Top 10 Horror Movie Scenes That Made Normal Things Scary

Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for the most heart-pounding horror movie scenes that made us terrified of completely ordinary things. Did our list scare you all over again? Let us know in the comments… if you dare.

#10: Senior Prom

“Carrie” (1976)

The tagline for the very first Stephen King adaptation ran, “If you’ve got a taste for terror… take Carrie to the prom.” The telekinetic Carrie’s experience has become shorthand for every horrible and humiliating high school experience. When the tormented teenager takes revenge on her classmates at their senior prom, it’s as sad as it is scary. Chaos, pain, and high-pressure fire hoses rain down on the teenagers. Panic ensues, eardrums burst, and all the cheap decorations are ruined. It forever put a dark cloud over one of America’s most treasured traditions of young courtship.

#9: Watching TV

“Poltergeist” (1982)

Kids, back in the old days, when TV channels didn’t run for twenty-four hours, you might turn on your TV and only get static. Although it might be comforting white noise for some, after “Poltergeist,” no one ever looked at their set the same way. The scene of the little girl, Carol Anne, sitting in front of the TV as spirits try to communicate with her became the movie’s most iconic image. Her eerie announcement to the family afterward became its most famous quote. Maybe we aren’t putting our TVs outside, but “Poltergeist” makes it hard not to wonder what could be lurking behind the screen.

#8: Sewers (& Clowns)

“It” (1990)

It’s safe to say a lot of us had already caught on to clowns being absolutely terrifying before Stephen King’s “It” made it to the small screen. But if you’d never considered it before, the shapeshifting entity probably put you off forever. “It” also ruined another everyday object for us. Sewers, storm drains, and anything having to do with what lurks in the gutter became as scary as they are disgusting. The early scene where young Georgie Denbrough meets Pennywise the Dancing Clown and is pulled into the storm drain is pure nightmare fuel. If you’ve never glanced in a storm drain and prayed you don’t see yellow eyes looking back at you from the dark, you clearly haven’t watched “It.”

#7: Closets

“Halloween” (1978)

An escaped killer is in the house. You’re trapped upstairs. Where do you hide? Babysitter Laurie Strode has no choice but to hide in the closet. It’s safe to say there’s plenty of us out there who have a closet in our homes, maybe even one with a slatted door just perfect to catch the shadow of a killer on the other side. The climax of John Carpenter’s “Halloween,” which traps Jamie Lee Curtis’s Laurie in a closet as Michael Myers pursues her, is a masterclass in tension. The movie’s success is how it turns ordinary spaces, like middle-class homes and small towns, into sites of relentless terror.

#6: VHS Tapes

“The Ring” (2002)

As the world moved further into the digital age, horror movies made analog technology seem increasingly suspect. “The Ring” took this idea to the next level with its premise. A remake of the Japanese movie “Ringu,” it follows an investigative reporter chasing down a story about a supposedly cursed VHS tape that kills anyone who watches it in seven days. It makes liberal use of static, film degradation, and other markers of pre-digital tech to create a tense and oppressively eerie mood. Its most heart-stopping scene finally shows us the movie’s villain - a ghost girl named Samara - in action as she comes through the TV screen and claims her next victim.

#5: Dolls

“Child’s Play” (1988)

Chucky was not the first evil doll. He comes from a long line of presumed inanimate and diminutive movie killers, wooden or plastic. Having said that, Chucky probably is the most vicious of them all. His stature only seems to help him get away with his crimes. Who would think that cute, little, freckle-faced Good Guy doll was possessed by a vicious killer? But Chucky was never scarier than the suspenseful scene midway through the first “Child’s Play” movie where a mother discovers he’s been running without batteries. His relentless, foul-mouthed attack has probably scared millions of kids out of asking Santa Claus for the rest of their childhoods.

#4: Sleeping

“A Nightmare on Elm Street” (1984)

The threat of dozing off became deadly in this Wes Craven classic. Freddy Krueger’s first kill shows just how powerful the nightmare-dwelling serial killer can be in the real world. As the sleeping Tina dreams of being stalked through alleys, the wounds she sustains in her nightmare turn out to be very real. What makes Krueger so terrifying is that you can try to outrun him, but eventually, you have to go to sleep. You may be able to avoid VHS tapes or storm drains, but you can’t stay awake forever. What’s even creepier is you might not even know you’re asleep until it’s too late.

#3: Phone Calls

“Scream” (1996)

The first ten minutes of “Scream” are a socially anxious person’s worst nightmare. Not only does someone keep calling Drew Barrymore’s character while she’s home alone, but there’s not even a way to Google the phone number. Then, the real terror begins. This anonymous caller turns out to be a deranged killer whose love of horror movies has gone too far. It’s reminiscent of the suspenseful opening sequence of “When a Stranger Calls.” “Scream’s” opening sequence ratchets up the voyeuristic terror to the nth degree. While the disembodied voice on the other end of the call can clearly see his victim, neither she nor the audience can see him. After Ghostface made it his calling card, a ringing phone never sounded quite the same.

#2: The Ocean

“Jaws” (1975)

There’s all sorts of reasons to fear the ocean, but surely, if you know how to swim and you avoid rough waters, it shouldn’t be a problem, right? Well, after Steven Spielberg introduced the world to “Jaws,” we had a new reason to fear the water. In its opening scene, the movie introduces us to a young woman who is promptly ripped apart by a shark minutes later. We see little of the actual carnage. Spielberg doesn’t even film the scene in full light, letting us imagine what’s going on beneath the surface as the woman is wrenched across the water, screaming in agony. “Jaws” was so successful that beach attendance actually saw a dip after its 1975 release.

#1: Showers

“Psycho” (1960)

Alfred Hitchcock’s boundary-pushing suspense masterpiece introduced millions of viewers to a brand new phobia with its infamous shower scene. When Marion Crane falls victim to the murderous proprietor of the Bates Motel, the violence is shocking enough. The combination of Bernard Herrmann’s shrill strings, Janet Leigh’s pained screams, Hitchcock’s precise touch, and its ordinary setting cemented it a classic moment in horror. The idea that someone can creep into the bathroom without being heard over the shower water and murder you is too much for many viewers. If “Jaws” put people off the beach, it’s safe to say baths probably made a huge comeback after “Psycho” came out.