Our Top Ten Scariest Film Scenes

If I had to count the times I’ve been caught off-guard by what appears to be a "harmless" looking horror flick, the numbers would be infinite. Movie directors of the more macabre genre of films have always had a great knack for creating scenes that are tailor-made to freak out audiences, even through the most subtle of circumstances.

In the spirit of Halloween, the iafrica.com team has decided to put together our very own Top Ten Scariest Horror Movie scenes to relive some of our more traumatic childhood experiences and to revisit movie moments that may have scared the daylights out of some of us once upon a time.

Here is our Top Ten Scariest Horror Movie Scenes:

10. Scream opening scene

The Scream franchise produced one of the most iconic horror film franchises of our generation because of its self-deprecating awareness of the genre mixed with the very popular teen aspect. It was a hit and even though the film made fun of the horror genre, that opening scene with Drew Barrymore set the tension high and introduced all of us to that sinister voice and mask. The rest, as they say, is franchise history.

9. The Blair Witch Project Final Scene

The Blair Witch Project is 15 years old this year and though many other films have taken the style of this iconic film and made it into a million dollar powerhouse, this was the first of its kind. This is probably why the final scene in the film still brings chills to many people. The scene is set-up further back in the film and culminates in the two coming across an abandoned house. The tension builds slowly, then escalates towards the final moment – great use of the fear of the unknown.

8. Alien John Hurt’s chestburster scene 

I’m pretty sure when most people picture the scariest scene from a movie, Alien always comes up one way or another. There’s the infamous scene when the monster emerges from John Hurt’s body while Ripley and the rest of look on in horror. The moment is so classic and effective, mostly because years later we learned that the cast was clueless as to what was going to happen so the reactions were completely authentic, in other words, the director nailed it!

7. IT – The drain scene

Show me a person who didn’t fear Stephen King’s monstrous clown IT as a child and I’ll show you a liar. I strongly believe one of the reason’s clowns have such a bad rep in our adult lives is because of films like this that we watched as kids. The scene that really scared the living daylights out of me must’ve been the one where the child plays with his paper boat on a rainy day and the boat gets stuck and falls into a drain, therein lies the horrendous surprise, or party pooper.

6. The Conjuring – The basement scene

I’ve never been a huge fan of basements because of the sinister things that can live inside those kind of spaces. Movies haven’t helped this a great deal with many scary scenes happening in old creeky basements. It’s Horror Flick 101 to have the character lured into the basement only to discover that they are trapped inside with something deadly, and usually unknown. The Conjuring takes this to the next level.

5. Insidious – The dream scene

Insidious gets a bad reputation sometimes for its faults but many have spoken about how the film made its impact in the horror film genre. It’s still rated as one of the better horrors to come out in the last few years. It’s not by any means perfect but there’s that scene where Barbara Hershey explains her dream about the demon that stood in the corner of her bedroom. Maybe it’s the thought of the silhouette, or maybe its the echoes or icy creak of the monster or maybe most of us can relate to that feeling of something horrible hiding in the dead of the night, but it’s scary as hell.

4. Psycho – Shower Scene

Alfred Hitchcock was the master of creating tension that translates into the scariest scenes in the horror movie genre. Case in point is the famous shower scene in one of Hitchcock’s classics Psycho. The scene has gone on to become iconic, having been replicated in many other movies and in general pop culture.

3. The Sixth Sense – I see dead people

Many of our staff around the newsroom agreed that Sixth Sense was one of those films that sent deep chills down their spines. Granted, most of us were too young to really comprehend the full horror of this child played by Haley Joel Osment. Seeing and speaking to dead people is not the kind of thing any child wants to live with. Thank goodness that this iconic scene was followed by many spoofs and jokes to cushion the blow, but nothing will ever compare to the thrill of watching this scene for the first time.

2. The Ring – Samara crawling out of the TV

Creepy children seem to be the best way to scare any audience and when it comes to creepy children, The Ring really drives this idea home. The first film was masterful in its sustained tension that culminates into the scene where Samara crawls out of the television. It probably looks a little ridiculous watching it now because there’ve been several spoofs, but one can’t deny how effective this was in its time.

1. The Exorcist – The spiderwalk scene

The Exorcist remains one of the scariest stories of the modern day. The film was first released in the 1970s and was too much for people even then. It went on to becoming the first horror film to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture, among 10 other awards. Accolades aside, this spiderwalk scene is one of the scariest scenes ever made, hands down.

(This list is completely subjective as are most terrifying movies. Happy Halloween)