MovieChat Forums > Don't Look Now Discussion > Have you ever been so terrified by a sce...

Have you ever been so terrified by a scene?

posted 15 years ago by A_Fistful_of_Pennies
38 replies | jump to latest

I would like to redeem myself after posting a negative topic about this movie (re: the sex scene) by posting a positive topic. Despite my issues with the sex scene going on so long, I think this is a terrific movie overall.

The scene that I am discussing here is of course, the scene where Donald Sutherland follows what he thinks is his daughter, only to discover it is someone else entirely...an old, vertically-challenged killer. The scene terrified me unlike any other I've seen. My heart jumped into my throat when she turned around and you see who it is, it's just impossible to see coming.

The whole scene is incredibly suspenseful leading up to it, as you know it is not who he thinks it is, but who could it be? Is it just his imagination? There is no way to predict that who he is following is actually a killer, and one with such a terrifying appearance (no offense to the actress, as I'm sure the lighting and makeup helped make it that way). I seriously shudder just seeing pictures of that scene. I haven't been scared by much, but this definitely terrified me. My face looked like Donald Sutherland's face at the end of Invasion of the Body Snatchers!

[–] gnolti 15 years ago

I first saw this movie -- or at least snatches of it -- as a child, and the effect of that face, that red coat, was utterly terrifying. Less so now, and after repeated viewings, but even so, the nuance and timing with which Roeg handles that scene can be endlessly studied.

There, daddy, do I get a gold star?

[–] Zero_70 15 years ago

I haven't watched the film in a while but it was truly terrifying! Even before the dwarf turns around. Oooh! It gives me shivers just thinking about it.

Although, perhaps now it won't be as scary.

I really miss the days before excessive cgi effects. It spoils films.

[–] drumwan 15 years ago

I think the only other scene which has terrified me more than this one is one from A Tale of Two Sisters, which features this lank-haired child climbing onto a bed emanating this high pitched buzzing sound. Then a hand comes out from under her skirt. I was shaking.

hostess twinky *beep* *beep*

[–] Tracey73 14 years ago

I think the only other scene which has terrified me more than this one is one from A Tale of Two Sisters, which features this lank-haired child climbing onto a bed emanating this high pitched buzzing sound. Then a hand comes out from under her skirt.

I swear I jumped a mile out of my skin when that happened lol.

I'm an automatic steeple for depressed and lonely people ~ Blue October

[–] ejs8882000 14 years ago

"Lank-haired child"? Um, the ghost was the MOTHER of the two sisters, so she wasn't a child.

[–] Hungerhill 15 years ago

I watched this film alone late at night years ago and I remember the bit where the dwarf lady turned around because I felt as though I'd been punched in the chest, such was the shock!!!

[–] derek1240 15 years ago

Well seeing as I'm only 15, the first time I heard about this movie was a couple years ago when I was watching Bravo's 60 or 100 or whatever the *beep* it is scariest movie moments. it was on there, and it showed the twist, and I remember it scared the *beep* out of me. but that's it, now I decided to watch the movie because of it, and it kinda sucks I just saw it was coming, and it's not as scary that way.

[–] scarletminded 15 years ago

Actually, I thought the sex scene was much more horrific than the dwarf. The dwarf ending made it very Argento to me for some reason, though I don't think I've seen dwarves in his films.

But the sex scene, OH THE HORROR!!! Especially when you get to see 7 or more naked Donald Sutherlands ALL AT ONCE!!

SHUDDER!!! GASP!!!

And it wouldn't end, it kept going and going...the director is a sadist!

[–] 15 years ago

[deleted]

[–] jeanthebean 14 years ago

I saw this movie for the frst time late at night when i was alone. I was in my twenties and it scared me so badly, I called my mom in the middle of the night. The movement of the dwarf, her demeanor, not to mention the whole shock of it being her was unforgettably frightening. I watched it again, years later, but I refused to watch that scene.

[–] Scrite 15 years ago

I am shaking just thinking of that scene. I dont think any scene in any other horror movie has scared me that much.

If you're an atheist and 100% proud of it, put this in your signature

[–] AsaNisiMasa_63 15 years ago

It didn't scare me...more like, it caught me off guard. I think the sisters were creepier, lol...

[–] pazuzu-1 15 years ago

It sure gave me a huge shock.I knew something was coming so i kind of prepared myself.I dont want to let off spoilers but the scene in the Ring sure gave me nightmares.Also include Spoorloos.It was my best scare ever.The newer Paranormal Activity was a huge letdown though...

[–] misterID 15 years ago

I thought it was the most ridiculous ending to a film EVER.

[–] ThunderDonkey 15 years ago

May I ask why was it such a shock? I've never seen this movie but growing up in the 70's I've heard it mentioned a few times but I guess I was too young back then to see it. All these years have passed and I still have yet to see it. It certainly hasn't come on cable as far as I can see, one old movie that I did manage to see that I never heard of even back then is "Picnic At Hanging Rock" It was strange but I liked it well enough.

