25. The Thing – The blood test

One of the tensest sequences in this John Carpenter classic sees MacReady administering a blood test to determine which of the remaining survivors might be the Thing in disguise. That they’re tied together only amps up the tension, as MacReady tests each sample one by one with a hot wire. Both the characters and the viewers know someone will be revealed as inhuman, but it’s the not knowing which one or precisely when that makes this so intense. Carpenter draws it out until the pressure is so taut, and then pops it with the explosive reveal.

24. The House on Haunted Hill (1959) – The old woman

With only a candle to light her way, poor Nora is trying to find her way back to the other room, tapping the wall for a secret switch and guided by a voice on the other side of the wall. So distracted, she doesn’t realize the creepy Mrs. Slydes is right behind her until too late. Neither did we. Mrs. Slydes ghastly appearance in conjunction with Nora’s terrified scream made this one classic jump scare.

23. Signs – Birthday party video

Merrill watching footage of a birthday party over the news seemingly keeps the potential for scares at arm’s length. The chaotic scene of a cluster of children, yelling and talking over each other isn’t the normal ambient sound for a jump scare. That they seem more excited and annoyed than scared doesn’t lend to the typical build up, either. Until the precise moment the alien steps into the camera’s frame. Cue the music stinger and screaming children. We jump along with Merrill too.

22. Psycho – Meet Mother

This jump scare is effective for its startling imagery, but more so because of what it means for the plot. Lila Crane hides from Norman Bates near the end of the movie by running down into the cellar. She finds Mrs. Bates there, sitting in a chair. She turns her around to reveal a mummified corpse, following by Norman, dressed as mommy, running in with a knife. It’s a double jump scare that spooks audiences for its abruptness, and its reveal that Norman was mommy all along.

21. Shock –Hallway Child Running

There was a well-received jump scare in Annabelle that owed everything to Mario Bava’s underseen classic. This original jump scare features a woman looking down the hall at her child, a not so pleasant expression on his face. He runs at her and at the last-minute pops up to reveal a fully grown man. That last second reveal proved creepy, and it’s no wonder they repurposed it for Annabelle.

20. Suspiria – Pat at the window

Pat, the student Suzy sees flee at the beginning of the film, finds refuge at her friend’s apartment. Not for long though, as whatever she’s fled from follows up. The music is loud as the tension builds while Pat is looking out the window. Once she sees two green eyes in the darkness, the music quiets, giving the feeling that the scare is over. Which is the precise moment a hairy arm punches through the window to grab Pat.

19. Prince of Darkness – Double Nightmare Scare

Carpenter ends his underrated film on an unsettling note, that’s set off by a jump scare. Throughout the movie, lead protagonist Brian Marsh has a recurring nightmare about a figure emerging from the church. This time, the figure is Danforth, the love interest he lost in the final battle with the Anti-God. He wakes from the nightmare in usual fashion, but this time he’s not alone in bed. It’s a disquieting image that’s then followed by Marsh screaming awake.

18. Friday the 13th – Jason returns

There’s a lot that this slasher classic borrows from, in terms of other films that preceded, but that doesn’t make what it does any less effective. Like the final scare, for example. The tranquil lake that final girl Alice floats on after surviving the camp massacre becomes a moment of relief when Alice wakes up in her boat to the police arriving. Cue the deformed Jason Voorhees, emerging from the water to drag her under. It’s a well-trodden scare that continues to work, but it also makes for a great set up for the sequel, nightmare or not.

17. Mullholland Drive – The Hobo

More neo-noir than horror, writer/director David Lynch still leans heavily into the genre. Case in point is this massive jump scare that’s remarkable in that Lynch sets the audience up for exactly how he’s going to pull it off, and it still works like a charm. Early in the film, a scene between two men in a mundane diner sees one describe to the other a terrible nightmare he had where he saw a terrible figure behind that same diner. They decide to investigate, and find that very nightmare realized, causing the man to faint in fright. The way that Lynch builds the scene has the viewer believing it will go a completely different direction, even though he’s told us the opposite. It’s genius.

