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Top 50 Scariest Horror Movie Scenes of ALL TIME


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you may need to hide behind your blankie
for this one welcome to watchmojo.com
and today we’re counting down our picks
for the top 50 scariest horror movie
scenes of all time before we begin we
publish new content every day so be sure
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videos for this list we are fully
embracing the Halloween season by
ranking 50 of the most terrifying
moments in the history of horror films
we’ll only be going in-depth on a few
scenes throughout this list dissecting
why they continue to get under our skin
and make our flesh crawl like a stranger
in an alleyway these scenes creep up
from behind and stay with us forever oh
yeah and we should probably issue a
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number 50
Zelda Pet Sematary this Stephen King
adaptation admittedly isn’t without its
melodramatic moments but the film takes
a sharp turn into the nightmare zone
when Rachael reminisces about her sister
Zelda described as a dirty secret Zelda
is a bedridden disfigured soul who’s
treated like a helpless animal Rachael
wishes Zelda would put everyone out of
their misery and kick the bucket already
which is what inevitably happens even in
death
Zelda continues to haunt Rachel as she’s
lured upstairs by her sister’s horrific
voice Andrew Hume at six transformative
spine-tingling performance as Zelda
makes the audience twist in their seats
whenever he’s on screen number 49 the
ending Paranormal Activity number 48 a
nighttime visit the babadook number 47
wobbling misery
girl it’s for the best number 46
emerging from the tent a field in
number 45 he’s still there Friday the
13th Jason Voorhees has become a mascot
for the Friday the 13th franchise not to
mention a staple of the horror genre in
general people often forget however that
Jason was barely in the original slasher
classic this makes it all the more
alarming when Jason surfaces from
Crystal Lake pulling Alice down with him
into the unforgiving waters Alice wakes
up in the hospital safe and sound
but soon comes to the realization that
Jason is still out there preparing to
strike back in an onslaught of sequels
for a film that was written off as
trashy and gratuitously violent upon
release the final shot is surprisingly
understated and unsettling leaving us
with a feeling of dread number 44
member 43 The Birth the fly number 42
number 40 the TV the ring as scary as
these scenes get we can take comfort in
knowing that it’s only a movie and
whatever happens on the screen can’t
hurt us in real life right this movie
plays with our fears suggesting that
watching a video can indeed bring your
days to an end it culminates in the
now-famous climax in which noah finds
himself unable to turn off the TV with a
the scene slowly builds tension as the
griz-lee samara rises from her watery
grave and limps forward we dare you to
keep your Josh up when Samara crawls out
of the television claiming Noah’s life
number 39 abandoned hospital one missed
call
number 36 climax Carnival of Souls
number 35 the tall man it follows in
this instant cult classic our
protagonist is stopped by a mysterious
figure that acts as a metaphor for
sexual transmission this entity takes on
an assortment of creepy forms throughout
the film making each of its appearances
one of the entities most disturbing
personas is a tall man played by the
lake Mike Lanier emerging from the
shadows
this giant strikes fear into the
audience with his mounting physique but
it’s his gouged out eyes that stand out
the most everything’s okay the fact that
Jay is seemingly the only one who can
see this foe further contributes to the
paranoia no matter where Jay runs the
entity will never be far behind
number 34 the witch in the cave the
witch number 33 sloth 7 is laughing at
us number 32 look behind you
The Strangers number 31
I see
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number 30 Georgi meets Pennywise it hi
Georgie
anyone who read Stephen King’s original
novel or saw the 1998 miniseries already
knew Georgie’s fate going into this 2017
adaptation nevertheless that didn’t
detract from the film’s opening scene
which only took the terror to another
level searching a storm drain for his
boat
Georgie encounters a pair of yellow eyes
that belong to penny wise wearing a
sinister grin the dancing clown manages
to be eerie while also being playful
sending serious stranger-danger vibes
without you boo the hair on our arms
raises as Georgie reaches for his boat
and Pennywise sinks his teeth in we
can’t think of a more traumatizing or
fitting way to start a film about the
number twenty-nine mirror jump-scare
number 28 night vision the Silence of
number 26 game over
number 25 the nurse station The Exorcist
3 after the disappointment of Exorcist 2
William Peter Blatty delivered a
superior sequel that still didn’t top
the original but did have some worthy
scares nonetheless this scene starts off
