The 101 Scariest Horror Movie Moments of All Time (2022) s01e01 Episode Script
101-89
[dramatic music]
♪
[screaming]
[shrieking violins]
[screams]
Kate: I don't know
which came first,
my fear of being in the shower
with my eyes closed
or me watching "Psycho."
♪
Brea: I remember
leaving the theater
and being scared to walk
from the theater to my car
because I was scared
of Ghostface
and of the world.
person: Stand clear!
person: Aah!
It changed who I was.
Like, I felt my DNA
being unwound
and then rewound
into something different
at that exact moment.
[grunts]
Tony: There's something
about a jump scare
Oh!
And if it's well done,
it affects the entire room.
[screams]
[screaming]
Gigi: That was one
of the moments that--
oh, honey, please!
I could not sit through--
I have goosebumps.
[screams]
[growling]
Keith:
When we were filming it,
we had to imagine
what was going on.
So when I saw it in the theater,
I was like, oh, my God.
It was fantastic.
♪
Mike: I think all of us
who work in the industry
spend all of our time
revisiting these scenes
that have seared their way
into our imagination
the first time we ever saw them,
scenes that you see one time
and you'll never forget.
[choking]
Mike: We love them.
We discuss them.
We dissect them.
We try to understand
what makes them work
mechanically and logistically.
[crashing]
But it's something intangible.
It's something emotional.
It's nothing you can
kind of cynically recreate.
♪
Jennifer: The beginning
of "It Follows"
is one of the best intros
to any film.
She comes tearing
out of her house
in one direction.
We witness just sheer terror
in that young woman.
Hey, are you okay?
Yeah.
Jennifer:
Is clearly being pursued
by something that she senses
and seems like she can see
but we can't.
It's completely unknowable.
It's this completely unknown,
unknowable thing
that's coming after her.
♪
Tananarive: From the very
beginning, I was like, eh.
Total male gaze, you know?
Why is she running in heels?
On rewatching it,
I better understand
why she's running in heels,
because she's always running.
♪
That's nothing new
about this running.
She's, like,
running all the time.
Sometimes you just have to run
with what you're wearing.
♪
[phone rings]
Jennifer: Then that
little moment on the beach
where we sort of imagine, like,
oh, this is the girl
that we're gonna follow
for the rest of the film.
Dad? I'm sorry I can be
such a shit to you sometimes.
John: She's plaintively
talking to her father.
I don't know why I do that.
All these different things,
that she knows she's gonna die.
It's the tension of it.
The setup for it is
just, like, what is going on?
And you don't find out what
the thing is until much later.
♪
Jennifer: And then cut
to just that insane image
of her clearly dead
on the beach.
You don't see
the gruesome murder,
but you see the effects of it.
And you see her
all contorted on the beach,
and it's like, oh, fuck.
That's a great setup,
because now,
you know what this guy's
gonna do to you.
What these people
that are following you
are gonna do to you.
♪
Jennifer:
And then the story opens,
you know, where we
sort of are introduced
to the main character.
Then the story unfolds
in a pace
that we can understand.
♪
There was just so much dread
in that film.
It was
a really interesting, smart,
like, new kind of genre piece
that I think
will always be on the list
of films that did something
different with the genre.
♪
Samuel: "The Orphanage"
is wildly elegant,
which is a great tradition
in ghost stories.
♪
You know, it feels like
a very classical haunter.
Lydia: It's so powerful,
and it's not
your typical horror movie.
I know a lot
of Americans watch it,
and they think it's terrifying.
But at the same time,
it's really beautiful.
And you're in the environment
where you're isolated.
You're in an old house.
There's very little
electricity. It's dark.
♪
Samuel:
It really can't get better
than a sack on the head.
And a child-- a child ghost
with a sack on his head
is just-- kids are creepy.
Kids are naturally creepy,
so ghost kids kind of
take that to a new level.
Brea: And it has this scene
where Laura, the main character,
she's looking for her son.
She's convinced he's
in the orphanage somewhere,
and she knows there are
these sort of ghost spirits
of children in the orphanage.
And she thinks
they can help her.
[speaking in Spanish]
So she plays this game,
and there's something
about a children's game
that makes it really scary.
Playing a children's game
with ghosts
is very scary.
The game is,
you say one, two, three,
knock on the wall while
you're looking at the wall,
and then you turn
to see if anybody's coming
because the first person
to get to you wins.
[speaking Spanish]
Brea: And she looks back,
and there's nothing.
And then she starts
to do it again,
and there's a noise behind her.
And she looks back,
and the door is opened.
And then she does it again
[speaking Spanish]
Brea: Turns back,
and there's a ghost child.
There's a ghost child
behind her.
[speaking Spanish]
Fede: Normally, that scene,
she would throw a look,
and you would cut
to what she's looking,
and then go back to her face,
throw a look,
cut to what she's looking,
but Juan A. does
the right thing,
which is decide
to stay on one shot
and just, like, pan.
[speaking Spanish]
Fede: Because when that camera
pans in the theater,
there's no way to stop it.
It's gonna go
where it's gonna go,
and you know something
horrific is gonna show up,
and the kids are gonna be there,
and it's gonna be terrifying.
And eventually, she does it,
and then all of a sudden,
a hand grabs her from behind.
- [speaking Spanish]
♪
Brea: All done in one shot.
So brilliant, so scary,
and just a really great
horror movie scene.
♪
It's incredible
when something so simple
can be so good.
♪
person: What is he
really doing in Salem's Lot?
person: Writing a book,
he says.
[typewriter clicking]
Ben:
I'm writing about a house.
The Marsten House.
I think that an evil house
attracts evil men.
[hissing]
Mick: "Salem's Lot,"
I had my doubts about it
because it was television.
And very few horror movies
for television in the '70s
were very good
because they weren't really made
by people
who cared about the genre.
They weren't genre filmmakers.
In this case,
they brought in Tobe Hooper.
Amanda: Tobe Hooper was coming
off "Texas Chainsaw Massacre"
and "Eaten Alive,"
which are gritty,
grindhousey-type movies.
And he ended up making
this really iconic,
incredible, haunting,
beautiful Stephen King
adaptation for "Salem's Lot."
Mick: For me, the most iconic
scene in that miniseries
was the scene of the boy
outside the window,
scratching at the glass,
trying to convince his friend
to open the window to him
and let him in.
Andy: The kid wakes up.
There's a fog behind the window.
He stands up.
We can't figure out what it is
at the beginning.
And the music
was almost like "Jaws."
It was a
Dun-dun
Dun-dun dun-dun
dun-dun dun-dun ♪
That was really
getting me all worked up.
♪
Andy:
And then he comes forward,
and it's, like,
this kid in the window.
I mean, it's an iconic moment.
[scratches glass]
person: Open the window.
That kid's scratching
at the window.
"Let me in."
Let me in.
It's okay, Mark.
I'm your friend.
He commands it.
Don't let that kid in, man.
I mean, like, how did they
even allow that on television?
Mick:
What was beautiful about it
and made it very otherworldly
and nightmarish,
is that Tobe shot it
in slow motion
and in reverse.
And when it played backwards,
he moving forwards,
but there's something
very foreign and bizarre
and mysterious
and scary about it.
Let me in.
But the worst thing of all
is the eyes, the lit eyes.
I still don't know
how they did it
because it was definitely
not the digital era.
I don't think they were
optical effects either.
I suspect that
they were contact lenses,
that somehow they refracted
the distant light.
And it's really terrifying.
No, Mark.
I just remember not wanting
to fall asleep near a window
for a while.
Mick: It's
a brilliantly conceived scene.
It was very simple to do,
but it took Tobe Hooper
to come up with it.
[organ music]
- [hisses]
Go away.
[bombastic music]
Dana: The best screen version
of "Dracula"
is Hammer Film's 1958,
"The Horror of Dracula"
with Christopher Lee.
♪
Christopher Lee's performance:
legendary.
