Horror fans love a good scare; a well-executed scare can linger long after the credits roll. These effective scenes of terror stick with you, lurking in your skull as you drift off to sleep.

Luckily 2021 offered several memorable scenes of unrelenting dread and spine-tingling chills. Moments that stood out and sent shivers up and down our spines.

Here are the ten scariest scenes of the year.

The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It – Bathtub Vision

The third entry in this franchise opens with a climactic exorcism gone wrong, giving a glimpse of the possession from the perspective of the possessed. Young David Glatzel (Julian Hilliard) tries to find sanctuary from the demon terrorizing him in the bathroom, curling into a fetal position inside the bathtub. The camera pans up to reveal an inhuman hand from above, just before poor David gets showered in blood. It’s because it’s such a quiet scare that makes this one so compelling.

Saint Maud – The Ending

Spoilers ahead for the ending of Saint Maud, a horror movie that favors slow burn and psychological horror over scares. Except for that jaw-dropping ending. Morfydd Clark’s Maud spends the film growing increasingly dangerous as her faith drives her to extreme measures. Is her god real, or is it all a delusion? Director/Writer Rose Glass gives the answer in the form of one agonizing self-immolation as onlookers watch in utter terror.

The Queen of Black Magic – TV Terror

Not even the youngest child Haqi (Muzakki Ramdhan) is immune to the black magic hauntings of director Kimo Stamboel’s eponymous queen. Alone in the quiet, dark TV room, Haqi’s transfixed by a video of a woman dragging her gnarled bent leg down the familiar hall of the orphanage toward the screen. It freezes, then cuts to actual live footage of that same hall. Behind him, the woman appears in the flesh. It culminates in a classic but potent jump scare made more effective by Stamboel’s skin-crawling focus on gore.

The Power – Candle Blow Out

Young nurse Val (Rose Williams) is petrified of the dark, which is bad news considering that she’s working the night shift of a closing hospital during rolling blackouts. Something haunts the empty, pitch-black corridors, and it consistently escalates its attempts to claim Val. The most chilling moment comes when she’s left alone to watch over two unconscious patients and hears a strange, rhythmic noise in the next room. As she watches, a figure appears in the glass. That alone could count as a worthy jump scare, but as she leaves the room, an unseen presence blows out her candle, leaving her exposed to its attack. It’s a one-two punch scare that frightens.

The Vigil – “Behind You”

Writer/Director Keith Thomas nestles necessary exposition within a pivotal scare that dramatically increases the horror. In it, Yakov (Dave Davis) gets lured to the basement where a TV plays a video of Mr. Litvak, who explains what parasitic entity is haunting the home, why it’s there, and what it wants. Behind him, his wife mouths a silent warning. Yakov leans close to the TV screen and finally makes out the whispered words “behind you.” The Mazzik lunges for him. From this point on, the Mazzik gets more aggressive in its attempts to claim Yakov.

The Deep House – Under the Bed

A familiar tactic in horror movies sees a protagonist quickly hide under the bed to evade an attacker, human or supernatural, and builds to a jump scare. Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury’s decision to go completely practical with their underwater haunted house movie, building sets underwater and casting free divers to play the ghosts, makes this simple tactic oh so terrifying. Ben (James Jagger) hides under the bed when the door creaks open, and a ghost walks in, the camera focused on her pale legs as she eerily walks to the front of it. The underwater movement adds to the eeriness, but Ben can’t swim away quickly, heightening the tension.  

Caveat – Grim Grinning Ghost

Sometimes all you need to deliver a spine-tingling jolt is a well-designed, ghoulish ghost with an unnatural grin. Caveat more than provides there. As Isaac (Jonathan French) belly crawls through a claustrophobic crawlspace in the basement to find escape, he looks up just in time to spot the smiling ghost of Olga’s mom (Inma Pavon). She continues to unsettle as she watches him look for a way out.

The Medium – Night Vision Nightmare

As Mink’s family prepares an exorcism for her, the possessed woman’s behavior gets much, much worse. So much so that the documentary crew set up cameras to capture her movements at night. What that footage reveals is the stuff of nightmares. The night vision only adds to the unsettling mood as Mink skitters about at night and commits horrific acts, including the profoundly terrifying way she watches her family members from darkened corners and later crawls into bed with them.

We Need to Do Something – Who’s a Good Boy?

Melissa (Sierra McCormick) gets trapped in a bathroom with her family after a tornado strikes. Her little brother Bobby (John James Cronin) gets excited when he hears a dog at the door, squeezing his arm to pet it through the small space the wedged door allows. Melissa takes a turn to pet it, gleefully asking, “who’s a good boy?” The dog panting gives way to a male voice (Ozzy Osbourne), who responds, “I’m a good boy.” It then tries to pull her through the door as she shrieks in abject fear. Without seeing what’s on the other side of the door, this effective moment relies on sound and the viewer to fill in the blanks. Sometimes nothing is more frightening than the power of suggestion.

The Night House – Unrelenting String of Jump Scares

Several scares in David Bruckner’s latest could dominate this list, but most impressive is the unending string of jump scares about forty minutes into the film. Bruckner doesn’t bother giving the audience a chance to catch their breath in between, either. In this scare sequence, Beth (Rebecca Hall) gets startled awake by the sudden blasting of the stereo and the door’s windchimes rattling. It stops just as abruptly. She bravely goes outside and demands confrontation and instead gets met by multiple terrified ghostly women screaming and zipping past from all directions. Just as it finally goes quiet, Bruckner concludes this symphony of scares on the dock with one last nightmare for Beth for the night. Pulling off one jump scare takes skill, and here Bruckner masterfully delivered a handful back to back with seeming ease.