Eeriest Scene

What do you consider the eeriest scene from the Godfather Trilogy? You can pick a scene (or scenes) from each of the three films if you prefer, or pick a scene (or scenes) from the Trilogy as a whole.

As a guide, here's a partial definition of "eerie" from the Merriam-Webster online dictionary:
I would add to that:

Well, now, there's an interesting and unique thread that hasn't been posted before. Congrats, Cristina!
Music has an effect on creating an eerie scene. I'll offer an off-the-wall example:
In GFII, I think the scene where Michael and his bodyguard (in their car--a red-and-black 1958 Ford Custom 300) are following Johnny Ola (in his or Roth's car--a 1958 Chrysler New Yorker) to Roth's home in Miami, is a legitimately eerie scene. Michael and Kay have narrowly escaped with their lives after the Tahoe shooting. Michael is surrounded by people he can't trust (except for Tom). He's in the hands of some bodyguard we've never seen before (and who looks very menacing). And now, in that scene, he's driving slowly through seemingly alien territory, being directed by the right-hand-man of the guy who we are about to discover directed the hit. Hair-raising enough. But that ominous music is what makes the scene so eerie.

Yes, to echo Turnbull's compliment to you, great question and an original one at that!

When I read your question, the scene that immedeatly came to my mind was the scene where Johnny Ola is standing out on the terrace with his back to the doors of the room, the music is playing in the background, and the drapes are blowing in the wind and we see the two hands reach out and garrot Johnny Ola. The blowing drapes and the music playing are what make that an eerie scene for me.


Don Cardi

The scene that sends chills up my spine is Michael's eyes after Kay tells him that she had an abortion.

My choice would be when Luca dons the body armor while Christmas music plays and then walks down that long beautiful hall with every sound echoing and pausing at the door of the bar where he will meet his end.

I found Fredo being killed on the fishing boat to be eerie. The music and I found it to be unexpected upon first time viewing it. I couldn't believe that it actually took place, as I was expecting for the hit to be called off in the nick of time or something.

Hospital scene.

For me there's always been something about the scene between Michael and his mother in GF2 when he asks about how his father really felt and the look on Michael's face when she says "But you cannot lose your family"

The end of GF2, with the leaves blowing across the lawn, and then we see Michael alone.

I'll go with Turnbull on this one too. Eerie is the perfect description for the mood in Florida set by the music. Leading up to that scene is Michael telling Tom that his plans have been made and unless he is very wrong, someone close to him is the traitor. oooooooooooooo. So where is Johnny taking Michael and yeah who is that guy in the back seat?

The flash back in GF2 to Pop's birthday has a little eerie quality in light of what had gone on in Michael's life.

All great examples, but I'll go with a not as major scene. Am I the only one who thinks the "Superman" scene has an eerie atmosphere to it? Ha ha..I mean the music was weird and it seemed kind of creepy no??? At first viewing I wasn't sure what the "entertainment" was all about.


TIS

One scene that comes to mind is,where Luca Brasi is making is way to meet sollozo in the bar,in the scene that he gets murdered

Eerie in a sleazy kind of way. But that music is common for that kind of place. Several of the ones I go to play similar music and when the ..............nevermind.

Turnbull and Don Cardi, you mean it? I really came up with an original topic? I'm so proud of myself. "Original thinking" is not an attribute usually associated with me. (Heck, there are times when "thinking" isn't even associated with me. )

Before I start getting too smug, I'll contribute mine:

Godfather I - the deserted hospital, after Vito's bed has been moved. We hear the amplified echo of footsteps coming up the stairs (and there lots of steps, which draws out the segment even more). Michael is tensely watching behind a door, barely showing his face. The first time I saw this, I held my breath the whole time. didn't know who the heck was coming up those stairs; and it wasn't until Enzo identified himself that I could exhale.

