Editorials
David Harley Looks Back on 13 Memorable Death Scenes of the Decade
When thinking back on all the cinematic gore and grue of the past decade, it’s apparent that there’s one art form that hasn’t been lost: the almighty death scene. Whether we’re musing about the latest slasher flick or whatever Jigsaw has been up to recently, we can all appreciate a good kill, whether it’s over-the-top and elaborate or a simple, dramatic stab. Hell, in many cases, the film doesn’t have to be good to have a memorable death scene (as is evident by the list below); it just has to have a moment where everyone in the theatre/living room drops their jaw to the floor and says, “That. Was. Awesome.” So here they are, 13 memorable death scenes from horror films in the past decade.
In what is probably Dark Castle’s most forgotten film (well, besides for The Reaping), Gabriel Byrne stars as the captain of a salvage crew who finds a long-lost cruise ship floating in the middle of the ocean and decides to tow it back to port, malevolent spirits and all. While most people claim Ghost Ship was loosely based on Death Ship, it’s actually closer to a film of the same name made in 1952 and was originally intended to be a psychological thriller with very little splatter. It’s a shame that the opening credit sequence, which kills almost everyone on board in the blink of an eye, was just a tease and not a true sign of things to come. If only the rest of the film had been that good!
Sure, the screenplay/dialogue is pretty dire and the acting is questionable, but you can’t knock the atmosphere, aesthetics and soundtrack that accompany the gruesome happenings in the small, cult-filled town. If anything, I would say Silent Hill is on par with some of the lesser and more senseless Fulci and Argento flicks – and this is coming from someone who loves both directors. In what was one of the biggest WTF theatre moments I had this decade, Pyramid Head decides to make an example out of one of the town’s inhabitants by skinning her alive and throwing her epidermis up against the cathedral-style doors. Oddly enough, that is not the biggest blood sacrifice the town has ever seen.
Jason X has a few things going for it but two really stand out to me. The first is that it’s actually a fun film, which can’t be said for any of the sequels after Jason Lives – at least, in my eyes. It’s so over-the-top that I couldn’t help but laugh with delight at every moronic moment (and there are plenty). The second one happens to be one of my favorite death scenes in the entire series, where after thawing out, Jason decides to freeze a helpless intern’s face in a sink full of liquid nitrogen and then smash it open on the countertop. I also give big kudos to the sleeping bag death but we’d already seen that in The New Blood more than a decade before.
After creating an army of support (literally), Adam Green burst onto the horror scene in a big way with Hatchet. It was everything I expected it to be: over-the-top, campy and a pretty decent throwback to the 80s, making it one of my favorite slashers of the decade. In what is probably the greatest one-two punch of gore I’ve seen in quite a while, Victor Crowley manages to dispatch a husband and wife – the Permatteos – in the most gruesome way possible. And while watching someone get hacked up with unholy amounts of blood spurting about is great, it’s the 360 head splitting that really deserves the kudos.
Kid death in a horror film is often hard to come by – because it’s not PC or something like that – but Feast definitely steps it up in that department. In one of the more memorable scenes in the film (of which there are actually quite a few), one of the creatures gobbles up a kid and then vomits all over the place. And while Gulager would feature some fairly ridiculous baby deaths in the sequels, it’s this death that always made me laugh the hardest.
Let The Right One In is possibly the most grotesquely beautiful film I’ve ever seen. It’s a coming-of-age story about love, friendship and the awkwardness and confusion that surrounds adolescence. Oh, and there’s vampires in it, too. In fact, many of the other writers on the site agree that this film is amazing – well, enough to put it at number one on our `Top Twenty Horror Films of the Decade’ list. While some people might point to the infamous cat scene or maybe the hospital fire as the most memorable moment in the film, I’d argue that the pool deaths register much higher on an emotional level, since it’s sweet in the most morbid way possible.
What is there to be said about Dark Castle’s House of Wax, aside from the fact that it’s more of a remake of Tourist Trap than the Vincent Price classic or Fay Wray version? Oh, that’s right, PARIS HILTON GOT A POLE STUCK THROUGH HER HEAD. I remember leaving an early screening of the film and getting handed a `I saw Paris Hilton die’ pin; WB knew exactly what they were doing – marketing an awful film on the basis of getting to see a very maligned heiress die. And on that level, the film succeeds tenfold.
