More “WTF??” Scary Scenes from Non-Scary Movies

When Halloween rolls around we like to talk about scary movies that we love. But what often gets overlooked are scary scenes from movies that were never meant to be scary. It can be a comedy or scifi or whatever else, but the movie is perfectly pleasant until one scene gives us 60 seconds of terror. Here are ten that scared me, and in the interest of full disclosure I did do a list similar to this nine years ago. However, that article omitted a lot of examples and had no video clips. And of course these are my choices, if you don't think these scenes were particularly scary than that's no problem. 

Superman III-Robo Woman

So here you have a movie which goes out of its way to say that it is a light comedy. It has goofy opening credit and of course Richard Pyor. Then as the last act finally gets going, tou get this out of nowhere moment where a woman is grabbed by the super computer and turned into a robot right in front of our eyes. I think it's the women's cries which make it scary, especially when she goes from begging for help to being subservient in the span of a millisecond. And those eyes!!

Five More “WTF??” TV Shows and Movies From When I Was Young

About five years ago I did a list of offbeat stuff I watched when I was a kid that I still remembered. I think it’s about time to list a few more.

When you’re a kid, things seem odd. Not necessarily scary, but just strange. You don’t have the experience necessary to process certain things correctly. So they stay in your head until you reach the age when you can look back and say, “Oh, that’s what that was!” Now it seems very often I talk about stuff I did not actually see, so here are five things I did in fact see.


1.”Return to OZ”

I admit, I was one of those people who went to see this movie thinking we were getting a nice little follow up to the classic Wizard of OZ. That isn’t quite what we got. In the slightest. No instead we got The Wheelers. Yeah they were kinda scary. Actually the whole movie is, being very dark and menacing. I think it’s safe to say that anyone who saw this movie remembers it, somewhere in the back of the minds. Dorothy returns to OZ to find that an evil king has decimated the land. She makes new friends, like that creepy as hell skeleton guy, and to be fair it’s not a bad movie. It’s just not quite what I expected. It’s a lot closer to the original source material than the classic MGM movie.

Five “WTF??” Awkward Moments From Live TV

Live TV is a lot of fun. They say that anything can happen, and sometimes that’s just what happens. Anything! Mistakes or accidents are inevitable when the show is live and there is no way to stop and re-do a take. Embarrassing moments are going to happen. There are tons of these from Geraldo Rivera finding nothing in Al Capone’s vault to Michael Jackson's curious 1993 Super Bowl Halftime show to his sister Janet Jackson’s memorable wardrobe malfunction in another Super Bowl.




I could go on and on, but today I wanted to discuss five live moments that did not go as planned which were not funny, they were just plain awkward. Leaving many people, including the people there, wondering WTF they just saw! And these are from entertainment broadcasts, no news moments since those kind of stories aren’t funny right now.



Tonight Show w Jay Leno (Cheers Show)


Man was this a bad idea. Love or hate Jay Leno, you had to feel bad for him here. The night that Cheers went off the air, Jay Leno hosted a live show at the real Bull and Finch Bar in Boston. This was a BAR. Can you see the mess up here? Yeah everyone was drunk, I mean really drunk, which caused Leno to scramble. Some sketches had to be scrapped and it was basically a very strange hour. Leno would call the show a “mistake” and he made sure that didn’t happen again. I read that Ted Danson apologized the next day with flowers, but knowing Leno he just shrugged the whole thing off as one of those mistakes we make in life.

Five “WTF??” Odd Sitcom Moments

We all love dream sequences. Well, I do anyway. Sometimes the dream sequence is used to give us insight into what a character is going through. Some times it’s used show the torment a character is going through about a situation. And other times it used for a goofy diversion and is only meant for fun. Usually these are lengthy and are no surprise (who doesn’t hear a harp and think of a character on some show going to a dream sequence with that corny ripple dissolve?).


