The 10 most unforgettable split-second movie moments
Often, the greatest movie moments that stand in our minds, like the La Sagrada Familia, are scenes from the towering monoliths of cinema history. Such moments will slightly differ from person to person but will likely include such grand scenes as the cosmic waltz from Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, the D-Day landing in Steven Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan and even the ‘bullet time’ sequence in the sci-fi behemoth, The Matrix.
But, sometimes, the most memorable moments in cinema history come from tiny filmmaking flourishes that show glimpses of creative mastery in the most unexpected places. For example, few horror films have captured the fear of the unknown better than Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez’s Blair Witch Project, a simple indie movie that forever changed how the genre operated.
Split-second moments can be easily missed, with some of the very best coming in the form of secret scares in horror movies, as the following list explores. Including films from filmmakers such as David Fincher, William Friedkin, Danny Boyle, and David Lynch, this list will break down ten of the most unforgettable yet brief moments of cinema, with each film being worthy of praise despite their respective critical reception.
Take a look at the list below and experience ten movie moments that will never be erased from your memory.
The 10 split-second movie moments:
10. Hell – Talk to Me (Danny Philippou, Michael Philippou, 2022)
The most recent split-second fright on the list is the moment in the Philippou brothers’ A24 hit Talk to Me when Mia briefly enters hell. Visiting Riley, who is bed-bound in hospital after becoming possessed by an evil spirit while playing games with the ghosts of the undead, Mia comes to him with an idea of how to bring him back to consciousness and shake him off his demonic overlords.
Making a connection with the spirit of an undead girl, Mia thinks she is making headway, yet when the spirit shows her where Riley’s consciousness is being kept, we are given a view into a baby-eating hell that we’d rather not remember.
9. Tyler Durden – Fight Club (David Fincher, 1999)
The Fight Club twist is hardly a secret – even those who have never watched the film are aware that Brad Pitt’s character, Tyler Durden, turns out to be a figment of Edward Norton’s unnamed protagonist’s imagination. Tyler is just one aspect of the narrator’s personality, and in reality, Norton’s character is simply an alienated, depressed man struggling with his mental health.
Throughout the movie, Tyler pops up for a split second, leaving Norton’s character confused as to whether what he’s seeing is real or not. This occurs when he’s in the hospital, during support group meetings, and in the street. You might miss these moments if you’re not paying attention, but they tease the big reveal pretty nicely.
8. Car Crash – Mid90s (Jonah Hill, 2019)
Bizarrely, no film has captured the sudden drama and terror of a car crash better than A24’s coming-of-age film about skateboarding, Mid-90s, directed by Jonah Hill, with the scene going from harmony to disaster in the blink of an eye. Somewhat overlooked upon its release, the film told the story of a 13-year-old in LA whose summer making friends is chronicled amidst his difficult home life.
Toward the end of the film, the main character, Steve (Sunny Suljic) agrees to be driven to a party by a drunk friend, with the moment almost inevitably ending in disaster when the car crashes to a halt. Yet, it is the split-second headlight flash in the face of one of the lead characters that is truly unforgettable.
7. The Lost Crew – Sunshine (Danny Boyle, 2007)
These days, British filmmaker Danny Boyle is recognised as something of a national treasure, being beloved on the very same level as such icons as Christopher Nolan and Ridley Scott. Yet, the director didn’t have a totally easy ride to the top, with his 2007 sci-fi Sunshine failing to strike a chord with audiences despite being one of the most novel concepts of the 21st century.
Telling the story of a group of astronauts who have been tasked with reigniting the sun, the sci-fi borders on horror at one point when the lead cast of characters board a strange ship and pictures of the deceased crewmembers flash on-screen like haunting spectres.
6. The Babadook – The Babadook (Jennifer Kent, 2014)
From one terrifying horror scene to the next, in Jennifer Kent’s 2014 film The Babadook, grief and depression are manifested in the shape of a storybook character come to life. With pale skin and jagged black bodily features, the titular monster haunts a single mother and her son, who seem to be all but helpless against its omnipotence and dogged persistence in making their lives a misery.
