​Top Horror Scenes Ever (SPOILERS THROUGHOUT)

 
After my debut Ginger Nuts of Horror post in which I moaned about overused tropes and clichés in horror cinema, I’m worried that I might seem like a bit of a grouch. So, in an attempt to show that I prefer praising to complaining, I thought that I would list my favourite horror movie scenes of all time, and explain what makes each one more jaw-dropping than the rest.
Obviously, like my first piece, these are entirely my own opinion, and I’d love to hear what you agree and disagree with.

Bloodiest - Braindead (1992) - “Lawnmower”

A lot less bover with a hover

No list of gore-soaked silver screen madness would be complete without including what’s probably the bloodiest scene of all time. If any of you are still unaware, way before Peter Jackson started directing the biggest movies of all time, he was prone to shooting comedy-filled schlock-fests. From eating German shepherds whole, to babies falling into blenders Braindead (or, stateside, Dead Alive) is the sovereign of splatter cinema.
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The climax to this most ludicrous of zombie films charts the transformation of an impromptu party into a chaotic series of flesh-chomping set pieces. The most famous of these, which trumps even a rib cage removal and an undead infant ripping open a woman’s face from the inside, involves our lovably lame hero Lionel dismembering a roomful of walkers with a lawnmower. For several minutes, fingers, faces and innards fly, pooling sloppily on the floor, and helping to crown this one of the most spectacular and hilarious horror scenes in history.

​Weirdest- Society (1989) – “Shunting”

This is what happens when you don't read the warnings on a tube of super glue

One of the more genuinely unnerving entries from my list, Society was one of those few horror films I saw as a child that haunted me into adulthood. If you haven’t seen it, you’re missing a treat.

​This flesh-oozing, satirical slow burner ends with an orgy the like of which you may never have even imagined.  With spectacular practical effects from Screaming Mad George, the climax involves a sinister clan of Beverly Hills rich folks/aliens performing what they call a “shunting”. During this foul ritual, these titans of wealth absorb one another before sucking the nutrients from their financially bereft victims. Heads become hands, butts become faces, and flesh melts and mingles into one sexually confusing blob.
Once seen, never forgotten.

Silliest - Story of Ricky (Riki-Oh, 1991) – “Guts strangulation”

I told you I don't a half Windsor

With similar levels of grue to Braindead/ Dead Alive, the Story of Ricky is based on a manga about a preposterously badass convict with a heart of gold, eviscerating and obliterating the employees and owners of a corrupt prison complex. Blessed with supernatural strength, Ricky does not punch his foes hard enough to knock them unconscious – he punches holes in them, he punches their fists to bloody smithereens, and he punches them quite literally to pieces.

With such an exhausting roster of blood-soaked scenes, it’s difficult to pick the most OTT of the bunch. However, for sheer inventive insanity, I’m choosing the fight in which Ricky pops out a chap’s eye, ties his own torn tendon in a knot in order to heal himself, and then disembowels his opponent, who then uses his own dripping intestines to try and strangle our brutal hero Ricky to death.
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Yes. It really is that silly, and that awesome.

​Quirkiest - House (Hausu, 1977) – “Piano Chomp”

If only it would eat Elton John

Imagine a psychedelic remake of Evil Dead 2, made several years before its source material, directed by Dario Argento and Miike Takashi, and featuring seven archetypal schoolgirls instead of Bruce Cambell’s Ash.

Considering its unique and fantastical nature, it’s perhaps unsurprising this film falls under the radar of many horror fans. It is certainly one of the most surreal films I have ever seen, and definitely the most surreal that I have ever enjoyed. From the poignant theme music to the stylised imagery, through to the slapstick weirdness and the unforgettable set pieces, House is one of the most compelling films that no one has ever watched.
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As for my choice of scene, how about the moment when a grand piano comes to life and eats one of the schoolgirls?

Mindfucky-est - Audition (Odishon, 1999) – “Climax”

The brilliance of Audition lies in its gentle build-up. In a rare demonstration of subtlety, depraved directing maestro Miike Takashi carefully guides the viewer through the first hour of the film, barely even hinting at the degenerate, stomach-churning horrors to come.
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Audition charts the doomed relationship of a lonely man and Asami, the quiet woman he falls in love with, whose outwardly polite and obedient nature hides the darkest of secrets. At the climax of the film – which must last almost half an hour – the mundane and firmly “real-world” tone of the tale mutates into a hallucinogenic nightmare involving vomit consumption, dismemberment and bondage-tinged depravity.
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If you haven’t seen this film, and if you enjoy meticulously crafted horror, treat yourself to an evening with Asami.

