10 TERRIFYING Horror Movie Moments You Don't Actually See
It's what you don't see that gets you.
Horror movies have long reinforced that what we don't understand scares us the most. Linger on a schlocky monster, explain a convoluted backstory, or throw up some janky special effects and we'll still have a good time, yes, but that primal fear born from the unknown is lost along the way. There's a reason we're all so afraid of the dark, after all, and that would be because we can never be certain of what exactly is hiding in it.
Lovecraft's special brand of cosmic horror embodies the swirling, terrible potential of what we can't quite grasp best, though there are plenty more subtle examples in the film world that use our own imagination against us. And really, there's something incredibly sinister about being forced to paint by numbers with what our personal brand of psychology can conjure up.
From camera cutaways that spare us the grisly details, to implications far too insidious to put to screen, these are the horror movie moments that don't care if you're watching through your fingers - they'll scar you all the same anyway...
10. Boiler Room Massacre - Hellraiser 3: Hell On Earth
Whilst the whole Hellraiser series is the sad proof of diminishing returns, Hellraiser 3: Hell on Earth still has its fair share of spooky moments - with The Boiler Room offering up some deliciously silly death sequences in particular.
Pinhead emerges from a strange, twisted pillar that has imprisoned him for the early part of the movie, finding himself in the aforementioned nightclub full of people absolutely ripe for the killing. Cue this murderous hell spawn tearing up the dance floor in just about every which way possible.
Only, whilst we see ice spears slamming into heads and hooks tearing off fingers, the scene stops as a bunch of revellers run to escape the club and find the doors barred. And instead of indulging in more corny effects, all we get is a pool of blood appearing at the bottom of the doorframe, as screams slowly trail off into silence.
Well, that got dark fast.