Nightmare Fuel / The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

"You know what they awoke in the darkness of Khazad-dum... Shadow and flame..."

• "BILBO BAGGINS!!" The sweet, jovial old wizard of a man we saw in Gandalf suddenly darkening the room around himself and shouting with a primal fury makes the Ring-corrupted Bilbo so utterly terrified you'd think he soiled himself on the spot. The display of power also proves quite aptly that if Gandalf did want to take the Ring from Bilbo, there wouldn't be a thing Bilbo could do to stop him.
  • This is only doubled up by Gandalf's brief temptation by the Ring itself. Curiosity and confusion about how it can't be that Ring is hit with the sudden contact and it reaching into his mind, and the moment that follows, he is so horrified as to seemingly have been sitting there for hours afterwards. The merry, jovial Gandalf we're introduced to is instantly stuck in Serious Business mode for nearly the entirety of the trilogy because of this one single moment.
• When Gandalf completes his research and returns to Bag End, we are treated to a shot of him jump scaring Frodo, demanding, "is it secret? Is it safe?" There is so much urgency in his words and his expression, you know immediately that there is a great deal at stake.
  • This is followed by Frodo's response when Gandalf explains exactly what is in his possession. It is a panicky-verge-of-denial Oh, Crap! followed by a chilling Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!.
    Frodo: We hide it, and we never speak of it again! No one knows it's here, do they?...Do they Gandalf?
• Galadriel's "Darkness crept back into the forests of the world" exposition. There is something so unsettling about her narration, especially when combined with the clips of darkened forests and swamps that follow. A surprisingly disturbing moment (and also very subtle) is when she mentions "Rumor grew of a shadow in the East; Whispers of a nameless fear" and it's intercut with a shot of a moonlit swamp, and two shadows that look either like a couple submerged tree trunks or legs.
• Speaking of Galadriel, the genuinely unsettling calm, pleasant, soothing nature in which she acts, contrasting sharply with the demonically dark side she displays whenever she becomes angry or power-mad.
  • Galadriel's temptation by the Ring, with absurd amounts of reverb on her voice as she declares herself "Beautiful and terrible as the dawn! Treacherous as the seas! Stronger than the foundations of the Earth! All shall love me and despair!"
  • It also makes one wonder how Fëanor and sons looked and sounded when they swore their rash oath. They were close kin to Galadriel.
• Oddly enough, how the Ring looks. You'd expect something crafted by a Dark Lord to be made of black metal with a skull-shaped ruby in the center, or something obvious like that. But it's simply a small gold wedding ring. It shows it doesn't need looks to take over you.
  • The Ring would be less scary if it looked like an Obviously Evil Artifact of Doom. Instead, it's simple but beautiful. Enchantingly beautiful. The most beautiful thing you've ever seen in your life. So beautiful that you'd kill to have it...
    • If you've read the book, then you'll know that this is absolutely deliberate. At the Council of Elrond, it's pointed out that all the other Rings of Power had some kind of gemstone or other jewel attached to them, but that the One really is just a simple golden band save for the lettering inscribed on it, which isn't even visible most of the time. In fact, it's pointed out that it's nearly identical to the lesser rings, of which there are maybe dozens of unaccounted examples scattered across Middle-earth. So maybe that plain-looking ring you found "discarded" by the road on your morning walk isn't as innocent as it looks...
  • If an inanimate(?) object can be uncanny, it's the One Ring. When Bilbo drops it onto the floor, it doesn't bounce and scatter into a corner, it hits the ground with a thud and goes instantly still, and when Gandalf later drops it into Frodo's palm, the hobbit's hand dips beneath its weight. Similarly, when Gimli tries to just destroy the sucker by hitting it with his axe, it not only shatters the axe, but doesn't bounce or budge from the impact. Even aside from how it's barely warmed by being placed in fire and "accidentally" ends up on Frodo's finger at the worst time, there's something fundamentally off about the seemingly-innocuous piece of jewelry.
  • The just out of earshot distant whispering does not help either.
  • "Precious". That word is scary because of this film. Everyone who possesses the One Ring for too long starts uttering that word. Isildur wrote that it will be an heirloom of his family so that no harm would come to it because "it is precious to me". Gollum was so thoroughly corrupted that "precious" is most of what he says. Even Bilbo, who had made plans to leave it behind, starts muttering "precious" when the time came to part from it. The One Ring infects people with such possessive madness that they all succumb to that word. Gandalf refused to touch it even once, because he saw himself saying it if he did.
• The shot from the prologue of the men who will become the Nazgul, each holding a ring and standing in almost robotic uniformity, in contrast to the natural movements of the elves and the dwarves in the previous shots. And then the scene just fades as the darkness swallows them...
  • The Thousand-Yard Stare of the future Witch-King, at the very centre of the shot, is particularly unsettling. He almost appears to be staring through the screen at the viewer themselves.
