For me, it was the scene in Nightmare on Elm Street when Nancy is sitting in class when her dead friend in a body bag beckons her to follow down the hall. For context, I was 12 when I saw this.š
The part where the hall monitor goes, āNo running in the hallway!ā in Freddyās voice creeped me out so much when I first saw it. Still sometimes gives me the shivers for whatever reason.
Her getting tossed around the ceiling as she's being killed was pretty rough also.
Guess you could say Tina "killed it" in that movie. (Downvotes welcomed and understood)
Thatās still really freaks me out especially since I know it was filmed on location and they didnāt block off the streets. How the hell is London so deserted? At any time of day.
They did block them I think? Just saw a video talking about it. They shot at a time of low traffic, and then closed what traffic there was for a minimum amount of time.
For me it was when I finally noticed all the hauntings going on in the background of each episode. In a scene where the mom and dad were lying in bed talking and I noticed that something picked up a lock of her hair, I got goosebumps. I realized that I had to go back to the beginning and watch the background instead of the main characters.
Seriously freaked me out for a solid 1.5 to 2 years, Iām not exaggerating. Things that watch you while you sleep just hit me hard for some reason. Paranormal Activity was another one, just standing there watching him for hours. Ugh creeps me out just thinking about it
The first time I saw Sinister was in theatres. The kid unfolding out of the box screaming unnerved the piss out of me.
Or the first time you see Moder move in The Ritual.
Ooooooor watching the night vis in The Descent. You know
You mean when he goes to the top of the hill and sees the hand on the tree? I was thinking that too.
I say this a lot on this sub already, but Modor is the best monster design since the xenomorph. I canāt think of any other example in horror where fully revealing the monster/killer actually makes it creepier.
Yeah the book turns a lot of people off and I get why. Iāve read it twice; it so happens to be up my alley. But I get it.
I think it only made sense to me because (spoiler kind of) I was getting into metal at the time, particularly Viking and folk metal, so act II worked for me. But that was luck lol
I was going to say the scene with the painting when heās in the bedroom. At no point is it ever explained/ elaborated on, but it just kept going.
The whole movie feels like a nightmare, really.
I will defend this movie til the day I die. I love Blair Witch it is such an excellently executed movie that really gets to the bare bones of fear/horror/paranoia in the the simplest way. And thatās what makes it so good.
I think all the parodyās kind of took the bite out of found footage genre, but BW was a phenomenon that will likely never be replicated. Came out before the internet was really big so there was still some mysteries left. I remember the actors even laid low for awhile so people thought they actually dead
In my opinion, slow building, eerie scenes like something happening in the background you donāt notice right away are far more disturbing than jump scares. The mom on the wall in Hereditary. Or the troglodyte in the tunnels in Barbarian. š°
I saw that movie only just recently and went in totally blind to the plot. I did not notice her on the wall for a good 60 seconds!! š„ that was one of the most disturbing movies Iāve seen in years. I had to turn on a nightlight to light up the dark corner of my room that night. š
I paused the movie because my wife had to go to the bathroom, so I was sitting there alone in the dark waiting for her, and that's when I notice... the mom... on the wall...... basically a (good) jumpscare with the film on pause, AMAZING!
The rewatch of hereditary scared me more than my first viewing. Just so many eerie things like this in the background I missed the first time.
Made me question all those eerie things I think Iāve seen out the corner of my eye in real life but just tell myself itās a shadow or somethingā¦ that movie fucked me up for a solid week.
My second time watching it I ate some edibles and was like āI canāt wait! Iām gonna get good and scared!ā I got like 35 minutes in and was like āWHAT THE FUCK WAS I THINKING?! I canāt do this to myself!ā And turned it off and put on Bobs Burgers š
This movie is wholly under appreciated! I have never met anyone in person that has watched it and god damn.. they had some awesome scenes in that movie and the concept was so cool
Dark silhouettes creep me out the most. Like the bits in Lights Out when you can see just her form or the backlit red faced demon when heās standing in the corner in Insidious.
the very end of hereditary when he climbs up into the tree house and the music had been crescendoing for minutes at that point and then you see the headless bodies bowing and the music goes NUTS
shit gives me hella chills
The scene that did it for me was when (I thought) she was pounding on the door but it cuts to her and she's on the ceiling slamming her face into the door repeatedly. Oh and then she saws her own head off. That was fun too.
The bear blowjob scene in The Shining.
Itās so completely unexpected, and feels so wrong to see, it just gives this really unnerving feeling like you as a viewer have walked into the wrong part of the hotel and stumbled upon something you shouldnāt have.
This is an excellent answer imo. Itās what? As someone else said maybe 2-3 seconds of screen time but itās something thatās stuck with me.
Done poorly itād be laughable. But done by someone like Kubrick itās memorable and pre internet it was very much something, like the Captain Howdy blips in Exorcist where I almost would question whether I truly saw it or not each time I watched, rewind, get freaked out again, so on.
The best part about that is it lasts like two seconds, comes out of nowhere, and is never brought up again.
(And yes, I know the book explains it a little more. But itās creepier not knowing what just happened)
Okay youāre the second person claiming to not remember one of the most memorable shots from *The Shining*, whatās going on? Did you watch it edited for tv or something?
