I was wandering around on YouTube and decided to compile the top five scariest scenes from classic horror movies, and to share them with people who may be less inclined to search out these old films on their own.
It is not really accurate to call these the "scariest" scenes. There are almost no jumps or shocks to terrify you. There are scenes and films that frightened me much more (for instance, "Night of the Living Dead" didn't even make this list), and iconic scenes from more recent horror films that are more well-known and are certainly "scarier" than anything you will see here ("The Exorcist", for instance). What these scenes have in common is that their scariest moments are unnervingly quiet. They do not show gore or violence; in all but one case, they don't even show the monster itself. They are all subtle and restrained and above all cinematic. These moments are incredibly creepy without showing anything that would garner anything more than a PG rating. Most of all, these scenes are reminders that horror doesn't have to be cheap or exploitative; it can be poetic and even beautiful. The images and sounds of these five scenes are imprinted on me deeply.
#5)
Film: "Cat People" (Jacques Tourneur, 1942)
Scene: Irena stalks Alice in the swimming pool
Context: Irena may or may not be a werecat; upset that her husband is falling in love with Alice, a co-worker of his, Irena follows her rival home and decides to give her a scare while she swims a few laps before bed.
Clip: (embedding disabled; click here to watch!)
Commentary: There is no panther anywhere in this scene. The shadows on the wall were created by director Tourneur doing shadow puppets with his hand, plus a bit of cel animation. The scene is effective because of its sound effects and lighting, Jane Randolph's performance, and the perfect direction of Tourneur. The presence of the panther is terrifying and utterly convincing without showing anything at all.
#4)
Film: "Dracula" (Tod Browning, 1931)
Scene: Renfield arrives at Castle Dracula
Context: London realtor Renfield follows strict orders from a foreign count and ignores the warnings of the superstitious townsfolk and takes a mysterious carriage ride at midnight through the Borgo Pass in the Carpathian Mountains and finds himself alone, with no luggage and no driver, at the "broken battlements" of Castle Dracula...
Clip: (embedding disabled; click here to watch!)
Commentary: This opening sequence of "Dracula" more or less started the first cycle of Hollywood monster movies, and Lugosi's entrance is one of the most iconic depictions in the history of the media. But even if you think you know it ("Children of the night!", etc., etc.), check out the incredible set, the lugubrious pacing, the beautiful moving camera... the atmosphere is so distinct that it still works 70 years later.
Please also check out a longer clip; there is a slight bit of overlap, but this longer clip encompasses the whole sequence of Renfield in Castle Dracula, every bit of which is sublime. The first 8 minutes of this second clip are by far the best thing in the film, and one of my favorite sequences of any type of movie ever.
#3)
Film: "Vampyr" (Carl Th. Dreyer, 1932)
Scene: Allan Grey sees his own funeral procession
Context: Poor Allan has wandered into a town under the spell of an evil old vampire woman. In this sequence, Allan has fallen asleep (or simply is projecting astrally, or is under the spell of a vision, or something) and we see the coffin lid closed and the coffin carried out to the church yard... from the dead man's perspective.
Clip (the first 3:00 minutes of this clip is the sequence I am referring to):
Commentary: The film is not perfect, and is too symbolic and mystical at times. (There is also a great deal of reading to be done.) The film is almost completely devoid of dialogue, as this scene makes fairly clear. The grey silence and shadows are ominous enough, but this is one of the most clever and unnerving scenes I have ever seen. The fear of being buried alive is primal and unavoidable, and Dreyer exploits this with an avant-garde style that makes us experience the closing of our own coffin, forcing us into the uncomfortable perspective of staring up at the ceiling and sky as we are carted away. Dreyer makes us feel complete helplessness, without a word or a traditional "scare" of any kind.
#2)
Film: "The Leopard Man" (Jacques Tourneur, 1943)
Scene: Teresa Delgado meets the leopard
Context: There is a fairly ludicrous mystery that takes up most of the latter part of the film, but in this sequence, the young Mexican girl Teresa is trying to take a short cut home from the grocery store when she encounters a leopard that has escaped from a nightclub act...
Clip (sorry about the French subtitles...):
Commentary: Despite the direction the rest of the film goes, this short sequence itself is I think one of the most effectively directed, suspenseful, breathless, and finally horrifying set pieces in any thriller. The building fear as the leopard is revealed in the shadows and the chase lead to an incredible climax that happens behind a closed door and out of sight. Again, there is no monster and all the action happens off-screen, but the stark simplicity of the final image is gut-wrenching and leaves all the violence to the imagination. What we can picture as happening behind that door is ten times worse than anything they could ever show.
#1)
Film: "The Mummy" (Karl Freund, 1932)
Scene: Prologue ("A Little Walk")
Context: An Egyptologist and his assistant have uncovered the mummy Im-ho-tep and his tomb full of treasures, including a sacred scroll whose magical incantations carry a deadly curse. As a fellow anthropologist tries to convince his friend to take the curse seriously and not to tamper with the tomb, the young assistant becomes impatient and takes a look at the scroll himself...
Clip:
Commentary: This simple sequence is my favorite scene in any of the old Universal monster movies, or in any classic horror film, even though "The Mummy" probably isn't in my top ten. Again most of the action happens off-screen. When the light catches a glint in Karloff's eye as the mummy comes to life for the first time in 4,000 years gives me an actual chill every time. The whole scenario is just too hideous to comprehend, and the performance by the assistant is perfectly manic. He is rendered senseless by whatever he saw. The contrast between the screaming and the hideous image of the mummy's shrouds trailing him out the door with the assistant's shattered psyche and comical nonsense ("He went for a little walk!") is just too much to handle. The scene is lit, acted, and directed PERFECTLY. I believe this is what we refer to as "pure cinema". It shows just enough to light up the darkest corners of your imagination without showing so much that you are taken out of the scene. A few scenes approaches this one for off-screen horrors that make your imagination go wild (the prologue to "Murders in the Zoo", the vivisections in "The Black Cat" and "Island of Lost Souls", the crypt scene in "Bride of Frankenstein"), but none quite top this one for me.