  • Their skeletal forms, visible when wearing the One Ring are really creepy as well.
• Sauron joining his forces in the prologue's battle. Just as victory seems imminent for the Last Alliance, Elrond and Isildur suddenly give expressions of fear when they see him approach, and the rest of their army quickly joins in as the Dark Lord looms over them. He demonstrates that those fears are well-placed, showing himself to be a One-Man Army who sends at least half a dozen soldiers flying with each swing of his mace.
• The screech and Vertigo Effect combination when someone encounters a Nazgûl for the first time.
• The first Nazgûl encounter:
  • Frodo and his friends are traveling on a road when all of a sudden Frodo gets a bad feeling and tells them to hide. No sooner have they done so when a cowled figure rides into view on a black horse. The figure gets off and then starts sniffing like a bloodhound on a trail. Then, all sorts of creepy bugs come crawling out all around them, seemingly reacting to the thing's very presence and trying desperately to get away from it.
  • A closer look at the moment when the Nazgûl appears shows that he doesn't just ride past the tree—he just shows up behind it, completely out of nowhere, as though he came straight out of it. The Nazgûl are so unnatural that reality itself balks at their existence.
• The hobbits' narrow escape at the ferry. The Ringwraith charges out of the night, cutting off Frodo from the others. Even when he manages to skirt it, he can barely outrun it. The huge, black-cloaked figure and its horse thunder on Frodo's heels as he races to the ferry and the others, already having cast off, call desperately for him to run faster. He ultimately makes it with a long jump and the Ringwraith screeches in rage at being blocked from its prize. As it rides away, the hobbits see it join two more Black Riders.
• The attack by the Ringwraiths on the Prancing Pony. Watching them glide in the front door with the night mist (and Barliman cowering in fear) is bad enough, but then we see a pan around the hobbit's room, and they're just there, with swords drawn and ready, like they came in through the walls or something. It's very unnerving.
• One of The Nine's scariest moments is the attack on Weathertop. Frodo wakes up to find his friends foolishly cooking on an open fire, declaring their location to everyone. Even as he snuffs out the last cinders, the all-too familiar screech of the Nazgûl echoes out and the hobbits look down to see several of them moving absolutely silently through the fog towards them. Now terrified, they run up to the top of the ancient watchtower and go back to back. You expect the Ringwraiths to come up the same stairways the hobbits used, but instead they appear right out of the shadows, in places seeming to step right out of empty air onto the watchtower's upper floor. Before they were just black-robed riders who made a creepy sound, now they're shown to be utterly inhuman.
• Bilbo Baggins's completely out-of-left-field freakout when he realises Frodo has the Ring. It really does come out of gracious nowhere. He does this in response to Frodo refusing to surrender the Ring, which he (Bilbo) was starting to show signs of obsession toward all over again. This is immediately after he willingly (even joyfully) gives Frodo a Mithril Shirt stated in the books to be worth more than the entire Shire. The Ring has such a strong hold on him that it's literally more tempting than all the wealth of the land he came from and then some. To finish it all, there's the horrifyingly scary snarl delivered by Bilbo. Take a look at his eyes and teeth when he makes that horrific noise. He looks just like Gollum!
• The way Boromir describes Mordor to the Council of Elrond. Despite inspiring one of the most classic memes, just the way he describes Mordor with a slow and intense voice like the hellish Eldritch Location it is, as if he's describing Hell itself, while seemingly Go Mad from the Revelation by doing so, is quite dreadful. And based on how quickly the entire council starts to fight amongst each other immediately after he's done, you could argue that the entire council went mad from the revelation. Boromir being the one to describe it makes it even worse - while several of the others are familiar with how Mordor is or have been there themselves to see it firsthand, Boromir is the only "normal" person at the Council. His perspective is as close to ours as we're going to get, and he's terrified of the place.
  • As the Council is yelling at each other and arguing (even Gandalf gets in on it), you can hear the Black Speech coming from the Ring. Frodo hears it and is clearly disturbed, but the others don't seem to notice. Is it affecting them, encouraging them to fight among themselves?
• Gandalf reciting the Ring's inscription in the tongue of its maker, causing some dark force to briefly flicker into their world. He then follows up by saying that if Sauron wins, they can expect to hear more of this kind of language.
  • Another voice can be heard speaking a different verse of the poem at the same time then laughing.
• Even before we get to Moria, we know that something's wrong there by Gandalf's massive reluctance to anywhere near the place. Saruman's little speech does not help the feeling of dread.
  Saruman: Moria... You fear to go into those mines. The Dwarves delved too greedily and too deep. You know what they awoke in the darkness of Khazad-dûm... shadow and flame.
  • The horrors began the very second they set foot in Moria. Gimli is proudly describing his kin's hospitality and how good a time they'll have after slogging through the dark and cold up to this point, then the Mood Whiplash kicks in.
