31 Days of Creepy Scenes, #1: The Dance

They've given us nightmares, given us chills, made us cringe, made us laugh, made us gag, and made us stare at the screen in awe: these are the scenes that pop into our minds when we think of great Horror Films, and we love them all.

*We recommend that if you've never seen these scenes before, that you experience them for the first time unspoiled in the movies that they come from, if you can. With that in mind, we'll try to be as spoiler-free as possible while discussing them; try, being the key word here.

On the last day of our month-long celebration of 31 Creepy Scenes from 31 movies that we love to death, we figure that Leatherface was as a good of a choice as any to close things out with.

Long before Freddy, Jason, and Michael ever came to be, there was Leatherface. In 1974, Tobe Hooper's iconic, dead skin mask-wearing, chainsaw wielding, simpleton cannibal took the world by storm; the modestly budgeted Texas Chainsaw Massacre went on to shock moviegoers while making $30 million at the Box Office, which was huge for the time. Four decades, and a countless number of VHS/DVD/Blu-ray sales/rentals later, and that movie is a piece of Americana.

As for Leatherface, well he's one of the biggest Horror Icons of  all time. 

TCM relied more on imagery and suggestion than it did blood to horrify audiences, and Leatherface was the main reason that it was so effective. From the first moment he appeared on screen, he inspired fear and dread, in both his victims, and those who watched them meet their fates. Whether squealing like a pig, bludgeoning someone, chasing someone with a chainsaw, angrily slamming doors, or licking his lips, Leatherface captivated us, in the worst way possible.

His most memorable moment -and that's totally debatable- come at the end of the movie, when he realizes that the pretty girl was getting away, and he couldn't stop her.



The reason that Leatherface's dance has always stuck in our mind as sharply as it has, is because what the hell is he doing? Sure, he's pissed off that Sally got away, but seeing him dance around like that with his chainsaw always felt more like something he did because he was insane. Angry and feeble-minded, sure, but bat-shit insane.

What a disturbing, jolting way to end a movie. Bravo, Tobe.

31 Days of Creepy Scenes, #2: "The Boy, Jason."

They've given us nightmares, given us chills, made us cringe, made us laugh, made us gag, and made us stare at the screen in awe: these are the scenes that pop into our minds when we think of great Horror Films, and we love them all.

*We recommend that if you've never seen these scenes before, that you experience them for the first time unspoiled in the movies that they come from, if you can. With that in mind, we'll try to be as spoiler-free as possible while discussing them; try, being the key word here.

We can't really talk about great scenes from Horror movies and not include Friday The 13th, at least once. The beloved slasher series has made us jump plenty of times over the years, but to be fair, it was really only the earlier movies that ever truly "scared" us; as the series progressed, the F13th movies became more fun than they were scary.

There are a few F13th scenes that we could choose from that would all be equally creepy or classic; either one of Mrs. Voorhees' beheading, or Jason crashing through the window onto Amy Steele in F13th Part 2, would work just fine, but neither of those can ever top the ending of the first movie.

After surviving the killing spree of Mrs. Voorhees, Final Girl Alice gets into a boat and floats to the middle of Crystal Lake, I guess figuring that nothing can hurt her way out there. Soft, relaxing music begins to play, and Alice gently strokes the water, and all seems to be well... until Baby Jason Corpse strikes!


Throughout all of Horror movie history, there are very few scenes as striking and memorable as this one is. Not only does it provide an totally unexpected shock to end the first movie on, but it also sets up the sequels, which we all know gave birth to one of Horror's all-time iconic bad guys.

34 years later, Friday the 13th is still a seminal Horror movie, and an excellent (and fitting) part of any Horror movie marathon.

31 Days of Creepy Scenes, #3: Mater Suspiriorum

They've given us nightmares, given us chills, made us cringe, made us laugh, made us gag, and made us stare at the screen in awe: these are the scenes that pop into our minds when we think of great Horror Films, and we love them all.