The description
I read about him,
which was really perfect, was,
"He's a panther."
I mean, he is tall, dangerous
[escalating violins]
Scary.
[dramatic music]
♪
Axelle: The very first time
we see him,
he's in this wide shot
at the top of the stairs.
We can just see his silhouette,
which is very impressive.
He's wearing this cape,
and he's so tall.
And then he comes
down those stairs,
and every time he's shot,
it's kind of at a low angle,
so that already--
just the camera-- shows you
that there's something
a little bit disturbing
about him.
- Mr. Harker.
I'm glad
that you've arrived safely.
But he's so smooth
in the way that he talks,
and so polite, and so nice.
Count Dracula.
I am Dracula,
and I welcome you to my house.
He has that duality of
he is a very respectable man,
but he is a monster.
Please don't
distress yourself.
[sniffles]
Thank you.
Oh, thank you.
Ernest: And I always
loved that sequence
where the female vampire
is trying to seduce
Jonathan Harker.
In your head, you're going,
okay, this is it.
He's gonna get bitten.
[hissing]
And then there's that hiss,
and you cut
to that magnificent close-up
of Christopher Lee
with the blood on his face
and the bloodshot
contact lenses.
The contrast of going
from the gentleman
that we met before--
it's so feral and so raw,
and there's nothing human
about him.
When he hisses and he lunges
and grabs the girl
and throws the girl away,
and then the girl looks like
this weird, feral cat,
where she's got
a little bit of blood on her
and she's ready to pounce.
And she keeps going at him.
- Aah!
And Dracula keeps
throwing her away.
And then when Harker
goes to protect her,
he starts to choke him.
[choking]
Greg: It's such
a terrifying scene,
but there's so much going on.
♪
And he actually
weirdly saves
Jonathan Harker's life
by protecting him from her.
Joe: The kids were choking
on their popcorn
when we saw this 'cause they--
we just weren't used
to seeing this kind of thing.
Whenever anybody talked
about horror movies,
the "Horror of Dracula"
was always the top movie
for the next, I don't know,
decade, I would say.
There were sequels,
there were remakes.
There were
other Dracula movies made,
but the impact
that that one had,
partly because
of when it came out
and partly because of how old
everybody was when they saw it,
made it into sort of
an instant classic.
Ernest: The success
of those films
inspired filmmakers like Bava.
That inspired
the Italian filmmakers.
They wanted to emulate
the success
of Hammer Horror films,
so they started doing some
of their own horror films,
and that's how we got
some of Bava's best work.
Joe: "Black Sabbath"
was a multistory movie.
Ladies and gentlemen,
how do you do?
Karloff was the host,
and he had done a whole series
of introductions
for the Italian version.
But the one
that everybody remembers
is the drop of water.
Boris:
In this tale by Chekhov,
"The Drop of Water,"
we prove that a ghost
doesn't have to be seen
to be believed.
Joe: It's visually one of the
most beautiful pieces of film
that I've seen.
[bell rings]
[cat yowls]
The use of color in it
is just remarkable.
Rebekah:
In "The Drop of Water,"
a nurse is called late night
because this woman has died,
and she kind of has go
kind of declare it dead
and dress the body
for the funeral.
And she gets there,
and she pulls back
these massive bed curtains
And it is this, like,
hideous face of this old woman
just making this
absolutely grimacing face.
It's all teeth and big eyes.
Greg: Still to this day,
a couple friends of mine and I
talk about that.
Like, was that a person?
Was it makeup?
Was it a dummy head?
The eyes looked so real.
It scared the hell out of me.
There was just something
about cutting back to it
♪
And it was just looking.
- [gasps]
Rebekah: We see this fly
buzzing around the room.
And I don't mean like a housefly
is buzzing around the room;
this thing is like
a horsefly
that keeps landing on her.
I mean, ever talks about
how scary the old woman is
in this sequence,
but seriously, that fly
was the creepiest part to me.
- Aah!
It was just gargantuanly huge.
Aah!
Samuel: "The Drop of Water,"
to me, is
the most special kind
of supernatural horror.
It really is about being trapped
and really the slow dread
of being confronted
by a living corpse
♪
Who wants what they want,
even from beyond the grave.
Rebekah: I love this sequence,
because usually,
when you're looking
at kind of horror,
and especially female actresses
during this time period,
they stay
very beautiful throughout.
"Drop of Water,"
actress has just none of that.
Her hair is messed up,
her makeup's all messed up.
She is just thrashed
by the end of this.
[grunts]
[cat yowls]
I recently showed it
to a niece of mine,
you know, who was 14 years old.
And I was thinking,
eh, you know,
is she gonna think
this is as creepy as I do?
And yeah,
it really did creep her out.
The eyes, just the staring eyes,
really bothered her.
[speaking in Japanese]
So "Pulse," or "Kairo,"
is a film essentially
about the Internet
as this conduit for the dead
to move into our physical world.
[speaking Japanese]
Todd: If you think about
how many people have died
over all of human history,
and then all these spirits
have to go somewhere.
And at some point,
when it became too full,
they had to spill out
back into our world.
♪
Nathaniel: "Pulse"
takes all of these ghosts
that are running around
in Japan and puts them--
you might say, it turns them
into the ghosts in the machine.
Supernatural forces have
been trying to take us down
for God knows how long,
but they finally found
a way to do it, you know, just
with the click of a mouse.
spirit: [speaking Japanese]
Todd: The way in which these
ghosts make themselves known
is, as one character puts it,
trapping characters
in their own loneliness,
or their isolation.
[speaking Japanese]
Todd: Operating
on multiple levels,
both the fear of ghosts
and the supernatural
but then fear
of the technology itself
and what it's doing to society.
[speaking in Japanese]
[screams]
- [speaking Japanese]
When I think of iconic moments
and images from "Pulse,"
I think black marks on walls.
It's a character
who has been trapped
in their loneliness
and either disappears
or they will, you know,
actually commit suicide
And this black mark will
sort of indicate
where they killed themselves
or where they ultimately
gave into their loneliness.
Samuel: And I think
it could only be made
by Kiyoshi Kurosawa,
who is
the master of slow dread--
like, the utter king of it.
♪
Probably the pinnacle of that
is that long hallway
with the ghost.
Andy: We see a woman ghost
just standing there,
not doing anything.
And then she comes
walking to us very slowly.
Samuel: Then there's
a ghost who moves
unlike any other ghost
you've ever seen.
Todd: There's this way
in which it's off-kilter
that adds to this atmosphere
of "this is not of this world."
Andy: And then
she seems to fall,
and it was shot at high speed,
so that gives
that ethereal sense of movement
that is terrifying.
[panting]
Samuel: The simplicity of
this is a thing
that should not be here,
and it is coming for you,
and it is moving in a way
that you can't process
because you've never seen
anything like that before,
is really stunning.
[singers vocalizing]
♪
Todd: This is a film
that, like,
I can feel
in the pit of my stomach.
♪
And for some reason,
it's just that absence
where somebody was there,
they're not there,
and then sometimes
they come back,
you know, as an image,
as a ghostly image,
and then it could leave again--
there's something about that
that maybe it speaks to, again,
this idea in Japanese horror
where this corporeal
and the spiritual,
that line gets blurred.
[speaking Japanese]
Todd: You can feel
that emptiness
that is sort
of the metaphysical level
that Kiyoshi Kurosawa's
working on.
[insistent knocking]
Is Tamara here?
No.
No, you've got the wrong house.
You sure?
♪
Amanda: I've seen
so many horror movies,
I actually
don't get scared anymore,
but "The Strangers"
is extremely effective
Possibly because
I'm not expecting
somebody in a doll face mask
to show up at my door.
The home invasion angle of that
has a very realistic edge to it,
and they were actually
based on real-life crimes.
Chad: That kind of just
affects you in a way
that, yes, you're home alone,
there could be somebody
in your house with you,
and you don't know where
they are or what they're doing.
