10 Horror Movie Moments IMPOSSIBLE To Watch Same Way After This Article

The sneaky secret behind Willem Dafoe's unnerving performance in The Lighthouse.

The Lighthouse Willem Dafoe
A24

There's nothing film fans love more than going back to revisit a movie and suddenly realising something they've never noticed before. Failing that, it's learning about a sneaky Easter egg from a friend or online community such as the fine folk at /r/MovieDetails.

These details might be cute Easter eggs or impressive feats of continuity, or they might well be shocking mistakes that, somehow, you've never noticed before and now will never not notice.

Simply, after these secrets are brought to your attention, you'll never be able to watch these horror movie moments quite the same way again, whether for better or worse. In the case of worse, sorry about that.

From some of the most acclaimed and beloved horror movies of all time through to cult fave picks, each conceals a strange and surprising secret in plain sight, just waiting to be discovered by viewers en masse.

And once you're armed with this knowledge - from weird issues to clever acting tics and everything in-between - you'll never be able to see the scene any other way, or un-see what's been brought to your attention...

10. The Actor Who Played The Radiographer Is A Future Murderer - The Exorcist

The Lighthouse Willem Dafoe
Warner Bros.

Early on in The Exorcist, you'll likely remember that young Regan (Linda Blair) is sent for a battery of medical tests to try and determine the cause of her increasingly erratic and concerning behaviour.

The various procedures were mimicked on-screen by actual medical personnel, including Paul Bateson, a real-life radiographer who plays the very same role throughout Regan's cerebral angiography.

But in 1979, six years after the movie's release, Bateson was convicted of murdering film journalist Addison Verrill and sentenced to a minimum of 20 years in prison.

Worse still, the authorities believe that Bateson may have also carried out the killings of several other gay men living in Manhattan at the time, though have never been able to prove it.

Ultimately Bateson was released on parole in 2003, and there's no public record of his whereabouts since 2008 when his parole term was completed.

This knowledge certainly makes watching the hospital sequence that much more unsettling, well aware that one of the people taking part in it murdered at least one person a few years later.

Contributor
Contributor

Stay at home dad who spends as much time teaching his kids the merits of Martin Scorsese as possible (against the missus' wishes). General video game, TV and film nut. Occasional sports fan. Full time loon.