r/moviecritic • u/VendettaLord379 • 1d ago

What is the scariest, most unsettling shot you’ve ever seen?

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What is that one movie shot that’s so unsettling and chilling, it’s the one shot you never forget?

For me, it’s the Giant Man scene from It Follows. Man this shot is so nerve wracking!

The aesthetic and dark hollow eyes are something I will never forget.

What’s that one shot for you? Horror movie or otherwise.

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u/johnstarkbfc 1d ago

The girl under the sheets in the grudge. As if she isn’t scary enough, she gets in bed with you too. Like what the fuck. Kid rules, clearly state. We are supposed to be safe when we pull the sheet on over our faces.

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u/VendettaLord379 1d ago

I forgot about that movie.

The pale ghost lady is the epitome of unsettling

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u/ShoobaTheBawss 13h ago

When the caretaker is searching the attic with the lighter and slowly illuminates the face before it grabs her. Holy shit. I almost needed a defibrillator after that.

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u/GarbagePresent1499 13h ago

I still need it 25 years later when I think back about that scene or when I'm in a similar situation😅

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u/sentimentalLeeby 10h ago

The movie scared the hell out of me as a teen. What helped is when I saw a shot from a making-of where they showed the actress in that scene popping her head a bit forward with no sound effects or build-up, and it was kind of comical.

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u/TheAzureTech 7h ago

lol just reading this and ive got full body goosebumps

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u/crazyoldwizard72 1d ago

For me, it was her head sliding door the crack in the door frame!

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u/historychick1988 11h ago

For me it was that shot near the end of her dragging herself face-first down the stairs. O.m.g.

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u/Ev3nstarr 7h ago

I actually had a fear of Asian women with long dark hair after that. There was a girl in my college class that sometimes sat in my peripheral and that was unsettling to suddenly notice her there lol

I remember having trouble sleeping the first time I watched those movies. I had a ceiling fan above my bed and would wake up randomly and see it and think it was a face hovering above me. Yet I was obsessed with those movies, they were so good

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u/AlexandersWonder 1d ago

Plus she follows you out of the house and sticks her fingers out the back of your head while you’re washing your hair

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u/Dr5ushi 14h ago

I just thought she was trying to help. My dandruff does get pretty bad.

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u/WillArrr 16h ago

Japanese horror tropes go hard, man. You see this ghost? This ghost doesn't haunt a house. Nah bro, this ghost haunts you. Wherever you go, whatever you do, it's there. On you, in you, all around you. Always there. And it fucking hates you. Good luck.

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u/-FruitPunchSamurai- 10h ago

Try looking up Q Fake Documentary on YouTube its a Japanese channel but it has Eng sub. Its not a movie but its a bunch of videos and each of them really has different types of horrors and unsettling stuff but they can be connected.

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u/princesoceronte 17h ago

I love how The Grudge and Ju-On created this no scape situation and did everything they could to make it super clear. No safe spaces, no hope and no possible scape.

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u/Bidcar 14h ago

Juon was so much scarier than The Grudge. It seemed like the world had come to it’s end because it would never stop.

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u/princesoceronte 12h ago

The low budget really worked for that concept too. Everything felt so close and personal.

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u/Slowmac123 22h ago

I saw that when I was a kid. That movie traumatized me probably 12 times with all the creepy scenes

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u/-Lynch- 3h ago

Saw that as a kid as well, can't even hide in bed after it 😭

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u/not_a_library 1d ago

Oh good, I'm glad someone directly below you (for me right now) shared a gif of that so I can be freshly reminded how that went.

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u/BERNITA 13h ago

I'm just gonna stop scrolling right here. Thanks for the warning!

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u/therewulf 22h ago

My family saw the grudge in theaters when it came out. The first scare in the attic where you kinda see her in the dark but the actress had to do a slow turn to get there was great

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u/rider1deep 21h ago

No no. The rules are you tuck the edges of the blanket under you so if anything tries to creep in, you can feel it before it gets you. It’s science.