But sometimes the creators will use this device in a very unexpected way, throwing a curve at the viewers. There is no build up or warning, and for a few seconds things get dark! Until the character awakens and we realize we were tricked and it was all a dream. Oh sure we look back and laugh, but the first time around we were creeped out!


Here are five examples of what I mean, in no particular order. There are moments that made us say “WTF”??




“Who’s The Boss?”, Jonathan Kills Tony


Where did this come from? I just don’t get it! Ok, long story short. Jonathan likes a girl but the girl has a crush on Tony. Angered, Jonathan swears he wont forgive Tony. He explains why he is upset to Sam without giving who the guy is away (obviously she’d be on her father’s side). Sam suggests that he takes a rock and go all Sam and Goliath on him. We see Tony go out to talk to Jonathan, and (with no edit) he finds Jonathan holding a sling shot at him. Tony tells him not to do that, when Jonathan fires it! Right between the eyes, and Tony falls. Jonathan laughs until he realizes he killed Tony. Scared he is tries to get Tony to wake up…..when he is finally woken up from his bad dream by Tony. They made up, but seriously…what the hell was that about???

Five "WTF??" Popular Songs

Hey who doesn't love a good song once in awhile! But sometimes a pop song which seems harmless enough really isn't when you really pay attention to the lyrics. Below are five songs which are well liked, but when you realize what the lyrics are saying you have to stop and say WTF???

Everybreath You Take (The Police)

I love this one because it isn't just me who got the message of the song wrong. Many consider this a romantic tune, and even make it their wedding song. Ah, no. It's a song about a man obsessing over a girl to the point where he is watching  "every breath you take; every move you make". I can't even listen to this song now (ok, part of that is because I hate Sting but that's another story).

Baby It's Cold Outside

As Christmas has come to a close there is a question I must ask. WHY IS THIS A CHRISTMAS CLASSIC?? Take away the fact that the song isn't the least bit Christamassy (talk of a storm isn't enough!). The song is about a man refusing to let a woman leave. What? My favorite line is this one : "Say… What's in this drink? ". Ok, I get that this was recording back in the old days but why is it still loved today? It's a guy trying to have sex with a girl whether she wants to or not!!!

Sunny Came Home (Shawn Colvin)

Shawn Colvin is underrated in my opinion. She is a nice singer and I love her soft voice. This was her big hit, and seemed harmless. Until you find out what it's about. A woman returning to her childhood home SO SHE CAN BURN IT DOWN!! And she does!! It is a nice song of liberation from your past but...man! Of all these I liked and still like this song, even if the message is a little dark.

Greased Lightning

Have you ever heard the lyrics to this? They're filthy! This is of course from the very popular play and movie Grease. It sounds like a cool song regarding how much Danny loves his cool car. If you really listen to the lyrics, you realize he REALLY loves his cool car! I mean, wow!

She Bop (Cyndi Lauper)

Maybe I am an idiot, but I had no idea what this was about when I first heard it. It just sounded kind of cool. And I like Cyndi Lauper enough. Then, I found out what it is about. And it's real hard to listen to this one now. If you don't know, the song is about a woman...um, pleasuring herself. The lyrics are pretty tame but when you hear them, you get it. But you know, maybe it's just me and this isn't so bad. Let me see what Wikipedia says about this:

"In an interview on The Howard Stern Show, Lauper stated that she recorded the vocals of the song while nude"

I will never listen to this the same way again  

I am sure there are plenty more I could mention, which songs come to your mind that seen nice but are really disturbing?

Five "WTF??" Christmas Movie Moments

I love Christmas movies! They are so warm and cheerful, and just put you in the best spirits this time of year. However, even the really good movies will occasionally have a scene which seems to come out of nowhere and either be really strange or just make no sense.

Here are five odd scenes from otherwise fine movies that make me say "WTF???"

