PLAY MISTY FOR ME: Audience Reaction: 3. Thrills and Chills

[Matt]

What scene did you find the most chilling? Why?

[Christopher]

The scene where Evelyn attacks Birdie. That really is very chilling. As I've posted in other threads, the editing, the blood, and the screaming gives me chills when I watch it. It's chilling in the same way scenes from Psycho and Night of the Living Dead are chilling.

[Matt]

So many moments...  but I'll just name this one for now (and hope other members kick in with what scenes they found to be the most chilling).

"God, you're dumb."

It's just the way Jessica Walter delivers that line to Tobie.  Heartless, cold... menacing.  You don't know what's going to happen next, but you know it's not gonna be good for Tobie.   It's one of my many favorite Evelyn moments.

[badguy]

Yeah both of those are pretty scary. I'd only add the moment we see Evelyn standing above Dave with a knife in her hand.  

[Xichado]

I agree with all of you guys, these are really great scenes and they were very well done.

My favorite one is the scene where Evelyn tries to stab Dave. I like the scene a lot, starting with the scene when Dave is at the radio station, after the jazz festival, the studio is dark and the telephone light is blinking. We already know it’s Evelyn on the other side of the line. The next scene we see Dave’s face sleeping, again surrounded by darkness. Dave opens his eyes and we immediately know something is wrong.

For a moment, it’s hard to know if Dave is half asleep and Evelyn appears as a flashback from a bad dream or if she was really there. Well, the knife in his pillow proves that it wasn't a bad dream, Dave was really living and being confronted with a nightmare.

I also like the scene where Dave and Tobie are walking thru the woods and then we see Evelyn's arm breaking the twig.

[Agent]

For me the scene that made me jump the most was when Evelyn appears out of the dark and stabs Sergeant McCallum (John Larch) with a pair of scissors. I also like the classic scene where Dave wakes up in the middle of the night and she's standing right over him and tries to kill him (poster shot). And as Xichado said, you wonder at first if he's having a dream.

Thousands of "scare" pics have come out since Misty, and nowadays, by comparison, it's not all that "chilling." But I recall seeing it on prime-time TV as a kid, and it certainly made the hair on your neck stand up. Walter and Robinson are definitely a couple of the all-time psycho greats.

[mgk]

 Thanks, everyone! This thread is now locked.  Please post any additional thoughts you have on this topic in the General Discussion forum.