You expect the Ringwraiths to come up the same stairways the hobbits used, but instead they appear right out of the shadows, in places seeming to step right out of empty air onto the watchtower's upper floor. Now terrified, they run up to the top of the ancient watchtower and go back to back. Even as he snuffs out the last cinders, the all-too familiar screech of the Nazgûl echoes out and the hobbits look down to see several of them moving absolutely silently through the fog towards them. Frodo wakes up to find his friends foolishly cooking on an open fire, declaring their location to everyone. One of The Nine's scariest moments is the attack on Weathertop.Watching them come in the front door with the night mist (and Barliman cowering in fear) is bad enough, but then we see a pan around the hobbit's room, and they're just there, with swords drawn and ready, like they came in through the walls or something. The attack by the Ringwraiths on the Prancing Pony.The screech and Vertigo Effect combination when someone encounters a Nazgûl for the first time.He demonstrates that those fears are well-placed, showing himself to be a One-Man Army who sends at least half a dozen soldiers flying with each swing of his mace. Just as victory seems imminent for the Last Alliance, Elrond and Isildur suddenly give expressions of fear when they see him approach, and the rest of their army quickly joins in as the Dark Lord looms over them. Sauron joining his forces in the prologue's battle.Their skeletal forms, visible when wearing the One Ring are really creepy as well.He almost appears to be staring through the screen at the viewer themselves. The Thousand-Yard Stare of the future Witch-King, at the very centre of the shot, is particularly unsettling.And then the scene just fades as the darkness swallows them. The shot from the prologue of the men who will become the Nazgul, each holding a ring and standing in almost robotic uniformity, in contrast to the natural movements of the elves and the dwarves in the previous shots.The just out of earshot distant whispering does not help either.Even aside from how it's barely warmed by being placed in fire and "accidentally" ends up on Frodo's finger at the worst time, there's something fundamentally off about the seemingly-innocuous piece of jewelry. When Bilbo drops it onto the floor, it doesn't bounce and scatter into a corner, it hits the ground with a thud and goes instantly still, and when Gandalf later drops it into Frodo's palm, the hobbit's hand dips beneath its weight. If an inanimate(?) object can fall into the Uncanny Valley, it's the One Ring.Beautiful enough that you'd kill to possess it. The most beautiful thing you've ever seen in your life. The Ring would be less scary if it looked like an Obviously Evil Artifact of Doom.It shows it doesn't need looks to take over you. But it's simply a small gold wedding ring. You'd expect something crafted by a Dark Lord to be made of black metal with a skull-shaped ruby in the center, or something obvious like that. It also makes one wonder how Fëanor and sons looked and sounded when they swore their rash oath. Galadriel's temptation by the Ring, with absurd amounts of reverb on her voice as she declares herself "Beautiful and terrible as the dawn! Treacherous as the seas! Stronger than the foundations of the Earth! All shall love me and despair!".Speaking of Galadriel, the genuinely unsettling calm, pleasant, soothing nature in which she acts, contrasting sharply with the demonically dark side she displays whenever she becomes angry or power-mad.A surprisingly disturbing moment (and also very subtle) is when she mentions "Rumor grew of a shadow in the East Whispers of a nameless fear" and it's intercut with a shot of a moonlit swamp, and two shadows that look either like a couple submerged tree trunks or legs. There is something so unsettling about her narration, especially when combined with the clips of darkened forests and swamps that follow. Galadriel's "Darkness crept back into the forests of the world" exposition." BILBO BAGGINS!!" The sweet, jovial old wizard of a man we saw in Gandalf suddenly darkening the room around himself and shouting with a primal fury makes the Ring-corrupted Bilbo so utterly terrified you'd think he soiled himself on the spot.
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