It looks silly years after, but a certain scene in the climax was certainly this. People who haven't seen the movie may even be familiar with it. If you don't want to click the link: the computer the villains built turns against them, and as they flee, it catches Vera. It pulls her inside its workings and turns her into a robot. This scene likely scared more children than any other scene in the entire Superman film series, not helped by the fact that it's easy to miss that she returns to normal once the computer is destroyed. What helped sell it is that she's still screaming incoherently as electrified mechanical devices are attached to her skin at high speeds.
DC Comics actually uses the scene as part of a montage advertising their new streaming service — it's that striking.
The above nightmarish scene is ramped up to eleven when the same thing starts to happen to Superman himself not long after. If it wasn't for the beltric acid heating up at just the right time...
The scene where Superman's with Lana and the warped kryptonite begins to affect him. Take the fear a woman can feel at realizing she's alone with a man she doesn't really know and multiply it by, oh, a million or so. Nothing happens, but it's still probably the most effective and disturbing Evil Superman moment in the movie.
The visual alone of Evil Superman can be pretty jarring, considering how his normally bright and vibrant costume turns dirty and dark, he stops shaving, and stalks around with a permanent scowl etched on his face. There's a reason that Christopher Reeve's performance is the most widely-praised part of this film.
Plus the showdown between Clark and Evil Superman gets pretty graphic, with cartoon violence that could easily have real consequences if one happens to be stronger than the other. And it's not even Superman fighting Evil Superman... it's Clark, in his glasses and civillian clothing, convincing us very effectively that he might be a lot weaker than Evil Superman is.
was certainly this. People who haven't seen the movie may even be familiar with it. If you don't want to click the link: the computer the villains built turns against them, and as they flee, it catches Vera. It pulls her inside its workings and turns her into a robot. This scene likely scared more children than any other scene in the entire Superman film series, not helped by the fact that it's easy to miss that she returns to normal once the computer is destroyed. What helped sell it is that she's still screaming incoherently as electrified mechanical devices are attached to her skin at high speeds.