The 101 Scariest Horror Movie Moments of All Time (2022) s01e06 Episode Script

[suspenseful music]
♪
[all screaming]
♪
Horror movies
always have iconic moments
that people remember
both: Forever and ever.
[muffled screaming]
Either fondly
[screaming]
Or with fear.
Imagery has a great deal to do
with what people remember
about horror films,
and also sound.
Sound is a major component.
[clinking]
[suspenseful whoosh]
And, you know, with the images,
you can play it contrapuntally
or with something that
that doesn't match the image
or something that overpowers
the image.
[thunder booms]
Turned to blue!
Or maybe when there's
no sound at all,
which sometimes
can be even scarier.
[no audio]
[breathing shakily]
I'm scared to close my eyes.
I'm scared to open them.
I'm gonna die out here.
"The Blair Witch Project"
changed the way
movies were made forever.
There's no overstating
the difference
between before and after
found footage was done.
Oh, my God!
What the fuck is that?
It had no budget.
It didn't really have sets.
It didn't really have a script.
And instead
of apologizing for that,
it made those its strengths.
Okay, I got you.
- This is my home.
Okay.
Which I am leaving the
comforts of for the weekend
to explore the Blair Witch.
All over the place.
Holy shit.
Come up here quick!
I need to use the CP!
Movies didn't look like this
at the time,
so I assumed if it
was found footage,
it had to be a real movie,
because who would put out
a movie that looked like
such a piece of shit
and call it a real movie?
So I thought it was real.
And that made it
so much scarier.
Woke up this morning,
just, like, two seconds ago,
and there are piles of rocks
outside of our tent.
The scary things in
that film are all up here.
It's the viewer
filling in the blanks.
There's no jump scares
in there, per se.
It's just the sense of dread
and discomfort.
Did you take it?
No, I didn't take
the fucking map, man.
Are you fucking serious?
- I'm fucking serious.
I don't have the map, okay?
That's the tree we crossed.
That tree is down.
That's the same one.
Oh, God!
- No.
The cinematography
and the performance
of that lead actress are so real
that you constantly check,
"Is this fake?
Is this real?
Is this fake?"
What's that sound?
[creepy squealing]
[gasps]
- Jesus.
[objects rustling rapidly]
Go!
Fucking go!
Aah!
At some point in the story,
they talk about this kid's put,
you know, against the wall
as a punishment
while they were killing
the other one.
But they don't make
a meal out of it.
They just mention it,
but it stays with you.
What he did is he took
the kids down to the basement
by twos, and he made one
face into the corner.
Really?
And then he would
kill the other one.
He could feel the
eyes watching him.
That's why he made him face
into the corner like that.
It's a terrifying story,
but you don't think there's
gonna be much, you know,
to do with anything, that it's
just a thing the said.
And then when it happens
on that climax
of her running around
trying to find her friend,
and then you finally see him--
I still remember
that terrifying moment
of just seeing him
and understanding--
on, like, what,
like, 10 frames?--
understanding that
if he's up against the wall
and they said that
that's what they did while they
kill the other one, then--
And before you
can process the idea
[screams] [thud]
She's hit, and the camera's
on the floor, and it's over.
Such a brilliant concept.
Great storytelling.
You get the setup
and the payoff.
You get the setup-- this is
what the Blair Witch does--
and you get the payoff,
and you go, "Oh, God!
I know what's happening.
I get it."
It's really thanks
to an ending like that,
like "Blair Witch," that
it just exploded the phase
of found-footage films.
You look at franchises
like "Paranormal Activity."
It really came from a movie
like "Blair Witch."
You gonna write us
a happy ending, Heather?
♪
Dealing with demons
is not my area.
I'm very uncomfortable with it.
And I'll tell you,
quite frankly,
I sense that there's something
going on in this house.
"Paranormal Activity"
is about a couple who fear
their home is haunted,
and so they set up cameras
throughout the house
All right,
we're operational, babe.
Ooh.
- Sweet.
To capture what
is happening at night.
I think I'm gonna have
a very interesting time
capturing whatever
paranormal phenomena
is occurring
or is not occurring.
I kind of think it should
point down the hallway.
I mean, that's where
we heard its footsteps.
And, you know, what is
causing these strange instances
of the main character,
Katie, getting up
and sleepwalking
♪
Clearly being afflicted
by something.
Whatever it is
that's following me,
it doesn't feel human.
That sounds
actually like a demon.
There are these malevolent,
evil spirits
that only exist to cause pain.
