I don’t get scared that much in scary movies. Crazy Killers on the loose don’t make my heart race. Creepy and/or Sadistic creatures make me nauseous.  torture only turns my stomach. No, to truly scare me, it has to play with my mind and my insecurities. Fear is a wonderful emotion to let out in the right conditions and I always look for unique scenes that actually bring my pulse to a gallop.

So in one of my tributes to the holiday of horror, here comes my list of the ten scenes that scares the crap out of me every time. Bear in mind that I tried not to make these about jumping out of my seat, but about the simmering sense that something is about to get bad, watching helplessly at the carnage to be unleashed. They might culminate in something jumping out, but that’s only the icing on the cake.

Keep in mind that these are not ranked. And spoilers galore so be careful if you wish to be surprised:

1.)      Carrie-Prom Night:  You know it’s going to happen. You know how it’s going to happen. And you know what’s going to happen after it happens. It’s like the perfect storm of horror. And worst of all, you really like Carrie and even sense that her date might actually like her. But that damned bitch Nancy Allen is going to do it anyway. When Carrie’s name is called out as Prom Queen and the scene starts to go into slow motion, dread eases over me as Brian DePalma cruelly allows her to enjoy her moment of glory, keeping us aware of the pig’s bloodbath waiting for her, and the slide into hell that awaits everybody, innocent and guilty alike. Video after the jump:

2.)      Event Horizon-Visions Of Hell: When Sam Neil, sans-eyes and bald amusingly taunts Lawrence Fishburne “Hell is only a word. The reality is much, much worse.” Just these words made my skin crawl. The images of hell that Dr. Weir showed Miller almost made me close my eyes. It is known that Paul W.S. Anderson had over 30 minutes of these images that was in the original cut that disturbed test audiences and executives at Paramount. If by some chance it would have made it to the final cut, that probably would be the one time I would have left the theater in fear of my soul.

3.)      Paranormal Activity-The Entire Last Half: It’s okay, get smug the first half when it’s only some noises and things getting misplaced. I was the same way. Laugh at the ghost expert who seemed genuinely freaked out over what seems like nothing. But when the real things start happening, don’t come crying to me. Now we’ve seen movies about ghosts and demons and polterguists with a bad attitude, but what sets Paranormal Activity apart is that there were many scenes that you can’t seem to understand HOW they did it, especially on such a small budget with long takes. The footprint scene to me is the best example.

4.)      Friday the 13^th-A Quiet Boat Trip: It’s okay, the killer has been found and dealt with. Everybody’s dead but one and she’s safely away from the scene on a boat. The music has that since of calm that just reeks of one last bit of terror. But where? There were no other killers, were there? Everybody else is dead! But out of the murky depths in very slow motion comes a dead little boy rising from his watery grave, avenging his now decapitated mother. Little Jason, who had died many years ago as a boy, has the last laugh, before we find out he was only a dream…or was he?

5.)      Jaws-Brody on the Beach: A young swimmer had just been killed days before by a shark and Sheriff Brody isn’t comfortable having the beaches open but is overridden by the local city council, more worried about their revenue. So what’s Roy Scheider to do but don a bathing suit and keep an eye out, waiting for the impossible to happen. There are a couple of false alarms, but we know something’s out there, under the water in the midst of the frivolity. And then a boy on a raft is seen from Brody, writing around in the water. Brody’s fears are realized as the camera zooms around him in one of the most famous shots in the movie. And we, along with him, are terrified for the boy’s fate and for the fates of the others who are still in the water.

6.)      Saw-Reverse-Bear Trap: Usually flashbacks don’t scare me because in the end, they have to be alive in order for there to be a flashback (with the exception of Sunset Blvd). And yet the reverse-bear trap test given to Shawnee Smith in the first saw movie made me squirm more than I have ever squirmed in my life. The set-up is perfect. The killer Jigsaw sets the challenge and shows his potential victim how the game works. We also get a rather terrifying example of what will happen if she fails. The scene is tense, well-directed and leaving us gasping for air. Then after the hell this character had been put through, she smiles slightly and says something we don’t expect. See for yourself: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KS5KjM0cI4.

7.)      Alien-Kane’s Last Supper: John Hurt had just come out of a coma after having had a strange alien creature attach itself to his face. He was feeling okay, just a little hungry. So they had dinner with everybody talking and having a good time. We know something is wrong, but what? Then Kane starts struggling, doubling over and writing in pain. The others are terrified. And suddenly, blood flies out of his chest. Kane is dead, but something wants out.

8.)      Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1988)-The Last Scream: The world has been taken over by pod people who have replaced almost every person on the planet. But a few have survived by imitating the pod people and not sleeping. So when Veronica Cartwright, fresh from dealing a heavy blow to the pod people’s plans for world domination, sees her comrade in arms Donald Sutherland walking around the next day after getting away from the drones, we know something’s not right. But she is sure he’s all right. Right up to the point he sounds the alarm.

9.)      Stephen King's IT-Would You Like A Balloon?: Things on TV really can’t be scary, can it? I mean seriously, don’t they have rules about not being allowed to do such things? Thank God ABC didn’t get that memo when it aired Stephen King’s IT. The miniseries didn’t wait 10 minutes before giving us a scene with a little boy playing in the rain with a paper boat running down the gutter. The boat slips through a drain, upsetting said boy. Then a clown (Tim Curry in his most dangerously best) shows up IN THE DRAIN. Never a good sign. Then the clown offers the boat and a balloon. The only thing louder than the boy’s screams were my own.

10.)   Death Proof-Ship’s Mast Psycho: God Bless Stunt-people. Especially Zoe Bell, who plays a stunt-woman in a movie where a really insane stunt leaves us on the edge of our seats. We know Kurt Russell is going to terrify, then kill a car-load of women on a Tennessee back road in broad daylight. The car is a Dodge Challenger like the one from Vanishing Point. Ms. Bell is on the hood of that car doing a stunt she’s been dreaming of her entire life. We know what’s coming and when it does, the tension is back-breaking and terrifying as hell. This is another of those movies where I’m still stumped as to how they pulled it off without killing someone. The most satisfying part? Everybody lives! Just goes to show you don’t need to actually kill someone to make it scary.