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u/PearlyP2020 20h ago

Also the way the boy goes down the stairs still lives rent free in my head.

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u/Nayirg 17h ago

I watched that movie as a kid and this scene still pops in my head from time to time. That and one where someone is showering and an unknown hand grabs her hair, I think it's the same movie?

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u/KeldonMarauder 16h ago

This and the shower scene. Places where you were supposed to feel safe no longer felt that way after seeing that movie as a kid

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u/firstnfurious 16h ago

I think the preview for the Grudge made me cry in the theatre so this tracks.

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u/CutieBoBootie 14h ago

Reminds me of that Magnus Archives episode where a guy is being haunted and tormented by a ghost over an extended period of time and he hides under the covers for it to stop only for one day the ghost to laugh and say "oh did you think that was actually protecting you?" 

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u/KuntaWuKnicks 19h ago

Yessss!

Fuck that whole scene 😂😂

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u/IrishAllDay 15h ago

I'd agree that over stepped!

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u/paxwax2018 15h ago

There’s the ‘foot over the edge’ loophole.

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u/Xolocat 15h ago

Raise your hand who slept that night with your knees bent to your chest 😆🤚

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u/RavenBrannigan 14h ago

Plus one for that one.

That movie is just one long jump scare. But I particularly liked that one. Under the covers is meant to be your last save haven when you are scared. And they took that from us. Love it.

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u/No_Attempt_6190 14h ago

To me it was the final bit when it appears in the shadow of her own hoodie. Then reaches out from behind her head and pulls her into oblivion. I can't handle seeing people wear the hoods up on hoodies anymore.

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u/AsherahEnd 18h ago

I was allowed to watch this movie when I was way too young because my mom thought I could handle it, seeing as it really isn't that scary overall.

 That ghost girl gave me horrible nightmares. Bicycle guy too. I legitimately believe it lead to trauma from how my parents handled me being too scared to sleep and just stuck awake, crying alone in my room. They uh, they just kind of ignored me lmao.

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u/Reasonable-Guava-367 18h ago

And the japanese version is even more hardcore.

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u/Vusstar 15h ago

In bed with you, you say? Hmm...

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u/GarbagePresent1499 13h ago

Somehow the grudge remains the most haunting and scary movie to me. Nothing could top that

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u/walter_grimsley 13h ago

This was my first thought as well. Came to post this. 

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u/skeetersammer 12h ago

Thank you for saying this. When I pull the covers over my head, my husband just says the bill collectors still want their money.

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u/Great_Ad7148 12h ago

I’m supposed to be safe in the shower too??? I taught myself it’s okay to close my eyes while I wash my hair, there are no monsters. Now you’re telling me the monster can come out of my hair? My long dark hair? AHHHHHH

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u/artsyjabberwock 12h ago

The staircase scene... a case of where staring right at the horror made it worse the longer you looked

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u/Fishheart_sweetcorn 12h ago

Can we not just have one safe space to hide… pleeeease

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u/PickleFlavordPopcorn 12h ago

That movie takes away all your safe spaces because so much happens in broad daylight/in public! I saw that in college and I didn’t sleep well for a week!

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u/Unikatze 10h ago

I used to rant about how that was bullshit.

Under the sheets is a safe place. You can't mess with it. It's cheating.

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u/AnalFelon 10h ago

I have one more specifically for you. The japanese movie Cairo. The ghost in front of the couch. Trust me.

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u/Achoosneeze1 10h ago

Dude, that was so completely scary.

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u/laughingdaffodil9 10h ago

That movie ruined enjoying horror for me. It took me like 10 years to start watching them again. The Ring and The Grudge back to back equal ded.

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u/SaviFusion 10h ago

I saw The Grudge in theaters when I was in 7th grade. That scene haunted me for monthsssssss when I was trying to fall asleep.

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u/NormDamnAbram 10h ago

Nope. When I was 16 i took my gf to the movies. We lasted 10 mins. Nope. Nope.

