The horror genre gives us a lot of terrifying moments full of tension. Many horror and suspenseful movies manipulate our emotions and thrill us thanks to dark and isolated settings, dangerous characters (monsters, zombies, serial killers, strange creatures, vampires, witches) and creepy music. But what are the scariest horror movie scenes of all time?
Score: 100%
EnlargeThe toy clown in Poltergeist - I jumped embarrassingly high from my seat when I saw the boy checking for ghosts underneath his bed, only to be greeted by a evil clown when he arose. This film shows the evil side of Steven Spielberg.
Score: 100%
EnlargeThe first 'Deadite' in The Evil Dead - Well after being raped by a tree can you really blame poor Ellen Sandweiss for going a bit nutty? But that's still no excuse to ram a pencil into your friends ankle and twist it around extremely disturbingly... Ouch!
Score: 100%
EnlargeThe window scene in Suspiria - She was so high up, no one should of been able to get to her, but as you watch in disbelief the eyes appear in the darkness, followed by the hand smashing through the window that later proceeds to stab the poor girl repeatably through her heart, you realize this is no ordinary horror movie.
Score: 83%
EnlargeThe massacre of the film crew in Cannibal Holocaust - Ruggero Deodato's exploitation classic doesn't leave anything to the imagination as we sit in awe watching the film crew get brutalized by blood-thirsty cannibals.
Score: 83%
EnlargeJack Torrence's scary downward spiral into madness in The Shining - Let's face it, the whole movie's creepy, but the bit that creeped me out the most was when Shelly Duvall found her husbands story: All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. It also makes him terrifying!
Score: 80%
EnlargeThe Alien's not dead yet in Alien - Ripley faces the intergalactic monster alone, conveniently half naked, and in the eerie darkness at the end of Ridley Scott's finest film. The Alien monster has to be the scariest of all time.
Score: 75%
EnlargeThe incest scene in Henry: Portrait Of A Serial Killer - I mean come on, a man shown the ways of intense violence by Henry Lee Lucas then proceeds to rape his own sister... Not nice.
Score: 71%
EnlargeThe demonic face in The Exorcist - Not so much a moment as a series of moments, whenever you start getting comfortable watching this truly petrifying classic, William Friedkin makes sure to totally freak you out again by throwing in a quick shot of the face of pure evil... and I mean evil!
Score: 63%
EnlargeThe closet scene in Halloween - It's obvious from the opening scene that Michael Myers is more monster than human, and so hiding in a closet was never going to keep the distressed Jamie Lee Curtis safe. This scene builds up such suspense you feel like your going to pass out.
Score: 40%
EnlargeSam Neill removes his eyes in Event Horizon - Yes, that's right, he goes crazy and just digs his fingers right in there... very hard to watch.