20 Most Shocking Movie Moments

With the remake of Last House on the Left being released next week I am reminded of the trailer for the original film where the announcer told us to repeat "it's only a movie." Although the original Last House left absolutely no impression on me, there have been more than a few movies that contained moments so shocking or sickening to me that I've remembered them ever since I first watched the film. Here are the top 20 moments.

20. Return to OZ - The Rejects
- In the beginning of this twisted movie Dorothy is brought to a psychologist by her Aunt Em because she can't stop talking about the imaginary OZ. When she is brought in for her electroshock therapy another girl unstraps her and saves her. As they are running out of the building they hear moaning and screaming from the basement. When Dorothy asks what the sound is, the girl replies: "those are the rejected ones."
That line has always creeped me out. Apparently it creeped Disney out too because when they aired this on their network, they took out this scene.

19. Titanic - Breaking of the Ship
- As the ship takes on more water, the front end begins to become submerged by water which causes the back end to raise into the air. Obviously the ship was not made for this kind of stress and eventually, the boat cracks in half. The lights go out, the drama builds, and you see it fall on an ocean full of people who had jumped the rails. A classic, heart-pounding moment in movie history.
Seeing this in a movie theater was one of my favorite theater moments ever. The screen seemed 50 feet tall in front of me and the image was so completely overwhelming, I began to cry uncontrollably. (I was 12 at the time.)

18. 1984 - The Torture
- As we follow our lovable rebel Winston into his illegal relationship, we find a couple meeting up every so often to get away from all of the rules of the government. They keep their sexual relationship a secret between them because if they are found out, they face death. One day they are lounging around naked in their private room when they realize something isn't right - that's when they are caught. Winston is taken through a gauntlet of inhumane tortures that are meant to change his mind about the government, even though he is told that after they change his mind they will kill him as an example.
John Hurt's reactions are what make these scenes unbearable. He makes it seem like he is really in these extreme situations and the pain his character is feeling is real.

17. There Will Be Blood - The Bowling Alley
- In the finale of this spectacular movie, our main character Daniel Plainview finds himself a successful and angry man. When he is visited by an old friend who more than took advantage of him, Daniel finds himself in a frenzy that leads to the unexpected brutal and bloody death of the friend in a bowling alley.
With the entire movie being relatively calm and blood-free up to this point, it is definitely one of the more shocking moments in recent film history.

16. Eyes Wide Shut - Being Discovered
- The entire tone of this film is quite dark, especially the part where Dr. Hartford finds himself in a mansion where a masked orgy is taking place. While the sounds of foreign chanting fills the hallways, the all of the most powerful people in this world are standing in a circle watching several nude women perform a ritual in the center. As the group breaks up, Dr. Hartford is taken to the side by one of the women who warns him that he should not be in the mansion and that he needs to leave. When he ignores her, he is brought back into the orgy room where he faces all of the masked faces with whom he had blended in with before. The masks call him out, and make him remove his mask - for the rest of the film we are left wondering who was in the room and who knows Hartford's identity.
This scene was disturbing in many ways, but overall it was the masterful technique Kubrick had perfected over the year of using visuals, music, and pacing to make the viewer as uncomfortable as possible in the situation.

15. The Blair Witch Project - Stand in the Corner
- As we learn about the Blair Witch throughout the film we are told that while she would kill one of her child victims she would make another child face the corner in waiting. When our main characters find themselves lost in the woods, they come across the house of the Blair Witch. Heather becomes overwhelmed by what is going on and explores the upper floor of the house. As she goes searching for her companion, she finds him in the basement facing a corner. It is at this moment that we know the fate of the characters and as the camera is knocked to the floor we don't need to see anything else - we can finish the movie in our minds.
I loved this because the filmmakers knew the audience would be smart enough to remember something that was essentially said in passing earlier in the film and apply it to the ending to create a moment so shocking it cemented an entire phenomenon.

