50. The Shining – Hallorann’s return

Stanley Kubrick’s classic is a psychological descent into Jack Torrance’s madness. Which means, the film is much more on mood than scares. This makes Hallorann’s return to the Overlook Hotel one of the most unexpected scares. He calls out to the family as he makes his way through the eerily quiet hotel. You know he’s in trouble, but Jack’s jumping out and screaming is still a chilling surprise that carries forth an unexpecting ending.

49. Evil Dead – I’ll rip your soul out

Fede Alvarez’ remake opts for violence, gore, and brutality over jump scares for the most part. Which makes the few employed very shocking. The first and most impressive of which is the opener, where the tied-up girl begs and please with her dad before revealing her true nature. In a way, it’s a cliched jump scare in that its sudden loud noise, music stinger, and scary imagery are intended to provoke strong audience reaction, but it’s tried and true for a reason. More importantly, it sets the tone that this won’t be the comedic version that the original series eventually turned toward.

48. Dog Soldiers – Dead Cow

This early jump scare is unique for subverting the Monty Python “drop the cow” trope, in which you drop a cow on someone for comedic effect, namely if a scene is starting to drag. In this instance, a dead cow literally drops onto the camp fire just as Spoon is trying to tell a joke to deflate the tension of the dark story that preceded. Not only does this scare prevent tension relief, but signals the group is in even more danger than they know.

47. Lake Mungo – Alice’s phone footage

This melancholic faux documentary is more about weaving the strange tale of Alice after her death, as her family deals with strange events in the home. Mostly mysterious and moody, this scare comes after the first twist reveal that the house wasn’t really haunted. When the entire plot shifts into non-supernatural, this scare is a complete blindside.

46. The Eye – Calligraphy class

This jump scare plays with the very concept of the trick of the eye. The lead protagonist receives a corneal transplant, restoring vision after 18 years of blindness. It also happens to come with supernatural side effects. In the calm setting of a calligraphy class, Mun briefly sees a woman in the corner of the room. She turns, and the woman is gone again. Confused as to whether her eyes were deceiving her, it’s almost as it maybe that’s all there was to the scene. It wasn’t; the woman isn’t done.

45. The Sentinel – Man in the room

Alison Parker’s new apartment quickly establishes that she shares the building with very strange neighbors. Her encounters become more and more unsettling. Such is the case with a late-night visitor. Getting up to investigate noises in the middle of the night is never a good idea, as she discovers when a creepy old man strolls across the room in front of her. This alone is enough to get the heart pumping, but he’s got one last scare for her.

44. The Sixth Sense – Ankle grab

Cole Sear can’t catch a break with ghosts. They hound him constantly, even scaring him in the safety of his blanket fort, until Malcolm Crowe comes along to teach him how to cope with his ability. While there are scares aplenty in M. Night Shyamalan’s breakout hit, this one wins for being most out of left field. Why? Because Shyamalan spends most of the film training the audience subconsciously with his use of the color red. Any time there’s a lot of red in the scene, like a balloon at the birthday party or his blanket fort, we’re clued in to a ghostly presence. When Cole enters Kyra’s bedroom, it’s washed in cool hues. That the cold also signals ghosts doesn’t matter; we think Cole is in the clear. Until he’s not.

43. Wait Until Dark – Leap

The only jump scare in the entire film sure packs a punch. It’s the moment where Susy’s trying to escape her apartment after stabbing big bad Roat. Coming back down the steps, she must move around the dead body at the base. The expectation is that that’s where movement will come to catch us off guard, so we don’t see the actual scare coming.

42. A Tale of Two Sisters- Hand under the sink

We’ve been trained to know that getting down on your hands and knees to examine the underside of a bed, cabinet, or anything will result in a scare, so the stepmother’s slow approach to under the sink, wide eyes of fear, makes our breath hitch. The camera angle from underneath, though, reveals a person just out of focus behind her at the table. She knows it, too. The camera zooms in on her terrified face as she slowly turns to look. Of course, no one is there. We think the moment is over, especially with a hairclip left behind, but nope. We were wrong.

41. The Changeling – Broken Mirror

This highly atmospheric and highly underrated haunted house flick relies much more on mood to craft its scares. Which is why the very few jump scares it contains works so well. Such is the case with this scene, where John Russell knows something is off as he walks through the house before stopping to look at his reflection in a mirror. The music sets it up, alerting the viewer something is about to happen, but the overhead camera angle misdirects the viewer on where the scare will happen.

40. Drag Me to Hell – Gypsy in the bed

This classic jump scare sees the film’s protagonist, Christine, bolt upright in bed after a nasty nightmare. She feels relief, with her boyfriend asleep beside her, so she settles back in to resume sleep. Except it’s no longer her boyfriend in bed with her. Following a familiar pattern of jump scares before it, this one also works because director Sam Raimi has kept the audience off kilter with its mixed tone of humor and horror.

39. The Strangers – Face in the window

Sometimes all you need to make a jump scare work, besides timing and build up, is a stellar performance to sell it. Liv Tyler’s slow approach to the window, knife in hand, plays out exactly how you expect; with a creepy masked killer on the other side. She pulls back the curtain and BAM. It still works, even when you know it’s coming, not just because it takes its time to build up the scare, but because Tyler’s fear is palpable. We feel what she’s feeling in the scene, and we hope she’ll find relief on the other side of the curtain anyway.

38. It Follows – Tall Man Appears

After a tense few minutes of Jay running from a follower culminates to her friends standing in front of her door with weapons in hand, ready to fight off her aggressor. When they work up the nerve to open it, they find Yara, dazed and confused. Enter a sigh of relief. Except that’s precisely when the follower reappears, giving Jay no moment of safety.

