My Choice For Creepiest Episode Is…
It’s Halloween, and in reading various discussions about all the creepy episodes in Supernatural in honor of this secular holiday, I had to think hard which one I thought was the creepiest. Want to know what I came up with? My choice is…
Bloody Mary
Why did I find this episode creepy? I like anything that gives me chills without a boogey man popping out of the dark. The best bone chilling suspense is what lies beyond the dark that you can’t see. Believe it or not, I don’t watch much horror. I find “teenage slice and dice” and excessive gore not doing the genre any justice and I don’t enjoy it. I like stories of creepy suspense that mess with your head like Poltergeist or Jacob’s Ladder.
This episode, it’s darkness, the use of mirror images taking its victims, the suspenseful pacing, the dark figure stalking victims everywhere – I’m not sure how, but it got to me. Even the Sam and Dean moments seemed unsettling, for Sam’s dark nightmares and his inability to accept his guilt added an ominous sense of secrecy to the relationship. When the brothers aren’t truthful with each other, people die. Fine, people die when they’re honest too but Sam had a right to keep his dark secret too. It was pretty scary (at the time). Mary was also really scary looking. Good job on that!
Early season one the show’s mission was simple, go for the urban legends. I always thought the legend of Bloody Mary to be lame and adolescent. I have to give Supernatural HUGE props for taking the stupidest concept in horror and turning it into something bone chilling. The dark room of mirrors, the bleeding eyes, the smashing of mirrors, awesome! Sure, creepiness and sensational horror was eventually sacrificed for richer character stories and a frightening mytharc (which makes me happy), but for basic, spine tingling horror season one delivered the best.
So, what’s yours?
Hi Alice
I’m tied between Bloody Mary and Asylum.
Something about walking around an old abandon Asylum with some irritable ghost, give me the creeps.
Then there Mary, she reminded me too much of a movie called Candyman, that I got suckered into watching. That whole premise of calling someone’s name in a mirror, freaks me right out.
As for scary moments, let just say I’ll never own a garbage disposal.
In case you haven’t guessed, I’m a wuss when it comes to ‘horror/slasher/brutally kill just for the sake of killing’ movies.
I love that episode! One of my personal favorites. It was the first one I saw and I was sold.
Jared really impressed me in this one. When he wakes up from his nightmares he just looks so lost and tired. He just seems completely defeated. And his mirror image is wonderfully creepy.
I watched it two days ago with my mom and it still creeped me out. Great stuff!
I’m watching the whole series from the beginning with my mom. I love seeing the old episodes again. The show has evolved so much. Love it!
Alice, hello,
yes, Bloody Mary is definitely on my list. Probably on top. I remember quite well how I reacted when I first saw it – I kept avoiding looking into mirrors and realized there are mirrors everywhere in my apartment: the bathroom, of course, the hallway, and windows, tv sets and picture frames will give a reflection, whether you want it or not. I was freaked. I reminded me heavily of The Ring, a movie that made me stay away from horror movies for a long time. Like you, I don’t watch them often, but they worked for me when I was sad or when I lost a person dear to me, because there was no sentimentality within the story, just plain blood and gore, which probably served as some kind of tool to discharge some anger. I hate to be sad, especially when I get stuck in a situation I can’t do much about. I’m the kind of person who will roll up her sleeves and do what needs to be done. When I can’t do that, I can get sad, and that is annoying… So – horror films have been very helpful in that field. Only those ‘teenage slice and dice’, though. They are mostly not exactly well made and often suffer from bad scripts, bad actors and ridiculous stories. I don’t enjoy them, but they get my mind off things when necessary.
I love the classic, gothic way of telling a horror story. Should you ever get to London – then go and watch ‘The Woman In Black’, the creepiest theatre play you can imagine, already running for a long time. You will not sleep afterwards. It is a play with only two actors involved, telling a story, and a few special effects, but the worst happens (as any good horror should provoke) in your mind. You will always find the best acting (as I’m often in London, I’ve seen it five times by now, and the effect wears off, surely, but I love the play).
The classic stories of ghosts or other paranormal stuff creep me out every time. Plus – I believe in the supernatural. I’ve experienced some things I would file under ‘supernatural’, because I found no other explanation. And stories that string that chord always get to me.
So, Bloody Mary is definitely one of my fave creepy episodes. Another is Playthings. It follows closely. Give me dolls, kids or clowns, and I’ll be freaked to hell (I suppose Sam and I would have a lot to talk about, because, as we all know, ‘Clowns kill’, and I’m sure, so do dolls). The episode in general was not thaaaaaat spooky, but the little segments of the small dolls being strung up in that doll house or lying on the floor with a twisted neck almost made me scream. …. And those porcelain dolls… like little corpses, staring at you…
I agree with you, Alice, the best and creepiest episodes probably came with season one (take the Benders – ‘people are just crazy’ or Scarecrow and Dead In The Water was horrific as well, and so was Provenance – gosh, creepy paintings are right there with dolls and clowns…). As the storyarc developed into a story of more depth, the producers did not concentrate that much on pure horror or urban legends. I’m just as happy about that as you seem to be. I love the multi-layered storyline we’ve been getting so far, and I relish every minute… and apart from that, I can sleep.