    Gimli: So, master elf, you will enjoy the fabled hospitality of the dwarves! Roaring fires, malt beer, ripe meat off the bone! This, my friend, is the home of my cousin Balin. And they call it a mine! A mine!
    Boromir: (sees the entrance hall) This is no mine! It's a tomb! (they see skeletons and signs of battle everywhere)
    Gimli: No...no! No!!!
    Legolas: Goblins!
    Boromir: (as they all start backing out of the room) We make for the Gap of Rohan. We should never have come here.
  • And then the Watcher in the Water shows up, quite horrific all on its own, and forces them to go deeper into the very place they were just trying to leave.
    • If you found just the face of Watcher monstrous, you're in for a real scare. Games Workshop created a miniature depicting what they assumed the Watcher's whole body looked like; an aquatic chimera that looks more like a slimy, tentacled crustacean than any kind of cephalopod.
  • And one more thing. The Balrog, mentioned below? When it woke up, the Watcher—which until that point had been perfectly happy to just do its thing in the waterways deep below Moria—was scared absolutely shitless and swam as far away from Moria as it could. So if you thought the Watcher was frightening and dangerous when you watched this movie the first time and didn't know what was coming, then you hadn't seen anything yet.
  • The entire journey through Moria is just eerie, with a building sense of dread. Gandalf's words do not help at all.
    Gandalf: There are older, and fouler things than Orcs in the deep places of the world.
  • This unnerving shot◊ of Gollum as he spies on the fellowship in the mines of Moria - you can feel the waves of jealousy, malice and rage at being so close to his "Precious" and not being able to take it back.
    • Also, the first shot of Gollum's face while he's perched on the rock, his eyes glowing eerily in the reflection of the light.
• Gandalf reading the final diary entries of the mine's dwarves. "Drums...drums, in the deep...we cannot get out...They are coming-"
  • This becomes even worse when the reader realizes that the skeleton Gandalf pulled the book from is most likely Ori, another member of the company (and the youngest), who accompanied Balin to Moria.
  • Right then, of course, Pippin accidentally knocks a skeleton down a well, making all kinds of racket. After a tense moment of silence, Gandalf scolds him, then turns to leave. However, there's no initial response and you might think maybe things will be all right. And then...
    boom
    BOOM
  • And then it cuts back to the room with the three passages as the light of flames suddenly appears in the middle one. Imagine what would have happened if they'd taken that path!
• Once the Fellowship is surrounded by goblins in Moria, one orc with cat-like eyes is seen eyeing Pippin, practically licking his lips at the thought of tasting Hobbit for the first time. Especially if you were a kid when you first saw this, it honestly comes off as a Jump Scare.
  • The shot of said goblin became rather iconic and is probably the image most people will see if they look up goblins from the series. Yeah, this is what you'll find staring back at you.
  • It's even worse how they get surrounded - they're in a massive open hall, surrounded by a seemingly endless swarm of the orcs, which are coming out of the floor and climbing out of holes in the ceiling and down the columns like ants or spiders.
• Viewers who hadn't read the books were likely leaning back in their seats when the Balrog made its appearance. Even before it does, while all the Fellowship look unnerved as the Goblins scatter in terror and the sounds of the Balrog's approach grow louder, the look of terror on Gandalf and Legolas's faces is even worse. They both know full well what's coming, and that it's an enemy beyond any of them.
  • Even worse. Readers of The Silmarillion know perfectly well that the Balrogs are corrupted maiar just like Sauron himself, and are just as powerful as him. In fact, they were Morgoth's strongest and most feared unit.
    • There is no fighting the Balrog—this isn't a simple opponent that you can outmaneuver or hit with enough artillery or throw enough disposable troops at to eventually kill it, it's practically an unstoppable force of nature. Gandalf outright says that it's completely beyond any of their abilities and their only options are Run or Die, and the fact that he himself eventually defeated it is the exception, not the rule. Putting this into a bit of perspective, Aragorn stood up to and drove off the Nazgûl earlier in the film, and in the third movie Legolas kills a giant monster elephant by himself and Sam almost singlehandedly defeats Shelob. Gandalf only stands against it later to give the rest of the Fellowship a chance to escape—his first solution being to break the bridge so that it can't follow them—and we see in the next film that he legitimately died in the effort to kill it and only comes back as Gandalf the White from a genuine Eru Ex Machina. Putting that into further perspective, no one in the entire history of Middle-earth has successfully killed a balrog without dying in the process! There's a better kill-death ratio against dragons!
  • The Balrog's roars weren't made from any animals or actors. They sound like volcanoes erupting^note Actually a cinderblock being dragged on a wooden floor., further highlighting how this is not a beast but a full-blown demon.
