Warning: Moments pages are Spoilers Off. You Have Been Warned!
Maybe two heads aren't better than one.
- The first book of the Harry Potter series is mainly safe-for-reading by innocent souls, but there is a horrifying vision at the end, with Voldemort physically inhabiting Quirrell as a parasite, with his face protruding from the back of Quirrell's skull.
- The video game version is even worse. Here, Quirrell twists his head around so Voldemort is facing Harry directly.
- The original
but unused design for Voldemort's face behind Quirrell's head was even more horrifying and made Voldemort look even less human.
- From the perspective of both Harry and the Dursleys, the scene where someone starts banging on the door of their hut on the rock in the middle of nowhere. The door falls off, and a giant lumbers in...fortunately, it's Hagrid, whom we already know is a good guy.
- Harry's in the library late at night and opens a book. It SCREAMS AT HIM! It's like a disembodied head is trying to escape from the book, wide mouth yelling the entire time. And, intentionally or not, it foreshadows another situation where Harry encounters another face that's somewhere that isn't supposed to have a face.
- The incredibly creepy music that plays in the background of the "restricted section" library sequence. It's an eerie ghostly hum, with faint timpani, cymbals, faint piano, xylophone, chimes, horror strings, and very faint wailing noises, all interspersed with an unsettling version of the main Harry Potter theme. It then turns into frantic strings when Harry is being chased. Try listening to that track ("The Invisibility Cloak and The Library Scene") of the film's score in a dark room...
- It does become more sad before that chase part, though. The track starts playing a poignant version of the main theme for a moment when Harry finds the Mirror of Erised.
- The scene where the Trio confronts Fluffy. In the soundtrack, you first hear a bassoon, an instrument also used in a version of Peter and the Wolf, signifying the angry grandfather who just wants to protect Peter (remind you of anyone?). The bassoon opens the track and continues playing its own tune behind the harp, reminding the audience of the dangerous (but good) Fluffy still being there despite the harp's calming tune.
- The scene near the beginning in which Dudley falls into the snake's enclosure as Aunt Petunia freaks out and Harry chuckles... but then, Harry notices Uncle Vernon glowering down at him with a nasty Death Glare of utter contempt, and all of a sudden, Harry's face looks stricken, as he imagines how he's going to be punished.
- He spent about a week in his cupboard without any food. And it was probably only his magic that kept him alive.
- Quirrell feeding off the dead unicorn in the Forbidden Forest. When he notices Harry and Draco, he growls and slithers towards them, looking like a cross between a Dementor and Darth Sidious.
- Fluffy, the three-headed Cerberus acting as the first line of defense for the Philosopher's/Sorcerer's Stone is pretty terrifying, even though it's a good-aligned creature.
- Quirrell being burned alive from Harry's touch. His reaction at the flesh on his hand melting is bad enough, but then there is his scream of agony when Harry uses his newfound power on the guy's face. It's also horrifying when his entire face turns to crumbling stone in a nauseating-looking way, then his entire body begins to turn to stone, topped off by him lumbering and shuffling towards Harry like a zombie with his hand outreached, before collapsing onto the ground as a pile of dust. Brrr...
- It doesn't get much better from there. In the film, Harry turns and sees the Stone and goes to pick it up. He gives a small smile of triumph at his victory as he looks down at the Stone. But he fails to realize a small whistling sound where dust is swirling to take the form a dark shadow that is supposed to be Voldemort.
- When he realizes something is wrong, it's already too late. He slowly turns with a horrified look on his face to find the dark shadow grow the face of Voldemort. Voldemort's face roars with rage as he flies toward Harry. And all Harry can do is scream as Voldemort flies through him, causing him to pass out.
- The premise of the book: Imagine being an 11-year-old and told your parents were murdered by the deadliest dark wizard of all time. Even worse, he was also going to kill you, as a baby for seemingly no reason…initially. Even though they do everything they can, they were easily made quick work of and the only reason why Harry survived the encounter at all was because Voldemort didn't consider the possibility that anything could stand against the Killing Curse and was forced to retreat. The Dark Lord himself later in the series admits he didn’t foresee a Love Protection charm could save Harry.
- And instead of being raised in a loving household, Harry is given to a family who neglects/abuses him. This is justified later in the series as the Dursleys' was the only place where he would be 100% safe from Voldemort or his followers, as Petunia is Lily's last living relative. Harry's childhood may not have been nice at all, but at least he wasn't killed and he was pretty much normal, raised far away from all the fame and the dangers that it brings.
- The flashback of James and Lily's murder in the film. All Voldemort does is flick his wand once, and Lily immediately lets out a bloodcurdling scream as she slowly falls dead. Right from the beginning, we're shown just how deadly and nightmarish Avada Kedarva is.
- Many people who played the PC game had nightmares about the levels where they had to sneak past Filch in the library. Trying to avoid getting caught by a grumpy old man with a creepy voice who shouts "Come out, come out, wherever you are!" isn't helped by the lack of Background Music.
- The final battle against Quirrell; not only does he lock the only door out of the room, but he also starts shooting Avada Kedavra from his hands right at Harry.
- Filch bemoaning how the old punishments are no longer allowed and how he "misses the screaming" of the students, who were, among other things, hung by their thumbs. Granted given that McGonagall says that he's been complaining about Peeves for "a quarter of a century" in 1997, he's been at Hogwarts since roughly 1972. And given that Dumbledore was headmaster by the time the Marauders enrolled in 1971, such punishments would not have been administered which means that he is just expressing his wish fulfillment.
- After it's been established, that the visions shown by the Mirror of Erised can only be seen by the person they're shown to, Voldemort still immediately finds out when the Philosopher Stone is given to Harry. The later books explained that Voldemort is a very skilled Legilimens — he can read minds- but here, the lack of understanding of his abilities is used as proper Paranoia Fuel, giving the impression that even in his reduced state, this monster knows everything.
