Editorials
Meagan Slices Up the Top 10 Horror Movie Kills of the Decade!
*Keep up with our ongoing end of the decade coverage here*
Of all the many reasons we adore horror, spectacular character deaths rank high among them. One solid, gruesome kill can go a long way in a horror movie. It’s an art form perfected by the slasher, but all horror movies embrace the art of grisly and elaborate death sequences.
It’s been one hell of a decade for horror, not just in emerging new voices and box office records, but in memorable moments of gore. We’re closing out the decade by celebrating the best kills horror had to offer. The most creative, most outlandish, most jaw-dropping kills that seared into our horror-loving skulls.
These are the top 10!
10. Upgrade – Kitchen Killer
If there’s one thing horror has taught us, it’s that anything within grasp can make for a decent weapon. When Grey (Logan Marshall-Green) breaks into the home of one of the assailants that left him paralyzed, a battle breaks out. Grey’s no fighter, though, so he finally gives STEM permission to take over. The fight takes over the small kitchen, and STEM grabs anything and everything he can to use against his opponent. The dishes get destroyed in the mayhem. Then STEM grabs a kitchen knife. A typical stabbing would’ve sufficed, but STEM decides maybe his opponent could use a bigger mouth.
9. Annihilation – Not Your Average Bear Mauling
Everything inside the Shimmer is weird; the alien environment absorbs flora and fauna and mutates it in often unnerving ways. The most terrifying of which is the screaming bear. Its ghastly appearance rivals the haunting way in which it steals the voice of its last victim. It first attacked the base camp and mauled Cass to death off-screen, her mutilated corpse found later. But the bear tracks the core group, following them to strike again. This time it mauls Anya to death, and we get to see every excruciating second. It doesn’t end pretty.
8. Final Destination 5 – Gymnastics Pretzel
The entire Final Destination franchise centers around creative kills made even more visceral by the unbearable tension that builds while we try to guess the how and when. The death of gymnast Candice is an absolute series highlight. The suspense winds tighter and tighter as we watch Candice avoid potential death over and over again during her practice. A sharp screw on the balance beam. A puddle of water on the mat next to a power cord on the fritz. Eventually, all of the ill omens become an unfortunate chain of events that leaves Candice in bone-splitting pretzel form after an unfortunate dismount from the high bar. Brutal.
7. Hatchet II – Swamp Bifurcation
The Hatchet series boasts no shortage of crowd-pleasing kills at the hands of swamp boogeyman Victor Crowley. Yet it’s the final major death of the 2010 sequel that earns a spot on this list. A showdown between Crowley and Rev. Zombie (Tony Todd) results in Zombie getting severed in half. Crowley has always been on to revel in excess, of course, and so he grabs the exposed spine from Zombie’s torso and yanks, effectively skinning him alive. Zombie might have had it coming, but ouch.
6. Apostle – Purification Ritual
Gareth Evans’ 1905-set folk horror tale brings the bloodshed and violence in gratifying ways. The crowning achievement of horrific deaths is the mean-spirited purification ritual of poor Jeremy, who’d just witnessed the aftermath of his lover’s death by forced abortion at the hands of her father. The girl’s father captures Jeremy and straps him to a torture table to perform a soul-cleansing rite in front of the congregation. What makes this one so noteworthy is the way Evans puts the viewer in Jeremy’s perspective as the clamps squeeze his skull so tight that we see blood vessels burst and hear the painful crunch. Then a hand-cranked drill graphically carves out a hole in the crown of his head. It’s unflinching and oh so painfully slow.
5. Hereditary – Self-Decapitation
Ari Aster’s debut offered not one, but two shocking decapitations. For pure shock value, Charlie’s death by telephone pole is the more memorable of the two, bolstered by a glimpse of the decayed aftermath. But it’s the self-garroting demise of Annie that’s far more chilling and vicious. Possessed, Annie hovers in the air, staring her son down as she seesaws piano wire back and forth against her throat. Slowly, at first, growing faster as the flesh gives way. The visual of it would be enough, with her frozen expression and blood spurts, but it’s the repulsive sound that it makes that gets under your skin.
4. Puppet Master: The Littlest Reich – Money Lender
By design, this reboot aims to offend and assault the senses with a slew of endless gory deaths. Many of which plead their case for earning a spot on this list. From the beheading into the toilet bowl to the puppet that carves out his human-sized vehicle to puppeteer, the creativity of kills is a raucous highlight. But none hold a candle to the taboo-shattering death of a pregnant woman by Money Lender. The evil puppet claws his way into her womb and tears its way out of her stomach with her fetus in tow. Killing children, let alone babies, is one of the biggest cinematic taboos, and Puppet Master gave it a blood-splattered middle finger.
