Getting creeped out is addictive! Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for the most unsettling movie scenes that will always creep us out – no matter how much time passes. And beware, skin crawling spoilers lie ahead.
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00:00Hello, Danny.
00:05Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the most unsettling movie
00:09scenes that will always creep us out, no matter how much time passes.
00:12And beware, skin-crawling spoilers lie ahead.
00:14What a nice boat.
00:16Do you want it back?
00:19Um, yes, please.
00:22Number 10.
00:23Linda's Possession – The Evil Dead
00:24Sam Raimi's first Evil Dead flick may have been made on a low budget, especially compared
00:28to the franchise's many sequels, but that doesn't make it any less unnerving.
00:34In fact, one moment will always send shivers down our spine.
00:42With protagonist Ash Williams' night off to a nightmarish start, things go from bad
00:46to worse when his girlfriend Linda is turned into a dead-eye.
00:55Her transformation from Ash's sweet girlfriend into a cackling demon resembling a possessed
00:59doll is incredibly jarring.
01:00Linda's white eyes, distorted voice, and shrieking laughter remains just as deeply
01:04disturbing all these decades later.
01:13Number 9.
01:14Red Coat Reveal – Don't Look Now
01:15The Donald Sutherland-starring psychological thriller Don't Look Now follows a couple
01:19grieving their daughter's death.
01:20When they head to Venice, they begin to encounter a series of eerie occurrences.
01:26The film plays with many motifs and symbolisms throughout, especially as it relates to the
01:30color red.
01:38Come the film's close, Father John catches up with the red-hooded figure whom he has
01:41had numerous prior glimpses of.
01:52Could this be a lost child, or somehow his own?
01:54Nope, it's a repulsive-looking, deformed little person with a meat cleaver.
02:01This wholly unexpected – not to mention brutal – ending will always leave us unsettled
02:05to the core.
02:06Number 8.
02:07Clown Doll Attack – Poltergeist
02:08Let's face it, clowns are creepy enough on their own, but 1982's Poltergeist took
02:12their creep factor up a notch.
02:23It's all thanks to a scene where young Robbie, before going to bed, notices that his clown
02:26doll is not where it should be.
02:28He looks under the bed, but sees nothing.
02:29Phew.
02:30He wakes up, though, the doll suddenly behind him.
02:35The terrifying clown proceeds to grab him before dragging him under the bed, all with
02:42elongated arms.
02:44This sequence expertly taps into our childhood fears and remains one of cinema's most memorable
02:48scares, giving us serious chills every time we watch it.
02:57Number 7.
02:58Demon in the Bedroom – Insidious
02:59Upon its release, James Wan's Insidious breathed new life into the supernatural horror
03:03genre with several terrifying scenes.
03:06Of course, one particularly terrifying moment continues to haunt our nightmares to this
03:09day.
03:19When Lorraine relates a terrible dream she had, we're served up creepy flashes of her
03:23visions.
03:24There's a menacing demon in the corner of her grandson Dalton's room.
03:33It's incredibly unsettling, but the frights don't end there.
03:35When Lorraine looks over at Josh, she sees the now-infamous red-faced demon behind him.
03:48The suddenness of it all, combined with the demon's creeptastic stare, makes this jump
03:52scare extremely effective.
03:54Number 6.
03:55Tall Man Approaches – It Follows
03:56It Follows introduced us to one of cinema's most unsettling concepts, an unrelenting entity
04:01that is passed between people through sexual encounters.
04:18Clearly a metaphor for sexually transmitted diseases, the entity takes on a variety of
04:22creepy forms throughout the movie.
04:24Creepiest of them all, however, is the entity's Tall Man persona, played by the late Mike
04:28Lanier.
04:40Seemingly emerging from out of nowhere, he strikes fear with his giant frame, not to
04:43mention gouged-out eyeball.
04:45Making the situation even more disturbing is the fact that our protagonist, Jay, can
04:49never outrun him.
