Editorials
The 10 Most Gruesome Dinner Scenes in Horror History
Considering that Thanksgiving originated from giving thanks and sacrifice for a good harvest, it’s surprising how few horror titles there are dedicated to the holiday.
But while the Thanksgiving-set horror offerings might be few, there’s no shortage of disturbing, gory, and gruesome scenes in horror set at the dinner table. Fitting, considering how the holiday has become synonymous with gluttonous feasting with the family.
In honor of Thanksgiving gluttony, we’re setting our sights on the grossest, most gruesome dinner moments in horror!
Se7en – Gluttony
The killer at the center of David Fincher’s crime thriller drew inspiration from the seven deadly sins when selecting and murdering his victims. All of which died in seriously twisted ways. For gluttony, Detectives Somerset and Mills investigate a filth and bug-infested crime scene; the obese victim face down in a bowl of spaghetti at the table. His hands and feet bound together with barbed wire, and a bucket below to catch any, uh, spillage. The victim was forced to eat until he passed out, then the killer kicked him in the stomach until it ruptured. It’s brutal.
Wrong Turn 2: Dead End – Force Feeding
The first film established the inbred cannibal family that slays those venturing into their back wooded territory. For this sequel, director Joe Lynch ramps up the gore with glee. When the group of erstwhile survivors have dwindled in numbers, final girl Nina is captured and forced to be the dinner guest. As in tied down to her chair with barbed wire, taunted in a scene reminiscent of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, and force-fed human flesh.
Hostel: Part II – Italian Cannibal
It’s such a small but effective scene. Late in Eli Roth’s follow-up to Hostel, there’s a moment where the Elite Hunting Club are offering up a kill to their other members after one fails to uphold his end of the bargain. They knock on the door of a man simply credited as “Italian Cannibal,” played by none other than Cannibal Holocaust director Ruggero Deodato. The Cannibal declines the offer, because he’s busy hosting an elegant dinner party for one; he’s calmly and carefully carving away at Miroslav. And Miroslav is still very much alive and aware that he’s on the dinner menu.
Audition – Feeding Time
Not a traditional dinner table scene, but a disturbing supper nonetheless. You can count on Takashi Miike to bring the stomach-churning horror moments, and this is an all-timer. For most of Audition, Miike dupes you into thinking the film is a romantic drama devoid of horror. Slowly, subtle and not so subtle hints drop that something is seriously wrong with Asami. Her apartment is mostly unfurnished, save for a large burlap sack. One that moves on its own. Eventually, it’s revealed that she’s keeping a former lover, broken and mutilated in the bag. For his nightly feedings, she vomits into a dog bowl and serves.
I Saw the Devil – Human Meat
Kyung-chul is a depraved serial killer with a penchant for dismembering his victims. When he happens to kill the pregnant fiancée of special agent Kim Soo-hyun, it sparks a grisly cat and mouse game that continues to escalate the violence. After taking a few beatings, Kyung-chul turns to his friend Tae-joo for help. Tae-joo is a cannibal, and it’s his dinner time. He noisily feasts away, chewing in between declarations that nothing tastes as good as human meat. It’s a disturbing moment in one of the most disturbing films of all time.
Eraserhead – Cut it Like Chicken
Poor Henry Spencer. He’s just trying to survive his strange world and his angry girlfriend, Mary X. Neither one seems to love the other, which only adds to Henry’s horror when she invites him for dinner to meet her parents. His apprehension is proven correct when it turns out to be the most painfully awkward and bizarre dinner ever. Mary X’s dad asks Henry to carve the “man-made chickens,” and they soon pulsate and ooze thick blood. It’s as strange as it sounds, but the scene also serves up the core themes of the film. Meaning there’s an added heft to the imagery that makes this unsightly dinner all the more unsettling.
Slugs – Dinner Meltdown
In this 1988 horror film by Juan Piquer Simon (Pieces), a small town is inundated by toxic waste slugs that go on a homicidal rampage. Because this is a Simon flick, those deaths get pretty gnarly. The most memorable of which takes place at a restaurant, over a business dinner. One of the dinner guests isn’t feeling so well. Unbeknownst to him, he’d eaten slug contaminated lettuce previously, and it’s done a number on his insides. A painful meltdown, profuse bleeding, and slug larvae explosions ensue. All appetites at this restaurant are effectively destroyed.
