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19 SAPPHIRE AND STEEL
THE MAN WITH NO FACE
If you're too young to have seen Sapphire And Steel when it was broadcast (between 1979-1982) then you'll just have to take our word for it: it was possibly the spookiest British TV series of all time. David McCallum and Joanna Lumley starred as two enigmatic agents investigating rents in the fabric of time, powerful forces "breaking through". In the fourth adventure in the series, they came up against an evil “shape” able to exist within any photo ever taken, and to trap people within old photographs. In the chilling episode one cliffhanger, Sapphire And Steel question a woman about her landlord. She's baffled to realise that she can't remember what he looks like. The reason why soon becomes clear, as the front door swings open to reveal a business-suited man with a smooth, blank, featureless face...
18 SE7EN
SLOTH WAKES UP
As detectives Somerset and Mills enter the lair of John Doe’s latest victim, they see a gruesome corpse on the bed handcuffed to the bedposts. So this is “Sloth”, they think. The sunken cheekbones, the hollowed out eyes: this guy has been dead for weeks, they think. As a policeman kneels over the scar-strewn corspe it suddenly splutters to life. He’s alive! Writhing and spluttering like some sci-fi monster it’s possibly one of the most gruesome concept ever in a mainstream drama; a man on the threshold between life and death.
17 INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS
SUTHERLAND’S DREAM
Anyone who had seen the 1950's original must have thought they knew what was coming in this ’70s remake. Aliens have taken over most of San Francisco’s population and Matthew Bennell (Donald Sutherland) and Liz Driscoll (Brooke Adams) are trying to escape. So we know that Bennell will get away unharmed, right? Wrong. When Nancy (Veronica Cartwright) approaches Matthew after being briefly separated he turns around and, in an uncanny impersonation of Munch’s The Scream, lets out a high-pitched alien yelp. They’ve got ’im! And there isn’t even any music at the end. Neat.
16 SUSPIRIA
THE MURDER OF PAT
An astonishing set piece by Italian horror auteur Dario Argento, shockingly violent but so skilfully composed that it attains a kind of savage beauty. Having run away from her ballet school for reasons that become clear later (it's run by witches!), Pat goes to stay in a friend's apartment. Looking out of the window, she's shocked to suddenly see a pair of faceless eyes. An arm smashes through the window and forces her face through the glass. An unseen assailant then repeatedly stabs Pat; in one close-up we see the knife thrust into her exposed, beating heart. The attacker ties a cord around the girl's neck, and drops her through an art deco skylight. As the camera pans down her dangling body, we see her friend lying dead on the floor, impaled by a fragment of fallen debris...
15 THE TWILIGHT ZONE: THE MOVIE
"WANNA SEE SOMETHING REALLY SCARY?"
20 years on from the 1960’s TV series, Hollywood’s top A-list directors paid tribute in this big-budget feature film. The scariest moment comes from the film’s prologue, which was written and directed by An American Werewolf In London’s John Landis (hail to the king). Albert Brooks plays the guy who picks up hitchhiker Dan Aykroyd. They start shootin’ the breeze, talking about TV theme tunes and stuff. The Twilight Zone is mentioned and they start chatting about old episodes. Then Aykroyd asks, “Hey, do you wanna see something really scary?”, hides his face and reappears as a screeching monster. Argh! Cue music.
14 THE EXORCIST 3
NURSE’S DECAPITATION
In William Peter Blatty’s superb Exorcist sequel a killer is on the loose in a hospital. Their gruesome modus operandi involves lopping their victims' heads off and replacing them with heads removed from statues of Christ. This perfectly-timed, suspenseful sequence focuses, for most of the time, on a nurse's station, viewed from the far end of a hospital corridor. You just know something horrible's gonna happen, but not what or when... Hearing a noise, the nurse walks through a door to investigate. Locking the door behind her as she returns she walks confidently across the corridor... and the camera crash zooms as, behind her, out marches a sinister white-robed figure, arms outstretched, holding a giant pair of shiny silver mortuary shears. Jump-cut to an image of a headless statue... Ouch.
13 THE TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE
THE CHAINSAW ATTACK
From the original, of course (you can tell, because “chain saw” is two words – as if it’s been chainsawed in half, maybe?). After both their friends mysteriously fail to return from a nearby house, Sally’s patience is finally exhausted, and she heads off into the darkness of the wood to investigate. Her odious, wheelchair-bound brother Franklin insists on coming along with her. “What’s that noise?” he mutters. Suddenly, Leatherface lurches out of the pitch-black darkness, his chainsaw tearing through the still night-time air. Poor Sally screams her lungs out as Frankie Goes To Heaven, and the mother of all nightmarish chases begins…
12 THE HAUNTING
THE BULGING DOOR
The “bulging door” sequence is actually the only special effect in this black and white classic horror. A group of parapsychologists are investigating a haunted house and as it begins to creak and groan and generally scare the bejeezus out of them, they all hide in one room, thinking they’ll be safe. But then they hear a booming knock-knock, and as their hearts reach their mouths, the door starts bulging… As the film’s only special effect, this is still very effective over 40 years on. You have to compare it to the CGI-drenched remake to realise just how scary the original actually is.
11 THE SHINING
RED RUM
The evil at the Overlook Hotel gets to everybody living within its walls, and little Danny Torrance is no exception. Reaching breaking point, he starts chanting “Red rum, red rum” over and over again in a voice that sounds like he’s been smoking 40 a day. Grasping a knife that looks bigger than he is, he picks up the reddest lipstick from his mum’s dressing table, and uses it to scrawl "RED RUM" on the bedroom door. As mom wakes up, she sees the words reflected in a mirror: “mur der”. Cripes! And we thought little Danny was a horse racing fan…
Go back and have a look at Scariest Moments 30 to 21
Scariest moments 10 to 1 coming soon
