r/TopCharacterTropes • u/buzzoli • Sep 01 '26
Personality [Rare trope] Non diegetic jumpscare actually effective and appropriate rather than cheap
Obsession (2026), Nikki walking backwards after 'seemingly' emotional exchange with Bear. (while she is walking backwards a distorted backwards angry boat sound plays that seamlessly interrupts the soundtrack).
Longlegs (2024), Lee Harker remembers painful buried memory or Longlegs after seeing a photo she took as a child. (the disturbing realization of Lee mixed with the indistinguishable sounds and imagery make this really jarring, at least for me).
Red rooms (2023), Kelly tries to provoke a man who is convicted of murdering girls while filming it and while Kelly is being dragged out of the trial - the screams of the girl she is impersonating from the video hauntingly screeches just for the viewer in an incredibly disturbing way.
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u/ForTheWebsite Sep 01 '26
The "distorted backwards angry boat sound" is descending string instruments.
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u/JonathanBadwolf Sep 01 '26 edited Sep 01 '26
Ok, Maestro. I'm pretty sure I can distinguish an angry boat from a piece of string, thank you very much
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u/Suddenfury Sep 01 '26
Captain, we're... Sinking. The strings are taking in water.
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u/littlegreyflowerhelp Sep 01 '26
I was about to ask what the hell a distorted backwards angry boat sound is (and how OP was able to recognise it as such, given it was distorted and backwards)
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Sep 01 '26
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u/FaithfulSkeptic Sep 01 '26
No, Distorted Backwards Angry Boat Sound is the prog-rock band I was in in college.
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u/buzzoli Sep 01 '26
Sorry it's been a while since I've seen the movie..
Actually - Non non non non non non non, je ne regrette rien 🛥️
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u/Midnight-Bake Sep 01 '26
If your string instrument sounds like a backwards angry boat then maybe you need to bring it to a luthier for repair.
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u/Dapper_Otters Sep 01 '26
People are really struggling to fit the theme here.
It’s not just ‘scary scenes’. It’s specifically non diegetic - editing tricks, soundtrack changes and the like.
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u/DoctorWaluigiTime Sep 01 '26
A classic set of Reddit replies in a thread.
"Not [thing you asked for] but [response that gets posted all the time, therefore upvotes]."
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u/Knoooot Sep 01 '26
“Good question OP, but did you know that Requiem for a Dream is a movie I’ll only watch once?”
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u/Tetris102 Sep 01 '26
Diegetic and non-diegetic essentially means "within the world of the film" and "outside of the world of the film." As long as the scenes are jump scary and focus on something outside of what the characters could perceive it's probably fine. Op's prompt wasn't super specific.
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u/SystemCanary44 Sep 01 '26
That Obsession scene was uncanny as FUCK. Got me good.
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Sep 01 '26
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u/Fioralie Sep 01 '26
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u/Kaelisiya Sep 01 '26
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Sep 01 '26
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u/Kermit-Batman Sep 01 '26
If ever a creepy demon does this to me, they will first hear me giggle like Peter Griffin and possibly the sound of me wetting myself! Apparently I'm a nervous giggler when it comes to demons. :/
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Sep 01 '26
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u/-Farmersdaughter- Sep 01 '26
God forbid a girl has hobbies. Apparently my sleeping boyfriend picture album is creepy now
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u/Carrotsinthesalad Sep 01 '26
“I’ll never hurt you Bear!”
pump fakes
I’m convinced the “real” Nikki wanted to slap the shit out of Bear and the wish was holding her back lol
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u/BadAtBaduk1 Sep 01 '26
She was enslaved and raped by the piece of shit
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u/Carrotsinthesalad Sep 01 '26
Upon rewatch my favorite part of the ending is how she just pushes Bear’s corpse off of her without even looking she was so done with his ass
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u/BadAtBaduk1 Sep 01 '26
For sure. The dude was asked if he wanted to undo the wish but said NO. He only wanted to make changes. He had no intention of letting her go, poor girl had no hope.
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u/Andrew_Parkinson Sep 01 '26
Even when trying to undo it, he didn't ask for her to be set free, he asked "Wish that Bear never made a wish."
He bought 2 more. I think he absolutely intended to make a new wish and "do it right this time".
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u/Ok-Entrepreneur-5102 Sep 01 '26
Nice detail man
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u/quailman654 Sep 01 '26
I definitely didn’t catch that. I thought he was just being practical and getting two chances at solving the problem. Fuck Bear. All my homies hate Bear.
