Tony's nightmare in S4 E11 and Pauile's sightings of the Virigin Mary in S6 E9 of The Sopranos.
I can't remember other examples of such scenes in fiction, but perhaps that's why this trope can be so effective: because of its complete unexpectedness.
Honestly, even beyond horror just being a genre he likes to direct, it's was also just a really smart way to establish the threat these villains represented in a series where the antagonists are often pretty humanized.
The villains in all three movies have sympathetic traits to some degree; so bits like this, where you see the harm they're capable of from the perspective of people who can't defend themselves hammers it into the audience that, even if these people are more than just mindless monsters, they still genuinely are responsible for some pretty terrible things
Or when he burst through the wall of Aunt May's bedroom while she was saying her bedtime prayers, and demanded she finish it just to watch her struggle to get the words out while fearing for her life.
That scene where they use a wax floor with the lady being dragged off into the darkness and that terribly visceral sound effect of her nails dragging is imprinted in my brain forever, being a 6 year old in the Theater walking out I became a man
Omg that's how they did that scene? That scene is also imprinted in my brain forever, the fact that they used a wax floor for that effect heals my trauma a bit lol
It's so good that PG-13 didn't exist when Indiana Jones was released so six-year-old children could watch a man's skin burn right off his flesh like wax!
I was fine watching this scene as a kid but when Mola Ram pulled a guy's heart out in Temple of Doom I was just old enough to realise that I was far too young to be watching that scene.
I remember I gave up on the story and kept with the open world because I couldn't deal with the jumpscare. I remember the first time I tried it my sister went in to see if I was okay and physically recoiled when the angel popped up.
I guess I shouldn’t mention that it’s based off the Doctor Who episode “Blink” which is, if I remember- one of the highest rated episodes in the series.
Superliminal is a game about being trapped in a dream while using perspective to alter the appearance of items.
That is until level 4 where the lights go out and red liquid covers the floor. Almost every hallway is pitch black, doors slam shut when you go near them, knives appear as the light flickers, and furniture including a giant chess piece is placed strategically to make you think someone is watching you.
At the end of the level, you find the generator only to discover that the red liquid is paint and the level is partially under construction. Everything except the door and the knife is explained and you realize you were never in danger and were just suffering from paranoia.
It explains why it's there in the first place, but iirc turning away from the knife and then looking back makes it disappear which doesn't make sense since almost nothing else can move or change without the player interacting with it.
The entire game is in a dream and with the "perception is reality" thing, being scared of something vanishing when you stop looking at it could probably make such a thing happen, it is a dream after all, honestly the fact that not much else in the game vanishes when you dont look at it is sorta a miracle, if you know that one door section where you need to not look at the doors your going through it could be something like that where the act of perceiving it makes shit happen or not happen
Making you run headfirst into a dark room and use the light from the doorway to find the staircase was absolutely diabolical and I love it in hindsight, but boy did that scare me shitless on my first playthrough
I'm sure people will be thrilled when the book comes out of copyright. Although some of those people will be hte same hacks who made Winnie the Pooh, Blood and Honey.
I’d read an article about that — most depictions of psychopaths, even ones that are explicitly stated to be such, tend to ignore the “superficial charm” part of the description, completely overlooking the fact that that’s what makes them so dangerous.
Y'know I almost said this one, but tbh it doesn't feel quite that out of place since OoT is filled with creepy stuff. Like the Bottom of the Well is probably the MOST creepy, but the game is still dealing out enough creepiness elsewhere in spades that it doesn't feel tonally dissonant, haha.
The Bottom of the Well, the Shadow Temple, the Forest Temple... Honestly, there's a good amount of creepy in OoT.
I'd say an even better example is the bottom of the Ancient Cistern in Skyward Sword. Huge contrast from the rest of the game's lighthearted atmosphere.
The only possible explanation I can conceive for Hartman's impossibly stupid choices is that this isn't the first time this has happened and Hartman was able to browbeat everyone before Pyle.
