10 Scariest Movie Paintings
7. Erica’s Many Paintings - Black Swan
Yes, Requiem for a Dream director Darren Aronofsky's ballet-based psychological horror Black Swan may be an uncredited remake of Satoshi Kon's 1998 masterpiece Perfect Blue in all but name. But the director did already secure the rights to remake that earlier classic solely so he could rip off one stylish composition for 2001's aforementioned druggy drama, so no harm no foul.
Besides, Black Swan is a superb psychological thriller in its own right, an intense and unnerving tale of a competitive and neurotic Natalie Portman unravelling mentally and physically after her understudy Mila Kunis prompts her sexual awakening.
The film is filled with unforgettably unsettling imagery, but few scenes are as memorably straight up scary as those damn paintings.
Remember our heroine’s highly strung, repressed mum and her deeply creepy sets of portraits?
They're glimpsed early on in the movie and provide set dressing for much of the action that follows, but it's only in the film's closing scenes that the paintings really get to shine. When Portman's heroine starts loosening her grip on reality, her breakdown is accelerated by the terrifying sight of an entire room's worth of portraits screaming, groaning, and shouting in unison.