3. Saw 3D: The Final Chapter – Reverse Bear Trap
From the very first Saw, the Reverse Bear Trap captured our attention. The cruel nature of it, and the equally punishing way in which Amanda Young escaped it. Jigsaw created endless traps and puzzles for his victims; all brought severe levels of pain and suffering. Yet it was the Reverse Bear Trap that kept popping up again and again, including a harrowing moment in Saw VI that had Detective Hoffman barely escaping it, and not without injury. Finally, in the series’ seventh outing, we got to see the trap claim its first on-screen kill. Poor Jill Tuck didn’t deserve to die that way, if at all, but man was it a seriously satisfying payoff after being teased with this trap for six movies.
2. Evil Dead – Chainsaw meets Abomination
The climactic showdown between Mia and the Abomination is a bloodbath for the ages. Literally. A downpour of blood marks the Abomination’s arrival, and it doesn’t relent for a single second of Mia’s fight for survival against the Taker of Souls in Mia form. It’s an epic battle that sees limbs lopped off with chainsaws and Mia ripping her own hand off to free herself, and it all culminates in Mia taking a chainsaw to the Abomination’s face, slicing it into two. This kill is an insanely bloody and impressive conclusion to one of the decade’s goriest films. Bravo, Mia.
1. Bone Tomahawk -Troglodyte Nutcracker
For much of the runtime, S. Craig Zahler’s feature debut plays like a standard western. Until the cruel final act, that is. No one was prepared for how brutal the cannibalistic troglodyte clan was until they’re captured and made witness to the decade’s most shocking demise of all. To summarize: poor Deputy Nick is pulled from his cage, naked, and scalped. They hammer his scalp into his throat through his mouth. Held upside down with legs spread open, the savages slowly chop away at him from the crotch to the abdomen. He’s pulled apart, like cracking pistachios. All the while, his muffled screams of pain signal that he’s still conscious for most of this.
Honorable Mention: The Collection – Blood Rave
Sorry, Saw franchise, but Marcus Dunstan and Patrick Melton just decimated your death count with this insane opening kill. The Collector rigged several traps in the club full of unsuspecting partygoers, which are triggered in quick succession. Massive rotating blades mow down the dance floor, while everyone else is maimed or crushed by other traps. It’s excessively bloody, with limbs and viscera splattering the walls and floors. At least 70 people slaughtered in one fell swoop. And to think, this is just the opening scene of the film!
Editorials
Before ‘The Blair Witch Project’, ‘Alien Autopsy’ Showed How Real Found Footage Could Feel
The line separating artist from con man is a lot thinner than you might initially believe. While I think we can all agree that lying for the sake of profit is actively malicious behavior, isn’t it also true that the faux documentary aspect of The Blair Witch Project is half the reason why that film became such a cultural phenomenon? After all, if there’s one thing filmmakers have in common with stage magicians, it’s that misleading and misdirecting audiences is simply part of the job.
That’s why I’ve developed a habit of mostly ignoring the moral quandaries behind many of film and television’s biggest “hoaxes” in favor of appreciating the narrative elements that drive productions like Mermaids: The Body Found and even Animal Planet’s highly underrated The Cannibal in the Jungle. However, if there’s a definitive case of a highly publicized broadcast fooling the world into taking it seriously, it has to be Fox’s infamous 1995 TV special Alien Autopsy: Fact or Fiction.
It’s been over three decades since that eerie footage first haunted television screens right at the peak of the ’90s ufology craze, and in that time, the video has taken on a life of its own. From countless parodies and references in everything from The X-Files to Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater (as well as John Dower’s recently released tell-all documentary The Alien Autopsy Scandal, which I’d highly recommend to genre fans everywhere), there’s no denying the legacy of the Alien Autopsy video. However, I rarely see the tape discussed as what it truly is: a highly convincing found footage film directed by a passionate stage magician and brought to life by masterful practical effects work.
That’s why I’d like to invite readers to join me on a deep dive into one of the most infamous broadcasts of all time in an attempt to reevaluate the footage as a fascinating narrative experience rather than a complete hoax.