by submerging the audience into a false
sense of security
nothing especially ominous seems to be
afoot as we watch a nurse lock up for
the night
then without warning we leap to the end
of the hallway where a sheeted killer
approaches the nurse from behind armed
with shears we may not see any gore but
the beheaded Jesus sculpture tells us
everything this brilliantly shot
sequence puts an atmospheric spin on
jump scares practically grabbing ahold
of the audience and pulling them into
danger
she was slit down the middle number 24
the Attic hereditary
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number 23 the baby Eraserhead
number 22
night vision The Descent number 21 the
ending wreck number 20 the devil
impregnates rosemary Rosemary’s Baby
what are you taking enough to make you
more comfortable being sexually
assaulted after passing out is already
one of the most appalling concepts
imaginable the circumstances are made
even more distressing however when the
rapist is Satan himself the lines
between reality and insanity are blurred
when rosemary appears to drift off into
a bizarre dream our anxiety escalates as
rosemary finds herself strapped down in
a bed surrounded by her husband and
neighbors all of whom are entirely nude
why she ate the mushy cast scene a hit
she’s like dead nothing the most we ever
see of the devil is a close-up of his
hellish reptilian eyes which his
offspring will eventually inherit with
unreal visuals and an intense musical
score anyone watching this scene can’t
help but feel unclean while watching the
number 19 transformation on American
Werewolf in London
number 18 the nanny’s death The Omen
look at me Damien it’s all for you
number 17 back from the grave carry
number 16 the figure behind the diner
Mulholland Drive number 15 do you like
scary movies scream scary this opening
scene has echoes of when a stranger
calls and psycho while also poking fun
at other scary movies but even at its
most self-referential the scene remains
utterly original a phone call goes from
light-hearted to heart pounding when it
becomes clear that Drew Barrymore’s
Casey is not alone why do you want to
know my name did you say
the fate of Casey and her detained
boyfriend boils down to a trivia game
that ends in failure if you think this
movie wouldn’t dare kill off its biggest
star within the first several minutes
Ghostface asserts upfront that he does
not play by the rules for anyone who
assumed that horror was dead in 1996
this scene proved there was still plenty
of life left in the genre number 14
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number thirteen
Nancy’s school dream a nightmare on elm
number eleven hiding in the closet
Halloween number ten
Linda possessed the evil dead when it
hit theaters in 1981 there hadn’t been a
low-budget horror flick
quite like the Evil Dead the movie was
unapologetically gruesome but also had a
dark sense of humor that reveled in its
goofiness as a result people rarely knew
whether to scream or laugh the scene is
a key example of what makes the Evil
Dead such a unique addition to the
just when it looks like ashes night
can’t possibly get any worse he
discovers that his girlfriend Linda is
turning into a Deadite the makeup
effects give Linda the appearance of a
possessed doll and her shrieking
laughter matches the sentiment sending
number nine the clown poltergeist
this scene touches upon two phobias for
the price of one PDF obeah or the fear
of dolls and coulrophobia the fear of
clowns the filmmakers overwhelm us with
jitters as Robbie sends his clown doll a
suspicious glance the second time he
looks around the inanimate object has
vanished although we know what’s coming
we are still unprepared as the clown
coils its arm around Robbie and drags
him under the bed even if you don’t have
a fear of dolls or clowns this toy was
designed to give everyone the
heebie-jeebies considering how the scene
tormented an entire generation of
children we can see why the pg-13 rating
was introduced one month after this
film’s release number 8 the shower
psycho
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few cinematic moments have been parodied
more times than the shower scene from
psycho there is even a feature-length
documentary that breaks down it’s genius
and impact it’s unsettling because
there’s a big empty space which is
itself unsettling what is going to fill
that empty space no matter how much we
talk about that scene though it always
somehow catches us off-guard we feel a
knot in the pit of our stomachs every
time a dark figure moves closer to the
bathing Marian once the shower curtain
is pulled back Bernard Herrmann’s
piercing musical score kicks in the
cinematography makes us feel as if we’re
in this confined space alongside Marian
as the life is stabbed out of her
this sequence left actress Janet Leigh
forever skeptical of showers and she
wasn’t the only one number seven seeing
red don’t look now okay don’t look now
as a film with so many motifs in such
clever symbolism that you’ll appreciate