[thud]
What the fuck is that?
And so the movie
is essentially you
following these pieces
of footage with them
and going on their journey.
The camera's not moving so much.
It's really about anticipation
and really about empty space
and when something
is gonna happen.
[distant scream, both shout]
And it really worked, and
it really scared people.
I feel it breathing on me.
[all screaming]
The power of many
"Paranormal Activity" scenes
for me work in
the sound design as well,
because you know,
when you hear the low rumble,
you know something bad is
about to occur.
[gasping]
I'll never forget
sitting in an audience,
and you hear, "mmmmmm,"
and everybody goes, "ooh,"
and they're all anticipating
something to come.
It's pure
front-of-the-house fun.
Micah! Micah! Micah! Micah!
♪
For me, the creepiest scene
was when Katie's, like,
standing over the bed.
That scene really just got
under my skin
in a way that a lot
of horror films don't.
In this really weird,
kind of sleepwalk-y way,
she stands next to
the bed looking at him
for what seems to be hours.
And it's fast-forwarded through,
so you don't have to sit
through hours.
But you're like,
"Oh, my dear God,
something is very wrong here."
I think, for a lot of
people, they were just like,
"What if I woke up
and saw my loved one
just standing by the side
of the bed, just watching?"
It's like, "Who am I living
my life with?
"Who am I sharing
this world with?
"And what do I actually know
about them
at any given moment?"
Obviously, not
everybody's partner
is possessed by a demon
at a certain point,
but, like, there are moments
where you feel like that.
I'm trying to solve
the problem here.
I didn't bring that thing
into the house!
Well, don't do me any--
- You did!
And you're like, "I don't
know who you are right now.
Like, we are arguing
not in a nice way."
You're not in control.
It is in control.
And if you think
you're in control,
then you're being an idiot.
And I think that's
the relatability
that you kind of get
out of those situations.
Micah!
Katie!
[both screaming]
[whispering] Hey, come on.
I'll show you where
my dad keeps his gun.
Come on.
"The Sixth Sense" is a
really well constructed story.
[whispering]
I see dead people.
Beautifully paced,
beautifully timed,
with a killer-- no punish
intended-- twist ending
that validates the whole story.
How does the story end?
I don't know.
The entire film
really rests on the shoulders
of this kid I had never seen,
Haley Joel Osment, who plays
this kid with so much heart.
The reason that
movie is so scary
is that you're afraid for him
and you're afraid
for his mother.
Her child is very troubled,
says weird things.
They used to hang people here.
Not getting along
with the other kids.
No! No!
And to me, that's
kind of the doorway
into the real-life horror.
You're a single mother
with a troubled child.
As a mother, that's already
a horrifying premise.
Cole, what's wrong?
Oh, God, please tell me.
And I haven't seen that
movie in such a long time,
but the scenes
were intense enough
to stay with you forever.
The scene when he
goes to the bathroom,
and it remind you of that fear
of when you were a kid,
just going
to the bathroom very quickly,
trying to go back to your bed.
M. Night does this great thing
with the temperature.
When the ghost shows up,
it gets colder.
You can see his breath, so
you know that it's happening.
Like, the anticipation and
the build-up of that film
just a master class in horror.
Mama.
No.
Dinner is not ready.
What are you gonna do?
You can't hurt me anymore!
My favorite moment
is when the girl throwing up
shows up inside his tent.
It's all about misdirection
like good jump scares
usually are.
How do you convince
the whole audience
the terror is where it's not?
Usually the audience
knows better,
and they know, and it's
hard to trick them.
But in that moment, where-- in
the scene, he looks up,
and the little clips start
opening up and opening up,
and you think, clearly,
that thing is outside,
because otherwise, why
open the things up there?
And the camera drops, and it's,
like, right in front of you.
Which makes no sense.
Why was it opening the clips?
The only reason
it was doing that
is just to justify the camera
being up there
and misleading you
to believe the thing
was gonna come from the outside.
[chuckles]
Just incredible.
As terrifying as it is
for him--
'cause he's always scared.
Do you want to tell me
something?
He's been scared
through the whole movie.
But this is the first
time he's scared,
but he's armed
with knowledge now.
There's something
that he can actually do
with this information.
She wanted to
tell you something.
It actually means something
in the real world.
But the real tragedy
is finding out exactly what
happened, that her mother was
slowly poisoning her food
the entire time
because she just
couldn't take the strains
of that relationship.
And I think that type
of torment of a child
just hits everybody
at their core
because there is this,
like, innocent girl that's
going through this
horrible situation.