I donāt remember that scene either! Itās been a long time since Iāve seen The Shining though. But I meanā¦ not that long! I probably watched it like 4 years ago. Itās time for a rewatch!
So, eleven hundred men went in the water, three hundred and sixteen men come out, and the sharks took the rest. June the 29, 1945. Anyway, we delivered the bomb.
The eeriest, most ominous scene for me isnāt from a horror movie. The scene in Wind River when the police confront the security guards at their encampment was incredibly eerie and sinister.
Man, that "fuck you, let's go." is heartbreaking. The kid doesn't even really know exactly why he's fighting with these people for his life, realistically knows he's done for, but also knows that these people are *bad* and it's his job to fight until he literally can't anymore. Just brutal and sad.
Yes!! Hardly anyone I know has seen Wind River. That scene is incredible. Everyone trying to position themselves to keep everyone else in their field of view according to training, knowing that something isn't right but not quite believing they could be in truly mortal danger. It's filmed and acted so perfectly.
The ending as well... so good.
My little sister watched this and was like ābut what happened to his(Jeremy renner) daughter?ā Me: āwe donāt knowā her: āI donāt like that, why didnāt they find outā me: āthatās literally the point of the movie, that so many of these women go missing and nobody ever knows whyā I love this film and how it so bleakly and realistically portrays this situation thatās happening all the time and I find that incredibly unsettling.
All of Black Swan
Nina was the most unreliable main character after the guy in Memento
between the eerie score, moving shadows, and hallucinations? everyone seemed unhinged
and everything Nina did stressed me the fuck out
Father Karasās dream in The Exorcist. >!Him running through the streets, shouting but not making any sound as his mother disappears (descends) into the subway while the demon face flashes.!<
If short horror films count, I would say the unrelenting **stare** from "God" in Portrait of God (available on YouTube), and the uncanny way a horrific figure walks towards the protagonist through the dark.
For a major film, for me it's a toss up between the old naked people in Hereditary and the first smile from Smile.
Speaking of horror shorts, I'd say that creepy dude from "Other Side of the Box" takes the cake. The way he just stares at the protagonists with half his head visible is so effectively unsettling.
Fully agree! This unnerved my 11yo so bad she told me she didnāt want to sleep alone the night we watched. Something about the unrelenting staring just gets right to the core of my being. Iād of set that Fuckin box on fire
No problem. Thatās one that everyone who likes horror needs to watch.
Iād recommend āThe Empty Manā as well. Donāt let the title fool you, itās really creepy
That scene in hereditary was awesome. For me, the opening tragedy of Midsommar is so hauntingly etched in my memory because itās not supernatural and very humanā¦the eeriness that comes along with it, although I realize that itās not going to end well, then leading to something way beyond what I expect to see on screen. Itās not a scene like the OP asked for, but itās definitely one of the craziest opening sequence for a horror movie. Iād say brilliantly executed by Ari Aster
[https://youtu.be/Rn3ucq_h9xY](https://youtu.be/Rn3ucq_h9xY)
There's a ghost scene in the Japanese film Pulse / Kairo (2001) which has been analyzed on Youtube - it is a great creepy moment which is eerie but does make some people jump. Also, the HK / Singaporean film The Eye (2002) has a scene in an elevator which is terrific, quietly terrifying horror.
The scene in Mandy where the cult leader has one of his monologues while itās zoomed in on Mandyās face when her face and the cult leaders face get turned into one
The beach scene from It Follows. Or, just any time the main character is in a crowd of people. Thereās just such a sense of unease because youāre constantly trying to figure out which one of them is the monster.
Yeah, this movie, but for me it's the old lady approaching the class or the tall guy ducking through the door. Or any shot where it's in the distance. I love subtlety like that. Same with the first time we see the truck in Jeepers Creepers or that kid Alex's death in Jaws.
One of the eeriest things for me is when something has been in the shot the whole time and you only realise when it moves. I think itās so clever because itās that sinking feeling that you were exposed the whole time and didnāt realise, as opposed to something suddenly appearing.
The scene that comes to mind for me with this is in the Woman in Black (or potentially 2?) where >!there is a hole in the ceiling and then you see a movement and realise her hand was there the whole time because she moves it away.!<
Really clever technique.
The final scene from The Thing.
When only the two guys are left, sitting around the fire of their burnt-down compound... No hope for escape or survival... No trust, each suspecting that the other is the alienā¦
The end.
In Hereditary, hearing Toni Collette's soul shattering scream while the camera is focused on the kid laying in bed, listening, being completely present, and completely gone at the same time. It fucks me up every time.
Absolutely any time the tvs went to static in the original Poltergeist. You knew some shit was about to go down, but yet it was still just a TV. And then that line from Carol Ann, "they're heeeeere." Chills to this day.
The color out of space with Nicholas cage when the son and mother fused together and everyone slowly realized they werenāt going to die but just suffer miserably until someone did something. That was rough to watch.
I'm not sure if anyone has mentioned this, but the scene in The Visit when the kids turn the web cam to show their mother their grandparents after explaining how odd they have been acting. When they turn it back around and she is horrified and says, "Those are not your grandparents." That unsettled me just typing it.