it even more after multiple viewings the
color red in particular plays a
prominent role throughout the film
spotting a short figure wearing a red
coat the grieving John is reminded of
his deceased daughter at first the red
coat appears inviting as if it’ll lead
John to some form of closure and a
the color red turns out to be a warning
though as John is guided to his own
demise in the end it turns out the red
hooded figure wasn’t a lost child but a
repulsive looking dwarf concealing a
meat cleaver with that the Bell Tolls
for John number six the final chase the
while it was advertised as a true story
this slasher flicks plot is more
fictional than fact even Ed Gein the
murderer who inspired Leatherface had a
different mo that being said the idea of
a maniac chopping up victims with a
chainsaw
is it at all far-fetched which gave the
film a sense of gritty realism nowhere
is this more apparent than during the
pulse-pounding finale as Sally literally
runs for her life fortunately a trucker
runs over the hitchhiker while Sally
narrowly evades Leatherface by hopping
aboard another vehicle the chaotic
staging and low-grade production values
actually worked to the scenes advantage
giving it the authenticity of a
documentary with a blood-curdling final
shot
[Applause]
number five chest chump the thing here I
bring me over when it comes to body
horror CGI just cannot produce the same
results as practical effects which are
simply more revolting cringe-inducing
and inventive take this jaw-dropping
scene from the thing for example as
Norris’s ribcage sprouts a set of teeth
and bites off coppers arms one second
you’re jumping out of your seat and
shock the next you’re asking yourself
how the hell did the filmmakers pull
this stunt off the sequence packs in
even more technical wizardry as the
chest vomits out a snake-like creature
while Norris’s head detaches and grows
spider legs at least it’s nothing a
flame thrower can’t fix Bloody
Disgusting and bloody brilliant horror
number four the basement the Blair Witch
Project the Blair Witch Project is
another horror film with the essence of
a home movie but to an even greater
extent coming out when the found-footage
genre and the internet were fairly young
the filmmakers tricked numerous
moviegoers into believing the three
protagonists were really missing this
largely contributed to the sense of
dread in the film’s climax as Heather
and Mike stumble upon an abandoned house
in search of their missing colleague
Josh the amateur cinematography and
convincing performances fully immersed
the audience as Heather finds Mike
standing in a corner before an unseen
force attacks ER when the scene goes
black on this ambiguous ending it’s
quiet enough in the audience to hear a
pin drop number three the bathtub The
Shining
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interestingly enough Jack Torrance isn’t
the scariest character in Stanley
Kubrick’s adaptation of The Shining that
distinction goes to the woman in the
bathtub beginning from Jack’s point of
view this scene escorts us into room 237
s bathroom where a bathing beauty awaits
the dull look on Jack’s face becomes
aroused as the naked woman climbs out of
the tub and puts her hands on him
matters take a total 180 turn when Jack
looks in the mirror and realizes he’s
kissing an old saggy corpse the movie
doesn’t spell out who this woman is or
even the purpose behind this encounter
all we need to know though is that it’s
number two the chest burster alien alien
is not only regarded as one of the best
sci-fi movies of all time but also one
of the best horror movies ever made the
Nostromo is essentially a haunted house
and this scene delivers the film’s first
major scare a celebratory dinner is
spoiled as Kane convulses and an alien
creature bursts out of his chest
although the cast members knew the chest
burster was coming they were not
prepared for the amount of blood
splattering everywhere the petrified
looks on the actors faces are completely
genuine which in turn left audiences
wearing similar expressions in space no
one can hear you scream at the movies
however you can hear an entire
number one head spin
The Exorcist Lord hear my prayer Curtis
there was probably never any doubt that
the Exorcist would top this list between
Linda Blair’s immortal performances the
possessed Reagan Mercedes McCambridge
–is menacing voice over work as the
demon Pazuzu the revolutionary special
effects and the sickening makeup William
Friedkin’s horror masterpiece has no
shortage of terror inducing scenes if we
have to single out one moment that
encompasses the film and all of its
ghastly glory it would have to be
Reagan’s iconic head spin Jesus Christ
who lives and reigns with her father
I’m the holy spirit turning 360 degrees
while father Merrin tries to purge the
evil presence from her body Reagan’s
flexible neck still has a squirming even
45 years later the crackling sound
design only adds to this chilling scene
amen do you agree with our picks check
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