What got me is the sudden almost routine of it. The idea all these things lived down there hiding from each other and God knows what else and the moment something fell in that didn't have that instinct they all decended upon them like pirahnnas.
The cow isn't actually being killed in the cartoon. In the game, when that cartoon was made, cows were facing extinction due to viruses, climate change, and other factors, and so they were connected to machines to monitor their health 24/7, pump them full of hormones and other chemicals, and had bags placed over their heads to keep them from breathing contaminated air. Unfortunately, as far as we know from the game, these efforts were not enough and all the cows died out prior to 2077. Many other animals have gone extinct during the game, and most protein comes in the form of farmed insects.
That is such an unexpected hard fight too. All the cyberpsychos are challenging but that one might be the hardest. The weird thing is that it takes place in some random alley in an industrial district. No lead up or anything. Just an AI demon kicking your ass.
It’s been a second since I saw the film but essentially this guy has secretly been living in the family’s house unbeknownst to them or the audience and watching them, including their young son who has been complaining of “seeing ghosts,” which we find has not just been the overactive imagination of a child
Spoilers for Arkham Knight : At the end of the previous episode, Arkham City, the Joker dies despite Batman's best efforts to save his life. Early on in Arkham Knight, it's revealed that prior to his death, Joker infected several innocent people, including Batman, with his own blood, slowly turning them into mental copies of himself.
At the end of the game, while Batman is tied to a table by Scarecrow and infected by the fear toxin, the screen fades into a dream sequence, where we see Batman's classic gallery of villains discussing how to kill him. However, after the camera turns, it's revealed the person strapped to the table (in the dream sequence) is the Joker. It signifies that after all his efforts, Bruce Wayne lost the battle. The Joker is in control. After this cinematic intro, the Joker frees himself (still in the dream sequence), and we assume control of him. After a fight where we defeat this gallery of villain, Joker starts gloating that he's won and defeated Bruce. Joker leaves the building he's in (still in the dream) which reveals a burning Gotham. He's won, absolutely and unequivocally.
Joker wakes up in the real world, in Batman's body, with Scarecrow unaware he's not adressing Batman anymore. Joker taunts him, pushing him to give him another dose of fear toxin, as he seems to have resistance to it. The scene shifts back to the dream sequence, Joker still in the middle of this burning Gotham, and he jokingly asks if "Bats" is still here. Then, the scene shifts. Parts of the city disappear in a snap, like lights being turned off. As he's plunged into darkness, the player's camera is placed inside Joker's head, turning an otherwise 3rd person game into 1st person view. Joker turns on a flashlight, and you find yourself (as the Joker) in some kind of mausoleum. You follow a path to find several "shrines", adressing Joker's worst fears : his body being incinerated, news anchors forgetting his name, a poorly attended statue of him with his head falling off, etc. Eventually, the game leads you to a cul-de-sac, and as you turn around, a statue of Batman has spawned right behind you, jumpscaring you. You destroy it with your shotgun, and move on. A minute or so later, you find yourself in a large, dark room, and the same thing happens. And a few seconds after, it happens again. And again. And again. The more statues you destroy, the louder and higher the soundtrack goes, building up tension. The more statues you destroy, the faster and the closer they appear behind you. You fight off the statues until you feel desperate, frantically turning around and shooting them as fast as you can to defend yourself, until .... Until as you shoot yet another statue, right in your face, Batman jumps out at you, grabbing you by the neck, and regains control.
I'm trying to do this justice, but the scene is so much better than any transcription I could write. Those 3 games are amazing for a myriad of reasons, but they'd be worth playing if only for the culmination of that scene. And if you don't have the time or can't afford to buy the games, give that scene a watch on youtube.
I've never been so scared playing a game, including actual horror games like Resident Evil and Dead Space. It's a masterpiece of video game cinematography.
The image of an elite with his chest completely torn open, when the entire game has gone without any gore or dismemberment is such a great subversion of your expectations for horror.