Whether you consider American Psycho to be a horror film or one of the best black comedies ever (I’m in the former camp), I think we can all agree that Patrick Bateman is a very memorable character and that, in a way, we all have had really bizarre thoughts like him – though hopefully not as severe! There’s a few key scenes in the film that really resonate with me – most of them consisting of gore and witty banter – but the chainsaw scene stuck with me the most because of its mean-spirited nature and full on display of testosterone.
I don’t think anyone is ever going to say that the Final Destination series is important or necessarily “good” but let’s face it: we keep watching them because the death scenes are hilarious and over-the-top. The original FD was thought to be really innovative – but not really, since Sole Survivor did almost the same thing in 1983 – but Part II always worked the best for me, simply because it embraced its overall sense of humor more and the deaths were REALLY mind blowing. I wish I could include the whole film as one entry on this list but, to be fair, I’ll just use the opening car crash, which is easily the most intense “premonition” of the entire series. And just in case you’re wondering, I’d rank the BBQ scene at the end next.
After not working on the series for over 20 years, Dario Argento finally return to his beloved witch trilogy with Mother of Tears, which turned out to be the goriest film of his career. While the entire thing is pretty batshit insane, it’s the woman getting strangled with her own intestines that kind of takes the cake. But – let’s be honest – it’s the inclusion of a monkey that’s the cherry on top.
I’m going to be upfront with everyone: I’m not a fan of the Saw series at all – though, I’d say that out of the ones I’ve actually watched, Part II was my favorite – but I realize that it’s the only major horror franchise I’ve been alive for from beginning to end and it has really shaped the horror trends of the past decade. But even though I don’t care for them, I’d say that, more often than not, the traps and kills are really impressive. Much like Final Destination, I could probably populate this whole list with nothing but really cringe-worthy scenes from the series but the crucifixion trap always made me squirm the most – go figure it’s from the entry that I dislike the most! The trap held its captor in place with a spike through each hand and foot, and a rotating lock held his head in place. Each section could rotate 180 degrees, breaking all the bones in his arms, legs, and neck.
If any torture film this decade could manage to be entertaining in a very strange way, Hostel and its sequel would be the best bets. While the first film manages to blend frat humor and grisly tension pretty seamlessly, the sequel was more of a slow-burn, harkening back to films from the 70s and perhaps a hint of Audition thrown in there for measure. Both films have their fair share of ghastly torture but the Bathory scene is the most memorable simply because it’s the most sensual death scene this decade.
In the time between High Tension and Martyrs, Inside ruled the horror scene as THE French gore film to watch. It’s commentary on motherhood and abortion was fairly interesting but what kept most people watching was the immense amount of blood that overtook every frame and the fast pace. Shotgun blasts and scissor wounds are pretty prominent but the primitive c-section by La femme is just really… well, nasty.
Expectations can run high whenever a buzzworthy filmmaker makes the leap from indie to mainstream. And Radio Silence — Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, Tyler Gillett, Chad Villella and former member Justin Martinez — certainly had a lot to live up to after V/H/S. This production collective’s rousing contribution to the 2012 anthology film not only impressed audiences and critics, the same segment also caught the attention of 20th Century. This led to the studio recruiting the rising talent for a hush-hush found-footage project later titled Devil’s Due.
However, as soon as Radio Silence’s anticipated first film was released into the wild, the reactions were mostly negative. Devil’s Due was dismissed as a Rosemary’s Baby rehash but dressed in different clothes; almost all initial reviews were sure to make — as well as dwell on — that comparison. Of course, significant changes were made to Lindsay Devlin’s pre-existing script; directors Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett offered up more energy and action than what was originally found in the source material, which they called a “creepy mood piece.” Nevertheless, too many folks focused on the surface similarities to the 1968 pregnancy-horror classic and ignored much of everything else.
Almost exactly two years before Devil’s Due hit theaters in January of 2014, The Devil Inside came out. The divisive POV technique was already in the early stages of disappearing from the big screen and William Brent Bell’s film essentially sped up the process. And although The Devil Inside was a massive hit at the box office, it ended up doing more harm than good for the entire found-footage genre. Perhaps worse for Radio Silence’s debut was the strange timing of Devil’s Due; the better-received Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones was released earlier that same month. Despite only a superficial resemblance, the newer film might have come across as redundant and negligible to wary audiences.
