100 Scariest Movie Moments Challenge

I’ve mentioned the Bravo special 100 Scariest Movie Moments (2004) on here a few times; it is the special (documentary) that really piqued my interests in OTHER horror movies that I wasn’t aware of like Phantasm, Alice Sweet Alice, Duel, Suspiria, It’s Alive, The Wicker Man and so many, many more. I have been a product of loving horror since I was a kid. I watched it on cable tv and HBO like the movie Freaked (that played all the time) or went to Blockbuster and/or a former Marsh store’s video section and selected horror movies. ALL THE TIME.

Occasionally, I’d rent Star Wars again or Romeo + Juliet (1996) but my bread and butter was horror and my family was cool with it.

High school me saw this 100 Scariest Movie Moments and realized that what my narrowed focus on horror was nothing in comparison to what this special was showing me. I give this special a lot of credit for opening my eyes to all sorts of horror from foreign, cult, original (versus remakes/reboots), etc.

So I decided to look at the overall list and see which ones I haven’t seen! I want to challenge myself in 2022 to check out some of these films that haven’t graced my screen yet and there’s quite a few left.

Also I’m impressed with how many I have seen.

94. Pacific Heights (1990) – Michael Keaton is in this, I like Keaton a lot
92. Village of the Damned (1960) – I’ve seen the first but I’m very intrigued by the sequel
91. Shallow Grave (1994) – Ewan McGregor AND Christopher Eccleston in ONE movie??!
73. Blood Simple (1984) – I know this is a film in the many standouts of the Coen Brothers
66. Marathon Man (1976) – Dustin Hoffman and a kill involve death by scissors?
64. The Tenet (1976) – The last of the “apartment trilogy” by Polanski. Sighs. We’ll see. 
61. The Devil’s Backbone (2001) – I love foreign horror and it’s a Del Toro film
55. The Vanishing (1988) – I just remember seeing this poster in a lot of movie LISTS
46. The Sentinel (1977) – This gives off Italian horror vibes and I recognize a lot of faces
44. The Game (1997) – Michael Douglas in his PRIME
38. Peeping Tom (1960) – It looks so voyeuristic & perverse and I assume that’s on purpose
36. Cape Fear (1962) – Gregory Peck AND Robert Mitchum. Mitchum legit scares me in films, he’s too good at his job
34. The Hitcher (1986) – Somehow the Asylum films did a “mockbuster” of this? Why?
28. When A Stranger Calls (1979) – “The calls are coming from inside the house!” I’m just paraphrasing. 

Before streaming, finding these movies was hard. Even the ones that I have seen from the list, it was random and hard. Either you found it on vhs, dvd or luckily saw it on cable tv and managed to also record it. I’m more hopeful now that I have a bigger chance of finding these through the magic (and my wallet) of streaming.

Which ones am I excited for? Pacific Heights, The Devil’s Backbone, The Vanishing, The Sentinel and Peeping Tom.

Which ones would be a pleasant surprise? The Game, Cape Fear, When a Stranger Calls.

I have my work cut out for me but maybe this challenge will motivate me to get back into watching movies again. If you haven’t seen this special before, most likely you won’t find it on Bravo now, home of the many, many, many franchise spinoffs of The Real Housewives BUT if you check on youtube, you will find it. It should still be available and I hope it changes you into a bigger cinefile.

Side note, I look at that special as a time capsule of horror greats. Wes Craven, Tobe Hooper, Stan Winston, George A. Romero are heavily featured and we miss their presences throughout our horror community but there’s Eli Roth, Stephen King, Guillermo del Toro, Tom Savini, Peter Jackson, the list goes on and on.

If you have seen this, what movies have you seen on the list? What movies do you want to see? Leave a comment below! Maybe we’ll have matching ones!