Excitingly Mettel Ray has started up her second blogathon after the great success of her ‘My Movie Alphabet’ one last year (check out my entry here). This time around she has one called ‘Breaking Emotions’ where we are given an emotion (or two) and we have to respond with scenes that cause us to experience it. For more details check out her site via the link above.
This week I’m tackling fear, so take a look below at five of my scariest scenes!
5. Scream – Barrymore Opening
I saw this scene back in high school when my English teacher thought it would be a great idea to show the opening of Scream to his class of young teenagers. Let’s just say that it stuck with me for many nights afterwards (I’ve never been great with horror films), and although I have never gone back to Scream, I have been informed that this scene is still as tense as it seemed the first time that I experienced it.
4. Audition – The Bag
It wasn’t that long ago that I watched Audition and I still vividly remember how multiple scenes in it truly freaked me out, but none more so than when we first see that bag move. I knew something was going to happen, and I suspected that it was to do with the bag, but I still received that ice colt shot to the heart of pure fear when the damned thing moved!
3. Don’t Look Now – The Reveal
The entire film leads up to this moment, the confrontation which we knew had to happen, and then when it does, shocked doesn’t even begin to cover the reaction I felt. A bewildered, horrified, and scared few seconds await once Sutherland finally catches up with the figure in red…
2. Cabaret – Tomorrow Belongs to Me
If you haven’t seen Cabaret then skip on to the next entry because I think that this is one of the most effective, and downright chilling moments I have ever seen committed to film and you should experience it properly within the context of the film. What starts out as a relaxed scene with two of our leads taking a drink, then takes a turn towards the musical when a young man steps up in the beer garden and begins to sing. His voice is innocent and pure, his blonde hair like an angel, and then it’s revealed that he is a member of the Nazi youth. That’s scary enough, but then the scene becomes more and more horrific as an increasing number of German citizens stand up and join in with the anthem. It’s a devastating scene that encapsulates the entire Nazi subplot of the film in just a couple of minutes.
1. Jaws – Opening Death
Here’s a scene which truly scarred me for life. As a child I developed a real fear of open water and the possibility of something lurking underneath. And then I watched Jaws. It truly took one of my deepest fears and then made it reality upon the screen, and in fact then reinforced that fear with the most menacing of scores! Since then I have watched Jaws many times (it’s in my top ten favourite films after all) and the power of this scene no longer makes me leave the room out of fright, but it still manages to send a shiver right up my spine, and haunts me whenever I go to the beach.
So there are my picks for Mettel Ray’s blogathon! Let me know what you think below, and be sure to check out her site here!
Mr Rumsey's Film Related Musings 
Great choices, that Scream opening is so chilling.
Cheers Vinnieh! It certainly freaked me out!
An interesting collection of scenes from a disparate bunch of films. I’ve seen all but one of these and, in their own ways, they certainly do equate to one overall feeling of fear…
Still think The Sixth Sense has to find a place on here though.
Thanks Chalbo, Sixth Sense scared me as a kid but not to the same degree as Jaws did. Maybe it will scare me again if I watch it, but it’s been a long time since I last did.
Hmmm. I like the Cabaret selection. A lot.
Because I wasn’t expecting it. I don’t think fearful when I think about that classic musical, and yet I agree with you. That is a pretty scary scene.
Thank you! I actually saw Cabaret for the first time one Halloween, in a strange way it was very appropriate.
Agreed.
Cabaret is an amazing story of bad timing, I think. I wonder how much more well known it would be to modern audiences if it had been released any other year. It won more Oscars than The Godfather, Best Picture unfortunately not being one of them, but it still clearly lives in the shadow of Coppola and Brando’s movie.
Yeah a year earlier and it would have been up against ‘The French Connection’, a year later against ‘The Sting’, both of which it would have won against (I would like to think anyway).
Probably. And it wouldn’t be thought of as that movie that came out around the time of The Godfather … What was that again?
Yeah, a year earlier though and I worry people would say that Clockwork Orange should have won over it, and I really dislike Clockwork Orange (the film anyway).
That one I haven’t seen. Always intend to, but just haven’t made it happen.
Yeah, I guess you should see it because it’s one of those ‘essential films’, but I don’t like it much. Have you read the book?
I started it, I remember. I don’t think I ever finished it. It was a years ago, when I was still in college. Maybe even high school. And I don’t remember it, really, which tells me I probably never made it all the way through. Have you?
Yeah, it used to be one of my favourite books, now not so much, but it’s still a recommended read!
Great choices. Yeah that fucking bag in audition is horrible!
Cheers! Isn’t it… god that scene just got to me so badly!
Great picks, I think, since (I’m ashamed to say this) but I’ve seen none of these films!
Oh man, my top three in particular are essential viewing! You must give them a go at some point đŸ™‚
I will! đŸ™‚
Excellent list as always!
Thank you, that’s very nice to hear!
First time I’ve checked out your site Mr Rumsey, I like! Thanks for the follow.
No problem! Thank you very much, hope to see you around again soon!