While I'm on the subject of the Great Glass Teat (or was, 18 hours ago), I finally got around to watching Bravo's 100 Scariest Movie Moments the other day. I don't have a lot to say about it, since they (predictably) reserved what obscure stuff there was for the bottom 20 (Fulci's Zombie and Black Christmas were right there with Jurassic Park and Child's Play). Plus, it took me about two weeks to slog through all of it, so my recollections might be a little disjointed.
The complete list of movies is here. They don't give with the moments they consider to be the scariest from each film, though if you've seen most of them you can probably guess "The call is coming from inside the house!" would be there from When A Stranger Calls(#28) (and also every time I call my sister...she loves it), or "Is it safe?" would make it from Marathon Man (#65).
Then again, my list of scary movie moments may very well differ from yours. I didn't find Don't Look Now frightening at all, but Dirty Dancing turned my hair almost completely white.
And I probably don't need to remind anyone that RetroCrush did this already. And with some better selections, in my opinion.
You know what's next. Smartass commentary follows after the break.
Obviously, I'm not going to break down the whole list. None of us has time for that.
100. 28 Days Later (running zombies) - A) Not zombies. B) Already done 20 years earlier in Return of the Living Dead.
93. Child's Play (Chucky comes to life) - Really? The big movie poster of a doll holding a knife didn't clue people in that this might happen? Okay then.
86. Wizard of Oz (flying monkeys) - Fly, ape ass, fly! I thought Judy Garland's hair was the scariest thing about this one. Pick a length, girlfriend.
80. Poltergeist (evil clown) - As if you needed further proof that all clowns are evil and must be destroyed.
75. Candyman (she's been goofing with the bees) - The not-so-secret origin of Homer's "dogs with bees in their mouths" tirade.
72. Them! (mmmmm...ribs) - Interchangeable with the bus scene in The Deadly Mantis or the spider menacing the uber-hot Mara Corday in Tarantula, but I imagine they had to limit the number of bug movies.
69. Re-Animator (that's good head) - Scary? Not hardly. Butt-squirmingly oogy? Oh hell yes.
64. Near Dark (putting the spurs to the bartender) - I think the scariest thing about this one (and I'm a big fan) is the atmosphere. Setting the film in rural Oklahoma, which Jesse and company just happen to be passing through, is a great touch. It brings out the quiet desperation of their own lives, and the casual brutality with which they take the lives of others.
63. Deliverance ("Let's you just drop them pants") - Sure, what happens to Ned Beatty's character is horrifying, but for the longest time I went back and forth on whether Deliverance was a horror movie or a chase-style thriller. In the end, I think it is horror, for the simple reason that one of the central tenets of the genre is taking the ordinary and making it scary as shit. If a movie can cause you, when engaging in an otherwise normal activity (be it camping, showering, swimming in the ocean, or...uh, working on a space freighter), to recall the events of that movie and make you look over your shoulder, then it's done its job. Deliverance does its job.
59. Fatal Attraction (what's cookin'?) - Then again, Adrian Lyne's AIDS allegory makes you think twice about something you shouldn't be doing in the first place. Namely, fooling around on the toothsome Anne Archer with the mannish Glenn Close.
48. The Thing (1982) - Don't remember the actual moment, but was probably the blood scene. This should be ranked much higher, as it was one of the only times I regretted sneaking out of bed to watch a movie on HBO, due to subsequent sleep deprivation.
47. Nosferatu (Dracula rising) - Sure, there are scarier vampire movies out there, but think of the impact this scene had in 1922. I'll bet people were getting the vapors all over the place.
42. An American Werewolf in London - Damn. Again, I don't remember which moment they referenced. For me, the worst part was David running away while Jack was getting mauled, then turning around and going back. Because if it was your best friend, you'd have done the same thing.
38. Peeping Tom - Released in 1960, this was light years ahead of its time in terms of addressing issues of audience voyeurism and snuff. And it ruined director Michael Powell's career. Until he became head of the FCC, that is.
30. The Blair Witch Project (go stand in the corner) - For all the bitching about how overhyped this movie was, I saw it opening weekend and I'm not (too) ashamed to say it scared the holy fuck out of me. Its great internet word-of-mouth campaign shouldn't take away from the effectiveness of Myrcik and Sanchez's minimalist approach.
29. The Serpent and the Rainbow ("Please don't let them bury me") - I think Poe's "Buried Alive" is one of his most effective works, so obviously watching Bill Pullman staring up at the coffin lid while dirt thuds down on it kicked off a few of my panic receptors. Yet another reason I'll never go to Haiti.
