Lee Harvey Oswald

Yeah, masturbating with a cross is pretty holy shit. Or unholy shit.

JumpCutz

^^^^^
Exactly what I was going to say. I saw that in the theater when I was 10.
Definitely my ultimate 'oh shit' moment..

fmian

Can't believe no one has mentioned The Thing yet.

That should be at least in the top 3.

TheAllPurposeNothing

Can't believe you forgot to mention what happened 30 secs. earlier



The funny thing with that movie, though, is that with all of the amazing transformation scenes it has, its still the blood test finger slicing that gets me.

Runner up: David Cronenberg's The Fly:

PopcornTreeCt

Irreversible -like the whole movie.

Mr. Cinema

Uh, The Descent has several moments.

Giles

that and the first murder in 'Brotherhood of the Wolf' that has one the loudest soundtracks on the planet.

Giles

it's definately a shocking scene but it's the spoken line that ends the scene that's a total jawdropper:

'Did you know what she did? your ****ing daughter'

Draven

Am I the only person that has never found the ear-cutting scene in Resevoir Dogs to be disturbing at all? They don't even show it on screen.

I didn't see the movie until well after it's home release and that particular scene had been built up with so much "OH MAN, THAT SCENE IS MESSED UP!!!" that when I actually saw it I thought "that can't be all it is". I've seen worse on television.

lordwow

The only movie moment that has ever made me say "holy shit" out loud was my first viewing of Memento.

Michael Corvin

One of my favorites.

TGM

Jacob's Ladder

Hiro11

Deep Blue Sea. It was mainly shocking because here you are watching this completely by-the-book, predictable, C-grade thriller and then suddenly... WHAT THE FUCK JUST HAPPENED?

Also, the end of the original "The Vanishing" (Dutch version) is just completely brutal. One of the most cold blooded movies ever made.

iggystar

Both of the scenes mentioned from The Thing are spot on.

mike7162

Silence of the Lambs:Hannibal Lector in that ambulance...

The Road Warrior:That guy on the motorcycle spinning in the air after crashing...

Peep

I totally agree. That was f*cking awesome!

dhmac

I call BS on that pick moreso because it was NOT in the original movie!

Sorry, but a scene needs to be in the original theatrical release to count, not a special cut - an inferior one at that - from a quarter-century later! (Might as well put Hayden Christensen showing up in Return of the Jedi on the list in that case! No, sorry, on second thought, that's less of a "holy shit" moment and more of a "fuckin' stupid" moment.)

PopcornTreeCt

The opening of Ghost Ship. Best use of the slow-mo blood drip.

Shonn

^that Ghost Ship scene was brilliant.

The beginning of Way of the Gun when

GoldenJCJ

Agreed. I saw the Exorcist for the first time just a few years ago. I had heard that it was THE Scariest movie EVER! I found most of it pretty tame (I'm sure it was a sight to be seen 30 years ago) but by today's standards, nothing outrageous...except the masturbation scene. Hell even the spinning head and pea soup scene should have higher ranked than the spider walk.


I'll throw out Sonny's toll booth scene in The Godfather.

The face shot scene in A History of Violence.

The monster behind the diner in Mulholland Dr.

Costner meets Kim Coates in Open Range (one of my personal faves)

hardercore

If we're going with "HOLY SHIT!!!" Godfather moments, then (beware of big spoilers if you haven't seen the film) there are a couple more:

1. Horse's Head
2. Luca Brasi gets garotted.
3. Appolonia's car is blown
4. Sonny's aforementioned toll booth scene
5. Massacre/Baptism Intercutting
6. Carlo Rizzi and the windshield

Rypro 525

How about the scene in Magnolia. Watching this for the first time a few years ago. I had the volume somewhat loud because the dialogue was low, anyways, I jumped out of my chair, more of a 'scare the shit' out of me moment.

fmian

Saw that movie as soon as it came out on video (my fave movie by the way) and when others commented on the violence I was perplexed too. The only violence I noted was Mr Pink pulling the woman out of the car window and mr Orange being shot, and shooting back at the other woman, and those scenes were pretty tame.
As far as I'm concerned, the ear scene isn't violent cause I didn't see it happen. The cop screaming and begging for his life while Mr Blond poured petrol over him disturbed me more.
I suppose peoples definition of violence is different. IMO seeing blood and an obvious make up effect isn't violence.

Oh, and same with the American History X curb stomp scene. I thought the bit where was more of a shock.

TGM

The laser grid corridor scene in "Resident Evil"

The torture scene of James Bond in "Casino Royale"

tylergfoster

I can't think of any moments that made me say that off the top of my head, although I do definitely agree with The Thing.

One that I do say -- probably doesn't deserve to make the list -- but I often say the most purely and simply "oh shit" moment in a horror movie ever is in Cabin Fever

Up against a list of classic moments, this may not measure up, but it may be my favorite horror movie moment ever. It's just so perfectly orchestrated and so horribly and irreversibly damning.