14. Bonnie and Clyde - The Finale
- This is a movie that makes us fall in love with these horrible people. They share a bond that most of us wish we could have with a parner. They believe they may be in the clear and may finally be able to get away from the law when in actuality they have been turned in and we are about to witness one of the most shockingly violent scenes in movie history.
When I first watched this movie I questioned why it was rated R for violence when it was generally tame - then I saw the ending and between the slow motion and the extreme number of bullets fired, I couldn't believe what I was seeing.

13. IT - Hi-ya Georgie!
- The perfect picture of childhood innocence. A young boy named Georgie running down the street chasing after a homemade paper boat as it glides down the side of the street. Eventually he loses the boat down the drain when he can't catch up to it, the fun's over right? Wrong. Up from the drain pops a creepy looking clown with the boat and the clown utters the famous words I've never forgotten.
The image of the clown in the drain has stayed with me forever. It goes from awkward to scary the second he talks. Needless to say the scene does not end well for Georgie.

12. Dawn of the Dead - Birth
- As zombies surround the mall, all of our characters become trapped inside. I honestly haven't seen the film in a while, but the basic scenario is that one of the girls is pregnant, her baby dies inside of her and (because all of the dead are coming back to life) the baby is born as a zombie. Normally a birth is considered a beautiful thing, but when there is a flesh-eating monster inside of you it turns into something much less beautiful.
The build-up to this scene helps with the shock factor. When you know what is about to happen to the characters, it makes the scene much scarier.

11. The Descent - Meeting the Monster
- A group of female explorers find a new, unmarked path to take through a cave. As the exit caves in behind them, they are forced to follow instinct and old clues to try to make their way to a new escape. As the movie progresses something doesn't seem right and as one of our girls gets separated, she runs into a monster hiding in the cave.
I saw this movie in a theater and I have to say this moment in the film was my favorite experience in the theater. Nobody was expecting it, the tension had brought everyone forward in their seats and when the monster is revealed the entire theater shot back in their seats with shock. One woman in the theater even began screaming as though she had run into the monster herself. It was classic.

10. Audition - The Bag
- I would say at least the first half of this film is a very cute romantic comedy. A man sets up a fake film audition to find a new girlfriend after his wife passes away. He finds a very shy and polite girl who catches his interest and sparks a new passion in him. As he calls the girl the shot switches to the girl sitting alone on the floor of her apartment. Behind her is a large bag filled with something, we don't know what. She does not answer the phone, just stares at the floor - that's when the bag lets out a growl and flies, on its own, against the wall and back to the floor. This is when we find out that the movie is far far from a romantic comedy.
There is another shocking moment in the film later on which includes vomit and missing fingers, but this is where the film takes its turn and it's a moment that has stuck in my mind ever since.

09. High Tension - The Neck Bounce
- When two college girls head out to a country home to stay with one of their families, their quiet weekend is broken by a murderous intruder who is bent on killing everyone he can find. Although there are several gruesome deaths in the film, the killing of the mother is the most disturbing and the one that has stuck with me the longest. When the intruder finds her, he slits her throat straight across - a stream of blood comes spraying out and the mother makes her way to the bedroom where one of our girls is hiding in the closet. The closet has the kind of slitted doors you can see through and when the mother gets to the door she has lost enough blood to begin passing out. Her head hits the door and begins to bounce down the door as her head hits each slit.
This is one of the most disturbing bloody deaths I've ever seen. The realism of it all is what makes it nearly unbearable.

