Home Movie (2008)
The Moment: Though the film’s final 10 minutes are genuinely upsetting, it’s some of the weirder scenes throughout Home Movie that induce shivers as the behaviour of 10-year-old twins Jack (Austin Williams) and Emily (Amber Joy Williams) gets odder and odder.
Like the bit where they make a sandwich out of the family’s goldfish. And crucify the cat.
Why It's Great: There doesn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason to the kids’ strange behaviour.
Which, of course, makes it all the more unsettling.
84 Charlie Mopic (1989)
The Moment: In a film that championed the first-person approach long before The Blair Witch Project (though almost a decade after Cannibal Holocaust ), a moment of unexpected tenderness comes when a soldier is killed and his comrade covers his body.
Why It's Great: It offers an insight into the horrors of war, not least the reality of losing your buddies during combat.
The Magician (2005)
The Moment: In one of the film’s finest tongue-in-cheek moments, hitman Ray Shoesmith (Scott Ryan) forces a robber to hand back to the goods that he’s pinched from the film’s cameraman.
Why It's Great: It perfectly sums up the mood of Ryan’s razor-sharp mockumentary – funny, dark and more than a little bit dangerous.
Noroi: The Curse (2005)
The Moment: Kobayashi and his wife eat dinner with the strange boy who was being looked after by Junko Ishii.
After some suitably jerky camera movements, we see Kobayashi’s wife pour kerosene all over herself, then set herself on fire…
Why It's Great: It’s completely unexpected, and really, really horrible.
The Last Exorcism (2010)
The Moment: “Where’s Nell?” asks Cotton Marcus (Patrick Fabian) while questioning the thing that’s taken possession of Nell Sweetzer’s (Ashley Bell) body.
“In the fire,” she replies, before bending over backwards and snapping her fingers one by one…
Why It's Great: It’s one of the creepiest examples of possession post-Exorcist, and just about as mean as that film, too.
The Devil Inside (2012)
The Moment: David and Ben attempt to perform an exorcism on Rosalita (Bonnie Morgan), which first involves injecting her with a ‘relaxant’ that will de-contort her limbs.
Why It's Great: The sound effects of bones cracking and snapping into place is shiver-inducing in itself, even without the added possession aspect.
Also, Morgan's contortion abilities are amazing.
Harolds Going Stiff (2011)
The Moment: The two storylines in this pseudo-zombie flick collide as baseball-bat wielding vigilantes bear down on poor old Harold (Stan Rowe) and Penny (Sarah Spencer).
Why It's Great: We knew it had to come down to this, and it’s a tense moment that could potentially lead to tragedy.
Also, after watching Harold and Penny’s relationship develop, we really just want these kids to come out good in the end.
Paranormal Activity 2 (2010)
The Moment: For almost an entire minute we watch the kitchen, where nothing is happening except for Kristi (Sprague Grayden) sitting reading a magazine.
Then BOOM, every one of the kitchen cupboards bursts open of its own accord…
Why It's Great: It’s the simplest of tricks, but boy does it work.
End Of Watch (2012)
The Moment: Cops Taylor (Jake Gyllenhaal) and Mike (Michael Peña) are asked by a woman to check on her elderly mother.
When they receive no answer at the door, they break into the house and discover a pit of headless corpses…
Why It's Great: It comes right after a warm and fuzzy wedding scene (replete with Gyllenhaal and Anna Kendrick throwing some nifty shapes), which only makes it all the more shocking.
Diary Of The Dead (2007)
The Moment: “Excuse me? We have an emergency, our friend is hurt and we need help.”
A group of film students head to a hospital during a zombie plague, only to find that a doctor and a nurse have already been turned and are feasting on a dead patient.
Why It's Great: It’s a fun twist in which those who are supposed to protect us are turned into figures to be feared.
