Paranormal Activity/Nightmare Fuel

The First Movie

 * Night 20. No. The entire movie.
 * The final shot of still haunts this troper's thoughts.
 * The truly horrible moment is three quarters of the way through when, after it being well established that all hauntings happen at night, a photo cracks. At noon. This is closely followed by Katie's realization  I'm sorry, were you planning on having peaceful dreams tonight?
 * "How come my face is scratched and yours isn't?"
 * In one alternate ending Disturbing is putting it mildly.
 * Another had.
 * On second watch, the "Cop" alternate ending becomes even more terrifying.
 * The very real portrayal of their relationship breakdown. Whether the demon was real or not, it was clear that Katie was terrified. She begged Micah to stop filming, she begged him not to play its game. What did he do? Completely ignore her and make things worse.
 * Scariest bit in Paranormal Activity? The bit with the flour on the floor and demon tracks. Funny thing, really, considering most demons are depicted with their feet backwards. As in, it's in the room with them.
 * . It wasn't really the act itself as much as it was the.
 * That last second at the end before the jump scare, when she's looking into the camera and smiling horribly. It can feel as if she is staring right at you, the viewer.
 * Towards the end of the film, when Micah is all set to leave for a hotel, Katie suddenly claims that she'd rather stay home.  It's subtle, yet still noticeable to the attentive viewer, and so it's absolutely horrifying and makes you realize that.
 * Katie being  is terrifying to watch, especially since the demon had largely stuck to smaller, much less harmful scares up until that point.
 * The discovery of in the attic.
 * The scene where Katie and Micah hear the demon thudding up the stairs really, really fast, before suddenly falling silent.
 * An early jump scare features Katie and Micah hearing a loud BANG from downstairs... but what really makes it terrifying is the demonic howl right before the bang.
 * An early jump scare features Katie and Micah hearing a loud BANG from downstairs... but what really makes it terrifying is the demonic howl right before the bang.

The Second Movie

 * Kristi sitting in her kitchen and suddenly looking up and behind her is tense, because you know something's about to happen. . It startling beyond belief.
 * Kristi trying to cope with a Stepford Smiler attitude immediately after doesn't help.
 * Kristi's  Just... dear god...
 * If you though Katie being dragged down the hall was scary...hoo boy...
 * The scene where Ali's asleep on the couch, and the TV suddenly goes to static while a shadow moves over her, as if the demon's going to consume her, before she wakes up, the shadow disappears and the TV goes back to normal. Especially bad if you tend to fall asleep on your own couch with the TV on.

The Third Movie

 * So the trailer starts off reasonably, right? It cuts between young Katie and Kristi and stock footage from the first two movies. Then it cuts to them in the bathroom attempting to summon Bloody Mary. It doesn't seem to work, and they leave the bathroom,  The audience only sees a shadowy figure, but it's still pretty creepy.
 * While the aforementioned scene never takes place in the movie, the movie does have, if you will, its own version. Randy stays home with Katie while Dennis and Julie take Kristi to the hospital for a fever. Katie wants to play Once they turn the lights back on, Randy has a scratch on his stomach. The demon then starts slamming on the other side of the door. By now, Randy and Katie are thoroughly terrified. Slowly, Randy opens the door and the demon throws Kristi's tea party furniture across the room. After this, Randy packs up his belongings, tells Dennis to watch the tape, and that, in a nice way, he is completely fucked.
 * Following the earthquake scene is the shot of the dust from the ceiling covering the demon. -shudder-
 * THE SHEET. OH GOD THE SHEET.
 * Any scene with the oscillating (side-to-side) fan:
 * The babysitter
 * Camera pans left. White sheet on top of, presumably, one of the kids. Camera pans right, the babysitter is sitting quiety. Camera pans left, . Camera pans right,  . As the camera begins to pan back to the left,.
 * Camera pans left, as the mother walks over to the front door in response to someone knocking on it.  She walks back to the right, and slows down in shock as the camera pans back to the right, and we see that  . There's a Beat, and
 * Kristi decides that she doesn't want to play with her imaginary friend any more. He is not happy about this. The following night-time scene, we see objects in Katie and Kristi's room coming to life. The demon throws Katie's blanket at the camera, moving the bed around, and forcibly dragging her out of bed into a cubby hole. The demon stops once Kristi decides to play his game again.
 * The final night. That's all that needs to be said.
 * The old ladies. They were billed as "creepy ladies" for a damn good reason.
 * When Katie bumps into Toby. Toby doesn't like to be touched.
 * Maybe more of a fridge horror but Say whatever you want about this but it's simply terrifying.
 * The demon filling the parents' room with white noise so they wouldn't hear their children screaming and crying for them.