Movie News

Spinning head still tops for screams

Mon 29 Oct 4:20 PM

The The Exorcist has been named scariest movie scene in a poll of The Times' readers for Halloween.

The infamous spinning head scene, featuring Linda Blair, projectile vomit and a terrified priest, edged out the Japanese original of The Ring and '80s classic Poltergeist, a film which tried and failed to scare a whole generation away from the TV.

Surprisingly Exorcist III, a little known 1990 sequel directed by the original author William Peter Blatty, was in at four, followed by Signs, by Sixth Sense director M Night Shyamalan.

Horror classics The Thing and Halloween were at six and nine respectively, making John Carpenter the only director with two films in the top ten. Kubrick's The Shining was at seven, with surprise choice Event Horizon at eight.

But the biggest shock in the top ten was saved for last, with Watership Down rounding off the ten scariest movie moments. Hard to say whether that's because of splattered rabbits on the road or the knowledge that Art Garfunkel is about to break into Bright Eyes at any moment.