16. Cat People – Lewton Bus

One of the most original jump scares, and originator of the technique referred to as the Lewton Bus, which refers to any scene in which tension is dissipated by a punctuated scare. In this instance, it’s an ominous night scene where Irena is following Alice. As the scene progresses, so does the tension, with the expectation that Irena is going to turn into a panther and attack Alice. Alice is startled with a high hissing sound, only to find it’s the bus. Both Alice, and the viewer, lets out a breath of relief.

15. The Amityville Horror (2005) – Bathroom break

Little Michael Lutz’s bladder overrides his fear of the dark hallway in the middle of the night. While he urinates, he keeps a watchful eye to the open door. Even when the sink isn’t working right once it’s time to wash up after, he keeps watching the door. It’s this misdirection that lands one of the best jump scares. While Michael and the viewer are watching for something to appear in the door, the scare comes from right behind him.

14. Halloween – Bob swings from door frame

While John Carpenter opted for a more deliberate, creeping dread in this seminal classic, he snuck in a few tense jump scares to keep viewers on their toes. The biggest came when Laurie Strode discovers the body of one of her friends in bed with a tombstone. She backs up in shock and fear, just in time for Bob’s dead body to pop down, swinging right into her from the door frame.

13. Se7en – Sloth is alive

The police discovery of John Doe’s victim portraying the deadly sin of Sloth was already grisly. The ceiling hung with car air fresheners to cover the scent of decay, and the emaciated figure on the bed looked as though death had set in long ago. The Detectives begin the process of investigating the crime scene, when one of the officers slowly examines the body. David Fincher then delivers one of cinema’s biggest jolts when Sloth begins to thrash about the bed.

12. Carrie – The Grave

When the evil has been defeated and ending music kicks in, that means all is well and secure right? Usually. Unless you’re Sue Snell, sole survivor, visiting Carrie White’s grave. The serene scene, complete with an ethereal glow and Sue in a long white dress, gives way to horror when she places flowers upon Carrie’s grave, only to be grabbed by her bloody arm. It was the first jump scare to take advantage of the safe space of the hero’s triumphant epilogue, and one that would be repeated in future horror classics.

11. An American Werewolf in London – Nightmare within a nightmare

In this classic jump scare, David startles awake from a nightmare of violent Nazi werewolves to find the calming nurse Alex there to soothe him. She opens the curtain to let light in only to be met with David’s dream Nazi werewolves, who then stabs her to death. David shoots up in bed, alone and sweating, revealing his nightmare within a nightmare. It’s a clever scare that works so well because the high-octane imagery of David’s first nightmare then lulled the audience into a false sense of safety when he “woke up.” Well done, Mr. Landis.

10. Don’t Look Now – The Red Hooded Reveal

On a trip to Venice, still grieving for his deceased daughter, John Baxter (Donald Sutherland) sees a small figure in a red coat like his daughter wore. He sees the figure numerous times throughout the movie, as tension between he and his wife builds, until the climax where he finds the red hooded figure once more, giving chase hoping to find his dead daughter. The one-two punch of the jump scare is brilliant because not only does it give Baxter’s story a shocking conclusion, but it recontextualizes the entire film that preceded.

9. The Thing – Defibrillator

This jump scare occurs late in the game, with paranoia already high and a crew well aware that they’re dealing with a deadly something not of this planet. They’ve seen a lot of strange death and assimilation, so Norris’ suffering a heart attack seems perfectly human. No one expected his heart attack to be of an inhumane cause, however. Not the viewer and certainly not poor Dr. Copper, who suffered the most for trying to revive Norris by defibrillator. In a movie full of crazy creature effects, Carpenter brilliantly plays off of the normal to enact the biggest scare.

