This is a Basilisk. Normal people can breed these things - all you have to do is put a chicken egg under a toad. Sleep tight now...
"Can we panic now?"
— Ronald Weasley
It's very telling that J. K. Rowling received several angry letters from readers who weren't able to finish this novel because they were too scared to go on reading.
WARNING: Spoilers are unmarked.
- In a way, the whole plot of the book is quite unsettling. The first book positions Hogwarts as a haven and a symbol of color and light and everything good in the world; just a wonderful place in every way. In this book, we learn that one of the four people who built the school was a man who was prepared to murder children that he was supposed to teach purely because of their parentage.
- Hagrid, an 8.5 foot/2.6 meter-tall half-giant who considers vicious and violent three-headed dogs that look like they were cast out of Hades "cute", is absolutely horrified at the mention of Azkaban. And although, thanks to the third book, we now know about the existence of dementors, it's not made clear by this book what's so frightening about Azkaban.
- Slytherin's gigantic stone face was moving... something was stirring inside the statue's mouth. Something was slithering up from its depths... Harry could almost see the giant serpent uncoiling itself from Slytherin's mouth... He heard Riddle's hissing voice: "Kill him."...
- An eleven-year-old girl is possessed and writing messages in blood on the walls. The walls which mysteriously hiss at the protagonist. Hisses and moans about it being time to kill and eat. What's not freaky about that?
- When Ginny gets taken into the Chamber of Secrets, a new message on the wall states that "her skeleton will lie in the Chamber forever."
- Ginny being possessed by the diary is the proof that you should not read weird books, especially if they are cursed, and Ron even warns Harry about it by mentioning the confiscated books that his father told him about and that opening a strange book in the Potterverse can curse you for life: one of them burns the reader's eyes out, a bewitched copy of Sonnets of a Sorcerer causes you to talk in limericks for the rest of your life and an old witch at Bath has a book that you couldn't stop reading, causing you to do everything with one hand and with your eyes on the pages.
- When Harry accidentally stumbles into Borgin and Burkes at Knockturn Alley, he sees various rotting human heads on display as well as a hand that grabs him when he gets too close to it. When he gets out of the store, he meets a group of unsettling strangers who are a little too interested in him. He was lucky Hagrid was there to bail him out.
- Even after the revelations of its true function in later books, Tom Riddle's diary is still deeply disturbing. Something about the fact that all the things the diary did were never really dissected and logically analyzed in-series made it all the more sickly dark, the same way that the simplistic, matter-of-fact way that dark things in children's stories and fairy tales are introduced are much more disturbing than deeply-analyzed dark aspects of and occurrences in adult literature. The vagueness and mystery of the off-screen horrors combined with things that are perfectly logical, but not all neatly tied up with an explanation, like the way the diary writes back, the ink gushing out of it, the effects it had on Harry, and the things Ginny wrote in it and, most of all, the diary's total nondescript innocence and lack of physical threats, all have a creeping Grimm's Fairy Tales type of muted horror about it. It is quite reminiscent of real-life stories of children meeting mysterious strangers online and what they often turn out to be.
- In a book where most of the threats are of the fantasy variety, the relationship between Ginny and Tom is a disturbingly realistic portrayal of an abusive relationship, complete with psychological manipulation. Tom takes advantage of Ginny's naively trusting nature, feeds her ideas that cause her to question her own reality, and ultimately causes her to do things that she would never have done on her own, without her so much as questioning them. Especially when he mocks her genuine and understandable fears to Harry.
- The line "You can find I can be very... persuasive" is deeply unsettling. It's reminiscent of online grooming even if the intent isn't lustful in that case.
- The chapter art for the Polyjuice Potion sequence, which resembles one of the middling stages of an Animorphs cover as Harry transforms.
- Everything about the basilisk is on some level terrifying. It's a giant snake. In a school. Filled with children. When you look at the basilisk, you're either petrified or dead.
- The basilisk's killing gaze is hinted at being as terrifyingly powerful as it is mysterious, and the hints are all shiver-worthy. Whatever is petrifying students leaves scorch marks on nearby walls, melts the film roll in a camera pointed at it, and is capable of inflicting gruesome ills even on ghosts. Local wildlife react to its activity by fleeing en masse. And that's before you involve threatening messages written in blood and violent voices inside a student's head. You're wondering with each new attack "What on Earth is stalking the halls of this school?"
- It causes the Acromantulas (see entry further down), who are terrifying, intelligent and dangerous creatures themselves to most, to flee in terror. Aragog's clan also refuse to speak about it. Considering they have eight eyes and it would only take one glance from the Basilisk to kill them on the spot, their fear is understandable.
