Scariest Movie Scenes

Scott Hardie | October 29, 2011
In the spirit of Halloween, AV Club asked its writers, what's the scariest scene you've ever seen in a movie? It's a good question for demonstrating the subjectivity of cultural experience: What terrifies one viewer may seem ho-hum to another, and vice versa, more than most other emotions at the movies. I'm curious if that same effect applies here. What movie scenes scared you the most, as a child or as an adult?

For me, the first answer that comes to mind is the end of Superman III, when the evil supercomputer transforms a human assistant into a cyborg. I had just turned five, and all of the screaming and sparks amid the transformation made me lose my shit in the theater. I had to be taken outside to cry it off on the sidewalk for a few minutes, carried by a considerate family friend who came along. This may have had a lot to do with why I rarely wanted to see movies as a child. Watching the scene today, of course, it plays like pretty cheesy sci-fi, unhelped by some very dated special effects. But for a few seconds there at the beginning, I can see what traumatized me as a little kindergartner.

Steve Dunn | October 29, 2011
Ending scene of Carrie messed me up real bad as a kid:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gezp7uTer0A&feature=related

Steve West | October 29, 2011
There's a really freaky scene from the original Fright Night where Amy turns suddenly to Charlie and exposes that cave-like mouth full of teeth. That one really made me jump.

Steve West | October 29, 2011
The end of Phantasm where the evil Lurch guy says, 'Boooooooyyyy!' in that menacing manner.

Samir Mehta | October 29, 2011
[hidden by request]

Steve West | October 29, 2011
Two scenes from Poltergeist shook me a little - that creepy puppet clown when he dragged the kid under the bed and later when the tree swallowed the same boy.

Steve West | October 30, 2011
I'm not exactly sure why but the scene in The Exorcist III when the old lady crawls across the ceiling runs a shudder down my spine.

It's funny but I just clicked on the article link and the first thing you see is that stupid Poltergeist clown. And the different scene from the Exorcist III they include is also quite startling.

Justin Woods | October 30, 2011
freddy krueger not sure which maybe the first or second. the bed scene!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGGrbOZrFqw

Scott Hardie | October 30, 2011
All pretty good links. I need to see more of these movies.

As an adult, one of the scariest movie "scenes" I saw -- I guess it's several scenes -- is with the Zuni fetish doll in Trilogy of Terror. (part 1, part 2, part 3) The notion of an adult being chased around her apartment by a tiny wooden doll is about as corny as you can get, but the movie knows this and transcends its own premise. There's something primal in our ancient DNA that is very troubled by a relentless predator; we cannot find peace, forever imagining it springing back up to terrorize us again. How many billions of nightmares have hinged on an enemy that keeps coming back over and over no matter how many times it is dispatched? The Terminator and other movies know this and use it well, but that damn Zuni doll might be the best I've ever seen it done; just try and stop imagining yourself in Karen Black's shoes for a while afterwards.

Steve West | October 30, 2011
Wow! It's been quite some time since I saw that one but I can still see Karen Black's filed teeth.

Scott Hardie | October 30, 2011
Return to Oz got me pretty worked up at age 7. The villainess had interchangeable heads stolen from her victims, each one kept in a glass cabinet in her palace, with the main head locked behind a gold-laced mirror while her body slept nearby. Young Dorothy needed a potion that was kept locked up with the main head at night, requiring her to sneak in without waking anyone up. That didn't work out, resulting in lots of screaming. Between that and Superman III, I think it's really the screaming that did me in. Seeing it as an adult, the scene isn't scary at all, but it plays out exactly like I remembered it for years.