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I had to laugh at all those 'gandalf uncloaked' references, though I must say when I was reading the books I had a very different interpretation of that phrase(one that doesn't involve nakedness in any way, shape or form). If you think about it though, there are dozens of phrasings that can be misconstrued like that, for example: Gandalf cautioning Aragorn not to 'reveal himself' to Sauron after they recovered the palantir.
I'm not sure if this has been mentioned before, but the silent watchers at Minas Morgul should be ranked pretty highly in this thread. They were scary I thought, because their power over you wasn't made clear. They threatened you on a spiritual/mental level, from which you cannot defend yourself with a sword or shield. It was an intangible and unknowable horror that preyed on the mind.
Orcs would also have been quite frightening if they weren't so common, if you only take into account how they were created.
They were ordinary elves, taken in the darkness, then twisted and tortured by the dark lord, warped and mutated until they were no longer recognizable as the firstborn that they once were, and in being so, they were instilled with an insatiable hate and hostility towards all life.
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