The TV Special That Convinced Millions It Was Real
Ray Santilli next to Extraterrestrial replica in ‘The Alien Autopsy Scandal’
For starters, regardless of whether or not you believe that there was in fact an extraterrestrial crash in Roswell during the summer of 1947 and that some form of autopsy was performed on the victims, the producers behind the black & white recordings, Ray Santilli and Gary Shoefield, insist that their video was a “restoration.” Though I’d argue that the proper word is “remake”of genuine footage that was too damaged to air on television. That’s why the duo went on to recruit filmmaker and eccentric magician Spyros Melaris and sculptor/monster designer John Humphreys to bring their version of the autopsy to life and sell it to the highest bidder.
This is where the story of the Alien Autopsy as a narrative experience really begins. Melaris claims that his approach to the faux recording consisted of striving for extreme period accuracy in both shooting equipment and setting while also planting subtle details that would initially seem like mistakes but could later be revealed to actually fit the time period. That being said, the filmmaker was under the impression that the short would be released for free as a PR stunt, with the team later producing and selling an informative documentary chronicling exactly how the footage was faked and commenting on how easy it is to manipulate public perception with a good old-fashioned magic trick.
This obviously isn’t how things went down, and that’s likely the reason why Melaris has since distanced himself from everyone else involved with the project. Yet, no amount of behind-the-scenes drama can undermine the genuine effort that went into making the short as impressive as it is. From the sourcing of real animal organs from a local butcher to make the organic part of the creature more lifelike to the highly detailed sculpt that made use of a hollowed-out underlayer that could be filled with fake blood and assorted viscera, there’s a reason why so many Hollywood specialists are still impressed with the artistry on display here.
Of course, the believability is only half the story, as I think that the best part of the autopsy is how Melaris builds on the existing tension by obscuring certain details and often embracing the chaos of what a real examination of extraterrestrial life could feel like. The camera often goes out of focus at just the right time to make certain effects hit even harder, and we can only speculate as to what the hazmat-suited doctors are gesticulating about during the operation. There’s a real air of mystery to the whole thing that almost makes it feel like a cosmically terrifying, cursed film containing forbidden knowledge that civilians were never meant to see.
So when Fox’s Fact or Fiction brings in the specialists to comment on the film and its otherworldly subject, it’s no surprise that we end up with one of the most memorable mockumentaries of all time – albeit one where the participants are unaware that the footage they’re commenting on is basically a large-scale practical joke. A joke that the network was obviously in on, as many participants claim that the TV special cut out significant portions where guests point out that they believe the footage to be an elaborate hoax.
The Lasting Impact of the Hoax Turned Cultural Event
Regardless, I remember going to bed terrified after watching reruns of the special and thinking about the respected pathologist who claimed that the body was almost certainly inhuman, with even effects maestro Stan Winston commenting on how difficult it would be to recreate some of these visuals through practical puppetry. That’s not even mentioning Jonathan Frakes’ dramatic hyping up of the disturbing imagery as if he was talking about the tape from The Ring, with his spooky demeanor here likely being responsible for his later role as the host of Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction a few years later.
Personally, I’d argue that the Alien Autopsy phenomenon had just as much of an impact on me as a horror fan as The Blair Witch Project, a film that was almost certainly influenced by the success of this immensely popular hoax (to the point where they even produced their own TV special commenting on Heather’s found footage). Even if Fox didn’t intend to produce a narrative feature about the aftermath of the Roswell crash, the end product still holds up remarkably well as a highly entertaining mockumentary exploring the idea that we may not be alone in the universe.
While neither Santilli nor the rest of the production team has ever commented on this, I also think it’s very likely that the idea of a faux Alien Autopsy could have been influenced by Dean Alioto’s The McPherson Tape/UFO Abduction. I’ve already written about how this granddaddy of found footage was co-opted by rogue ufologists who began selling bootlegs of the tape at conventions as if it were real evidence of a close encounter, so it’s not that much of a stretch to imagine that Santilli and company could have heard about this phenomenon and been inspired to come up with their own highly profitable hoax.
At the end of the day, it’s unlikely that the Alien Autopsy film is recreating any real footage from Roswell, but I can still appreciate the short and the accompanying television event as a standalone horror story that still influences the way we see found footage to this very day.
After all, the possibility that something could be real is often much scarier than finding out for sure – and that’s why I think Alien Autopsy: Fact or Fiction is still worth revisiting three decades down the line.
You must be logged in to post a comment.