What is the scariest scene in any movie you have watched?

[RamseyGordon]

If you watch horror movies, what is one scene that you can think of that sticks out as being one of the scariest scenes you've watched?

I think it is interesting to see what is effective and what different people find scary.

For me it's the scene in hereditary where she's on the ceiling sawing her head off with chicken wire. Absolutely hated that imagery and felt so disturbed!

Also, the scene at the end of the original The Vanishing is so horrific.

That sounds a bit like Zombi 2.

There are some very unsettling scenes in Manhunter (1986) where Brian Cox plays Lecter, the kidnap scene (before the burning) is terrifying.

They will seem very tame now but when I was much younger, it was:

• The skeletons being summoned in Jason and the Argonauts
• When the head slowly turn on the big statue in the same film
• Topol being chased and falling in the grave in Fiddler on the Roof
• End of Carrie obviously
• Head falling out of the sunken boat in Jaws
• Tube stalking scene in an American Werewolf in London

Pretty much every scene in the REC movies. The visuals in those films are just so, so bleak, scary and unsettling. Don't feel safe in any scene!

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=uBA95dqdlCM

No gore - a great scene!

I was messed up for ages after watching Hereditary, the scene where she see's her mum in the room was so spooky and the ending is just 😱I think it's a good film, better than Midsommer but I don't know if I can ever watch it again!

Another one that creeps me is Carrie.
Her mum was bonkers.

Yes - that’s it, @BarborousBarbra - you are so clever!

The writer and the director disagreed on it being included, the director thought it would overload the audience who had just digested the knock on the door to say the priest had been flung or fallen down the steps, he thought they needed time to process that without another shock, the writer believed it should stay in, the director seems to have got his way in the original edit and in the "Making of" doc. (which is fascinating) they were still arguing about it 25 years later!

I haven't seen many scary films but The Sixth Sense when Cole thinks it's his mother in the kitchen and it isn't. I just feel so sad and scared for him. And finding out that the other mother killed her child with poisoning.

In Paranormal Activity where the woman is dragged out of bed by her leg.

Some of mine have already been mentioned (weird how it's the same things that freak us out!?)

• the TV footage of the aliens in Signs
• the Area 51 bit in Independence Day
• the end of the Blair Witch Project
• everything about The Ploughkeepsie Tapes
• one bit in Paranormal Activity 3 (if that's the one with the little girls) where it slowly pulls her hair upwards, really stuck with me
• the woman in the bath in The Shining
• the Saw trap where here hair is being wound round the machine
• The Conjuring where it's on top of the wardrobe

And a bonus one - in the book of The Shining, the bit where Danny is in the tunnel in the playground and one end is covered in snow.

Now I'm wondering if there's something wrong with me because I wasn't scared watching Hereditary at all. I thought it was clever, the plot was interesting and Toni Colette was brilliant (as always). The ending was... odd. But I wasn't scared by it as such

I think the scariest thing about Eden lake was the English accents, the chavvy kids.. it was too real.

The scene that stands out for me is in the original 1960s Psyco movie, it’s not scary or creepy compared to some that’s been mentioned here.

Its the last scene where Norman Bates is in jail and a fly lands on his hand and then his/his mothers creepy voice starts saying something along the lines of “No one will believe an old lady killed those people, I’m not touching this fly so they will then know I wouldn’t hurt a fly” out of the whole of that film and other horrors I’ve watched that’s always stuck in my head, her/his creepy voice and that fly!

If people mention that saying now I always think of Norman Bates!! As I said it’s not remotely scary but I just shudder at that sentence in that voice

@notahappybunny7

Yeah exactly an O shitt moment!!

The bit in one of the early Paranormal Activity movies (think the 2nd one) where she's sat in the kitchen then suddenly EVERY drawer and cupboard door flies open with an almighty noise. Made me jump so badly I felt sick the first time I saw it!

This scene was so creepy back then but now I can't watch it without thinking of my mate at school who fancied the floating vampire kid 😂

The last ten minutes or so of the original Halloween. He just keeps getting up and going for her. The twins in The Shining and definitely the Blind Angels in Dr Who

The worse bit for me was the little girls head

Agree re Hereditary - a few bits of that film stay with you. I'd also give a nod to the bit in the Conjuring where the Mum is playing the blindfolded 'clapping' game and the hands come out of the wardrobe. Proper creepy but subtle.

There's a really good series on Shudder of the best 100 horror scenes of all time. Not all gore and, for once, I was happy with the number one choice.

A lot of these I've never watched but I'm either adding them to my watch list or I'm going to YouTube the specific scenes when I get home

I usually find horror films disappointing and a bit tedious. There is only one scene from a film that has ever disturbed me. I saw the bug in the helmets scene from Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan when I was about 9. Couldn't sleep without covers covering my ears for far too many years and woodlouse always reminded me of it, so I was freaked out by them for a long time too.

Absolutely!

It's interesting that the Mum's religious hysteria is the scary bit of such a traumatic film!