Here are the five movie scenes that have disturbed me the most. How scary are they? Well, it just got dark outside, and I refuse to rewatch them for research. Hence the meager descriptions.
5. The pantry door in Signs (2002)
The most intimate scare on the list. Some say it’s where the film’s script becomes nonsensical. Well, I’m all the more impressed by the direction then, because it’s terrifying nonsense.
4. The opening to Suspiria (1977)
Nightmarish. I don’t only mean scary, but like the adaptation of a real nightmare: feverish, confusing, surreal.
3. Shin Godzilla’s (2016) second form
Specifically, the first time we see its face. The shot is so perfectly jolting, so perfectly framed, that I’m transported into the film and placed right in that terrible thing’s way.
2. Bennings as The Thing (1982)
When I watch this scene, against better judgment, I don’t just fear for the characters in the movie. I fear for the planet. If that creature were real, everything would be over.
1. “What Shall We Do Now?” from Pink Floyd – The Wall (1982)
Traditional animation can’t elicit a sense of danger in me. Something that’s drawn is just too many steps removed from real life to be threatening. No, the strength of animation is despair, and its crowning achievement is this scene. The place it takes my mind to is worse than danger could ever be.