What's your scariest horror movie scene?

Exorcist... That bit where mother makes to go up into the loft space... And then she does! I mean, FFS, don't go into that loft!!

I've seen a LOT of horror movies over the years. Don't watch them now, they got less appealing as I got older. I did watch The Omen a while back, really enjoyed that, great atmosphere.
 
The one that creeped me out for years was the end scene in Tod Brownings 'Freaks' where they tar and feather...etc... the girl...'gabba gabba hey, we accept you, we accept you, one of us...''

I find modern horror movies to be utterly unscary. They focus too much on effects and gore with none of that genuinely weird creepiness which taps into your nightmares. The movies of the 70's and 80's, particularly the 70's, were much better at harnessing this kind of inner terror. Maybe it was because everyone was dropping acid back then, I don't know. 
 

The matter of fact insanity of Kathy Bate's chatacter in Misery scared the bejubus out of me because that could happen!

Although I can appreciate the artistry of well done fx, cg is simply not scary. Occasionally it is well done like in Pan's Labyrinth, but that was more creepy than scary.

An interesting modern horror that uses only camera effecs is Mr Badadook. Very well done.

sharke
I find modern horror movies to be utterly unscary. They focus too much on effects and gore with none of that genuinely weird creepiness which taps into your nightmares. The movies of the 70's and 80's, particularly the 70's, were much better at harnessing this kind of inner terror. Maybe it was because everyone was dropping acid back then, I don't know. 
 

 
I was telling Steve about this film recently, 'Whistle and I'll Come to You', it's one of my favourites. M R James' ghost stories are often set in desolate coastal areas in the UK, and feature something half-glimpsed, and a slow-building sense of dread. This is worth watching just for Michael Horden's wonderful performance.
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYjtxHHjZ00

One movie scene that still creeps me out to this day is from the original "The Haunting" (1963). Two woman are sharing a room together in the haunted mansion and are sleeping in separate beds about 3-feet apart. During the night there are strange noises and commotions. One of the woman calls out to the other to take her hand while they each lay pretrified in their beds. Things continue to get worse as the walls start to breath. Finally it climaxes and everything stops. They turn on the lights and find their beds are separated by about 6-feet. What a moment (especially for an eleven year old kid).

bapu
The entire winter in The Shining.
 
That's a three undershreddies change.

This^.
 
I think when I first saw it the scariest part was actually when she reads the "book" Jack had spent so very much time working so hard on.
 
That and the Big Wheel, and the two little girls, and...

 
 
For me, one the best was at the end of Carrie, when the hand pops out of the ground and grabs Sue's ankle.

jamesg1213

sharke
I find modern horror movies to be utterly unscary. They focus too much on effects and gore with none of that genuinely weird creepiness which taps into your nightmares. The movies of the 70's and 80's, particularly the 70's, were much better at harnessing this kind of inner terror. Maybe it was because everyone was dropping acid back then, I don't know. 
 

 
I was telling Steve about this film recently, 'Whistle and I'll Come to You', it's one of my favourites. M R James' ghost stories are often set in desolate coastal areas in the UK, and feature something half-glimpsed, and a slow-building sense of dread. This is worth watching just for Michael Horden's wonderful performance.
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYjtxHHjZ00

And an excellent watch it was too mate.
 
Although not as subtle, some of Roald Dahl's Tales Of The Unexpected TV series included a great twist at the end. The one I remember to this day was the episode where an old man sets up a bet with a younger chap as to whether his zippo lighter will light ten times in a row. He puts up his Jag as his stake should the guy succeed, but if he fails, he gets to cut off the little finger of the guy's left hand.
 

SteveStrummerUK
 
 
And an excellent watch it was too mate.
 
Although not as subtle, some of Roald Dahl's Tales Of The Unexpected TV series included a great twist at the end. The one I remember to this day was the episode where an old man sets up a bet with a younger chap as to whether his zippo lighter will light ten times in a row. He puts up his Jag as his stake should the guy succeed, but if he fails, he gets to cut off the little finger of the guy's left hand.
 
 

Some of the twists in those were indeed very good, but watching them now the acting seems more wooden than the woodentops.

I'm with Bit on this one. Other than things that left an indelible stamp on me as a kid...seeing the reveal of Dr. Sardonicus for instance...I'm only temporally jarred by modern technology's attempts to scare the living daylights out of us. I'm much more frightened of portrayals of real, sociopathic nut cases than made up monsters or zombies.