22. Don't Look Now ('ware the dwarf) - Maybe it was the hype (a friend recommended this to us as "the scariest movie I've ever seen"), but was anybody frightened by the midget with a knife finale?
18. The Haunting (boom!) - Pound for pound, one of the scariest movies I've ever seen. A bunch of us rented this in high school and, jaded Evil Dead fans that we were, joked about the hokey '60s B/W ambience. By film's end, I was backed up against a wall with a blanket pulled up to my chin. A classic.
17. The Omen (might as well jump) - Probably more effective to me as an impressionable Catholic youngster.
13. Scream (Barry-no-more) - Back in the days before I doggedly charted the progress of films before they were released, I was actually surprised by some movies. Scream was one of those rare horror movies that took me by surprise. Pity all of the sequels (and #4 is reportedly on the way) were such crap.
11. Audition (not telling) - If you've seen this, you know the scene. This should be in the top five. I was honestly grateful that I'd voided my bladder before sitting down to watch this, as that scene stuck with me for months. Eli Roth, in one of his few non ass-kissing remarks during the program, accurately described the Asian film community as putting out the best horror of the last fifteen years. Hell, Miike alone could easily have eight of the spots on this list.
5. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (I guess you'll hammer later) - When I was in junior high, the radio ads for the TCM re-release scared me. The combination of grimy realism and the fact that it was Texas sealed the deal for me. I still don't own a chainsaw.
If I have any complaints about the top 5 (TCM, Psycho, The Exorcist, Alien, Jaws) it's that The Exorcist should probably be the highest. I know I've gone on and on about how badly Jaws freaked me out, and Alien is still one of the greatest pure horror films of all time, but The Exorcist is the only one of these that actually frightens me more the older I get. That's got to count for something.
I'd considered adding a list of my own, but I'm too tired and/or drunk right now. Anybody else have some personal faves?
"I'm gonna kill the kid with the gum!"
I'm bitter that The Shining didn't crack the top five.
And now, Sir Not-Appearing-In-This-Film: although Ghost Story was by most accounts a snooze-fest, the final scene did in fact scare me pooless.
Where is TRILOGY of TERROR???!!one?!
i refused to stay at my house the night i saw the blair witch project, it scared me that much. that's the only one i can remember right now.
I agree about the Shining. Those two little girls and those low, long hallway shots. And my wife still teases me about much Rosemary's Baby STILL creeps me out. Did anyone else find it heartwarming that The Wizard of Oz made the list?
I think for similar reasons as Dirty Dancing made your hair go white, I still have nightmares about St. Elmo's Fire. And I know I can't watch Blood Beach ever again, but more because of post-drunken-18th-birthday-sleepover stress syndrome than anything in the movie itself.
There is a scene in Exorcist 3 (yes, 3) that creeps the ever-living fuck outta me- think garden shears in the hospital.
The rest of the film was pretty much crap, tho. But that was definitely one of the most effective scary scenes I have ever seen, and I just don't get scared at scary movies. (my parents took me to Jaws when I was a wee lad, and besides the fact I consider such an act borderline child abuse these days, I actually cried at the end because "the big fishy died")
The Serpent and the Rainbow: The scene with the staking of the groin gave me the hebee-geebies.
Don't Look Now: This is one of those movies that you either get it or you don't (or it gets you). Primarily you have to make it through the extended 70's love scene with Julie Christie (not a problem) and Donald Southerland (problem) and the armpit hair kissing scene (problem) without it completely breaking the horror ambience. The movie really creeped me out (as one of the friends who recommended the movie). I saw it again at the Danish Film Institute with my wife and another friend and it still creeped me out as well as everyone else. I found the midget scene as you referred to be scary, but the ultimate horror in the movie was the loss of a child and coping with that spectre through obsession in a wet, dark, and creepy Venice. Plus the blind women with "the shine" made my skin crawl.
Salems Lot: The scene with the floating friend scratching on the window asking to be let in made me never want to go to sleep.
It's Alive: I have never seen it, but my brothers told it to me one night when I was a wee lad and I couldn't sleep without a light on for two years. The power of suggestion.
Scream: The opening scene of that movie was so effective, that I almost wanted to get up and leave the theater. A brilliant movie and I am glad that it was cut up with the humor component.
Poltergeist: The scene with the pool full of skeletons made me rethink the whole cemetery thing. Very similar to the scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark. Don't really care for touching the rotting corpses thing.
The Haunting: Still effective after having seen it many, many times. One of the horror movies I always recommend when the subject comes up.
Am in emphatic agreement with your #1 -- Exorcist is far and away the scariest movie ever made.
(Not including Days Of Thunder or The Lonely Lady, of course - though they were scary for different reasons.)
