In a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, James Bond producer Barbara Broccoli revealed that they start working on every entry in the franchise by thinking about fear: “We always sit down with our writers, and we start by thinking about ‘What is the world afraid of?’” The Bond franchise has never done a full-blown horror movie, but the films have flirted with horror tropes.
From the torture scene in Casino Royale to the bloodthirsty dogs in Moonraker to the exploding head in License to Kill, some spooky parts of Bond movies have chilled Redditors.
Bond’s Near-Cremation In Diamonds Are Forever
For the most part, Sean Connery’s last official Bond film, Diamonds Are Forever, is known for its silly tone skewering closer to what would become of the Roger Moore era than the Connery traditions. But it does have one unnerving sequence in which 007 is trapped in a coffin and fed into a furnace.
Redditor u/glittermustardmo writes that this scene “scared the living daylights out of me as a child, and even now, at 40, the minute I hear that creepy organ music, I fast forward.”
The Opening Scene Of No Time To Die
According to Redditor u/Delawaredude1787, the scariest part of any Bond movie is the opening flashback in the most recent entry, No Time to Die. This scene plays out the childhood trauma that Dr. Madeleine Swann lives with in the main narrative of the film.
In the prologue, the villainous Safin dons a creepy mask and shows up at Mr. White’s isolated cabin in the mountains to murder his wife and terrorize his young daughter, Madeleine. This ominous opening scene wouldn’t be out of place in a slasher film or a home invasion thriller.
Bloodthirsty Dogs In Moonraker
Released in a bid to cash in on the success of Star Wars, Moonraker sent 007 into the cosmos. This space adventure is remembered as one of the goofiest and most far-fetched Bond movies. But there’s one scene that evokes more terror than derisive chuckles.
According to Redditor u/IceLord86, “the scene in Moonraker where Drax orders his dogs to kill Corinne” is the scariest sequence in the entire Bond franchise.
The Dragon In Dr. No
The very first Bond movie, Dr. No, got the series off to a terrific start. Honey Ryder is the quintessential “Bond girl” and the titular baddie is a quintessential megalomaniacal villain. According to Redditor u/LJReach, Dr. No has one particularly horrifying sequence.
Midway through the movie, 007 is attacked by a flamethrowing tank disguised as a dragon. The “dragon” emerges from the shadows and burns Bond’s latest ally, Quarrel, alive.
The Skull-Drilling In Spectre
Daniel Craig’s Bond came face-to-face with a new incarnation of 007’s arch-nemesis Ernst Stavro Blofeld in Spectre. After being captured at Blofeld’s lair, Bond is strapped to a chair to be tortured with a drill to his skull.
On a Reddit thread about the scariest scenes in Bond movies, u/BlindManBaldwin wrote, “The one that unnerves me the most is the drill in Spectre. Something about drilling through the skull – yikes!”
Baron Samedi In Live And Let Die
In Moore’s first Bond movie, Live and Let Die, the villainous Mr. Big is a Harlem drug lord who runs his narcotics business in New York as a cover for leading a creepy cult on a Caribbean island. Baron Samedi is a voodoo figure who helps Mr. Big strike fear into his followers.
Redditor u/MSLI1972 wrote, “The Baron Samedi scenes at the end of Live and Let Die creeped me out when I was a kid. Especially when Bond first shoots him in the head and Samedi’s ‘eyes’ look up at the wound. That was freaky.”
The Exploding Head In License To Kill
Timothy Dalton’s second and ultimately final Bond outing, License to Kill, is notorious for its graphic violence. 007 abandons his official MI6 operation to pursue a personal vendetta against the drug kingpin who killed his friend’s wife. According to Redditor u/SlobMarley13, this movie has the spookiest effect in any Bond film: an exploding head.
The movie’s villain, Franz Sanchez, kicks one of his goons into a decompression chamber and turns up the pressure valve to a deadly level. The goon frantically tries to escape with a fire axe before his head gruesomely explodes due to the extreme pressure. It’s pretty gnarly.
The Funhouse Finale In The Man With The Golden Gun
The opening scene of The Man with the Golden Gun, in which a gangster hoping to kill Francisco Scaramanga is lured into a funhouse and promptly killed, sets up the finale in which 007 is lured into the very same funhouse.
According to Redditor u/Remote-Orchid-8708, “When Bond enters the funhouse in The Man with the Golden Gun, it’s scary in a sense that there are so many props like those cowboys suddenly popping out and shooting and there were also laughing voices.”
The Torture Scene In Casino Royale
Martin Campbell’s Casino Royale revitalized the Bond franchise with a gritty sense of realism. 007 isn’t armed with any gadgets from the Q Branch; all he has are his wits. In the film’s most shocking scene, Le Chiffre tortures Bond by sitting him in a seatless chair and whipping his exposed private parts.
According to Redditor u/FredererPower, this scene features “fantastic acting [from Daniel Craig and Mads Mikkelsen] but... I would not want to be in that situation.”
Jaws
There are many iconic henchmen in the Bond franchise, from Red Grant to Oddjob to Tee Hee to Mr. Hinx. By far the most iconic henchman from the series is Jaws, first seen working for Karl Stromberg in The Spy Who Loved Me and brought back by popular demand in Moonraker.
But as beloved as Jaws is, his metal teeth and intimidating physique make him a frightening on-screen presence. Redditor u/DrxnkMickey writes, “Jaws always scared me as a kid. I thought those teeth were terrifying.”