Amanda: They're just
everywhere in the house,
but you don't know
where they are.
And that's really freaky.
Samuel: Liv Tyler's
in the kitchen,
and then he wanders out
and just stares at her,
and, again, doesn't do anything.
It's that agony of,
well, he's not gonna do it now
and you're just
gonna have to wait,
knowing that it's gonna come.
Chad: The fact that
the person comes into frame
and then slowly goes back out--
if she saw that person
behind her in that moment,
that changes
the whole dynamic of the scene
and what we're actually
experiencing as an audience.
James?
Chad: As an audience member,
now you are a step ahead
of where our characters are
and what they're experiencing,
what they're living.
The tension is now
ratcheted up to a ten.
[knife shings]
It just keeps you on edge
for the entire rest
of the movie.
[bang]
- [screaming]
Block the door.
Block the door!
And then you get
to maybe the scariest moment,
which isn't even
a moment of violence.
It's a piece of dialogue, right?
It's when she says
Liv: Why are you
doing this to us?
Dollface:
Because you were home.
It's the one answer
no one ever wants to hear,
is "because you were home."
That's, like,
the one part of the movie
where no matter what
has happened up until then,
you now have goosebumps
and you are terrified
to your core.
Samuel: A lot of movies
don't have
the wherewithal
to stick to that.
They want to find the "reason,"
the "backstory,"
or the "mythology."
And I think "The Strangers"
really sticking to the idea
that is just random
and cruel and violent
hammers home
what's so compelling
about home invasion, which
is that it could happen to you.
[screams]
[sinister music]
Dana: There's
a marked difference
between the horror films
of the '40s
and the horror films
of the '30s:
it came out
of Universal Studios.
♪
Out of that bunch,
there were some classics,
"The Wolf Man" being the one
that immediately leaps to mind.
"The Wolf Man"
is one of those situations
where everything just happened
to work out perfectly.
person: Well, there's
something very tragic
about that man.
Why does everyone insist
that I'm confused?
"The Wolf Man" was
one of the first horror films
that I ever saw.
"The Wolf Man" grabbed me
and dragged me
into the love affair
that has continued
to this day with horror.
Lon Chaney Jr. was someone
that I just felt an instant
empathy towards as a kid,
and I still do as an adult.
The performance that he gives
as Larry Talbot
is just so vulnerable
and sad and beautiful.
[music bends flat]
It's interesting when you look
at the transformation
sequence again
from the first "Wolf Man,"
is it happens on the feet.
You're aware
of what's about to happen,
and then it tilts down,
and then the feet change.
You never see him transform
in the first movie.
You see him transform back
at the end.
I always was--
and still to this day--
fascinated with that makeup
because the makeup changes
from film to film.
David: The makeup
is just insane.
That is the iconic moment to me,
watching Lon Chaney Jr.
transform into the wolf
the first time
and seeing his face
go through that.
Keith: The way Talbot turns
into the wolf man,
oh, that shit-- I mean, that--
it's still one of
my favorite cinematic moments,
just watching
those layers come on.
Greg: The idea
that Jack Pierce
had to go into the stage
and all his stuff was probably
right there off-camera,
and here's the camera,
and he would go in,
work a little bit, step away.
It would take six hours
or seven hours
to do that transformation.
David: There have been so many
legendary makeup artists
in the history of cinema
and horror cinema,
but you think about that film
and the way that
it kind of paved a path
for generations to come.
American horror films
in the '30s and '40s,
people immediately go
to Universal Studios.
But there was a whole other
horror factory at that time,
in Hollywood, at RKO studios,
under the supervision
of Val Lewton.
He had a series of studio
executives that hated him
because he refused
to do what they wanted.
They gave him "Cat People,"
and they wanted "The Wolf Man"
with a cat,
which was a terrible idea.
[chuckles]
You wake up and go, "My God,
what happened to the yarn?"
[speaking Russian]
Dana: But he would,
almost to spite them,
create these really
brilliant, intelligent,
intellectual,
psychological dramas.
Joe: The idea of "Cat People"
is that
when the heroine is aroused,
she turns into an animal.
That was
a moderately risky premise
for a movie in 1942.
And the ads for "Cat People"
are so lurid.
I mean, they've got these
pictures of Simone Simon
with, like,
horrible hands and claws
and drippy stuff coming out
on all the artwork,
none of which is in the movie.
[cat meows]
[meow]
[faint growling]
[meow]
There's a scene in "Cat People"
where the second lead actress,
who is competing
with Simone Simon's husband
for affection
but is very much
on the up and up
and is obviously supposed
to be someone we like,
goes for a swim in
what looks like a YMCA pool.
[growling]
Justina: She hears growling.
She sees something
in the shadows
coming down the stairs,
and that's the only way
in and out of that pool area.
So the only thing
she can think of doing
is jumping
in the middle of the pool,
which puts her
in a vulnerable position
because what if
that creature can swim,
you know, and it jumps in there
and claws your face off?
Joe: And there's also
a brief glimpse
of what could be a panther.
You're never quite sure
exactly what it is
that you see.
Ernest:
What the audience can imagine
can sometimes be scarier
and more terrifying
than what you can show them.
[snarling]
Something's in the dark
that you can't see,
but you know it can see you.
[yowling]
[screams]
Help!
Aah!
Help!
Some of the most effective
moments in horror films
are moments where the audience
thinks it's seeing something
or has barely gotten
a glimpse of something
and aren't sure
there's something moving.
[screams]
But that kind of subtlety
is unfortunately kind of rare
in the genre.
[flock flapping]
Mick: "The Birds"
is a monster movie.
Hitchcock made a horror movie
a monster movie,
and it's shocking
and horrifying,
particularly in 1963.
[birds screeching]
Tananarive:
Birds diving at children,
so you've got screaming children
being attacked by birds.
What could be
more perfect than that?
[screaming]
Tom: Hitchcock went
to visual sequences
again and again and again
in his films.
♪
I think that that's
what made Hitchcock so great.
You'll see Hitchcock films
that don't work,
but you'll very seldom see one
that won't have
some phenomenal shot in it.
chef: Get out! Watch out!
Tippy:
Oh! Oh!
[all screaming]
[birds screeching, screaming]
Andrew: I mean,
I remember the famous scene
where Tippy's
in the telephone booth.
And the birds are attacking,
and A happens,
and B happens, and C happens,
and before you know it,
there's this huge,
you know, conflagration
at the gas station.
And then it just pours on
with these bird attacks.
Imagine if you were
in a telephone booth
surrounded by these birds,
that they're diving at you.
Hitchcock takes you
into a circle of hell
when the whole town is attacked.
And one
of the most memorable scenes
was your watching
through the bird's-eye view.
And you look down to see
this decimated, desolated area.
Tom: That is what's called
a visual set piece.
And even though
it's early special effects--
obviously they didn't have CGI--
it works.
I think "The Birds"
still holds up today,
and it's scary.
[sentimental music]
♪
Alex: "Mulholland Drive"
actually has
one of my favorite taglines.
"A story about love
in the City of Dreams."
Mm, just tells you everything
that you need to know
about that movie.
Living in Los Angeles,
seeing all the people
that live here,
all the characters,
there are so many
cautionary tales like that
that you come face-to-face
with all the time.
And he captures it beautifully.
[siren wailing]
Joe: The Winkie's diner scene
at the beginning of the movie,
it doesn't really seem
to have any connection
to the rest of the movie,
but, in a funny way, it does
after you see it
a couple of times.
I just wanted to come here.
To Winkie's?
This Winkie's.
Joe: That was the scene
with characters
that we don't know who they are.
And they're in a diner.
We don't know where it is.
Why this Winkie's?
It's kind of embarrassing.
Alex: And this all seems like
it's apropos of nothing
and he's talking
about a dream he had
I had a dream
about this place.
Oh, boy.