04:59It's a visual we'll never be able to shake, no matter how hard we try.
05:02Number 5.
05:03Pennywise in the Gutter – It
05:04Remember what we said earlier about clowns being creepy?
05:07Well, we can all thank Stephen King's creation, Pennywise, for further cementing our collective
05:11fear of clowns.
05:19Anyone who read the original novel or saw the 1990 miniseries knew Georgie's fate going
05:23into 2017's IT film adaptation.
05:25It doesn't make it any less disturbing, though.
05:27Looking down a storm drain for his paper boat, little Georgie finds a pair of yellow eyes
05:31staring back at him instead.
05:43Maybe it's the sinister grin or actor Bill Skarsgård's playfully haunting reef, but
05:47this scene will never not creep us out.
05:53After all, it preys on childhood innocence, only to lead to unspeakable brutality.
05:57Number 4.
05:58Crawling out of the TV – The Ring
05:59Adapted from the Japanese horror film Ringu, itself based on a novel, The Ring introduced
06:03North American audiences to the concept of a cursed videotape.
06:06What's so scary about that?
06:08Well, for starters, it brings death to anyone who watches it.
06:13There's also the ominous girl seen in the video, Samara.
06:19Audiences were in shock when they witnessed a grisly girl rise from a well, her watery
06:23grave in the video.
06:27Oh, but the horror didn't stop there.
06:34Samara also crawled through the TV screen and into reality.
06:42The static noise coupled with Samara's disjointed movements created an entirely new
06:46level of fear regarding technology-based hauntings.
06:49It's a creepy visual we have yet to truly recover from.
06:52Number 3.
06:53Hallway Encounter – The Shining
06:54Who are we kidding?
06:55The entirety of Stanley Kubrick's film adaptation of Stephen King's The Shining is creepy.
07:02However, among the countless hair-raising moments and axe attacks, there's one sequence
07:08that will always make us uncomfortable in the worst way.
07:10It all goes down when Danny encounters twin girls at the end of the hotel hallway.
07:14Their synchronized speech inviting him to play forever is incredibly chilling.
07:20Thanks to Danny's psychic flashes of bloody corpses, the palpable dread continues to resonate
07:25in cultural psyches everywhere.
07:26If you look up creepy kids in an online dictionary, you best believe there will be a link sending
07:30you directly to this scene.
07:31At least, there should be.
07:38Number 2.
07:39The Blair Witch Project
07:41The Blair Witch Project not only popularized the found-footage style of filmmaking but
07:45also left audiences questioning what was real and what wasn't upon its release.
07:50As you might imagine, this led to a sense of dread throughout the film.
08:01It all culminated with one heck of a creepy conclusion that still unnerves us today.
08:05When Heather and Mike stumble upon an abandoned house in search of their missing colleague,
08:08they find their way to the home's basement.
08:20When Heather discovers Mike facing a corner and unseen force attacks, it's chillingly
08:24ambiguous and it will continually leave us deeply unsettled as we try to piece together
08:28just what happened to these poor people.
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08:47Number 1.
08:48Headspin The Exorcist
08:49William Friedkin's classic The Exorcist is chock full of unspeakable and in some cases
08:53unshowable acts of horror.
08:54Let's just say there's a good reason why it's widely considered as the scariest
08:57film ever made.
08:59However, amidst all the shocking and graphic content, there's one scene that continuously
09:06creeps us out more than the rest.
09:08And while Regan's backwards crab walk down the stairs is pure nightmare fuel, it's
09:18her viscerally disturbing headspin that always does us in.
09:21Turning her head a full 360 degrees, we are given an unsettling look at the pure evil
09:26that runs through Regan's body.
09:30Five decades later and the sequence still has us squirming in our boots, and likely
09:33forever will.
09:34Which creepy movie scene will always send shivers down your spine?
09:37Share your visually scarring picks in the comments below.
10:04Thanks for watching!
10:05Be sure to like, share and subscribe!
10:06See you next time!