Get the chills with Shudder's Scariest Horror Movie Moments of All Time collection
By Carla Davis
We’re back with another deep dive into Shudder’s collections, and this time we are exploring the Scariest Horror Movie Moments of All Time Collection. The title is taken from Shudder’s eight-episode series, which is actually included on the list.
The Thing – John Carpenter’s 1982 film is the perfect example of highly effective winter horror. Part monster movie, part body horror, it tells the story of a group of researchers stationed in Antarctica. When something from outer space invades their camp, they discover it can take on the shape of animals and people, which causes the men to become paranoid. Which one of them is “the thing”?
A Bay of Blood – “When a rich Countess dies, strange murders befall people trying to claim her property.” This film is commonly known as Mario Bava’s most violent one.
Black Christmas – I will forever have a soft spot for this intense, scary holiday film, because when I saw it at age 11 or 12, it cemented my love of horror movies (plus, it's just a great horror flick). Set in a sorority house with a killer hiding in the attic (memorably, with the body of his first victim in a rocking chair, plastic bag over her dead face), Black Christmas has a cast of characters that you genuinely like. And then there’s Billy, the killer with an unknown motive.
The Autopsy of Jane Doe – Look, I’m a horror fan since childhood, so it’s hard to completely unnerve me. This film gave me the creeps so bad that I couldn’t watch it alone in my house. Father and son coroners are autopsying the body of a young woman who has died under unknown circumstances. The findings aren’t adding up; there are no marks on her body, but several of her bones are shattered, her tongue has been removed, some of her internal organs are burned. As the night goes on, unexplainable events start to happen.
The Babadook – Love it or hate it, The Babadook was a sensation. An overwhelmed single mom, still grieving the loss of her husband is struggling to deal with her challenging young son. When the boy brings her a creepy pop-up book called “Mister Babadook”, insisting that the Babadook is real, creepy circumstances make her think he may be right.
The 101 Scariest Horror Movie Moments of All Time – This Shudder Original Series is broken into eight episodes, and it’s exactly what the title implies. Going down the list starting from number 101, we are treated to the best horror movie scenes of all time.
Night of the Living Dead – I mean…are you even a horror fan if you aren’t familiar with George A. Romero’s iconic 1968 zombie movie? The fact that it is filmed in black and white does not deter from the blood and guts at all, and it’s still a chilling watch to this day.
Ring – This is the original Japanese film, later remade in America as The Ring. The story deals with a cursed videotape, and the first film spawned eight Japanese movies and manga adaptations, two tv series, a Korean remake, three English language films and even two video games.
Hellraiser – With its themes of sadomasochism and plenty of gore, this 1987 horror film had to undergo multiple cuts to avoid an X rating. In a nutshell, it’s about a mysterious puzzle box with the power to summon the Cenobites, for whom pleasure and pain are one and the same.
Threads – Described on the Shudder app as a “docudrama about the effects of a nuclear attack on the working-class city of Sheffield, England as the fabric of society unravels”, Threads was originally broadcast on the BBC. When it aired on TBS in the US, it was the most-watched cable program in history.
Terrified – There were a few scenes in this Argentine film that wrecked me, and one of them was the opening sequence. A neighborhood in Buenos Aires is the site of multiple supernatural events, one of them involving the death (and return) of a little boy. Terrified was created and directed by Damian Rugna (When Evil Lurks).
Halloween – The one, the only, the original Halloween! Step back in to the late 1970s and become reacquainted with Laurie Strode, Dr. Sam Loomis and the masked Michael Myers. Inspired by Black Christmas, John Carpenter put together a cast of mostly unknown actors to make what turned out to be one of the most beloved horror movies of all time.
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre – If you like your horror dirty and gritty with an almost documentary feel, this 1974 classic is the way to go. It’s one of those movies that most people remember as being very graphic and gory, but in reality, it shows almost no gore.
Demons – “Horror movie audience members turn into bloodthirsty demons in this essential Euro-horror entry from Lamberto Bava (Mario Bava’s son) and co-writer Dario Argento.”
Zombie – Lucio Fulci’s gore-fest about zombies has at least two iconic scenes: the splinter in the eye scene that I still can’t watch without covering my own eyes, and the jaw-dropping zombie versus shark underwater sequence. There were no special effects used for that one, it was a real actor in zombie makeup and a real shark.