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u/WorryingMars384 Sep 01 '26
I mean to be fair she’s suddenly back in control in a room where all her closest friends are dead, killed by her, even if she did still care about Bear it be hard to have any other reaction in that situation. Like she’s been mentally destroyed by the whole ordeal.
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u/HealthyMaximum Sep 01 '26
Thanks. I hate it.
It's freaking me out, to be clear. I don't hate you posting it.
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u/AncientCarry4346 Sep 01 '26
I realised the other day that immediately after the backwards walk, Nikki sprints towards bear before coming to an abrupt stop, startling him.
I'm pretty sure that was the real Nikki, momentarily breaking free and trying to kill him.
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u/MySnake_Is_Solid Sep 01 '26
yes, it's likely that the entity realized it was losing control and stepped back away from bear to protect him.
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u/Sir_Eggmitton Sep 01 '26
Alternatively, I saw a theory that the reverse walk was Nikki’s body split between the entity who wanted to be closer to Bear and real Nikki who wanted to get the fuck away from him. Or at least meant to represent that anyway.
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u/bossmaser Sep 01 '26
Side note, I saw an interview with the cast, the actress happened to have a torn ACL shooting this scene. They filmed her limping towards him and reversed it for the movie.
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u/San-T-74 Sep 01 '26 edited Sep 01 '26
This and the bit where Nikki goes “what the fuck?” while making out with Bear were really well done jumpscares
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u/New-Independent-1481 Sep 01 '26 edited Sep 01 '26
It's a nice little subversion where we're expecting some cursed demon girl jumpscare to happen and scare Bear, only for the scare to just be the victim realising what's happening to her.
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u/magseven Sep 01 '26
Absolutely. I don't exactly think the movie is a huge leap in horror as some claim, but I did enjoy it and it is good for rewatching for not only things you might have missed or interpreted a different way, but trying to watch it from the perspectives of different characters in it. It's been a while since a horror movie really grabbed a sizeable audience from non horror fans. Glad it did well and hope his next projects are able to keep the hype fire stoked.
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u/redgunnit Sep 01 '26
While it's not the greatest horror movie of all time (John Carpenter's The Thing is right there), it takes its concept in an interesting direction. It's a movie you can really sink your teeth into and dissect the themes at the heart of it.
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u/lambofgun Sep 01 '26
its a huge leap in the sense that it was a breakthrough hit
im about that life when it comes to horror, so i have seen quite a few well done horror films like this, but it is pretty rad to see a, what used to be, relatively niche style of horror movie get attention like this
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u/IndifferentShrimp Sep 01 '26
Reverse Nikki reminded of the Reversed/Forwards effects from Twin Peaks.
Lowkey expected a reference, maybe Nikki going "Lets Rock" or something
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u/InevitableWaluigi Sep 01 '26
Inde's entire performance in that movie was a phenomenal representation of uncanny valley. Her changing from incredibly emotional to cute and then to yelling feels like a bpd episode on crack. Add on top of that her "snapping" back in and freaking out a couple of times and it just makes you terrified when she's on screen that something horrible is going to happen, and even more terrified when she's not on screen
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u/BambooKnight75 Sep 01 '26
If you rewatch it, focus on Nikki walking backwards after Bear, that boat sound does a lot of the work.
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u/Fantasticbrick Sep 01 '26
Exorcist 3
No matter how many times I watch it, the sudden sound coupled with the camera work and content of this scene still gives me chills.
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u/imjealousofyou Sep 01 '26
I saw The Exorcist TV show do this before I saw this movie, and it scared the hell out of me.
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u/Sparskey Sep 01 '26
The second watch was worse for me as the scene drags on and I'm anticipating/dreading the climax the whole time.
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u/Fantasticbrick Sep 01 '26 edited Sep 01 '26
That is the thing that gets me. It doesn't wane on repeat viewings, it in fact plays with your anticipation.
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Sep 01 '26
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u/Fioralie Sep 01 '26
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u/Kaelisiya Sep 01 '26
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u/ryuStack Sep 01 '26
When rewatching it, this scene is always so sad to me. How she just sits there, lost in her mind, clearly troubled, not knowing what will come in few hours.
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u/Akanash_ Sep 01 '26 edited Sep 01 '26
I mean I'm pretty sure it has been confirmed that she's just paimon by now. The "girl" has been pushed out a looong time ago.
Paimon is still in a confused state because he doesn't understand how her mind worked but still (that's also why he needs to be "freed" and attach to a new host).
