There's an obscure scene in The Exorcist III that I still say is the scene that scared the shit out of me the worst.
Click on the first pic in the second row or the last pic in the whole series for a screenie of the scene:
http://www.geocities.com/thehorrorhaven/exor3pic.html
From "Wikipedia" (couldn't have said it better myself):
"There is a prolonged, wide-angle shot of a corridor whilst a nurse goes about her rounds. After several minutes of uneventful silence, there is a false alarm when a harmless patient abruptly wakes up and scares the nurse.
Silence then reigns once again and the nurse checks the other patients. A security guard who sits in the corridor is summoned by someone and leaves, falsely suggesting to the viewer that events will follow him. Instead, the camera remains fixed down the corridor as the nurse goes through the motions of checking her charges are all okay. The scene has by now lasted several minutes.
Just as the viewer is probably getting bored, the camera shot zooms in on the unsuspecting nurse crossing the corridor whilst a mysterious figure - draped in a blanket and holding out a pair of amputation sheers - strides after her, ready to slice off her head. Immediately, the film jumps the following morning when a morose Kinderman is being informed that the unfortunate nurse has been found dead. She was decapitated, slit open, her intestines torn out and then her body stuffed with Rosary Beads."
Honest to God, just thinking about that scene gives me goosebumps. ed:
