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Sam Raimi is one of the masters of horror cinema, and he’s delivered some of the scariest sequences in movie history. From the deadite possessions of The Evil Dead franchise to the haunting ending of Drag Me to Hell, Raimi can frighten an audience like no one else.
Even Raimi’s non-horror movies, like the Spider-Man films, have a couple of terrifying scenes. From Send Help’s guilt-induced nightmare to Spider-Man 2’s gruesome hospital sequence, these are the most disturbing scenes in Raimi’s filmography.
Peter Gets Possessed By The Symbiote
Spider-Man 3
Although Raimi didn’t want to include Venom in Spider-Man 3, he ended up doing some really interesting things with the symbiote. A black goo that attaches itself to a human host and corrupts their innate goodness is perfectly in line with the demons and deadites in Raimi’s horror films.
The scene in which the symbiote first attaches itself to Peter Parker is a truly terrifying sight. As he lies in bed, asleep and helpless, he’s enveloped and suffocated by this creepy alien sludge.
Ash Is Thrown Into A Pit
Army Of Darkness
The third Evil Dead movie, Army of Darkness, is much more comedy than horror, but it still has some frightening moments. There’s a pit in Castle Kandar where Arthur tosses his enemies to fend for themselves against captive deadites. Of course, Ash ends up getting thrown in there.
Ash manages to survive his encounter with a couple of deadites, but it’s a nightmarish situation to find yourself in. It’s like Jabba the Hutt’s own torture pit, with the rancor, but even scarier (and goopier).
The Green Goblin Is Born
Spider-Man
Although the Green Goblin’s Power Rangers-style armor looks ridiculous, Willem Dafoe gives an appropriately sinister performance as Norman Osborn. The scene in which Norman transforms into the Goblin is a perfect example.
We see this ambitious scientist and loving (if difficult) father turn into a murderous monster in a matter of seconds. The glint of sadism in Dafoe’s eye ensures that the Goblin will continue to haunt viewers long after the movie is over.
Linda’s Guilt-Induced Nightmare
Send Help
Raimi returned to the horror genre for the first time in 17 years with his survival thriller Send Help. With its wonderfully satirical premise of Cast Away meets Horrible Bosses, Send Help sees Raimi with his feet planted firmly back in Evil Dead territory. It’s gory, gross, and twistedly hilarious.
There are a couple of great jump scares in Send Help, but the spookiest sequence is when Linda sees Bradley’s fiancée wash up on the shore in the dead of night. It turns out to be a guilt-induced hallucination, but it still gets a good scare out of the audience.
The Tree Assault
The Evil Dead
The most notorious scene in The Evil Dead is when Cheryl gets attacked by demonic tree branches. It’s pretty difficult to watch, but that’s what makes it so effective. A seemingly harmless walk through the woods becomes a fight for survival when the surrounding wilderness grabs Cheryl and violates her body.
Raimi has since said that he regrets the tree scene, and wishes he hadn’t filmed it in the first place. It’s easy to see why he might have misgivings about the scene; it trivializes the very real horror of sexual violence through the lens of horror cinema. But it’s an undeniably powerful sequence.
Christine Is Literally Dragged To Hell
Drag Me To Hell
After making three Spider-Man movies, Raimi returned to his campy horror roots with Drag Me to Hell, about a young woman’s struggle to escape a gypsy’s curse. There are some great jump scares and grossout gags in the film, but its scariest moment is the final scene.
At the end of Drag Me to Hell, just when Christine thinks she’s escaped the curse and her life can go back to normal, a portal opens in the ground and she’s literally dragged to Hell. We have to watch the fire and brimstone melt our protagonist’s face on her way to the underworld. It’s a pretty disturbing way to end a movie.
The Souls Of The Damned
Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness
To Kevin Feige’s credit, when he hired Raimi to direct the Doctor Strange sequel, he really let him make a Sam Raimi movie. Multiverse of Madness isn’t just another cookie from the Marvel cookie-cutter; when Strange possesses his own zombified corpse and flies on the wings of demons to fight a witch, it almost feels like Evil Dead 4.
But before he can harness the souls of the damned, Strange is yanked into their dimension. From the haunted look on Benedict Cumberbatch’s face to the demonic hands dragging him into a mysterious black liquid, this is a truly unsettling visual.
Cheryl’s Transformation Into A Deadite
The Evil Dead
Cheryl defined the tone and aesthetic of the entire Evil Dead franchise when she transformed into a deadite in the original film. What makes The Evil Dead’s demons so different is their twisted sense of humor, conveyed by the horrifying grin on Cheryl’s face.
She levitates, her eyes turn white, and her friends have to lock her in the basement to prevent her from spreading the possession to anyone else. The whole scene has a delightfully chaotic vibe that keeps you on the edge of your seat.
Doc Ock At The Hospital
Spider-Man 2
The scene in which Doctor Octopus awakens in hospital really pushes the boundaries of Spider-Man 2’s PG-13 rating. As the surgeons try to remove his robotic limbs, those limbs spark to life and fight back. The actors playing the surgeons really sell the terror, and the VFX team comes up with plenty of horrific ways for them to die.
This sequence immediately establishes Doc Ock as a formidable threat, but it also establishes that the robotic limbs have a mind of their own. Otto isn’t controlling his cybernetic tentacles; they’re controlling him.
Linda’s Dance
Evil Dead II
With The Evil Dead, Raimi pioneered a whole new subgenre of horror: a cartoonish slapstick approach to horror. He basically reimagined The Three Stooges with a lot more blood and gore. He doubled down on this approach in Evil Dead II, essentially a more overtly comedic remake of the first film.
The pinnacle of The Evil Dead’s cartoonish horror, and the pinnacle of Sam Raimi’s career as a horror filmmaker, is the entrancing sequence when a possessed Linda dances with her own severed head. It’s as darkly funny as it is deeply disquieting.
