Spooked In The Stacks: 10 Iconic Horror Movie Library Scenes
In horror movies, just like in real life, people seek out their local library in search of information to help them understand why terrifying events are unfolding around them. Sometimes the library itself is the source of those terrible events. Other times, the evil creeps into the stacks.
Memorable library scenes in horror movies abound. Though not all the movies on this list are strictly considered horror, every scene mentioned is iconic and bone-chilling in its own way. Read on...if you dare.
10 Ghostbusters (1984)
Ivan Reitman's beloved horror-comedy includes one of the most unforgettable opening scenes in cinematic history. It just so happens to take place within the walls of the historic New York Public Library.
Venkman, Stantz, and Spengler (played by Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, and Harold Ramis, respectively) investigate a haunting at the library after a floating spectral entity startles a diminutive librarian in the stacks. Card catalogue entries go flying, books pile up, and the spirit, apparently of a long-dead librarian, shushes patrons left and right.
9 Red Dragon (2002)
This addition to the Hannibal Lecter franchise is an effective psychological thriller starring Anthony Hopkins, Ralph Fiennes, and Edward Norton. Hopkins reprises his role while Fiennes plays fellow serial killer Francis Dolarhyde, and Norton plays the detective trying to track him down, Will Graham.
When investigators find a toilet paper note from Dolarhyde in Lecter's cell, they discover Lecter intends to send a secret code to his demented compatriot in the National Tattler. Agent Lloyd Bowman visits the lavish Library of Congress in Washington D.C. to crack the code. Using a cookbook, he figures out Lecter intends to publish Graham's home address, telling Dolarhyde, "Save yourself. Kill them all."
8 Blackmail (1929)
Considered the first British talking picture, Blackmail is an early feature from Alfred Hitchcock. After the girlfriend of a Scotland Yard detective kills an artist in self defense after he who tries to assault her, a witness to the crime attempts to blackmail the couple.
The movie includes an architecturally stunning chase scene at the British Museum in London, home at the time to the massive Reading Room maintained by the British Library. The Reading Room is a national treasure; its labyrinthine corridors and floor-to-ceiling shelving contribute to the building suspense.
7 The Changeling (1980)
The Changeling is a slow and creaking haunted house film anchored by a commanding performance from George C. Scott, who plays a composer named John Russell. After his wife and daughter are killed in a car accident, he moves to Seattle from NYC, purchasing an isolated Victorian mansion he comes to believe is occupied by supernatural forces.
John decides to conduct his own investigation in the history of the home. After visiting the historical society, he swings by his local library to dig into newspaper archives. With the help of a librarian, he uses a microfiche machine to read old issues of the Seattle Daily Times.
6 It: Chapter One (2017)
In the first part of Andy Muschietti's remake of Stephen King's It, Derry newcomer Ben Hanscom spends most of his time in the local library in order to avoid the town's vicious bullies. As the Losers Club begins to form in order to combat Pennywise, the entity murdering the city's children, Ben does some research in his favorite public place to trace Pennywise's path of death and gore.
The shapeshifting monster comes after Ben in the stacks by actualizing the boy's fears. As It's red balloon calling card floats through the reading room, Ben follows it into the dark basement archives, where the headless ghost of a child pursues him.
5 Behind The Mask: The Rise Of Leslie Vernon (2006)
A satirical horror gem in line with Scream, Behind the Mask dissects and analyzes the genre by employing a mockumentary style to document the trials and tribulations of an aspiring serial slasher. The killer, played by Nathan Baesel, develops his own unique supernatural legend as he targets college students at the nearby university.
Vernon plans an elaborate murder in the university library, where none other than Zelda Rubinstein from Poltergeist plays the librarian. Vernon's sights are set on a young woman named Kelly. With his crazed farmer attire and weaponry, Vernon goes after her in the stacks. Robert Englund, also known as Freddy Krueger, appears on the scene as a psychologist obsessed with Vernon.
4 Urban Legend (1998)
1998's Urban Legend features a cast of beautiful young actors who are hunted down by an unknown killer. These actors, whose characters attend a college in New England, include Jared Leto, Alicia Witt, and Rebecca Gayheart. The killer stages the murders based on various urban legends. Witt's character Natalie embodies the nerd girl stereotype, and she decides to read up on urban legends at her school library.
Natalie becomes a frequent visitor of the monumental, ornate building as she inches closer and closer to discovering the identity of the person killing her classmates. The movie includes some real epic scenes involving check-out cards and missing yearbooks.
3 A Clockwork Orange (1971)
Dystopian and cruel, Stanley Kubrick's adaption of Anthony Burgess's science fiction novel stars Malcolm McDowell as Alex, the leader of a felonious and reprehensible youth gang known as "droogs." After Alex is sentenced to 14 years in prison for murdering a woman during a home invasion, the film follows his experiences as an incarcerated man.
Alex spends most of his time in the austere prison library, reading old Bible stories about torture and war. It's in the library he first learns about the Ludovico technique, a tortuous aversion therapy he agrees to try out.
2 Se7en (1995)
David Fincher's gloomy and graphic whodunnit stars Morgan Freeman and Brad Pitt as a pair of Los Angeles detectives investigating a series of murders inspired by the seven deadly sins. Los Angeles is depicted as a decrepit and amoral town, and the film's moodiness comes to a head at the local library.
It's there, among its dimly lit corridors, Freeman's character Somerset reads up on tales of Christian retribution. He is able to locate the killer's apartment based on book records. While some librarians may take issue with the privacy breach, it's still a harrowing scene.
1 Twisted Nerve (1968)
Long before Netflix's You, there was the creepy stalker movie Twisted Nerve. In it, a man named Martin becomes infatuated with Susan, a woman he spies in a toy store. He pretends to be a man with special needs named Georgie in order to snake his way into the Susan's life.
Martin as Georgie pursues Susan, following her to her after-school job shelving books at a local library. Viewers get to glimpse upon a neo-gothic public institution full of vintage bound titles as Martin's sanity wanes.
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