We all have experienced frightening movie moments, either from our childhoods or as adults. I'll start the discussion with my own:
Childhood
1.) Ghostbusters II - the disembodied voice that calls out "WInston........" followed by severed heads on poles!
2.) Return to Oz - Between the first appearance of the Wheelers and the scene where Dorothy retrieves the Powder of Life, but wakes up Mombi's true head which wakes up all the other heads and Mombi's headless body which comes after her
3.) The Neverending Story - one word, G'mork! This black wolf haunted me throughout my childhood, his relentless pursuit of the protagonist, those yellow cat-like eyes, even his words send shivers down your spine "If you come any closer, I'll rip you to shreds."
4.) Raiders of the Lost Ark - the opening of the Ark with the spirits melting the faces of one Lt. and Toat (I call him piggy Nazi)
Adulthood
1.) The Ring - The whole concept especially at the climax before Naomi Watts solves the mystery.
2.) Alien - Dallas' and Brett's first encounter with the fully grown alien creature, The facehugger scene, and the infamous chestburster scene.
3.) Psycho - besides the shower scene and the horrific revelation with the corpse of Norma Bates
4.) The Terminator - the endoskeleton rising up from the flames with the slasher smile and glowing red eyes, and the blasted torso reaching for Sarah Connor
5.) Halloween (1978) - Michael Myers pursuing Jamie Lee Curtis that she has to hold him off for Sam Loomis to shoot him
Most frightening movie moments for you
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Stalvern
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Re: Most frightening movie moments for you
Seeing Andy in Toy Story as a little kid, my first descent into the Uncanny Valley.
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Zack Burner
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Re: Most frightening movie moments for you
Stalvern wrote:Seeing Andy in Toy Story as a little kid, my first descent into the Uncanny Valley.
Andy? That's a surprise. I would have expected more Sid considering he does horrible things to toys.
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Stalvern
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Re: Most frightening movie moments for you
Zack Burner wrote:Andy? That's a surprise. I would have expected more Sid considering he does horrible things to toys.
Sid doesn't appear for a while. Andy picks Woody up in the very first shot. The shock of seeing a CG "human" for the first time is what I was talking about.
Everything else in the movie looks great even today (and is almost miraculous for 1995), but that was one aspect that still had a long way to go.
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Herschie
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Re: Most frightening movie moments for you
Titanic, when Astor is standing by the pole in the grand staircase, and all the sudden the dome shatters.
The Day After when Denise Dahlberg is on her deathbed, hair falling out, dying of radiation sickness. I needed to pause the movie and clear my head.
Saving Private Ryan, when the guy is on the beach, intestines hanging out, screaming for his mama.
The Day After when Denise Dahlberg is on her deathbed, hair falling out, dying of radiation sickness. I needed to pause the movie and clear my head.
Saving Private Ryan, when the guy is on the beach, intestines hanging out, screaming for his mama.
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Matchstick
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Re: Most frightening movie moments for you
Great topic!
I wholeheartedly agree with the feelings for that same scene in The Day After. The whole flick is a pretty tough watch, but yeah, that scene in particular is haaaaarsh. Don't blame you at all for pausing the tape, Herschie.
The scene in Alien, as mentioned above, when Dallas is crawling through the air tunnels and sealing them off while the crew keeps track of the alien with the motion tracker is one of the most intense scenes I have ever seen in any film. No matter how many times I've seen it, when he gets to the bottom of the ladder and turns around, illuminating the alien in the glow of his flamethrower right before it lunges at him and turns the screen to static... MMMPH! Always makes me jump!
As a kid, I would get freaked out by one of the first scenes in the original Ghostbusters, when the three first encounter the librarian ghost in the library basement. She hears them talking and "shushes" them, then eventually turns towards them with her creepy face and lets out an awful howl. That scene had me hiding under my beanbag chair several times in my childhood, no question. Now, I think it's kinda funny.