*We recommend that if you've never seen these scenes before, that you experience them for the first time unspoiled in the movies that they come from, if you can. With that in mind, we'll try to be as spoiler-free as possible while discussing them; try, being the key word here.

.. or more precisely, "The Wrath of Mater Suspiriorum." That was just too long of a title to type into that little banner up there though.

Suspiria is one of Dario Argento's greatest films, and many would even say it's THE greatest. All ranking debates aside, Suspiria is one hell of an effort that uses color to help tell its story better than any movie that we've ever seen. The movie is a clinic in how to use reds, blues, and greens to maximum effectiveness.

Suspiria is the story of a young foreign exchange student who arrives at a prestigious ballet academy in Germany, only to find that it's run by a coven of witches. When one of the students, Pat Hingle (?!?) is expelled from the academy, she takes refuge at a friends apartment, terrified that the witches are going to find her and kill her. At the behest of Helena Markos (either directly or indirectly), they do find her, and the video below reveals the fate of both Pat and her friend.

*Helena Markos aka Mater Suspiriorum (The Mother of Sighs) is the head witch of the coven, and the most powerful of the Three Mothers; the others are Mater Tenebrarum (from the movie Inferno), and Mater Lachrymarum (from The Mother of Tears.) Each film is a part of Dario Argento's Three Mothers Trilogy.


There was nobody, NOBODY, doing death scenes like that in the U.S. (or the World, for that matter) in the 70's... unless their name was Dario Argento. Elaborate, gorgeous, and stomach-turning, that sequence is still to this day one of the greatest things ever captured on film.

When it comes to 70's & 80's Horror, it's really hard to beat the work of Dario Argento; no one combined atmosphere, gore, and visual acumen as well as he did. If you've never seen Suspiria, you're missing out on a true genre classic, and even though it's the best of the Three Mothers Trilogy, Inferno and Mother of Tears are also worth a look. In fact, watching all three back to back makes for one hell of a movie marathon. 

Read our Full review of Inferno here.
Read our Full review of Mother of Tears here.

31 Days of Creepy Scenes, #4: Boom, Headshot #2

They've given us nightmares, given us chills, made us cringe, made us laugh, made us gag, and made us stare at the screen in awe: these are the scenes that pop into our minds when we think of great Horror Films, and we love them all.

*We recommend that if you've never seen these scenes before, that you experience them for the first time unspoiled in the movies that they come from, if you can. With that in mind, we'll try to be as spoiler-free as possible while discussing them; try, being the key word here.

There are plenty of Horror movies that offer great scenes where heads are blown off in grand fashion (Planet Terror, Dawn of the Dead, The New York Ripper, just about every zombie movie ever made, etc...), and yes, most of them defy logistic/ballistic reality, but they absolutely do make for some great WTF!?! movie moments.

We already highlighted a little girl getting getting her forehead removed via pistol In The Beyond (our #6 scene), but this headshot scene from Maniac (1980) is just as special to us.

Maniac is a nasty little movie which has always remained one of our favorites because of one reason; Joe Spinell; The Godfather I & II, Rocky I & II, Nighthawks... Spinell played some great roles in some CLASSIC movies, and thus he played a big part in our cinematic childhood. Not to mention that the guy's performance in this movie is inspired, to say the least.

Maniac is the story of a serial killer who scalps his female victims, all because he can't find true love... or something like that. As likable of a guy as Joe Spinell is, he also plays "insane" extremely well, and both of those qualities make his turn here, as the creepy maniac Frank Zito, a truly memorable one.

The scene in question here is the one in which Tom Savini (the all-time great makeup/FX guy) and some girl are parked near the Verranzano Bridge in Brooklyn, trying to get it on, when Frank shows up, shotgun in hand.


Yes, parts of that scene play a bit "80's cheesy" but its still effective as hell. It's interesting to note that the scene looks darker because it was lit entirely by the car's actual headlights, which may be a part of the reason that it is so effective. Back then, this scene was shocking. It still is.

