The 10 most terrifying horror movie scenes of all time
One piece of significant criticism that is pointed towards classic horror movies of old, such as F. W. Murnau’s Nosferatu, Terence Fisher’s Dracula and George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead, is that they’re ‘not that scary’. Whilst we largely disagree with this stance, with each of these aforementioned movies offering innovation in the horror genre, it’s difficult not to understand the sentiment, with audiences’ sensibilities having changed considerably over the decades.
Such is the reason why horror fans and people eager to freak themselves out on Halloween so often ask for genre flicks that are ‘actually scary’, as opposed to the classic pioneering movies. So, we thought we’d create a list of the ten scariest movie moments of all time, allowing classic flicks their time in the limelight alongside some other modern efforts that have terrified us witless.
Scanning the genre, we’ve selected ten moments of pure visceral and existential terror that brilliantly define the excellence of the films they represent, branding themselves into the retinas of their viewers in the process.
Take a look at our list below, which includes classic horror flicks from the likes of Tobe Hooper, William Friedkin, Ridley Scott and Stanley Kubrick.
The 10 scariest movie scenes:
10. The Barn – 28 Weeks Later (Juan Carlos Fresnadillo, 2007)
This sequel to the seminal 2002 apocalyptic thriller 28 Days Later, by director Danny Boyle, really had no right to be as good as it was. It took the quintessentially British essence of the first story, which depicted how a contagious virus could completely decimate what is effectively a small island, and then expanded the story to an international crisis which saw the intervention of the US military. It was bigger, brasher, louder, and showed us the same “rage” zombies we’d already seen. And yet, the opening was utterly terrifying.
Beginning with Robert Carlyle and a small band of survivors hiding in a boarded-up country house, the start teased us with a semblance of sanctity and security as the commune enjoyed a modest but tasty-looking meal of pasta. But then all hell broke loose, and vicious, red-eyed, rage-filled maniacs overran their small haven. It culminates in a sequence equally tragic as it is terrifying, where Carlyle’s character abandons his wife to the wrath of a zombie and flees the estate, and the genius camerawork reveals a hundred-fold horde descending upon him.
9. The Witch lands – The Witch (Robert Eggers, 2015)
As a slow-burning A24 ‘art horror’ that was obsessive in its attention to period detail, even boasting authentic ye-olde-English language from its characters, many conventional horror fans found Robert Eggers’ staggering and Sundance-winning debut to be on the milder side. We won’t blame them, but we also won’t lie – The Witch was genuinely one of the most terrifying experiences we’ve had in the cinema. From the beginning, it made one thing abundantly clear: beyond the exploration of religious hysteria and family dynamics, there was still a tangible, physical witch to be afraid of.
And she was scary. The worst moment in the entire film (if you’re ignoring the moment an actual goat literally stands on its hind legs) is during a scene where two of the younger children, Mercy and Jonas, are cowering in a hut outside. Suddenly, we hear definitive sounds of something landing on the hut above, causing the structure to groan and buckle under an added weight. The witch has arrived, and, perhaps luckily for us, whatever dreadful fate awaits the twins occurs off-screen.
8. Floating corpse – Under the Skin (Jonathan Glazer, 2013)
The third film from master British director Jonathan Glazer is yet another A24 gem. What’s strange is that Under the Skin isn’t objectively a horror. Ostensibly, it’s an art-house science fiction featuring Scarlett Johansson as an alien undercover, roaming the streets of Glasgow in search of adequate prey to lure back to her council flat-turned-interdimensional meat farm. Yes, you read that right. As abstract and trippy as the film is, one horrifying scene in the film reveals exactly what is happening to the unsuspecting men who follow her back.
After hypnotically succumbing to the mysterious black goo that we’ve seen several times earlier in the movie, one poor lad finds himself floating adrift, alone – until he spots another victim of the seductive alien. Unable to speak, they nevertheless form a connection, with the new prisoner suddenly understanding the gravity of what’s happened to him. Then, without warning, the man before him contorts and twists and the meat is sucked out of him… leaving only the floating, coiling, empty skin of what was once a human being.
7. Head spin – The Exorcist (William Friedkin, 1973)
Known as one of the greatest horror movies of all time, we could pick out about ten moments from the William Friedkin film The Exorcist that are utterly terrifying. Telling the story of a young girl who becomes possessed by the devil, the ‘Best Picture’ nominee starred the likes of Ellen Burstyn and Max von Sydow and created a moral panic at the time due to its Satanic imagery and themes.
Whilst we could’ve picked out the moment when Captain Howdy is flashed on screen or when Linda Blair’s possessed character mocks Father Karras – “Could you help an old altar boy, father?” – we’ve opted for the iconic head spin. The moment of deft horror filmmaking occurs towards the end of the movie when all hell is quite literally breaking loose, and Regan’s head makes a full 360-degree turn when faced with the prayers and chants of the two priests. It’s truly horrifying stuff.
