The Most Terrifying Moments From The ‘Lord of the Rings’ Trilogy
Mary Beth McAndrews
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Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring celebrates its 20th anniversary this month. It’s also a quintessential Christmas movie due to the fact that they were always released during the holiday season. I have such fond memories of excitedly heading to the theaters with my family, ready to dive into this mythical world. But, despite Lords of the Rings‘ family-friendly appeal, it still has some horrifying moments and imagery that have seared their way into the cultural consciousness. So, in honor of both the anniversary and its honorary holiday movie status, we’re looking at the trilogy’s scariest moments!
The Army Of The Dead
In Return of the King, the third and final installment of the Lord of the Rings series, humans are in pretty dire straits in the fight against Sauron. So, Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli decide to head to the city of the dead for reinforcements. This city lies inside of a mountain, made up of the cursed spirits of those who betrayed an oath to their king. They’re cursed to live as ghosts until they fulfill their oath. These ghosts are a sickly green and their forms are in various states of decay. These men live in a perpetual state of hell and they’re mad about it. But, when Aragorn, heir to the throne of Gondor, recruits them to help and therefore fulfill their oath, he effectively recruits an army of the dead to help save the free world. It’s metal as hell.
The Dead Marshes
When there’s a war that decimated a huge part of Middle-Earth’s population, there are bound to be ghosts. And there are definitely ghosts in the Dead Marshes, an aquatic and nasty resting place for men, elves, and orcs alike. Hobbits Sam and Frodo trudge through the marsh with their ghastly guide, Gollum in Lords of the Rings: Two Towers. There are little lights, like will-o’-the-whisps, that lure unsuspecting travelers into the icy depths. Of course, poor Frodo falls victim to these lights and goes face-first into the bog. As he struggles underwater, ghostly figures reach for him, begging him to join them in their watery hell. Thankfully Sam saves Frodo, but the Dead Marshes are still one of the scariest places in Middle-Earth outside of Mordor.
Shelob’s Lair of Desiccated Corpses
This wouldn’t be a list of scary moments in Lord of the Rings without including Shelob, a giant spider who loves fresh meat. Frodo is lured into her lair by Gollum, who knows full well the fate that awaits him. Once Frodo is turned into hobbit soup, then Gollum can steal the One Ring for himself. Frodo runs through a labyrinthine cave full of rotting corpses tangled up in massive webs, remains of other unfortunate souls who couldn’t evade Shelob’s pincers. Despite his best efforts, Frodo gets a stinger to the gut as Shelob sneaks up on her unsuspecting prey. Thankfully he’s saved, again by Sam, but his fight and eventual capture by the massive spider is horrific. Arachnophobes beware.
Mines of Moria
The massacred Dwarven Mines of Moria plus the tentacled beast that guards its entrance make this sequence in Fellowship of the Ring downright haunting. Between the behemoth and the dead, rotting bodies scattered through the group’s path, nothing about Moria feels remotely welcoming or safe. Every sound could be an enemy and every smell is rancid. Plus, it’s home to a Balrog, a legendary demon who craves destruction. Moria is a nightmare-inducing hellscape of death.
The Fight At Weathertop
Ringwraiths, or the Nazgul, are the scariest creatures in Lord of the Rings. These creatures used to be men but now don black cloaks and do the bidding of Sauron. Their high-pitched screeches are bone-rattling and their swords are coated in a poison that turns their victims into wraith-like creatures. Plus their horses have glowing red eyes. So, when the Ringwraiths trap the four young hobbits on top of a structure with no escape route, there’s nothing but terror in both the viewer’s and the characters’ hearts. The wraiths slowly appear through shattered columns and drift into a circle, surrounding the hobbits. It’s haunting and full of dread, especially as Howard Shore’s oppressive score amplifies the anxiety. It doesn’t end well for Frodo, though, who gets a sword right into the chest.
Bilbo’s Evil Face
This is arguably the scariest moment of Lord of the Rings and one of the only real jumpscares in the trilogy. It’s mostly because Bilbo Baggins is an old, gentle hobbit who is mostly known for his wit and kindness. But when his nephew Frodo shows him the One Ring, which was once Bilbo’s, the old hobbit’s face twists into something horrific, complete with sharp gnarled teeth and wild eyes. He screams at Frodo as he lurches forward, startling both his nephew and the viewer who never expected such violence from Bilbo. It’s such a jarring moment and makes me jump even after countless rewatches of these films.
Honorable Mention: The Mouth of Sauron
This one is for those of us who watch the extended editions because we can’t get enough of Middle-Earth. At the end of Return of the King, Aragorn and company ride up to the Black Gates of Mordor for one last battle for the fate of the world. Out of the gates comes the Mouth of Sauron, with a grin that would make the Cenobites tremble in fear. He’s all teeth as a menacing helmet covers the rest of his face. Even scarier is the fact that, according to the book, this figure is a man who voluntarily underwent this transformation to serve the Dark Lord himself.
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