08 - The Mist - The Added Ending
- The story follows a group of people who get trapped in a grocery store during an outbreak of monsters from another world. As a few of the people decide to leave, they make their way to a car and try to get away from the horror. They soon find that the horrors are inescapable and decide to use the few bullets they have left to kill themselves. The problem is that they are one bullet short and when one man has killed his friends and family he exits the car in hopes of being eaten by the monsters. This is where the book left off, but the filmmakers added another minute or so to the movie. Moments after the man exits the car an army tank rolls by and a truck containing many citizens follows behind it. The horror is over and everyone who was able to ride it out is now saved.
I absolutely hated this ending when I first saw it. The movie was a tense piece of wonderful filmmaking and the ending felt like a standard cop-out of any B horror movie. The more I thought about it, the more I loved it and came to recognize that I didn't hate the movie - it just shocked me so much that I didn't recognize it at the time.

07. Last Tango in Paris - It's Like Buddah
- A lonely man and woman find themselves crossing paths in and out of an apartment in Paris. The two create a relationship that they never seem to recognize as a relationship. They are simply two beings coming across each other in a busy world. One meeting went way over the top when Paul asks Jeanne to get some butter and then procedes to use it to have anal sex with her. Not exactly the kind of movie you would look to for truly shocking moments, but I was completely caught off guard with this scene.

06. Pink Flamingos - Chicken, Anyone?
- As Divine and her family try to prove they are the filthiest people in the world. Her son Crackers brings over a woman friend who is really a spy for their enemies. The two end up having sex, but it can't just be regular sex. Crackers procedes to get a live chicken and bring it into the mix.
There were so many outrageous moments in the movie, but this one stuck with me because it was so violent. The other moments are gross or sexual, but the animal actually ended up dying and that makes it hard to watch.

05. Pallindromes - A Missed Shot
- When a runway is taken in by a Christian family she discovers that the father of the family targets abortion doctors. Instead of being opposed to this idea, she wants to join in on the plan. She is taken with a friend of the family to the house of one of the doctors and they perch outside watching the man play a game of charades with his family. As the doctor is performing, they aim the gun and shoot - except just as they shoot the doctor's daughter pops up from her seat and ends up taking the bullet.
The fact that this scene changes direction in just one second shocked the hell out of me. I was expecting the doctor to get shot as planned, but when the girl jumps from her seat even the viewer doesn't have time to process the even before it is over.

04. Irreversible - The Dark Corridor
- The entirety of this movie is told in reverse and the whole thing is a little jarring, but the moment Alex decides it would be easier to take an underground corridor to cross a busy street, you know something terrible is going to happen to her. What follows is a 9 minute rape scene that does not blink and does not turn away.
It feels as though we are forced to watch this and are not allowed to move. You want to help her, but you are stuck in your chair and can do nothing until the man finally runs off and leaves Alex on the floor.

03. Threads - The Bomb
- The movie follows ordinary English citizens with their own problems to deal with. They don't have the time to pay much attention to the television and newspaper reports of problems with nuclear countries. So, when a mushroom cloud appears in the sky most people are caught off guard. What follows is one of the most gruesome and purely disturbing scenes in any film I've ever seen. As the shock wave comes through and as the fallout rains down on everyone - the brutality of war shines through.
This movie is one of the most shocking films I've ever seen, and the only one I was able to watch entirely on YouTube. To see how realistic everything is creates a fear unlike anything else.

02. Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer - Meet The Family
- Henry is a serial killer, when he finds a place to stay with a man named Otis, Otis wants to become involved with his murders. Eventually they break into a house and begin to kill and rape a family - and they videotape the whole thing. The mother and father are being attacked when their son comes in the door. He is tackled and ends up being killed with the others.
It is the most brutal scene in film history and makes me feel sick even thinking about it.

01. Salo - The Circle of Shit
- When a group of government officials kidnaps several teenagers and takes them to a secluded mansion so they can live out their sexual desires, you know something's up. But when the sexual desires turn to fetishes involving bodily functions - you want to throw up. Basically the scene begins with one man taking a dump on the floor and forcing a girl to eat it, the scene ends with a buffet of feces that goes above and beyond any form of disgusting cinema ever produced.
This whole movie was more disgusting than anything I've seen, but this scene tops it all. I couldn't believe what I was watching as the images flashed across the screen.