A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child – Filet de Barbie
Greta is a reluctant aspiring model, thanks to her mother’s pressures and constant badgering. Throughout most of The Dream Child, Greta struggles with an eating disorder over her model pursuits. So, naturally, it’s something that Freddy Krueger exploits in the ickiest way possible. A dinner party nightmare grows to repulsive levels when Krueger straps her into a high chair, cuts open a “Filet de Barbie” and spoon-feeds its flesh to Greta. Really, though, he feeds Greta her own organs, stuffing her to death. Literally.
Dead Alive – Pass the Custard
Peter Jackson’s epic splatter film is a gore lovers dream. There’s no shortage of intestines, flesh, copious blood flow, and body fluids in this zombie rom-com. The worst gore moment guaranteed to test your gag reflex, though, is the scene that involves Lionel’s mum having colleagues over for a proper luncheon. Vera Cosgrove is already well underway in her zombie transformation thanks to a Sumatran Rat Monkey bite, but she pushes on as if everything is normal. Even when that means rotting away in front of her guests. Too bad they’re oblivious; Vera pusses and loses an ear in the custard she’s serving, and one of her guests happily devours it. Barf.
Calvaire – A Deliverance Christmas Dinner
Borrowing similar visual cues from The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, this dinner scene also features its lead bound to a chair and forced to dine with the strange town inhabitants he’s unwittingly crossed paths with. Unlike Sally Hardesty, though, poor Marc has been subjected to his captors’ torture for much longer, building up to a Christmas dinner overrun by pure insanity. In a scene that feels like Deliverance meets The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, you’ll never look at pigs or Christmas dinner the same way again. It’s gruesome, bleak, and downright absurd.A
Editorials
‘Immaculate’ – A Companion Watch Guide to the Religious Horror Movie and Its Cinematic Influences
The religious horror movie Immaculate, starring Sydney Sweeney and directed by Michael Mohan, wears its horror influences on its sleeves. NEON’s new horror movie is now available on Digital and PVOD, making it easier to catch up with the buzzy title. If you’ve already seen Immaculate, this companion watch guide highlights horror movies to pair with it.
Sweeney stars in Immaculate as Cecilia, a woman of devout faith who is offered a fulfilling new role at an illustrious Italian convent. Cecilia’s warm welcome to the picture-perfect Italian countryside gets derailed soon enough when she discovers she’s become pregnant and realizes the convent harbors disturbing secrets.
From Will Bates’ gothic score to the filming locations and even shot compositions, Immaculate owes a lot to its cinematic influences. Mohan pulls from more than just religious horror, though. While Immaculate pays tribute to the classics, the horror movie surprises for the way it leans so heavily into Italian horror and New French Extremity. Let’s dig into many of the film’s most prominent horror influences with a companion watch guide.
Warning: Immaculate spoilers ahead.
Rosemary’s Baby
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The mother of all pregnancy horror movies introduces Rosemary Woodhouse (Mia Farrow), an eager-to-please housewife who’s supportive of her husband, Guy, and thrilled he landed them a spot in the coveted Bramford apartment building. Guy proposes a romantic evening, which gives way to a hallucinogenic nightmare scenario that leaves Rosemary confused and pregnant. Rosemary’s suspicions and paranoia mount as she’s gaslit by everyone around her, all attempting to distract her from her deeply abnormal pregnancy. While Cecilia follows a similar emotional journey to Rosemary, from the confusion over her baby’s conception to being gaslit by those who claim to have her best interests in mind, Immaculate inverts the iconic final frame of Rosemary’s Baby to great effect.
The Exorcist
William Friedkin’s horror classic shook audiences to their core upon release in the ’70s, largely for its shocking imagery. A grim battle over faith is waged between demon Pazuzu and priests Damien Karras (Jason Miller) and Lankester Merrin (Max von Sydow). The battleground happens to be a 12-year-old, Regan MacNeil (Linda Blair), whose possessed form commits blasphemy often, including violently masturbating with a crucifix. Yet Friedkin captures the horrifying events with stunning cinematography; the emotional complexity and shot composition lend elegance to a film that counterbalances the horror. That balance between transgressive imagery and artful form permeates Immaculate as well.
