Works with their own pages:
Walking with Beasts
- From "New Dawn":
- The giant flightless bird Gastornis, a carnivore as tall as an adult human man with a short, aggressive temper, a fearsome appearance and vocal sounds that sounds outright hellish. It's introductory scene chasing the Leptictidium mother quickly establishes it as a dangerous, nasty predator everyone in the jungle should stay away from.
- It's shown killing its prey by shaking it to death while its victim, a Propalaeotherium, gives off strangled shrieks that almost sound like growls. The Propalaeotherium's death is so drawn-out and savage that it manages to be truly brutal even though it's Bloodless Carnage - though you do hear the Sickening "Crunch!" of its neck vertebrae being snapped. Thank goodness Gastornis turned out to actually be a herbivore in real life.
- The infamous scene in where the giant ants devour the Gastornis chick alive is particularly horrific, depicting the chick struggling to hatch from its egg as the ants swarm all over its body, leaving only its skeleton behind once they're done. This, along with the mother returning only to find the remains of her chick, may make you shudder the next time you see an anthill. There's a reason why it's considered one of the most memorable parts of the documentary.
- Related to that, the soundtrack played during that scene makes it even more horrifying, with a frantic, chaotic melody perfectly fit for the advance of the ants towards their prey.
- The Ambulocetus. It's basically the closest thing Earth has produced akin to a mammalian crocodile, with a design familiar yet strange at the same time while also being a formidable predator in its own right. All of its hunting scenes are accompanied with tense music that make the animal more intimidating, and the fact its not a native from the zone the episode takes place makes him basically an anomaly for all the animals in Messel.
- Particularly, the scene where he successfully hunts a small carnivorous mammal is quite creepy, with the poor carnivore wimping pitifully as he's dragged to the lake by the Ambulocetus towards certain death.
- The earthquake that happens at the end of the episode releases all the toxic gasses the lake has been holding off through the day, which ends up asphyxiating all the animals in the radius of the leak. We see an unfortunate Propalaeotherium getting caught in the middle of the gas, dying little by little as the carbon dioxide suffocates it to death. The outcome of the next day reveals that even the Ambulocetus fell victim to the gasses. Doesn't helps that the soundtrack of the scene is similar to the one of the giant ants but arranged differently.
- Even the leitmotif of the episode can sound eerie despite its calm composition, like a feeling of false security before finding a monstrous giant bird ready to attack you.
- The giant flightless bird Gastornis, a carnivore as tall as an adult human man with a short, aggressive temper, a fearsome appearance and vocal sounds that sounds outright hellish. It's introductory scene chasing the Leptictidium mother quickly establishes it as a dangerous, nasty predator everyone in the jungle should stay away from.
- From "Whale Killer":
- The introduction of the Basilosaurus at the beginning of the episode, easily dispatching the sharks hunting the bait ball and throwing them around like an orca would do with a seal, establishing it as a peerless giant marine predator and confirming the arrival of predatory whales for the times to come. The narration enhances this with a really ominous line.Narration: The giant whales have arrived! Forget the gentle filter feeders of the 21st century. These days, every whale is a killer.
- That poor sea turtle attacked by an Andrewsarchus, desperately trying to get away before the carnivore decides to try its luck with it and violently shakes it until leaving it a bloody mess.
- When the Apidium group is crossing the trees of the mangroves, a Jump Scare happens when a shark lunges out of the water and eats one of them whole before leaving behind a trail of blood in the water. The suddenness of the whole thing can leave any unsuspecting viewer shocked.
- The Moeritherium manages to escape the female Basilosaurus in time by landing in a nearby small beach where the whale cannot get it. However, he's left trapped in the middle of the mangroves with no way of escaping the predator and with the tide changes menacing with taking over the beach and letting the Basilosaurus get him. What follows is an aerial shot as equally sad and terrifying as the Moeritherium is seen stranded without being able to escape while the Basilosaurus stalks it, her silhouette seen patrolling the water menacingly as a dark shadow.
