Scary movie moments – 50 terrifying film scenes

Time Out's film team unearths the scariest scenes in cinema history

If we were the British Board of Film Classification, we’d probably have to award this feature an 18. No, scrap that, an X rating. Because here, as the dark cloud of Halloween descends, we select some of the scenes that have made us cower in our boots, dash for the exit sign and – in the case of ‘Guest House Paradiso’ – weep for the very future of humankind.

Terrifying scenes are a tough one to nail, as (most of) the moments we collect here are only terrifying in the context of the film as a whole. Some are on here for personal reasons (‘Who Framed Roger Rabbit’, ‘The Vanishing’), some constitute lesser-known moments (‘Profound Desires of the Gods’) and some are simply chilling classics which no list of this nature should be without (‘Jaws’, ‘The Exorcist’). So explore away, and if we’ve missed them, let us know your terrifying moments in the comments box below.

WARNING: The scariest scenes of these movies often tend to take place at the end. Some of the following entries contain major spoilers – we’ve flagged them up, but we urge readers to proceed with caution.

By Dave Calhoun, Tom Huddleston, David Jenkins, Adam Lee Davies, Derek Adams

The list at a glance

Email Tweet Share

Share your thoughts

Name (will appear on the site) *
Email (will not appear on the site) *
Enter text...
Tick to receive relevant updates from Time Out including news, events, offers and competitions.