6. The body in the bag – Audition (Takashi Miike, 1999)
There’s a reason why the classic 1999 Takashi Miike movie Audition remains such a staple of modern horror cinema: it is filled with some truly grotesque scenes. A favourite of Quentin Tarantino, the curious movie tells the story of a widower who screens girls to be his future wife, only for his choice to be a rather disturbing individual who has other plans for her romantic lovers.
To say that Miike’s Audition is disturbing is a massive understatement, and, indeed, just like almost every other movie on this list, we could’ve picked out several moments of pure terror. The words “kiri, kiri, kiri” from one particularly bleak scene are forever lodged in our minds, yet the moment we’ve opted for is the terrifying reveal of what’s in the black sack that has been shuffling and shaking throughout the whole film. The reveal is much worse than you think it’s going to be, giving pure visceral cinematic terror.
5. Stumbling spirit – Kairo (Kiyoshi Kurosawa, 2001)
Whilst visceral blood, guts and gore can be scary, sometimes one of the most terrifying things in horror movies can be a trip to the good old ‘uncanny valley’. One of the greatest examples of this comes in Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Kairo, a film that follows two groups of people who are trying to discover whether spirits may be trying to enter into the world of the living through the internet.
It’s a novel concept that plays on the fear of new technologies at the turn of the new millennium, with Kurosawa’s movie being stuffed full of creepy moments. The very best comes when one of the film’s main characters is attacked by a stumbling spirit who takes the form of a young woman, appearing at the end of a dark hall. Nearly human, but not quite, there is something deeply disconcerting about the figure that rocks you to the core of your very humanity.
4. Cursed videotape – Ringu (Hideo Nakata, 1998)
For too long, Hollywood horror cinema refused to look outside the remits of their own creations, that was until the turn of the new millennium and J-horror reared its head in the form of Hideo Nakata’s Ringu. A terrifying concept that played on the fear of rising technologies, just like the previous entry, Ringu told the story of a reporter who investigates a videotape that apparently kills those who view it after seven days.
Remade in 2002, where it became a huge horror hit, it’s fair to say that the original is far scarier. Its creepiest moment comes when the film goes meta, showing part of the video itself on-screen, where its strange, ethereal and uncanny material is displayed. Indeed, knowing that those who view the video will die in seven days, you’re not sure whether to watch the filmmaking excellence or avert your eyes in pure terror.
3. Chest burster – Alien (Ridley Scott, 1979)
There are countless terrifying scenes in this utterly seminal and groundbreaking science fiction horror from Ridley Scott, but the most notorious and famous one is the notorious ‘chest bursting’ scene, and for good reason. After having what we now have come to fear and loathe as the ‘face-huggers’ attach themselves to his mouth, John Hurt’s character is put in a coma, only to seemingly recover not soon after the creature is removed from him. Rejoining his crewmates for a plate of spaghetti, the general sense seems like he has escaped a near-death.
However, when his prolonged coughing turns into something more convulsive and violent, the other members of the Nostromo have to restrain him to the table – at which point, an alien bursts out of his chest. It’s so gory and shocking that it leaves you speechless, and what makes things all the worse (or better, depending on how you look at it) is that Scott didn’t tell the rest of the cast what was going to happen. That stunned look of fear on their face? Completely genuine.
2. The Twins – The Shining (Stanley Kubrick, 1980)
Stephen King himself may not have been a fan of this 1980 adaptation of his novel of the same name, but the rest of the world disagrees: Stanley Kubrick made an absolute horror masterpiece with this one. The haunting and psychotic performance of Jack Nicholson, the heart-wrenching tragedy of Shelley Duvalle’s fear, the stomach-churning score by Wendy Carlos and, of course, Kubrick’s own knack for layering every frame of cinematography and production design with layers upon layers of symbolism and coded meaning, every second of this movie gets under your skin. But surely the twins are the worst.
After following little Danny as he tricycles around and around the various corridors and foyers of the hotel, the audience begins to get lulled into a deceptive state of hypnotic safety, security, and even boredom. Like a witch casting a spell, Kubrick and his cinematographer expertly keep the camera flowing, round and round like a merry-go-round – until suddenly, Danny turns a corner, and our stomachs drop as we see the ghosts of two murdered twins. As the screen flashes from them to blook-soaked images of their hacked bodies, they chant, “Come play with us, Danny.” No thanks.
1. Leatherface arrives – The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Tobe Hooper, 1974)
Horror did indeed peak in the 1970s, with Friedkin releasing The Exorcist, Scott helming Alien and John Carpenter directing Halloween the very same year as Tobe Hooper surprised the world with The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Kicking off cinema’s obsession with slasher killers, Hooper’s film introduced Leatherface to the fold, becoming the adversary of the film that followed a group of teenagers who get lost in the desolate desert of Texas.
Taking the number one spot on our list of the 50 greatest horror movies of all time, there’s no doubt that The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is a masterpiece of the genre, with its greatest scene also being its scariest. An iconic introduction to Leatherface, Hooper’s horrific villain emerges from the blood-red walls of an unseen side room, taking his first victim with the terrifying squeals of a pig and the unrelenting skull-bashing of a mindless killer.
It’s weird, strange, grisly and utterly uncomfortable. Enjoy a brief glimpse into its horror below.