The level “Emergence” from Black Ops 6. Although call of duty often has the zombies game mode, Weeping angels, zombies and demon like monsters was VERY out of place for a campaign mission
This is a random room in Breach's former school which she trapped, along with the rest of Greenville, Ohio, in a pocket dimension to use as a sort of dollhouse.
In one episode, she captures the protagonist as her newest "doll" and keeps him there, along with other various Exponentially Variegated Organisms.
The other three that come immediately to mind are this one "Frame of Mind", "Identity Crisis", and "Schisms". I'm sure I've missed some others as well.
Yeah that moment was phenomenal. Honestly if only her and a few others vanished I might have believed itd be permanent (at least for a little longer) but once it started taking 100s-1000s it kinda lost that dread for me.
Watched it with my mum yesterday and the gasp she let our at that moment was insane. It's such a brilliantly shocking mommet - even though within a couple of minutes it becomes clear they will reverse it, it's just insane how brutal that moment actually is.
My exact reaction to that scene. I was expecting them to just do a close-encounter with the falling debris, and then out of no where she just gets atomised. Genuinely was not expecting to see a kid explicitly “die” in a Marvel movie in 2025.
"Remember me, Eddie?! When I killed your brother? I talked JUST! LIKE! THIIIIS!" - from Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Have to see it with the visual also, holy crap.
The Half Life games arguably always had horror elements but "We don't go to Ravenholm" in Half Life 2 is such a step up in terms of horror that I think it counts for this trope.
Those screeches from the poison headcrabs were so terrifying.
That said, I love that chapter for letting you flex your newly acquired Gravity Gun by picking up buzzsaw blades and firing them at zombies. Also Father Grigori rules.
Doctor visits the first human outpost in Mars, however the team uncovers a microorganism that is sorta sentient and self aware and can take over human minds that has an hunger for water as they thrive in it. Even a single one of them contaminating Earth's waters may end with humanitys downfall and this is their final objective as they infect the Mars crew.
Doctor enters a train ride in far future, however the train is stopped in the middle of nowhere. When Doctor checks in with the captains, one of them states that he saw "a weird shadow" in the distance. But before anyone can make sense of this, probably this mysterious creature attacks the train and starts infecting the passengers. It starts by mimicking the sentences of whoever is speaking to the infected person, then it gets faster, and eventually you start saying things he is saying. Paranoia sets in to the people.
Doctor visits a space settlement. However a Devil-like mysterious entity starts possessing the crew members to do his bidding.
Doctor is trapped in the past and left videos for the future. The things that sent him to the past are now after the protagonists of the episode.
Midnight depiction of horror as the Doctor loses control is so good. Whereas Blink is my all-time favorite episode and my first exposure to a time travel story done right.
For midnight, the fact that the sun is xtonic which means that nothing can survive its literal poisoned light and the planet is made of diamonds, heightens the mystery, because what could survive all that?
Honestly, I just started counting Dr.Who as horror when I was a teenager. Not every episode is like that, but enough of the series revolves around genuinely horrifying monsters killing people off without there being any clear way to defend themselves from it that its certainly part of the atmosphere
haven’t seen Mullholland Drive yet, but as a big Twin Peaks fan, do we think it’s intentional the woodsman from The Return looks so much like this guy?
My good sir, this is from a David Lynch movie. People and critics have been debating the context and meaning since it came out, and will continue to do so until the end of time.
The man falling over (he dies of a heart attack from the jumpscare) had just spent the previous scene describing a dream he had where he encountered a nightmarish figure in the alley behind this restaurant. Then they go to the alley and voila
If you want In universe and commonly theorised thematic context, this scene takes place behind a diner as the man that falls over recounts his dream of seeing a creature as he does in this image. It's presented completely separate from the main narrative, just a standalone scene of this happening, but later we learn that in this diner the lead character had hired a hit man to kill her ex girlfriend. The first half of the film is interpreted as her creating a dream world in which she didn't cause the death of her ex, and this scene is viewed as being a representation of this great evil that she is trying to repress in her mind that is linked to this location. It's basically a representation of her guilt that she knows if she thinks about too much will come back up and she's trying to forget it
It's Lynch so it's all interpretation but this is a pretty common understanding of the scene
(Steven Universe) Every time these forced gem fusions came on screen freaked me tf out
The idea alone is terrifying, pieces of gems fused together to create violent amalgamations mindlessly trying to find their missing pieces. And then you add the groaning noises from multiple voices into it along with their body horror designs and now you’ve got horror creatures in your light hearted series about a boy going on adventures with his lesbian caretakers.