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u/Jusaleb Sep 01 '26
That girl was troubled alright. Being possessed by a demon since infancy will do that to ya.
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u/menryBasedmarineCav Sep 01 '26
I watched this movie and couldn't take my little siblings for a drive for a while, the still aren't allowed to stick their heads out the windows of my car
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u/Comrade_Falcon Sep 01 '26
I mean, they NEVER should be allowed to stick their head out the window.
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u/Akanash_ Sep 01 '26
On a second rewatch it's sooo creepy to see that the cult is EVERYHERE. They're basically always watching, to the point that almost everybody they're interacting with is just part of the cult. They've been trueman-showed basically.
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u/kaiju2345 Sep 01 '26
Could someone remind me what moment this is? I've seen Hereditary but it's been a while
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u/duckieand99 Sep 01 '26
I figure it refers to that tongue clicking noise made by Charlie.
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u/CaltechOddity81 Sep 01 '26
That Hereditary scene is terrifying because you hear it before you fully process what you're hearing.
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u/dashaaff Sep 01 '26
It's the most shocking scene in the whole film by a long way, for me anyway, to the point where all the other scares just pale in comparison.
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u/hoopstick Sep 01 '26
Nothing will beat the attic door/piano wire scene for me. I haven't had to look away from a movie in a long time, but that almost did it to me.
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u/oxide_j Sep 01 '26
Not the same sound/scene but apparently, the cadence of the party girl in the kitchen chopping nuts is the same cadence (speed?) the mom saws her head off to.
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u/DigitusInRecto Sep 01 '26
Aren't those scenes an hour and a half apart? How would I notice that? Why would I notice that?
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u/zozuto Sep 01 '26
Rewatching. I noticed in Sleeping Beauty recently that Maleficent makes the same sound effect with her staff as her snapping dragon jaws.
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u/Fantasticbrick Sep 01 '26
Jacobs Ladder
I am using the sting sound as an example but the sudden chill of the music coupled with the fast and vague imagery of that face looking out the car window as it passes him by really messes with the viewer.
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u/anaesthaesia Sep 01 '26
This movie! Ugh! (In a good way) I watch horror movies for fun and love a good scare but this one messed me UP. I need to re-watch it.
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u/KEVLAR60442 Sep 01 '26 edited Sep 01 '26
I guess you could call them semi-diegetic, since they're intended to be indicative of psychotic breaks as the rules of reality change unpredictably and the powers altering reality attack the protagonists' minds, but Alan Wake 2, as well as the Alan Wake DLC for Control, jump at you with sudden, flashing, disturbing, and distorted black and white images. They're extra disturbing because they're actual photographs of the game's face models, so even just the shift from realistic CGI to true photorealism is startling.
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u/heedfulconch3 Sep 01 '26
This will put a smile on your face
I love the setup for that specifically, because you're just exploring and you meet someone who wasnt there before and its like oh i just missed them before, wait why are they drenched and standing in a puddle indoors?
BWOOP
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u/moneyh8r_two Sep 01 '26
I thought it was footage, not photographs. Are they doing a stop-motion thing with multiple photographs to create the movement we see?
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u/bing-no Sep 01 '26
Citizen Kane has a parrot screech right in the middle of the movie. Watched it twice and it got me both times.
https://giphy.com/gifs/ApPpXkUXP1HHy
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u/remainsofthegrapes Sep 01 '26
Welles quipped that he put that in there to wake the audience up.
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u/ThatFuckingGeniusKid Sep 01 '26
IIRC It's considered the first jumpscare in cinema history.
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u/varbs Sep 01 '26
Oddity has a great moment where the editing changes from very slow and deliberate, to incredibly fast and jarring, which works perfectly with the pacing of the scene.
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u/Warlockdnd Sep 01 '26
Psycho's (1960) shrill violin strings are so iconic that people still reference them today. They might seem cheap now, but they must have been terrifying at the time.
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u/Llyon_ Sep 01 '26
Ah, simpler times, back when a video of a train directly approaching the audience would cause them to jump out of the way.
Okay, that may have been a few decades earlier.
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u/jayboyguy Sep 01 '26
If you haven’t seen last year’s Together, there’s a dream scene in it I actually lost some sleep over. Only movie of the past like three years to actually scare me, besides Smile 2
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u/theothermilla Sep 01 '26
Adding Together to my watchlist right now. Smile 2 was wild so if it compared to that I know I’m in for a rough night
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u/neophlegm Sep 01 '26
ITT: Lots of people who don't know what 'diegetic' means
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Sep 01 '26
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u/BUKKAKALYPSE_NOW Sep 01 '26
It’s a good scene, but not really what op is talking about since the only non-diegetic part is an eerie static sound that plays after he walks in.
