There are a lot of horror, sci-fi, and adjacent genres of movies that scare us or give us the chills. But only a select few can do it with a subtle moment that makes us imagine the horrors ourselves. So when Redditor u/Turbulent-Flounder-9 asked people to share “a shot/sequence with terrifying implications,” people offered some bone-chilling examples. Here are some of the best ones:
1.
Rise of the Planet of the Apes:
“During the credits sequence of the film, we get a short scene confirming that a recurring character from the movie — a pilot — has contracted ALZ-113, a deadly lab-made virus capable of killing humans in a matter of mere days. During the credits, we get a sequence depicting the flight he attended jumping between countries, with yellow stripes spreading across the globe, signaling the virus spreading. By the end of the sequence, it seems like the insanely deadly virus had spread all across the world, implying that this is, in fact, the end of humanity.”
—Turbulent-Flounder-9
2.
War of the Worlds (2005):
“Later into the Martian invasion of Earth, the protagonist discovers that the Martians use human blood as fertilizer to terraform the Earth to their likeness. At some point, the main character comes out of hiding in order to find his daughter. As he wanders outside, he discovers that most of the surrounding area is already covered in red vines (AKA human blood). As he goes over a hill, he sees that the entire horizon is filled with so many vines that the sky itself has a red hue. This shot implies that the horizon is now comprised of millions of people-turned-fertilizer.”
—Turbulent-Flounder-9
“There’s a moment where Dredd and Anderson are briefly able to leave the concrete dome covering Peach Trees. Anderson scans the horizon, which focuses on the countless skyscrapers just like Peach Trees, and realizes that all the violence and mayhem she’s gone through is probably happening hundreds of times over just in their Megacity in every single tower (let alone the ground).”
—jbeast33
“At the beginning of the movie, the hosts of the party hang a red lantern outside their home before trying to murder all of their guests because of their cult beliefs. This is the final shot of the movie, after the survivors finally put down the hosts.”
—CisHetDegenerate
5.
Green Lantern: First Flight:
“When a Green Lantern dies, their ring returns to Oa, unless there is a worthy successor nearby. During the climax, Sinestro destroys the power source of the Green Lanterns, so all of them lose their powers simultaneously. Soon after, hundreds of rings return to Oa, belonging to the Green Lanterns that happened to be in space at the moment, all of whom suffocated to death when they lost their powers.”
—Terminus-99
6.
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.:
“I love in the Season 2 finale of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. when everyone’s like, ‘Well, the terrigen crystals are at the bottom of the ocean and will never be used to harm anyone again. At least there’s that!’ Followed by a sequence showing the terrigen leaking from the crystals, fish swimming by, boats catching the fish, fish taken to factories made into fish oil pills, and the fish oil pills being stocked in a grocery store. Really well done.”
—grayjelly212
“The end of Return of the Jedi has the Ewoks using stormtrooper helmets as drums. Considering that earlier on, the Ewoks tried to roast and eat the main characters, it’s probably safe to assume that the celebration at the end involves the defeated stormtroopers being served as food.”
—OhBreadBalls
“When Christof is doing an interview about how, because Truman was born at the right time, he got the part, the interviewer mentions that Truman is the first child adopted by a major corporation, implying that this has become common since the show started.”
—segobane
9.
Dawn of the Dead (2004):
“A montage of found footage after the survivors escape on a boat shows that they run out of food, run out of fuel, and the island they wash up on is chock full of zombies that immediately overwhelm them on the pier.”
—Minimumsafedistance
“Near the end of Spree (2020), the villain protagonist Kurt Kunkle knocks heroine Jessie Adams unconscious and asks his chat what to do with her. His chat chose ‘Kill,’ but knowing he considered the other options is horrific.”
—Loud_Fenian_4227
“The ending scene of It Follows. The figure in the red jacket and white shirt walking behind them may or may not be the monster. With the lack of a definitive answer and the possibility of them actually failing to kill it at the pool, it’s all the more terrifying.”
—Th3_3agl3
“There’s a marsh in FFVII that you can’t cross until you get a chocobo because you get attacked by an enemy you can’t kill that roams the marsh. Once you finally cross the marsh, you discover that the ‘unkillable’ enemy has been brutally defeated by Sephiroth, the main villain of the game. This has terrifying implications that Sephiroth (the bad guy you need to stop) is almost unthinkably powerful, if he’s able to effortlessly dispatch of this gigantic creature that previously seemed impossible to kill.”
—mysteryroach
13.
Battlestar Galactica:
“There’s a twist partway through the series where they finally arrive at Earth… and find that it’s been rendered uninhabitable by a nuclear war at some point in the past. For lack of any other options, the fleet continues on, and after the climactic battle in the final episode, Galactica is too badly damaged to continue any further… just as they stumble across a planet ideal for human settlement, with its own indigenous species of hunter-gatherer humans.
“The survivors decide to settle there and destroy all of their technology to end the cycle of humans and machines fighting each other. Then we get a time skip and an establishing shot of New York City, accompanied by the title card: 150,000 YEARS LATER, revealing that the Earth that the Colonies descended from wasn’t our Earth in the first place. We see Six and Baltar discussing how things played out, and whether humanity will get things right this time around. As they walk off, the camera pans to a TV set with a headline about advances in robotics, implying that it’s all going to happen again.”
—Raguleader
“The Walking Dead has a lot of moments like this with environmental storytelling, but I’ll choose this scene specifically since I think it fits best. In Season 5 Episode 1, titled ‘No Sanctuary,’ the main cast has been lured into a settlement called Terminus and held captive by the cannibals operating out of there. While one of the characters, Carol, is attempting to rescue the group, she enters a room filled with the items and gear of people previously tricked into entering Terminus who have either joined the cannibals or been killed and eaten by them. On one of the tables, there are multiple stuffed animals and children’s toys. At no point in the episode do we ever see children living in Terminus.”
—Bomdabom
“Through the movie, we only see two people who use the titular Substance, one being the protagonist Elizabeth and the other being the nurse who recommended it to her (and whose older/original self she meets at the diner). When she picks up deliveries from the nameless company that gave her the Substance, she gets them from this sleek, futuristic-looking locker room hidden in a decrepit, seemingly abandoned building. While only two lockers are numbered (Elizabeth’s and the other customer’s), the fact that this whole room is full of empty lockers implies the company is expecting to expand and rope in more people within the LA area, and that these two cases we see in the movie are just a trial run.
“It also raises the question of how many more customers are out there in the world and how many more of these secret locker rooms were discreetly built in each city. Whoever is making the Substance is fully intending on expanding rapidly, and the events of the movie are likely just going to be swept under the rug while more people are roped into taking the drug.”
—GvsE1314
Do you have a moment like this you want to talk about? Let us know in the comments or using the form below, and your comment might be featured in a future BuzzFeed post or video!
