I have two:

Night of the Living Dead (1968)
It’s easy to dismiss as a schlocky B movie, but Romero got a lot right. The fact that all of the main characters die badly, along with the stills used during the closing scene, left me with a deep sense of “ick” when I first watched it as a kid. The claustrophobic feeling of being boarded up inside an old farmhouse was also a major factor in making this my own “scariest movie”. Other films have had much better scary moments, but the overall sense of dread this one created for me takes the cake. That bleak ending scene does it for me, though.

Dressed to Kill (1980)
Not really a horror film, but the murder of Angie Dickinson’s character near the start of the movie still leaves me a touch nervous every time the elevator doors open. I can take or leave the rest of it, but I’ll never forget the sudden violence of that scene. Thanks to the WKBD channel 50 (Detroit!) eight o’clock movies of my youth, I watched this one when I was way too young, and way too impressionable.

"Don't Look In The Basement" -- 1973

Well, technically it is not a horror film.......unless you have a dental appointment after seeing it:

quote:

Originally posted by KSGM:
Like 12131, I seem to hold scenes that inspire what I might call "dread" in high regard.

This might qualify, the build up is intense.

This thing.

Prove me wrong:

https://youtu.be/B3Mooh9zXhQ?si=wL4Wd3mdGk2psCwS


Scariest, because it's so realistic.

Psycho Santa in Tales from the Crypt Movie.

Tiny warrior statue come to life and chasing and stabbing Karen Black in Twilight Zone or maybe Night Gallery.

^^^^ Thanks for mentioning Karen Black because it just brought me back to 1976 watching Burnt Offerings. Creepy film, but man, the ending scene was oh so scary watching it the first time. Ben (played by Oliver Reed) went back to the old woman’s house to get his wife Marian (Karen Black) to leave for good, only to find out in shock that she had turned to the evil old woman. The shot of her face looking up as she arose to lunge at him, with the intense music playing, scared me shitless at the time.

The Exorcist without a doubt.
Did you know that the director in the movie (not the director of the movie) raped Reagan?

The opening scene of 28 months later.

The famous jump scare hospital scene in Exorcist III is one of my favorites.

Not a horror movie per say, but in the movie "The Road" the entire cannibal scene at the farm house was pretty disturbing due to its realism.

quote:

Tiny warrior statue come to life and chasing and stabbing Karen Black in Twilight Zone or maybe Night Gallery.

TV movie, three segments (unrelated other than, of course, Karen Black in them) called Trilogy of Terror.

"Your mother sews socks that smell!"

The scene in Halloween 2 or 3–whichever was the one with the masks that would kill someone when the commercial played. The scene of the kid struggling to pull the mask off, then insects come crawling out of the mask.

I gotta go with Burnt Offerings as well.

Oh and then there’s those chrome death spheres from Phamtasm!

Night of the living Dead,

They're coming to get you Barbara...

Don’t be afraid of the dark. 1973.

I was 5 years old when I saw this with my 7 year old brother on tv.

Couple buys old house. Fireplace is bricked up. Handyman warns wife to leave it be. She doesn’t. Little goblin creatures emerge and torment her, whisper her name. Nobody believes her. She ends up being drugged and dragged into the fireplace where she becomes one of them.

Gave me nightmares for a decade a least.

quote:

Handyman warns wife to leave it be. She doesn’t.

Isn't that the plot for all horror movies?