And you have this other
innocent child that is
putting that story together.
You were keeping her sick.
It's just so
heartbreaking in a way
that it affects you emotionally,
and you're then emotionally
connected to that character
rather than being
scared by the imagery.
They scare me, too, sometimes.
I think that's the reason
that movie actually hits
on another level.
[screams]
♪
"Let the Right One In"
was wonderful
because it was so grounded.
First, it's shot
so majestically.
It's shot by a person that
doesn't want to scare you.
They want you to be
very familiar with the scenes.
And suddenly, they just blow
your head up with a hammer.
The proximity of the
camera to the violence
is really extraordinary
and also really restrained.
We as the audience watch
at a distance
in this beautiful freezing
landscape,
one victim after another being
taken out by this
not just sympathetic
but sort of, like,
empathetic young vampire.
The whole movie to me
is this love affair,
and these two kids live in
these two different worlds
of how they see life,
because he's one species
and she's another,
and they exist in the same place
because they like each other.
And she starts being
protective of him.
It's one of the things
that made it unique--
the innocence
of the kids' first love,
but that first love is a
vampire, and is she a kid?
There's a very
unique moment there
where she's, like, licking
the blood from the floor.
[slurping]
And she looks up,
and she's not a child,
and she's not a girl.
What is that?
The scene that stayed with me
is the scene in the pool.
That scene was perfect.
Everybody's
having a good time.
The kids are swimming,
and he's swimming.
And here comes the guy
that bothers him at school,
bothers him in the neighborhood.
Brought his older brother
with him
and his friends,
too, for revenge.
He pushes him
down into the water,
and you see this kid,
he doesn't know what to do,
and he's just trying
to hold his breath,
trying to hold his breath.
All you see is little bits
of bubbles coming out,
so it's starting to move,
it's starting to move.
And you're just waiting.
And it makes these seconds
last longer and longer
and longer.
For a director,
it's all about point of view.
The same scene can be
terrifying from here,
it'll be hilarious and funny
from over there.
It's all about knowing exactly
where to put the camera.
And I think the director
definitely finds
the only place where you
can put the camera, I guess,
for that scene
and just makes it unique.
And then out of nowhere, you
hear these different sounds.
[clattering]
[faint screaming]
But you don't know
what they are.
It's not music.
It's not people splashing.
And before you know it,
all these other things
start happening.
You don't know
what's going on up there,
but we understand when the
hand that is pulling his hair
finally drops,
and we realize it has been
chopped at the elbow.
And now you know
he's being protected
by this girl that loves him.
And not the time
to mess with her guy.
It's horrific
in the way she's doing it--
just so animalistic.
But at the same time,
the passion of it is so human.
For such a scary movie,
it was suddenly, like,
the feel-good scene of the movie
because you were so happy
that she showed up,
even though she slaughtered
all these kids
and most of them
were quite innocent.
It's a beautiful scene
in a way.
[laughs]
What I liked about the latest
"Invisible Man" movie
is that he's a villain
in this story.
He's an abusive man.
♪
And Elizabeth Moss
finally gets up the courage
to leave him,
not realizing that he's working
on this kind of suit that will
make him invisible to people.
So he starts stalking her,
gaslighting her,
doing all the horrible things
that abusive people do.
And nobody believes her.
Right there. Right there.
There were footprints.
I saw it.
You saw-- you saw footprints?
In the sheets!
I saw it right there!
And her own sister
doesn't believe her.
Her sister thinks
that she's losing her mind.
He's-- he's doing this to me.
You need some medication.
And that's
the terror of being a victim.
If you're a victim
of domestic violence,
if you're a victim of abuse
and you go to tell people
what's happened
and no one believes you,
they start to
question your sanity,
that is the ultimate
hell for a victim.
And what's beautiful
about that film
and why it's so perfectly
written is it puts all of us
into her driver's seat.
This is what he does.
He makes me feel
like I'm the crazy one.
Listen to me!
The restaurant scene
with Elizabeth Moss
and her sister
is such a great moment,
because Leigh is already
creating tension
because it's these two sisters
who have just had a falling-out
and are coming back together.
And it's Elizabeth Moss
making, like, one final plea
of, "I need help."
And then you've got this waiter
who comes into the moment.
Hi.
Hey.
Hey, guys.
My name is Taylor, and I will
be taking care of you
this evening.
Do you know how
this place works?
I'm assuming you order
food, then you eat it.
