When we set out to make our Halloween Top Movies list, the number of titles we were shooting for was 13, a nice scary number (think Friday the 13th). Well, that quickly changed when we realized just how many genuinely scary cinematic moments there are out there!
So instead, we’re offering the inverse of the original 13. We came up with the following 31 scariest movie moments (31 — an inverse of 13, 31 days in October, Halloween is on Oct. 31 … get it?!) as our favorites in terms of sheer, effective terror. I’m sure if we took another couple of hours, we could easily come up with an another 31!
One thing we noted after looking at our handiwork is that a solid third of the choices are scary but DO NOT take place in traditional horror or monster movies, which we think is kinda cool.
A couple housekeeping items: We’ve limited this list to English-language features; if we opened it up to the international community, we’d get lost in a mash-up of truly terrifying flims that might not be familiar to the more casual movie-goer. And, we’re presenting the list in alphabetical order, because, really, they’re all so good, we couldn’t settle on a ranking.
Enjoy!
Alien, 1979
Alien (1979)
I still remember seeing this one with my parents and my mother leaping onto me when that little xenomorph burst through poor John Hurt’s chest, knocking over my popcorn and my soda (which probably cost a total of $3.75 back then).
Available on DVD
Aliens (1986)
The most frightening bit for us in Aliens, the only sequel on our list, finds Sigourney Weaver grabbing her gun and flamethrower and descending in a freight elevator to the cavernous depths of Planet LV-426, readying for a battle with the ever-sliming Alien Queen. What more can we say? It’s all scary after that.
Available on DVD
The Blair Witch Project (1999)
That final scene in which Heather and Mike are running through the abandoned house looking for their missing friend Josh still delivers well-earned shivers.
Available on DVD
Carrie (1976)
Sissy Spacek’s bloody hand shooting out from her grave and grabbing Amy Irving’s arm during the final dream scene is a heart-stopper.
Available on DVD
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, 1968
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968)
Sure, this is a family musical, but that sequence in which the Child Catcher (Robert Helpmann) lures kiddies into his cage by tempting them with candies is downright sinister.
Available on DVD
Cliffhanger (1993)
A Stallone action movie? Absolutely, or don’t you remember the opening scene when he attempts to save his pal’s girlfriend who’s dangling from a cable over a bottomless mountain crevice?
Available on DVD
The City of the Dead (1960)
A young woman studying witchcraft, a foggy New England town, and a human sacrifice sequence scored to demonic chanting add up to pure horror in this British cult favorite.
Available on DVD
Deliverance, 1972
Deliverance (1972)
“He got a real purty mouth, ain’t he?”
Available on DVD
The Exorcist (1973)
There are so many scares and shocks in this movie, from head-spinning to the projectile vomiting to the crucifix violation, but for genuine, extended fear, we’ll go with the intro to the exorcism scene when Fathers Max von Sydow and Jason Miller slowly ascend the stairs to do battle with The Devil himself.
Available on DVD
Fantastic Voyage, 1966
Fantastic Voyage (1966)
Those white corpuscles going to town on a microscopic Donald Pleasence at the climax of this film still makes us squirm.
Available on DVD
Fiddler on the Roof (1971)
Tevye’s musical nightmare about his butcher’s dead but still jealous wife elevates the invasive horror of Jewish guilt to terrifying new heights.
Available on DVD
Freaks (1932)
The finale plays like a nightmare: A group of deformed and disabled circus “freaks” slither through a muddy late-night rainstorm to avenge the murder of one of their own by the “beautiful people.”
Available on DVD
The Hitcher, 1986
The Hitcher (1986)
The opening 10 minutes finds hitchhiker Rutger Hauer quietly terrorizing nice-guy C. Thomas Howell on a rainy highway, forcing him to repeat the words “I want to die” at knife point.
Available on DVD
Liebestraum (1991)
A personal favorite, this lesser-known thriller from the always-provocative director Mike Figgis contains a dark and dreamy stalking scene in a decaying, abandoned department store that’s downright chilling.
Available on DVD
Jaws, 1975
Jaws (1975)
“You’re gonna need a bigger boat,” says Roy Scheider after we get our first close-up look at Spielberg’s legendary great white shark. He shoulda said “You’re gonna need a new pair of shorts….”
Available on DVD
Maniac (1980)
The climactic assault on the titular murderer by mannequin-like apparitions of his dead victims delivers low-brow but effective scares.
Available on DVD
Marathon Man, 1976
Marathon Man (1976)
“Is it safe?,” asks Nazi dentist Laurence Olivier to captive Dustin Hoffman a dozen times before he pulls out his dental probe and drill. It’s the anticipation of what’s to come that’s most terrifying…
Available on DVD
Night of the Living Dead (1968)
Zombies are overrunning the horror cinema these days, but the most frightening is still the undead ghoul who attacks Johnny and Barbara in the opening scene of this George Romero classic.
