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Your personal scariest moment in horror films

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The bear scene from The Shining. Many see it merely as a WTF moment of the movie, but the entire composition of that scene just terrifies me. It comes the fuck out of nowhere, the appearance of the thing is disturbing to me on a deeper, psychological level, and what the bear actually represents is incredibly disgusting. I remember seeing that scene for the first time around 10 years ago watching The Shining on TV. Both my dad and my brother had fallen asleep, so it was just me. The scene is very quick, and it starts with Wendy wandering aimlessly up a flight of stairs, and once she reaches the top she looks down the hallway to a zoomed-out shot of some brown figure appearing to perform fellatio on somebody else, and once he stops, he gets on his knees and looks across at Wendy. Then the camera does a sudden zoom-in that catches you off-guard, and what you see is the face of a gaunt-looking man sitting on the bed along with a man in what appears to be a bear suit with some of the deadest eyes you will ever see.To me, the face of this thing is one of those things that regardless of how many times I see it, I still cannot fully process what I am looking at. The first time I saw this scene, it gave me goosebumps all over my entire body and made my hair stand on end. To this day, it's the one scene in The Shining that I still dread.

On a side note, I'm going to see The Shining, my favorite movie of all-time, in theaters next Wednesday, so I look forward to seeing this scene on the big-screen.
 
Two stand outs for me in particular;

The first time Clarice meets Lector in Silence of the Lambs was terrifying when I saw it aged 12-13.

When Sadoko climbs out of the TV in Ringu.

Edit. Both feature slow progression as the horror is revealed. The way they build tension is awesome.
 
Sadly I don't get scared watching horror films. It's why I tend to watch horrors that have a good story, which is very few.
 
retroman said:
Yep! Couldn't agree more.
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The thing about some remakes, especially American remakes is that they just try and be too stylish. And I say that without any pretentiousness; I'm fine with remakes and reboots existing (look at my tag lol) but in this case I really felt like Verbinksi's movie, while totally good, wasn't as effective in this regard as it got way too animated. The original scene of the girl coming out of the TV in the Japanese version had stationary camera angles whereas the remake has the camera moving all over the place and tracking Samara's every move. That takes away from it a lot IMO.

When you go too too far with horror it loses effectiveness. James Wan does it so right with The Conjuring movies. The cinematography is incredible, but it doesn't stylize "scary" scenes too much. A great move in the first one was when the girl was in bed and she looks under the bed, and as she pulls herself back up the camera sort of twists back up with her. It doesn't stylize any visuals of creepiness, but moments centered around them.
 
I really couldn't bring myself to watch horror movies as a kid. I just completely avoided them. At 13 I got invited to watch The Others at the theater and not wanting to sound like a bitch I went. The scene where the lady opens the closet door literally shook me for like 5 seconds. It felt like electricity was running through my body. After that I became pretty much inmune to jumpscares. The anticipation still gets me, the reaction now is nothing more than my eyes widening a bit for a fraction of a second.
 
The shower scene in IT. I guess it was just the timing and age I was when I saw it, but I was fixated on the drain everytime I had a shower for years after seeing it.
 
The head in Jaws.

Everyone expects and fears the shark.

Then comes the head. It's one of the very few non-shit jump scares, IMO.
 
vikki said:
Fire in the Sky, syrup on the head flashback.
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just to draw attention to this since all the good ones have already been talked about

kinda funny but my dad started letting me watch horror movies with him towards the end of elementary school and when I watched this one with him it fucked me up so bad that i couldn't sleep for weeks and my mom gave him so much shit for it that he wouldn't watch anything with me for a while

for those unsoiled
 
Jump scares work of course, and I can appreciate them when they are done well, but they don't stick for me. Scenes with heavy implications are what linger and are therefore the scariest imo. The moments where I'm essentially asking myself "how far is this gonna go?" and terrified at what that answer might be.

Snuff film scene in Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer
Dinner scene in TCM

and a more recent example from Don't Breathe
the ending capture sequence. knowing the director and having seen the evil dead remake, i thought for sure the third act of that movie was gonna be shockingly cruel. It was, but not to the level my mind immediately went. The human brain is fucked.
 
brandonh83 said:
There are also a lot of scenes without jump scares, like when Patrick Wilson has his back turned to Janet whom Wan puts out of focus and as the dialogue plays out, she slowly morphs into the old man before morphing back into Janet before the background comes back into focus. It's brilliant.
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That entire scene was absolutely amazing.
 
MIMIC said:
That entire scene was absolutely amazing.
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The Conjuring 2 is the best movie I've seen this year still. That will likely change when Rogue One hits, but let me revel in the fact that my favorite movie this year is a horror movie.

It tickles me from head to toe.
 
Friday 13th at the end. False sense of security, thought it was all over so it really got me. The rest of the film was so predictable slasher stuff since it was copied so much.
 