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u/metallicxslayer Sep 01 '26
I always think this is Tony Hawk for a split second
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u/Plenty_Trick_6042 Sep 01 '26
True story - I was walking in a creepy abandoned tunnel and my flashlight illuminated a ghostly face and I just blurted out "Damn, you look just like Tony Hawk" and he said "Yeah, that's me" and rolled away into the darkness on his heelys. Cool guy
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u/Due-Explanation-7560 Sep 01 '26
Tony would just say he gets that alot. This was some kind of impersonator.
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u/VoidUnity Sep 01 '26
It Follows if it was peak:
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u/Little-Baker76 Sep 01 '26
The entity would have been way more effective if it did impersonate Tony Hawk. I can easily outrun an old lady slowly walking towards me, what the hell am I supposed to do against a man barreling towards me on a skateboard?
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u/poop_snausages Sep 01 '26
It was Mike Lanier who was 7'7"
Unfortunately he passed away at a fairly young age back in 2018
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u/One_Order_3841 Sep 01 '26 edited Sep 01 '26
The newer IT movies did quite a few cheesey jump-scares, but they also effectively utilized the extras in the background of a hollow town just...staring at the kids. Not getting involved but just monitoring out of focus.
Welcome to Derry thus started to really get on my nerves that they fucked it in the other direction, where the camera would focus on the extra and they'd do the jig while staring at the camera and obviously creeping. Like the supermarket and the graveyard felt a mix of embarrassing & insulting...
Edit: To add, It Follows uses non-diagetic tones mixed with calm appearances of the creature to make a jump scare; the entity isn't rushing you, it just found a way to you like water in a crack. It uses music and muffled tones when an actor is behaving uncanny. Welcome to Derry blasts non-diagetic sounds to say "LOOK HE'S DOING THE SKAARSGARD LOOOK"
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u/Educationalidiot Sep 01 '26
David Lynch RIP was a master of this, Twin Peaks was full of them
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u/LonelyMenace101 Sep 01 '26
Fun fact: Bob wasn’t intended to be seen in the mirror at first, he was a worker on set and he accidentally appeared in the shot and David Lynch liked it so much he kept it in the show and added the worker to the story.
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u/Educationalidiot Sep 01 '26
Yep, it was a brilliant way to get around it and add an air of even more mystery!
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u/LonelyMenace101 Sep 01 '26
And horror, the scene where Maddy saw him really creeped me out.
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u/DVDJunky Sep 01 '26
I'm going to go ahead and throw this out there...
I'm a 43 year old movie obsessed dude and I've never heard of the term diegetic/non-diagetic. I've just gone down a bit of a rabbit hole and I'm kinda pissed I've not done more to familiarize myself with this sort of info.
If anyone reads this, I'd love some recommendations on books or youtube channels that go over this sort of thing. I always wanted to get into film making or go to film school, but life got in the way.
So I might as well educate myself in my free time since I'm so into it.
Anyway, open to any and all recommendations on resources, or even specific terms/topics you find interesting.
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u/sukiniii Sep 01 '26
Kairo (2001)
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u/Paulfradk Sep 01 '26
The way someone described this scene still hooks me.
When it cuts to this shot, after the man turns around, she stands way back in the background - even further back than what our perception tells us, as if she was always there, part of the room.
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u/Padulsky21 Sep 01 '26
So Kiyoshi Kurosawa hired a ballet dancer for this scene to add to the uncanniness. The body control and bizarre movement is very uncomfortable and it’s such a witty way to create this scene.
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u/tktk77 Sep 01 '26
The first half of this movie was much better than the second half.
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u/HordeDruid Sep 01 '26
The screenshot alone triggered my fight-or-flight. This really was one of the most unsettling scenes in horror cinema history.
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u/Siksinaaq Sep 01 '26
Inland Empire (if I'm understanding this trope correctly).
This scene.
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u/TechPriest97 Sep 01 '26
I’m mixed on the movie, watched it last week for the first time, but the sense of constant dread and unease got to me then this made me shit a brick.
I watch a ton of horror but this and the beggar woman in mulholland freaked me out
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u/Coelachantiform Sep 01 '26
Lynch was a master of creating familiar horror.
