A beautiful boy, a beautiful voice, a beautiful tune, a beautiful setting. And yet every time I see this clip, I get a frisson of fear. It is the embodiment of Hannah Arendt's "banality of evil", the idea that perfectly normal people can be readily led to carry out and rationalize unimaginable horrors.
For me, it's one of the most chilling and frightening moments in cinema, because of its beauty. The young man has been captured by a worldview that he fervently believes is destiny, an inevitable march to glory both personal and national. As he sings, the camera slowly reveals to us the insignia of malevolence. We see the pride reflected in the eyes of his countrymen and their own fervor impels them to arise and join the youth in singing: they all believe, they all hope, they all blaze with ardor that their time for glory has arrived.
All, that is, except one old man, who has seen it all before and knows that it cannot end well for anyone. He perceives that behind the beauty is the beast, a soul-devouring evil.
Cabaret was released 43 years ago and it still has this effect on me. What is your most chilling moment of cinema where we realize that something or someone alluring or winsome is actually the Beast of whom we should be terrified?