While trying to escape its control, the protagonist tries to get a good night’s sleep, but the Babadook has other ideas, keeping her awake with a truly sinister voice before leaping on her in her bed with his uncanny cartoonish face.
5. Inside the UFO – Nope (Jordan Peele, 2022)
Speaking of underrated sci-fi movies, the 2022 Jordan Peele movie Nope didn’t get the credit it deserved, seemingly just because it wasn’t enough like his phenomenal 2017 breakout hit, Get Out. An alien flick that told the story of a UFO plaguing the residents of a small California town, Peele’s movie shocked and surprised while even managing to pay homage to the history of cinema.
Yet, its finest and most shocking moment came when, for just a brief moment, we experienced what it was like to be hoovered up by the airborne alien, with the screams of the victims burning a hole in our eardrums.
4. The Alien – Signs (M. Night Shyamalan, 2002)
Now, this is one that is less scary as an adult, but it’s definitely a movie moment that terrified many viewers during childhood. M. Night Shyamalan’s Signs explores the existence of extraterrestrials on Earth, something that has simultaneously scared and excited humans for hundreds of years. In one scene, Joaquin Phoenix watches a news broadcast featuring footage of an alien sighting.
The scene shows a children’s birthday party, filmed on a home movie camera. As the children gather in fear, the camera focuses on an empty alleyway, only for a giant alien creature to emerge. While the special effects are questionable, there’s no denying that this scene made people jump when Signs first came out in 2002.
3. Annie’s Mum – Hereditary (Ari Aster, 2018)
In Ari Aster’s horrifying debut feature, Hereditary, the incidents that occur all relate back to Toni Collette’s character, Annie, and the grief and trauma she possesses as a result of her highly secretive recently deceased mother. Events take a turn when Annie’s daughter, Charlie, is decapitated after she sticks her head out of a car window, leading her brother, Peter, who was driving, to experience tremendous guilt.
It’s one of the film’s most shocking moments, seeing the 13-year-old’s head come clean off, but Aster also experiments with more quiet, eerie horror techniques to unnerve the audience. When Annie is looking through her mother’s things in the attic, she peers into a dark corner, only to see her mother standing there, barely visible. It’s a blink-and-you-’ll-miss-it scene, but one that elevates Hereditary even further.
2. Tramp – Mulholland Drive (David Lynch, 2001)
David Lynch isn’t typically one for jumpscares, but in Mulholland Drive, he surprised viewers with one that still manages to scare on repeat watches of the film. Released in 2001, the movie sees a woman named Rita join forces with the naive aspiring actor, Betty, as they try to figure out Rita’s true identity after she suffers amnesia. As with every Lynch film, bizarre happenings don’t take long to occur, with several scenes appearing to make little sense within the narrative – at least on first watch.
One of the earliest scenes in the movie that has baffled audiences takes place at a diner, where two men are discussing a nightmare. They go outside to see if the terrifying figure one of them saw in his dream is real. The camera pans slowly over to a wall, leaving us tense, only for a terrifying-looking person, their face covered in dirt and scabs, to pop up at the camera.
1. Pazuzu – The Exorcist (William Friedkin, 1973)
William Friedkin never meant to make The Exorcist a horror movie, but by the time he finished, it couldn’t be classified as anything else. Designed to explore the relationship between humanity and religion, the movie sees a young girl become possessed, spouting obscenities and gaining immense strength and supernatural powers. Several priests come to perform an exorcism, including Father Karras, who is haunted by images of his dying mother.
In one dream sequence, Karras, who is going through a crisis of faith, sees his mother emerging from the subway, and as he chases after her, she turns her back. The images flick from Karras to his mother, but at one point, we see the face of a demon for just a second, and it’s simply terrifying.