Abraham Song (Holiday Inn)

This may be cheating, but it is considered a Christmas classic. For some reason. I mean, yeah Bing Crosby sings White Christmas in it but this is hardly a great Christmas movie. But the most infamous part is the President's Day segment, where Bing Crosby sings a song about how Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves. What makes this odd? HE DOES IT IN BLACK FACE! We can argue all day whether ot no this is offensive or not, the bottom line is that the scene is just disturbing. Watching these actors sing what is admirredly a nice somg in black face is just....WTF? I know it was 1942, but why? The scene is often cut from TV airings. I tried to watch it for this, but it is so awkward I just can't.

Squirrel Attacks Family (Christmas Vacaction)

I love this movie, it's a real guilty pleasure. The jokes work and some still make me laugh. But when the climax approaches, the movie tries to one up itself by making every joke bigger and broader. This brings us to the squirrel scene. This scene is simply not funny. It happens after Clark drags a tree inside the house. Why isn't it funny? I finally realized the reason. For almost the whole movie the only person at any risk of getting hurt is Clark. That ends in this scene. Ok, maybe I am taking this a little to seriously, but really what if his kids had gotten bitten or something? Guess it's no surprise the next shot after the squirrel escapes is the family packed up to leave. It's just  not funny. Bad scene in an otherwise great movie.

Five "WTF??" Ridiculous TV Taboos

TV Taboo's are something which you never see on TV because the networks are afraid of offending and/or losing viewers. Talking about AIDS was one, which shows like A Different World help abolish. But while some of these taboos make sense, a lot of them were just plain silly. Would you believe when Murphy Brown was pregnant there was an uproar about an unmarried single mother? I mean, there are single parents in the world Dan Quayle! Here are five taboo's which were so silly that they have not been considered taboo in years.


#5.Can't Have a Gay Character be a Lead Character

Gay characters were around in the 70's and 80's but the usually were minor characters in trhe show. Take Billy Crystal in Soap who whose character was very gay but a  minor role. Or they pretended to be gay but they were sure to show how non gay they were like Jack Tripper in Three's Company. Of course this made no sense, what difference did it make if the lead character was gay? Ellen Degerneres shattered this one which led to shows such Will & Grace and Modern Family.



#4.Interracial Kissing is OUT!

Star Trek's awful episode "Plato's Stepchildren" will always have a place in history. Why? Because it featured the first interracial kiss, between Kirk and Uhura. I suppose in the racially sensitive era of the 60's this sort of makes sense, but I am sure glad this little episode came along and shattered that barrier. It's just dumb, if two people are in love color shouldn't matter. In real life, or in a TV program! 

Five "WTF??" 80's Music Videos

I grew up in the 80's, and I loved my MTV! Remember when they played music videos on there? ALL DAY?? I would sit and watch. My  favorite VJ was Martha Quinn, whatever happened to her? Anyway, while I loved music videos I have to admit there were some which were freaky. Even scary, as young as I was back then. These are the videos I am talking about today. The ones that freaked me out and made me say "WTF???"

As you know I am not a major music fan, as you can tell since I have done three whole articles on music and only one was just about music that I like (this needs to be rectified!), so I may be missing more obvious ones. Also these are from when I was a kid and as I have discussed before, things that bug as a kid don't bother us the same was when we are grown up.

#5."You Might Think" by The Cars

This is an example of a cool WTF moment, because it never scared me but man was this video cool! The Cars may not have had to many great hits, but who doesn't love this video with, at the time, state of the art special effects. It's real hard to describe here but there are all kinds of weird images in this. It almost makes me forget that the video is about a guy stalking a girl.

Five "WTF??" TV Shows From When I Was Young

When you're a kid, things seem odd. Not necessarily scary, but just strange. You don't have the experience necessary to process certain things correctly. So they stay in your head until you reach the age when you can look back and say, "Oh, that's what that was!" For example, for years I remember being fascinated with the opening to The Electric Company which showed the characters disolving into the actors who played them. When I watch today I realize it's a simple camera trick. Remember the classic Electric Company? Ah,  the good old days.