And so it's all about
creating a level of comfort
and disarming the audience.
Leigh does a great job
of convincing you that
nothing bad is gonna happen.
Maybe she won't believe her.
Maybe that's the worst
that's gonna happen.
Her sister won't believe her
story or something-- big deal.
You're completely relaxed,
and that's when they get you.
Then Leigh introduces
a giant knife to that scene.
[chuckles]
It's some kind of suit
that Adrian has built,
and it has cameras,
and it somehow--
What?
[gasps]
Then it just happens so fast,
I just was like, "Holy fuck."
Like, that scene-- I went back
to see it, like, three times
in the theater just to
watch people's reaction
to that scene.
People just were, like,
screamed out loud,
and it was just, like, silence.
One of the all-time shockers
of films
that I've seen
in my life, actually.
The best villains in movies,
you cannot help but admire
how smart the bad guy is,
and that's what it does.
And usually what that
means is how smart
the writer
and the directors are,
because that's what
it does to me when I watch it.
I was like, "Smart
motherfucker, how he came up
"with that idea and that
concept that he was gonna
"kill her and put the knife
in her hand,
and now she's really fucked."
[breathing shakily]
♪
My center horror is being
watched and not being known--
being observed
without my consent.
Watch out. He's looking
through the window.
And "Wait Until Dark"
does that to such effect.
And it has all of the things
that I love about horror--
excellent acting, tension,
unexpected choices, jump scares,
and a plot
that is kind of a romp.
It's Audrey Hepburn
who's blind.
Do I have to be the
world's champion blind lady?
Yes.
She's been left on her own
by her husband,
who's gone off
on this wild-goose chase.
Mr. Hendrix
won't wait forever.
Shall we go to work, children?
And these three guys think
that she has a doll
full of heroin,
which she doesn't even know
anything about.
So they're trying to pry it
out of her
by doing all these charades
and things.
What is it you want?
Tell me who you are.
Forgive me for bursting in
on you like this.
Has my father been here?
Once the other shoe drops
and she figures out
what's going on
He had on the exact
same shoes as his father.
What?
One of them
squeaked a little bit.
Alan Arkin, who
is the nastiest of the bunch,
decides he's gonna
handle it by himself,
and it leads to a really
terrifying final half hour.
No!
It is a different role
for Audrey Hepburn,
where she's not the ingenue and
sort of like the ballerina,
the very fragile lovely lady.
But that's sort
of an iconic horror trope.
They will take
these very fragile women
and beat them and beat them
and beat them and beat them
No!
Until they become Ripley.
And that is
that feminist undertone
that's always been there
in horror.
So it's very late at night,
so she figures,
well, she knows Alan Arkin's
coming for her,
so she winds up
smashing all the lights
in the hall and her apartment,
making everything pitch-black.
And her husband's
a photographer,
so there's this big
thing of chemicals
in the back of the apartment.
So she winds up figuring out
a way to say,
"Oh, are you looking at me?"
Mr. Roat.
- Hmm?
Are you looking at me?
- Yes.
And at the end,
Audrey Hepburn stabs Alan Arkin.
And she only forgot one light,
and that's the refrigerator.
So you have this one little
light kind of shining
through the apartment, and
she's running to the right,
and Alan Arkin just goes
[screaming]
And it is, like, still
just a great moment
to get an audience just
to fly up and hit the ceiling.
It's kind of goofy.
Like, the camera's
in the wrong angle,
kind of on the side.
Character moving away, someone
jumping from left to right.
It's such a weird thing.
Like, you don't do
that these days.
Like, you would never
No one in their right mind
would decide that's a good
angle for the jump scare.
For some reason, it's great.
It's not just the jump.
It's the five minutes
leading up to it.
It's the cranking up
and up and up and up.
I think it's a lot more
difficult than people realize.
You can't just have constant
jump scares by themselves.
It doesn't work.
You think
you're watching a story
about a blind girl
dealing with a break-in
in her apartment.
What you're really watching
is a story
about a woman with a disability
who overcomes impossible odds
to survive.
And that, I think,
is what makes horror last
through the ages--
is when you get that
combination of storytelling
plus revelation.
[screaming]
♪
"Don't Breathe"
is about this bunch
of teenagers in Detroit
in a real bad part
of the neighborhood.
And they try
and figure out a way
to get out of there, to get
out of no future, in a way.
As a side job, they rob houses.
1837 Buena Vista Street.
Guy who owns it-- no family,
just him in the house.
