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Nightmare Fuel / Ju-on

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Uhhhhhhhhhhhhh...
  • The curse itself is pretty terrifying. Anyone who even steps foot into the house is Doomed by Canon, and sooner or later, they will be killed by Kayako or the other ghosts. It can take years for the curse to consume a person, as in Rika's case where it takes six years. It is also established in the first TV film that the curse can target people associated with those who entered the Saeki house, usually when they are around said victims or in the place they died in - and then the curse spreads in those places and kills more people. So all the characters who survive the films are probably dead too.
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     Ju-on: The Curse 
  • "Mar's Grave". Poor cat...
  • The Jump Scare in the first film when Kobayashi glances at his hands and, for a split second, sees them as Takeo's blood-soaked and cat fur-covered hands, with the horribly mutilated corpse of Mar lying below him.
  • Yuki in the attic. She pops her head up into the attic, and, as she has a look around, the shot changes to that of a POV shot through the eyes of... something, watching. As Yuki fumbles for her lighter, the POV shot suddenly and rapidly moves towards her, until the something is right in front of Yuki's face, but completely obscured in the darkness. So terrified that she can barely move, Yuki switches on her cigarette lighter and... BAM! The sequence (prior to the Jump Scare) is played out with no music whatsoever, which makes the whole thing so much more tense.
  • Kanna's face. That is all. Her poor mother's reaction makes it so much worse.
    • The manga adaptation adds some more Gorn to the mix. Following her encounter with her daughter's jawless ghost, Kanna's mother becomes possessed. Cue Kanna's father arriving home to discover his wife preparing a meal. Said meal consists of Kanna's body, chopped into several pieces. Oh, and the first sight to greet the poor guy as he steps into the kitchen is Kanna's severed, jawless head staring vacantly at him from atop the table. But wait! It gets worse: Kanna's mother then starts to cut her own arm into slices all the while rambling in a monotonous manner.
  • The original (and some would say best) "Kayako crawls down the stairs" scene from the first video release. Holy. Crap. Not just for the horribly creepy movements, but for the unsettling look of pure hatred on Kayako's face.
  • There's the ultimate fate of Kobayashi and his family: just as he's cornered by Kayako, he discovers that Takeo is still alive...and has just killed his (Kobayashi's) pregnant wife and taken the unborn fetus from her body. What the character does with his "trophy" afterwards is the most terrifying, sickening thing in the movie franchise, surpassing anything Kayako and Toshio ever do.
    • And then Kayako takes her revenge on Takeo, sloooowly crawling towards him in a plastic bag before emerging from it to claim his soul.
     Ju-on: The Grudge 
  • The scene in which Katsuya returns home to find his wife Kazumi lying on the bed in a catatonic state after being terrorised by Toshio. He has no idea what's going on and tries to call an ambulance... when Toshio suddenly runs past in the background. Katsuya doesn't see him, but he knows that someone else is in the room, and he proceeds to search it in a slow, quiet terror. What makes this scene so frightening is that the audience knows Toshio is there and just waiting to jump out, and the fact that the scene is just so incredibly quiet and tense. To make things even more tense, the moment where Katsuya searches part of the room and the cupboard is done in a single, still shot that goes on for around a full minute.
  • Hitomi's vignette. Not even the bedcovers can protect you from this curse. The lead-up involving the TV is also horribly unsettling (see below). Not to mention the earlier scene in the staff toilets...
    • Who can forget the television when Hitomi goes into her flat and the reporter is morphed into an Oiwa-style onryo with that death rattle.
    • Not to mention beforehand as she making her way to her apartment and riding up the elevator. While she doesn't notice him, the audience can see Toshio in the background with each floor she passes... and he keeps getting closer and closer .
  • The scene where Toyama is reviewing the footage from the surveillance camera, and sees a dark, staticy blot walking toward it. Eventually, the monitor goes pitch black... and then Kayako's eyes open directly in front of the camera. There's a reason this one got brought directly into the American version.
  • Izumi's vignette. Her dead, ghostly friends suddenly peer through the newspapers she covered her windows with, before materializing inside the apartment to pursue her, staggering in an almost zombie-like manner. Izumi ends up trapped, backed up against the shrine for her father... only for Kayako to burst out from the shrine and drag Izumi into it.
  • An often overlooked example comes from the end of the third film, which strongly implies that the curse has spread over much of Tokyo (and possibly even further). The streets are completely empty and eerily silent - no birds, no traffic, nothing - and dozens of "missing" posters are plastered all over the place.
     Ju-on: The Grudge 2 
  • Tomoka's vignette.
  • Two words: "wig scene". No matter whether one finds the build-up to be narmy or not, most tend to agree that the climax of that scene is pants-browningly terrifying. The music does not help.
  • Kayako emerging from the photocopier.
  • Three words: "the birth scene". That is all.
     Ju-on: White Ghost/Black Ghost 
  • Just watching the first segment of White Ghost makes one shudder. A poor guy has to deliver a Christmas cake to a house which he unaware had all of its inhabitants brutally murdered the night before. Then he discovers a headless corpse in the bed. Just when he tries to escape it all, we get the first jumpscare of the film: the hollow-eyed grandma *shudder*.
     Ju-on: The Final 
  • The scene in the subway station, featuring Sota and Kayako. While Sota is patrolling the subway, he suddenly encounters Kayako in her human form. Strangely enough, she is able to converse with him and agrees to follow him to the guards' post. While walking there, she mumbles about Toshio, which goes faster and faster and faster until eventually, she morphs into her ghost form. Of course, when Sota turns around, she disappears. Can he just run away from the spot as soon as possible?
  • Mai encountering dozens of meowing Toshio inside the hotel elevator. You won't hear a cat meow the same way again.
  • The final scene of the film (and indeed the series). Jawless Kayako.

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