This Thread had the most memorable horror scenes, but what about the scariest? Scariest and best are not necessarily the same... or are they?

The ones that come to mind for me are:

Jaws takes the swimmer

Regan and the bouncing bed

That girl from The Ring (what's her name again?...) crawling through the television

Heeerrreeee's Johnny!

Running Zombies in the neighborhood - beginning of Dawn of the Dead 2004

Crew Escaping down the stairs in Darkness Falls, jumping from light patch to light patch

Leatherface bursting from his hideout with the metal door

Diseased Daughter in Pet Semetary

The Tricycle ride in The Omen

Starling in pitch darkness, killer reaching out for her - Silence of the Lambs

Carries Prom Night, and the death of Carries Mother

Has anyone seen a British horror film called "The Woman in Black", OMFG that had one of the scariest bloody scenes ever...I dont want to ruin it for anyone who hasnt seen it, the plot is basically a lawyer has to go out to this creepy old house on ther moors in Scotland or somewhere, where this old lady has just croaked it and he's going to sort out arrangements for her will etc. Its set in the 1800's i think becaus he is taken there in a horse and carriage and basically he's left there alone because the fog rolls in etc and the horse and carriage won't be back til after the weekend. Anyway, surprise surprise the house is haunted...

Girl from the Ring = Samara Morgan, Horror Czar :)

Also,

Cujo attacking the car,

Michael Myers appearing out of the darkness in Halloween

Texas Chainsaw remake..When leather face grabs her at the slaughter house.

Alien..When Weaver and the alien come face to face.

I think I saw "The Woman in Black"--if it's the one I'm thinking of, it was creepy as Hell.  I don't recall there being a lot of flashy special effects but the atmosphere and the things that happened were quite unsettling.  Talk about a malevolent spirit (spiteful even)...it was like something Ambrose Bierce would have written.

Let's see... scariest horror scenes...

•I hate to keep going back to "The Shining," but the scene in which Danny sees the old, dead woman in the tub, and

 she grabs him and starts laughing scared the Hell out of me when I was 8 (ah...to be young and easily impressed).

 The scene in which Danny is riding around The Overlook on his Big Wheel and encounters those twin girls surely

 deserves an honorable mention.

•The scene in "Let's Scare Jessica to Death" in which the corpse-like Abigail slowly rises out of the lake and walks

  towards Jessica saying, "Stay Jessica, follow me."

•The scene in "The Legacy" in which Maggie approaches the hospital bed and a hideously deformed hand grabs her

  hand and puts the ring on her finger.

•I know it's not exactly a horror film, but the Club Silencio scene in "Mulholland Drive" in which the performer

 singing Llorando (A version of the song "Crying" of Roy Orbison fame sung in Spanish) appears to die and yet the

 singing continues on without her is the only scene in a movie to ever make my hair stand on end (of course, it was

 just so beautiful too--I don't know about the rest of the movie [depends on your stomach for Lynch's convoluted

 symbolism], but that scene is totally worth watching).  The bum behind the diner who pops out and causes one of  the policemen to die on the spot is pretty good too.

•The scene in The Sentinel in which Alison first encounters her "damned" neighbors wandering around her

 apartment.

That's all I can think as it is getting kind of late...

In The Shinning, when the wife is running up the stair with a knife and she looks into a room and sees what appears to be a guy dress as a dog thing with some butler guy. Scares me to the point of not sleeping almost every time. I think its because of the person in the animal costume. (There was a Silverchair music vid that scared me for the same reason. I think it was a pig man.) I think it also scares me because it just doesn't make any sense.

I've talked to my friends about this before and no one seems to ever remember this part. Does anyone know what I'm talking about?

Exorcist - Directors Cut when Reagan "spider-walks" backwards and upside-down the front stairs then dribbles blood out of her mouth.

Exorcist III - When the nun walks across the hallway with the bone-cutting medical scuissors to decapitate the oblivious nurse.

Amityville Horror - The red eyed pig "Jodi - Demon" outside the daughters window at night.

