Swimmers at night, you're in for a fright.
Dark, opaque bodies of water have long been used as a warning sign of potential dangers lurking below. As such, in film and television, one very simple method of establishing that a character is monstrous in some way is to feature a shot of them slowly emerging from one such body of water.
Most of the menace in these kinds of shots is conveyed through the pace and smoothness of the character's ascent: by surfacing slowly, the character seems untroubled by the need to breathe, making them appear inhuman even if they aren't actually some kind of monster, and by emerging smoothly, the character doesn't appear to be swimming to the surface or even getting to their feet, but levitating — furthering the impression that something unnatural and disturbing is about to happen.
Though there are many variants on this shot, one of the more popular ones is to feature a close-up of the character's face as they rise from the water, often sporting an expression that drives home their lack of humanity — the Kubrick Stare, for example, or an unblinking gaze despite the water. And just to upset the audience, it's not uncommon for such shots to feature the character staring directly at the camera.
In the case of more openly predatory examples, it's not unknown for this shot to be followed up — or even inverted — by a shot of the character sinking back beneath the surface, ready to attack anyone sharing the water with them...
Contrast Sexy Surfacing Shot.
Examples
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Anime & Manga
- In the final arc of Attack on Titan, Eren's Wall Titans have such a moment when they surface from the sea as they march implacably towards the Marleyan coast to lay the country to waste during the Rumbling. It is every bit as horrifying as you can expect.
- Digimon Adventure 02: During the final battle of Digimon Adventure 02 M 1 Transcendent Evolution The Golden Digimentals, Antylamon retreats into a lake to evolve, then slowly emerges from the water as Cherubimon. The sequence is accompanied by unsettling background music and close-up shots on the creature's body, serving to highlight what a horrible Eldritch Abomination it has become.
Comic Books
- Neonomicon: The cover to one issue of the miniseries depicts a Deep One slowly rising out of the waters of the underground pool, slowly zeroing in on Agent Brears from behind. For good measure, both parties are naked, further increasing the sense of menace.
- Wolverine (1982): The cover of Wolverine #9 - Coyote Crossing Part 3
features the man himself, out of costume, rising from a pool of water with claws at the ready and a particularly vicious-looking glare on his face. Judging by the tint of the scene and the jungle in the background, it's likely this was a homage to another instance of this trope in Apocalypse Now.
- X-Men: On the cover of X-Men (1991) #106: Search And Rescue, Cecilia Reyes can be seen half-risen from a pool of dark water, with only half her face visible — including her glowing red eyes.
Film — Animated
- The BFG: Fleshlumpeater's true monstrosity is revealed in a scene that begins with a close-up shot of him as he slowly rises from the sea just outside a small fishing village, surfacing just high enough to reveal his mismatched eyes and Sinister Schnoz as he surveys the area, then rising to waist height and marching inland to prey on sleeping children.
- Luca: When Luca, Giulia, and Alberto have a row about Luca going to human school, Alberto dives into the water to prove that he and his friend are actually sea monsters. While Giulia doesn't suspect anything for a few seconds, she is soon surprised when Al slowly rises out of the sea in sea monster form.
- The Nightmare Before Christmas uses this as an Establishing Character Moment for Jack Skellington; to cap off the big "This is Halloween" number, after lighting himself on fire, he jumps into Halloween Town's fountain and unflinchingly rises in all his skeletal glory...all with a big cheery smile on his face.
Film — Live-Action
- Apocalypse Now features arguably one of the most famous examples of this trope: in the climax of the film, having sunk dangerously close to Kurtz's level of insanity, Willard is seen rising from a pool of water with his expressionless face daubed in camo paint, eyes snapping open as he surfaces. Having used this method to sneak into Kurtz's compound, he then completes his mission by brutally murdering Kurtz with a machete.
- The Cabin in the Woods: Shortly after Dana is saved at the last minute by Marty, who turns out to have survived his clash with Judah Buckner, Matthew Buckner is knocked off the dock and into the lake below. However, as the two surviving teens flee the area, Matthew slowly rises from the lake until he's up to chest height, not only revealing that the zombie redneck is still active but also that he's within reach of the shore, forcing our heroes to keep moving.
- Carnival of Souls: Towards the ending the 'ghouls' rise up from the waters surrounding the Amusement Park of Doom when the protagonist goes there.
