Top 10 movie frights

4. ‘The Thing’ (1982)
There are at least two scenes in director John (“Halloween”) Carpenter’s “The Thing” that could make this list. The most wonderfully rendered one happens when MacReady (Kurt Russell) has everyone tied down to do blood tests. It’s not so much that touching the blood with the hot needle sends it rocketing into the air. It’s how Carpenter so deftly lulls the audience by distracting us in several different ways. We don’t expect the reaction on the Petri dish because Childs (Keith David) is suspicious of MacReady, making him a suspect. Garry (Donald Moffat) seems a certain monster since he’s the only one who had access to the clean blood that was destroyed. Like a great magic trick, the audience’s attention is elsewhere when the hot wire touches Palmer’s (David Clennon) blood and we’re sent jumping right out of our shoes.

3. ‘The Exorcist III’ (1990)
As directed by “Exorcist” novelist William Peter Blatty, “The Exorcist III” is a film that takes its time building a sense of dread in regards to Lt. Bill Kinderman’s (George C. Scott) investigation of a series of gruesome murders. The movie’s most frightening moment occurs in a hospital as a nurse investigates some suspicious noises. Blatty goes incredibly far to maximize the impact of the scene by staffing the nurse’s station with two policeman, making the audience feel safe, and including a frightful distraction early on. The scene ends, after several agonizing minutes, with our first view of the killer, charging across the hallway with a pair of huge, menacing scissors. The timing is exquisite and the result pulse-pounding.

2. ‘Jaws’ (1975)
The best true fright of “Jaws” occurs when Chief Brody (Roy Scheider) and marine biologist Matt Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss) go out in the middle of the night to do a little research. They happen upon an abandoned boat and despite the threat, Hooper dons his scuba gear and jumps in — a rather nerve-racking occurrence given there’s a man-eating shark in the water somewhere. He examines underneath the boat with his flashlight and finds a hole. He can’t see a thing. At first he finds just a tooth. Then he shines his light back into the hole. Suddenly, a head missing an eye pops into view. The scene is a brilliant set-up from director Steven Spielberg.

1. ‘Psycho’ (1960)
While the famous shower scene may no longer seem all that frightening to modern audiences, imagine being in the theater for it. It still stands as one of the greatest uses of misdirection in film. Nothing like it had ever happened before. Director Alfred Hitchcock follows Marion Crane (Janet Leigh) for 47 minutes before she dies, leading one to assume she’s the character we’ll follow through the movie. When she pulls into the Bates Motel and meets the creepy, but seemingly harmless Norman (Anthony Perkins), it’s not remotely clear what’s going on. After all, Hitchcock has purposefully set up an entire plot involving Marion’s difficult love affair and $40,000 of stolen money. Then, as she’s taking a shower, that door opens, the curtain is pulled back, the knife is revealed, and Bernard Herrmann’s score jolts us.

Jason Katzman is co-creator and writer for Shadowculture's Mr. Cranky. Jason Katzman can be reached at .

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