The 25 Scariest Moments in Movie History (Part 1)

Hey everyone and welcome to Monster Fest 2009 here on YDKS Movies.

For Monster Fest 2009, I'm doing a very special countdown where I cover my personal 25 Scariest Moments in Movie History.

When I was a kid, I was actually pretty terrified of horror movies. I usually could not watch them all the way through and would be stuck staying up all night if I did. Today, that's not the case. I'm pretty lucky if a horror movie can get a jump scare out of me nowadays. Still, there are a lot of scary movie moments that have gotten to me over the years and I felt that Monster Fest 2009 would be the perfect time to celebrate them.

Please note that these are my personal picks for the scariest moments in movie history. They are based on the films that I have viewed myself. If one of your favorite scary movie moments doesn't end up on the list, don't take it personally. Either I didn't see that movie or it just didn't affect me like it did you.

Also, please note that a lot of these movie moments are big spoilers. If you haven't seen the movie in question, please know that the moment could spoil a very significant moment of the film for you (some key moments are taken from the endings of films). So read / watch at your own risk.

Part 1 of 5

25. The Blair Witch Project- Mike in the Corner (The Ending Scene)

I know a lot of people like to say that The Blair Witch Project isn't scary and that it's not a good movie but that just isn't true. I re-watched this movie over the summer and it still holds up pretty well. It's really bizarre and unnerving to watch a couple of kids get lost in the woods and slowly lose all their trust in each other along with most of their sanity.

There are a lot of creepy moments in this movie (most of the night sequences when their tent is attacked / harassed) but the ending shot of the film always really gets to me. I think I literally get chills every time see this frame. The funny thing is that most people honestly don't "get" the ending.

If you listen closely to one of the townspeople that Heather and her film crew interview at the beginning of the film, he speaks of an old hermit who lived in the woods that killed children. When he would kill the kids, he would stand one of them in the corner, facing away, while he killed another child behind them. He then would take the child he placed in the corner and kill them.

When Heather stumbles into the basement of an abandoned house in the woods, she finds her camera man standing in the corner, facing away from her. That can only mean one thing. Then... well... you'll have to see for yourself. You can view the scene here (embedding was disabled on the clip I found).

24. Zombie (a.k.a. Zombi 2)- The Infamous Eye Scene

Italian director Lucio Fulci is known for filming some of the most gruesome and disgusting images in the horror genre. From exploitation films such as The New York Ripper to The Beyond, Fulci has sprayed the silver screen with lots of intestines and bright red blood.

In 1980, he filmed one of his most popular horror exploitation films: Zombie (a.k.a. Zombi 2). For those unfamiliar with this movie, the confusion over its title comes from the fact that this is actually an unofficial sequel to George A. Romero's Dawn of the Dead (which was entitled Zombi in Europe, hence the alternate title Zombi 2 here).

Zombie is infamous for a lot of things. For example, its the only movie where a zombie battles a shark underwater. No... I'm serious. This movie features a zombie battling a shark. Underwater. You can watch it here.

However, the reason it makes this list is because of its infamous eyeball gouging sequence. This scene is terrible to watch. However, it's also kind of brilliant. A beautiful woman gets grabbed through a door by a bunch of zombies and is slowly dragged towards a jagged splinter. The catch? Her eye is lined directly with the splinter of wood.

In any other movie, she would have escaped or the moment of impact would have happened off camera. However, this is Lucio Fulci we're taking about here. Not only is the moment of impact painstakingly teased and dragged out but it is shown in horrific detail. Yeah, that's right. You see the girl's eye ball get dragged onto the splinter and pop like a grape. And it's absolutely terrible to watch.

Try not to squirm and yell at your computer screen during this scene. It's pretty much impossible. Fulci attacks our most immediate sense of fear: protection of our body; particularly a sensitive and vital area such as our eye ball. And it works. I know that some could argue that this moment is too exploitative to be a scary moment but I found it to be pretty scary, if not disturbing.

For those who don't know, this is Quentin Tarantino's favorite scene in Zombie and it is a big moment in screenings of this film. You can actually find versions of this scene on YouTube with crowd reactions behind it from recent midnight screenings of the cult film.