Nobody has been subject to a werewolf; everybody has had a strange and uneasy dream, where you couldn't quite put a finger on what's wrong.
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u/Coalesced Sep 01 '26
Maybe you haven’t been subject to a werewolf, but a very nice one in Amsterdam had me sit for a painting back in 2005.
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u/BarelyInvested Sep 01 '26 edited Sep 01 '26
Michael Myers appearing for the first time to Allyson (Halloween 2018)
He doesnt pop out really quick, have a jarring close up, or make a noise, he just casually walks into frame a few seconds after Allyson saw her dead friend, accompanied by a harsh guitar and cello sting playing in his theme
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u/Tylenol_Ibuprofen Sep 01 '26
'Prince of Darkness' Broadcast scenes
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u/but-I-play-one-on-TV Sep 01 '26
DJ Shadow's "Entroducing" uses these transmissions throughout the album and it's genuinely unsettling
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u/Timely-Damage-3592 Sep 01 '26
You really should’ve explained what “non diegetic” means in your post lmao
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u/PresidentSkillz Sep 01 '26
Batman Arkham Asylum, The final scarecrow level starts as a fake game crash
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u/Tetris102 Sep 01 '26 edited Sep 01 '26
Not a horror one, but the show 'Fleabag' has one of the best ones I've seen.
The eponymous protagonist (never actually named) spends a huge amount of time engaging with you, the audience. Think like 'Malcom in the Middle.' While it's up for interpretation, it's generally accepted that this is not a convention of the genre, but a feature indicating her poor mental well-being and maladaptive coping mechanisms.
In the second season, she meets and is attracted to "the hot priest." They form a friendship that results in them having sex. But that's not the jump scare. At one or two points, the priest stops her from engaging with the audience. Says something akin to "Who are you talking to?" and then later "Where do you go?"
But the best part that made my gut drop was when Fleabag and the and the priest are drinking in the church. She breaks the fourth wall, meets the audience in the eye. The priest smiles at her, then calmly looks at you as well, and returns.
It happens one more time which is arguably a bigger scare, but the the one I wrote on is the one that stuck with me.
One of my top ten. I still think about it regularly. If you haven't, watch Fleabag. It's both a masterpiece and a visual feast.
Edit: Seeing people arguing that fourth wall breaks don't count as non-diegetic jump scares. Disagree. These scenes involve the character acknowledging their is a world beyond their diegetic world. If the scene relies on breaking the fourth wall for the scare, I'd argue it meets the lose framing given to us by OP.
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u/n1c0_ds Sep 01 '26
I cannot overstate how much I loved that. The priest seeing the fourth wall is him actually seeing her.
I also loved the "did you think I forgot about you" in House of Cards when the main character didn't break the fourth wall for a while.
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u/theothermilla Sep 01 '26
Classic choice tbh. The TV static sound still lives in my head rent free lol. The movie practically invented a whole new kind of dread.
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u/sprogged Sep 01 '26
This scene in hereditary scares the crap out of me 4 years ago and still does today
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u/Nonexistent_Walrus Sep 01 '26
Is this non diegetic? I don’t remember anything non diegetic about that scene
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u/nevergirls Sep 01 '26
We don’t know what that word means so just posting our favorite horror movies
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u/lovethatjourneyforus Sep 01 '26
I hate it when people talk in movie theaters but I genuinely could not stop myself from saying ohhhh my god
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u/IAmFullOfHat3 Sep 01 '26
This sequence at the start of Doom 2016. I'm not sure if it counts as non-diagetic because it might be meant to be Doomguy having flashbacks, but I think the fact that he's just putting on armor through this means we're getting it a bit more intense than him.
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u/teeno731 Sep 01 '26
I only THINK this counts, because it’s visualising an exaggerated recount, but fuck this is effective for a movie with otherwise no actual scares.
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u/elheber Sep 01 '26
IIRC this one was accompanied by a loud audio sting, but it felt earned rather than cheap. Jaws btw.
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u/SuddenlyDiabetes Sep 01 '26 edited Sep 01 '26
Lake Mungo's only jumpscare , the unsettling realisation of what you're seeing is only made worse by the fact your pants are now full of crap
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u/Automatic-Cover-4853 Sep 01 '26
Just for many users lost here: "Non-diegetic" means something in a story or movie that exists outside the fictional world and cannot be heard, seen, or experienced by the characters. So, for example, most of film soundtracks are “non-diegetic” (audience hears it, characters don’t); good example of the opposite (diegetic) is the cantina scene in og Star Wars