Exorcist 3
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Most of A Tale of Two Sisters

I remember, as a kid, jumping when the horses stirred to life in The Ring.

I've jumped at many scenes over the years, it's hard to really pinpoint any. Psychological/paranormal horror gets me most.
 
The first major dream sequence in Nightmare on Elm Street that starts in the school, then she follows the body bag out into the streets and you get the full reveal of Freddy

THIS is God!
 
Carcetti said:
I've only seen the movie once and I can't even remember what was supposed to be scary about the last shot? Can someone explain?
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Early in the movie when they are interviewing the locals they get a story about a serial killer named Rustin Parr. Parr took 4 pairs of children into his cabin in the woods and made one stand in the corner while he killed the other because he didn't want them looking at him. He claims that an old woman ghost commanded him to do it.

When Heather is killed, Mike (or Josh I forget which one) is standing in the corner so he won't see, meaning the one who killed Heather was likely under the same effect as Parr.
 
A few that stand out:

- The Thing defibrillator scene. I guess you could argue that this is a jump scare, but it's done so well. I watched this movie for the first time in high school with a group of guys who had also never seen it. I remember one guy jumped so high that he actually fell over the back of the couch. We had to pause and rewind because we were all so damn shocked.

- That weird bird-like ghost from Poltergeist. I think most people were bothered by the clown or the skeletons, but that puppet wrecked me as a kid. There's something very unsettling about its design.

- Signs birthday party. Looking back, I don't know why this scene even works. Objectively, it just seems so hokey. The CG is rough, and the alien looks humorously casual in his walk. But there's something about it that's really effective on the first watch.
 
jelly said:
Friday 13th at the end. False sense of security, thought it was all over so it really got me. The rest of the film was so predictable slasher stuff since it was copied so much.
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The music during that is legitimately beautiful. There's a new Friday the 13th in the works and I keep hoping the teaser uses that music but then ends on this huge stinger.

Harry Manfredini is amazing. I was going to meet him at a convention but the hurricane caused the event to be cancelled. They're rescheduling so I'm hoping he stays on.

Lionel Mandrake said:
- Signs birthday party. Looking back, I don't know why this scene even works. Objectively, it just seems so hokey. The CG is rough, and the alien looks humorously casual in his walk. But there's something about it that's really effective on the first watch.
Click to expand...

Signs is incredible. It's one of my favorite movies period. Such a perfectly written and crafted movie. The scene in question works because Shyamalan, at his best, can just fucking do it.
 
That nurse part in Exorcist 3 is legit creepy as hell.

Nobody ever talks about this movie, but The Exorcism of Emily Rose has some of the most unnerving scenes I've ever witnessed. Remember that part when the dude wakes up and she's all demonic and twisted up on the ground? No?? That's because you don't want to bitch.

Remember that other part when she was freaking out in the church and started bending backwards until her back was almost splitting in half? No?? That's because you buried it away in order to keep your sanity.

Remember the end?
When she was possessed by all of those demons, and then finally Lucifer comes out and her eyes go all crazy?
Me neither because that shit gave me fucking nightmares!

Fuck that movie. It was just a scary-ass flick. It had a few jump scares, sure, but it was the vibe that really made that movie terrifying.
 
Emily Rose was utterly fantastic. It was very creepy but told a really great story. I got legitimately teary eyed when she had to make that choice at the end whether or not to accept her fate or just move on. That was great and hauntingly beautiful.
 
The Exorcist - When the scene in the bedroom changes and the Father Karras sees his mother sitting up in the bed looking at him.

the-exorcist-420.jpg
 
Since a lot of my picks were already mentioned, I'll say the scene in Paranormal Activity where the girl gets dragged away in the middle of the night.
 
Lionel Mandrake said:
A few that stand out:

- The Thing defibrillator scene. I guess you could argue that this is a jump scare, but it's done so well. I watched this movie for the first time in high school with a group of guys who had also never seen it. I remember one guy jumped so high that he actually fell over the back of the couch. We had to pause and rewind because we were all so damn shocked.

- Signs birthday party. Looking back, I don't know why this scene even works. Objectively, it just seems so hokey. The CG is rough, and the alien looks humorously casual in his walk. But there's something about it that's really effective on the first watch.
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Both of those fucked me up. I was really little and just happened to walk by while someone was watching The Thing, so that was fun.

Signs though, that movie fucked me up for ages. The birthday party scene in particular is just, absolutely scary. I think it's how mundane the scene is, and how it's shown on the news and everything. I couldn't sleep for weeks.
 
I'd probably put the opening "farm house" scene from 28 Weeks Later at the top of my list for scares.
The speed and ferocity of those "zombies" is something I hadnt seen before and the desperation, the fear of the victims and the rate at which everything went to shit, came through really well.
Its the most "just get the fuck out of there" event Ive ever seen in a movie...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGwgSyFxVTs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVnz6hlC3pQ
 
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