Available on DVD
The Omen (1976)
A lovely young nanny shockingly hangs herself in front of her charge — who happens to be the son of the Devil — and all the other children, parents and scary-looking clowns who are attending his birthday party.
Available on DVD
The Phantom of the Opera, 1925
The Phantom of the Opera (1925)
“Feast your eyes, glut your soul, on my accursed ugliness,” cries Lon Chaney’s Phantom to Mary Philbin’s Christine at the climax of the hair-raising unmasking scene.
Available on DVD
Pitch Black (2000)
As if crash-landing on a planet that’s experiencing its first eclipse in 22 years isn’t bad enough, the moment the lights go out, a bunch of hungry nocturnal predators emerge — and they’re hungry!
Available on DVD
Play Misty for Me (1971)
Clint Eastwood waking up to discover a stalking Jessica Walter standing over him with a kitchen knife in hand is a scene that still startles us.
Available on DVD
Psycho, 1960
Psycho (1960)
It’s a toss-up for the scariest moment in this Hitchcock classic: Janet Leigh’s shower scene, of course, but don’t forget about Vera Miles spinning around the decaying Mrs. Bates just as her murderous, cross-dressing son Anthony Perkins comes down to play.
Available on DVD
Rear Window (1954)
Hitchcock again! After realizing he’s being spied on by across-the-courtyard photographer Jimmy Stewart, a murderous Raymond Burr turns his terrifying gaze at his accuser (and us).
Available on DVD
Rosemary’s Baby (1968)
Mia Farrow sitting in her gynecologist’s office and slowly realizing her doctor is a Satan-worshipper with designs on her unborn baby is a brilliant, slow-chill moment a la Roman Polanski.
Available on DVD
The Shining, 1980
The Shining (1980)
“All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy” — which is even scarier than “Heeeeerrreeee’s Johnny!”
Available on DVD
The Thing (1982)
A bunch of scientists and techies are tied to desk chairs as a morphing, drooling, pissed-off alien monster bears down on them. And it’s set in the Arctic, so it’s cold, too!
Available on DVD
Trilogy of Terror (1975)
A barefoot, bathrobe-clad Karen Black being chased around her apartment by a knife-wielding, teeth-gnashing Zuni fetish doll in this 1970s TV movie is one of the freakiest things we’ve ever seen.
Available on DVD
Trilogy of Terror, 1975
Wait Until Dark (1967)
Alan Arkin’s crazed, knife-flashing stalker Roat lunges out of the darkness at a blind Audrey Hepburn, alerting her to his exact whereabouts — and scaring us out of our seats!
Available on DVD
When a Stranger Calls (1979)
Two lines: “Have you checked the children?” and “We’ve traced the call … it’s coming from inside the house!”
Available on DVD
The Wizard of Oz, 1939
The Wizard of Oz (1939)
We’re over our fear of the Wicked Witch of the West, but her darned flying monkeys still scare the hell out of us!
Available on DVD
That’s it! Tell us what you think? Which of these are your favorite scary moments? Any you would add to the list?
Awesome list. Cool not using all horror movies. Good work
The Omen… scared the friggin crap out of me! Still does… awesome list 🙂
Great choices. Definitely Psycho and Rosemary’s Baby top my list!!
Charade – with Audrey Hepburn and Cary Grant – and what about Pan’s Labyrinth directed by Guillermo del Toro? Scary comes in many ways – horror is just scary overplayed…
Day Of The Triffids also deserves a mention. I do not know of anyone my age who was not affected by the plaintive words of the airline pilot blinded by the meteor shower as he asked for help which could never come; and the relentless creep of the Triffid plants towards the lighthouse. Very scary stuff in monaural sound and monochrome.
I got your e-mail and I must say thanks for the kind words. Great list, however, I can’t see it fitting into the theme of my site. Sorry, but I’m pretty picky when it comes to my sites genre. I do think it’s a very entertaining list though. I really appreciate the addition of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and The Wizard of Oz, but my favorite is The Blair Witch Project. BEST ENDING EVER!
A bravo set of horrific films, even if one could quibble with a couple of the more Disneyesque films like Chitty-Chitty etc. I’m particularly gratified to see “Play Misty” featured there, as it certainly made me a bit more careful about certain types of dalliances I might have indulged in myself.
Anyhow… I offer you “Henry — Portrait of a serial killer” as a particularly frightening movie. Not so much for it’s practically non-existent gore, but for a central character totally indifferent to evil. A character who exists (and has done more or less forever) in so much of the world around us in various guises (pick your own).
I agree with all your choices, Pablo: Charade has a great moment at the end when Audrey realizes that Matthau is the baddie. Ditto for Pan’s Labyrinth, particularly the scene where the ghoul at the banquet table comes to life after the girl bites into that luscious-looking grape. And I remember watching Day of the Triffids on TV as a kid; haven’t seen it in years but I recall a downright terrifying scene with a blinded young woman feeling her way across the wall of a courtyard as the Triffids bear down on her…