And that it took place
at the diner
and that they were sitting
across from each other,
talking to each other
like they're doing right now.
There's a man.
In back of this place.
He's the one who's doing it.
Andy: And the great thing
about that scene
is the slow burn
that happens before
I hope that
I never see that face,
ever, outside a dream.
Andy: All that conversation
that they have in the diner,
the camera is not static,
and it's not moving
on a dolly or anything.
It's just, like,
sort of floating,
up and down and to the sides,
so it already immerses you
in some kind of oneiric state.
Lethargic.
And then they walk out of it,
and something
very special happens,
which is
the camera doesn't stop.
They are walking, of course.
It's justified by them walking.
There's a growing sense
of dread,
and you don't know why
or when it's going to explode.
It's a camera that keeps
moving towards a corner,
and moving, moving forward,
and you know
what's gonna happen.
The worst thing
that a camera can do
is take you to the monster.
And that's exactly what happens.
And that's it.
Game over.
person: Dan, Dan, Dan, Dan.
Dan, are you all right?
Jonah: "Mulholland Drive,"
which is just kind of,
you know, moody and creepy
most of the time,
is all of a sudden
the scariest movie
that's ever been made.
Alex: I feel almost like
that's his statement
on this cliché of,
there's nothing to fear
but fear itself,
and your fears are just that,
and they're just nightmares.
Like, no, sometimes
there's a fucking monster there
and you die of fright,
and it's not okay at all.
[whispering] Silencio.
Chucky: Hi, I'm Chucky,
and I'm your friend to the end.
Hidey-ho!
Aah! Aah!
"Child's Play"
is a fantastic film.
Karen: Nobody believes you
about Chucky.
Unless you start
telling the truth,
they're going
to take you away from me.
I think the moment
that really grabs you
and makes you jump is
when Chucky fully comes online
in front of Mom.
Maybe Andy should spend
a couple of days with us.
Ryan: You have mom
whose kid has now been
whisked away by the officials.
And she comes home distraught,
stressed beyond belief,
and you're kind of
tracking her belief system.
And she sets Chucky down,
and she's like,
"Okay,
if I'm gonna believe my kid,
I'm gonna take a whack at this
and try to get Chucky to talk."
Say something, damn it!
Hi! I like to be hugged.
[chuckles]
- What I love about it is that
she's escalating the tension
with this doll in the moment.
[eerie music]
Tom: Then she sees that
stupid Good Guy box there,
in the kitchen, and she goes
to throw it away, and
[thud]
The batteries drop out.
Ryan: The discovery
of the batteries
is when things
really become heightened
because now she suspects
something supernatural
is occurring.
She turns him over, face down,
and she opens the battery box
in the back
and it's empty.
Hi! I'm Chucky.
Wanna play?
- [screams]
Tom: And now the doll
rolls underneath the couch,
which was a very,
very difficult shot to get,
by the way.
It felt like two hours.
I went through hell
trying to get the doll
to fall and roll under.
We put the floor
on an angle like that
and then shot it like this
so we could get that moment
when the doll hit
and rolled under the couch.
She drags the doll out.
And she stands up.
And now she's getting
really frustrated.
How is she gonna make this doll
come alive and talk to her?
I said, talk to me, damn it,
or else I'm gonna throw you
in the fire.
You stupid bitch!
You filthy slut!
- [screams]
I'll teach you
to fuck with me!
- No! No!
Fede:
It's just so bananas, right?
But it's so amazing.
And it's hilarious
to burst into all these curses.
[growls]
- Aah! No!
[screams]
Fede: Watching that,
I couldn't help think
how someone dared
to go for this idea.
Like, a puppet, that
it's just gonna turn diabolic?
But that scene, where really
the whole concept cooks.
Tom: I've done so many movies
that seemed like
they were impossible to make.
The question was,
how was I going
to bring the doll alive?
How was I going
to make something
that's about 4-foot tall
seem like it could be murderous?
[harrowing music]
[growling]
Aah!
I had seen
the TV movie of the week
called "Trilogy of Terror,"
directed by Dan Curtis,
where Karen Black
brings back a Zuni doll.
Karen: Boy, are you ugly?
[screaming]
Tom: And the doll comes alive,
and all of a sudden,
she's trapped in this apartment
with
a foot-and-a-half wooden doll
that's trying to kill her.
[screaming]
Tom: What Dan Curtis did,
is he put the camera
on a skateboard.
These dynamic shots
of the doll chasing her
from the doll's point of view.
And then he'd cut to the doll,
and what he'd do is just
shake this dumb wooden doll.
And it was terrifying!
So I knew
when I got into my suspense
and action sequences
with Chucky,
if I'd cut to a point of view,
then I had potential
for a terrifying
action/suspense sequence.
Batter up!
That's why I love it so much.
It just shows so much bravery
from everybody involved
in this concept, in that movie,
from the actor, director,
and everybody on set that day.
They really went for it.
Ugly doll.
Fuck you.
David: But Jack
Jack: What?
Where are we going?
- I don't know.
I'll tell you when we get there.
Okay, 'cause-- [roaring]
[gunshots]
I think the scene in
"American Werewolf in London"
that actually is
one of the scariest scenes
is a dream sequence.
You don't really know
it's a dream sequence at first.
Kermit: Puppetry is
an art form, Piggy.
Miss Piggy:
You call that violence art?
A wonderful misdirect
because that scene starts
with "The Muppet Show."
It's a good,
aggressive behavior.
Better than my act?
Nothing bad happens
during "The Muppet Show."
"The Muppet Show" isn't scary.
"The Muppet Show" is funny.
Kermit: Now just
[knocking at door]
Heidi: Your main character,
David Naughton,
is at home with his family,
and it kind of seems
like a normal night,
and he's at the table
doing his homework.
The whole family's here,
and you're kind of thrown off
because you're like,
is this a flashback
or a time jump?
There's our guy.
Here's David.
It's his family.
We haven't met them.
They seem happy.
They can't be.
Something's up.
But "The Muppet Show" is on.
[knocking at door]
Get the door!
And there's a knock
at the door.
I'll get it.
And when the father
goes to the door
All right, all right.
Hold your horses.
You just don't know
what's behind it.
It's just
this very average door.
[knocking at door]
All right already!
There's something
about the not knowing
what's on the other side
that really gets to me.
[gunfire]
It's these mutated Nazis
with machine guns.
Stop! Aah!
Ryan: There's a moment
where, like,
Mom just flies
off the screen entirely.
You see
the children sitting here.
They mow the children down.
[all screaming]
It's just, like,
almost needlessly aggressive.
Amanda: He is
subconsciously working through
what he's about to become.
So, for him,
Nazis represent monsters
Aah!
And he is turning
into a monster.
And this the only way
I think his subconscious
can kind of understand
what's happening to him
and this transformation
that's still not there yet
but it's coming.
And it's really poignant.
And it's unique.
And then we snap out of it,
and we're like, thank God.
Hello.
And you see Jenny Agutter
there at the bedside.
That's always comforting.
I've just had a nightmare.
Not to worry.
I have just the thing.
And then she gets up
and pulls the curtain.
[monster shrieks]
Alex!
[monster shrieking]
And then we wake up again.
And then David Naughton
says the one thing
that everyone watching
this movie is thinking,
which is
Holy shit.
And it's just such
a satisfying laugh.
It's the best energy
of, like, horror and comedy,
I think I've ever seen
because the release
is so satisfying.
It was kind of the first
fake-out dream sequence
to be found in horror movies,
and that's back in 1981.
Since then, it's been
replicated a number of times,
more or less successfully--
usually less--
but nobody expected
that double twist.
I love when a film
does something like that.
I've just had a nightmare.
Heidi: You can't trust
what happens next.
You have no idea
if anything you're watching
at any moment
is gonna suddenly be blown out
of the water as a dream
or as a fantasy
or as a hallucination.
It's really fun and unsettling
when horror films do that.
Can I have a piece of toast?
