Obligatory Halloween post: My top 10 favorite scary movie moments

Happy Halloween everybody. I would be remiss if I didn't do some kind of scary movie post to commemorate this day. I've already done a post on my favorite horror genre films of all time -- which I would also certainly update to include It Follows now, so I thought I'd try something a little different.

Just off the top of my head I thought I'd countdown the 10 scariest horror movie moments for me. These are all scenes that even though I can safely say I can see coming (because I've seen these movies several times) they still always have an impact on me.

Sometimes a horror movie is more about mood, more than any one scene. But some of the films of the genre also have these images that haunt your dreams and, in some cases, produce nightmares. Here are some of those scenes.

The Conjuring's creepiest basement ever - This 2013 haunted house masterpiece has a lot of horrific set pieces -- the clapping game comes to mind -- but the most sustained series of shocks comes during a sequence where the floor gives way under Vera Farmiga's paranormal investigator and she winds crashing down into a darkly lit basement where she is besieged by some truly aggressive demons. The basement has always been a boon for scary movies -- but this may the best use of one.

Buried alive in The Vanishing - SPOILER ALERT, this Dutch-French film is less of a straight horror film than almost a documentary-style look at a particularly sadistic serial killer. After his girlfriend is abducted and disappears, the hero of this film obsessively tries find out what happened to her and eventually the man who kidnapped her agrees to walk him through the paces. This seriously creepy journey leads to the protagonist waking up in a coffin deep underground, which is one of my biggest fears, if albeit, an irrational one.

The tall man shows up in It Follows - My enthusiasm for this film is pretty boundless, and one of the things I really admire about it is how it doesn't necessarily present its scares in the same typical fashion. In other words, it can be daylight, and "it" will still follow you. The sequence that really got me is a moment where you think you're about to get a dose of relief, when a tall man -- who has hollowed out eyes -- appears and steps into a room. It's all about the timing and camera work in this movie.


The Thing blood test - This John Carpenter classic has some eye-popping visuals and practical special effects that still hold up, but one of the best bits occurs when Kurt Russell's bad ass hero straps down the other men that are stuck in a snowboard science lab to test their blood to make sure they aren't infected with the gnarly virus that turns people into flesh eating monsters. One by one Russell dips a metal needle into a a little dish, and mayhem ensues. Both claustrophobic and tense at the same time. This is how gore can be used effectively.

Sleepaway Camp ending - This 1983 film is not just bizarre, its's laughable at times. But underneath some of the bad acting and cheesy scares, is a pretty disturbing movie. And the last scene, which ends in a chilling freeze fame, is genuinely terrifying. This movie was recommended to me years ago and I became sort of obsessed with it. The sequels are trash, stick with the original, which will have you wanting to re-watch it all over again once the twisting ending is revealed.

Dinner table scene in Texas Chainsaw Massacre - One of my biggest fears is being trapped in a backwoods sort of environment without modern amenities, so this 1974 classic has always been unsettling to me. By the time the heroine of this film is forced to endured a particularly grotesque and creepy dinner party, most of the other protagonists have already been killed and there is a kind of brutal oppressiveness that sets in, which is rare in horror movies. You truly aren't sure if everything is going to be OK. I get a little nauseous just thinking about it.

Halloween

The lights cut out in Silence of the Lambs - Plenty of scary movies have used the clever trope of cutting out the lights amid the action to put the movie theater audience on edge and in the moment (most recently Don't Breathe used this effectively). But the best example in my memory is during the climax of Silence of the Lambs, when Jodie Foster's Clarice Starling is about to rescue Buffalo Bill's would be victim, and he switches off the power. There are an unsettling couple of seconds and then the night vision of the killer comes on and we cringe as he gets ever so much closer to her.

Michael Myers' relentless attack in Halloween - Part of the fun of this 1978 classic is that Michael Myers, the psychotic killer, has an almost supernatural ability to recover from injury and a relentless determination to kill. The most terrifying sequence in the film is during his pursuit of Jamie Lee Curtis' lead character. She hides in a closet and Myers begins to bust through the door. She is totally helpless and has nowhere to go -- that scene always gets me. Especially when you know there are also young kids in the house that she's babysitting.

The head spin in The Exorcist - There are so many great, visceral scares in this movie. It is still one of the most purely shocking movies that I have ever seen. The best moment, and one of the most creative, was the head spinning scene. We have seen the possessed girl movie a million times now, but this one has never been topped, and the sheer perverseness of that shot and how terribly real it appears to be. The brilliance of this movie is its realism and practicality.

The thousand-yard stare in The Shining - I have made no secret about the fact that this is my favorite film of all time -- its secrets and mysteries make it immanently watchable and rewarding in new and different ways every time I see it. It eschews traditional scares for far more dreamlike creepiness, which is far more troubling to me. To me, the most chilling shot in the whole thing is just one long take on Jack Nicholson's unblinking, demented face. It's not just one of my favorite shots of all time -- but it also feels like if there is a devil, this is what he looks like.