The horror genre produces some of the most iconic movies to grace cinema as well as some of the most derided. It might have been dismissed as low-grade entertainment, satisfying the darkest fetishes of society's social outcasts and degrading our youth, but horror gives audiences the sort of frenzied adrenaline rush other forms of cinema cannot achieve. In effect, fictional entertainment should take you out of yourself and into the satisfying and gratifying world of the make-believe. Horror achieves this like no other genre because it breaks down those inherent defence mechanisms by focusing on our primal instincts.
It was difficult picking ten scary moments from the countless horror movies I've seen. Regrettably, my order will probably change from day to day, and I'm sure there's a few outstanding moments I'm forgetting but below I present what I believe to be a pretty close representation of the ten biggest frights I've had during a horror film.
#10 THE VANISHING (George Sluizer, France/Holland, 1988)
The Vanishing is a peculiar movie. It was badly remade by Hollywood when it should have been left alone. Alas, as a foreign movie with subtitles, it is still largely undiscovered outside of horror aficionados and foreign film buffs but I'd recommend anyone with a passing interest in psychological horror to check it out.
I say the film is peculiar simply because it has the sort of tone and doom-like quality that really gets under your skin. It's also peculiar, and in many ways innovative, through its depiction of the killer. You see, the story begins when a couple on a travelling holiday stop at a petrol station. The girl disappears, beginning a long and desperate attempt by her boyfriend to find her. In films of a similar nature the identity of the killer or kidnapper is hidden from the audience in order to provide the element of 'whodunnit'. Director George Sluizer actually tells us who the killer is, giving us a fairly good indication that the girl has been killed. The interest lies in both the boyfriend and the kidnapper's lives - how they interact and eventually meet, and perhaps some inkling to their motivations, one in search of lost love, the other their drive to commit atrocity.
The scene that provides the biggest scare is the film's climatic sequence. In the boyfriend's attempts to find his girlfriend he eventually tracks down the kidnapper. We as the audience know he's found the right person but he is unsure. The kidnapper actually tells him he did take his girlfriend but doesn't say whether she's alive or what he did to her. He simply tells the boyfriend that if he really wants to know what happened to his lover, he has to show him. There's a powerful sequence when the boyfriend has to make the decision. He's searched for his lost love for a long time and now, maybe, he has the chance to finally find out what happened to her. But he doesn't trust this man, and he doesn't know what will happen to him if he agrees. His overriding obsession to learn the truth of that day at the petrol station when she disappeared colours his decision and he says yes to the kidnapper's demands.
The scene that follows is my tenth scariest moment in horror cinema. The kidnapper gives the boyfriend a drink which puts him to sleep. He awakes in darkness. He fumbles for the lighter in his pocket, which eventually produces a flame. The dim light shows him exactly what happened to his lost love, and simultaneously his own demise. He's lying in a coffin, buried in the ground, left to die. There's no escape and no one's going to save him. The effect on the viewer is harrowing and long-lasting.
#9 THE EXORCIST III (William Peter Blatty, USA, 1989)
The Exorcist, my favourite horror film is, as you'd expect full of great scary moments. I've kept myself down to just two moments in my top ten but I've had to include this brilliant scene from the second sequel.
Directed by The Exorcist novel and screenplay writer William Peter Blatty, Exorcist III was his retort to John Boorman's sequel, which he hated. It tells the story of a police officer who - having investigated the events of the first film, including the mysterious death and beheading of the film director who fell from Regan's window - falls onto another religiously-inspired murder plot. Seeing chilling similarities between these new events and what went before, he's drawn to Father Karras who is now holed up in a mental institution.
The scene that never fails to deliver is more a jump-out-of-your-seat moment than the scene in The Vanishing. It takes place in a hospital where some strange goings-on have taken place. In the middle of the night, the only nurse on duty is doing her regular checks on the hospital beds. There is a security guard on duty so it seems safe. The camera just watches down the corridor. The security officer walks out of sight for a moment. The nurse heads back to the reception station. Again, everything seems fine but now she's well and truly alone.
We've seen her entering and exiting rooms with no alarm. She checks on another room, exitsthen suddenly is tracked by a masked killer preparing to stab her. The scene is beautifully paced and through its simplicity, frighteningly real.
#8 ROSEMARY'S BABY (Roman Polanski, USA, 1968)
When picking this list I kept thinking I'm forgetting great scary moments in film's that aren't very good. It's easy to remember those great films and scenes within them, but it's more difficult to remember those poor movies you've purposely drained from memory. For example, there's some odd moments and a great ending in that Oliver Reed haunted house flick Burnt Offerings but the film isn't up to much. My choice for No. 8 scariest moment is, however, not in that category. Rosemary's Baby is not only one of the best examples of the genre, it's one that stays with you long after the credits have rolled.
Rosemary's Baby is another mood piece. Roman Polanski hides the macabre, chilling undertone under a surface of domestic dysfunction. Mia Farrow is superb in the role of Rosemary and her pregnancy is one of the most iconic in horror cinema. The scene that stands out for me is what can only be termed 'The Devil's Rape'.
In the scene she is on a bed surrounded by her strangely over-protective neighbours. She can't move or escape, and her disorientation caused by poisoning makes it difficult to decipher what is occurring. But she knows she's been raped. It's only when Polanski gives us a single frame image of the rapist's face that we discover it isn't a man or a woman forcing them selves upon her. It's the Devil.
#7 THE OMEN (Richard Donner, USA, 1976)
The Omen was one of those horror films I saw when I was probably too young to watch it. I remember seeing it in my parent's VHS collection and knew instinctively it was out of bounds. Firstly, it had the UK rating of 18, and secondly, it had that horrid image of a boy clad in black with a jackal's shadow. The poster is brilliantly conceived but it's one hell of a scary proposition.
The scene I refer to as my seventh scariest horror movie moment is perhaps the film's most famous. When the father of a child he believes to be the son of the Devil travels to mainland Europe with his photographer friend to investigate the child's mysterious birth, things take a turn for the worse. Director Richard Donner sets up the scene in question perfectly with a haunting sequence in a graveyard where the father discovers the mother of his child was an animal. From here we head back into town where a truck with sheets of glass is backing onto a construction site. The photographer, already pre-warned that his death will have something to do with his neck, has no time to save himself when a sheet of glass slides off the truck, through the air and, unfortunately for him, through his neck. The severed body part spins in the air before coming to a final resting spot.
#6 THE EXORCIST (William Friedkin, USA, 1973)
William Friedkin's The Exorcist is the greatest horror movie ever made. Therefore, I can't help but choose two moments for my top ten list. The first of which is the head-spinning-foul-language-cr ucifix-masturbation sequence. There aren't any more words required other than that. Disturbing, graphic, and stays with you long after the scene ends.
For Top 5 Read my full article HERE
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