You know what you’re in for when you go and see a horror movie. Scary films usually have scary titles and scary posters so everyone knows that they’re going to get jumped, spooked or grossed-out for the next two hours. If you don’t like horror movies, it’s pretty easy to avoid them. But that’s not always the case. It might be a kid’s movie, an indie drama, an action blockbuster or a sweet family comedy, but you’re never completely safe from horror when you go to the cinema. Here we round up the scariest scenes in films that generally weren’t meant to be scary – the unintentional horror moments that caught us off guard.
Trainspotting (1996)
The baby on the ceiling further reading: The Best Streaming Horror Movies Granted, the baby looks like a bit of a rubbish animatronic when you watch it back now, but the first time you watch it, you never, ever, forget it.
Raiders Of The Lost Ark (1981)
Toht’s face Arnold Toht is one of the most reprehensible bad guys in cinema history – a writhing little Nazi who tortures people with pokers and carries an expanding coat hanger wherever he goes. But did he really deserve to have all the skin and muscle slowly melted off his face? Probably. further reading: How Raiders of the Lost Ark Continues to Influence Pop Culture
Amour (2012)
The nightmare Michael Haneke is ridiculously good at unintentional horror. Proving that he knows exactly to freak an audience out with Funny Games, his gentler, artier films all contain scenes of jarring terror, even when they’re masquerading as dramas. Caché has that bit with the throat cutting, and the whole of The White Ribbon makes us uncomfortable, but his greatest coup comes in the middle of Amour. further reading: The Best Horror Movies on Hulu Mostly a very studied, painful story about an elderly couple learning to cope with loneliness, one seemingly normal scene suddenly reveals itself to be a nightmare when George (Jean-Louis Trintignant), has his face smothered by a pair of hands that silently emerge from behind his head.
Marathon Man (1976)
Is it safe?
Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs (1937)
The haunted forest Walt Disney wasn’t actually trying to make a kid’s film with Snow White, but the fact that it looks a lot like one has seen it go down in history of one of the first and most important family movies of all time. Disney went on to unintentionally shape the nightmares of generations of children (from the donkey bit in Pinocchio to the end of Toy Story 3), but there’s arguably nothing more frightening than the haunted forest in Snow White – coming off far more terrifying than anything in The Blair Witch Project. It might be a masterpiece of animation but it made the whole world frightened of trees.
Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan (1982)
The Ceti eel What do you expect from a Star Trek movie? Action? Adventure? A vaguely confusing time travel plot? A gross little worm burrowing into someone’s ear like something out of a David Cronenberg film? further reading – Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and the History of that Horrifying Ear Scene
Watership Down (1978)
The prophesy of death Watership Down is rated “U” by the BBFC. On the website, the board includes a brief mention of a scene where Fiver the rabbit describes “how human construction workers destroyed his warren, causing some rabbits to panic and die.” further reading: The Best Horror Movies on HBO Go What they don’t say is that the scene is played out like a fever dream, with overlaid images of suffocating rabbits, fields running with blood and tormented spirits flying through the air. “Suitable for all”? Seriously?
The Dark Knight (2008)
Bat at the window further reading: Why The Dark Knight is Still the Best Superhero Movie It’s the sound design that sells it – as well as the fact that we’re genuinely not expecting to jump out of our seat in a superhero movie – and it’s one of the most effective jump scares outside the horror genre.
Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory (1971)
The boat “Not a speck of light is showing, so the danger must be growing! Are the fires of Hell a-glowing? Is the grisly Reaper mowing? And they’re certainly not showing any sign that they are slowing!” further reading: The Best Horror Movies on Netflix Gene Wilder is screaming at the top of his lungs, the children are crying, and the screen is filling up with images of decapitated chickens, worms on a corpse and writhing cockroaches. How this made it past anyone in 1971 is still baffling.
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968)
The Child Catcher Ah, the Child Catcher. As if it wasn’t scary enough to have a character in a kid’s film that lured children into a van with lollipops, director Ken Hughes cast noted ballet dancer Robert Helpmann in the role – obviously knowing that his elongated, rubbery-limbed movements would add to his general creepiness. Popping up in windows and stalking children around a nightmarish Germanic town, The Child Catcher wouldn’t look out of place in a Conjuring movie. Terrifying in its intensity, the bear attack in The Revenant looks horribly realistic – making for one of the most savage monster moments in any film. Swap Leonardo DiCaprio for a scream queen, and give the bear glowing red eyes, and it would give any horror movie a run for its money. For some dumb internet reason, the scene picked up a load of flack at the time because of a misinterpreted review about the “intimacy” of the mauling, but no amount of memes can make that scene look anything less than horrifying.
Return To Oz (1985)
The Wheelers Picking the scariest scene from Return To Oz is actually pretty tough. Walter Murch’s sequel definitely isn’t meant to be a horror film – even though pretty much all of it ended up being vaguely terrifying. Starting off with Dorothy having electroshock therapy in a mental asylum, and ending with an escape from a headless witch, the most disturbing scene turns up mid-way through, when the Wheelers turn up. further reading: Best Modern Horror Movies Looking like evil punk clowns with wheels for hands, the Wheelers skate around Dorothy like something out of a Nine Inch Nails video, and we still haven’t really gotten over it. There are plenty of reasons to be scared of Pee Wee Herman but most people will never forgive him for “Large Marge”, the scene that Tim Burton snuck into the candy-coloured fun of Pee Wee’s Big Adventure, presumably to see if everyone in the audience was really paying attention. Hitching a ride with a stranger Pee Wee meets Marge, who tells him an odd ghost story before suddenly turning into a bug-eyed demon, and then suddenly turning back again. It’s the best jump scare in a kid’s film ever. And it’s why you shouldn’t hitchhike. Read and download the Den of Geek NYCC 2018 Special Edition Magazine right here!
