The Brady twins, 40 years later:
They’re not quite “fair” jump scares, but I thought The Orphanage had two or three effective ones, including my favorite “vehicle from off-screen”.
Man, I don’t know what’s fair and what’s not. Is the bed scare at the end of Prince of Darkness fair? How about when Laurie sees The Shape outside her bedroom window for a split-second in Halloween?
What about the guy behind the dumpster in Mulholland Drive?
Also, how about the old folks at the end of Mulholland Drive?
How about those dancing scenes in Muldholland Drive?
Well, that’s pretty much up to you. But don’t you normally feel cheated after a jump scare? I know I do.
It’s like someone throwing a punch at you and laughing when you flinch. Well, yeah, of course I’m going to flinch. And when a movie throws a jump scare at you by making something come suddenly from out of the frame, or with a loud musical cue, or when there’s no good reason for it to jump out at you, then, yeah, of course I’m going to jump.
But when the movie really earns it, it’s fair. So I guess it comes down to what you feel a movie has to do to earn it.
-Tom
Fezik aka Andre the Giant, throwing the rock at the Man in Black/Wesley. You knew it was coming yet it made me jump for years. As a kid I’d find an excuse (bathroom, getting a snack or something) to leave the room during that part just so I wouldn’t jump when it hit!
Yeah big time. Many different things in the film put me right on edge and then to add something like that to fray the nerves is cruel.
When the red demon face (think Darth Maul) suddenly appears in a normal conversation between two characters in broad daylight in Insidious. Almost the whole audience jumped (and screamed) at that in the theater.
Since Tom Started it with Jaws, I’ll give a couple shark-themed ones!
The Reef when the white shark nails the boogie board. You knew the shark was there, circling, and still flew out of the chair.
Open Water, when the wife, seeing them surrounded by sharks, asks her husband if it is less scary seeing them underwater. A second later, we find out isn’t. Not even a little.
The blood test in the Carpenter The Thing. They set it up, and then test after test of nothing, and bam! Brilliant.
The opening sequence of Raiders of the Lost Ark has a scene where Indy is fleeing with(out) the idol, and he encounters Satipo impaled on the spear-trap, which I think is a totally fair jump scare. I contrast it with the later scene with the desiccated corpses in the Well of Souls, which I don’t consider to be a fair jump scare.
The body being pulled from the reservoir in Chinatown makes me jump.
Marty Feldman, “I ain’t got no-body,” Young Frankenstein
The clown in poltergeist… the thing is ultra creepy and the kid looks under the bed…
…and it’s not there whew, sigh of relief… then bam-it grabs him from behind and you know the whole thing has just gone nuclear