  • For a slightly more subtle bit of Nightmare Fuel, after the first realize that the Balrog is coming after them, Boromir nearly takes one step too many in running away from it and almost goes over the edge of a sheer drop, losing his torch in the process instead to show how far it is to the bottom. If Legolas hadn't run forward and pulled him back, he could easily have fallen to his death right then and there.
• When one puts on The Ring, they turn invisible. It's because you enter a shadow dimension where the only other one there is the DARK LORD OF ALL EVIL. It's Alone with the Psycho on a cosmic scale.
  • To say nothing of what Sauron says to Frodo when he puts the Ring on in The Prancing Pony:
    "You cannot hide... I see you. There is no life in the Void, only... death."
  • The Eye seen in the Prancing Pony sequence is terrifying. A giant eye, wreathed in flame, with the implication that Sauron knows exactly where you are when you put on the Ring. And if that's not enough, Frodo sees the shadowy figures of the other inn guests, only for them to be swallowed by the flames so that the only things visible under the power of the Ring are him and the Eye of Sauron. It's only because of Frodo's initial resistance that he's able to pry it off his finger, and even that short time spent in the presence of the Eye left him winded and terrified.
  • In that vein, the second time Frodo puts on the Ring, he sees the faces of the Nazgûl - mummified kings with horrifying death rictuses.
  • Even the name of this place is tellingly horrible. It's called the Wraith World and the reason you become invisible to most creatures is that you've just put yourself on the border between life and death. The reason the Ring Wraiths can be seen in full there is that they're stuck in a state of being dead yet still living. It's implied beings like Barrow-Wights could also spot you in this world.
• The lead-up to Frodo putting the Ring on in the Prancing Pony. He's toying with it, rolling it between his fingers and slipping more and more into a dream-like state, and the Ring begins speaking, repeating "Baggins." It hammers in that the Ring, as Gandalf puts it, "wants to be found" and already it's beginning to exert an influence over its new holder.
• Gandalf's reaction to being offered the Ring by Frodo. Frodo is scared of Sauron coming for him and begs Gandalf to take it off him. Gandalf starts off trying to talk him down calmly, but as Frodo's panic grows, Gandalf eventually breaks down, looking more terrified than at any other point in the trilogy:
  Frodo: You must take it!
  Gandalf: [sternly] You cannot offer me this ring!
  Frodo: [panicking] I'm giving it to you!
  Gandalf: [backing up against the wall] Don't tempt me, Frodo! I dare not take it, not even to keep it safe. Understand, Frodo, I would use this ring from a desire to do good... but through me, it would wield a power too dark and terrible to imagine.
  • What's worse? According to Tolkien, he's right—and not only that, he'd have been even worse than Sauron. In "Letter 246" (collected in The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien), he writes, "Gandalf as Ring-Lord would have been far worse than Sauron. He would have remained 'righteous', but self-righteous. He would have continued to rule and order things for 'good', and the benefit of his subjects according to his wisdom (which was and would have remained great). Thus while Sauron multiplied [illegible word] evil, he left 'good' clearly distinguishable from it. Gandalf would have made good detestable and seem evil."
• During one scene, Saruman contacts Sauron through his palantir to get orders. Saruman is left visibly shaken by the experience, slumped in a chair and hugging himself as if he had just been subjected to a grueling torment. Sauron is so powerful even without the Ring that the effects of his voice are enough to render a fellow Maiar weak in the knees.
• The scene where the Ring gains influence over Boromir at Amon Hen. Frodo knows something is wrong when Boromir starts behaving erratically. Then the scary stuff kicks into high gear when Boromir pins Frodo down beneath him to take the Ring for himself, forcing Frodo to put the Ring on in a last-ditched effort to escape the crazed Boromir's grasp.
  • The extended edition goes into much greater detail about Boromir's desperation to save Gondor. Knowing later what movie-Denethor is like, the suffering of Gondor's soldiers against the increasing power of Mordor's armies, and the sheer monstrous pull of the Ring, it's no wonder that Boromir breaks from the pressure.
  • In this scene, we see what Gandalf was afraid of at the start of the film fulfilled. Boromir does not seek the Ring for power or glory. He wants to save his people, who are at risk of being wiped out right now. The Ring could save them, end the threat of Mordor for good. That vision Frodo saw earlier of the Shire in flames and its people enslaved? Boromir fears that very same fate for his own homeland, and the Ring corrupted that noble sentiment into this crazed hostility.
  • Boromir had spent the whole movie as a kind, calm figure and even though it was clear that he was tempted by the Ring, it came with a hint of pitiful desperation. But in this scene, after having been denied the Ring one too many times, he flies into a berserk rage that is terrifying for how sudden it is. Sean Bean really sells it:
    Boromir: You FOOL! [The Ring] is not yours save by unhappy chance! It could have been mine, it should be mine! Give it to me!