This guy is sitting
on at least
[drums fingers rapidly]
300K.
Boom!
Is he blind?
Lost his sight
in Iraq or something.
We do this tonight.
[dog barking]
♪
Who-- who's there?
They think it's an easy target
because the owner
of the house is blind.
Stay right fucking there.
♪
I know what's in there, and
I ain't leaving without it.
You got me?
But little did they know
how many secrets
there was gonna be in there.
♪
Obviously, the blind guys can
be more capable than you think.
But then there's
just a lot more to it.
You're in a house
with a man who cannot see you.
♪
But he is highly skilled
at killing you.
[chuckles]
I wanted this blind man
to kick their ass every time.
But as the movie went on,
seeing what he was capable of
♪
Oh, my goodness,
what is going on?
Actually, the blind man
is a monster.
The blind man wants--
at first, we think it's just
to punish the girl
that took away his daughter.
She's the one
who killed his daughter.
But then we understand
that basically
he was forcing her
to give back the life she took.
Cindy took my
child away from me.
I thought
it's only fair
That she give me a new one.
She was pregnant with my baby.
Now, the turkey baster scene
starts when you realize he's
not gonna give up on his plan.
So but now Rocky,
the main character,
having been the one that
caused the death of Cindy,
now she's gonna have
to take her place.
I'm not a rapist.
I never forced myself on her.
And then he takes out--
You know,
without saying much about it,
you just discover
what's happened
as he takes the turkey baster
and sucks something into it.
And that's when I think most
people start figuring it out.
You can't do this to me.
Not everybody, which I think
is great about some scenes.
It's like, there's two guys
in the audience that gets it.
They go, like, "Oh, whoa, whoa,
whoa, what's happening?"
There's nothing a man
cannot do once he accepts
the fact that there is no God.
And then, like,
five more in the back.
And then the whole
audience start,
like, talking and screaming.
But it's not a jump scare.
It's completely opposite.
It's just, like, this slow wave,
as people start
realizing what's happening.
You'll breed well.
- No.
Get away from me.
No!
Every woman's worst nightmare,
seeing that, all the
way to the pubic hair
floating inside
the turkey baster,
which is quite grotesque.
Yeah, he really got our
attention on that one.
That shot-- bleh!
Bleh!
I can't take it.
It's so gross.
That was one of those moments
where you're like,
"Oh, man, really?
"We went there?
Holy crap, I hope this guy gets
his ass kicked."
Ugh.
And then it gets quiet,
and you go, "This is it.
This is how this is gonna go."
And then, thank God,
there's a twist.
Alex, played
by Dylan Minnette, comes back
and save her
right before he can do it.
And then I think
the best part of the scene--
what got the biggest reaction,
which is when Rocky
gets the chance
to get revenge, grabs
the turkey baster,
and shoves it down
the blind man's throat,
and he gags on his own semen.
How's that taste?
The first time
we show it to an audience
in a theater, all the ladies
were jumping and screaming,
like, "Yeah!
Fuck, yeah!"
Like, "Let's go."
And all the men were, like
[gagging]
Like, completely
grossed out by it,
which I find hilarious still.
[coughs, gags]
♪
I can't imagine
anything more terrifying
than waking up in a dark,
dirty dungeon
with just a table of tools
next to you--
and not just surgical tools,
like, hardware tools.
You have no idea
what's going on.
You don't know
how you got there.
You're alone.
It doesn't seem like
anyone can hear you scream.
And then a person
in dirty medical gear
and clothing comes in,
and they're not
even acknowledging you,
other than a quick glance.
And he just starts drilling
into parts of the body,
intentionally in places
that aren't gonna kill him,
that are just going to
torture him and really hurt.
Oh, my God!
The first thing
they do is to drill in his leg.
And you think
you're not gonna see it
because most people will have
never show it at the time.
And then they cut to close-up
of the drill.
[screaming]
And then there's this shot
of when he left the drill,
and you see just flesh
around the drill bit.
It wasn't just blood.
It just left the reminders
of it.
It was gruesome,
realistic, grounded,
and also the whole
concept of the movie
comes together in that scene.
I have money.
I'll fucking pay you--
ten times, two times,
whatever you want.
Pay me?
- Yes.
No one is paying me.
In fact,
I'm the one paying them.
You think that you're
watching a torture-porn film,
but you're really
getting a commentary
on the class system.
And you don't realize
that until weeks later,
and kind of the imagery has
faded away,
that the message
has stayed with you,
this idea that, "There's
nothing you can pay me.
