Those sequences that had youngsters everywhere watching through their fingers, or hiding behind a cushion for protection.
The disembodied leg floating to the bottom of the ocean floor?
The severed fishermans head, added after early test screenings to provoke one more scream?
For me, though, the death of shark hunter Quint is the most enduringly horrible moment inJaws.
Its a spectacularly horrible sequence, and one that had me open-mouthed with disbelief as a youth.
But even here, the director displays an uncompromising tone that cuts through the schmaltz and whimsy.
Its domestic scenes are starkly shot, with overlapping, fast-moving conversation, and while E.T.
is himself a fanciful, wide-eyed creation, the world he interacts with is realistically presented.
lying apparently dead in a shallow river?
As a child, I remember this moment provoking gasps of horror among the cinemas audience.
In the midst of all the good-natured drama and humour, in stepped the spectre of death.
Characters dine on baby snakes and chilled monkey brains.
One bad guys crushed between two stone rollers, leaving a streak of crimson in his wake.
Several others are later snapped up by crocodiles.
It was pretty full-on stuff.
Even Spielberg later admitted that it was It was too dark, too subterranean, and much too horrific.
Its still better thanKingdom Of The Crystal Skull,though.
Its a comic horror sequence thats sure to provoke titters of macabre glee from young audiences everywhere.
What everyone really remembers, though, is the tyrannosaurus rex attack.
The most disquieting bit?
The female mechas smiling face distorted by a bucket of acid.
If only the rest of the film was up to the standard of that chilling moment of promise.
