15 Best Horror Scenes of the 21st Century

The 21st century has seen a renaissance of the horror genre. There’s no shortage of truly terrifying or unsettling scenes from big blockbusters to international indies. Caught up in the Halloween spirit, we’ve decided to take a look at some of our favorite horror scenes of the past 25 years. Apologies if we leave out one of your favorites.

Please beware, SPOILERS AHEAD!

(And disturbing scenes, too!)

Please be advised that this content may include discussions and/or visuals of sensitive topics such as suicide, murder, abandonment, claustrophobia, and more, which could be triggering for some readers. If you feel this content may be upsetting, please proceed with caution.


15) Sinister – Mowing the Lawn

We’ve all had the urge to fire up the lawnmower late at night, right? No? Well, maybe the pagan Babylonian god Bughuul isn’t the neighbor for you. In this scene, Ethan Hawke’s true crime writer Ellison checks out one of the many “home movies” he discovers in his new attic. At this point in the film the audience is aware that the movies aren’t of the wholesome variety, so once Ellison pops in the tape it’s just a matter of when we witness the horrific moment in the footage. The tension plays out for over a minute before we reach our startling conclusion, the lawnmower running over a person’s face (accompanied by some effectively loud sound effects). Truly one of the better jump scares we’ve seen in recent memory.


14) Ouija: Origin of Evil – “We’ll Take All of You”

As tempting as it was to go with the moment our possessed little girl Doris explains the gruesome details of what it feels like to be strangled to death, we must go with this intense “shit has hit the fan” scene. Director Mike Flanagan is a horror maestro who utilizes empty space and the framing of his shots to toy with his unsuspecting audience. Whether it’s the reveal of Doris on the ceiling, the hanged body grabbing Paulina from offscreen, or Doris suddenly crawling on the wall like Spider-Man, Flanagan keeps his audience guessing where the horror will come from next.


13) The Mist – Human Sacrifice

In a movie featuring a town overrun by giant, deadly creatures, it says something that the most unsettling scene is the one largely absent of them. Based off the Stephen King novel, The Mist does a fantastic job tackling human nature in the face of extreme fear and paranoia. In this scene a religious fanatic turns her ever-growing number of followers against a soldier, demanding he be sacrificed to the creatures. The trapped townsfolk descend on the soldier like an angry mob, stabbing him and locking him outside. After seeing how quickly the mob dispatched the soldier, it almost feels like a relief when we see the soldier await his fate and get snagged by a creature. We begin to ask ourselves, who is really the greater imminent threat?


12) Infested – Bathroom Creepy Crawlies

Arachnophobes better skip this one; this recent French bug flick will really give you the creeps. Following a group of friends battling their way out of their apartment complex that has been overcome with killer spiders, this scene provides our first glimpse at the magnitude of the infestation. With a small, enclosed space like the bathroom, we feel the claustrophobia immediately. We’ve all been in a similar situation, struggling to find a spider we’ve spotted in our homes, the true horror coming from not knowing where it is. Afraid of it lunging out at us at any moment. Now imagine hiding from a large spider in your bathroom while dozens more crawl out from the shower drain. Actually, no need, just watch the scene to get the gist.


11) Annihilation – The Bear

Another situation where it was tough to just pick one scene from the film, but we find ourselves coming back to this one in Alex Garland’s sci-fi horror release. The film follows a group of scientists investigating an extraterrestrial quarantined zone. At this point in the film, one of the members has grown paranoid and tied the others to chairs. Believing she hears the cries of her missing friend outside, she leaves. We hear her greeted by an offscreen roar that sends chills down both the characters’ and the audiences’ spines. Enter, a mutant bear mimicking the screams of their friend. The image of such a formidable creature making such an unnerving sound is something that won’t leave your memory.


10) When Evil Lurks – Bad Dog

Warning, this scene is not for the faint of heart, particularly parents. This Argentinian supernatural horror film follows two brothers who discover a demonic infection that corrupts everyone and everything in their town that it is exposed to. It’s full of shocking and, well, evil scenes, none more so than this one. This scene utilizes the score and sound design to great effect. We focus on a sweet little girl and smiling dog, an image that should make us happy but, because of what we know and have seen already, fills us with dread. Filmmaker Demián Rugna mixes in a foreboding score with the sounds of birds chirping outside. Two sounds that just don’t sit right with us when together. With that dread building, what follows is exactly what we feared: the dog suddenly mauls the little girl and flings her around like a rag doll.


9) The Bay – “They’re Eating Their Flesh!”

This underrated found-footage horror gem from Barry Levinson (Yes, the guy who directed Rain Man) documents a seaside town overtaken by mutant parasites. Cutting back and forth between different perspectives of the community, this scene finds us with two deputies investigating a call of someone screaming in pain. After one deputy goes into the home and we hear gunshots, the second deputy follows inside. Our perspective remains from the police car dashcam, only able to listen to what happens once the second officer disappears into the home. We’re left to our own imaginations as we hear the ensuing nightmarish audio as an infected resident begs the officers to shoot them. An instance where letting the audience fill in the blanks is more effective than anything you could show them.


8) Session 9 – Hallway of Darkness

When a team of asbestos removal workers are tasked with working on an abandoned insane asylum, what could possibly go wrong? Come to find, quite a bit. This psychological horror film utilizes mystery and suspense more than in-your-face scares. At this point in the film, we know that Jeff has nyctophobia (fear of the dark) and we know that the tunnels underneath the hospital are expansive. As we intercut between the characters looking for the missing Hank and Mike listening to the mysterious tapes, the generator cuts out. Watching the realization wash over Jeff’s face as he attempts to outrun the creeping darkness before he is swallowed whole is a chilling moment.


