Listen — sometimes you don't have a whole hour and a half to inundate yourself with nightmare-inducing imagery. Sometimes you only have a few minutes. SOME OF US HAVE FULL-TIME JOBS AND KIDS (aka cats) TO TAKE CARE OF, BARBARA!
So in order to make your 2020 Halloween equal parts spooky AND time-conscious, I've collected some of the scariest movie scenes you and your friends can enjoy with minimal context needed — and each one is five minutes or less!!! ReAdErS, bEwArE: YoU'rE iN fOr A sCaRe*:
*But no, really. Some of these scenes contain GRAPHIC IMAGERY, some are JUMP SCARES, and almost ALL contain SPOILERS for their respective films, so...please proceed with caution. Love ya! Happy Halloween!
1. The hospital scene, The Exorcist III (1990):
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Scene length: One minute.
One-sentence context: A nurse is closing up a hospital late at night as everyone else exits, leaving her alone...OR IS SHE?!
2. The hall of mirrors scene, Us (2019):
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Scene length: Two minutes and 35 seconds.
One-sentence context: A young girl ventures away from her parents into a hall of mirrors at a carnival where she finds herself...no, really.
3. The bed scene, A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984):
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Scene length: One minute and five seconds.
One-sentence context: A young man accidentally falls asleep in bed alone, with a whole-ass TV on top of him, after his friends specifically asked him not to.
4. The kitchen scene, Paranormal Activity 2 (2010):
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Scene length: Two minutes and 40 seconds.
One-sentence context: Ghosts...that's literally the context.
5. The diner scene, Mulholland Drive (2001):
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Scene length: Four minutes and 57 seconds.
One-sentence context: A gentleman explains to a friend a recurring nightmare he's been having.
6. The defibrillator scene, The Thing (1982):
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Scene length: Three minutes.
One-sentence context: A group of American research scientists are being terrorized by an unknown force on their remote base in Antarctica when one of their own (seemingly) has a heart attack.
7. The lawn mower scene, Sinister (2012):
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Scene length: One minute and 18 seconds.
One-sentence context: Basically, a dad finds a box of old home movies that are not his family's and insists on watching them, even though they all end up being snuff films — this is one of those films.
8. The Large Marge scene, Pee-wee's Big Adventure (1985):
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Scene length: Two minutes and 19 seconds.
One-sentence context: Pee-wee hitches a ride with a friendly truck driver who's got a knack for spooky tales.
9. The Red Man scene, Insidious (2010):
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Scene length: Two minutes and two seconds.
One-sentence context: A mother reveals to her son that he had a rather spooky childhood that he has barely any memory of.
10. The monster-reveal scene, The Descent (2005):
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Scene length: Fifty seconds.
One-sentence context: A group of friends go spelunking (why?!) in an unmapped cave when an uninvited guest shows up.
11. The hide-and-clap scene, The Conjuring (2013):
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Scene length: Three minutes and 19 seconds.
One-sentence context: A mother is caught in a never-ending game of hide-and-clap with one of her children...OR IS SHE?!
12. The hitchhiker scene, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003):
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Scene length: One minute and 55 seconds.
One-sentence context: Listen, I know this is from the reboot, which is controversial, but this scene is MESSED UP, and you need no context besides this title: “A Group of Kids Picked Up a Hitchhiker.”
13. The ending scene, The Blair Witch Project (1999):
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Scene length: Three minutes and 29 seconds.
One-sentence context: A group of real-life people who are definitely not actors go into the woods in search of a witch, and they soon disappear one by one.
14. The TV scene, Ringu (1998):
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Scene length: Two minutes and 17 seconds.
One-sentence context: A man's TV is malfunctioning on another level.
15. The tall-man scene, It Follows (2015):
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Scene length: Two minutes and 57 seconds.
One-sentence context: A young woman is being followed by a metaphor for STDs that no one else around her can see, when THIS happens.
16. The premonition scene, Final Destination 2 (2003):
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Scene length: Two minutes and 29 seconds.
One-sentence context: No context is needed, really; it'll just make you too afraid to drive on a highway ever again.
17. The lake scene, Friday the 13th (1980):
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Scene length: Two minutes and 42 seconds.
One-sentence context: A young woman enjoys a peaceful lake where absolutely nothing bad could happen — trust me; ignore the video's thumbnail.
18. The car ride scene, Hereditary (2018):
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Scene length: Two minutes and 42 seconds.
One-sentence context: A brother speeds home from a party with his sister, who is having a severe allergic reaction, in the backseat.
19. And finally — the Halloween revenge scene, Trick 'r Treat (2007):
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Scene length: Two minutes.
One-sentence context: A woman who really does not like Halloween is forced to get into the spirit of decorating by the literal manifestation of the holiday.