Be well, Jas
oh my goodness
after the first initial episodes where I was worried something scary was gonna happen, I started watching these in a dark room with the windows covered just to add to it. But oh once I got to this episode, I HAD to turn on the lights because it freaked me out so bad. I couldn’t look at mirrors for days. >_
Hmmm, interesting question. I’m now on a mission to rewatch the entire series, so far have watched The Pilot and Wendigo — can I just say once again how much I love The Pilot. Wow…four plus years later and that eppie still throws things at me I didn’t catch the first dozen times I watched it. Case in point: When Sam and Dean seek out the girlfriend of the young man who has disappeared and are standing outside as she’s hanging up missing posters, Dean introduces themselves as uncles, Dean and Sammy. Watch Jared in the background, it’s a wonderful reaction to being called Sammy as he mutters something completely unheard but the reaction is great. Of course, that plays to the earlier scene of Sam telling Dean, after Dean called him Sammy, that Sammy is a chubby 12 year old, his name is Sam. I never caught that before.
Anywho…what’s the creepiest episode…could very well be a toss up between The Benders and Family Remains…I always get creeped out by homes filled with meat cleavers and axes and someone chopping something in the sink not to mention a girl eating a rat…disgusting!
If I could only choose one classically ‘creepy’ episode, and season one especially is loaded with them, I’d have to go with Asylum. Difficult to top a lunatic doc with a penchant for messing around with patients’ cranial cavities, plus the sets were stunningly eerie and lit about dark as you could go before the camera didn’t pick anything up. Probably didn’t hurt that they reminded me of the Silent Hill video games, which mine the same veins of spook.
Of course, It’s A Terrible Life presents the cubicle, and that’s pretty frightening, too.
Bloody Mary gets my vote every-time! ESPECIALLY when she creeps out of the mirror on all fours!
Yeah, Bloody Mary was creepy. Totally with Diane on the moment from the Ring (which I watched late at night, alone) when Mary climbs out of the mirror, upped the creepy quotient by association for me…
This was fun to think about. I decided to go with “The Kids Are Alright” for my creepiest episode. It had its lighter fun moments, but watching that mother break down… The scene where the child looks back from the car as it’s sinking into the lake gives me the creeps every time, as does the moment when mom returns home to find the girl already there dripping wet…mothers being slowly drained of CSF…Sera Gamble. “Little girls are never good news.”
Also thought “Scarecrow” was pretty creepy, that thing was freaky-looking. Plus the storyline of seemingly nice small town people covering a very dark secret, and ultimately the couple offering up their own niece … it kind of reminded me of the way I felt when I read Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” (although the Lottery definitely wins, one of the most horrifying and masterfully written short stories I’ve ever read…)
Then there’s ELAC. Freaky clown invited in by kids murders parents. ‘Nuff said. And very much agree with Elle2 on the Benders.
Bloody Mary creeped me right out for sure, but I think that the Scarecrow ran a really close second.
Asylum was the creepiest setting, and I wouldn’t have gone in there for anything.
The painting in Provenance was a creep-out also.
Then there was the creepiest family ever, The Benders.
Shudder!
I absolutely love the first season of the show.
Then, as Randal said, there is the cubicle in A Terrible Life. Spent most of my life in one of those torture chambers.LOL
Even though I don’t like the episode for a variety of reasons, I have to go with Family Remains. When the daughter thinks she is feeding the dog under the table, but it is actually the girl…..that is the stuff of nightmares for me. Bloody Mary is also pretty darn scary too.
I didn’t start watching Supernatural until later, so I didn’t get to watch all the episodes in order. I’m saying that because it probably influenced my reaction to why I found “The Kids Are Aright” to be the creepiest episode for me. It was one of the 1st episodes I saw so I wasn’t entirely comfortable or knowledgeable yet with the show and where they would go but the mother finally snapping and drowning her little “girl” majorly creeped me out. And the whole looking in the rear view mirror thing was a bonus.
I’m torn between Asylum and Born Under A Bad Sign.
Asylum? Classic creepy abandoned asylum stuff. Eep.
As for 2.14… well. There’s Sam. Not!Sam, that is. Jared did a stellar job. If you look up “creepy” in a dictionary, there will be a screenshot from the Meg!Sam/Jo scene.
Bloody Mary, Asylum and that bit in the Pilot where the woman appears in the back seat of the car … The idea of seeing things creeping up behind one in a mirror totally gives me the heebie-jeebies!