7) It Follows – Opening

Arguably one of the best opening scenes in horror movie history, the beginning of David Robert Mitchell’s modern classic sets the tone of the film perfectly. We begin with a 360 degree pan of a seemingly normal suburban town at dusk. But once we see a distraught teenage girl burst out her front door and the harrowing score begins to play, we know something isn’t right. She runs away like she’s being chased, looking behind her at something we’re unable to see. Cut to her on the shore of a beach leaving a morbid message to her parents, our anticipation is through the roof. What kind of danger is she in? You needn’t wait long to find out as a jarring cut to her mangled body in the sand gives us the answer.  


6) Suspiria – Break Dancing

Some were afraid when award-winning filmmaker Luca Guadagnino announced he was remaking Dario Argento’s giallo masterpiece. But that hesitation would prove to be misplaced as the only thing to fear are the frightening images Guadagnino captures here. After disgruntled dance student Olga leaves rehearsal, she finds herself trapped in a room surrounded by mirrors. When the rehearsal resumes, our protagonist Susie performs a dance that seems to have a violent effect on Olga as her body contorts in unnatural positions becoming a human pretzel. A mesmerizing display of body horror ensues with a sound design that will rattle you to your core.


5) Pulse – Ghost Reveal

Sometimes horror doesn’t have to be shocking, gross, or a well-coordinated jump scare. Sometimes it can be showing you something you’ve never seen before slowly walking right towards you. Japanese filmmaker Kiyoshi Kurosawa is arguably the best horror director of the 21st century, and you can see precisely why in this scene. A boy enters a dark, empty apartment and before we even see anything, the eerie score (a woman’s echoey bellow) begins, and we are on edge. When our character turns around, we can make out just the lower body of a woman in the shadows. She approaches him in such an ethereal way, and Kurosawa doesn’t cut away. Suddenly the ghost seemingly stumbles, and her face can be seen. The movements are so unusual, like something struggling to mimic a person’s movements. It’s a bone-chilling image that you won’t soon forget.


4) Memories of Murder – High Grass

Where’s Bughuul’s lawnmower when you need it, am I right? While it may be a stretch to call Bong Joon-ho’s Korean serial killer thriller a horror film, this scene is one of the most terrifying sequences you’ll see in any movie. At this point in time, the audience is aware there is a serial killer on the loose. We watch a woman walking alone at night in the rain, as she sings a song to herself. She’s interrupted by the distant sound of someone whistling along with her song. She scans the surrounding high grass with her flashlight, not seeing anything. HOWEVER, if the audience looks closely, they will notice the killer’s head peeking out of the high grass in the distance, watching her. She continues in silence, only to hear the whistling again. This prompts her to start running, and the scene culminates in a harrowing shot of the killer crawling out of the grass and catching her.


3) The Conjuring – Hide and Clap

Those who love horror are most likely well-acquainted with this five-minute-long scene from James Wan’s haunted house masterpiece that resulted in an entire cinematic universe that was only rivaled at the time by the MCU. The entire sequence can function as its own contained short film. Carolyn believes that she hears her daughters playing a “hide and clap” game late at night, only to discover they are already asleep in their rooms. That’s just the tip of the iceberg as we follow Carolyn all around the dark corridors as she attempts to find the source of the clapping, all the while we wish she would just run back into bed and pretend like nothing’s happening. Wan stretches the tension to its absolute breaking point, utilizing every unbearable second to his advantage. While it may be the climactic clap that people remember, it’s the entire setup and suspense that makes it so effective.


2) Caveat – Crawlspace

Imagine seeing a job posting asking for someone to come to a secluded island and to look after a mentally disturbed woman. Probably not the best gig in the world. Well, in this criminally underseen Irish horror film, protagonist Isaac needs the money, so he agrees. As you could’ve guessed, it’s not all sunshine and rainbows. What makes this scene stand out is the claustrophobia of it. Isaac is attempting to escape through a crawlspace. It’s so tight that we hear him grunting as he pulls himself through. As he continues to crawl forward, his flashlight catches sight of a woman’s face off in the distance (one previously established to be a corpse), before she disappears from his sight. The real horror comes in the realization that happens next: Isaac knows he can’t turn around, it’s too tight. He knows he needs to head exactly where that woman was! His muffled shudder of fear is a perfect reaction. A wonderfully crafted scene in Damian McCarthy’s directorial debut.


1)  Under the Skin – A Day at the Beach

It’s difficult to describe just why this scene from recent Academy Award-winning director Jonathan Glazer’s sci-fi horror/thriller truly gets under your skin (pun intended). Nothing jumps out at you. There’s no suspenseful mystery of “What’s behind the door?” The scene is very grounded and realistic in how it's shot. Scarlett Johansson’s ambiguous alien character encounters a family at a beach, including a couple with their young child and a dog. She watches as a tragic scene unfolds: the wife attempts to save their dog from getting swept out to sea, while the husband follows in after them. We remain at a distance, helplessly watching as a passive observer. A nearby swimmer reaches the husband and drags him back to shore, only for the husband to plunge back into the sea once again, the swimmer too tired to stop him. The most disturbing part is when our alien creature drags her new victim (the swimmer) away while the couple’s screaming baby is left alone on the shore to an unknown fate. It's a stark portrayal of the indifference to human suffering and a haunting look at the fragility of human life, which is why we found it to be unforgettable and profoundly distressing.

Hailing from Cleveland, Torey Sinclair spent 6 years studying film and screenwriting at Ohio University and Chapman University, earning his BA and MFA respectively. After spending time in the IP Department and as Social Media Coordinator, Torey currently works as InkTip’s Marketing & Promotions Coordinator. His free time is usually spent either writing, watching indie films, or hoping for a Cleveland Guardians World Series.