37. It – Beverly’s triumph

Director Andy Muschietti gives the audience many clues, some subtle and some overt, that Pennywise is always in the background watching and waiting. But in a moment of triumph, just after a powerful scene where Beverly fights off her abusive father, we’re reveling in relief that nothing bad happened to her. Which is precisely why we didn’t expect the sudden scare that followed.

36. Saw – Camera flash

Some of the best jump scares stick their landing because they’re used sparingly. Such is the case in Saw, a movie more about the grisly nature of its traps than scares. Which is why Adam’s capture made audiences practically jump out of their skin. Adam’s abduction flashback lands a huge jump scare for its slow build of him navigating his home with only the flash of his camera to guide him. When he eventually comes across Billy the puppet, we think it’s over. Our guard is down just enough to elicit one last surprise.

35. Paranormal Activity 2 – Kitchen surprise

In a series known for jump scares, the one that caught audiences most off guard took place in the bright light of day. Considering all the paranormal activity occurred during the late hours of night, the day brought a respite from the scares. The filmmakers played on this by created a jump scare smack in the middle of a mundane scene; Kristi enjoying her afternoon coffee or tea in the kitchen. Cue the blindsiding scare.

34. REC – 360 attic spin

If horror has taught us anything, it’s that nothing good is up in the attic. Nearing the end of an extremely intense thrill ride, Angela Vidal and her camera man Pablo are just about out of safe places to hide from the infected. Relegated to the penthouse, with the infected right outside the door and waiting, Pablo reaches his camera up into the attic, giving it a 360 spin to investigate. We know it’s coming, but the limited first-person view and the slow panning makes the wait unbearable, giving an effective ending to the scare.

33. The Conjuring – Wardrobe spirit

While the entire movie is an orchestra of scares by master James Wan, this jump scare really stands out. That’s because it’s one that Wan takes time building throughout the film. When Cindy Perron begins sleepwalking upon the family’s arrival in their new home, she always ends up in Andrea’s room, banging her head on the wardrobe. It’s significant enough to tip the viewer off that something relevant will happen, but what? And more importantly, when? Keeping the viewer on their toes keeps them on edge, but Wan makes sure to completely knock them off their feet when the scare finally drops. It doesn’t come from within the wardrobe, as Cindy’s headbanging suggests, but above.

32. Black Christmas – Clare’s suffocation

In the scene directly preceding this jump scare, the girls all gather around the phone as they receive a call from “the Moaner,” a man who has been calling the house repeatedly with obscene noises and phrases. This scene, and the early runtime, gives the feeling that the girls aren’t yet in danger. Which is why the jump scare of Clare’s sudden suffocation delivers such a punch.

31. Shutter – Face in photo

This jump scare comes early, at around the 20-minute mark, setting the tone for creepy ghost story that will be full of scares. Under the eerie red glow of the dark room, photographer Tun examines the photos he’s developing. In the dark space between two people, Tun leans in, barely making out another face that wasn’t thought to be there before. Just the appearance is enough, but this jump scare plays off the expectation that people in photographs can’t move.

30. Mama – Mama’s mad

Thanks to Javier Botet’s unique silhouette, the titular Mama was scary simply just to look at her. So even seeing her at the end of a dark room, or hallway, would be enough to deliver a shock, which is something director Andy Muschietti does employ often. But the most petrifying jump scare comes with the slow build, as Victoria and Lily slowly investigate the rooms of the house. Victoria turns, finds Lily standing motionless and staring. Alarm bells are ringing loudly already when the camera pans around Lily to reveal Mama, also completely still. Lily’s smiling and giggling almost lets your guard down before Victoria whispers, “Don’t look at her.” Cue the obscenely fast terror, and viewers leaving their seats in response.

29. Child’s Play – Chucky’s headless body attacks

Just when Karen, Andy, and Detective Mike think that their battle is over, with the killer Good Guy doll chucked in the fireplace and roasted, this tried and true jump scare plays on the killer coming back for one last adrenaline rush. Mike’s partner arrives just in time to find Chucky’s burnt head, patting it and disbelieving their story. The group, and the viewer, is zeroed in on Chucky’s head, waiting to see if he’ll open his eyes and deliver one last quip. No one suspects the vent.

28. The Orphanage – Car Crash Terror

When Laura finds Benigna sneaking around her shed, Benigna becomes suspect number one in the disappearance of her son, Simon. While in town, she spots Benigna and chases her down for answers, only for Benigna to be met with the abrupt end of a vehicle. It’s startling enough, but when Laura bends over her body to examine her necklace, Benigna has one last, gruesome surprise for her. In a film about the atmospheric haunting of orphaned children, this sudden jolt packs quite a punch.

27. The Exorcist – Spider Walk

One of the creepiest jump scares wasn’t even initially in the original theatrical cut; the spider-walk. It was a scene that director William Friedkin felt was too much too soon in the plot and cut it, much to the dismay of writer William Peter Blatty. Thirty years later, it was added back in for its theatrical re-release. As for the scare itself, poor Chris MacNeil comes home only to be greeted by a possessed Regan, coming down the stairs in the freakiest of ways.

26. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre – Leatherface’s introduction

When Kirk steps inside the house in search of gas, you know something bad is going to happen. It’s eerily quiet, save for what sounds like a pig, and the red room next to the hall stands out as a warning. Even still, there was no preparing for the sudden appearance of Leatherface, nor his swift swing of the hammer.

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