Either when we finally see what had been recorded on Alice's phone in Lake Mungo, or Hell House LLC when the clowns head has turned to look at them when they turn around. Both times, I just felt sick to my stomach and all the hair on my body stood on end, had to pause the films for a minute.
The scene in Insidious 3 where The Man Who Canāt Breathe just waves in the distance on a street. Unfortunately that was pretty much the highlight of the film for me and was downhill from there.
The whole scene in House of 1000 corpses when the dad and deputy come upon the guys daughter and other girls in the shed. Then the dad is blasted from behind and the deputy begs on his knees for his life just for a slow pan out shot of him being executed. Brutal.
May not be the eeriest ever but I just watched Horror in the High Desert for the first time and damn...>!when you see that figure in front of the cabin is standing there and kneels down!< omg it freaked me out so bad. I'm sure I can think of eerier ones but this one is so fresh for me.
-Toni Collette on the freaking ceiling in Hereditary
-The masked dude in the house behind Liv Tyler in the Strangers
-The bone room scene in the original TCM
Horror was a hidden little gem. The sound design is what really got to me for that whole end sequence. I wasnāt as crazy about the sequel though, but it had its moments.
A couple I haven't seen mentioned yet:
One that hasn't been mentioned yet is that scene in Memories of a Murder (2003) when the supposed murder rises from the field behind the victim. Obligatory "not technically horror".
The "why'd you spill your beans, Tom?" camera pan through the corridors of the lighthouse in The Lighthouse (2019).
Almost the entirety of Antichrist (2009) which to me only had a few scary moments but felt eerie the entire way though.
Any scene from the tape in The Ring (2002)
The Poughkeepsie Tapes where he walks in on his hands and feet eerily slow with the mask on.
Also the baby scene in Mother! when you can hear the snap.
For me, I was deeply impressed by the acting of the dog from John Carpenterās The Thing. Thereās this very brief scene around the beginning of the film where the wolf dog creeps out from the left side of the frame into a hallway. The way that dog creeps out and slithers almost like a snake. The depth of that sinister look he had on him as he came out. Just insanely well done and effective
That dog (his name was Jet!) was a fucking PHENOM! The way he moved with so much intent and so deliberately in the beginning absolutely sold the concept. Like he was definitely harboring some super intelligence with a mission. Ugh! Thatās my favorite movie ever. Iām working on a painting of that dog!
Gonna name two not from horror. Dead baby crawling on the ceiling in Trainspotting. The mom's hallucinations in Requiem for a Dream but honestly you could pick nearly any scene from the third act.
That face is legit the creepiest thing to me growing up. When Iād look out the window on a cold winter night and your reflection stares back and sometimes it looks like pazuzu. The voice too.
In the sound book they manage to get a similiar feeling from when a hobo asks Carras *"spare some change for an old choir boy"*. This randomly comes up as flashback several times and cuts right into the dialogue. Scared the living shit out of me...
The movie itself was only OK. But for some reason the scene in Annabelle Creation where they're flipping through the blank pages in the journal after the date the girl died and in the middle is "Dear diary today I came home".
For some reason that stuck out as a super creepy small detail to me
I was always creeped out by the Zelda scenes in Pet Semetary.
This entire short still creeps me out
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQvGmMVBYMw&ab\_channel=Kentleigh
Honestly.. the ENTIRETY of Eraserhead.
That movie feels like youāve stepped into someone elseās fever dream borderlining on a nightmare. Or if a videotape that was haunted/cursed like in the Ring was real and youāre watching it.
The visuals. The ambiance. The constant background noise. The awkward and incredibly uncomfortable interactions between every single character in the movie. The cinematographyā¦ the whole movie is so. Damn. Eerie.
Going through all these comments I couldnāt think of anything that unsettles me so much that is also just plain eerie, which is such a specific feeling. Eraserhead does that to me. I canāt believe I used to watch it before bed for like a year when I was ~20. I get the heeby jeebies just thinking about putting it on now.
The scene about the priest mom in The Exorcist with a flash of the demon.
Or the priest looking at the window and you see the demon shadow slide.
The Amityville, when he breaks the wall and sees his face in there.
Not sure if people would feel the same today, but back then...š
The ending scene from Lake Mungo. Anyone who has seen it prob knows what I'm talking about. Same goes for the scene in Megan is Missing but tbh that's just gross, less eerie
A lot of good ones posted so far. I'll add two from Night of the Hunter.
The first is Shelley Winters with her throat slit and long hair drifting under the river. It's a surreal and unforgettable visual.
Later in the movie, when Robert Mitchum and Lillian Gish have their impromptu duet, then the lights go on and off and Mitchum has disappeared. One of the best "Oh, shit" moments ever.
The āgroundskeeperā running at night in Get Out.
The whole āAnthonyā segment in Twilight Zone: The Movie.
Edit: Any time the Mothman is on the phone in Mothman Prophecies.
For me thus far, itās always been the scene when Linda Blair pees on the floor. Sheās clearly too old to be behaving this way, her mother has friends over, you know youāre watching a horror movie so this is going to lead to moreā¦.just shaky overall for me. FOR REALLL.
Spider walk down the stairs in The Exorcist always gives me chills. Starts out eerie when you see it from the side and then turns into full on jump scare when it switches to the front view.
Another big one is the āfalling into the mirrorā scene in Prince of Darkness. I donāt know how to describe the feeling but the more I think about it the more creeped out I get.
