15 Most Terrifying Horror Film Moments Of The Decade (So Far)

The Conjuring is one of those rare subtle movies to be scary without a drop of blood, and that's best demonstrated by the fact that its most memorable scare just involves clapping. The movie establishes that Carolyn and her kids play a game where she puts on a blindfold, they hide somewhere in the house and clap, and she has to come find them. The audience knows there's something not right about this house, yet Carolyn is putting herself in such a vulnerable position that it's only a matter of time before something comes after her. 

She ends up in the bedroom and the claps are clearly coming from a dresser, and Carolyn approaches with the attitude of a parent who knows where the kid is but is playing along. Suddenly, in a stomach-turning twist, her daughter comes up from behind. She wasn't in the dresser, so who is?

Later, Carolyn is trapped in the basement when the lights go off, and while on the stairs she lights a match and tries to figure out who's down there. Suddenly an unfamiliar voice says, "Hey, wanna play hide a clap," and a pair of hands suddenly pop out from the darkness and clap. Only James Wan could get an entire audience to gasp at someone clapping, and this segment is a tour de force of horror filmmaking.