Nightmare Fuel / The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

"Don't follow the lights!"

• This gem from after one of the Orcs gets killed by Uglúk:
  "LOOKS LIKE MEAT'S BACK ON THE MENU, BOYS!"
  • Commence dozens of other Uruk-hai ripping the corpse apart to eat it within seconds, tossing away lengths of intestines to the horror and disgust of the Hobbits. The head also falls on Pippin and Merry.
• Fangorn Forest is considered such a place. An old forest that makes even Gimli wonder why anyone would go in there.
  • Shortly after this, we transition on Merry and Pippin again, who we now know for certain are alive and well but now in the apparently very dangerous forest, and in the dead of night to boot. They're sure that they're safe from the orcs, but then the one from before (Grishnakh) that had been planning on killing them basically just for the hell of it emerges from the foliage, now even more determined to kill them and yanking Merry down to the ground when they climb up to try to escape him. Thankfully for the hobbits, the "tree" turns out to be an Ent who promptly crushes Grishnakh underfoot...and then seems ready to kill them, too, under the impression that they're orcs because he has no idea what a hobbit is. Treebeard could easily do it, too, with a simple squeeze in his hands being enough to put Merry and Pippin visibly in pain. Treebeard is put into enough doubt about actually doing anything to them, though, to decide to leave any decision he makes up to someone wiser and more knowledgeable than him: the White Wizard, initially seeming to turn the two unlucky hobbits over to Saruman himself. Thankfully for them, we learn a few scenes later that it's not Saruman, but the newly-resurrected Gandalf the White that he's bringing them to, but the whole scene is very tense and anyone who doesn't know what was coming would probably be certain that Merry and Pippin were doomed.
• The entirety of Saruman's New Era Speech, interspersed with shots of the ashen, volcanic landscape of Mordor, scaling up the battlements of Barad-dûr to the pinnacle where the Eye of Sauron glares out, always watchful, and Isengard being given over entirely to the industry of building, training and preparing the army of Uruk-hai for war.
  Saruman: The world is changing. Who now has the strength to stand against the armies of Isengard and Mordor? To stand against the might of Sauron and Saruman, and the union of the two towers? Together, my lord Sauron, we shall rule this Middle-earth! The old world will burn in the fires of industry. The forests will fall. A new order will rise. We will drive the machine of war with the sword and the spear and the iron fist of the Orc! We have only to remove those who oppose us.
• Saruman recruiting the Dunlendings, playing on their anger and resentment to convince them to join his war of destruction against Rohan. It drives home the fact that a great persuader like Saruman turned to evil is extremely dangerous, especially since these are Men he is persuading to wreak terrible havoc, not Orcs.
• The Burning of the Westfold. We get to see an attack on a village, and it's not pretty. Civilians attempting to flee in a panic as a force of Uruk-hai, Orcs and Dunlendings rushes in, chopping down anybody they can catch and setting fire to the buildings they pass.
• Imagine being there before the battle of Helm's Deep, when thousands—tens of thousands—of Uruk-hai are standing before you in the dark and the rain, armed to the teeth, then start smashing their spears on the ground in unison and screaming at you. The atmosphere was captured so beautifully, it's no wonder everyone looks about ready to shit themselves.
  • Ties in with the earlier shot of the assembled horde at Isengard. Anyone familiar with the story knows how it's going to go, but it truly gets the point across that this isn't just another fantastic war...it's a war of extermination, and the odds aren't leaning towards the good guys.
    Saruman: A new power is rising! Its victory...is at hand! This night, the land will be stained with the blood of Rohan! March to Helm's Deep! Leave none alive! TO WAR! There will be no dawn for Men!
    Aragorn: It is an army bred for a single purpose...to destroy the world of Men.
• Before the battle of Helm's Deep, you see children being given weapons and armor to help in the fight. Later, after the defenses have collapsed and the few soldiers that are left are barricading the door, there are no children in sight.
