The scariest scene ever?

October 7th, 2008 at 09:06am Will Pfeifer

Just in time for the Halloween pre-season, The New Yorker gets its hands a bit dirtier than usual with a list of the five scariest movies of all time. It’s not surprising that there’s no mention of CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST, LAST HOUSE ON DEAD END STREET  or any other obscure bit of cinematic nastiness, but it’s a pretty good list nonetheless.

Topping things off is Tobe Hooper’s endurance-test classic THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE, followed by SILENCE OF THE LAMBS (good movie, not that scary), THE BODY SNATCHED (so-so Val Lewton movie, but not very scary) and NIGHT OF THE HUNTER (one of the great American movies, not scary — but definitely unsettling). Winding things up is maybe the best pick on the list, David Lynch’s 2000 brain-bender, MULLHOLLAND DR., which has one of the scariest scenes I’ve ever seen in a movie (and which I wrote about last year on my own non-Movie Man blog). RETROCRUSH.com called it the scariest movie scene ever, and they might be right.

Here it is. Takes place in the daylight. No blood, no guts, no violence at all. And it scares the pants off my every time I watch it. (By the way, if you’re a MAD MEN fan, you might recognize actor Patrick Fischler as comedian Jimmy Barrett. But he’s playing a whole different sort of character here.)

Entry Filed under: Horror movies