Not to get off track to my main point, but what was "so terrifying" about the end of this movie? Well I gather the killer is a woman and she's a dwarf, ok I get that, but what is so terrifying about that that it's a image people can't get out of their minds, that it scared the crap out of them? Was she deformed? Demonic? Ok I mean I get it that she turned around and it wasn't who you or he (Sutherland) expected but what about that is so mind blowing scary especially compared to today's sicko slasher films? It's a valid question I think, I'd love to hear your answers. Thanks in advance.

[–] 15 years ago

[deleted]

[–] Donoman99 15 years ago

I have a few comments about this scene.

First, my wife and I, didn't find it scary or shocking at all. You knew it wasn't the daughter, and you knew he was going to end up dead somehow (it was foreshadowed throughout the entire film). The dwarf look somewhat creepy due to the ugliness, but that was about it.

Second, was the dwarf actually a methodical killer, or just someone who was scared and reacted by attacking this stranger chasing after her through the streets?

And lastly, I was going to add a comment about the dwarf being too short to slice his neck, but I went back and rewatched the scene and noticed he got down on his knees. Dumb move; should have kept standing! Never would have reached his neck.

This movie was ok, but I was let down by all the hype and praise that it has gotten over the years.

[–] strugglesthebear 15 years ago

Second, was the dwarf actually a methodical killer, or just someone who was scared and reacted by attacking this stranger chasing after her through the streets?

And just happened to have that big knife in their pocket. lol

[–] ThunderDonkey 15 years ago

With props due to strugglesthebear, you gotta admit, the man has a point there. That's a few steps up from having pepper spray in your purse, that's for sure.

[–] fhnunez 13 years ago

Even the knife could be explained it by people being paranoic about a murderer on the loose. The thing is, (***SPOILERS***)in a previous scene, when the Baxters get lost in the streets of Venice at night and he spots the thing in the red coat, they actually were very close to the scene of a murder (somebody screamed just before they found their way out those narrow streets). It was the next morning when another body was recovered from the canal. The appearance of the "ghost" is actually directly connected to the murders, but we are so fixated by the possibility of a ghost that the whole thing comes out as a surprise. Part of the shock of the scene comes from the realization that we'd been had by chasing after the wrong kind of supernatural event. In fact, we had been so inmersed into the point of view of the husband that we were fooled like him, until it was too late for the protagonist. I suspect that he never understood his "gift" and that is why he got confused with those appearances. The red coat didn't have anything to do with his daughter death which was in the past. His gift was a premonition of the future and consequently of his own death. That makes this movie not an horror film but a sad and mournful story whose real suspense comes from the dread of everyday life and the way that tragedy can strike, as if scripted, on anyone at any moment. All that slow development and seemingly irrelevant details only underline that dreadful feeling of something awful about to happen. Of fate, inevitably running its course. The great trick of the movie is how our attention is misdirected by following an ultimately wrong, but otherwise understandable, line of inquiry,the husband's. The way in which all those loose and apparently irrelevant elements are all tied up so neatly and finally revealed at the precise moment that the dwarf killer turns around is what make this a great movie and that scene a memorable one.

[–] L0GAN5 13 years ago

That's about as good analysis as I've read, fhnunez.

[–] fhnunez 13 years ago

Thanks!

[–] indranee19 8 years ago

The red coat didn't have anything to do with his daughter death which was in the past. His gift was a premonition of the future and consequently of his own death. That makes this movie not an horror film but a sad and mournful story whose real suspense comes from the dread of everyday life and the way that tragedy can strike, as if scripted, on anyone at any moment. All that slow development and seemingly irrelevant details only underline that dreadful feeling of something awful about to happen. Of fate, inevitably running its course. The great trick of the movie is how our attention is misdirected by following an ultimately wrong, but otherwise understandable, line of inquiry,the husband's. The way in which all those loose and apparently irrelevant elements are all tied up so neatly and finally revealed at the precise moment that the dwarf killer turns around is what make this a great movie and that scene a memorable one.

Perfect analysis. Bravo.

However, the scariest moment for me in any movie came in the first Woman in Black (1985) when the protagonist catches sight of the Woman standing out in the field, stares at her as she stares back at him. Silence reigns for a long moment. Then, slowly, step by step, she starts advancing toward him.

Oh. My. God. I think I almost died of shock.

His instincts took over and he turned and ran... and I was like - run, RUN, and lock the door!!!

LOL.

---
Fear not for the future; weep not for the past -- Percy Bysshe Shelley
---

[–] sth78 9 years ago

Not to get off track to my main point, but what was "so terrifying" about the end of this movie? Well I gather the killer is a woman and she's a dwarf, ok I get that, but what is so terrifying about that that it's a image people can't get out of their minds, that it scared the crap out of them? Was she deformed? Demonic?

Kind of. The way she wobbled over to John Baxter and slit his throat, while he was as much in shock over her as the audience was. He could, as a 40-ish year old man, most likely beat the crap out of her, but was paralyzed by astonishment. She had just the same effect on the audience. Truly a WTF-experience, if there ever was any.