Editorials
[Special Feature] ‘Straw Dogs’ Presents The Top 10 Bloody Disgusting Scenes Of Normal People Losing It And Going Bat-sh*t Crazy! Part One!
Sometimes there’s nothing more satisfying than seeing one of our heroes, or even just a regular guy, get pushed so far they absolutely snap. It reminds us that we’re not alone on the occasions that we’re full of rage and want to lash out. That’s why the movies are great! We can watch people do it for us so we don’t have to go to jail or actually hurt anyone!
Sony Screen Gems’ Straw Dogs (official website), a remake of Sam Peckinpah’s 1971 classic, arrives in theaters September 16. To say Dustin Hoffman `loses it’ in the original Straw Dogs would be an understatement, so if the remake is anything like it – and it probably is – expect James Marsden to have some seriously crazy blood on his hands by the time he leaves that country cottage.
In the reboot, “David and Amy Sumner (James Marsden and Kate Bosworth), a Hollywood screenwriter and his actress wife, return to her small hometown in the deep South to prepare the family home for sale after her father’s death. Once there, tensions build in their marriage and old conflicts re-emerge with the locals, including Amy’s ex-boyfriend Charlie (Alexander Skarsgård), leading to a violent confrontation.”
Hit the jump for PART ONE of our Straw Dogs sponsored compilation of people losing their cool on film!
10. SUPER (2011)
James Gunn’s Super is one of my favorite films of the year. Often described as Taxi Driver meets Kick Ass, I think a lot of people miss an element of what makes this film so relatable – it’s also “Curb Your Enthusiasm” with a pipe wrench. Sure Frank D’arbo doesn’t have the money, intelligence or sanity of Larry David but his outrage at those who break the social contract (and his outrage at what passes for the social contract) is more than palpable. Initially I was going to use a clip of him screaming “the rules” into Kevin Bacon’s face near the end of the film (which I actually find cathartic), but I feel this clip really shows where he begins to cross the line.
9. DRAG ME TO HELL (2009)
Sam Raimi’s Drag Me To Hell is one giant freak-out of a movie. Christine is pretty much losing her sh*t (and her anorexic mind if you subscribe to that popular theory) throughout the film. If you’ve ever worked in an office environment (or any environment) you’re aware that people are always out to throw you under the bus at every turn. When she yells at Stu, “keep your filthy pig knuckle off my desk!” she practically becomes the Norma Rae of post-pc office politics. Spewing blood on the boss is just the icing on the cake.
8. EVIL DEAD 2 (1987)
Two Sam Raimi freak-outs in a row. This may be one of the best examples ever of that horribly annoying “when life gives you lemons…” parable. The few times in my my life when I’ve been in this situation I’ve done the exact same thing. Skip to the minute mark to hear what I’m talkin’.
7. THE MIST (2007) (Spoiler)
Please don’t watch this if you haven’t seen Frank Darabont’s modern classic The Mist (hopefully in black and white), it’s the very end of the movie. This clip is sort of long, but you kind of need the build-up to really appreciate the abject madness Thomas Jane’s David Drayton is suffering through at the very end. This is a freak-out that will last the rest of his life.
6. SEVEN (1995) (Spoiler)
“What’s in the box?!” is, I suppose, what the kids call `a meme’ these days. But this scene is still incredibly effective and cruel. It’s a rare person that could put themselves in the shoes of Brad Pitt’s Detective David Mills and say they wouldn’t lose it like he does. Fun Fact: At one of the film’s test screenings David Fincher and Bob Shaye stood near the back of the theater. After the film was over they overheard an audience member declaring, “The people who made this movie should be killed.” Maybe they pushed someone else towards their own Falling Down moment.
BONUS – MATCHSTICK MEN (2003)
Very few people saw Ridley Scott’s Matchstick Men upon its release in 2003. If I had been in charge of the marketing campaign this quote would have been the tagline on every poster and billboard. The film would have made Avatar money.
Check back soon for PART TWO of this list!
Judging from the unprecedented box office success of Kane Parsons’ Backrooms adaptation, you’ve likely already seen the liminal horror hit that managed to make audiences afraid of empty hallways and bad wallpaper. And now that so many of us have already entered the yellow labyrinth (some of us more than once), the time has come to discuss the spoiler-filled details that make the movie so fascinating in the first place.
And if there’s one element here that makes the Backrooms movie stand out from any previous lore/mythology, it has to be the genius addition of the Still Life entities. Warped recreations of real people that somehow wandered into the Complex, these misremembered creatures are responsible for some of the most disturbing imagery of 2026 – as well as laugh-out-loud memes created by one of the film’s very own concept artists.
However, true to Parsons’ word that the movie would rely heavily on practical effects, each of these distorted monsters was brought to life by real actors under heavy layers of makeup and prosthetics (with the occasional splash of CGI enhancements). While Anora and If I Had Legs I’d Kick You actress Ivy Wolk wasn’t among these performers, despite what Letterboxd might have you believe, the creature cast did benefit from veteran players with plenty of genre experience.
For starters, Alien: Romulus alumni Robert Bobroczkyi (who previously brought that film’s horrific Offspring to life during its most memorable sequence) plays the flick’s main antagonist, the Still Life version of Captain Clark. And though there was some obvious CGI involved in making the character’s peg-leg and nightmarish face more believable, Bobroczkyi’s monstrous performance and his natural 7’7″ frame helped to make that final chase sequence a clear highlight among this year’s genre offerings.
The film’s Texas-Chain-Saw-inspired “dinner” scene also features a freaky collection of less-aggressive Still Life creatures in the form of the Bearded Man, the Red-Headed Woman and, strangest of them all, the cheekily named “Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life” (who earned this title among fans and crewmembers as a reference to his apparent affinity for lamps).
While this was the first major horror outing for both Patrick Baynham (The Bearded Man) and Dana Mahmood (Archibald), Rhiannon Roberts has worked as a stunt performer in everything from Yellowjackets to HBO’s The Last of Us adaptation – which is probably why The Red-Headed Woman is the most active out of Clark’s impromptu “family.” That being said, the Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life is my personal favorite of the bunch simply because his anachronistic outfit suggests that the Backrooms phenomenon might be a lot older than the Async Foundation. I also love how hard he tries to be helpful with that little light of his!
That might be it for the Still Life entities, but I think horror fans will also be pleased to hear that the film’s Found Footage prologue stars none other than Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City star Avan Jogia as Naren Warne – and American Mary herself Katharine Isabelle also shows up in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo at Mary’s house party towards the middle of the story (though I have a feeling that she originally had a bigger part that was likely cut for time).
At the end of the day, Parsons’ Backrooms may have been an auteur-driven project motivated by the young director’s unique take on the classic creepypasta, but film has always been a collective artform, so it’s fun to see just how many talented performers it takes to bring this kind of supernatural nightmare to life in a way that connects with so many people.
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