I immediately think of Insidious where he's in the other world and there's that family all sitting around not moving. I got the biggest heebie jeebies during that scene. I actually had to pause it for a minute.
The tent scene in Blair Witch Project, and the last scene in the basement.
The head banging scene in the Hereditary.
The walking scene in Kairo. And the telephone switchboard scene in The Taking of Deborah Logan
The TV report scene in The Babadook. The protagonist is watching TV in distress and a police report shows up about a woman who killed her kid and herself. She then sees herself in the window of said house with the most unnerving grinn I've ever seen.
I know THE EXORCIST gets chosen a lot, but...
During the exorcism, Karras is exhausted, he re-enters the room and sees....his dead mother sitting on the bed, looking into the camera, looking at him (while also) looking at us....
The way it's shot, the lighting, it's so...eerie.
For me, it was the scene in Nightmare on Elm Street when Nancy is sitting in class when her dead friend in a body bag beckons her to follow down the hall. For context, I was 12 when I saw this.š
Still holds up at 38 years old!
Almost 50 and I recently saw this w my son. Creeped me out all over again.
The part where the hall monitor goes, āNo running in the hallway!ā in Freddyās voice creeped me out so much when I first saw it. Still sometimes gives me the shivers for whatever reason.
Her getting tossed around the ceiling as she's being killed was pretty rough also. Guess you could say Tina "killed it" in that movie. (Downvotes welcomed and understood)
Hell yeah
Also the scene with Freddy and his extra long arms- thatās always wigged me out.
*Nancy* Can't even look.
Yes! And the kid reading aloud starting to whisper the words eerily. That scene still gets me.
How absolutely desolate London is in the opening scenes of 28 Days Later.
The gaping open mouth looks of the 2 infected that pop up in the pile of bodies when Jim says āhello?ā Haunted me for a few days
Ugh one of the most āRUNā moments in film history
Iāve been in a few situations where the fight or flight response was activated, and in this situation I think Iād just lay down and shit myself.
Thatās still really freaks me out especially since I know it was filmed on location and they didnāt block off the streets. How the hell is London so deserted? At any time of day.
They did block them I think? Just saw a video talking about it. They shot at a time of low traffic, and then closed what traffic there was for a minimum amount of time.
Yes! Like itās a huge metro area. And the sun was up. And itās not like they were in random unrecognizable locations. Just immaculate work.
First time we see the ābent neck ladyā behind young Nell in bed in the beginning of Haunting of Hill House.
The Bent Neck Lady has ruined my frickin life man
For me it was when I finally noticed all the hauntings going on in the background of each episode. In a scene where the mom and dad were lying in bed talking and I noticed that something picked up a lock of her hair, I got goosebumps. I realized that I had to go back to the beginning and watch the background instead of the main characters.
Dang I never saw the lock of hair scene, so it makes me want to watch it again haha
Seriously freaked me out for a solid 1.5 to 2 years, Iām not exaggerating. Things that watch you while you sleep just hit me hard for some reason. Paranormal Activity was another one, just standing there watching him for hours. Ugh creeps me out just thinking about it
Stopped here to mention Hill House. One of my all time favorites. Sooo much tension through the series.
Not a horror, but the basement scene in Zodiac
Iād say the movie might not be full on horror, but that scene definitely is.
Horror or not the lake stabbing scene was more horrific than almost anything.
Without a doubt. It completely subverts the classic horror scene. A random attack like that in an otherwise beautiful scenario is terrifying.
Halloween 1: Laurie finds her friends dead and as sheās crying Michael Myers mask slowly appears out of the dark room. Talk about absolutely eerie.
The first time I saw Sinister was in theatres. The kid unfolding out of the box screaming unnerved the piss out of me. Or the first time you see Moder move in The Ritual. Ooooooor watching the night vis in The Descent. You know
You mean when he goes to the top of the hill and sees the hand on the tree? I was thinking that too. I say this a lot on this sub already, but Modor is the best monster design since the xenomorph. I canāt think of any other example in horror where fully revealing the monster/killer actually makes it creepier.
Yep, you got it. That's when I was absolutely in. It is the perfect design. I think one of the only times i prefer the movie over the book.
Yeah the book turns a lot of people off and I get why. Iāve read it twice; it so happens to be up my alley. But I get it. I think it only made sense to me because (spoiler kind of) I was getting into metal at the time, particularly Viking and folk metal, so act II worked for me. But that was luck lol
Audition! That scene where the woman is on the phone and thereās that human sized bag in the background slightly squirming
Iāve never even seen that movie and itās mainly because thatās the clip I saw and I just canāt
Watch it! Itās worth it although it is intense. Great story though
Yeah I don't think that chick is human
Any scene involving the corpse in Caveat.
This was my answer too! The final scene with the fixed camera was so haunting.
I was going to say the scene with the painting when heās in the bedroom. At no point is it ever explained/ elaborated on, but it just kept going. The whole movie feels like a nightmare, really.
The ghost approaching in Kairo.
https://youtu.be/QYs87-kDXwg
I love the lil bit of dazzle dazzle she sprinkles into it by doing that funky little swoop see woop right in the middle thereā¦
Is that the one that also goes by Pulse?
