20 Scariest Horror Movie Moments Of The 21st Century

The franchise-spawning Paranormal Activity delivered its most effective scares in the original tale of a young couple being terrorised by an invisible nighttime visitor. With every switch to the night vision shots that accompany Katie and Micah’s sleep, the unnerved audience waits with bated breath for the latest, increasingly intense fright.

Night #20 is the one that renders the nightly haunt a truly physical threat for the first time, and it’s consequently the most unpleasant.

Thanks to the escalating tension established over the preceding nights, it’s impossible to look away as we’re on high alert for the slightest disturbance. The eerie sight of a shadow creeping past the open door, therefore, is one that no-one missed. Even that, however, didn’t quite prepare us for Katie’s screams as she’s dragged out of the bed and out of the room, with the malevolent entity slamming the door behind it.

It works so well because the sense of danger has been slowly ramped up over the course of the previous nights, making us steadily more apprehensive with every passing night. Now, the threat seems truly malignant, not to mention dangerous.

It’s pretty inconceivable that they actually stayed another night in the house after that.