Get the fuck outta here, Jack.
[dramatic music]
♪
♪
[screaming]
[shrieking violins]
[screams]
Kate: I don't know
which came first,
my fear of being in the shower
with my eyes closed
or me watching "Psycho."
♪
Brea: I remember
leaving the theater
and being scared to walk
from the theater to my car
because I was scared
of Ghostface
and of the world.
person: Stand clear!
person: Aah!
It changed who I was.
Like, I felt my DNA
being unwound
and then rewound
into something different
at that exact moment.
[grunts]
Tony: There's something
about a jump scare
Oh!
And if it's well done,
it affects the entire room.
[screams]
[screaming]
Gigi: That was one
of the moments that--
oh, honey, please!
I could not sit through--
I have goosebumps.
[screams]
[growling]
Keith:
When we were filming it,
we had to imagine
what was going on.
So when I saw it in the theater,
I was like, oh, my God.
It was fantastic.
♪
Mike: I think all of us
who work in the industry
spend all of our time
revisiting these scenes
that have seared their way
into our imagination
the first time we ever saw them,
scenes that you see one time
and you'll never forget.
[choking]
Mike: We love them.
We discuss them.
We dissect them.
We try to understand
what makes them work
mechanically and logistically.
[crashing]
But it's something intangible.
It's something emotional.
It's nothing you can
kind of cynically recreate.
♪
Jennifer: The beginning
of "It Follows"
is one of the best intros
to any film.
She comes tearing
out of her house
in one direction.
We witness just sheer terror
in that young woman.
Hey, are you okay?
Yeah.
Jennifer:
Is clearly being pursued
by something that she senses
and seems like she can see
but we can't.
It's completely unknowable.
It's this completely unknown,
unknowable thing
that's coming after her.
♪
Tananarive: From the very
beginning, I was like, eh.
Total male gaze, you know?
Why is she running in heels?
On rewatching it,
I better understand
why she's running in heels,
because she's always running.
♪
That's nothing new
about this running.
She's, like,
running all the time.
Sometimes you just have to run
with what you're wearing.
♪
[phone rings]
Jennifer: Then that
little moment on the beach
where we sort of imagine, like,
oh, this is the girl
that we're gonna follow
for the rest of the film.
Dad? I'm sorry I can be
such a shit to you sometimes.
John: She's plaintively
talking to her father.
I don't know why I do that.
All these different things,
that she knows she's gonna die.
It's the tension of it.
The setup for it is
just, like, what is going on?
And you don't find out what
the thing is until much later.
♪
Jennifer: And then cut
to just that insane image
of her clearly dead
on the beach.
You don't see
the gruesome murder,
but you see the effects of it.
And you see her
all contorted on the beach,
and it's like, oh, fuck.
That's a great setup,
because now,
you know what this guy's
gonna do to you.
What these people
that are following you
are gonna do to you.
♪
Jennifer:
And then the story opens,
you know, where we
sort of are introduced
to the main character.
Then the story unfolds
in a pace
that we can understand.
♪
There was just so much dread
in that film.
It was
a really interesting, smart,
like, new kind of genre piece
that I think
will always be on the list
of films that did something
different with the genre.
♪
Samuel: "The Orphanage"
is wildly elegant,
which is a great tradition
in ghost stories.
♪
You know, it feels like
a very classical haunter.
Lydia: It's so powerful,
and it's not
your typical horror movie.
I know a lot
of Americans watch it,
and they think it's terrifying.
But at the same time,
it's really beautiful.
And you're in the environment
where you're isolated.
You're in an old house.
There's very little
electricity. It's dark.
♪
Samuel:
It really can't get better
than a sack on the head.
And a child-- a child ghost
with a sack on his head
is just-- kids are creepy.
Kids are naturally creepy,
so ghost kids kind of
take that to a new level.
Brea: And it has this scene
where Laura, the main character,
she's looking for her son.
She's convinced he's
in the orphanage somewhere,
and she knows there are
these sort of ghost spirits
of children in the orphanage.
And she thinks
they can help her.
[speaking in Spanish]
So she plays this game,
and there's something
about a children's game
that makes it really scary.
Playing a children's game
with ghosts
is very scary.
The game is,
you say one, two, three,
knock on the wall while
you're looking at the wall,
and then you turn
to see if anybody's coming
because the first person
to get to you wins.
[speaking Spanish]
Brea: And she looks back,
and there's nothing.
And then she starts
to do it again,
and there's a noise behind her.
And she looks back,
and the door is opened.
And then she does it again
[speaking Spanish]
Brea: Turns back,
and there's a ghost child.
There's a ghost child
behind her.
[speaking Spanish]
Fede: Normally, that scene,
she would throw a look,
and you would cut
to what she's looking,
and then go back to her face,
throw a look,
cut to what she's looking,
but Juan A. does
the right thing,
which is decide
to stay on one shot
and just, like, pan.
[speaking Spanish]
Fede: Because when that camera
pans in the theater,
there's no way to stop it.
It's gonna go
where it's gonna go,
and you know something
horrific is gonna show up,
and the kids are gonna be there,
and it's gonna be terrifying.
And eventually, she does it,
and then all of a sudden,
a hand grabs her from behind.
- [speaking Spanish]
♪
Brea: All done in one shot.
So brilliant, so scary,
and just a really great
horror movie scene.
♪
It's incredible
when something so simple
can be so good.
♪
person: What is he
really doing in Salem's Lot?
person: Writing a book,
he says.
[typewriter clicking]
Ben:
I'm writing about a house.
The Marsten House.
I think that an evil house
attracts evil men.
[hissing]
Mick: "Salem's Lot,"
I had my doubts about it
because it was television.
And very few horror movies
for television in the '70s
were very good
because they weren't really made
by people
who cared about the genre.
They weren't genre filmmakers.
In this case,
they brought in Tobe Hooper.
Amanda: Tobe Hooper was coming
off "Texas Chainsaw Massacre"
and "Eaten Alive,"
which are gritty,
grindhousey-type movies.
And he ended up making
this really iconic,
incredible, haunting,
beautiful Stephen King
adaptation for "Salem's Lot."
Mick: For me, the most iconic
scene in that miniseries
was the scene of the boy
outside the window,
scratching at the glass,
trying to convince his friend
to open the window to him
and let him in.
Andy: The kid wakes up.
There's a fog behind the window.
He stands up.
We can't figure out what it is
at the beginning.
And the music
was almost like "Jaws."
It was a
Dun-dun
Dun-dun dun-dun
dun-dun dun-dun ♪
That was really
getting me all worked up.
♪
Andy:
And then he comes forward,
and it's, like,
this kid in the window.
I mean, it's an iconic moment.
[scratches glass]
person: Open the window.
That kid's scratching
at the window.
"Let me in."
Let me in.
It's okay, Mark.
I'm your friend.
He commands it.
Don't let that kid in, man.
I mean, like, how did they
even allow that on television?
Mick:
What was beautiful about it
and made it very otherworldly
and nightmarish,
is that Tobe shot it
in slow motion
and in reverse.
And when it played backwards,
he moving forwards,
but there's something
very foreign and bizarre
and mysterious
and scary about it.
Let me in.
But the worst thing of all
is the eyes, the lit eyes.
I still don't know
how they did it
because it was definitely
not the digital era.
I don't think they were
optical effects either.
I suspect that
they were contact lenses,
that somehow they refracted
the distant light.
And it's really terrifying.
No, Mark.
I just remember not wanting
to fall asleep near a window
for a while.
Mick: It's
a brilliantly conceived scene.
It was very simple to do,
but it took Tobe Hooper
to come up with it.
[organ music]
- [hisses]
Go away.
[bombastic music]
Dana: The best screen version
of "Dracula"
is Hammer Film's 1958,
"The Horror of Dracula"
with Christopher Lee.
♪
Christopher Lee's performance:
legendary.
The description
I read about him,
which was really perfect, was,
"He's a panther."
