Shudder....

So, the winners are in:

TOP TEN SCARIEST FILM MOMENTS ACCORDING TO CHANNEL 4 (U.K.) POLL
(see more complete article here)

1) The Shining (1980) Jack Nicholson chops through the door and shouts "here's Johnny"

2) The Exorcist (1973) Possessed girl's rotating head and projectile vomit

3) Jaws (1975) Severed head falls from boat

4) Alien (1979) - Alien bursts out of John Hurt's chest

5) The Blair Witch Project (1999) Heather Donahue in tears in the woods

6) Ring (1998) Sadako crawls through the television

7) Halloween (1978) Serial killer Michael's face appears behind Jamie Lee Curtis in a house full of dead bodies

8) The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) Leatherface's general reign of terror

9) The Omen (1976) Oscar-winning eerie music score

10) A Nightmare On Elm Street (1984) First appearance of horror icon Freddy Krueger

This blog would probably have voted for Kathy Bates' nude scene in About Schmidt. Talk about waking up in a cold sweat....

Seriously, though my vote would have been for The Exorcist. It's still wrenching-- almost as wrenching as watching George W. Bush attempt to form a coherent sentence.

By the way, it looks like Scary Movie 3 scared off the competition at the box office this weekend. And apparently Angelina Jolie's film career needs to be rushed to an emergency ward. What is it, Dr. J? It's a branch of a hospital where they take care of people in immediate suffering, but that's not important right now. Beyond Borders came in at number 11, earning a mere $2 million in its opening weekend in 1800 or so theatres. Ouch. (We're talking Gigli level numbers here. Actually, Gigli made more than that, but in more theatres.) Although Tomb Raider II made money, it didn't make anywhere near what it was expected to make, and her last several films have been commercial and critical duds. In short, she risks being dismissed as the loopy Lara Croft wonder, of interest primarily to the tabloids rather than directors or producers. And that would be a shame.