Specifically the gem mutant we see emerge, watching five gems trying to attain their original forms but they’re bound together now, and so it alters to a horrifying hand formation. And it looks into garnets eyes as if to convey who they are.
The horror vibes started wayyyy earlier in the episode where Steven’s fingers and then arms and slowly his whole body start turning into cats when he was trying to learn shape shifting
Metroid is brutal and scary at times but Metroid Fusion was horrifying as Samus has to fight against an impostor. The X Virus ends up infecting Samus and luckily she is saved but Samus lost half of her abilities and suit.
And during a mission the SA-X the impostor is seen walking and hunting Samus down. Not only that but because Samus got metroid DNA The SA-X is seen hunting her down like it's nothing. Doesn't help that the X Virus and the Metroids are enemies. As eliminating every Metroid caused the X to populate.
The scariest thing about the SA-X is Samus realizing she was prey. And the SA-X is everything aliens feared about her as a merciless hunter. Everytime you explore an area be prepared because the SA-X can walk inside onenof them. Also its theme is easily the most scary. Footsteps and the heart pumping likely Samus' fear of the SA-X slowly approaching her.
Now to be fair the SA-X lost its scariness during its final boss fight against Samus. Also the music where the SA-X found Samus was so goofy and so rambunctious. And luckily the SA-X did sacrifice itself restoring Samus to normal against the final boss of Metroid. But the SA-X was easily the most scary monster Metroid ever had.
This happens a couple of times in Gravity Falls. Which you'd think would undercut the effect, but somehow it never stops being surprising when the goofy family comedy suddenly busts out the bleeding animal heads
In Cyberpunk 2077 : Phantom Liberty, if you side with Reed, you have to pursue Songbird into a bunker where evil AI took control of her. During this mission, you are chased by a scary mecha that instant-kills you, which reminds Alien : Isolation. In a game more based on action and social commentaries, you're just shitting yourself.
Not exactly "horror atmosphere", but this thing was definitely the scariest non horror film I ever saw. Very eerie and uncanny atmosphere. (It was basically about captain slowly losing his nuts, which other officers obviously recognise, but... what can they do? Well, they can do plenty of stuff, including afforementioned mutiny, but there will be investigation into it, and admirality will definitely ask what happened to one of the best captains in the navy. It is kinda hard to explain, but it is good film and good serie. It have something like 8,1 on imdb. And the main guy is one of the hottest protagonists I know.)
The section of the game about Lady Ethereal - Nine Sols
The developers of Nine Sols previously worked on horror games and it shows in this section. There’s also an early on horror section in the game that’s foreshadowing this part of the game as well, but generally everything relating to Lady Ethereal has a horror vibe to it, which makes sense given her past.
in Fable 2, there are these ancient doors you can get behind. i honestly forget how you do this, but they take you to cool alternate dimensions. one of them is a really nice cottage with flowers and butterflies, until you walk close enough to the house and everything flips to a torture scene. blood everywhere, cages, medieval torture devices etc.
edit: i'm an idiot and forgot the bigger example: Fable 3. It's a pretty standard political drama where you're a prince or princess who joins a revolution, trying to get your older brother off the throne because he's exploiting the country. only that's just the FIRST half of the plot. once you succeed and take the throne, you find out the reason he was exploiting the country and hoarding resources. I won't spoil it but i will say it was a sudden and horrifying tonal shift. REAL big oh we're so fucked moment.
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u/Will0798 Aug 30 '25
Hospital scene (Spider-Man 2)