No matter how much the horror movies of today have diverted from the quintessential tropes of the past by altering the manner of addressing disturbing themes, jump scares will always reign as a fear-inducing element of the genre.
After all, who wouldn’t steer their eyes away from the screen with utter rapidity when larger-than-iconic villains such as Ghostface, Leatherface, or Michael Myers emerge from the darkest corners of the room to mete out the most gruesome death to their victims?
After Evil Dead Rise graced the big screen, a vast range of audiences have found themselves in a state of nostalgic reverie of the times when jump scares were deemed as horror’s fundamental element. To be honest, the perception hasn’t completely changed as we find horror/slasher fans arguing about which films have the most underrated or overlooked examples.
This is exactly what happened when a vast group of Reddit users found themselves conversing over which movie has been successful in producing the most unpredictable and unexpected jump scares. The conversation began by stating that despite not being a favorite, the demon running scene in Anabelle is by far the scariest of all, outwitting its powerful competitors like Insidious and Sinister.
The trail of discussions that followed incorporated various other movies such as Hannibal, Barbarian, and Saint Maud, as well as Mike Flanagan’s popular series The Haunting of the Hill House. One even turned to less well-known contemporary movies like Annihilation.
“Everyone always mentions the bear scene in Annihilation (which is understandable because it is a great scene) but the scene in the lighthouse when Lena meets her double scares the shit out of me no matter how many times I watch it. No scene in a movie has ever made me feel such a pit in my stomach, I love it so much. It’s so unsettling and wrong.”
Despite the various names that have been used in the conversation, the list is never going to end.
Published: Apr 24, 2023 03:44 am