If you love slasher flicks, then Maniac is one 80's classic that you have to see. It's far more sinister and disturbing than most of the slashers of that day were, and it's a nice change of pace from the standard "Masked killer stalks a bunch of bawdy teens on Arbor Day" fare. *Not that we don't love those too.

31 Days of Creepy Scenes, #5: The Raft Massacre

They've given us nightmares, given us chills, made us cringe, made us laugh, made us gag, and made us stare at the screen in awe: these are the scenes that pop into our minds when we think of great Horror Films, and we love them all.

*We recommend that if you've never seen these scenes before, that you experience them for the first time unspoiled in the movies that they come from, if you can. With that in mind, we'll try to be as spoiler-free as possible while discussing them; try, being the key word here.

The Burning is another great (but lesser-known) slasher flick from the early 80's, which is more noteworthy than most others of its kind, for a few different reasons: it's the first movie ever produced/written by Harvey & Bob Weinstein, who went on to become mega-moguls in Hollywood; it's the first movie that Jason Alexander and Holly Hunter ever starred in; and it boasts one of the coolest massacre scenes of any Horror movie, ever.

The Burning is the story of a bunch of camp counselors being bumped off one by one, by a disfigured maniac whom they pissed off... yes, it sounds awfully similar to the plot of every Jason Voorhees movie of the 80's, but this one was technically released a few months before F13th Part 2 was, so lets not call it a "direct" ripoff... and for the record, people flocked to see F13th Part 2 instead of The Burning, because the first F13th was such a hit.

Anywho, of all the kill scenes in The Burning, there are none as satisfying, shocking, and infamous, as is the raft massacre scene.


Of course when The Burning was released way back in 1981, the MPAA censored the hell out of the movie, which made the impact of the raft scene almost zero. It felt neutered. The Burning is a really solid movie, and it's a shame that it fell victim to censorship in a time when the moral majority was so out of control; they show worse things every Sunday night on our TV's now, like The Walking Dead

At least now, Horror fans can see the entire movie (and the awesome raft scene) fully uncut and unedited, in full 1080p glory. It only took 30+ years to get there, but, hey, it's progress? *The Uncut DVD was released back in 2007, so for that non-1080p version of the movie, it only took 26 years. Even more progress!

*Fun Fact: The 2011 documentary Cropsey is about the actual New York State urban legend that The Burning based its killer off of.

31 Days of Creepy Scenes, #6: Boom, Headshot

They've given us nightmares, given us chills, made us cringe, made us laugh, made us gag, and made us stare at the screen in awe: these are the scenes that pop into our minds when we think of great Horror Films, and we love them all.

*We recommend that if you've never seen these scenes before, that you experience them for the first time unspoiled in the movies that they come from, if you can. With that in mind, we'll try to be as spoiler-free as possible while discussing them; try, being the key word here.

Another day, another Lucio Fulci Movie!

After Zombie (1979), Lucio fulci went on a bit of a zombie kick with his films: In 1980, he released City of the Living Dead; and in 1981, it was The Beyond and The House by the Cemetery. These three films, though not exactly related to one another, made up what many consider to be his unofficial "Gates of Hell Trilogy."

Each of the movie was fantastic in their own right, and all of them boasted some classic scenes, but it may be the headshot scene from The Beyond that was the best of them all.

In the film, our heroes are doing their best to survive the onslaught of hordes of (very slow moving) zombies, when they find themselves in the morgue. Out of nowhere, the little girl they are traveling with suddenly becomes possessed, and attacks Liza...


...and gets her little red dome blown off.

The headshot happens so quick, and feels so random, that you just can't help but be shocked by it. It's also funny to note that the guy who shoots her in the head with a perfect shot, spends most of his time shooting the undead in their midsections, to no effect whatsoever. Maybe he finally got wise all of a sudden?

The Beyond makes no sense at times, and feels all kinds of random throughout, but it' scenes like this that make it one hell of a compelling watch. It's definitely one of Fulci's best, and one that every Horror lover should see.