I'm paying to do this."
For 50 grand,
she better be worth it,
know what I mean?
This idea of
money and power and youth.
This is something
you never forget, right?
Right?
And those of us
who want to destroy youth
and what we would pay for that
and the dark side of tourism.
[screaming]
- Get your own fucking room.
I paid for this.
All of that
heightened MFA thought.
But nothing compares to the
drill going into the muscle.
And both of those things
exist simultaneously.
That's what horror
gives us-- is both.
♪
I feel like something bad
is gonna happen to me.
I feel like something
bad has happened.
It hasn't reached me yet,
but it's on its way.
"Lake Mungo" is one
of the greatest horror movies
ever made, period.
And whenever people ask me
for horror recommendations,
it's the first film I recommend.
Police continue to hold
grave fears
for 16-year-old Alice Palmer,
who disappeared
while picnicking
with her family.
It's shot like a sit-down
interview documentary
about a family whose
daughter drowned,
and then the strange events
that started to happen
in their house
that may or may not be
a haunting.
What was
in the April 28th photograph?
Well
it would appear that Alice
is standing against the fence.
And what's great is there's
all these different aesthetics.
There's a very classical
documentary aesthetic,
very formal.
Then there's a lot
of re-creation
and nature photography,
and that does a great job
at contrasting
the documentary footage,
because it has a stillness
and a weirdness
and a Lynchian quality.
Everything just feels off or
feels not like it should be,
like a disruption.
It felt a little strange
having my mother there
for Alice.
It just didn't feel like
the right order of things.
I think that's what horror
is-- like, a complete disruption
of how you think things
should go.
And we discover
that before her death,
their daughter had gone
on a class trip
with her friends to Lake Mungo,
which is out in the desert,
and she had come back
from that disturbed.
"I was overcome
by this intense sadness.
"Then the sadness
changed to fear.
And that kicked off
the last weeks of her life,
where she was afraid
and depressed
and forlorn and withdrawn.
And so a lot of it's
trying to figure out
what was going on
in her mind and emotionally
that led up to her death?
There are twists and turns
along the way.
What seems like a haunting then
starts to seem like a hoax,
but then starts to seem
like something else.
There was a second figure
in the hallway,
and I realized it
was our neighbor.
And then you think
you might be poking
at a murder mystery
involving the neighbor.
And then all of that, though,
is a red herring for what
the story is truly about,
which is a premonition.
It all culminates
in the discovery of a cell phone
that has a video.
They then show you
this phone footage
that she shot while she was
in the desert,
where she thought she saw
someone out there
in the emptiness
and walked toward them.
This single shot on the phone
is, I think,
one of the greatest scares
I've ever seen in a film.
When I saw what
was on the phone,
I physically jumped up off
my couch, and I said, "Nope."
It was a physical reaction
I had to this image that just
was slow-walked into my face.
What she saw out there
in the desert
was herself.
I recognized the face as
soon as I saw it on the phone.
It was the same face
of the body that
I had identified on the dead.
And she just had this passing
encounter with her own fate.
It's really scary
in the moment
but also feels like
a manifestation of the movie
being about, really,
death coming and, you know,
the looming specter
of death always
coming for you or at
you or behind you
and how it will come for you
and then devastate
the people around you.
It's a simple concept,
but you see it
in "It Follows" and
"The Ring" and "Pulse"
and all these movies
that seem to be
about just the oncoming
specter of death.
And for some reason,
it never goes out of style.
I think it's one of the best
horror films ever made,
and it was
a huge inspiration on me
in "The Haunting
of Hill House."
♪
I started seeing her
when I was a kid.
People who talk
to me about "Hill House"
talk to me about two things.
One is the depth
of the family drama,
and two is the Bent-Neck Lady.
[both screaming]
Nell, from a young age,
is haunted by this ghost
that she calls
the Bent-Neck Lady
It was a bent-neck lady.
And there are different
points in her childhood
where she sees her.
And Nell grows up,
but she always remembers her
and believes that she
wants to ruin her life.
I actually hadn't seen her
since Arthur and I met.
And then she killed him.
[whimpering]
The Bent-Neck Lady
was an image
I thought worked
really, really well
because it took
the attention off of her face.
She could be instantly
recognizable in silhouette.
And that was critically
important, because at no point
could Nell or the audience
recognize
the Beck-Neck Lady
as who she really was.