Godfather I - My second choice is everything else about the hospital scene. Not only was the hospital devoid of people, which is strange enough, but the scene also suggested that it had been abruptly abandoned, as if workers were so frightened they fled their posts in mid-activity: witness the partially eaten sandwich, the messy paperwork, the skipped record playing the word "tonight" over and over again. It was like The Twilight Zone. Then FFC channels Hitchcock with a shadowy, overhead shot of Michael running down the empty hallway in a panic to reach his father's room. THEN he's still not finished toying with us: the lone nurse abruptly breaks the silence. (And wasn't she scary -- all white and starched like an avenging angel, or a ghost.) And then there's that tense scene outside with Enzo, and we see Enzo's shaking hands. That's one scary hospital.

Godfather I - What can I say about the baptism scene? The organ accompaniment, the voiceover intoned in Latin, the dimness of the church all spell foreboding. We just know that the end is near for some blissfully unaware people. That eerie organ music nails it. The cross-cutting between scenes of sacredness and evil give the proceedings a sense of cosmic ritual. Brilliantly conceived and executed from start to finish.

Godfather I - The dinner with Sollozzo and McCluskey. Here the tension from anticipation, the relative emptiness of the restaurant, and selective sounds make the scene spooky. FFC almost employs an "echo" effect to ordinarily quiet sounds to emphasize a "pin-drop" atmosphere: the ch*nk of cutlery, the softly spoken dialogue, the tap of shoes on tile... By the time we hear the rumbling of the train, FFC has built it up to a crescendo. We know what Michael plans to do, but will he do it? Until the moment he pulls his gun out, we question our own senses. Are we hearing a train outside? Or is what we're hearing the pounding of blood in Michael's temples?

... and I haven't even started on Godfather II yet. I'll save it for my next post...

Lots of eerie stuff in GF II also.

GF II - The kiss of death Michael gave Fredo in the Havana ballroom on New Year's Eve. Oh, that sent a chill up my spine. For a second I thought Michael was going to strangle him right there. And maybe Fredo thought so too; his facial expression shows believable fear, and look at how he struggles to pull Michael's hands from around his neck.

GF II - The death of Fredo: the twilight in the sky, the sombre music, the intoning of the Hail Mary and its abrupt cessation by the gun shot. The unsettling finality is cemented by the great shots of the boat silhouetted against the water. At first, we see the profile of two passengers. After the gun shots, we see only one, as Neri stands up in the boat. The effect is much more eerie and disturbing than it would have been had the scene shown the actual act carried out in all its bloody detail.

GF II - The scene where Kay visits the children, and Michael walks in while she is trying to get one last kiss from Anthony. Michael slowly walks toward her and you can see the supressed rage and coldness in his eyes. Kay is frozen on the spot -- and so was I the first time I saw this scene. When the two of them matched stares at the door, I thought Michael was going to hit her again, and this time really hurt her. When he ended up shutting the door in her face, it almost felt like an assault nonetheless. The impact was much greater this way than it would have been had Michael run into the room in a rage. At least rage would have been a human emotion. The eerie part is that we can see Michael practically turning into an heartless automaton -- a monster.

I got reminded of this after seeing another thread. The scene where michael returns to his Tahoe house from Cuba and Kay is on her sewing machine. Michael silently observes kay and the toy in the snow etc. This scene is followed by michael asking his mother whether he can lose his family. It was quite eerie.

I won't be original here but the scene that Fredo is murdered is the eeriest scene for me. Every time I watch GFII it stays with me... probeblly because I consider it Michael worst crime.

And I forgot to mention one other scene from Godfather I. It's known for its shock value, but in my opinion it started out quite eerily. It's the scene where Jack Woltz wakes to find the horse's head in his bed.

I felt a sense of foreboding from the start of that scene because of two elements: (1) the camera lingering over Woltz's estate, capturing the crystalline stillness of dawn, and (2) the music playing over the proceedings: one of the Godfather themes began playing soberly and slowly; but by the time we're in Woltz's bedroom, it's risen to a higher-pitched, almost hysterical waltz. It perfectly parallels Woltz's mounting horror.

Before I sat down to watch the film, I had heard so much about that scene and remembered it from the book. I have to hand it to Coppola that, even though I knew it was coming, he still had me biting my nails from the sheer anticipation of how he would interpret and present it.

That was awsome. And his jaw begins to shake...awsome

The eeriest scene was the one where Vincent and Mary are rolling doughballs and then kiss.