fannish5: Scariest Scenes
fannish5: List the five scariest scenes ever.
With the usual caveat of "scary to me, imo, fear is subjective, etc., might change my mind later when not so exhausted by a day at the book fair". But. Here are my current choices, in no particular order of scariness, hidden behind lj cuts so that you, gentle viewer, can be scared as well if you managed to miss the sources in question so far.
1) Hush (from Buffy the Vampire Slayer) : the scene where the Gentlemen enter the male student's room, and start to cut him open, he opens his mouth and screams soundlessy, and we realize why they have taken everyone's voices. BTVS is rarely scary in the traditional sense, that's not the point, but that was a moment of pure horror which will stay with me.
2) Blink (from Doctor Who): Moffat always brings it, and several times throughout this episode, but never more so than in the grand climax when the angels advance on Sally and Larry, the TARDIS starts to dematerialize, the audience as well as Sally thinks the Doctor just left them to their lot and used them to get his TARDIS back - and then the angels go Medusa on us, and we realize what actually happened. The great thing is, I'm familiar with several stories using a variation of this strick - the Medusa myth for one, but also Michael Ende does it in The Never-Ending Story - and I still was taken in the first time and gasped like a child. Well done, Mr. New Showrunner. The final gag/punchline with the montage and the voice-over isn't half-bad, either. :)
3) Torchwood: Children of Earth: that COBRA meeting. (If you've watched CoE, you know what I mean, if you've yet to watch it, you'll figure out immediately which one as well.) Never mind the 456, good macguffins though they were, but the true monsters of CoE weren't the aliens. What made this particular scene so intense, so unforgettable and so incredibly scary is that this particular viewer along with apparantly a lot of others thought: Yes. That's how it would go. That's exactly how they would talk, and what they would do. Well done, Mr. Old Showrunner.
4) The Haunting (the original black and white version, of course!): one film where nothing violent on screen happens and which still reliably scares the crap out of me. The scariest scene for me always was when Eleanor thinks Theo is holding her hand during the knocking and shaking, then the light goes on and she and the viewer realize Theo is far away and never touched her. Brrrrr.
5) Astonishing X-Men, Torn arc: in another Whedonian entry, we have that panel where Kitty Pryde proves scarier than all the Hellfire Club ever could. How so, you ask? I'm referring to the panel where Kitty puts an axe through Pjotr Rasputins skull, and only her power keeps it from getting solid. Now this takes part only in Kitty's mind because it's a part of her being brainwashed by Emma (who in turn is messed with by Cassandra), but the reason why it's genuinenly frightening is that Kitty not only could but would do this, in the circumstances created, and it is and remains real to her. I'd call AXM a lot of things, but not scary: this particular moment during Torn, however, is pure horror.
*****
On another note, two more recs:
Torchwood/Lost:
Four Days in the Desert. Post-Children of Earth, Gwen encounters the Smoke Monster. Spoilers for s6 of Lost and CoE, top Gwen characterisation, and, due to Smokey's, err, versatility, attempted mind-messing on a grand scale.
The Sarah Connor Chronicles:
Two vid portraits, one of Derek (something for you,
queenofthorns !), and one of John, superbly crafted by
chaila43, are here.
With the usual caveat of "scary to me, imo, fear is subjective, etc., might change my mind later when not so exhausted by a day at the book fair". But. Here are my current choices, in no particular order of scariness, hidden behind lj cuts so that you, gentle viewer, can be scared as well if you managed to miss the sources in question so far.
1) Hush (from Buffy the Vampire Slayer) : the scene where the Gentlemen enter the male student's room, and start to cut him open, he opens his mouth and screams soundlessy, and we realize why they have taken everyone's voices. BTVS is rarely scary in the traditional sense, that's not the point, but that was a moment of pure horror which will stay with me.
2) Blink (from Doctor Who): Moffat always brings it, and several times throughout this episode, but never more so than in the grand climax when the angels advance on Sally and Larry, the TARDIS starts to dematerialize, the audience as well as Sally thinks the Doctor just left them to their lot and used them to get his TARDIS back - and then the angels go Medusa on us, and we realize what actually happened. The great thing is, I'm familiar with several stories using a variation of this strick - the Medusa myth for one, but also Michael Ende does it in The Never-Ending Story - and I still was taken in the first time and gasped like a child. Well done, Mr. New Showrunner. The final gag/punchline with the montage and the voice-over isn't half-bad, either. :)
3) Torchwood: Children of Earth: that COBRA meeting. (If you've watched CoE, you know what I mean, if you've yet to watch it, you'll figure out immediately which one as well.) Never mind the 456, good macguffins though they were, but the true monsters of CoE weren't the aliens. What made this particular scene so intense, so unforgettable and so incredibly scary is that this particular viewer along with apparantly a lot of others thought: Yes. That's how it would go. That's exactly how they would talk, and what they would do. Well done, Mr. Old Showrunner.
4) The Haunting (the original black and white version, of course!): one film where nothing violent on screen happens and which still reliably scares the crap out of me. The scariest scene for me always was when Eleanor thinks Theo is holding her hand during the knocking and shaking, then the light goes on and she and the viewer realize Theo is far away and never touched her. Brrrrr.
5) Astonishing X-Men, Torn arc: in another Whedonian entry, we have that panel where Kitty Pryde proves scarier than all the Hellfire Club ever could. How so, you ask? I'm referring to the panel where Kitty puts an axe through Pjotr Rasputins skull, and only her power keeps it from getting solid. Now this takes part only in Kitty's mind because it's a part of her being brainwashed by Emma (who in turn is messed with by Cassandra), but the reason why it's genuinenly frightening is that Kitty not only could but would do this, in the circumstances created, and it is and remains real to her. I'd call AXM a lot of things, but not scary: this particular moment during Torn, however, is pure horror.
*****
On another note, two more recs:
Torchwood/Lost:
Four Days in the Desert. Post-Children of Earth, Gwen encounters the Smoke Monster. Spoilers for s6 of Lost and CoE, top Gwen characterisation, and, due to Smokey's, err, versatility, attempted mind-messing on a grand scale.
The Sarah Connor Chronicles:
Two vid portraits, one of Derek (something for you,
queenofthorns !), and one of John, superbly crafted by
chaila43, are here.