• The Dead Marshes. The description was creepy enough in the book, but in the movie the dead look like underwater, ethereal zombies.
  • Then as Frodo approaches the water and looks down at one OH DEAR GOD WHY DID ITS EYES JUST OPEN?!
  • They're even more haunting, in both versions, if you recall that J.R.R. Tolkien fought in World War I and likely had very vivid memories of the flooded bomb craters filled with corpses.
  • In the book, the trio pass through the Marshes without incident, but in the movie Frodo actually falls into the muck, and all these ghostly figures surround and reach for him, pulling him down. If Gollum hadn't pulled him out, Frodo could have easily become one of the corpses.
• Also from the Dead Marshes, the peaceful discussion between Sméagol and Frodo being interrupted by an all-too familiar screeching howl and the realisation the Ringwraiths have come back to hunt them.
  Sam: I thought they were dead!
  Gollum: Dead? No you cannot kill them, no.
  • And what's worse is that they're not cantering about on their already-creepy horses anymore. No, now they can fly across Middle-earth astride fell-beasts, which are scary enough by themselves as what are practically domesticated dragons. Probably the worst thing about that is that the audience will have remembered that one of the Nazgûl just barely missed the hobbits in the first movie, stopping at the very end of the pier as they crossed the river to reach Bree and was forced to go miles out of his way to catch up with them. And he and the others were still hounding them until maybe halfway through the movie when we saw that even the ankle-deep stream that Arwen crossed while bringing Frodo to Rivendell was enough to make their horses stop in their tracks and they had to be goaded to continue only to be routed by the flash flood she summoned. Now, though, even that simple, unreliable method of avoiding them won't save you anymore.
• Gandalf trying to lift Saruman's power on Théoden becomes very creepy indeed, when Saruman starts speaking through Théoden.
  • The method by which Saruman took control of Théoden deserves mention as well. He has essentially possessed the king, the effects of which are utterly disturbing. Not only is Théoden's mind no long his own, his physical body has been reduced to a decrepit shell that looks like it is a step away from dropping dead. It is something that would not be out of place in an Exorcist movie.
• The terrifying moment when Sam plunges from the cliffs overlooking the Black Gate, getting himself trapped up to his waist in the scree at the base and several of the Easterling soldiers arriving at the Black Gate noticing the disturbed rocks sliding down the cliff. Frodo throws his Elven cloak over them, but it's quite terrifying in those moments that the only thing keeping him and Sam from a bunch of fanatics loyal to Sauron (who would probably kill them without a second thought) is a thin cloak and the hope the Easterlings don't investigate too closely.
  • Added to this is the ominous chanting in Black Speech the Easterlings cry out as they approach the Black Gate (In English, it translates to "Hail Sauron! Lord of the Ring, Lord of the Earth!"), with the ominous horn blast as the gate opens for them. While Tolkien noted in his writing that the Easterlings consider Sauron a god-king that they worship and fear in equal measure, it's still creepy to hear Men, not Orcs, displaying such slavish loyalty to the epitome of evil in Middle-earth.
• When Faramir attempted to take the Ring from Frodo in Ithilien, a Deleted Scene would have had Frodo have a moment where he changed into a horrifying Gollum-like appearance as kind of a What If? as to what the Ring could eventually do to him — as Bilbo did in Rivendell. Although this was cut, you can still see traces of it in the moment where Frodo, face hidden from the camera, cowers against the rock, and the greatly disturbed look on Faramir's face. Here's a link to Elijah Wood's makeup tests for this scene to show what Frodo would have looked like. Jesus...
• This quote from Gandalf after the battle for Helms Deep is over, as they watch the dark, ominous clouds of Mordor with only the orange glow of Mount Doom and the lightning to illuminate them alongside a blood-chilling sound of thunder, is nothing short of chilling.
  "Sauron's wrath will be terrible. His retribution swift."