Editorials
[BEST & WORST ’14] Trace Picks Horror’s 10 Most Disturbing Moments of the Year!
I don’t really think that 2014 has been the best year for horror movies, but there have definitely been some standout moments in terms of gore and mayhem. So I thought I would put a small list together of what I believe are the most disturbing moments seen in films this year. I do think there has been a lot of inventive and amazing grotesquerie this year so let me know if you agree (or have other moments that you think should be on this list). As usual, there will be spoilers aplenty in this post so watch out! In no particular order, I present to you the most disturbing moments in horror films from 2014.
Honeymoon – The Alien Worm Fetus Thing
Man I wish I could post this clip here. Honeymoon was a slow burn film about a newlywed couple (Rose Leslie and Harry Treadaway) celebrating their honeymoon at the bride’s old family cabin in the woods. Hijinks ensue. Honeymoon is definitely a slow burn film. The ending may not be a good enough payoff for some of you but it really worked for me. We clearly know something is wrong with Bea (Leslie) but it’s not immediately clear what it is (and thus, we are unsure of what kind of movie we are watching). After spending the majority of the film making excuses to not have sex with her husband, we finally get the big reveal that something is impregnated inside of her. Watching Treadaway pull what I like to call the “alien worm fetus thing” out of his wife’s vagina is definitely an image I will not soon forget, and I bet you won’t either.
The trailer for Ti West’s upcoming adaptation of A Christmas Carol raised a lot of eyebrows when it dropped earlier this week. While plenty of folks initially dismissed Ebenezer as a derivative project meant to cash in on the recent wave of unnecessary prequels that expand the backstory of beloved characters (such as 2023’s Wonka), Charles Dickens’ original novel already made a point of exploring Ebenezer Scrooge’s origins in detail – meaning that this new film is likely just a particularly faithful adaptation of the source material under a different name.
Couple that with the fact that the movie is being helmed by a genuine horror auteur and I think it’s safe to say that the latest iteration of the first modern ghost story is in good hands.
That being said, one detail that immediately jumped out at me during the brief teaser (other than a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it nod to Johnny Depp’s iconic bedroom death scene from the original A Nightmare on Elm Street) is the fact that many of Ebenezer’s ghosts appear to have been directly lifted from the iconic John Leech illustrations that accompanied the first edition of Dickens’ novel.
Here are a couple of stills from the trailer compared to the original artwork:
The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come in ‘Ebenezer’ and ‘A Christmas Carol’
The Phantoms in ‘A Christmas Carol’ and ‘Ebenezer’
Marley’s Ghost in ‘Ebenezer’ and ‘A Christmas Carol’
Mainly working with old-school wood and steel engravings that would later be transferred to print, Leech was instrumental in crafting the iconic look of history’s most influential phantoms – especially since Dickens is said to have been deeply involved with the creation of these so-called “comic illustrations.”
And since the novel is commonly said to have popularized spiritualism in Victorian England, much of the ghostly iconography that we still see in genre media to this very day (including some of Ti West’s previous films) can be traced back to the author’s partnership with Leech.
Ebenezer won’t be the first A Christmas Carol adaptation to borrow heavily from these designs, but I can appreciate how Ti West is incorporating an important part of horror history into his latest film.
Ebenezer will be available in theaters starting November 13.
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