Most all the modern scare-fest movies don't scare me so I don't even bother to watch them. My daughter likes them.... They rely on gore and fast, in your face surprises for the scare.....
 
Go back a few decades ..... the camera moves into a dark room, and a coffin rests on a pedestal in the center of the room. A faint beam of light from somewhere barely illuminates the coffin.... the music is suspenseful..... slowly, the camera pans  to the coffin, as the lid starts to rise, fingers appear in the crack and the lid rises.... Inside lays Count Dracula..... eyes closed..... the camera pans in for a facial closeup..... his eyes pop open and every person in the audience screams....
 
I'll never forget the hair on my neck standing on end watching Dracula.
 
The scariest movies are the ones where you know it's coming and it's delivered in a masterful way and scares the living beegeebee's out of you anyway.
 
 
Yeah.... the Wizard of Oz's witch was a scary thing to a little kid..... and  the flying monkeys..... OMG the flying monkeys were the things of a kid's nightmares for months on end.

Hi,
"Far Worse Things Await Man, than Death." Bela Lugosi in "Dracula"
 
I used to watch, and even keep track of all the Hammer Films for a long time. The Dracula and Frankenstein series with Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing, were very nice, even if the stories sometimes were stretched a few inches to revive the Count. But "scary" was not exactly my feeling then, because by that time, I had already been a serious student of "Gothic Literature" going as far back as Ann Radcliffe, and Horace Walpole!
 
Of the standard "horror" fare, none of them does me in. But there were a couple of films that fit the description of this thread. For me, it was called (had different names, btw) "The Legend of Hell House" with Pamela Franklin and that McDowell guy. It was very well shot and defined and well presented in the film. The scene with the cat, comes to mind ... I've seen things like that happen!
 
But Jean Luc Godard, introduced a few things that are used in these films ... sound out of whack with the film, and specially the effects out of sequence, and this became a big thing in many a horror film, however, none of these were as scary as many other things in film that were far superior in its effect than any horror film that I have ever seen.
 
Gaspar Noe's "Je Suis Seul" is probably the one film where it is not only disconcerting, it is very tough to even watch, and half the audience usually walks out, because it is so harsh and off its rocker ... and very tough to sit through. It's a gun shot, as loud as a shotgun that goes off at various times, and it's not designed, planned, or has any relation to the story of the film itself, which, btw, takes place in the characters head, non stop all the way to the end. And it is an insane attack on the French anything! AND, this is not a film for everyone! Like some of the weirdest and most avant-garde things EVER done, this questions your movie going left and right, and your entertainment ideas as well.
 
But nothing, in any film, has ever come as close as Mathew Gregory Lewis book, "The Monk" ... that can't even be filmed because it is so descriptive of the horrors in it. I don't suppose that many stories about WW2 are any better, and many movies showed it for the past 50 years, in their own way. When you come from that, horror film tends to look rather ... cardboard!

If you ever get a wild hair - take a 'scary movie' and watch it with the sound off.  It makes it seem funny without the shock music dissonant chords and sudden screams and such.
 
I remember when my son was about 7-8 I was flipping through channels and happened across Chuckie, right in the the middle of him saying he wanted to play.  Freaked out my son so bad that for several YEARS afterward he was genuinely mad at me for even having the maybe 1 minute of the film up on the screen where he could see it.
 
Bob Bone
 

Guitarhacker
... 
Go back a few decades ..... the camera moves into a dark room, and a coffin rests on a pedestal in the center of the room. A faint beam of light from somewhere barely illuminates the coffin.... the music is suspenseful..... slowly, the camera pans  to the coffin, as the lid starts to rise, fingers appear in the crack and the lid rises.... Inside lays Count Dracula..... eyes closed..... the camera pans in for a facial closeup..... his eyes pop open and every person in the audience screams....
 ...

Go back some 50 years still ... a gun points at the camera, and folks in the audience scream, and half of them left the theater in fear! Happened in many places!
 

robert_e_bone
If you ever get a wild hair - take a 'scary movie' and watch it with the sound off.  It makes it seem funny without the shock music dissonant chords and sudden screams and such.
 ...

 
Ohhhh, you taking GOBLIN's music out? At least keep that ... forget the visuals and the movie itself!