10 Movie Scenes WAY More Disturbing Than Intended
5. The Cockatoo Jump Scare - Citizen Kane
Citizen Kane is rightly regarded as one of the greatest movies ever made, but it doesn't ever get nearly enough credit for also touting one of the greatest and most unexpected jump scares in cinema history.
At the start of a late-film recollection by Charles Foster Kane's (Orson Welles) butler Raymond (Paul Stewart), the transition to a flashback is signified by the presence of a screeching cockatoo.
This intensely startling jump scare feels entirely inconsistent with the rest of the movie's style and tone, and in interviews Welles claimed that he included it to wake up audience members who might be flagging at this point in the story.
Yet the screech is just part of why the scene is so unnerving. You might've also noticed that the cockatoo is imperfectly composited into the shot, such that its eyes are entirely see-through, giving it a deeply uncanny look.
Welles also confirmed that this was nothing more than a technical error, and so absolutely not part of the shot's intentional design. Creepy as hell, though.