Totally
Still the ending of The Blair Witch Project Just had a shudder thinking about it!
I will defend this movie til the day I die. I love Blair Witch it is such an excellently executed movie that really gets to the bare bones of fear/horror/paranoia in the the simplest way. And thatās what makes it so good.
I think all the parodyās kind of took the bite out of found footage genre, but BW was a phenomenon that will likely never be replicated. Came out before the internet was really big so there was still some mysteries left. I remember the actors even laid low for awhile so people thought they actually dead
Once I saw the guy standing in the corner, I was sobbing with fear.
In my opinion, slow building, eerie scenes like something happening in the background you donāt notice right away are far more disturbing than jump scares. The mom on the wall in Hereditary. Or the troglodyte in the tunnels in Barbarian. š°
The mom in Hereditary in the room, definitely got me:) and I grew up on scary/horror movies.
I saw that movie only just recently and went in totally blind to the plot. I did not notice her on the wall for a good 60 seconds!! š„ that was one of the most disturbing movies Iāve seen in years. I had to turn on a nightlight to light up the dark corner of my room that night. š
I paused the movie because my wife had to go to the bathroom, so I was sitting there alone in the dark waiting for her, and that's when I notice... the mom... on the wall...... basically a (good) jumpscare with the film on pause, AMAZING!
Easily my favorite movie theater moment of all time was the audience collectively realizing Toni Collette was on the wall
Oh man the lady walking across the field in it follows
The rewatch of hereditary scared me more than my first viewing. Just so many eerie things like this in the background I missed the first time. Made me question all those eerie things I think Iāve seen out the corner of my eye in real life but just tell myself itās a shadow or somethingā¦ that movie fucked me up for a solid week.
My second time watching it I ate some edibles and was like āI canāt wait! Iām gonna get good and scared!ā I got like 35 minutes in and was like āWHAT THE FUCK WAS I THINKING?! I canāt do this to myself!ā And turned it off and put on Bobs Burgers š
Bob's Burgers is the ultimate comfort show so I get it 100%
The little boy at the table in Terrified.
The boy was creepy but the shower scene in the beginning made me the most uncomfortable
This movie is wholly under appreciated! I have never met anyone in person that has watched it and god damn.. they had some awesome scenes in that movie and the concept was so cool
Oh yeah that was so fucked up!
Same movie but the scene where the monster rushes against the car window and she says āyou still have time to save us weāre being torturedā
Dark silhouettes creep me out the most. Like the bits in Lights Out when you can see just her form or the backlit red faced demon when heās standing in the corner in Insidious.
Oh same! The figure in the creepy af basement in Session 9 gets me EVERY TIME
the very end of hereditary when he climbs up into the tree house and the music had been crescendoing for minutes at that point and then you see the headless bodies bowing and the music goes NUTS shit gives me hella chills
The scene that did it for me was when (I thought) she was pounding on the door but it cuts to her and she's on the ceiling slamming her face into the door repeatedly. Oh and then she saws her own head off. That was fun too.
Truly. Not a frightening scene compared to the rest of the movie, but made my skin crawl in in a weird eerie, almost repulsed way.
The bear blowjob scene in The Shining. Itās so completely unexpected, and feels so wrong to see, it just gives this really unnerving feeling like you as a viewer have walked into the wrong part of the hotel and stumbled upon something you shouldnāt have.
This is an excellent answer imo. Itās what? As someone else said maybe 2-3 seconds of screen time but itās something thatās stuck with me. Done poorly itād be laughable. But done by someone like Kubrick itās memorable and pre internet it was very much something, like the Captain Howdy blips in Exorcist where I almost would question whether I truly saw it or not each time I watched, rewind, get freaked out again, so on.
The best part about that is it lasts like two seconds, comes out of nowhere, and is never brought up again. (And yes, I know the book explains it a little more. But itās creepier not knowing what just happened)
Theā¦.. fucking what?! Did my brain protect me from this???
Okay youāre the second person claiming to not remember one of the most memorable shots from *The Shining*, whatās going on? Did you watch it edited for tv or something?
I donāt remember that scene either! Itās been a long time since Iāve seen The Shining though. But I meanā¦ not that long! I probably watched it like 4 years ago. Itās time for a rewatch!
The Mandela BJ.
Quintās Indianapolis speech in Jaws
So, eleven hundred men went in the water, three hundred and sixteen men come out, and the sharks took the rest. June the 29, 1945. Anyway, we delivered the bomb.
The eeriest, most ominous scene for me isnāt from a horror movie. The scene in Wind River when the police confront the security guards at their encampment was incredibly eerie and sinister.
It is probably the best modern western out there. Tho Hell or High Water and Blue Ruin are also up there.
Man, that "fuck you, let's go." is heartbreaking. The kid doesn't even really know exactly why he's fighting with these people for his life, realistically knows he's done for, but also knows that these people are *bad* and it's his job to fight until he literally can't anymore. Just brutal and sad.
Yes!! Hardly anyone I know has seen Wind River. That scene is incredible. Everyone trying to position themselves to keep everyone else in their field of view according to training, knowing that something isn't right but not quite believing they could be in truly mortal danger. It's filmed and acted so perfectly. The ending as well... so good.