- Later, when the tide change leaves the Moeritherium at the mercy of the Basilosaurus, the whale miscalculates and attacks the primitive elephant too soon, getting aground unable to get the herbivore, who doesn't wastes its chances to escape out of the reach of the marine predator. In her desperation, the Basilosaurus frantically tries to jump from the water in a last effort to catch her prey. It's a really terrifying sight seeing such a large predator moving so chaotically despite its large size.
- At the climax of the episode, despite their best efforts to expel the Basilosaurus from their calving grounds, the Dorudon pod gets attacked by their giant relative, who doesn't thinks twice in preying on their young. What follows is a bloody expectacle as the poor whales are mercilessly slaughtered by the Basilosaurus each day until she leaves after getting enough sustain of the Dorudon calves to give birth safely, all accompanied by threatening music who's a rearranged version of the theme of the entelodonts in the next episode.
- The introduction of the Basilosaurus at the beginning of the episode, easily dispatching the sharks hunting the bait ball and throwing them around like an orca would do with a seal, establishing it as a peerless giant marine predator and confirming the arrival of predatory whales for the times to come. The narration enhances this with a really ominous line.
- From "Mammoth Journey":
- The mammoth hunt. The panicked cries of the mammoths and the ominous music do not help AT ALL.
Walking with Monsters
- The female Dimetrodon loses an eyeball after a fight.
- The agony of the armoured herbivore Scutosaurus killed by the mammal-like gorgonopsid: you can see the blood of the former gushing out of its neck.
- Some scavengers in the series seem to like to eat the eyes of the corpses, like Euparkeria with Lystrosaurus.
- That, at least, is true to life. Soft, easily accessible bits like eyes, cheeks, and tongues tend to be the first to go when scavengers arrive, assuming that they aren't big enough to get at the main muscle mass.
Other
- Part two of the "Walking With Beasts" behind the scenes documentary, titled "The Beasts Within". Namely, the ending
. The narrator states that despite our feelings of power over the Earth and its animals, humanity is vulnerable. If we were to experience the sudden onset of another ice age, our "complex and fragile" society could easily fall apart. He then tries to assure us that it probably won't happen in our lifetime...and then shows a meteor heading towards the Earth. The makers quickly try to lighten the mood by playing "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life" over some silly circus antics, but the words are hard to ignore. At least the ending of the original program left our impending doom vague enough for people to miss it, but here, they outright state it. - Walking with Cavemen may as well be retitled "Walking with Nightmare Fuels" as well, it's full of these from the start to the end... especially about the exaggerated realism of some death scenes.
- The fact that some of our ancestors in the program are portrayed with a rather... grotesque look makes this program even scarier. That means that we are descendants of Nightmare Fuels. Every person that you see every day, including you, is descended from those Nightmare Fuels. So we are surrounded by Nightmare Fuel every day. Come to think of it, ''Walking With Cavemen' could also count as Fridge Horror.
- Our earliest ancestors shown, Australopithecus afarensis, look like something right out of a horror film. Behold!
- Our earliest ancestors shown, Australopithecus afarensis, look like something right out of a horror film. Behold!
- The fact that some of our ancestors in the program are portrayed with a rather... grotesque look makes this program even scarier. That means that we are descendants of Nightmare Fuels. Every person that you see every day, including you, is descended from those Nightmare Fuels. So we are surrounded by Nightmare Fuel every day. Come to think of it, ''Walking With Cavemen' could also count as Fridge Horror.
- The whole premise of Sea Monsters is a group of time-travelers trying to dive with and study very dangerous prehistoric animals, so there are naturally quite a few scary moments, even though the humorous tone tries to keep it light. Special mention goes to the break between Part 2 and Part 3 where it looks like Nigel has been eaten by a C. megalodon, and The Stinger showing mosasaurs approaching the sonar screen as the crew sleeps.
