Yahoo Movies 8 terrifying TV moments that scarred us for life
Halloween is almost upon us and it's time to indulge our inner horror junkie by reflecting on TV's most terrifying moments – harrowing sequences that shook us right up and have given us nightmares ever since.
Warning: what follows might give you the heebie-jeebies. You have been warned.
1. Twin Peaks – "It is happening again…"
Twin Peaks was always a series that walked a tonal tightrope between broad, toasty-hearted comedy and nightmare-inducing terror. Its most spine-chilling moment occurred in the episode which finally unmasked (for the viewer at least) the killer of Laura Palmer.
Directed by series creator David Lynch with an eerie, dream-like sense of menace, we see Leland Palmer, inhabited by the spirit of Killer BOB, murder his niece Maddie Ferguson. Brutal, shocking and scary as hell, it's one of the signature scenes of the original series.
2. Sapphire and Steel – The man with no face
One of the most chilling series ever broadcast on British TV, Sapphire and Steel starred David McCallum and Joanna Lumley as a pair of enigmatic 'time agents' in a thrillingly cryptic sci-fi series from the writer PJ Hammond.
There are so many spooky scenes to choose from, but its most memory-searing moment occurs in the fourth story, when the camera zooms in on a mysterious, faceless man who, it turns out, is present in every photograph ever taken… *shiver*
3. The 'Lonely Water' Public Information Film
There was a generation of children forever scarred by the ruthlessly grim public information films of the 1970s.
Imagine if Ingmar Bergman had been commissioned to make a short film warning kids about the dangers of playing near water; well, that's what was sandwiched in between episodes of TISWAS and World of Sport in the mid-1970s.
"I am the spirit of dark and lonely water," the Grim Reaper (voiced by Halloween's Donald Pleasance) intones, "ready to trap the unwary, the show-off, the fool…" It's only a minute and a half long, but those 90 seconds remain more sphincter-loosening than anything in an Eli Roth movie.
4. Buffy The Vampire Slayer – The arrival of the Gentlemen in 'Hush'
For a horror-flavoured show, there are surprisingly few proper scares in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. An exception is this critically adored episode about the residents of Sunnydale waking up one morning unable to speak and being terrorised by a gang of floating, besuited, heart-hunting ghouls. We're still having night terrors over this one.
5. The League of Gentlemen Christmas Special – Papa Lazarou's return
There aren't many comedy shows that can freeze our blood (Mrs Brown's Boys excepted), but The League of Gentlemen was always a gloriously diseased and horror-obsessed sitcom (and is lining up a comeback this Christmas).
This portmanteau-shaped festive special is probably their finest hour, with its three Christmas-tinged horror tales. The moment that's burned into our brains, however, is when wife-collecting circus master Papa Lazarou makes his long-awaited reappearance with a sinister "Hello Dave?".
6. Ghostwatch – The possession of Suzanne
Halloween night 1992 saw one of the most memorable horror dramas ever produced. A faux reality show fronted by Michael Parkinson, it seized newspaper headlines the next day, with many viewers having been hoodwinked by this supposed TV 'hoax'.
To be fair, the conceit is fanfared from the beginning (no reality shows have a writer credit), but it didn't stop the drama from scaring the bejesus out of us.
The mockumentary has Sarah Greene and Craig Charles (playing themselves) investigating a supposedly haunted house in Northolt, Greater London – and the moment that gave us the most nightmares is when the family's daughter, Suzanne, finds herself possessed by the ghost, nicknamed Pipes. Genuinely horrifying.
7. Doctor Who – 'Blink' brings us the Weeping Angels
Even before he took over as showrunner, Steven Moffat was Doctor Who's scaremonger extraordinaire and his greatest ever contribution to the series was this 'Doctor-lite' episode from 2007, which introduced the Weeping Angels into the series' monster lexicon.
It's a brilliantly simple idea – monsters who only move when you're not looking at them. Above is the scariest moment from Doctor Who's scariest episode. Dare you to look away.
8. Whistle and I'll Come to You – THAT ending
Once upon a time, the ghost tales of MR James were a fixed-in part of the BBC Christmas schedule. In this one, adapted from the author's short story 'Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad', Michael Hordern plays an academic who stumbles across a bone whistle on a deserted English beach. Haunted by dreams of a mysterious spectre, the professor wakes to witness the sheets from the next bed rising up into an unearthly shape.
Despite the basic nature of the effects, the final moments of Jonathan Miller's black and white classic are more terrifying than most films with 100 times its budget and resources. Forget about the overwrought John Hurt remake – with horror, less is sometimes more.
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