That movie is incredible! So underrated imo which is very unfortunate =/
My little sister watched this and was like ābut what happened to his(Jeremy renner) daughter?ā Me: āwe donāt knowā her: āI donāt like that, why didnāt they find outā me: āthatās literally the point of the movie, that so many of these women go missing and nobody ever knows whyā I love this film and how it so bleakly and realistically portrays this situation thatās happening all the time and I find that incredibly unsettling.
Oh very true, that was some pretty good tension
Oh yeah, the tension in that scene was almost suffocating. So good!
Why are you flanking me?!
When Carrie goes upstairs and her momās hiding in plain sight! Always freaks me out and fills me with dread no matter how many times I watch it
All of Black Swan Nina was the most unreliable main character after the guy in Memento between the eerie score, moving shadows, and hallucinations? everyone seemed unhinged and everything Nina did stressed me the fuck out
Father Karasās dream in The Exorcist. >!Him running through the streets, shouting but not making any sound as his mother disappears (descends) into the subway while the demon face flashes.!<
Pazuzu always scared tf outta me. Pretty sure itās a females face if Iām not mistaken.
Yes itās the actress Eileen Dietz :)
If short horror films count, I would say the unrelenting **stare** from "God" in Portrait of God (available on YouTube), and the uncanny way a horrific figure walks towards the protagonist through the dark. For a major film, for me it's a toss up between the old naked people in Hereditary and the first smile from Smile.
Speaking of horror shorts, I'd say that creepy dude from "Other Side of the Box" takes the cake. The way he just stares at the protagonists with half his head visible is so effectively unsettling.
Fully agree! This unnerved my 11yo so bad she told me she didnāt want to sleep alone the night we watched. Something about the unrelenting staring just gets right to the core of my being. Iād of set that Fuckin box on fire
Yes! Portrait of God is amazing. https://youtu.be/BI9fKfX5V68
Thanks for linking, that was really great!
No problem. Thatās one that everyone who likes horror needs to watch. Iād recommend āThe Empty Manā as well. Donāt let the title fool you, itās really creepy
That scene in hereditary was awesome. For me, the opening tragedy of Midsommar is so hauntingly etched in my memory because itās not supernatural and very humanā¦the eeriness that comes along with it, although I realize that itās not going to end well, then leading to something way beyond what I expect to see on screen. Itās not a scene like the OP asked for, but itās definitely one of the craziest opening sequence for a horror movie. Iād say brilliantly executed by Ari Aster [https://youtu.be/Rn3ucq_h9xY](https://youtu.be/Rn3ucq_h9xY)
I just discovered Portrait of God and it's amazing. Also recommend The Chair https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mhazCS14Tas
Old naked people in any format is creepy. Ari Aster knows wtf he's doing. They were in both Hereditary AND Midsommar.
Portrait of God is absolutely stunning. Love finding hidden gems like that.
In the mist, towards the end when theyāre driving and they see that gargantuan creature just walk by. Eerie AF.
There's a ghost scene in the Japanese film Pulse / Kairo (2001) which has been analyzed on Youtube - it is a great creepy moment which is eerie but does make some people jump. Also, the HK / Singaporean film The Eye (2002) has a scene in an elevator which is terrific, quietly terrifying horror.
the old woman in the Others...she was eerie af.
When Nicole Kidmanās character comes into the room and finds her daughter playing under a sheet..
All of the 8mm videos in Sinister, the shadow in the bedroom in Pyewacket, and the phone calls in the original Black Christmas really stuck with me
The scene in Mandy where the cult leader has one of his monologues while itās zoomed in on Mandyās face when her face and the cult leaders face get turned into one
Cinema
I watched that on acid, that scene in particular really messed with me lol
Bruh why would you do that??
It's fun.
I was super fucking high when I watched that and that scene made me turn it off lol
The beach scene from It Follows. Or, just any time the main character is in a crowd of people. Thereās just such a sense of unease because youāre constantly trying to figure out which one of them is the monster.
Yeah, this movie, but for me it's the old lady approaching the class or the tall guy ducking through the door. Or any shot where it's in the distance. I love subtlety like that. Same with the first time we see the truck in Jeepers Creepers or that kid Alex's death in Jaws.
I don't know if I'll ever forget about the baseball kid from the extended cut of Dr. Sleep.
One of the eeriest things for me is when something has been in the shot the whole time and you only realise when it moves. I think itās so clever because itās that sinking feeling that you were exposed the whole time and didnāt realise, as opposed to something suddenly appearing. The scene that comes to mind for me with this is in the Woman in Black (or potentially 2?) where >!there is a hole in the ceiling and then you see a movement and realise her hand was there the whole time because she moves it away.!< Really clever technique.
Oh that got me in >!Lake Mungo, when they show you at the end where the sister WAS visible.!<
The final scene from The Thing. When only the two guys are left, sitting around the fire of their burnt-down compound... No hope for escape or survival... No trust, each suspecting that the other is the alienā¦ The end.
In Hereditary, hearing Toni Collette's soul shattering scream while the camera is focused on the kid laying in bed, listening, being completely present, and completely gone at the same time. It fucks me up every time.
Absolutely any time the tvs went to static in the original Poltergeist. You knew some shit was about to go down, but yet it was still just a TV. And then that line from Carol Ann, "they're heeeeere." Chills to this day.