Image: Allison Miller in Devil’s Due.
The trailers for Devil’s Due spelled everything out quite clearly: a couple unknowingly conceives a diabolical child, and before that momentous birth, the mother experiences horrifying symptoms. There is an unshakable sense of been-there-done-that to the film’s basic pitch, however, Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett knew that from the beginning. To compensate for the lack of novelty, they focused on the execution. There was no point in hiding the obvious — in the original script, the revelation of a demonic pregnancy was delayed — and the film instead gives the game away early on. This proved to be a benefit, seeing as the directors could now play around with the characters’ unholy situation sooner and without being tied down by the act of surprise.
At the time, it made sense for Radio Silence’s first long feature to be shot in the same style that got them noticed in the first place, even if this kind of story does not require it. Still and all, the first-person slant makes Devil’s Due stand out. The urgency and terror of these expectant parents’ ordeal is more considerable now with a dose of verisimilitude in the presentation. The faux realism makes the wilder events of the film — namely those times the evil fetus fears its vessel is in danger — more effective as well. Obviously the set-pieces, such as Samantha pulling a Carrie White on three unlucky teens, are the work of movie magic, but these scenes hit harder after watching tedious but convincing stretches of ordinariness. Radio Silence found a solid balance between the normal and abnormal.
Another facet overlooked upon the film’s initial release was its performances. Booking legitimate actors is not always an option for found-footage auteurs, yet Devil’s Due was a big-studio production with resources. Putting trained actors in the roles of Samantha and Zach McCall, respectively Allison Miller and Zach Gilford, was desirable when needing the audience to care about these first-time parents. The leads managed to make their cursory characters both likable and vulnerable. Miller was particularly able to tap into Samantha’s distress and make it feel real, regardless of the supernatural origin. And with Gilford’s character stuck behind the camera for most of the time, the film often relied on Miller to deliver the story’s emotional element.
Image: Allison Miller in Devil’s Due.
Back then, Radio Silence went from making viral web clips to a full-length theatrical feature in a relatively short amount of time. The outcome very much reflected that tricky transition. Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett indeed knew how to create these attention-grabbing scenes — mainly using practical effects — but they were still learning their way around a continuous narrative. The technical limitations of found footage hindered the story from time to time, such as this routine need to keep the camera on the main characters (or see things from their perspective) as opposed to cutting away to a subplot. There is also no explanation of who exactly compiled all this random footage into a film. Then again, that is an example of how the filmmakers strove for entertainment as opposed to maintaining every tradition of found footage. In the end, the directors drew from a place of comfort and familiarity as they, more or less, used 10/31/98 as the blueprint for Devil’s Due’s chaotic conclusion. That is not to say the film’s ending does not supply a satisfying jolt or two, but surely there were hopes for something different and atypical.
Like other big film studios at that time, 20th Century wanted a piece of the found-footage pie. What distinguished their endeavor from those of their peers, though, was the surprising hiring of Radio Silence. Needless to say, the gamble did not totally pay off, yet putting the right guys in charge was a bold decision. Radio Silence’s wings were not completely clipped here, and in spite of how things turned out, there are flashes of creativity in Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett’s unconventional approach to such a conventional concept.
Radio Silence has since bounced back after a shaky start; they participated in another anthology, Southbound, before making another go at commercial horror. The second time, as everyone knows, was far more fruitful. In hindsight, Devil’s Due is regarded as a hiccup in this collective’s body of work, and it is usually brought up to help emphasize their newfound success. Even so, this early film of theirs is not all bad or deserving of its unmentionable status. With some distance between then and now, plus a forgiving attitude, Devil’s Due can be seen as a fun, if not flawed first exposure to the abilities of Radio Silence. And, hopefully, somewhere down the line they can revisit the found-footage format.
Image: Allison Miller and Zach Gilford in Devil’s Due.
‘Flesh of the Gods’ – Kristen Stewart & Oscar Isaac Starring in ’80s Vampire Movie from Panos Cosmatos!
Original Classic ‘The Crow’ Returning to Theaters for 30th Anniversary
“Chucky” Season 4? Call This Number and Let the Executives Know You Want It!
‘Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire’ Heads Home to Digital Next Week
Two New Images from ‘Alien: Romulus’ Spotlight the Heroes and the Giger-Faithful Monster
You must be logged in to post a comment.