Bonus points to both versions of The Fly, for the actors' portrayals of their final scenes. Vincent Price's "Heeeeelp Meeeee..." while his fly-man is caught in the spider web at the end, about to be devoured, scared the bejeesus out of me as a young'un. I couldn't even bring myself to watch it until many years later, as an adult, when I watched that version and the 80's version back-to-back one Halloween. The last scene in the Goldblum version, where he enters the transporter one more time and emerges as a human/machine/monster hybrid is so hard to watch. Seeing him pitifully crawl across the floor, then grabbing the barrel of Geena Davis's rifle and bringing it to his head, begging her to kill him, gets me every time.
That scene, coupled with many others in his different films, makes me miss Stan Winston's makeup effects with all my heart.
I wholeheartedly agree with the feelings for that same scene in The Day After. The whole flick is a pretty tough watch, but yeah, that scene in particular is haaaaarsh. Don't blame you at all for pausing the tape, Herschie.
The scene in Alien, as mentioned above, when Dallas is crawling through the air tunnels and sealing them off while the crew keeps track of the alien with the motion tracker is one of the most intense scenes I have ever seen in any film. No matter how many times I've seen it, when he gets to the bottom of the ladder and turns around, illuminating the alien in the glow of his flamethrower right before it lunges at him and turns the screen to static... MMMPH! Always makes me jump!
As a kid, I would get freaked out by one of the first scenes in the original Ghostbusters, when the three first encounter the librarian ghost in the library basement. She hears them talking and "shushes" them, then eventually turns towards them with her creepy face and lets out an awful howl. That scene had me hiding under my beanbag chair several times in my childhood, no question. Now, I think it's kinda funny.
Bonus points to both versions of The Fly, for the actors' portrayals of their final scenes. Vincent Price's "Heeeeelp Meeeee..." while his fly-man is caught in the spider web at the end, about to be devoured, scared the bejeesus out of me as a young'un. I couldn't even bring myself to watch it until many years later, as an adult, when I watched that version and the 80's version back-to-back one Halloween. The last scene in the Goldblum version, where he enters the transporter one more time and emerges as a human/machine/monster hybrid is so hard to watch. Seeing him pitifully crawl across the floor, then grabbing the barrel of Geena Davis's rifle and bringing it to his head, begging her to kill him, gets me every time.
That scene, coupled with many others in his different films, makes me miss Stan Winston's makeup effects with all my heart.
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Zack Burner
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Re: Most frightening movie moments for you
Oh yes I've seen the Vincent Price version of the Fly and yes, I agree that hearing "Help me!" That's still bone chilling to this day! Extra kudos for the makeup effects of the original fly head.
As for the original ghostbusters, I can agree about the librarian ghost as well as the scene where Dana is captured by the terror dogs.
Forgot one other: Independence Day, where the President is conversing with the alien who says "Peace? No Peace" "What do you want us to do then?" "Die! Die!" That voice is still bone chilling to this day!
As for the original ghostbusters, I can agree about the librarian ghost as well as the scene where Dana is captured by the terror dogs.
Forgot one other: Independence Day, where the President is conversing with the alien who says "Peace? No Peace" "What do you want us to do then?" "Die! Die!" That voice is still bone chilling to this day!
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Voor
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Re: Most frightening movie moments for you
The basement scene in “The Road”.
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matmico399
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Re: Most frightening movie moments for you
The scene in the Mel Gibson movie "Signs"when they are pretty sure aliens are invading. The news clip warning disturbing content and they show a video clip from a child's birthday party. The camera at the birthday party focuses on an alley and the alien passes by super quick. Nobody I know expected that and made everyone I know jump.
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Zack Burner
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Re: Most frightening movie moments for you
matmico399 wrote:The scene in the Mel Gibson movie "Signs"when they are pretty sure aliens are invading. The news clip warning disturbing content and they show a video clip from a child's birthday party. The camera at the birthday party focuses on an alley and the alien passes by super quick. Nobody I know expected that and made everyone I know jump.
Oh yes the aliens in Signs, frightening until you get more closer to them and discover their (dumb, implausible) weakness, even though they are indeed menacing.
Speaking of intrigue I have another frightening moment I forgot to mention: The dementors in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Strange as it may sound, I actually fear these things more than Voldemort. They tap into what you fear the most, and suck out your soul making Voldemort's Killing Curse seem like a more "comfortable" fate than becoming soulless.