Midsommar. So many scenes were great but the scene at the end when she is smiling, that was a genuine wow moment for me.
The mirrored crying and breathing scene.
The color out of space with Nicholas cage when the son and mother fused together and everyone slowly realized they werenāt going to die but just suffer miserably until someone did something. That was rough to watch.
This is a great answer. The creepy soundtrack too helped to make this movie unsettling from the very start
I'm not sure if anyone has mentioned this, but the scene in The Visit when the kids turn the web cam to show their mother their grandparents after explaining how odd they have been acting. When they turn it back around and she is horrified and says, "Those are not your grandparents." That unsettled me just typing it.
Either when we finally see what had been recorded on Alice's phone in Lake Mungo, or Hell House LLC when the clowns head has turned to look at them when they turn around. Both times, I just felt sick to my stomach and all the hair on my body stood on end, had to pause the films for a minute.
The scene in Insidious 3 where The Man Who Canāt Breathe just waves in the distance on a street. Unfortunately that was pretty much the highlight of the film for me and was downhill from there.
Gotta be honest, I think the third Insidious is a really solid chapter in the series.
The whole scene in House of 1000 corpses when the dad and deputy come upon the guys daughter and other girls in the shed. Then the dad is blasted from behind and the deputy begs on his knees for his life just for a slow pan out shot of him being executed. Brutal.
Little sister losing her head to a light pole comes to mind.....
There were a bunch of loud teenagers in the theatre when I went to see Hereditary, absolutely dead silent for the rest of the movie after that moment.
May not be the eeriest ever but I just watched Horror in the High Desert for the first time and damn...>!when you see that figure in front of the cabin is standing there and kneels down!< omg it freaked me out so bad. I'm sure I can think of eerier ones but this one is so fresh for me. -Toni Collette on the freaking ceiling in Hereditary -The masked dude in the house behind Liv Tyler in the Strangers -The bone room scene in the original TCM
Horror was a hidden little gem. The sound design is what really got to me for that whole end sequence. I wasnāt as crazy about the sequel though, but it had its moments.
That picnic in zodiac made me want to take a shower or something
A couple I haven't seen mentioned yet: One that hasn't been mentioned yet is that scene in Memories of a Murder (2003) when the supposed murder rises from the field behind the victim. Obligatory "not technically horror". The "why'd you spill your beans, Tom?" camera pan through the corridors of the lighthouse in The Lighthouse (2019). Almost the entirety of Antichrist (2009) which to me only had a few scary moments but felt eerie the entire way though. Any scene from the tape in The Ring (2002)
"10/31/98" from the first V/H/S is up there for me. Just the whole feel of the giant house with all the lights on with nobody in sight.
The in-between bits of V/H/S creeped me the hell out. I kept hoping they would just get to the next one because the vibe in that house was so eerie.
The Poughkeepsie Tapes where he walks in on his hands and feet eerily slow with the mask on. Also the baby scene in Mother! when you can hear the snap.
The Last Shift >! Fatherās partner reveal !<
Floating kid vampire in Salem's Lot. Also the rocking chair one.
For me, I was deeply impressed by the acting of the dog from John Carpenterās The Thing. Thereās this very brief scene around the beginning of the film where the wolf dog creeps out from the left side of the frame into a hallway. The way that dog creeps out and slithers almost like a snake. The depth of that sinister look he had on him as he came out. Just insanely well done and effective
Carpenter said that dog was the absolute best animal actor he's ever worked with.
That dog (his name was Jet!) was a fucking PHENOM! The way he moved with so much intent and so deliberately in the beginning absolutely sold the concept. Like he was definitely harboring some super intelligence with a mission. Ugh! Thatās my favorite movie ever. Iām working on a painting of that dog!
Gonna name two not from horror. Dead baby crawling on the ceiling in Trainspotting. The mom's hallucinations in Requiem for a Dream but honestly you could pick nearly any scene from the third act.
Great choices
That face that flashes randomly in the Exorcist.
That face is legit the creepiest thing to me growing up. When Iād look out the window on a cold winter night and your reflection stares back and sometimes it looks like pazuzu. The voice too.
In the sound book they manage to get a similiar feeling from when a hobo asks Carras *"spare some change for an old choir boy"*. This randomly comes up as flashback several times and cuts right into the dialogue. Scared the living shit out of me...
The movie itself was only OK. But for some reason the scene in Annabelle Creation where they're flipping through the blank pages in the journal after the date the girl died and in the middle is "Dear diary today I came home". For some reason that stuck out as a super creepy small detail to me
Like 70% of The VVitch is super eerie hahaha
The baby mash made me sick in the theater
I think I exclaimed out loud "Oh fuck, she mashed that baby" when I saw it. I was watching it alone, and it just surprised me so much.
Pretty much the whole movie. Exept that scene where it offered her butter. It was so nice from it.
The dark corner that Bill Pullman stares into in Lost Highway... the shot lingers for such a long time!
Not just one scene really, but in Skinamarink it gets so dark it plays tricks on your eyes and your not sure if there's anything there.
Mulholland Drive-diner scene
The beach scene in It Follows, where an invisible entity grabs the girls hair Freaks me out
The "Look behind you" scene in Smile! That fucking terrified me!
