The 30 Scariest Film Scenes Of All Time Part 1

***SPOILER ALERT:  given that I’m showing prime scenes in featured films there will be potential spoilers, so keep that in mind before reading.

Let’s begin:

30. ‘The Hitcher’  (1986)

[amazon_image id=”0783114893″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]The Hitcher[/amazon_image]

An excellent B-Movie with Rutger Hauer at his most sinister. He plays psychopathic hitchhiker John Ryder, who is tormenting Jim Halsey (C. Thomas Howell). The movie is cat and mouse suspense at its finest, but this scene is chilling in particular.

Halsey finally thinks he’s given Ryder the slip and is enjoying some greasy french fries at a diner. But then he almost eats a severed finger… and his nightmare begins anew…Check out the 28:30 mark on the YouTube clip:

29.  ”Blue Velvet” (1986) /Lost Highway’ (1997)

[amazon_image id=”B005HT400A” link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]Blue Velvet [Blu-ray][/amazon_image][amazon_image id=”B001152TL6″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]Lost Highway[/amazon_image]

Two David Lynch films that drip with unease. ‘Blue Velvet’  features vile psychopath Frank Booth (Dennis Hopper). He’s a sexual deviant who abuses nightclub singer Dorothy (he has her son kidnapped and uses this as collateral). The scariest scene shows Frank degrading her as he vacillates between acting dominant (Daddy) and then submissive. (Baby), all while inhaling an unidentified gas through an oxygen mask to maintain arousal.

Just check out the clip, but its NSFW so be forewarned.

What could be scarier than being threatened by Robert Blake? Watch and be creeped out by this scene from Lynch’s  ‘Lost Highway‘, which was shot years before Blake’s trial for his wife’s murder. Like most David Lynch films, this scene makes no logical sense, but it has the paranoid unease of a nightmare. He’s an apparition who is 2 places at once, and Bill Pullman ain’t digging it. Blake’s ghostly pallor and unblinking eyes will make you feel all wrong inside.

28. ‘Pan’s Labyrinth’  (2006)

[amazon_image id=”B000WSLAUO” link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]Pan’s Labyrinth [Blu-ray][/amazon_image]

Guillermo Del Toro’s best film is a mix of childhood fairytale, historical fiction and surreal horror. This scene, where young Ofelia awakens the Pale Man by eating (forbidden fruit) is truly creepy, and the monster itself is wonderfully bizarre in design.

27. ‘Henry: Portrait Of A Serial Killer’ (1986)

[amazon_image id=”B002EOVXCY” link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer [Blu-ray][/amazon_image]

Available on Netflix Streaming.

Based off real life serial killer Henry Lee Lucas, it follows Henry and Otis, 2 buddies who enjoy killing together. The most terrifying scene involves them assaulting and slaughtering an entire family in lingering detail. Henry films it all on videotape. Later they watch it at home on their VCR, enjoying reliving the experience. Whereas some horror films are fun to watch, this is grueling and upsetting. It’s one of the earliest examples of  ‘torture porn’. But despite my distaste for it, it scared the shit out of me.

36. Amityville II: The Possession (1982)

[amazon_image id=”B00079Z9X2″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]Amityville II: The Possession[/amazon_image]

Available on Netflix Streaming.

This is a sloppy and stupid movie…except for the scene where the possessed son kills his parents and siblings. It’s drawn out for traumatizing dramatic impact. Too bad the rest of the movie isn’t as good. Check out the clip:

26. “Invasion Of The Body Snatchers’ (1978)

[amazon_image id=”B000QQJ3Q0″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]Invasion of the Body Snatchers (Collector’s Edition)[/amazon_image]

One of the best remakes ever. Aliens are cloning humans, and replace their identities when they fall asleep. Jeffrey (Donald Sutherland) is part of a group who have evaded capture and metamorphosis from the Aliens. But the group splinters after they’re attacked. As the film concludes he runs into his lost friend Veronica Cartwright. She smiles, relieved that he’s still himself….but she’s wrong. He emits a ghastly bellow, an alien alert to subdue a human. Heartbreaking and haunting in equal measure.

25. ‘Aliens’ (1986)

[amazon_image id=”B004RE29PO” link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]Aliens [Blu-ray][/amazon_image]
Everyone always identifies ‘Alien’ as a horror movie and its sequel as an action film, but ‘Aliens’ still has plenty of scares. The most prominent is when Ripley and Newt are trapped in a room with 2 facehuggers. They’re locked in against their will by corporate creep Carter Burke (Paul Reiser) so they’ll be impregnated and taken back to Earth for research. Expertly directed and acted, it still gets the blood flowing.

24. Diabolique (1955)

[amazon_image id=”B004NWPY1Q” link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]Diabolique (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray][/amazon_image]

This creepy French classic still holds up well today. Michel Delassalle is a cruel school headmaster. He’s abusive to his wife Christina and his mistress Nicole. The 2 women make an unlikely alliance and kill Michel. They drown him and toss his body into a swimming pool, making it look like an accident. But when the pool is drained, the body is gone. Later Christina hears a noise in her bathroom. She enters to see Michel rise from the tub,  and she dies from a heart attack. He and Nicole faked his death so they could be together, knowing Nicole had a delicate heart condition.

23. ‘Fire In The Sky’ (1993)

[amazon_image id=”B0002V7O3S” link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]Fire in the Sky[/amazon_image]

Available on Netflix Streaming.

22. The Wicker Man (1973)

[amazon_image id=”B000JVT1U0″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]The Wicker Man (Two-Disc Special Edition)[/amazon_image]

Forget The Nicholas Cage remake debacle, go to the source. This 70’s film is one of the strangest ever made. Part horror, part folk tale (and part musical!), it tells the story of Sgt. Neil Howie, whose searching for  Rowan Morrison, missing girl  on the island of SummerIsle. A devout christian (and virgin), Howie is dismayed at the hedonistic pagan lifestyle of the islanders. Eventually he realizes he’s the victim of a cruel hoax. Rowan was never missing. The islanders needed a virgin sacrifice to appease their gods so their crops will grow. She was used to lure him to the island. They place him in a giant wicker figure (i.e. The Wicker Man) and light him ablaze. He sings a psalm in defiance as he’s burned alive.

21. ‘Phantasm’  (1979)

[amazon_image id=”B000MV8ABS” link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]Phantasm[/amazon_image]

This film is 70’s goofiness, but it has an awesome plot and several good scares (and killer silver balls!). Caretaker ‘The Tall Man” reanimates corpses and banishes them to slave work in an alternate dimension.The scariest scene involves young Mike, who has discovered the Tall Man’s scheme.  After a fitful sleep he wakes up, only to find the Tall Man standing over his bed, followed by his corpse minions reaching up from the soil and whisking Mike away.

(*For some reason every “Scariest Phantasm Clip” montage on YouTube doesn’t show this clip. WTF?)

20. The Exorcist III (1990)

[amazon_image id=”B0000399W9″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]The Exorcist III[/amazon_image]

Not as good as the first Exorcist film, but way better than the awful Exorcist 2: Heretic. And it has one of the scariest jolts ever. No need for me to even set it up. Just watch YouTube clip…and wait for it. The fact that it’s in a hospital always amps up the eeriness for me.

Well that wraps up the  30 Scariest Film Scenes Of All Time Part 1, now go check out Part 2 (and stay tuned for a ton of other horror related goodness this month)!