MovieChat Forums > Don't Look Now Discussion > Have you ever been so terrified by a sce...

Have you ever been so terrified by a scene?

posted 15 years ago by A_Fistful_of_Pennies
38 replies | jump to latest

I would like to redeem myself after posting a negative topic about this movie (re: the sex scene) by posting a positive topic. Despite my issues with the sex scene going on so long, I think this is a terrific movie overall.

The scene that I am discussing here is of course, the scene where Donald Sutherland follows what he thinks is his daughter, only to discover it is someone else entirely...an old, vertically-challenged killer. The scene terrified me unlike any other I've seen. My heart jumped into my throat when she turned around and you see who it is, it's just impossible to see coming.

The whole scene is incredibly suspenseful leading up to it, as you know it is not who he thinks it is, but who could it be? Is it just his imagination? There is no way to predict that who he is following is actually a killer, and one with such a terrifying appearance (no offense to the actress, as I'm sure the lighting and makeup helped make it that way). I seriously shudder just seeing pictures of that scene. I haven't been scared by much, but this definitely terrified me. My face looked like Donald Sutherland's face at the end of Invasion of the Body Snatchers!

[–] alan_ryder 14 years ago

Almost as if John was under some kind of curse. Several premonitions of his death. I've thought that if his daughter hadn't died he still would have somehow been a victim of this killer. And he follows her. I felt he thought she was a ghost of his daughter and was happy just to see that. Plus she was feigning crying, coincidentally in what sounded like a child's voice. I felt it was some sort of demon who was cursing him. Maybe because he disturbed some artifact or other in his work, as he often worked in churches.

[–] Freedom_Spark 14 years ago

It definitely took me by suprise, I had no prior knowledge of the film but was recommended it on amazon, maybe because I bought Roeg's Performance. However, I wouldn't exactly say the scene was terrifying, it was so over the top for me mainly because of the the garishly coloured blood. I was unsettling but not terryifying.

Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail-R.W Emerson

[–] kristoffer-storvestre 14 years ago

I saw this about six years ago hen I was 15/16 at the time. I can watch anything in the whole world from the most disturbing graphic things to the things that get in your mind. However I really liked this movie but have only seen it once, that time six years ago. That scene scared me so bad that I can and will never watch it again. It may be my mind distorting it and changing the impact over all these years but I remember that I was so frightened many weeks after. I think it was the fact that it not only was unexpected but her appearence aswell.

[–] LextheXFile 13 years ago

I hadn't thought of that before Alan... I just saw the movie for the first time and just finished it about 20-30 minutes ago. But she is feigning crying at the end in a child's voice. The idea that it is something demonic that was disturbed bis his "restoration" of the church is a creepy idea. The murders do seem connected to John. :)

When I pull the wings off of the fly/ The fly never wonders why I did it.

[–] www.wedd 13 years ago

I remember being in the second year of middle school and having the ending spoiled by a teacher, for reasons forgotten, only she wasn't talking about the film, she was talking about the original story. Just the description of the events scared me. It wasn't until years later I realised this was what she was on about. Watching it this afternoon, I was amazed at how suddenly it tips into terror with the reveal of the dwarf's face.
Someone mentioned Argento before, and the hacking of the razor/hatchet (cant' tell which it is) into Sutherland's neck reminds me of the first murder in Deep Red.
Anyway, the themes of the film come together with Sutherland's dying flashbacks- how almost everything in his life (in the film) up to that point was a potential clue to his eventual fate, only he was too blind to see it (unlike the psychic sister, who was literally blind, but could "see" his fate).

[–] bad_touch_granny 13 years ago

This made me creep out of my skin even more than
THE EXORCIST of the same year.

[–] liyanc 13 years ago

I got chills the moment the dwarf turned around. Scary stuff.

[–] robsea32 13 years ago

While that last scene is truly disturbing, it's the little touches that make it so easy to appreciate. I love the look on the woman's face and the shaking of her head, as if to say "this was not your fate, but instead a choice you made in spite of your good instincts".

[–] personalitybabe 13 years ago

i knew that it wasn't going to be his daughter when she turned around so i wasn't scared

[–] ibbi 12 years ago

Perhaps in its day, but I feel like it is one of those scenes that has become so famous over time, like the end of Planet of the Apes, or the Empire Strikes Back, that it's really lost all shock value, and its power now basically comes from how iconic a movie moment it is.

It's certainly veeeeery creepy, but I've never found it particularly terrifying.

____
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YZb8s7Kxa4

[–] PowderedToastMan333 12 years ago

watch Inland Empire

[–] Michael71 8 years ago

It wasn't even the most terrifying scene of the film I was more terrified when he was on the wooden lift thing, and then the pole hit it it was like something out of The Omen for a moment.

The ending was good too though, and a terrific movie that I'm glad I watched.

[–] sesquick-seabag 8 years ago

I suppose there are some MAJOR SPOILERS in what follows....

Well the honest answer is that my reaction to that scene was to burst out laughing. What the hell is supposed to be so shocking and disturbing about it? An old, short, ugly woman is the most terrifying thing you've ever seen? Didn't you think the whole premise was hopelessly lame? That is to say, the idea that there in Venice lurks a serial killer who just so happens to wear a red coat similar to red mac their daughter wore when she drowned? Oh, and to make it even more contrived the killer just so happens to also an abnormally short person ... about the same height as his dead daughter, as it just so happens. There's no meaning or intelligent reason for the killer being a dwarf other than to make her look very conveniently similar to Christine. It's just contrived plotting. What's the purpose or significance of the killer-dwarf-woman being of that particular facial appearance anyway? Other than just a cheap way of startling the audience - a cheap "Boo!" effect - that is. It might be a little startling, but to call it terrifying and whatnot is just pathetic.

All in all, it's one of the stupidest endings I've seen in any respected and acclaimed film of the genre along with that of Rosemary's Baby. A major let-down after things were going so well with the brilliant filmmaking techniques and fine performances.

[–] bozo_500 (13234) a year ago

Could've had him follows the red coated apparition into the abandoned church, it turns around and its seemingly daughter at first but then turns into a ghost (like the end of Raiders), the shock of it causes him to lose his footing and falls through the floorboards impaling himself and he bleeds out. and the red coat sort of just blows away

Or it turns around and its just empty. and same outcome he freaks out and falls