I am amused that Willy Wonka is on this list. I understand that many people were totally creeped out by the Oompa Loompas, but I wish I knew which moment they chose.
My personal terror movie is the original _The Blob_. Could be that I was 5 when I saw it, but I had nightmares for years afterwards.
When the nightmares slacked off...I saw it again.
on audiences in 1922 (not '29), when it first came out
Fixed.
Of course, if you consider audience reaction at the first showing, shouldn't "Train Entering a Station" by the Lumière Brothers also be considered?
What part of "I'm too tired/drunk right now" don't you understand?
What about the spinal menegitis scene in PET CEMETARY?? Ugggh....that still makes me stomach churn. that and the Ramones selling out for the theme song.
It's Alive had the scariest radio ad EVER. Creepy voice:
"There's only one thing wrong with the Davis baby.
IT'S ALIVE!" Cue scream.
Of course, the movie sucked. Near Dark was a classic, and like most horror afficianados I'll go to just about ANY vampire movie.
I first saw The Exorcist after midnight on HBO in 1980. It scared me shitless even though I was fully grown at the time. I have never watched it since.
Oh yeah, nice Harlan Ellison reference, by the by.
The Thing (the original) is still scary as hell and beats the crap outta the Carpenter remake (although the remake is closer to the short story). How could they forget these classics:
1. It the Terror from Beyond Space (the inspiration for Alien)
2. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Spencer Tracy) The scene where he's walking along a foggy London street whistling as he goes and continually flips back and forth between the Jekyll tune and the Hyde tune is sooooo creepy! You don't have to see his face to know he's changing.
3. War of the Worlds (Gene Barry)
4. Christine (campy in places but damned scary too)
5. The Day the Earth Caught Fire
6. The Quatermass Experiment (The Creeping Unknown)
7. X the Unknown
8. 5 Million Years to Earth (sometimes cheesy but the ending is damned scary)
9. Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?
10. Fright Night (Roddy Mac Dowell sells it!)
12. Silver Bullet
13. Godzilla (still a classic)
14. Beast from 20,000 Fathoms
And, yeah! What about Trilogy of Terror (Zuni fetish)?!
What part I don't understand? Don't know, you tell me, I certainly did not see my light-hearted comment as a demand for you to write a list of your own...
Oh, and the Willy Wonka scene they referenced was the acid trip through the tunnel, when Wilder is caterwauling "The rowers won't stop rowing, and they show no signs of slowing..." while psychadelia and chicken decapitations are projected on the tunnel walls.
I'm so glad Jaws made #1. I thought that was the most terrifying movie I've ever seen, hands down.
Pete at A Perfectly Cromulent Blog has been going through the movies on Bravo's list of The 100 Scariest Movie Moments. He posted comments on......
| --Posted to TexasBestGrok on May 27, 2005 11:00 PM:. |
Menshevik,
My comments and list weren't addressed to you so get over yourself. Besides, Pete posted the original thread I responded to and I don't hear him complaining. If I think other flicks are deserving of a mention then I'll say it, which i did. Read and learn Bucko.
Pete, you're so right about "Audition". I'm not sure which film of his disturbs me more, that one or "Visitor Q". I can thank Todd (Flea) for introducing me to these, sheesh.
Seadogs, that scene from Salem's Lot scared the daylights out of me and for weeks I refused to look out my bedroom window at night and pulled the curtains just to make sure I didn't do so accidentally.
One of my biggest Catholic childhood scares was that scene in Omen II (I think) where the guy got trapped under the ice and everybody had to watch in horror as he got swept along and drowned/froze to death. And Damien just watched with that evil smirk on his face....
I certainly did not see my light-hearted comment as a demand for you to write a list of your own...
Just making sure. I was trying to minimize any guilt I might be feeling for not coming up with a list of my own.
Jane, he was talking to me about my "tired/drunk" crack earlier in the comments.
Recently, I think The Ring (American version; I haven't seen Ringu) is the movie that's scared me the most. The hair in the water in the bottom of the well is some creepy shit. So is the part where Naomi Watts coughs up those wires. And Daveigh Chase really does a creepy voice. "But I do!"
As for my other picks, I think both versions of Invasion of the Body Snatchers are very scary. The part at the end of the original when he sees the trucks full of pods out to possess the world. And Donald Sutherland's scream at the end of the remake. Chilling stuff.
Re. No. 47: Or even think of what an impact that "Nosferatu" had on audiences in 1922 (not '29), when it first came out...
Of course, if you consider audience reaction at the first showing, shouldn't "Train Entering a Station" by the Lumière Brothers also be considered? That had people leaping out of their seats in terror! ;-)