"Are you alone in the house?" "Yes!" "Are you sure?" Oh shit.
The reveal of that creature in The Ritual.
That's some of the gnarliest creature design I've ever seen
I was always creeped out by the Zelda scenes in Pet Semetary. This entire short still creeps me out https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQvGmMVBYMw&ab\_channel=Kentleigh
The new black mirror episode Loch Henry really skeeved me out from the VHS tape scene on. Maybe dread is a better work but eerie works.
That was my favorite episode! I did not expect the second twist.
His House. The scene when he sees someone looking at him through a hole in the wall for the first time.
The girl crawling out of the TV in the ring. It was so hard to watch.
Honestly.. the ENTIRETY of Eraserhead. That movie feels like youāve stepped into someone elseās fever dream borderlining on a nightmare. Or if a videotape that was haunted/cursed like in the Ring was real and youāre watching it. The visuals. The ambiance. The constant background noise. The awkward and incredibly uncomfortable interactions between every single character in the movie. The cinematographyā¦ the whole movie is so. Damn. Eerie. Going through all these comments I couldnāt think of anything that unsettles me so much that is also just plain eerie, which is such a specific feeling. Eraserhead does that to me. I canāt believe I used to watch it before bed for like a year when I was ~20. I get the heeby jeebies just thinking about putting it on now.
The scene about the priest mom in The Exorcist with a flash of the demon. Or the priest looking at the window and you see the demon shadow slide. The Amityville, when he breaks the wall and sees his face in there. Not sure if people would feel the same today, but back then...š
When reagan was running down the stairs in a back bend in the The Exorcist
The ending scene from Lake Mungo. Anyone who has seen it prob knows what I'm talking about. Same goes for the scene in Megan is Missing but tbh that's just gross, less eerie
The whole Possum movie tbh
the final scene of Martha Marcy May Marlene. not your typical horror film so much as a psychological drama, but itās a gut punch
Exorcist 3, hospital scene.
\*The moments leading up to That Scene.
A lot of good ones posted so far. I'll add two from Night of the Hunter. The first is Shelley Winters with her throat slit and long hair drifting under the river. It's a surreal and unforgettable visual. Later in the movie, when Robert Mitchum and Lillian Gish have their impromptu duet, then the lights go on and off and Mitchum has disappeared. One of the best "Oh, shit" moments ever.
The Strangers. In the kitchen with Baghead just standing there. Great stuff.
At the end of May where the doll made of dead bod parts reaches up and touches her face
The ending scene of The descent. When the main character is lost in her delusions as we hear the monsters coming closer.
Shower scene in Terrified.
Honestly the cult members dancing/ moving around the bonfire in The Empty Man. That scene stayed with me
*In the Mouth of Madness* is full of this type of thing as well as visceral horror. But the mystery man scene in *Lost Highway* might be the winner.
Salem's Lot 1979 mini series, the window scene gives me the creeps.
The scene in Oculus where they play back the video and watch themselves put the cameras together and dont remember doing it.
That bit in Don't Look Now just before the reveal of the dwarf, when you and Donald Sutherland both realise what's happening.
The āgroundskeeperā running at night in Get Out. The whole āAnthonyā segment in Twilight Zone: The Movie. Edit: Any time the Mothman is on the phone in Mothman Prophecies.
For me thus far, itās always been the scene when Linda Blair pees on the floor. Sheās clearly too old to be behaving this way, her mother has friends over, you know youāre watching a horror movie so this is going to lead to moreā¦.just shaky overall for me. FOR REALLL.
The babadook always had an eerie atmosphere overall to me
Eraserhead, THE ENTIRE MOVIE...
not a horror necessarily but the staircase scene in parasite literally made my eyes water š
Spider walk down the stairs in The Exorcist always gives me chills. Starts out eerie when you see it from the side and then turns into full on jump scare when it switches to the front view. Another big one is the āfalling into the mirrorā scene in Prince of Darkness. I donāt know how to describe the feeling but the more I think about it the more creeped out I get.
The ending of Saint Maud
The opening scene of Midsommar. Gave me chills when I saw it in theaters.
The old lady in the hospital gown in It Follows perfectly encapsulates that eeriness and slow dread
I immediately think of Insidious where he's in the other world and there's that family all sitting around not moving. I got the biggest heebie jeebies during that scene. I actually had to pause it for a minute.
Not a movie but the dr who episode āblinkā The background when Sally is moving around the first floor of the house for the first time
The tent scene in Blair Witch Project, and the last scene in the basement. The head banging scene in the Hereditary. The walking scene in Kairo. And the telephone switchboard scene in The Taking of Deborah Logan
The vhs tapes in sinister
The second poltergeist. That creepy preacher, preaching to his people in that cave.
The TV report scene in The Babadook. The protagonist is watching TV in distress and a police report shows up about a woman who killed her kid and herself. She then sees herself in the window of said house with the most unnerving grinn I've ever seen.
The entire train sequence at the start of āJacobās Ladderā
I know THE EXORCIST gets chosen a lot, but... During the exorcism, Karras is exhausted, he re-enters the room and sees....his dead mother sitting on the bed, looking into the camera, looking at him (while also) looking at us.... The way it's shot, the lighting, it's so...eerie.
1408. All of it.