I have loved the horror genre ever since I was a kid. I’ve seen pretty much all of the best horror movies ever made, and I very rarely get scared.
This might be because there are actually some horror movies that I’m too scared to watch, so I skip them entirely. But, for the most part, I watch broadly. However, there’s one moment in a horror movie that still chills me to this very day, and it comes from Poltergeist II: The Other Side of all places.
I like all of the Poltergeist movies, but there’s one scene in the second film that takes the cake when it comes to creepiness, and it involves a worm. I’ll elaborate.
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You Have To Understand, I First Saw This Scene When I Was Only SIX!
There were a lot of movies my older sister told me not to watch when I was younger that I watched anyway, but here’s the thing that I distinctly remember about Poltergeist II…my sister watched it with me! Now, keep in mind, I was born in 1983, and Poltergeist II came out in 1986, so I didn’t see it in theaters.
However, when it came home, I remember my sister and I were watching it in her room. She was sitting up, and I was under the covers. This is an important detail, since the scene that terrified me actually concerns a bed. You see, Craig T. Nelson’s character, Steven, drinks a bottle of mezcal, and there’s a worm at the bottom.
A few scenes later, he grows aggressively sick, and starts vomiting. But, it’s not vomit at all. It’s actually the worm in the bottle! It writhes and shakes out of his mouth like a grotesque rope. It then grows to HUMAN SIZE, and crawls UNDERNEATH A BED, rocking and shaking the furniture, and OH, MY GOD! I still get creepy crawlies just thinking about this scene. Mind you, I was six when I first saw this. SIX!
Even so, I Have Never Gotten The Idea Of This Scene Out Of My Head All Of These Years Later
If you asked me what else happens in Poltergeist II, I’d be hard-pressed to tell you. I know there’s a creepy guy in it, and some of the plot involves an Indigenous person, but beyond that, most of the film escapes me.
I still see that worm scene vividly, as it’s still terrifying. I know a lot of people were traumatized by the first Poltergeist when they were kids, but I honestly don’t think anything in that first film matches how horrific it is to watch a man vomit up a worm, only for it to crawl under a bed.
I mean, just think about that. It’s seriously the stuff of nightmares, and the kind of thing that you could only see in a horror movie like Poltergeist. Even though I’ve rewatched this scene several times over in adulthood, just the thought of how it made me feel in childhood still unnerves me, even today.
The Special Effects Are Still So Top Notch And Horrifying
Lastly, what I think really sells this scene is just how awful the actual creature looks once it’s out of Craig T. Nelson’s system. Designed by the late-Academy Award winning artist H.R. Giger, the worm creature’s design is disturbing in the utmost. When Craig T. Nelson vomits it out, the special effects are still grotesque.
In fact, it’s one of the few moments where I feel the monster reveal actually felt worth it. A lot of times, I think things are much better when you don’t see the monster, and it’s just implied. But this time, it genuinely works, and I don’t know if I’ve ever had a monster’s face more ingrained in my mind than this horrific creature’s. It’s for all of these reasons and more that I still think Poltergeist II: The Other Side has the scariest moment in any horror movie I’ve ever seen.
