10 Most Nerve-Wracking Scenes In Non-Horror Films
4. Rear Window - Raymond Burr's Confrontation
Rear Window is one of Alfred Hitchcock's more personal films, exploring in detail his own curiosity with voyeurism with a twisted sense of humour. While photographer Jimmy Stewart is holed up in his apartment with a broken leg, he finds he has nothing to better to do by spy through the windows of his neighbours in his back alley.
A lot of what he sees is funny or downright quirky, some of it tragic - such as the poor woman who dresses up and set dinner for two every night only to eat alone. It's just a slight glimpse into the other doors we normally don't get to open, and it's as much a privilege as it is a perversion to have a look inside.
That very look takes a sinister turn when the journalist in Stewart starts to put small details together and realizes one of his neighbours - the lumbering Perry Mason himself, Raymond Burr - has murdered and disposed of his spouse.
It only gets worse when Burr turns the tables, breaking into the cripple's apartment and approaching him with intent to kill unable to defend himself due to injury, Stewart does all he can - slow him down with bright flashes from various camera bulbs, temporarily blinding him,and screaming for help until he's dangling outside his high apartment window.