8. Alien – Dallas in the vents

There are a few reasons why this scare is one of the top jump scares of all time. It cleverly builds mounting dread as it cuts from Captain Dallas (Tom Skerritt) entering the air ducts to flush out the small alien that burst from Kane’s chest to his crew as they monitor the situation. The crew gets more and more nervous as the beeping of the alien’s location closes in on Dallas, until it’s too late. No one really expected the heroic Captain to be in mortal peril so soon, though. The abrupt reveal of xenomorph’s adult size in the dark depths of the air duct, effectively dooming the hero, though? Chilling.

7. Sinister – The Lawnmower

The 8mm home movie footage that Ethan Hawke’s character finds in the attic contains the scariest moments of the film. One of the films contains ominous footage of a lawnmower in 1986. For a slow, drawn-out moment, it’s nothing more than a lawnmower mowing at night, and it’s the only object lit on screen. The loud scream at the precise moment a person appears on screen, combined with Hawke’s visceral reaction to watching it, created the biggest scare of the film.

6. Insidious – Face of the demon

The precursor to The Conjuring, and a signal of terrifying things to come from James Wan and Leigh Whannell, this jump scare came during a quiet moment in the middle of the day. The camera pans back and forth between Barbara Hershey and Patrick Wilson, as her character tells him of a creepy dream she had. As the doors in her dream creak open, and the unnerving music cuts in, the scene sets up the expectation that the scare will occur in her dark dream sequence. Her voice lowers to a whisper, the camera cutting between her sequence and the characters; the build is rising for the scare. When it happens, it’s in the unexpected safety of the dining room, right behind Wilson.

5. Jaws – Ben Gardner’s boat

When Hooper and Chief Brodie go out looking for that giant monster of a shark, they find Ben Gardner’s sunken boat. Hooper dives down to examine the hull, and the music is tense signaling something scary is about to happen. So far, the viewer has been primed to be on the lookout for Jaws whenever someone enters the water, and this jump scare plays on that very expectation. No one expects something to emerge from that small hole in the hull, not even Hooper.

4. Poltergeist – Clown on the bed

Part of what makes this jump scare work so well, is that the film took its sweet time prepping the viewer for its arrival. Long before the infamous scene, both the script and director Tobe Hooper made sure to establish that little Robbie Freeling was feeling apprehensive toward his creepy clown doll many scenes before he’d have his feelings justified. Then, when the clown disappears from its chair and you know the scare is coming, it subverts the expectation that the clown will be under Robbie’s bed. Once a confused Robbie sits back up from his peak under, a cackling clown startles both Robbie and the audience.

3. The Descent – Night vision reveal

Realizing they’re trapped, and tensions bordering on full-blown panic, the women are employing anything they can to light their way in a dark cave system; most with lighters, and one using the camera’s night vision mode. When most jump scares rely on quiet tension to build, Neil Marshall manages to pull off one of horror’s best jump scares amidst women yelling for help. As the camera pans across flustered faces, there’s an unexpected new member to the group, right behind them.

2. The Exorcist III – Nurse’s Station

Shot down a long hospital corridor of a nurse’s station, this is one of the most well-regarded jump scares for a reason. As a nurse goes about her daily routine, with a police officer in the background, it’s a setup that makes the viewer feel safe. Especially when the nurse locks the room she’s just exited behind her. Seconds later, someone in a nun opens the locked door behind her and chases after with giant shears. The loud accompanying music only enhances the truly scary moment.

1. The Ring – I saw her face

The most effective jump scare comes during one of the most least expected moments; a funeral. In the scene Rachel Keller (Naomi Watts) is listening to her sister mourn over her recently deceased daughter while washing dishes during the wake. It’s a quiet scene devoid of music, with the mother delivering necessary exposition while pleading with her sister to investigate, and it’s rife with the angry devastation of someone barely holding it together. The moment she utters, “Please. I saw her face,” the quiet is punctuated with a harsh sting and the reveal of the very gruesome face of her dead daughter, found in the closet. The unexpected timing combined with the loud burst of sound and terrifying visual made this jump scare an all-timer.

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