Halloween is a staple at our households where my friends bring in horror movies to enjoy for one night. A good number of them had rattled our younger self and even left us sleepless across several nights. However, there have been many horror jump scares that truly gutted away at my bravery and left me avoiding any form of scary media for months. Its like eating incredibly spicy food that broke my tolerance level.
Below are the scenes that traumatized me. While I love horror movies, these scares made me swear off them.
Comic Book: Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight
Drifter Frank Brayker flees a demon in human form called the Collector and hides in a decommissioned church turned boarding house, where a botched arrest ends with the sheriff dead and siege demons rising. Brayker seals the building with an ancient key filled with sacred blood and explains that it’s the last of seven cosmic keys once sought by demons, guarded for centuries by immortals who refill it with their own blood.
The real enemy of this movie is not the demons at the gate or the lovable Billy Zane. It is the survivors themselves who can be corrupted by the Collector. One of the instances of those corruptions has always stayed with me throughout my childhood.
While that horror jump scare has been telegraphed and many would have seen it coming, kids are likely affected by this. However, adults are also like horrified by this scene because they are shocked by the kid about to be corrupted. That intense chord and glowing green eyes tells you that kid is not going to make it through the night.
Laptop: Sinister
True-crime author Ellison Oswalt moves his family into a house where a massacre occurred, hoping to revive his career. He discovers Super 8 reels in the attic that show families being murdered, each marked by a demonic figure called Bughuul, “Mr. Boogie.”
What we know about Mr. Boogie is still vague during the early part of the movie. There is even a red herring scare when Ellison’s son popped out of a box weirdly. For all I know, this could just be a non-supernatural murder mystery until we reach the Laptop scene.
The tone of the movie became much darker as we discover who “Mr. Boogie” is. Right after that scene, a video of ghost children opened on Ellison’s laptop. You can already tell this is an “Oh shit” moment of the movie as we are bombarded by more horror jump scares.
Readers might be noting why I did not pick the “Lawnmower scene.” While that did make me and most of my viewing companions jump, it was not as scary when you remove the screaming sound. The Laptop is truly terrifying, even without the music, and all the guy did was turn his head.
Horse: The Ring
Investigative reporter Rachel Keller probes a teen’s death tied to a cursed videotape that kills its viewers exactly seven days after they watch it. She views the tape and unravels the story of Samara Morgan, a tormented child whose psychic images imprint onto film.
As she travels via a ferry to the place where the lighthouse appeared in the videotape, she approached a horse to pet it. The horse became agitated and broke free from its enclosure. In its attempt to escape Rachel, it jumped out of the boat and was struck by the propeller.
While you may think there is no horror jump scare here, despite the music build up and the girl’s scream, it is that scene transition to Rachel’s ex-partner that got me. That was the “Ring” appearing in just a few frames. It was the last thing people saw before they died. It was a subtle jump scare that still made a terrifying impact on me after watching it.
There are also other notable jump scares. All of it involves a jump cut to Samara’s victim. They are all incredibly done since they get you in moments when you are not expecting any kind of horror appearing on screen.
Nurse Station: Exorcist III
Detective Lt. William Kinderman probes a wave of ritual murders in Georgetown that mimic the long-dead Gemini Killer. Clues point to a locked psych ward, where “Patient X” appears as Father Karras yet speaks as the Gemini, implying a demonic transfer of the killer’s spirit into Karras’s revived body.
The nurse station scene is always a stellar example of a horror jump scare:
It is a masterful scene of disarming the viewers’ expectations by presenting a false scare at the start and the safety of other people present throughout the scene. A few moments before the apparition appeared, she was checking the room while a guard was present in the hall. Seconds before the scare, she was locking the room behind her. No one expected that thing to come out of the room after everything we have seen.
The Clown: Hell House LLC
Hell House LLC uses a faux-documentary to investigate the 2009 opening-night disaster at the Abaddon Hotel haunted attraction. Recovered tapes reveal the Hell House crew preparing for the haunt as strange incidents escalate. Opening night devolves into chaos when something manifests below, triggering a deadly stampede. As the opening shows, people died due to supernatural reasons during that night.
A good number of horror jump scares occurred here that involved The Clown Mannequin. My favorite of which is the earliest part, where the Clown was at the top of the basement stairs. After the cameraman looked down past the mannequin, the Clown moved its head to face the man without making any sound.
That was just one of many memorable jump scares with the Clown. Even when it is just standing in the hallway, you always expect that thing to move on camera.
The Bed: Ju-On The Grudge
“Ju-On: The Grudge” centers on a lethal curse born in a Tokyo home where Kayako Saeki and her family were murdered in rage. A social worker, Rika, checks on an elderly resident and encounters the ghostly Toshio, awakening the curse. Nonlinear vignettes follow as anyone who enters the house, or even contacts those already marked, falls to Kayako’s relentless haunting. Efforts to escape or destroy the influence fail, and Rika’s final encounter underscores that the grudge keeps spreading to claim new victims.
One of those victims was a woman going to her apartment. From the elevator to inside her home, there were plenty of scares to make the audience grip their chair with anxiety. The build up keeps going as the woman gets to bed and watches TV. The TV distorts the reporter’s face to the point that she is making a scary gurgle sound. We later get that iconic horror jump scare of Kayako appearing inside the cover.
Ju-On is full of horror jump scares, but the bed scene still stays with me. The monster came out of the least suspected places. Under the covers is also the place kids feel secure and safe. Seeing the movie, I guarantee you that I felt unsafe under my blanket for months.
Final Word: Traumatizing Horror Jump Scares
I know I am missing other great horror jump scares, especially the one in Insidious. However, it barely got to me like the Laptop scare in Sinister or other moments I mentioned above.
Do you have a favorite horror jump scare I missed? Talk about it in the comments below. You can also find more horror media for Halloween in my site like my discussion on Silent Hill!