- 50 years ago, when Moaning Myrtle ended up dead. Every stone they could find was turned and even Dumbledore (the most powerful wizard of the time), Horace Slughorn (who possessed a deep knowledge of dark magic), and all the other teachers never seemed to have the slightest idea where to search or even what they where hunting. This time, it was all the same, and if Harry could not understand snakes, most likely no one would ever have found the Chamber of Secrets.
- Just the fact that, in the present year, all of the Basilisk's victims ended up petrified instead of killed because of circumstantial luck they weren't directly looking into its eyes when it attacked.
- On top of all that, Harry demonstrates his ability to understand snakes (which is a result of him being one of Voldemort's horcruxes, though nobody knows that yet), which you'd think would give him a bit of an advantage against the basilisk just like with the snake that Malfoy conjured at the Dueling Club earlier in the story. Unfortunately not: The basilisk isn't just a giant, extremely venomous snake that can literally kill you with a look, oh no—it's a giant, intelligent, and extremely venomous snake that can literally kill you with a look. And it's on Voldemort's side, no ifs, ands, or buts. Tom even spells this out in no uncertain terms in the movie: "Parseltongue won't save you now, Potter! It only obeys me!"
- Just to make things worse, we don't see the basilisk, or even know what it is, until the book's final act. Just like Jaws, it becomes so much more frightening due to the fact that neither the audience nor the characters see it in its entirety.
- In the DVD's extra feature game, "The Chamber Challenge", your reward is entering the Chamber of Secrets, but at a cost. The only way out? Walk into the face's mouth and get killed by the Basilisk!
- These giant, incredibly dangerous snakes aren't created through the darkest arts like Horcruxes, but through something as simple as incubating a chicken egg with a toad. As the page caption points out, this means any wizard can breed a basilisk. The Harry Potter Wiki even states that despite chicken coops in the Wizarding World being monitored by the Ministry to avoid this, you can just remove the egg from the toad during inspection and place it back. Granted, you don't have the barest chance of taming a basilisk unless you're a Parselmouth, which means unless you're very careful, the baby one will kill you, but just imagine if Voldemort got the idea to breed these things en mass.
- Acromantulas. As if the fact that they're giant, man-eating spiders isn't enough, they're also intelligent. And they hunt in packs. And one of them nearly kills Ron.
- Ron is terrified of spiders. Why? When he was a toddler, his brothers turned his teddy bear into one.
- Aragog making it perfectly clear to Harry and Ron that their being friends of Hagrid doesn't mean a god-damn thing to him; he'll still feed them to his kids. Think about that for a moment. Here are two children who clearly know Hagrid, are friends with Hagrid, and are trying to help Hagrid stay out of Azkaban, and he's just given them information that will help prove Hagrid's innocence, and he does not give a shit. He'll let his children kill and eat the boys, and you also get the clear impression that he won't even conceal that fact from Hagrid. He regards Hagrid as a friend, but beyond that, everyone else is just dinner.Harry: Alright, then. We'll just be going now.
Aragog: Go...? I think not. My sons and daughters do not harm Hagrid on my command. But I cannot deny them fresh meat when it wanders so willingly into our midst. Farewell...friend of Hagrid. - The Jump Scare spider that grabs Ron. Honestly seems like he might die.
- Ironically, the people behind the film seem to have been quite concerned that the spider scene would not be scary enough. In an interview on the DVD, Rowling and screenwriter Steve Kloves talk about how, before the film came out, they were both worried that the spider scene might come off as "hysterically funny," like in old 1950s B-movies. Chris Columbus had similar fears and has mentioned that he kept Aragog in the shadows in the hopes that it would downplay the silliness of a giant, talking spider. In the end, of course, the whole Nightmare Retardant pitfall was very, very much averted.
- Terrible and lethal though the basilisk is, there's something about it having both eyes pecked out that's disquieting.
- Its brutal death. Even for a PG movie.
- Gilderoy Lockhart was totally willing to erase Ron and Harry's memories, leave Ginny in the Chamber without even attempting to rescue her, and pass himself off as a hero, despite the Basilisk still being alive and able to kill students. This man is a teacher. The students are meant to trust him and rely on him for protection. The way he delivers his serenely-delivered monologue in the film about Harry and Ron "losing their minds at the sight of Ginny's mangled body" paints Lockhart as an unnerving realistic example of a sociopath. His creepiness factor rivals Dolores Umbridge's appearance in the series three books/films later.Lockhart: The adventure ends here, boys. But don't fret. The world will know our story; how I was too late to save the girl, and how you two tragically lost your minds at the sight of her mangled body.
