10 Horror Movie Jump Scares That Were Actually Terrifying – Screen Rant

Jump scares are often criticized for being cheap and ineffective - a way to merely startle the audience rather than scare them. There's an enormous difference between feeling unsettled and someone walking up to you and going boogidyboogidyboo! The former stays with you, the latter just serves to tick you off.

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That said, there is a right way to do a jump scare. A properly placed jump scare can do wonders to break the tension in a dramatic way and serve the story in a surprising and engaging manner. These are ten horror movie jump scares that were actually terrifying.

The Thing never relied on jump scares to unsettle its audience - it did that quite wonderfully through dramatic tension and some truly disgusting prosthetic effects. But it does contain one of the all-time greatest jump scares, which is when the blood shoots off thePetri dish during the wonderfully tense blood test sequence. The screech of the blood itself is certainly surprising, but what's even more surprising is the fact that blood just shot off the Petri dish! It serves the storyand scares the audience. In short, it's perfectly-timed jump scare.

The Conjuring series is full of jump scares, some good, some bad. We think this is a good one. One of the Hodgson children plays with a moving fire truck and realizes that it's coming from a tent at the end of the hallway. He sends the truck back into the tent, and we expect a hand or a face to poke out and surprise him. What we get instead is a bloodcurdling scream from the mouth of the tent, which is enough to send the child (and us) running for the hills. There's something about screaming ghosts that is really, really creepy...

Speaking of The Conjuring, perhaps the best jump scare in the first movie is the creature on top of the wardrobe. This scene serves as a wonderful example of camera placement and movement, as the person/creature itself is initially hidden from view. We then hear one of the children gasp, and we realize that something must be in the room with them. That's when the camera pans up and zooms in to the creature, and we all shiver from the jolt. The movie warned us that a jump scare was coming - we should have listened.

Man, what an introduction this was. The Insidious films share a similar horror style to The Conjuring franchise, which includes lots and lots of jump scares. And, like The Conjuring, some work better than others. Perhaps the best jump scare is when the Lipstick-Face Demon suddenly appears behind Josh and roars at the camera.

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It's a great jump scare because we truly weren't expecting it. The scene concerns a simple and quiet talk around a table, and a jump scare is the furthest possible thing from our minds. Maybe the quietness should have clued us in...

The Final Destination movies aren't really known for their jump scares. Rather, they derive pleasure from teasing the audience, grossing them out with blood and gore, and wowing them with the intricate Rube Goldberg-Esque machinations. But the first movie contains a wonderful jump scare when Terry is totally blindsided and decimated by a passing bus. It's a little cheap - surely the characters would have seen and heard the bus coming? And why didn't the bus stop? But it serves the story, it shocks us, and it makes us realize that no one is safe in any setting or predicament. It made us realize that Death does not mess around.

Sinister is a super creepy movie owing primarily to the home video footage. These videos are eerily shot, dimly lighted, disturbing to watch, and often scored with a slow but menacing sound that has us tensing in anticipation. The best video of the movie contains a lawnmower traveling down a lawn - until it hits what looks like a corpse. Thedim lighting, the slow and menacing beat, the sudden vision of the corpse, the screech when the corpse is revealed - it all comes together into a perfect jump scare package.

The Ring is another movie that doesn't tend to rely on jump scares, but it still contains a doozy. Like the Insidious jump scare, this one comes in the middle of a quiet conversation. You could argue that this is a cheap tactic, but we think it's a perfectly-timed and suitable jump scare.

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It adds dimension to the character (pitifully stating "I saw her face"), it shows us what happens to Samara's victims, and it proves that something supernatural did in fact happen. Plus, that face. That face will never leave our nightmares.

The Exorcist should never have received a sequel. Let alone multiple sequels. But despite all odds, The Exorcist III really isn't that bad. And it contains one of the finest jump-scares in horror movie history. It's hard to describe this jump scare, and its effectiveness really must be seen. Thefilmmaking behind the scare is quite extraordinary. The long takemakes us numb to the mundane activities on screen, the quick zoom-in to the action disorients us, and the screech of the soundtrack obviously catches us off guard. We can't help but question what we saw. That is, after we catch our breaths, of course.

Can Se7en be considered a horror movie? It certainly contains horrific elements, so yes, we're counting it. And if we're counting it, then we have to include the terrifying Sloth victim, an image which is permanently ingrained in our subconscious. The mood and atmosphere of the scene are suitably unsettling, but we still expect the victim to be, you know, dead. So imagine our surprise when the victim coughs in the officers' face! It's not a traditionaljump scare, but that's to its credit. It's amazing how it manages to startle us so badly while remaining grounded and realistic.

Jaws was a terrifying movie in 1975, and it's still a terrifying movie in 2020. It also contains one of the greatest jump-scares in horror movie history. While searching the wreckage of a boat, Hooper is met with a rather ghastly sight - the decapitated head of poor Gardner (minus an eyeball of course). The jump scare itself is effective, but the situation also makes us tingle with anxiety. Can you imagine investigating a shipwreck andseeing a decapitated head just floating on by? That stuff stays with you forever. As did this jump scare.

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10 Horror Movie Jump Scares That Were Actually Terrifying - Screen Rant

Reviewed and Recommended by Erik Baquero