- The Cell: When Stargher's murderous alter ego invades Catherine's mind in pursuit of his inner child during the climax, it emerges headfirst from a pool of water at the centre of her mindscape, in slow motion — the better to emphasize the monstrous features of his current avatar.
- The Descent: At the end of a very long Trauma Conga Line, Sarah is plunged into a lake of blood at the centre of the Crawlers' Cannibal Larder and slowly rises from the gory depths, looking much colder and much less human than she was a few minutes ago — a fact she goes on to demonstrate by stabbing one Crawler through the eye with a shard of bone and beating another to death.
- Hellboy (2004): Early in the film, Grigori Rasputin is resurrected for the second time by spilling the blood of an innocent guide in an ancient ritual circle, resulting in a pool of blood that he rises smoothly from as if levitating, firmly driving home the fact that Rasputin is even more unearthly this time around. For good measure, the deleted scenes featured Rasputin being resurrected without eyes, making the resurrection even more unsettling and forcing Rasputin to make use of glass prosthetics throughout the film.
- Land of the Dead: The climax of the film begins with the zombie army of Big Daddy, who is smarter than the average zombie, emerging in a menacing shuffle from the waters of the Allegheny River and with that bypassing the anti-zombie fortifications of the city of Pittsburgh.
- Time Bandits: During the exploration of the Time of Legends, the voyage by ship is interrupted when a giant slowly rises from the ocean in a close-up shot. Already thuggish and intimidating, the giant's lack of human reaction is further driven home by the fact that it's using the heroes' ship as a hat and either doesn't notice or just doesn't care.
Literature
- The cover for The Curse of Camp Cold Lake features a skull-like ghost girl emerging from the titular lake.
Live-Action TV
- Doctor Who: The cliffhanger of the first episode of "The Dalek Invasion of Earth" features a Dalek slowly and ominously emerging from the River Thames, which was repeated in the story's film adaptation Daleks' Invasion Earth: 2150 A.D..
- Stargate Atlantis: In the episode "Submersion," the team's efforts to investigate an underwater drilling platform go awry when a Wraith Queen attacks the facility — complete with a shot of her slowly rising from the pitch-black waters of the platform's moon pool, hissing as she ascends.
- The X-Files: The Season 4 episode "Leonard Betts" features Mulder and Scully investigating Betts's apartment after his apparent death by decapitation and subsequent disappearance of his body, and finding a bathtub full of a strange, brown fluid that they don't have time to examine. After they leave, Betts — now with an intact cranium — emerges from under the fluid.
Video Games
- The Secret World:
- In Filth-flooded environments like the Moon Bog or the bottom of the Ankh, numerous Shades can be found waiting for passersby in deep pools of the stuff, rising just high enough to reveal their Glowing Eyes of Doom as you approach. For good measure, lore entries on "Filth and Humans" reveal that Shades can willingly melt into pools of Filth and reform elsewhere, indicating that the "submerged" ones might not even have a lower body until they see you and go on the attack.
- In the climax of Issue 11, a phone call from the Black Signal results in a huge pool of Filth spreading across Orochi Tower's penthouse balcony, and from it, Shades slowly and smoothly begin to rise...
- Tomb Raider (2013): At one point, Lara Croft falls into a pool of blood and slowly emerges from it head-first in a scene played for ominousness, presumably as a homage to similar scenes from The Descent and Apocalypse Now.
- Until Dawn: Inverted form. In the finale, Sam and Mike have to wade through an underground lake to reach the Big Bad's lair, and as they clamber back onto dry land and open the door, we cut back to the lake... where said Big Bad AKA Hannah Washington the Wendigo is watching them, submerged up to their neck. Then, without making a sound, it sinks back under the water, ready to ambush the duo once they return.
Web comics
- Gunnerkrigg Court: In "Spring Heeled, part 2", Jones walks out from the water this way after jumping off the boat rather than trust the pontoon with her unnaturally high weight.
Western Animation
- Rick and Morty: In the stinger of "Big Trouble In Little Sanchez," a vampire seemingly levitates from a pool of blood to stand naked before his assorted servants, who quickly drape a cloak over his shoulders and proffer up a human victim for him to feed upon. It's one of the many things about this scene that's played for horror... up until the vampire lord belatedly realizes that the vampire spy who was just killed went by the name "Coach Feratu".
