Do the Wicked Witch of the West’s flying monkeys count? I mean, didn’t they scare the hell out of you, too? I hid behind the couch. I remember my mother trying to reassure me while doing a damn poor job of trying not to laugh.
That’s the most frightened I’ve ever been from watching a movie. (I don’t count the little blip of a ghost movie that scared me when I was just a wee little thing.) I envy people who can readily recite what they think are the scariest scenes from horror movies, the ones that make them leave the lights on or scooch under the covers, eyes squeezed tight.
I have … flying monkeys from a beloved family film.
I can, however, pick out the most horrifying scene I’ve ever experienced in a movie. What little Regan does with a crucifix in “The Exorcist” — you know the scene — I think would shock modern major-release-film audiences just as much today. And images of that demon-afflicted little girl stayed with me for many days and nights afterward.
I’ve already written about how impressed I was with Derek Richardson’s performance in that “Hostel” scene that will make your stomach wad itself into a tiny protective ball, similar to my ankle bones shrinking with fear into muscle tissue during the hobbling scene in “Misery.” The elevator scene in “The Eye” (the original Hong Kong film) was darned creepy.
But a single scary scene? Um, flying monkeys. Sorry.
I asked a couple of writers here at The Herald what they thought was the scariest scene in a horror movie. Katya Yefimova, like me, has a hard time picking a truly frightening scene but, unlike me, she isn’t old enough to have decades of horror movies behind her. She’s going to be a hard sell later in life.
She mentioned the scene in “The Descent” in which a character strikes a match in the dark to find she’s surrounded by fiends. We agree that “The Descent” was better than we anticipated — we were expecting a chicks-in-trouble treatment — then I broke Katya’s heart when I told her that the main character left in the cave for dead (in the unrated version, much better) comes back in the sequel, “The Descent 2” or “The De2cent,” due out next year. The bad end Sarah came to in the 2005 film was fitting and having her survive just to milk more out of the original is just, well, Hollywood.
She also liked scenes in “Event Horizon,” one of my guilty pleasures.
I asked Justin “Big Game Hunter” Arnold about his scariest scene in a horror movie and he e-mailed me a whole list:
“Hellraiser”: When Pinhead showed up when Kristy Cotton solved the Lemerchand Box. “The box. You opened it. We came … It is a means to summon us. Oh, no tears please. It’s a waste of good suffering. No time for argument. We’ll tear your soul apart.” And then the final scene were good old uncle Frank was turned into a living pin cushion. That movie was so scary, I went to church the next day.
“Misery”: Kathy Bates and a sledge hammer. When she said, “Trust me, it’s for the best,” I knew I’d never see Kathy Bates as anything other than that.
“The Thing”: The whole movie is full of genius moments, but the best for me is when while everyone is tied up Kurt Russell tries to find The Thing by putting a hot wire in some blood samples. Honestly, that movie is brilliant from beginning to end. I can’t believe it was almost never made.
“Nightmare at 20,000 Feet”: This was a short in “Twilight Zone the Movie” where John Lithgow saw a creature walking on the wing getting closer and closer to his window. (Justin told me later that he didn’t find the original William Shatner version all that spooky.)
“American Psycho”: When Christian Bale “axes” Jerod Leto nicely about what he really thinks of him.
“The Devil’s Backbone”: Carlos is hiding from Santi in the closet and staring at the key hole when Santi’s eye appears.
And there were more, but Justin’s desk is right outside Editorstein’s office and within striking distance of the cat-o’-nine-tails that hangs by the door, so I think he had to, you know, get back to work.
Perhaps choosing THE scariest scene isn’t that easy after all. What about you? Any creepy scene totally creep you out? Click on “comments” below and tell us about it. Flying saucers, flying vampires, flying monkeys, whatever frightens you.
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