Watch the scene below. However, be warned. It's very NSFW. And it's really awful. Really. I warned you.

23. Suspiria- Stabbed in the Heart and Hung

Since we're covering Italian horror directors, this list's next moment comes from Italian horror director Dario Argento. While less exploitative than Fulci, Argento can be equally as graphic. However, Argento often uses his gore for artistic purposes, as complicated as that concept may seem.

The scene in question comes from Argento's horror masterpiece Suspiria. Suspiria is a pretty horrifying movie in its own right. It is haunting, gets under your skin and throws some of the most beautiful and horrific images you've ever seen right at your face. It's really an overwhelming film experience.

While there are many scary moments in this film, for me, it doesn't get any worse than the opening murder. First off, let me admit that this murder is insanely over-the-top. A girl is attacked by an unknown force (it's a witch), gets stabbed multiple times, somehow gets stabbed right in her beating heart (and yes, this is shown) and then gets hung to death. It doesn't really make sense in a logical way. However, for some odd reason, Argento makes it work. It's graphic, horrible and the way it's carried out is terrifying. However, through his use of color and bright red blood, it almost becomes a piece of art. Unlike other directors in the horror genre, Argento is actually usually the blood he sheds from his actors like red paint on a canvas.

Aside from all the artistic and graphic properties of this scene, it's really just creepy and genuinely scary. It taps into some of our most universal fears (being watched and stalked by an unknown, evil force) and feels like it's right out of a nightmare.

If you've got the guts, watch the scene below. Be beware, it is NSFW for graphic violence.

22. Cape Fear (1991)- Robert DeNiro Will Bite Your Face Off

Martin Scorsese's Cape Fear remake is one of the most entertaining thrillers ever made. In fact, the film often works like a tribute to all the thrillers that Scorsese grew up watching, often taking a tongue-in-cheek approach to the genre. However, no matter how over-the-top the film and its lead villain Max Cady (played awesomely by Robert DeNiro) can get, there's one scene that always brings everything back to a realistic stand point.

At one point in the film, in order to get back at Sam Bowden (Nick Nolte), Cady picks up his co-worker and possible love interest Lori (Illeana Davis) at a bar and takes her back to his place. After some foreplay, things get real when he ties Lori up, bites her cheek off and then proceeds to beat and rape her.

Yeah. That's some tough stuff. I was watching this movie with a group and everyone was laughing and having fun until this scene. Then, you could have heard a pin drop. To Scorsese's credit, the way he films it is brilliant. He shows the horrible cheek bite in graphic detail but then zooms out of the window as Cady begins to beat Lori.

The scene is very sudden, graphic and terrifying. It's something that always leaves a mark on me whenever I decide to revisit Cape Fear and was scary enough to make this list.

Unfortunately, I could not find a video of this scene online. So you'll just have to take my word for it. Or go and rent it.

21. Dawn of the Dead (1978)- Zombies Storm the Elevator

For me, George A. Romero's Dawn of the Dead is the greatest zombie movie ever made. It's thrilling, funny, scary and even has some impressive social commentary attached to it. It's everything a zombie movie should be.

So with that said, here is the scariest part of the movie to me.

Dawn of the Dead is a pretty ballsy movie in the sense that no one is really safe. The character of Stephen (David Emge), despite being flawed and kind of a wimp, is established to be the male lead of the film. Then, in the heat of a zombie take over of the mall, he gets ambushed in a tiny elevator by a crap load of zombies and gets eaten up pretty bad.

This scene is so tense and heartbreaking at the same time. Stephen really gets torn up and the claustrophobic setting of the elevator really makes it all the more overwhelming. The violence done to David is really awful to watch. You can honestly feel the bites and ripping of his flesh. It's really terrible to watch. Romero also really manages to make the sequence realistically awkward and clumsy. I love the touch of how David shoots the zombie at the very end. It feels very natural.

While David actually survives the zombie attack, he doesn't last much longer. The image of his zombie walking out of the elevator a few minutes after the attack is one of the more shocking and upsetting images I've seen in film period.

Watch the scene below. It's NSFW due to violence. Also, note that the scene does not start until 2:00 into the clip.