Top 10 movie frights

A great fright is that point in a movie where you literally jump out of your seat. The audience screams. Your date digs his or her fingernails into your arm. Your heart-rate skyrockets.

A fright is different from a scary scene. A scary scene may run several minutes or more. A fright takes place in a few seconds.

A cheap fright might have a bird flying out of a tree, a cat screeching and running out of a closet, or a murderer suddenly appearing directly behind his next victim. They are moments that seem to come out of nowhere. A director works hard developing a great fright, the way a magician works developing a great trick. The best tools are misdirection and patience and the finest of them are demonstrations of great technique.

These 10 are the best ever, and no one who has seen them, has ever forgotten them.

10. ‘Lair of the White Worm’ (1988)
What red-blooded American man doesn’t dream of sexual favors of the oral variety from a beautiful woman way out of his league? This forms the basis for the fright in the twisted mind of director Ken (“Altered States”) Russell. “White Worm” is based on the Bram Stoker novel of the same name — a tale of a beautiful vampire (Amanda Donohoe). When an unsuspecting young boy is lured into her hot tub for what seems to be an evening of ecstasy, and her head disappears below the surface of the water, a fantasy turns into a horror very quickly.

9. ‘Carrie’ (1976)

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Director Brian (“The Black Dahlia”) De Palma has always been a huge fan of Alfred Hitchcock. In fact, he used some of the very same horror cues in “Carrie” that Hitchcock used in “Psycho”. De Palma builds the story slowly, following Carrie White (Sissy Spacek) through an awkward time during high school where she’s teased and ridiculed. This activates Carrie’s telekinetic powers and she eventually does away with her tormentors. When Sue Snell (Amy Irving) goes to visit Carrie at the site of her demise, De Palma sets the audience up with melodramatic, sappy music. Sue puts her flowers down at Carrie’s grave and Sue and the audience get the sudden shocker when that hand bursts through the ground.

8. ‘Se7en’ (1995)
Detectives Mills (Brad Pitt) and Somerset (Morgan Freeman) charge up the stairs of a building. They break down the door of an apartment belonging to a possible murder suspect. As they make their way through the place, which has some conspicuous air fresheners hanging from the ceiling, they finally come to a bed. They pull the sheets off to reveal what looks like a rotting corpse. As Somerset and Mills contemplate the punishment for sloth, an accompanying cop sticks his face too close to the body. He discovers by a shocking exhale that the corpse is alive.

7. ‘Don’t Look Now’ (1973)
This film sets up a sense of menace from the beginning. When the daughter of John and Laura Baxter (Donald Sutherland, Julie Christie) drowns it provides a dual sense of tragedy and doom. The couple move to Venice where Laura consults psychics who convince her they can speak to her dead daughter. John, the rationalist, refuses to believe them. Then he catches glimpses of a small person running through the city wearing what seems to be the same red overcoat his daughter wore when she drowned. John pursues the figure, finally cornering it in a dark, isolated section of the city. When that figure finally turns around, after all director Nicolas Roeg has put the audience through, it’s a psychological shock of the highest caliber.

6. ‘Alien’ (1979)
Some may remember this film’s heart-stopper as occurring early in the film. In fact, it takes almost an hour before the alien explodes from Kane’s (John Hurt) stomach. What makes the scene so mind-blowing is how director Ridley Scott sets up his audience. For one thing, the film opens with a shot of Kane. In most movies, this leads the audience to believe they’re watching the main character who isn’t suddenly going to die. However, it’s really the soundscape — the low humming of the ship — along with the sense of isolation and the barely tolerant relationship among the crew that sets us up for the moment where everything changes in a violent, bloody explosion, and the alien is released on the ship.

5. ‘Poltergeist’ (1982)
“Texas Chainsaw Massacre” earned director Tobe Hooper a cult following in the horror genre. “Poltergeist” only widened that fanbase. A creepy clown doll sits in Robbie’s (Oliver Robins) room and he can’t help but be freaked out by the creature’s disturbing grin. But it’s not until the end that the clown comes into play, after everything seems normal and Carol Anne (Heather O'Rourke) has been rescued. Robbie wakes up and the clown is gone. Hooper ratchets up the tension by having Robbie look on one side of the bed, then under the other side by quickly yanking up the sheets. When Robbie straightens back up, the clown is behind him, and if there’s anybody more scared that he is, it’s the audience.

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