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Most horror movies come and go, but occasionally, a scene in a horror movie is so scary that audiences still talk about it decades later. Psycho came out in the 1960s, but we're still talking about Janet Leigh and the infamous show scene in 2022.
The same can be said for the late-night swimmer in the opening moments of Jaws or the tearful, close-up apology of The Blair Witch Project. Some moments are so scary they stick with people. It's possible that a few of the scenes on this list may be the type of scene people will be talking about decades from now.
Warning: Spoilers ahead!
Job Interview Scene, Nightmare Alley
Stanton Carlisle is a man down on his luck who gets a job at a carnival. There, becomes a con man, tricking wealthy people out of their money. We meet a character called Geek at the beginning of the film. He eats live chickens as a performance for the terrified paying customers. He is locked up in a cell. Later while having dinner with the man that hired Stanton, Clem Hoately (William Dafoe), we learn how the Geek ended up in such a sad state. Clem found him on the streets and asked him if he wanted a temporary job as the Geek, however, he didn't know that Clem was drugging him all the while.
By the end of the film, Stanton is a broke alcoholic and goes back to the carnival to try and get another job. The only problem is Clem is no longer working at the carnival. It is another man, and he offers Stanton a temporary job as a Geek. Stanton takes the position, knowing what it will do to him. This scene isn't scary in the typical sense. It isn't a jump scare, and it isn't gory. The pain of how cruel human beings can be to each other for personal gain can be felt in this scene, which makes it painful to watch as it plays out.
Jesus Talks to Maud, Saint Maud
Saint Maud follows a reclusive, religious nurse named Maud taking care of a Hospice patient. Maud feels like it is her mission to save her patient's soul, and the two of them pray together. At a certain point, when Maud hears what she believes is Jesus' voice, it is demonic. After spending much of the film watching Maud losing touch with reality, this indicates that things have gotten suddenly much worse.
Many people pray every day, and for some, the line between the spiritual and the physical can blur, but this scene makes it clear that Maud is experiencing something very much outside of ordinary prayer. Another reason it is so creepy is that it is disturbing to watch Maud's grip on reality continue to loosen.
The Bathroom Scene, Strangers Prey At Night
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In this classic home invasion setup, Mike and his family are on a road trip when they arrive at a secluded trailer park. Three masked killers show up to torment them. They show up with knives, wearing creepy masks, and both mother and daughter run into the bathroom to escape them.
They crash through the door and walls of the bathroom while the mother and daughter attempt to escape through the roof. What makes the scene so effective is that the two are trapped in an enclosed place and open to attack from any side. The home invasion subgenre is still appearing in movies today because it's so effective.
The Bunker Scene, A Quiet Place
A Quiet Place is about a family that must live in silence to avoid being killed by creatures that hunt by sound. What makes the film so unsettling is that it is so quiet that it draws the audience into the film. Using quiet as many films utilize sound, it creates an unnerving atmosphere.
The bunker is the family's last place of escape, but they find that it is flooded. The creature is hidden in the water and can attack in all directions. To top it off, there is an innocent baby in danger. All this combines to create a mini-masterclass on how to build tension in a horror scene.
The Family Together, Pet Sematary
Dr. Louis Creed and his family move to a rural community. Creed discovers a burial ground hidden deep within the woods on his property. The family cat Church is killed but is resurrected in the Pet Sematary, but acts very differently. Still, even knowing something is amiss, when Doctor Lewis's daughter is killed by a truck, he takes her to the Pet Sematary. She comes back, but she isn't the same.
Louis, his wife Rachel, and his daughter Ellie are all dead by the end of Pet Sematary. The only thing to do now is to gather their youngest child, Gage, and then they can be one happy dead family. What makes this scene scary is what is implied. Nothing is seen, so it is left up to the audience's imagination.
Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Van Crashes
A small group of friends go to a remote town in Texas to start a business venture. They upset Leatherface, a serial killer who uses a chainsaw to slay his victims. A van is transporting Leatherface's mom to a facility, but it crashes. Everyone in the van is dead except for Leatherface and a woman in the front passenger seat.
What makes this scene scary is that Leatherface is definitely out there - but where? The woman is trapped in the truck with very few places to escape. The audience knows she's done for, but that's part of what makes the scene so excruciating to watch as it plays out.
The Doppelgänger In The Driveway, Us
Adeline Wilson moves into the beachfront bridge home she grew up in as a child with her family. Though we know from the flashback that kicks off the film this will not be a pleasant stay, it is still a shock when the Wilsons see their exact mirror images standing motionless in the driveway.
Though they attempt to mitigate the threat these doubles present, it's clear from the start that the family is completely unequipped to deal with what's happening. What makes this scene so frightening is the idea that somewhere everyone has an evil twin that represents the darkness within and that people may cross paths with their Doppelgänger one day.
The Telephone Pole, Hereditary
When a family's matriarch passes away, terrifying secrets about what exactly they have inherited are revealed. Peter takes his sister Charlie to a party where she inadvertently eats nuts despite a severe allergy. She goes into shock, and a terrified Peter rushes her to the hospital. She sticks her head out the window and is decapitated when he swerves to avoid an animal in the road.
The film seemed to be setting up Charlie as the main character in this movie, so this scene was shocking on a few levels. The graphic, irreversible, and tragically accidental violence of Charlie's death is only capitalized by a devastated Peter returning home, unable to tell his parents what has occurred, leaving them to find Charlie's body.
The Restaurant, The Invisible Man
The Invisible Man follows Cecilia, a woman fleeing her violent ex. He fakes his own death and utilizes an invisibility suit to stalk and gaslight her. He methodically cuts her off from people that believe she's a danger to herself. In a last ditch effort to make amends with her sister Emily, Cecilia arranges to meet her at a restaurant. Adrian attacks and kills Emily, and since he is invisible, everyone thinks Cecilia did it.
What makes this scene work is the subtext of being in a toxic relationship. The person doesn't have to be there to control the situation, making them seem omnipresent and inescapable.
The Burning Temple, Midsommar
Midsommar introduces us to Dani, a young woman grieving the catastrophic loss of her immediate family while enduring a toxic relationship. She unintentionally crashes her boyfriend's trip to Sweden where he and his friends intend to attend the Midsummer festival.
The festival ends up being the ritual of a cult. Eventually, the temple burns down along with human sacrifices inside. Dani has been transformed and brainwashed by the cult. What makes this scene so disturbing is how it is stacked. There is one worrisome image right after another, and we're helpless to watch Dani as she buys into the propaganda of a bonafide cult.