conjoined twins among others, all played by actors actually so afflicted. But the final coup is in finding them horrific once again, as they move in from all sides, during a thunderstorm, to exact ironic revenge on the physically “perfect” gold-digger trapeze artist.
38. “Halloween” (1978)
We all agreed John Carpenter‘s defining, genre-spawning “slasher” movie (a category that relies on shock moments more than most) totally deserved to be here, but it was hard to agree on just one moment. There’s the creepy scene of Michael’s first killing as a child (dressed as a clown, natch) and the coming-back-to-life bit, but when it came down to it, the abiding iconic moment is Jamie Lee Curtis‘ Laurie cowering behind those flimsy closet doors, just before her resourcefulness kicks in and she finally turns the tables.
37. “A Field In England” (2013)
You didn’t have to be wholly receptive to Ben Wheatley‘s psychedelic black-and-white period mindfuck to admit there were some genuinely chilling sequences. But none came close to the nightmare-freakout standards achieved by this horrible/uncanny section where, Reece Shearsmith emerges in extreme slow motion from the torture tent, tethered by a rope and clearly deranged while Blanck Mass‘ “Chernobyl” plays on the soundtrack. The definition of unheimlich.
36. “Eyes Without A Face” (1960)
Suggesting that 1960 was a year to rival 1973 in terms of its horror classics, while Alfred Hitchcock was preparing to redefine American horror with “Psycho,” George Franju was doing something similar across the pond in France. This reclaimed classic has influenced countless films since (perhaps most directly Almodovar‘s “The Skin I Live In“) but at the time it was notorious for this surgery scene, which reportedly caused multiple faintings. Despite a censor-mandated fade-to-black it still retains the power to shock, mainly for the procedural calm with which the mad doctor slowly, slowly removes his hapless victim’s face.
35. “It Follows” (2014)
Last year’s big indie horror breakout hit is one of the most recent films on this list, and while ordinarily it’s hard to judge a film’s lasting impact at such close quarters, it’s very probable that its supremely chilling, mood-setting opening sequence will stand the test of time. I’m not sure if it’s the inexplicable high heels (move over, Bryce Dallas Howard!) or the normality of the suburban setting in which the imperiled victim is even offered help several times over, but this opening (culminating in fantastic grisliness) teases a truly unsettling, inescapable horror.
34. “Carrie” (1976)
To be sure endless parodies, rip-offs and repetitions have dampened the impact of Brian De Palma’s famous double-feint ending to “Carrie,” but it’s become an archetype for a reason. The romanced, almost sickly soft-focus slo-mo of Amy Irving‘s approach to the makeshift grave, the dreamy aesthetic and mournful music are such effective misdirection cues that even when you know exactly what’s coming, it still ensures you leave the theater wrong-footed and uneasy.
33. “Zodiac” (2007)
One of the least overtly genre horrors on this list, mainly because it’s really a procedural thriller based around real events, David Fincher‘s lugubrious but brilliant film not only boasts deep thoughtful characterization and intelligent, ambivalent plotting. It also has some genuine, old-fashioned creepshow moments — after all what’s more old fashioned than to feel yourself scream inwardly “don’t go in the basement!” and, once he’s down there, “Get out! Get out! Get out!”?
32. “The Fly” (1986)
David Cronenberg‘s ick-horror masterpiece is characterized as much by the director’s braininess as it is by its atypically touching love story and many grossout moments. But even aside from the latter, courtesy of the genius-level make up work from Chris Walas, the scene that gets us is — of all the old chestnuts — a dream sequence in which Geena Davis gives birth to a wriggling baby-sized pupa. (No straight embed available, but you can see the scene at 2m in to the below video)
31. “Martyrs” (2008)
Pascal Laugier’s 2008 gore-fest, one of the highlights of the New French Extremity movement, pushes buttons throughout, but climaxes in a moment of both utter terror and strange beauty, as heroine Anna (Morjana Alaoui) is flayed alive by a mysterious group, reaching a state of transcendence that causes her tormentor to shoot herself.