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'Pretty Little Liars' in Peril - Top Five Scary Scenes

'Pretty Little Liars' in Peril -  Top Five Scary Scenes

Pretty Little Liars does a lot of things right including teen angst, mother / daughter relationships and lesbian storylines but one of the things ABC Family’s break-out show does best is suspense. And it’s no wonder considering that PLL’s producers Marlene King and Oliver Goldstick have paid frequent homage to the Master himself Alfred Hitchcock with odes to Vertigo, Psycho and Rear Window to name a few.

TracyEGilchrist

Pretty Little Liars does a lot of things right including teen angst, mother / daughter relationships and lesbian storylines but one of the things ABC Family’s break-out show does best is suspense. And it’s no wonder considering that PLL’s producers Marlene King and Oliver Goldstick  have paid frequent homage to the Master himself Alfred Hitchcock with odes to Vertigo, Psycho and Rear Window to name a few. At the hands of their blackmailer and omnicient cyber and real stalker A the liars have been subjected to numerous perilous situations. 


While tonight’s Halloween episode features special guests pop sensation Adam Lambert and Olympic swimmer Missy Franklin, Shay Mitchell –who plays lady charmer Emily-- channeling her best Jane Fonda in a Barbarella costume and, sadly, certain death for one Rosewood resident, we thought we’d take a look back at the Top Five Scary Pretty Little Liars' scenes. 

Episode 3.12 - Emily's battle in the lighthouse:

Poor Emily got herself into quite a pickle during the most recent summer season closer when she went to a cabin alone with a boy! Didn’t her mother teach her never to do that? It turns out her deceased girlfriend Maya’s cousin Nate wasn’t such a good guy after all, especially when Em discovered he’d was holding her current girlfriend Paige (Lindsey Shaw) hostage in the closet.  Here’s Emily battling Nate in the lighthouse. 

 

Episode 1.22 - Spencer's Vertigo experience: (episode promo below, full scene here)

 

In one of the more obvious nods to Hitchcock Spencer (Troian Bellisario) is trapped in the bell tower of a church with her sister Melissa’s nefarious baby daddy –and the guy Spencer once kissed –Ian. The Liars’ blackmailer A turns up and sends Ian hurling to his death in an homage to the climax of Vertigo. 

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Episode 2.14 - Emily meets A in a greenhouse:

For quite some time A had pegged Emily as the group's weak link. Here's another famous Emily-in-peril scene. 

 

Episode 2.25 - Hanna's Psycho shower:

 

Pretty Little Liars had a little fun withPsycho for the second season finale. Here Hanna (Ashley Benson) recreates the famous shower scene that starred Janet Leigh and is considered to be the mother of all slasher scenes. 

 

Episode 3.1 - Aria stalked by A in the ladies' room:

Maybe it's just because Lucy Hale, who plays Aria, is just so little that the stakes seem so much higher when she's in trouble but this scene of A stalking Aria in the Rosewood High bathroom is a true nailbiter. 

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Tracy E. Gilchrist

Tracy E. Gilchrist is the VP, Executive Producer of Entertainment for the Advocate Channel. A media veteran, she writes about the intersections of LGBTQ+ equality and pop culture. Previously, she was the editor-in-chief of The Advocate and the first feminism editor for the 55-year-old brand. In 2017, she launched the company's first podcast, The Advocates. She is an experienced broadcast interviewer, panel moderator, and public speaker who has delivered her talk, "Pandora's Box to Pose: Game-changing Visibility in Film and TV," at universities throughout the country.

Tracy E. Gilchrist is the VP, Executive Producer of Entertainment for the Advocate Channel. A media veteran, she writes about the intersections of LGBTQ+ equality and pop culture. Previously, she was the editor-in-chief of The Advocate and the first feminism editor for the 55-year-old brand. In 2017, she launched the company's first podcast, The Advocates. She is an experienced broadcast interviewer, panel moderator, and public speaker who has delivered her talk, "Pandora's Box to Pose: Game-changing Visibility in Film and TV," at universities throughout the country.