10 Best Horror Movie Shower Scenes

Psycho, Elm Street, Carrie and other iconic horror movies that have great shower scares!

Ghoulies III: Ghoulies Go To College
Vestron Video

Horror is famously a genre that has so many different corners to it. Whatever your particular tastes, there'll be a filmmaker who has you covered.

Even then though, there are certain moments and tropes that are common no matter what kind of creep-fest a director is making. And on that front, one thing that seems to be a relatively universal fact in horror films is that the bathroom is never a particularly safe place.

Not just the bathroom either, but more specifically these movies so often focus on terrors taking place while someone is in the shower. One would be forgiven for thinking that a shower cubicle or bathtub was a safe haven where somebody could clean themselves up without any fear of murder and mayhem coming their way - but the horror genre would suggest otherwise.

Taking a look back through the decades of horror pictures, then, here are ten of the best, most brutal and all-out brilliant shower scenes to have played out in this most beloved realm of cinema.

Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the shower, these films will keep you on your toes...

10. The Grudge

Ghoulies III: Ghoulies Go To College
Sony Pictures Releasing

The terror of Ju-On/The Grudge's shower scene is a literal blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment, but it's one of the most memorable shower scares in horror history.

Of course, the greater Grudge franchise is an absolute monster of a series, amassing a total of 13 feature films, several shorts, countless graphic novels, video games and even a TV series. One standard trope that has been present in three of those movies, is the use of a chilling shower scene reveal.

Shown in the 2002 movie, the 2004 US remake, and again in last year's 'side sequel', audiences have been treated to the exact same scene of a hand making its way out of one of the franchise star's hair during a shower sequence.

In 2002's Ju-On: The Grudge, it was Megumi Okina's Rika Nishina who was the first to be tormented by this creepy hand. Skip ahead to the US do-over of that picture, and Sarah Michelle Gellar's Karen Davis likewise had the same thing happen to her, before John Cho's Peter Spencer found himself experiencing that same eerie phenomena in the most recent entry in the franchise.

Elsewhere, 2016's Sadako vs. Kayako - as in, a crossover movie bringing the Ring and Ju-On series together - also had a haunting shower scene, which was more a nightmarish scenario of hair falling out rather than any rogue hand making an appearance.

 
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Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main day job, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg. Where his beloved Wrexham AFC is concerned, Andrew is co-host of the Fearless in Devotion podcast, which won the Club Podcast of the Year gong at the 2024 FSA Awards.