Discovery

I love horror movies. And I love feeling creeped.

So imagine my excitement to read Roberty Berry’s 100 Scariest Movie Scenes for 2007. (He did it last year and I wanted to see what he changed this time around.)

The list of movies on the left side are all clickable and, when applicable, you can actually watch the scene in question.

But whatever. Lists usually suck and aren’t that fun to read. What I love so much about this one, though, is that a movie can appear multiple times for specific scenes. (The Exorcist and The Shining are prime examples, as both those movies have more than one scary scene.)

Beyond that, I also love that there are non-horror movies on the list: A ton of David Lynch (Eraserhead, Blue Velvet, and Mulholland Drive FTW!!!), that creepy Pink Elephant freak-out from Dumbo, the big “secret” from The Crying Game, and “Large Marge” from Pee Wee’s Big Adventure.

There aren’t too many changes the second time around. The two main differences, though, make the list so much more genuine to me.

At #7 is the Gurney Ride through Hell from Jacob’s Ladder, one of the most underrated horror movies of all time. I first picked it up on a whim a couple years back. The entire idea of the movie creeped me out and by the time the twist ending became clear, I was blown away.

But Berry’s #1 choice is SO EXCELLENT. I know David Lynch is pretentious and fucking crazy, but I love Mulholland Drive so dearly. And that Winkies dream sequence is terrifying. The still camera and some wonderful character acting give the scene such a pervasive aura of suspense; as the dream slowly begins to come true, you’re gripped. And the final moment? I once watched it with a girl who actually began to cry while watching it.

Now that’s scary.

My complaints (and recommendations!):

-The scene in Lost Highway where Bill Pullman is confronted by the man with the white makeup all over his face. To this day, I have a hard time watching this scene. It’s so fucking creepy, and not in a fun way.

-Like 40 million scenes in Who Can Kill a Child? Totally underrated and mentally mind-fucking horror movie from the 70s about a couple (one who is pregnant) who go to spend a weekend on an island off of Spain. They come to discover that all the adults have been murdered by children. Seems like such an absurd concept that it can’t be scary, but through the use of bright, open spaces, and some incredibly creepy child actors, I was curled up into a little ball by the end of it.

I could only find a trailer for it:

-The basement torture scene from Frailty. Another missed gem of a horror movie. The kids and Bill Paxton are INCREDIBLE actors and that’s what makes this movie work. I prefer the flashbacks to the present-time plot, and boy, it’s a doozy.

Imagine if your dad told you he was murdering people in the name of God. You revolt against him, because that’s an absurd notion, so he FUCKING LOCKS YOU IN A CELLAR FOR A WEEK. Holy crap, amazing.

-The final confrontation between Clarice Starling and Buffalo Bill in Silence of the Lambs. If you’ve never seen this movie, promptly jump off a cliff.

Any others you’d recommend?