- In the movie, when Lucius Malfoy lifts his wand and whispers "Avada—" before Dobby stops him. Damn, Malfoy! Is it worth a lifetime in Azkaban for losing a single house elf!? That kind of makes you wonder what he is like to his son. Though it turns out that Jason Isaacs ad-libbed the line; he only read the fourth book and was instructed to tell a random spell, making this more a case of Didn't Think This Through.
- Another brief instance in the film involves Filch of all people. When he discovers the petrified Mrs. Norris, his clear distress at her fate quickly turns to anger at Harry whom he thinks is responsible. Through his rage, he grabs Harry's collar and threatens to kill him before Dumbledore shows up to set things straight. Even though he's hardly the nicest character around, it's still pretty unnerving to see Filch so willing to kill a student.
- What's worse is that he first says "I'll kill ya" softly, with a smile and what almost sounds like a broken laugh in his voice. Then as he reaches for Harry, this Tranquil Fury turns on a dime into just plain fury as he now shouts "I'LL KILL YA!" If Dumbledore hadn't arrived at that exact moment, things might have gotten ugly.
- After finding out from a letter that Harry is not, in fact, allowed to use magic outside school and may in fact face expulsion if he does again, Uncle Vernon, who already started the summer by taking away Harry's school stuff and padlocking Hedwig, becomes even more vicious: He locks Harry in his bedroom, has bars installed on the window and a cat-flap cut into the otherwise-locked door; keeps Harry on a meager diet that is starving the boy, only allows Harry to use the bathroom twice a day, and openly says that he is not going to change this state of events when the start of term approaches because he is not letting Harry go back to Hogwarts."You're never going back to that school. You're never going to see those freaky friends of yours again. Never!"
- While the books would get progressively darker, this one stands out as it's here we learn about the darker side of the Wizarding World. The "Mudblood" slur is first used here by a twelve-year-old, and it's revealed that Voldemort's campaign was founded on the notion of a select group of people being naturally born superior to a minority that needs to be eradicated in order to keep their world "pure". That one of Hogwarts founders, a man who was in charge of teaching children, was a complete bigot and specifically trained only people with at least one magical parent to the point where he bred a monster in a secret chamber specifically to purge the school of Muggle-borns, and it was used before. And unlike the events in the book, Riddle succeeded in killing Myrtle. The only reason he stopped was because Hogwarts was going to be shut down, so he used poor Hagrid as a scapegoat, which probably worked so well in part due to his status as a half-giant. Although it wasn't expanded upon until the later books, the clues of racism were always there.
- Doubling as a Moment of Awesome for Harry, is the death of the main villains, i.e. the Basilisk and Tom Riddle's "apparition".
- In both the novel and the movie, the Basilisk is killed after being impaled through the head into its brain. The book implies that the monstrous serpent died instantly, but in the film, the snake screams piercingly loud and writhes about in clear agony for a few moments, before finally keeling over dead.
- On the same note, the destruction of Tom Riddle's diary, as well-deserved as it is for him, is nevertheless frightening. When Harry stabs the diary with a basilisk fang and ink starts oozing out of the pages, as if the diary itself is bleeding.
- The movie however, made the sequence even gorier. In the novel, Harry simply stabs the diary once through its cover, Riddle screams, thrashes around on the spot and then dissolves. In the film, Harry stabs the book three times, twice through its pages and once through the cover. Following the first stab, Riddle's chest rips open, leaving a gaping hole filled with light where his heart should have been. Furious, Tom once again moves to attack Harry and retrieve the diary. In response, Harry stabs the diary again through the adjacent page, whereupon Tom freezes as another tear appears, this time on his face! Withdrawing the fang, Harry looks up at Tom who is clutching his face, clearly in immense pain. Still not satisfied after everything that Riddle has done to Ginny, Hermione, Hagrid, the rest of the Basilisk victims (past and present) and the other people Riddle later murdered as Voldemort, Harry closes the book, gives his parents' killer one final hate-filled look, then stabs the diary through its cover. As the spell that had previously been restoring him to life is undone, Riddle screams in agony as the magic bursts out of him until finally, he explodes like a firework.
- As an added bonus, Harry's expression as he stabs the diary one final time is one of absolute hatred for Riddle. Without uttering a single word, he effectively tells his nemesis that this is personal, whilst also saying take that! Bear in mind that Harry is only twelve years old at this point.
- The Basilisk's voice, as all Harry's ability to understand snakes can offer is giving us the knowledge the creature is enjoying the fear and death it's causing, adding to the fear level."Come... come to me... Let me rip you... Let me tear you... Let me kill you...""Blood... I smell blood... Let me rip you... Let me kill you... Kill... Kill!... KILL!"
- The serpent's voice is also quite disturbing in the audiobooks.