Here are five of my biggest WTF moments when I was growing up, five shows and or episodes which just seemed....weird...and never left my head!

#5."Pinwheel"

Ah, classic Nickelodeon where have you gone? I have mentioned this before but it deserves another mention. This little show was on for six straight hours during the week when I was a kid, when you're a kid, a show being on all afternoon was a looong time, and I had no idea what I was looking at whenever I watched it. It had strange puppets and weird animation, it was just freaky. In reality it was a decent show and they just re-aired episodes back to back. I did like the closing theme to this show, it will never go away! and was always happy when it ended at 2pm and Today's Special finally came on.

Five "WTF??" Sitcom Episode Endings

Sitcom’s are not loved by everyone, and I am sure one of the reasons for that is because they follow a strict formula. We know the drill: people in sitcoms never get sick, they don’t have real problems; every problem is solved in 23 minutes (that one pisses me off, just because the episode runs 23 minutes doesn’t mean the events of the episode did!! People accept that with movies why do sitcoms get the hate?).

The point is that sitcoms can be predictable in the things they do. But once in a while a sitcom episode will throw us for a loop, and do something different. Sometimes it will be an entire episode which is a bit odd,like a dream sequence show where all kinds of odd things happen. And other times, it will be one scene at the end of a show which is just weird. It can be dead serious or hilarious but is always out of left field and leaves you saying WTF was that??

Here are five examples of what I am talking about.

#5. The Cosby Show “Vanessa’s Bad Grade”

This one has baffled me for ages. This is a typical Cosby episode, the main plot has Vanessa doing bad in school and stealing a sweater from her sister because she is so obsessed with her boyfriend. So in the end after a fight between Denise and Vanessa and the typical parent talk, the stories get resolved. Cliff and Clair tell Vanessa and her boyfriend Robert tonot see so much of each other and all seems well. Then something very odd happens, Clair walks into the living room to find Rudy watching Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream” speech on TV. Now let’s ignore how and why Rudy got there, what happens next is the family ends up converging to watch this speech,and that’s the end of the episode. Now don’t misunderstand me, it’s a beautiful scene but it comes out of absolutely nowhere! The episode aired around Martin Luther King Day so that may be a reason for it, and the speech does get worked into the plot a bit as we see Vanessa and Denise make up. Nice, touching moment but where did that come from??

Five "WTF??" Movie Scenes From When I was Young

Yesterday I discussed movies which scared me as a kid. Either because they were deliberately scary, or because it was a little too mature for me to be seeing when I did. Of course some movies are intentionally scary, even comedies. Ghostbusters and Beetlejuice are two great comedies, but there are some creepy, even flat out scary, scenes in these films. So saying that you scared makes sense, But what about films which were not supposed to be scary, but have that one moment which scares the crap out of you?

Today I wanted to talk about movies which were not scary, and yet contain a scene which scared me as much as any intentionally scary movie. These are usually moments that people remember very well because they come out of nowhere, and leave a strong mark on us making us ask "WTF?". These are mostly 80’s films because, well, I was a kid in the 80’s. And as always, just opinion.

#5. Raiders of the Lost Ark

This is cheating, but this story has always been one of my favorites from being a kid so I thought I would share. We all remember Raiders of the Lost Ark. It was a great action movie, in fact I’ll go so far as to say it set the standard for action movies in the 80’s. Harrison Ford was fantastic, and the film was a lot of fun. The thing I remember the most about the movie was the ending. We all know how it ends; the ark is finally uncovered and opened. Indy and Marion shield their eyes, and then the villains discover why you should never stare at the ark very long. My father was sitting next to me at the theatre, and just as the villains faces began to melt I felt a hand clasp onto my face to shield me from the scene. It probably startled him to, that was a gory image. So I never saw that, until years later when I did finally see it and realized that my father may have made the right choice. So that was a scary moment averted, and I love that story.