Ok, creepiest ep…hm…
I gotta go with Bloody Mary too… It is the only ep that has really scared me the first time I saw it. And besides anything involving mirrors and eyes and stuff happening to your eyes freak the shit out of me (that’s why Jeepers Creepers and Candyman are flicks that stuck with me). So, the whole seeing the dead girl in reflections and not seeing her face was reeeeally creepy for me. And great that it was so early on, so you didin’t really ‘see’ and know the characters so well. I actually didn’t get really into this show until the end of S2 so I saw an ep here and ep there and thought it was ok but Bloody Mary always remained a really creepy ep,,, And then it was great, later on when I got my s1 and s2 dvd’s to see the eps in a totally new, fannish way. For ex. in Bloody Mary the end bit with Jes by the road as they drove by was SO much more moving and affecting when I watched it with all the backstory (and knowledge of the boys’ future) I had gained.
The Scarecrow was really creeptastic too, that would be my nro 2 choice, I would be freaked to see that kinda scarecrow, and the orchard was really “Danger! Danger!” place for me. Don’t go into creepy houses or orchards people! The Benders is up there on the list along with Provenance.
S2 had ELAC which wasn’t really creepy all around but the clown standing by the road, staring… *shudders* reminded me of S.Kings IT with the clown standing by the road and later (or was it earlier) in the photograph -scene. *doubleshudder* S2 had one other that creeped me a little and that was Playthings. The dolls, freaky. But unfortunately most of the ep felt flat to me, they could have used the dolls more and I would have been creep-tertained (what? that’s a word…:P ) 🙂 But most of S2 replaced the creepiness with awesome character growth and all that jazz so I don’t really mind LOL.
S3 had The Kids Are Allright which had it’s moments. I agree with the writers, kids are creepy. Lilith in NRFTW freaked me out too. SPN has some great creepy ‘moments’ but just a few eps that are really “scary” all the way, but I don’t mind that ’cause the actual story isn’t about that. But I wouldn’t mind more creepy eps LOL
I myself LOVE horror flicks but there aren’t many that really stay with me. I really don’t like these slasher-teen-flicks. I even watched the new F13 (only to support Jared though ’cause I don’t really like re-makes) and was dissapointed, it really didin’t DO anything that was intriguing or different ( but maybe that isn’t something to be expected from these kinda films). I like flicks that do something different in someway… the suspence doesn’t have to be blood and gore, the creep-factor works here too, if I’m freaked out, the movie stands out later on.
I’m also re-watching all the episodes, and Bloody Mary was VERY good. Just watched that one this weekend. When she crawled out of the mirror, I actually backed up from the TV…even though I knew it was going to happen. (I never did figure out why she affected Dean too, but it did add to the story.)
The creepiest for me was Family Remains. I couldn’t even watch that one twice.
Supernarttu, I think IT scarred an entire generation when it comes to clowns (including, i think, Jensen Ackles…). Can’t tell you the number of people I’ve encountered who still talk about it , and remember clearly how many kids at my elementary school were freaked after they saw it. Touched a nerve, that Pennywise. And yeah, anything with eyeball trauma (or even potential eyeball trauma) seriously creeps me out…that scene after Pamela’s eyeballs are burned out definitely goes on my Supernatural Top 10 Visceral Moments list.
Mae–god, yes, Christopher Heyerdahl gives me chills every time; that bit in “Levee”…”so polite..I appreciate that …” and on with the scalpel sculpting (*shiver*). Along those lines, Samhain freaked me out some too. Come to think of it, I was pretty horrified through most of “Great Pumpkin,” the razor blades, apple bobbing, creepy masks, the plot twists, and of course the march of Samhain…even Sam’s nosebleed … I was glad for the comic relief bits in that one, felt like I needed them.
Hi Supernarttu and elenaM, really, clowns…? As creepy as it gets… I completely agree with you, ‘It’ probably terrified more people than we can imagine.
I’m one of them. I remember watching an old video tape of if, I was studying at the time, and I was going to spend the night at a friends house.
What I didn’t know, though, was that she collected clowns.
Now, I still had Tim Curry’s clown-head in my mind, being surrounded by, gosh, I think about fifty clowns… All I did that night was waiting for the morning’s red sky… That was hell…
I loved Christopher Heyerdahl as well. Great actor!
Blessings, Jas
I grew up in the country right by some woods so I’d have to give my vote to Scarecrow.
Creepiest Moment however has to be the bit in Something Wicked right at the beginning where the tree is scraping on the glass at the window then the branch like hand moves into view and opens the window, that is a childhood fear right there. I can remember lying in bed hearing the scrape of branch on glass and watching the shadows from under the covers terrified. Even gets me now occasionally. But then thats what’s creepy something that can envoke our deepest fears, it’s all about what you don’t see.