[whimpering, screams]
And then at the end
of episode five,
we have this beautiful scene
where she goes back
to Hill House,
and we see what
she's imagining in her mind,
which is this gorgeous moment
where she's dancing
through Hill House, and
she seems to finally have
found some kind of happiness.
And it's really beautiful.
But it's intercut with the fact
that it's just this lonely
little figure twirling around
in this completely
dilapidated house.
And she goes up the stairs
of the library,
and she sees her mother,
her dead mom.
And her mother
gives her a necklace
and puts it around her neck.
And we cut to reality,
where she's been putting
a noose around her neck.
And she has this moment
of recognition.
Mommy.
And then she falls.
It's too late.
[neck cracks]
And as her neck breaks
and she's
on the end of the rope,
she drops through her own past.
[screaming]
The shrapnel of her
death in that moment
disburses out in all directions,
including back in time.
And those little pieces
puncture her life.
And all of those moments
where she thought
she had this visitor come in
were really just
that explosion
reverberating backward,
and it was always just her.
No, no, no, no, no, no,
no, no, no, no, no, no!
At the core of it, you have,
"Oh, my God, she never knew."
She screamed so loud,
it hurt my ears.
I was trying to pull
from all of the movies
that I loved,
especially ghost stories.
I absolutely was thinking
about that beautiful twist
in "Lake Mungo"
and in "Don't Look Now,"
but wanting to try to find
a new gear for it,
wanting to try to expand on it.
I really wanted to play
with this idea
that space and time
in a haunted house
don't work the way
we expect them to,
and that the laws of physics
as we understand them
don't apply inside Hill House.
I don't know a lot of people
who would put time travel and
ghost story and family drama
into a blender
and see what happens.
And when it does, you get
this incredible milkshake
of terror.
[screams]
♪
What I really appreciate
of the opening
of "It: Chapter One"
is that it really has
a beautiful sense
of an older film
through the score,
the way it's shot,
the cute relationship
of the two brothers.
It does open like you're
gonna watch "The Goonies."
The older sibling
is pretending to have a cough
because he doesn't
really want to go out
with his little brother
and get wet.
I'd come with you
if I weren't
[coughs] Dying.
Fine.
So he sends him off
with a lot of love
Be careful.
But then
doesn't see him again.
We shot that
for about five days.
And it was covered
from every angle possible
and every lens possible.
And Andy, I think,
ended up with a masterful scene.
♪
[shouts]
Hiya, Georgie.
I'm Pennywise the Dancing Clown.
If someone said to you,
"No, the scare is a clown
in a storm drain,"
you're like,
"Uh, mm, I don't get it."
But the second you get
the right filmmaker in there
and the right writer in there,
it becomes this kind of really
beautiful combination
of absurd and terrifying.
What are you
doing in the sewer?
A storm blew me away
blew the whole circus away.
[chuckles creepily]
The same creature
can be scary,
or it can be laughable,
depending on how you light it
and what angle
of face he's doing,
how the light reflects on them.
With Pennywise,
it was very precise.
One of the things,
you know, that gives me
the creeps about eyes
is when they're lit from below.
When the light hits the
lower section of the eyeball,
then you got something
very special.
Pop.
Pop, pop, pop.
Pop, pop.
- [laughing]
[grows softly]
♪
In that scene,
we present Pennywise as someone
that is unpredictable.
He has these changes of behavior
that are very hard
to understand.
He's mocking the kid.
He's playing the kid.
I should get going now.
Without your boat?
You don't want
to lose it, Georgie.
Bill's gonna kill you.
♪
Here, take it.
♪
[Georgie screaming]
But then you see
this little boy's arm-- bleh!
Like, you see all this gore.
And I did not expect it
to go that gory.
The world has teeth and can
bite you at any second.
It's so sudden and so unfair
and so plausible
in its absurdity
that it sticks with you.
It could have been
a lot bloodier.
[chuckles]
It could have been less bloody.
But I think he got
the right balance for it,
and that's why it's iconic.
♪
[screams] Billy!
♪
"I Saw the Devil"
is just
another fantastic example
of how unapologetic
Korean films are.
[screaming]
Absolutely vicious,
ultraviolent
one of the best pieces
of revenge cinema of all time.
[screaming]
♪
That opening scene,
it's a make-or-break thing.
If you don't make it past
the first 15 minutes,
you're not gonna be able
to take the rest of the movie.
That opening sequence
of the car is really stunning
because of the snow.
There's a great aspect
with the windshield wipers
and what you're gonna see
and what you're not gonna see.
Starting out without
any context of anything,
you are in the story
of this girl
stuck in the snow
[taps on window]
- Without help.