I mean, he is tall, dangerous
[escalating violins]
Scary.
[dramatic music]
♪
Axelle: The very first time
we see him,
he's in this wide shot
at the top of the stairs.
We can just see his silhouette,
which is very impressive.
He's wearing this cape,
and he's so tall.
And then he comes
down those stairs,
and every time he's shot,
it's kind of at a low angle,
so that already--
just the camera-- shows you
that there's something
a little bit disturbing
about him.
- Mr. Harker.
I'm glad
that you've arrived safely.
But he's so smooth
in the way that he talks,
and so polite, and so nice.
Count Dracula.
I am Dracula,
and I welcome you to my house.
He has that duality of
he is a very respectable man,
but he is a monster.
Please don't
distress yourself.
[sniffles]
Thank you.
Oh, thank you.
Ernest: And I always
loved that sequence
where the female vampire
is trying to seduce
Jonathan Harker.
In your head, you're going,
okay, this is it.
He's gonna get bitten.
[hissing]
And then there's that hiss,
and you cut
to that magnificent close-up
of Christopher Lee
with the blood on his face
and the bloodshot
contact lenses.
The contrast of going
from the gentleman
that we met before--
it's so feral and so raw,
and there's nothing human
about him.
When he hisses and he lunges
and grabs the girl
and throws the girl away,
and then the girl looks like
this weird, feral cat,
where she's got
a little bit of blood on her
and she's ready to pounce.
And she keeps going at him.
- Aah!
And Dracula keeps
throwing her away.
And then when Harker
goes to protect her,
he starts to choke him.
[choking]
Greg: It's such
a terrifying scene,
but there's so much going on.
♪
And he actually
weirdly saves
Jonathan Harker's life
by protecting him from her.
Joe: The kids were choking
on their popcorn
when we saw this 'cause they--
we just weren't used
to seeing this kind of thing.
Whenever anybody talked
about horror movies,
the "Horror of Dracula"
was always the top movie
for the next, I don't know,
decade, I would say.
There were sequels,
there were remakes.
There were
other Dracula movies made,
but the impact
that that one had,
partly because
of when it came out
and partly because of how old
everybody was when they saw it,
made it into sort of
an instant classic.
Ernest: The success
of those films
inspired filmmakers like Bava.
That inspired
the Italian filmmakers.
They wanted to emulate
the success
of Hammer Horror films,
so they started doing some
of their own horror films,
and that's how we got
some of Bava's best work.
Joe: "Black Sabbath"
was a multistory movie.
Ladies and gentlemen,
how do you do?
Karloff was the host,
and he had done a whole series
of introductions
for the Italian version.
But the one
that everybody remembers
is the drop of water.
Boris:
In this tale by Chekhov,
"The Drop of Water,"
we prove that a ghost
doesn't have to be seen
to be believed.
Joe: It's visually one of the
most beautiful pieces of film
that I've seen.
[bell rings]
[cat yowls]
The use of color in it
is just remarkable.
Rebekah:
In "The Drop of Water,"
a nurse is called late night
because this woman has died,
and she kind of has go
kind of declare it dead
and dress the body
for the funeral.
And she gets there,
and she pulls back
these massive bed curtains
And it is this, like,
hideous face of this old woman
just making this
absolutely grimacing face.
It's all teeth and big eyes.
Greg: Still to this day,
a couple friends of mine and I
talk about that.
Like, was that a person?
Was it makeup?
Was it a dummy head?
The eyes looked so real.
It scared the hell out of me.
There was just something
about cutting back to it
♪
And it was just looking.
- [gasps]
Rebekah: We see this fly
buzzing around the room.
And I don't mean like a housefly
is buzzing around the room;
this thing is like
a horsefly
that keeps landing on her.
I mean, ever talks about
how scary the old woman is
in this sequence,
but seriously, that fly
was the creepiest part to me.
- Aah!
It was just gargantuanly huge.
Aah!
Samuel: "The Drop of Water,"
to me, is
the most special kind
of supernatural horror.
It really is about being trapped
and really the slow dread
of being confronted
by a living corpse
♪
Who wants what they want,
even from beyond the grave.
Rebekah: I love this sequence,
because usually,
when you're looking
at kind of horror,
and especially female actresses
during this time period,
they stay
very beautiful throughout.
"Drop of Water,"
actress has just none of that.
Her hair is messed up,
her makeup's all messed up.
She is just thrashed
by the end of this.
[grunts]
[cat yowls]
I recently showed it
to a niece of mine,
you know, who was 14 years old.
And I was thinking,
eh, you know,
is she gonna think
this is as creepy as I do?
And yeah,
it really did creep her out.
The eyes, just the staring eyes,
really bothered her.
[speaking in Japanese]
So "Pulse," or "Kairo,"
is a film essentially
about the Internet
as this conduit for the dead
to move into our physical world.
[speaking Japanese]
Todd: If you think about
how many people have died
over all of human history,
and then all these spirits
have to go somewhere.
And at some point,
when it became too full,
they had to spill out
back into our world.
♪
Nathaniel: "Pulse"
takes all of these ghosts
that are running around
in Japan and puts them--
you might say, it turns them
into the ghosts in the machine.
Supernatural forces have
been trying to take us down
for God knows how long,
but they finally found
a way to do it, you know, just
with the click of a mouse.
spirit: [speaking Japanese]
Todd: The way in which these
ghosts make themselves known
is, as one character puts it,
trapping characters
in their own loneliness,
or their isolation.
[speaking Japanese]
Todd: Operating
on multiple levels,
both the fear of ghosts
and the supernatural
but then fear
of the technology itself
and what it's doing to society.
[speaking in Japanese]
[screams]
- [speaking Japanese]
When I think of iconic moments
and images from "Pulse,"
I think black marks on walls.
It's a character
who has been trapped
in their loneliness
and either disappears
or they will, you know,
actually commit suicide
And this black mark will
sort of indicate
where they killed themselves
or where they ultimately
gave into their loneliness.
Samuel: And I think
it could only be made
by Kiyoshi Kurosawa,
who is
the master of slow dread--
like, the utter king of it.
♪
Probably the pinnacle of that
is that long hallway
with the ghost.
Andy: We see a woman ghost
just standing there,
not doing anything.
And then she comes
walking to us very slowly.
Samuel: Then there's
a ghost who moves
unlike any other ghost
you've ever seen.
Todd: There's this way
in which it's off-kilter
that adds to this atmosphere
of "this is not of this world."
Andy: And then
she seems to fall,
and it was shot at high speed,
so that gives
that ethereal sense of movement
that is terrifying.
[panting]
Samuel: The simplicity of
this is a thing
that should not be here,
and it is coming for you,
and it is moving in a way
that you can't process
because you've never seen
anything like that before,
is really stunning.
[singers vocalizing]
♪
Todd: This is a film
that, like,
I can feel
in the pit of my stomach.
♪
And for some reason,
it's just that absence
where somebody was there,
they're not there,
and then sometimes
they come back,
you know, as an image,
as a ghostly image,
and then it could leave again--
there's something about that
that maybe it speaks to, again,
this idea in Japanese horror
where this corporeal
and the spiritual,
that line gets blurred.
[speaking Japanese]
Todd: You can feel
that emptiness
that is sort
of the metaphysical level
that Kiyoshi Kurosawa's
working on.
[insistent knocking]
Is Tamara here?
No.
No, you've got the wrong house.
You sure?
♪
Amanda: I've seen
so many horror movies,
I actually
don't get scared anymore,
but "The Strangers"
is extremely effective
Possibly because
I'm not expecting
somebody in a doll face mask
to show up at my door.
The home invasion angle of that
has a very realistic edge to it,
and they were actually
based on real-life crimes.
Chad: That kind of just
affects you in a way
that, yes, you're home alone,
there could be somebody
in your house with you,
and you don't know where
they are or what they're doing.
