By: Bryce Wadsworth
Horror movies are infamous for their inclusion of closets in some of their more terrifying and gruesome scenes. Whether it has a petrified victim hiding inside one or the creepy monster tucked away waiting for a jumpscare– we can probably recall quite a few times we’ve been on the edge of our seats with the flick’s focus being on the closet. So, in the spirit of Halloween, horror movies, and our “Out of the Closet” theme for this edition of Loco Mag– let’s take a look and rate some of the most infamous and most influential closet horror scenes from over the years!
Halloween (1978)
One of my favorite horror movies of all time just so happens to have one of the better closet scenes in cinema. Halloween’s Michael Myers villain seems to just never go away. Everytime we think he’s been killed or has given up, he always shows up out of the blue– after all, “you can’t kill the boogeyman”.
Either way, Myers shows up once again and sends Laurie running to the safest place she can think of… the closet. Cleverly, she locks up the door handles with a belt, but did we really think the (seemingly) super human killer was going to be stopped by that? For a moment, yeah it appears like he gave up, but suddenly he crashes through the flimsy bifold with his forearm and starts digging his way into the closet and eventually gets all the way through. Laurie is smart and handy enough to quickly make a small dagger with a metal clothes hanger which she uses to stab Myers in the face, and then she also steals his knife and stabs him in the gut. This blow appears to kill him, but if you’ve seen the movie you know how that turns out.
Overall, I want to give this closet scene a 8.5/10. The effects, although a bit cheesy, were well done for the time (keep in mind this came out in 1978). The movie was brilliantly unpredictable and always had you on your toes. Whenever it seemed like things were calming down, Michael came back and caused chaos again– and this scene was another example of that theme.
Scream (1996)
Some people don’t enjoy Scream as much as I do, but I think the movie is underrated– especially the closet part. Tension is built through the phone call, which we associate with distance and thus makes us (and Sidney for that matter) feel like the threat is probably far away. However, as she locks the door, the music calms down and things seem okay for now… until Ghostface bursts open the closet door behind Sidney and wields his infamous knife.
What I like about Scream’s take on the “closet cliche” with horror films during this era is that the killer is actually the one hiding in the closet, rather than the victim. We don’t get the stereotypical chase scene where the victim stumbles through the house and eventually finds a nice dark closet to duck into (which almost always fails to outsmart the killer). Ghostface seemingly thinks ahead and uses the closet to his advantage before Sidney even had a chance to think. This also seems to set the stage for movies in the future, where many more villains end up hiding in closets to scare their victims.
Due to the unique take on such an infamous cliche in horror cinema in 1996, I give this a 9.0/10
Insidious (2010)
I hate this movie. Not because it’s a bad film, but because when I was 11 years old, this movie scared the absolute hell out of me. The demons, creepy music and jumpscares gave me nightmares for weeks, and this scene in particular stood out. Tension built up with the music and appearance that someone was hiding in the closet–but we are let off the hook for a second until the creepy ghost boy bursts through the top part of the wardrobe and laughs as if he knows how much he made the audience’s heart drop. Yes, I took it personal like that.
However, I’m a big boy now and can recognize the beauty of this film’s composition, shots, and tension building. It is such a gem and the closet scene still scares me to this day. As someone who loves to watch and analyze film, this movie (and this scene in particular) is excellent and deserves to be on this list.
I give this scene a 7/10 for its perfect shot angles, ability to influence your mood in the moment, and for it’s horrifying jumpscare– however, others on this list seem to have more influential messages and takes on the closet cliche, while this is simply an alternative version of those before it.
The Conjuring (2013)
The Conjuring is an amazing horror film that utilizes original ideas and screenplay, but still feels like a modern horror flick. In other words, the movie is excellent when it comes to making unique takes on the typical things we see in the horror genre– one of those things being, of course, the creepy closet cliche.
Director James Wan sets up his version of the closet scene up like any other: there’s eerie music, a build up of tension with a slow walk towards the wardrobe, and that teeth clenching moment as our victim is about to open the doors. However, when she opens it up, there’s nothing there and music mellows out. We feel safe for just a second, until we see what the sister sees… the monster ON TOP of the closet waiting to strike.
I still get chills watching this one, but I can’t deny the fact that Wan does an excellent job toying with your emotions as the viewer. You’re tense, then you feel relief, then confusion, then horror– all within 30 seconds of one scene. This is a brilliant display of creativity and the ability to make something we’ve seen a hundred times before still scary.
A masterfully shot scene with a rapid change of pace and emotion in such a short period of time allows me to give this one a solid 8/10 score.
Boogeyman (2005)
Poor Timmy really has to see some horrifying stuff come out of his closet. We see the Boogeyman himself creep around Timmy’s room, coming to life in various forms (the shadows, the lump of clothes on the chair, the wind) and knocks the lamp over to seemingly bait Timmy’s father into the room for his brutal demise, right in front of the scared child.
From a storytelling point of view, I really like how this film used the cliche of a “monster in your closet” to attack the stereotype of parents telling their children horror tales to make them behave. The parent is the one being punished in this case for “misbehaving”, while at the same time it shows the effects of what telling lies to a child to scare them into good behavior can do. Timmy ends up living by himself, but he has no closets and sleeps with his mattress on the floor– ultimately he is scarred for life.
So, the fact that multiple messages are presented within one scene of the film is extremely impressive– and for that I award it a 9.5/10.
Overall, there are plenty of great horror movies with excellent takes on the well known “closet scene”. We know the phenomenon well and see it in numerous movies within the horror genre, yet each one seems to find a way to be unique and get different key messages across. In reflection, these 5 that came to mind as some of the best versions of the scene ended up being much more than the monster in the closet or victim hiding spot. The closet scene can set the tone for the theme of the movie, it can be a powerful tool to teach the story’s moral, and it most definitely can be spooky. Just to wrap things up, here are my final scores/ratings:
- Boogeyman (2005): 9.5/10
- Scream (1996): 9.0/10
- Halloween (1978): 8.5/10
- The Conjuring (2013): 8.0/10
- Insidious (2010): 7.0/10