As a woman, that's really scary.
It already sets you up
in a situation
that you believe
every second of it.
♪
[screams]
- [screaming]
It's almost really hard
to describe the scene
because it's painful to watch.
And it's too real.
[whimpering]
That opening scene
was brutal
but also the beauty, 'cause,
of course, Korean filmmaking
is always beautiful
at the same time.
Just the dragging
on the snow her body,
and you see the trail of blood
and how much it stands out.
It's visceral.
And it stays with you.
In Kim Jee-woon's style
in general,
there's this tension
between the precision
of the way that he frames
and edits his images
♪
But the actual content
of them is just madness.
Thinking about that image
of the victim's naked body
in the body bag
across the frame.
And we think she might be dead.
But then she jerks.
And, of course, which makes
us all jerk in the audience.
What's also interesting,
I think,
about the actual murder
is that we don't see
the actual moment of death.
It's just last conversation.
The desperate moments
of a woman who knows she
is about to die.
Rendered in shot/reverse shot
in these close-ups.
And then ultimately,
drops the knife
cuts to black.
It's one of the few moments
that we don't see
in gory detail.
In that moment,
we're forced to, you know,
radically empathize
with her position.
That's death for you, right?
The lights go out,
and that's it.
♪
We'll tear your soul apart.
There's probably not
a horror fan
in the whole world that
hasn't seen "Hellraiser."
"Hellraiser" was a $1 million
movie from Clive Barker,
a horror novelist who'd
never made a movie before.
And it had some
of the most visceral,
gut-wrenching moments
ever put to film.
A lot of, like, horror films
that combine sex and death
before that
have a puritanical edge,
where it's like, you're
being punished for having sex.
And "Hellraiser" is doing
something different.
It combines all of this imagery
of BDSM into a horror film
and essentially selling you
on this idea that there
are, like, pleasures
of the flesh
that you could never know
unless you have this box
that will open a portal
to another dimension.
Take it.
It's yours.
It always was.
You have to figure
Frank first opened that box
because he was bored
by everything
that he had done here on Earth.
Like, he had done every level
of sadomasochistic fetishism
he could come across,
to the point where he's like,
"Well, I wonderful if aliens
can do anything to me."
[screams]
The body is not a temple
in Clive Barker's mind.
The body is meat.
The flesh only holds
it all together.
And the flesh is ripped
asunder in "Hellraiser."
The Cenobites gave me
an experience beyond limits.
Pain and pleasure, indivisible.
There's this moment at the
end of the movie when Frank,
now kind of within
the skin of his brother,
whatever kind of kinky
thrills he was in,
the Faustian pact is
that the Cenobites
are gonna come
and rip you apart.
The Cenobites themselves--
they're obviously kind of,
like, agents of hell
and there to kind of,
like, take people's souls
and damn them for eternity.
But they also don't seem
like the bad guys.
It's almost like
they're the fetish cops.
It's like, "Frank,
you have gone too far.
You must be destroyed."
So they show up
with a lot of hooks.
A lot of hooks.
Frank.
No.
Frank realizes, "Fuck."
[laughs]
"The Cenobites are here.
There's no escaping this."
[screams]
But the moment that is, like,
that standout,
memorable moment
of "Hellraiser"
Is when he has his
final line, where he says
Jesus wept.
I didn't find out
until much, much later
that in other countries,
"Jesus wept" is almost a
colloquial saying
that's a little sarcastic.
It kind of means, like,
"oh, brother" or "oh, boy."
It's almost as if Frank
is kind of digging
what's being done to him in
those final moments,
and he's, like, "Yeah."
You only see Frank's face,
but I would hazard a guess
that Frank is fully erect
at that point when he dies.
It's like, for him, that's
the perfect way to go.
♪
BDSM and kink communities
are frequently dismissed
as just being outside of society
or outside of sexual norms,
but are exploring how our bodies
can be keys to greater
consciousness
or altered consciousness
in a way.
And so there's almost this
kind of impish, bratty quality
of what Clive Barker is doing
to sort of say,
like, "You think we're freaks.
"You think we're evil.
You think that we're demons.
"Then, sure.
Sure.
"I'll give you that narrative
on a silver platter.
"And it'll be fun
for you to watch,
and it'll be fun for us
to see you watch."
But that transgressive quality
went over a lot
of people's heads.
Come to Daddy.
Clive Barker
is telling his audience,
"If you know, you know."
And a lot of his audience
does know.
♪