The Most Terrifying Science Fiction Scenes
			Invasion Of The Bodysnatchers One of the great endings in horror history, and an example of misdirection worthy of Harry Houdini himself. With pod people pretty much now in control, we follow human survivor Matthew (Donald Sutherland) as he tries to integrate himself in their emotionless society, careful never to give himself away. Or, at least, that's what we think ? until fellow survivor Nancy (Veronica Cartwright, again) spots him in the street, calls his name and looks genuinely pleased to see him. That's when director Philip Kaufman reveals his Joker ? that Matthew is actually a pod person. And as he points at Nancy and emits that awful, high-pitched, hideous scream to alert his fellow alien spores, with Kaufman's camera tight on his soulless eyes, Nancy bursts into tears. It's a hideous, bleak ending ? they'll get you in the end, no matter what you do ? made even more horrifying by the fact that we're never sure when the pod people got to Matthew.
			Halloween III OK, so Tommy Lee Wallace's bold and often bizarre Michael Myers-free sequel isn't, strictly speaking, a sci-fi, but since it does involve some science (the creation of obedient zombies and supernatural masks), we're going for it with the scene in which Dan O'Herlihy's insane toymaker performs a trial run for his plan to sacrifice everyone in America by beaming out a TV signal that will activate ancient, powerful stones in their Silver Shamrock Halloween masks. Bonkers, of course... but then we see the focus group trial, with an apple pie American family the victims. With the creepy Silver Shamrock music becoming ever faster and more malignant, a pumpkin mask worn by their son fuses to his head and ? here's one for your primal scream ? snakes and spiders and insects emerge to bite and devour. That the series went back to stalk'n'slash after this brave Twilight Zone departure was a disappointment.
			The Thing There are so many moments to choose from in John Carpenter's bleak, visceral retooling of Christian Nyby's The Thing From Another World. But we've gone for a quiet sequence that doesn't involve any bloodletting, throbbing prosthetics, or even Kurt Russell's beard. No, we've plumped for the scene where Wilford Brimley's Blair ? the brains of the group marooned in the Antarctic with a shape-shifting alien, and the only one to fully comprehend what they're up against ? runs a few calculations on his computer, and doesn't like what he sees. Maybe it's the primitive graphics depicting a Thing cell absorbing and then becoming a human/Thing cell. Maybe it's Ennio Morricone's morbid music. Maybe it's ours and Blair's dawning realisation that, if the Thing reaches a population centre, then mankind has only a finite amount of time left, but there's something about this sequence that chills to the bone.
			Alien Another game of cat-and-mouse in the tight alleyways of a foreboding ship ? but again, the demise of Tom Skerritt's Captain Dallas at the hands of a vicious xenomorph, is superbly orchestrated, and not just because it meant that the movie's nominal lead had been bumped off halfway through. As Dallas, ostensibly on a mission to find the alien and kill it, creeps about the corridors of the Nostromo, Ridley Scott's masterstroke is to equip the other crew members with a motion tracker to detect the movements of the intruder. And when it suddenly starts heading for Dallas, all hell breaks loose. Unable to comprehend where he's going, and possibly infected by the panic of Lambert (Veronica Cartwright), Dallas starts blundering around until ? in one of the great gotcha moments ? he finds the welcoming, outstretched arms of the alien behind him.
			Event Horizon Paul W.S. Anderson is a much-maligned director, but on Event Horizon he showed that he could conjure up a scare as efficiently and creatively as some of the true horror masters. Most notably in the sequence where Sam Neill's Dr. William Weir - racked by grief, and tormented by the ship that he built - receives a visit from the ghost of his dead wife, while crawling around the claustrophobic corridors of the Event Horizon. We've already seen Claire once before, with her haunting black eyes and sing-song voice, and don't particularly want to see her again. Neither does Weir, and that's why this scene is such a triumph, with Anderson using light (as the sickly green lights of the corridor fluctuate wildly, creating a sense of deep unease) and sound to create palpable tension. We know that she's coming, Weir knows that she's coming, and even so, when she does, it still scares the bejesus out of us. Anderson, sad to say, hasn't hit heights like this since.
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