Suspiria
Jessica Harper stars as Suzy Bannion, an American newcomer at a prestigious dance academy in Germany who uncovers a supernatural conspiracy amid a series of grisly murders. It’s a dance academy so disciplined in its art form that its students and faculty live their full time, spending nearly every waking hour there, including built-in meals and scheduled bedtimes. Like Suzy Bannion, Cecilia is a novitiate committed to learning her chosen trade, so much so that she travels to a foreign country to continue her training. Also, like Suzy, Cecilia quickly realizes the pristine façade of her new setting belies sinister secrets that mean her harm.
What Have You Done to Solange?
This 1972 Italian horror film follows a college professor who gets embroiled in a bizarre series of murders when his mistress, a student, witnesses one taking place. The professor starts his own investigation to discover what happened to the young woman, Solange. Sex, murder, and religion course through this Giallo’s veins, which features I Spit on Your Grave’s Camille Keaton as Solange. Immaculate director Michael Mohan revealed to The Wrap that he emulated director Massimo Dallamano’s techniques, particularly in a key scene that sees Cecilia alone in a crowded room of male superiors, all interrogating her on her immaculate status.
The Red Queen Kills Seven Times
In this Giallo, two sisters inherit their family’s castle that’s also cursed. When a dark-haired, red-robed woman begins killing people around them, the sisters begin to wonder if the castle’s mysterious curse has resurfaced. Director Emilio Miraglia infuses his Giallo with vibrant style, with the titular Red Queen instantly eye-catching in design. While the killer’s design and use of red no doubt played an influential role in some of Immaculate’s nightmare imagery, its biggest inspiration in Mohan’s film is its score. Immaculate pays tribute to The Red Queen Kills Seven Times through specific music cues.
The Vanishing
Rex’s life is irrevocably changed when the love of his life is abducted from a rest stop. Three years later, he begins receiving letters from his girlfriend’s abductor. Director George Sluizer infuses his simple premise with bone-chilling dread and psychological terror as the kidnapper toys with Red. It builds to a harrowing finale you won’t forget; and neither did Mohan, who cited The Vanishing as an influence on Immaculate. Likely for its surprise closing moments, but mostly for the way Sluizer filmed from inside a coffin.
The Other Hell
This nunsploitation film begins where Immaculate ends: in the catacombs of a convent that leads to an underground laboratory. The Other Hell sees a priest investigating the seemingly paranormal activity surrounding the convent as possessed nuns get violent toward others. But is this a case of the Devil or simply nuns run amok? Immaculate opts to ground its horrors in reality, where The Other Hell leans into the supernatural, but the surprise lab setting beneath the holy grounds evokes the same sense of blasphemous shock.
Inside
During Immaculate‘s freakout climax, Cecilia sets the underground lab on fire with Father Sal Tedeschi (Álvaro Morte) locked inside. He manages to escape, though badly burned, and chases Cecilia through the catacombs. When Father Tedeschi catches Cecilia, he attempts to cut her baby out of her womb, and the stark imagery instantly calls Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury’s seminal French horror movie to mind. Like Tedeschi, Inside’s La Femme (Béatrice Dalle) will stop at nothing to get the baby, badly burned and all.
Burial Ground
At first glance, this Italian zombie movie bears little resemblance to Immaculate. The plot sees an eclectic group forced to band together against a wave of undead, offering no shortage of zombie gore and wild character quirks. What connects them is the setting; both employed the Villa Parisi as a filming location. The Villa Parisi happens to be a prominent filming spot for Italian horror; also pair the new horror movie with Mario Bava’s A Bay of Blood or Blood for Dracula for additional boundary-pushing horror titles shot at the Villa Parisi.
The Devils
The Devils was always intended to be incendiary. Horror, at its most depraved and sadistic, tends to make casual viewers uncomfortable. Ken Russell’s 1971 epic takes it to a whole new squeamish level with its nightmarish visuals steeped in some historical accuracy. There are the horror classics, like The Exorcist, and there are definitive transgressive horror cult classics. The Devils falls squarely in the latter, and Russell’s fearlessness in exploring taboos and wielding unholy imagery inspired Mohan’s approach to the escalating horror in Immaculate.
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