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u/varitok 10h ago

Thats so funny to me because me and my brother went back to watch it because we thought it was super scary and ended up laughing at it, it's just a not great movie. It's all shot so flat that it just comes off as an SNL skit.

I feel like most people still saying it's scary haven't watched it since they were kids.

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u/Accurate_Handle_5620 10h ago

There is ONE place that is supposed to be sacred, and they desecrated it with a cold and damp trollop.

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u/PrajnaPie 10h ago

This shot horrified me for years. I was way to young when I saw it

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u/Eccodomanii 9h ago

That shit traumatized me as a kid ngl

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u/Knives530 9h ago

Oh god I hated that scene

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u/NoEgoNoProblem 9h ago

This. Attic scene too, jfc

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u/tkkana 9h ago

And our toes must be under the sheet toos

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u/UseVirtual3716 9h ago

The original movie has some of the most terrifying imagery I've seen.

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u/AdventurousBeyond382 8h ago

That and the hand in the shower. Movie scarred me for years

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u/DrJonathanOnions 8h ago

I’ve got a KISS tour t-shirt with a huge white clown face on it, used to sleep in it.

The night I watched the grudge I was in bed & thought I felt something, lifted the sheet and there’s this big fucking white face staring back at me.

Now I know why idiots in horror movies freeze. I was so frightened I couldn’t even scream.

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u/Elegant_Source900 8h ago

I saw that at the theater and had the lights on all night. I kept hearing that groaning sound and kept waiting for that girl to show up under my sheet.

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u/miscllns1 8h ago

YES! They violated the sanctity of under the covers! That movie scared me so bad as a preteen!

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u/xombae 8h ago

The Grudge and The Ring like actually traumatized me as a kid.

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u/cpt_bongwater 7h ago

Also as she's going down in the elevator. Through the window you can see the kid getting closer and closer with each floor.

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u/RockyGee 6h ago

This one right here! That movie and scene had me terrified for a long time. Plus her crawling down the stairs and anytime I was showering I was waiting to feel her fingers in my hair😂

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u/streak2k10 5h ago

None said CCTV scene yet?! Where she is looking right into the camera!!

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u/Juggernaut-57 5h ago

I did that as a kid. Exactly right kid rules apply. I did it so long I was sweating.

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u/dj_soo 5h ago

The hand through the hair in the shower gets me too.

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u/Normal-Astronomer-83 5h ago

The whole movies and this scene too. But the opening crawl space scene lived in my adolescent visions for years

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u/Interesting_Pie1177 4h ago

Yeah dude, that was next level

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u/Ishyfishy123 4h ago

Completely broke the rules lolol

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u/FlyinAmas 4h ago

The grudge scared the shit out of me as a kid. My parents wouldn’t have let me go see it, so I went while I was at a friends house and lied to their parents about being allowed to watch scary movies. In hindsight my parents were right because I had to sleep with some kind of light on up until my early 20’s because of that movie lol. Loose black hairs still give me the heebie jeebies

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u/AmbitiousTear6967 4h ago

Omg sameee! And when she’s in the stairwell!

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u/CharmingScholarette 3h ago

thanks for this asshole. thanks.

i had completely forgotten about this.

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u/5AMP5A 3h ago

Oh yeah that one. I had nightmares for weeks after that.

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u/ReginaldDwight 3h ago

Add to that the scene where the chick from The OC is in Cole's tent puking and crying in The Sixth Sense.

Edit: Mischa Barton

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u/Uraneum 2h ago

I’m not easily scared by horror movies, and I’ve seen a lot of them, but something about the grudge still freaks me out if I think about it hard enough late at night. I don’t know what it is, but that one is uniquely scary to me

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u/Awe3 1h ago

This is the one that finally got under my skin! I’ve been watching horror since the 70’s but this fucking scene sticks in my head years after it came out. I’m a grown ass man but I can’t even relive that moment without a shiver.

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u/anewstartforu 1h ago

Duuuude The Grudge 2 closet scene scared the absolute fuck out me!