Amanda: They're just
everywhere in the house,
but you don't know
where they are.
And that's really freaky.
Samuel: Liv Tyler's
in the kitchen,
and then he wanders out
and just stares at her,
and, again, doesn't do anything.
It's that agony of,
well, he's not gonna do it now
and you're just
gonna have to wait,
knowing that it's gonna come.
Chad: The fact that
the person comes into frame
and then slowly goes back out--
if she saw that person
behind her in that moment,
that changes
the whole dynamic of the scene
and what we're actually
experiencing as an audience.
James?
Chad: As an audience member,
now you are a step ahead
of where our characters are
and what they're experiencing,
what they're living.
The tension is now
ratcheted up to a ten.
[knife shings]
It just keeps you on edge
for the entire rest
of the movie.
[bang]
- [screaming]
Block the door.
Block the door!
And then you get
to maybe the scariest moment,
which isn't even
a moment of violence.
It's a piece of dialogue, right?
It's when she says
Liv: Why are you
doing this to us?
Dollface:
Because you were home.
It's the one answer
no one ever wants to hear,
is "because you were home."
That's, like,
the one part of the movie
where no matter what
has happened up until then,
you now have goosebumps
and you are terrified
to your core.
Samuel: A lot of movies
don't have
the wherewithal
to stick to that.
They want to find the "reason,"
the "backstory,"
or the "mythology."
And I think "The Strangers"
really sticking to the idea
that is just random
and cruel and violent
hammers home
what's so compelling
about home invasion, which
is that it could happen to you.
[screams]
[sinister music]
Dana: There's
a marked difference
between the horror films
of the '40s
and the horror films
of the '30s:
it came out
of Universal Studios.
♪
Out of that bunch,
there were some classics,
"The Wolf Man" being the one
that immediately leaps to mind.
"The Wolf Man"
is one of those situations
where everything just happened
to work out perfectly.
person: Well, there's
something very tragic
about that man.
Why does everyone insist
that I'm confused?
"The Wolf Man" was
one of the first horror films
that I ever saw.
"The Wolf Man" grabbed me
and dragged me
into the love affair
that has continued
to this day with horror.
Lon Chaney Jr. was someone
that I just felt an instant
empathy towards as a kid,
and I still do as an adult.
The performance that he gives
as Larry Talbot
is just so vulnerable
and sad and beautiful.
[music bends flat]
It's interesting when you look
at the transformation
sequence again
from the first "Wolf Man,"
is it happens on the feet.
You're aware
of what's about to happen,
and then it tilts down,
and then the feet change.
You never see him transform
in the first movie.
You see him transform back
at the end.
I always was--
and still to this day--
fascinated with that makeup
because the makeup changes
from film to film.
David: The makeup
is just insane.
That is the iconic moment to me,
watching Lon Chaney Jr.
transform into the wolf
the first time
and seeing his face
go through that.
Keith: The way Talbot turns
into the wolf man,
oh, that shit-- I mean, that--
it's still one of
my favorite cinematic moments,
just watching
those layers come on.
Greg: The idea
that Jack Pierce
had to go into the stage
and all his stuff was probably
right there off-camera,
and here's the camera,
and he would go in,
work a little bit, step away.
It would take six hours
or seven hours
to do that transformation.
David: There have been so many
legendary makeup artists
in the history of cinema
and horror cinema,
but you think about that film
and the way that
it kind of paved a path
for generations to come.
American horror films
in the '30s and '40s,
people immediately go
to Universal Studios.
But there was a whole other
horror factory at that time,
in Hollywood, at RKO studios,
under the supervision
of Val Lewton.
He had a series of studio
executives that hated him
because he refused
to do what they wanted.
They gave him "Cat People,"
and they wanted "The Wolf Man"
with a cat,
which was a terrible idea.
[chuckles]
You wake up and go, "My God,
what happened to the yarn?"
[speaking Russian]
Dana: But he would,
almost to spite them,
create these really
brilliant, intelligent,
intellectual,
psychological dramas.
Joe: The idea of "Cat People"
is that
when the heroine is aroused,
she turns into an animal.
That was
a moderately risky premise
for a movie in 1942.
And the ads for "Cat People"
are so lurid.
I mean, they've got these
pictures of Simone Simon
with, like,
horrible hands and claws
and drippy stuff coming out
on all the artwork,
none of which is in the movie.
[cat meows]
[meow]
[faint growling]
[meow]
There's a scene in "Cat People"
where the second lead actress,
who is competing
with Simone Simon's husband
for affection
but is very much
on the up and up
and is obviously supposed
to be someone we like,
goes for a swim in
what looks like a YMCA pool.
[growling]
Justina: She hears growling.
She sees something
in the shadows
coming down the stairs,
and that's the only way
in and out of that pool area.
So the only thing
she can think of doing
is jumping
in the middle of the pool,
which puts her
in a vulnerable position
because what if
that creature can swim,
you know, and it jumps in there
and claws your face off?
Joe: And there's also
a brief glimpse
of what could be a panther.
You're never quite sure
exactly what it is
that you see.
Ernest:
What the audience can imagine
can sometimes be scarier
and more terrifying
than what you can show them.
[snarling]
Something's in the dark
that you can't see,
but you know it can see you.
[yowling]
[screams]
Help!
Aah!
Help!
Some of the most effective
moments in horror films
are moments where the audience
thinks it's seeing something
or has barely gotten
a glimpse of something
and aren't sure
there's something moving.
[screams]
But that kind of subtlety
is unfortunately kind of rare
in the genre.
[flock flapping]
Mick: "The Birds"
is a monster movie.
Hitchcock made a horror movie
a monster movie,
and it's shocking
and horrifying,
particularly in 1963.
[birds screeching]
Tananarive:
Birds diving at children,
so you've got screaming children
being attacked by birds.
What could be
more perfect than that?
[screaming]
Tom: Hitchcock went
to visual sequences
again and again and again
in his films.
♪
I think that that's
what made Hitchcock so great.
You'll see Hitchcock films
that don't work,
but you'll very seldom see one
that won't have
some phenomenal shot in it.
chef: Get out! Watch out!
Tippy:
Oh! Oh!
[all screaming]
[birds screeching, screaming]
Andrew: I mean,
I remember the famous scene
where Tippy's
in the telephone booth.
And the birds are attacking,
and A happens,
and B happens, and C happens,
and before you know it,
there's this huge,
you know, conflagration
at the gas station.
And then it just pours on
with these bird attacks.
Imagine if you were
in a telephone booth
surrounded by these birds,
that they're diving at you.
Hitchcock takes you
into a circle of hell
when the whole town is attacked.
And one
of the most memorable scenes
was your watching
through the bird's-eye view.
And you look down to see
this decimated, desolated area.
Tom: That is what's called
a visual set piece.
And even though
it's early special effects--
obviously they didn't have CGI--
it works.
I think "The Birds"
still holds up today,
and it's scary.
[sentimental music]
♪
Alex: "Mulholland Drive"
actually has
one of my favorite taglines.
"A story about love
in the City of Dreams."
Mm, just tells you everything
that you need to know
about that movie.
Living in Los Angeles,
seeing all the people
that live here,
all the characters,
there are so many
cautionary tales like that
that you come face-to-face
with all the time.
And he captures it beautifully.
[siren wailing]
Joe: The Winkie's diner scene
at the beginning of the movie,
it doesn't really seem
to have any connection
to the rest of the movie,
but, in a funny way, it does
after you see it
a couple of times.
I just wanted to come here.
To Winkie's?
This Winkie's.
Joe: That was the scene
with characters
that we don't know who they are.
And they're in a diner.
We don't know where it is.
Why this Winkie's?
It's kind of embarrassing.
Alex: And this all seems like
it's apropos of nothing
and he's talking
about a dream he had
I had a dream
about this place.
Oh, boy.
And that it took place
at the diner
and that they were sitting
across from each other,
talking to each other
like they're doing right now.
