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 4 of 5.
10. Twilight Zone: The Movie- "You Wanna See Something Really Scary?"
The first time I saw Twilight Zone: The Movie, I was pretty young. While I found most of the sequences forgettable, the opening scene left a lastly impact on me. That's because it honestly scared the crap out of me.
Directed by John Landis and starring Dan Aykroyd and Albert Brooks, this opening is one big deceptive trick. It consists of two guys driving down a desert road late at night, playing road games, trying to remember old TV show theme songs and just joking around. Due to its tone and comedic cast, it doesn't feel threatening at all. In fact, it just feels fun and relaxing. It really works to set the audience into a state of calm.
This all changes when Aykroyd's character asks if Brooks would like to "See something really scary?" That's when the thought that this is a Twilight Zone movie pops back up in the back of your mind. That's when you start to get a little nervous again.
The pay off of this question scared the piss out of me as a child. While it doesn't really affect me anymore, I still have to pay homage to it on this countdown.
Watch the whole sequence below.
9. Fright Night- Vampire Revealed
Fright Night was a movie my dad made me watch when I was about ten years old. I'm not sure what possessed him to make me view this movie. However, he got it in his mind that I had to see it and, because of that, he made it happen.
While Fright Night isn't really a scary movie as opposed to a being a really fun horror film, it does have some truly scary moments. Out of all of these moments, the reveal that neighbor Jerry Dandrige (Chris Sarandon in an awesome performance) is actually a vampire really got under my skin. To me, this scene is one of the scariest things that could happen to me in real life. And that's why this scene works so well-- it feels real. Despite dealing with something fairly ridiculous like vampires, it feels like it could happen to any of us.
The set up is simple. Horror buff Charley Brewster (William Ragsdale) believes that his new next door neighbor may be a vampire. So, late one night, he begins to spy on him with binoculars. After falling asleep on his watch, he awakes to a really seductive scene. Dandrige has a beautiful woman over and she undresses right in front of Charley's eyes. Things seem to be going well and fun... that is until Dandrige opens up wide and reveals some sharp fangs that have been hidden in his mouth.
There's so much about this scene that bothers me. I cannot imagine many things scarier than discovering that my neighbor is a vampire... and then have him make eye contact with me right after this discovery. The look on Dandrige's face after getting caught is so great. It exudes confidence and gives the feeling that he could kill you without even trying as well. Also, the triple cut reveal of Dandrige's finger nails always really bothered me too.
Watch the scene below. It is NSFW due to nudity.
8. Audition- Man in Bag
Takashi Miike's Audition is one of the most unsettling movies I have ever seen. It starts off almost as a romantic drama about loneliness and then suddenly spirals into a bizarre torture film about an abused Japanese woman with issues she needs to take out on all men. While most people are bothered by the torture scene that ends the film, I am always more taken back and truly disturbed by the man in the bag.
Yeah, that's right-- the man in the bag. Asami has seemed like a shy but otherwise normal girl up until this point in the film. That is until we see her waiting patiently by the phone, hoping that Shigeharu will call her. When he does finally call, we see a giant bag in her room move and roll, a horrible groan coming out of it.
I don't know about you but that scares the crap out of me. Then, later on, we get to see what's in the bag. And, even worse, we get to see what it eats on a daily basis.
Yeah, it's terrible. It really, really is.
Watch the phone scene below.
Watch the bag reveal below. Be warned... it's bad.
David Lynch terrifies me. His movies and television work are some of the few things that can actually get me scared in this world. When I watched Twin Peaks last spring for the first time, I was terrified by the character of Bob. Everything about him terrified me. So, naturally, when I got around to seeing Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me, Bob's scenes once again scared the crap out of me.The scene that bothered me the most was the scene where Laura Palmer finds Bob lurking around her room. Lynch's direction is bizarre and incredibly creepy. When Bob is finally revealed, you almost don't expect him to be there. Then, he pops up and Lynch for some reason gives us a close up view of the inside of his mouth.
It all doesn't really make much sense but it's very unsettling to watch.
Watch the scene below.
6. Halloween (1978)- Michael Myers Stalks Laurie
I've written on this site before about how bad John Carpenter's Halloween (1978) scared me as a child. The character of Michael Myers really got under my skin as a kid and just terrified me. I'm not sure what it was about him... I guess, for me, he really was an epitome of the boogeyman. While there are a lot of scary scenes featuring Michael Myers in Halloween, for me, none are more frightening than the ending of the film where he is stalking Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis). The stalking scene is long but Carpenter's direction makes it incredibly tense and unnerving. The scene where he gets Laurie trapped in the closet is so claustrophobic and overwhelming to watch. And the moment where Michael sits back up in the foreground is an example of how to use well though-out framing to really scare an audience.
Overall, this scene is just one example of how Carpenter's expertise as a director makes Michael Myers a truly terrifying horror villain.
Watch the scene below.
Be sure to stay tuned for Part 5.
3 comments:
the only one i have seen in this part is Halloween.
the twin peaks movie looks fun, and so does the vampire one. and the twilight zone one. the deformed man that ate the girl's throw up was disgusting. i don't think i would like to see that one.
Yeah. Probably not. I tried to warn you.
you put that throw up movie on here last Halloween. so I had already seen that video. I just never commented on it.
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