​Disturbing-est - Irreversible (2002) - “Fire extinguisher”

Looks like even Fireman Sam is pissed at all the cuts to services

While this isn’t strictly a horror, I have never felt such dread and revulsion while watching a film than during this exhausting haymaker of a movie. I have seen it once, and have never been able to bring myself to view it again.

Irreversible is filmed in reverse order, opening with its climax, and with each subsequent scene chronologically preceding the last. In its simplest form it is a twist on the “traditional” rape-revenge story, but due to the order in which the story is told, the backstory acts more as a sequence of heart-breaking revelations rather than a build-up to a satisfying redemption. It’s this masterfully sadistic storytelling technique that manages to make the second half of the film somehow more difficult to stomach after its notorious 10-minute rape scene.
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The film begins with a character storming through a sleazy set of gay clubs, in search of the mysterious “La Tenia”, before we witness a horrific and graphic murder scene. This disorientating opening is even more distressing due to the sound effects accompanying the chaos, the noise of which was apparently a siren used by police in Paris to induce nausea in rioters. While the rape scene is no doubt more visceral, the shock of this opening sequence has stayed with me for longer.

​Body-horror-est - The Thing (1982) – “Defibrillator”

His mother always told him he needed a thicker skin

As one of my favourite horror films ever, with its Lovecraftian sense of foreboding and extreme paranoia, John Carpenter’s The Thing has some of the most creative practical creature effects ever filmed.

The crew of an Antarctic research team battles against a shape-shifting alien that can replicate people and animals with near-perfect precision. During their struggles, the team experiences scenes of sanity-defying horror in which the human form contorts beyond recognition – and the pinnacle of these encounters, for me, is when poor Norris transforms.

When Norris suffers an apparent heart attack, Copper uses a defibrillator in an attempt to revive him. Unfortunately, rather than jerking back to life and spending a few days in the med area recovering, Norris’s torso opens into a pair of gaping, jagged jaws and chomps through Copper’s wrists. As if this wasn’t enough, a tentacled, insectoid form of Norris seems to burst from his own ribcage, and his head literally screams itself free from his body, before sprouting spidery legs and scuttling across the floor.
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Some of the effects have aged well, while others appear admittedly slightly gonky three decades after its birth, but The Things remains a powerhouse of horror.

Video Game-Est - Hotel Inferno (2013) – “Hotel escape”

Don't you just hate it when this happens to a bottle of ketchup

In terms of contemporary low-budget horror that walks the fine line between genuinely great and hilariously tacky, no one is making horror with quite as much enthusiasm as the crew behind Necrostorm films. Gleefully tasteless and combining an entertaining combination of practical effects and CGI, these gore-maniacs’ films hark back to the days of Troma and Italian sleaze, as well as offering modern extreme gore.

Hotel Inferno is my favourite of the team’s current output and was one of the first ever 100% POV feature films, coming out just one year after the Maniac remake. It’s a muddled mishmash of hitman thriller and blood-n-guts marathon, and once the plot starts moving it doesn’t stop until the credits roll.
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Hotel Inferno really does feel like you’re watching someone play an adrenaline-fuelled Xbox game. The most action-packed and ludicrous moments take place when our anti-hero Frank Zimosa escapes from the titular hotel, pursued by scores of demented henchmen, and dispatches them with grenades, guns, and great big knives.

Zombie-est - Zombie flesh eaters (Zombi, 1979) - “Rising”

Trust me I scrub up really well

While the Italian “Godfather of Gore” Lucio Fulci may not have worried too much about logic or smart pacing in his films, the atmosphere he conjured and the obvious dedication he gave to his “Dead” quadrilogy – not to mention his attention to graphic gore – makes him a figure to respect.
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Video nasty Zombie Flesh Eaters bypasses Romero’s sense of satire and concentrates on being the ultimate zombie B-movie – which, for my tastes, is near-unbeatable. It may be a bubbling pot of exaggerated acting, hammy lines and bad dubbing but it contains one of the most atmospheric “zombie rising” scenes ever committed to celluloid.

When our four hapless main characters flee a zombie outbreak on the menacing island of Matoole, they decide against running for too long in favour of lying down and having a sly smooch. However – shock of all shocks – the area upon which they lie is none other than the resting place of a remarkably well-preserved bunch of Conquistadores! These historical cadavers rise from their graves ready to tear, rip, munch and chew anyone who happens to stand stock-still long enough for them to do so. What follows is a ghastly sequence of meticulously filmed carnage, as well as some of the most revolting zombies ever designed. It never fails to give me chills.

I couldn’t find the scene I was describing, so here’s a fight between a zombie and a shark instead. Yes!
 
 
What are your “–est” movies? Comment below!

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