There's a man.
In back of this place.
He's the one who's doing it.
Andy: And the great thing
about that scene
is the slow burn
that happens before
I hope that
I never see that face,
ever, outside a dream.
Andy: All that conversation
that they have in the diner,
the camera is not static,
and it's not moving
on a dolly or anything.
It's just, like,
sort of floating,
up and down and to the sides,
so it already immerses you
in some kind of oneiric state.
Lethargic.
And then they walk out of it,
and something
very special happens,
which is
the camera doesn't stop.
They are walking, of course.
It's justified by them walking.
There's a growing sense
of dread,
and you don't know why
or when it's going to explode.
It's a camera that keeps
moving towards a corner,
and moving, moving forward,
and you know
what's gonna happen.
The worst thing
that a camera can do
is take you to the monster.
And that's exactly what happens.
And that's it.
Game over.
person: Dan, Dan, Dan, Dan.
Dan, are you all right?
Jonah: "Mulholland Drive,"
which is just kind of,
you know, moody and creepy
most of the time,
is all of a sudden
the scariest movie
that's ever been made.
Alex: I feel almost like
that's his statement
on this cliché of,
there's nothing to fear
but fear itself,
and your fears are just that,
and they're just nightmares.
Like, no, sometimes
there's a fucking monster there
and you die of fright,
and it's not okay at all.
[whispering] Silencio.
Chucky: Hi, I'm Chucky,
and I'm your friend to the end.
Hidey-ho!
Aah! Aah!
"Child's Play"
is a fantastic film.
Karen: Nobody believes you
about Chucky.
Unless you start
telling the truth,
they're going
to take you away from me.
I think the moment
that really grabs you
and makes you jump is
when Chucky fully comes online
in front of Mom.
Maybe Andy should spend
a couple of days with us.
Ryan: You have mom
whose kid has now been
whisked away by the officials.
And she comes home distraught,
stressed beyond belief,
and you're kind of
tracking her belief system.
And she sets Chucky down,
and she's like,
"Okay,
if I'm gonna believe my kid,
I'm gonna take a whack at this
and try to get Chucky to talk."
Say something, damn it!
Hi! I like to be hugged.
[chuckles]
- What I love about it is that
she's escalating the tension
with this doll in the moment.
[eerie music]
Tom: Then she sees that
stupid Good Guy box there,
in the kitchen, and she goes
to throw it away, and
[thud]
The batteries drop out.
Ryan: The discovery
of the batteries
is when things
really become heightened
because now she suspects
something supernatural
is occurring.
She turns him over, face down,
and she opens the battery box
in the back
and it's empty.
Hi! I'm Chucky.
Wanna play?
- [screams]
Tom: And now the doll
rolls underneath the couch,
which was a very,
very difficult shot to get,
by the way.
It felt like two hours.
I went through hell
trying to get the doll
to fall and roll under.
We put the floor
on an angle like that
and then shot it like this
so we could get that moment
when the doll hit
and rolled under the couch.
She drags the doll out.
And she stands up.
And now she's getting
really frustrated.
How is she gonna make this doll
come alive and talk to her?
I said, talk to me, damn it,
or else I'm gonna throw you
in the fire.
You stupid bitch!
You filthy slut!
- [screams]
I'll teach you
to fuck with me!
- No! No!
Fede:
It's just so bananas, right?
But it's so amazing.
And it's hilarious
to burst into all these curses.
[growls]
- Aah! No!
[screams]
Fede: Watching that,
I couldn't help think
how someone dared
to go for this idea.
Like, a puppet, that
it's just gonna turn diabolic?
But that scene, where really
the whole concept cooks.
Tom: I've done so many movies
that seemed like
they were impossible to make.
The question was,
how was I going
to bring the doll alive?
How was I going
to make something
that's about 4-foot tall
seem like it could be murderous?
[harrowing music]
[growling]
Aah!
I had seen
the TV movie of the week
called "Trilogy of Terror,"
directed by Dan Curtis,
where Karen Black
brings back a Zuni doll.
Karen: Boy, are you ugly?
[screaming]
Tom: And the doll comes alive,
and all of a sudden,
she's trapped in this apartment
with
a foot-and-a-half wooden doll
that's trying to kill her.
[screaming]
Tom: What Dan Curtis did,
is he put the camera
on a skateboard.
These dynamic shots
of the doll chasing her
from the doll's point of view.
And then he'd cut to the doll,
and what he'd do is just
shake this dumb wooden doll.
And it was terrifying!
So I knew
when I got into my suspense
and action sequences
with Chucky,
if I'd cut to a point of view,
then I had potential
for a terrifying
action/suspense sequence.
Batter up!
That's why I love it so much.
It just shows so much bravery
from everybody involved
in this concept, in that movie,
from the actor, director,
and everybody on set that day.
They really went for it.
Ugly doll.
Fuck you.
David: But Jack
Jack: What?
Where are we going?
- I don't know.
I'll tell you when we get there.
Okay, 'cause-- [roaring]
[gunshots]
I think the scene in
"American Werewolf in London"
that actually is
one of the scariest scenes
is a dream sequence.
You don't really know
it's a dream sequence at first.
Kermit: Puppetry is
an art form, Piggy.
Miss Piggy:
You call that violence art?
A wonderful misdirect
because that scene starts
with "The Muppet Show."
It's a good,
aggressive behavior.
Better than my act?
Nothing bad happens
during "The Muppet Show."
"The Muppet Show" isn't scary.
"The Muppet Show" is funny.
Kermit: Now just
[knocking at door]
Heidi: Your main character,
David Naughton,
is at home with his family,
and it kind of seems
like a normal night,
and he's at the table
doing his homework.
The whole family's here,
and you're kind of thrown off
because you're like,
is this a flashback
or a time jump?
There's our guy.
Here's David.
It's his family.
We haven't met them.
They seem happy.
They can't be.
Something's up.
But "The Muppet Show" is on.
[knocking at door]
Get the door!
And there's a knock
at the door.
I'll get it.
And when the father
goes to the door
All right, all right.
Hold your horses.
You just don't know
what's behind it.
It's just
this very average door.
[knocking at door]
All right already!
There's something
about the not knowing
what's on the other side
that really gets to me.
[gunfire]
It's these mutated Nazis
with machine guns.
Stop! Aah!
Ryan: There's a moment
where, like,
Mom just flies
off the screen entirely.
You see
the children sitting here.
They mow the children down.
[all screaming]
It's just, like,
almost needlessly aggressive.
Amanda: He is
subconsciously working through
what he's about to become.
So, for him,
Nazis represent monsters
Aah!
And he is turning
into a monster.
And this the only way
I think his subconscious
can kind of understand
what's happening to him
and this transformation
that's still not there yet
but it's coming.
And it's really poignant.
And it's unique.
And then we snap out of it,
and we're like, thank God.
Hello.
And you see Jenny Agutter
there at the bedside.
That's always comforting.
I've just had a nightmare.
Not to worry.
I have just the thing.
And then she gets up
and pulls the curtain.
[monster shrieks]
Alex!
[monster shrieking]
And then we wake up again.
And then David Naughton
says the one thing
that everyone watching
this movie is thinking,
which is
Holy shit.
And it's just such
a satisfying laugh.
It's the best energy
of, like, horror and comedy,
I think I've ever seen
because the release
is so satisfying.
It was kind of the first
fake-out dream sequence
to be found in horror movies,
and that's back in 1981.
Since then, it's been
replicated a number of times,
more or less successfully--
usually less--
but nobody expected
that double twist.
I love when a film
does something like that.
I've just had a nightmare.
Heidi: You can't trust
what happens next.
You have no idea
if anything you're watching
at any moment
is gonna suddenly be blown out
of the water as a dream
or as a fantasy
or as a hallucination.
It's really fun and unsettling
when horror films do that.
Can I have a piece of toast?
Get the fuck outta here, Jack.
[dramatic music]
♪