The Shining - Yes sir, that guy in the dog suit getting a hummer from the butler is creepy as all get out.

The Thing - The whole movie.

House of 1,000 Corpses - The scene with the zombie Dr. gutting that guy strapped in the chair -all twitching and squirting blood.

Texas Chainsaw (The Beginning) - When leatherface was skinning that guys forearm - meat off while strapped to the rack in the basement.

Texas Chainsaw (Remake) - When the girl was trying to lift that guy off the meathook above the piano in the basement.

The Grudge - When the ghost-girl crept down the stairs at the end toward the protagonist.

The Ring - When the ghost crawls out of the well, then the TV.

 I remember that scene.  It certainly got my attention, but it didn't bother me as much as some of the other scenes.  You are quite right about how jarring it was because it just didn't seem to make any sense.  I think our minds are so conditioned (by evolution, brain physiology, cultural conditioning, etc.) to try to find logical patterns and apply order to things that when we come across things that are inexplicable it causes disproportional distress.  

 That sounds like it, no special effects, one bit was a creepy voice on a recorder of some kind...simple but effective stuff...the guy alone in the house...creepy...anyway, a discussion for another forum...

The ending of Carrie.

First sighting of the creature behind the women in the Descent.

Michael Myers sitting up behind Laurie Strode.

Little girl killing her mother in original Night of the living dead.

Flyboy getting it in the elevator in Dawn of the dead.

Haley Joel Osmont hiding in his bedroom tent in sixth sense.

The "man" killing dad in High Tension.

Shark popping up behind Brody in Jaws.

Robbie Freeling in Poltergeist with the possessed clown!  FREAKY!

Pretty much the last 5-10 minutes of REC. Great ending.

Other than the ones mentioned, these come to mind quickly

The first one that popped into my head would have to be Cloverfield when they were walking in the subway tunnels and were attacked. Something about only seeing glimpses of light that expose the things that are trying to kill you that would freak me out. I guess this would hold true for REC and the one scene in the beginning of Stay Alive.

Not in any order, except for numbers one and two. Not exhaustive, either. These are just five that come to mind:

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#1. Regan stabbing herself in the kooch with a crucifix and screaming "**** me...**** me,,,,!" to a priest.

For a believing Catholic like me, that is just so utterly grotesque and demented, yet so perfect a portrayal of the devil and how he thinks... It's really hard to think of any scene more disturbing to me than that one. The framing of Regan's silhouette in that unearthly light upon the bed and the tormented wailing of the damned make it almost too much to take.

#2. The shark munching down Quint. People forget, but at the time, there had really been nothing done like it before. We had seen people eaten by monsters, of course, but never so convincingly or so graphically. I think this is often overlooked in the rush to parse the psychological side of the movie. The fact is, when the giant shark bites down on Quint's midsection, there's not a viewer in the house who doesn't feel it in his or her own belly. A brilliant scene.

#3. Michael Myers seen standing amid the sheets drying on the line outside, then being gone. I debated about whether to include this in the "scariest" horror scenes, since it's not so much scary as creepy, but I don't think the movie would have been that scary overall without it. In any case, it's utterly effective. Now you see him, now you don't. As best I can recall, this is also the first, or at least the most influential, use of this technique in horror movies and it has been copied innumerable times since (most recently in The Strangers--best scene in that movie, as a matter of fact). Note that Carpenter used this ploy several times in Halloween to build anticipation, but I think the clothesline scene is the most memorable.

#4. When the Alien begins to unstretch from its hideout aboard the escape shuttle. Oh my god. I don't care if you, the viewer, just knew the creature was going to be on that shuttle. I defy you to tell me with a straight face that the reveal didn't make you stop breathing and just stare.

#5. The townies hiding out from the vampires in 30 Days of Night. Pick a scene: hiding in the house, hiding in the store...they're all good. No other movie I can think has so effectively filled me with "Don't go out there, you fool!" dread than 30 Days. It makes The Mist, which was shooting at the same target, seem like a kiddie flick by comparison.