- While the scene is most definitely funny, it's quite disturbing with how uncomfortably close Harry and Ron got to the Hogwarts Express while trying to catch up to it. The two are driving the flying car around hoping to find the train. Then they hear a familiar whistle in the background, along with the sound of chuffing noises. They think they've caught up to it, but they don't see it around the bend. Both of them then quickly realize the whistle is coming from behind them, and 5972 starts barreling down on the unsuspecting kids (and owl, as Hedwig definitely takes notice). They're narrowly able to dodge the train at the last second, but the door slips open and Harry almost falls out, hanging on for dear life as Ron tries his hardest to fly the car and keep his friend from falling to his doom. If Harry had fallen, he would have either hit the ground at the bottom of a steep viaduct, or he would have landed right on the train and more than likely gotten sucked under the wheels and crushed. And that's not even getting into how the poor crew reacted when they saw a serious safety hazard in their path while they were trying to transport children to their destination.
- A mild example that also borders on Tear Jerker is Ron explaining why the Wizarding race managed to survive by marrying Muggles. Had they continued to marry purebloods, they would have gone extinct a long, long time ago.
- Unlike in the previous installment, where Harry's encounter with a snake served to demonstrate his magical abilities and give Dudley a bit of well deserved karma, here his parseltongue sequence is anything but funny.
- Whilst Harry and Malfoy's duel at the short-lived Duelling Club contained a moment of awesome for both characters, things turned serious the moment Malfoy disobeyed the instructions and summoned a snake into the middle of the dueling ring! Although the species is not given in the book, in the movie Draco summons a cobra, i.e. one of the world's most venomous snakes. To make matters worse, the snake nearly attacked somebody (Justin Finch Fletchley), which can be frightening for anybody that does not like snakes.
- Worse still, we learn a few paragraphs later that parseltongue is the mark of a Dark Wizard. What Hermione says next results in some major paranoia on Harry's part. One of the most infamous people to use this rare ability was Hogwarts founder, Salazar Slytherin, i.e. the man whose house has turned out more dark wizards than any other house at Hogwarts. As a result of this and the simple fact that most wizards cannot understand snake language, is it any surprise that people began suspecting Harry afterwards?
- The movie does an especially good job of making the sequence with the snake even more serious and arguably more terrifying than its novel counterpart. In both versions, Lockhart inadvertently angers the snake after failing to destroy it. In the book, the snake immediately spots Justin and moves toward him. It only stops when Harry shouts at it to leave him alone. In the movie, however, the snake spots Justin after Harry starts speaking.
- Also unlike in the book, which is presented from Harry's point of view and where we hear him speaking English, in the movie we as the audience, hear what the rest of the school is hearing i.e. parseltongue. As a result of this and the camera angles, it is easier to understand why the rest of the school thought that Harry was egging the snake to attack Justin.
- If you look at the reaction of the said characters during this sequence, you can see that they are confused and downright terrified about what is happening. And no, it's not just Justin and the Hufflepuffs. We also briefly see Hermione's terrified reaction as she looks between Harry and the snake in horror. Once the snake is gone, she, Ron and the Weasley twins are shown looking at him in a way that practically says "Harry, what were you doing?"
- Then after Justin speaks up, Harry looks behind him, where he sees Lockhart watching him suspiciously. It is only then that he realises something is seriously wrong. When even the usually bubbly, smug, boastful and energetic Lockhart is giving you stink eye, you know that something isn't right.
- The most noticeable reaction in the movie sequence, however, is Snape's! As we would learn, later on, Snape was one of Voldemort's Death Eaters and more importantly Voldemort himself was a parselmouth. As numerous fans have pointed out on social media, Snape probably witnessed the Dark Lord speaking like this countless times before, after which something bad always happened. Thus, it's not hard to imagine that when Harry was speaking parseltongue, Snape was probably reliving some of the worst moments of his entire life. When Harry looks at him at the very end of this sequence, Snape for one of the very few times in the entire franchise looks at Harry Potter with genuine fear!
- When the Diary takes Harry back 50 years ago, on the date of June 13th 1943. When Harry is looking around, he sees Tom Riddle staring off at something. Even though it's just a memory, and Harry cannot be seen or heard by anyone, it's still kind of disturbing to see the camera zoom in on Tom's blank face.
- And it turns out that what Tom was looking at was four wizards carrying a stretcher. When they pass Harry, the camera pans down and shows an arm sticking out of a blanket covering the body.
- Also when Tom confronts Hagrid down in the dungeons. We can't see Hagrid's face, but that is what kind of makes it creepy.
- The rogue Bludger sequence, in both the book AND the film. Bludgers can already be dangerous on their own, but if one imagines an insanely persistent one that won't stop chasing after one specific player until it breaks every bone on their body and couple with how high the game takes place it becomes a nightmarish struggle for survival and not just for acrophobes.
