1) Poltergeist – Toy Clown Scene
I don’t care who you are, where you’re from or what you’ve done, as long as this scares you (I really hope you DIDN’T see what I just did there). The best part is, this scene is from a PG movie.
Though Poltergeist is filled with many genuinely frightening scenes (getting sucked into closet, face tear away, demon in hallway), I think the scariest scene (and tend to think many agree with me) was when the son Robbie starts looking at the toy clown at the end of his bed with apprehension (what sick kid would want this fucking toy in the first place?), and you can tell from the tension that something IS going to happen. You just don’t know when.
The tension in the scene mounts and mounts until finally, the clown is missing from where it was. For Robbie (and the audience), this is when the terror begins, and it just doesn’t let up. The killer toy clown fucks that kid up pretty badly.