Ringu
The chilling moment of a girl crawling out of a TV screen in Ringu has beaten competition from Alien and The Shining to be named the Best Horror Scene in a poll of over 2,000 film fans.
LOVEFiLM, the UK's largest online DVD & games rental service and entertainment website polled its members on the scary scenes to mark the launch of the first ever talking DVD envelopes - specially modified limited edition envelopes which will let out either a Psycho-esque theme, piercing scream, ghostly wail or evil laugh to those in line to receive horror films over the Halloween period.
Cult Japanese horror Ringu, in which viewers of a cursed videotape die seven days after watching the tape and featuring the scene of a young girl 'crawling out of a TV to kill with a stare - scared film fans so much that they had no choice but to give it a winning 16 per cent of votes.
Bursting out in second place was the infamous 'alien shooting out of stomach' scene in Ridley Scott's 1979 futuristic thriller alien. They say that in space, no one can hear you scream - but 14 per cent of film lovers certainly heard this guy's cries for help and voted accordingly.
The next horror scene spawned arguably one of the most famous film quotes of all time. The line, 'Here's Johnny!' uttered by a crazed Jack Nicholson in Stanley Kubrick's The Shining is so well known that it pulled in 10 per cent of the vote, putting it in third place.
One of the hardest-to-watch scenes in the horror hierarchy was from 1990's Misery. The scene involves a crazed woman, a man's ankles, a mallet and a lot of screaming - but that was all it took for it to smash its way to fourth place, with nine per cent.
In fifth place was a scene that evokes fear in most of those that step into the shower in the morning. The stabbing scene from Alfred Hitchcock's psychological flick Psycho was deemed scary enough to strike its way into the top ten, with eight per cent of the votes.
If the next scene is anything to go by, we are definitely steering clear of water for good. The severed floating head in Steven Spielberg's Jaws bobbed into sixth place with seven per cent.
It got heads spinning so much that audience members reportedly fainted at its first screenings, but the neck swiveling scene from 1979's shocker The Exorcist was twisted enough to make the top ten, with five per cent of the votes - putting it into seventh place.
Attempting to save face at number eight was the gruesome scene from The Silence of the Lambs where Hannibal Lecter wears a paramedic's face as a mask to escape from prison. The grizzly moment raked in just four per cent of votes in the poll.
Taking just three percent of votes was the 'Jaw trap' scene in 2004's Saw, a film that preceded a whole series of chilling movies. A woman wakes up to find herself with a literally head-splitting conundrum to solve - and only by retrieving a key from a man's stomach can she save herself.
The final scene to make the top ten was Drew Barrymore coming to an unfortunate end in 1996's teen thriller Scream. With just two per cent of all the votes cast, it seems that most LOVEFiLM members will be willing to pick up the phone this Halloween...
The Top Ten Horror scenes are as follows:
1. Girl crawling out of a television set Ringu (1998) - 16%
2. Alien bursting out of stomach Alien (1979) - 14%
3. 'Here's Johnny!' The Shining (1980) - 10%
4. Ankles broken with a mallet Misery (1990) - 9%
5. Shower Scene Psycho (1960) - 8%
6. Severed head underwater Jaws (1975) - 7%
7. Neck twisting scene The Exorcist (1973) - 5%
8. Face worn as a mask The Silence of the Lambs (1991) - 4%
9. Jaw trap scene SAW (2004) - 3%
10. Opening scene (Drew Barrymore) Scream (1996) - 2%
24% = others.
Tagged in Alien