Editorials
Bloody Disgusting Carves Up the 10 Best Kills in 2023’s Horror Movies
Horror is the gift that keeps giving, especially when it comes to inventive carnage on screen. On that front, it’s been a stellar year for memorable kills in horror thanks to a slew of franchise entries, original slashers, surprising takes on demonic possession, and more.
What might be most surprising, in the best possible way, is how 2023 horror pushed boundaries when it came to on-screen deaths. 2023 horror wasn’t afraid to get ruthless when it came to shattering the taboo of killing kids. Nor was it afraid to deliver unforgettable moments on screen through unexpected demises that made us groan, cheer, recoil, and even laugh.
We’re saluting the ten best kills in 2023 horror movies, which means massive spoilers ahead.
You’ve been warned…
Beau is Afraid – Mid-Coitus Shock
Sometimes, it’s not the goriest or most elaborate death that lingers, but the funniest. In Ari Aster’s strange odyssey, Beau Wassermann (Joaquin Phoenix) finds himself looking to his past as he attempts to make his way home for his overbearing mother’s funeral. His childhood crush Elaine prominently factors into his trip down memory lane, making him wistful for the great love that could’ve been. Beau finally gets his chance at love when he bumps into Elaine (Parker Posey) at his mother’s house. After briefly reconnecting, the pair have sex. Beau’s fears that he’ll die upon climax are revealed to be misplaced; it’s Elaine who has a heart attack mid-coitus, giving Beau an entirely unexpected new complex to fear. Aster plays up the nightmare humor here, ensuring Beau’s first time having sex is every bit as awkward and cringeworthy as possible and then some. The shock of Elaine’s unexpected death is played so macabrely funny that you’ll never hear Mariah Carey’s “Always Be My Baby” the same again.
The Last Voyage of the Demeter – Double the Child Death
Killing children in horror movies is a taboo that 2023 has had no qualms about shattering, from Evil Dead Rise to When Evil Lurks. Who could’ve anticipated that a period-set horror movie that adapts a passage from Bram Stoker’s Dracula would outdo them all? Director André Øvredal doles out gruesome, shockingly violent demises for the ill-fated crew trapped on the ship with the iconic vampire. That’s never more apparent than with the harrowing demise of the captain’s beloved grandson, Toby (Cobweb’s Woody Norman). Dracula (Javier Botet) first drains the child of blood while the crew looks for the villain above deck, but then Øvredal doubles down by killing Toby a second time via vampiric spontaneous combustion. It may not come even remotely close to the goriest or most inventive kill of the year, but the double emotional wallop of murdering a child not once but twice on screen? Bold as hell.
The Wrath of Becky – Machete Rage
Lulu Wilson tapped into a primal ferocity for her turn as the enraged teen taking down violent home intruders in 2020’s Becky. Its follow-up, The Wrath of Becky, quickly established that the angry, ultra-violent teen hasn’t lost her edge in the slightest. Now three years older, Becky has only honed her talents for murder. The blood flows free and Becky’s rampage escalates, all in the name of her dog Diego. That’s evident in her showdown against creepy henchman Twig (Courtney Gaines), who finds himself at the sharp end of a crossbow when he’s baited by the violent teen. It sparks a merciless battle between the pair, resulting in Becky releasing her pent-up fury with a machete. Between the sound design and the buckets of viscous blood, this comic book-style sequel ensures the kills and gore are as over-the-top as its antiheroine.
When Evil Lurks – Mommy’s Hungry
Truth be told, any number of kills featured in Demián Rugna’s latest could qualify for a year-end contender. All bring an unrivaled level of visceral violence and shock value, including the sudden dog attack of a child. But that dog death is practically gentle and mostly off-screen, compared to the grim reveal of what happens to young Santino (Marcelo Michinaux). His possessed mother comes for him, jumping out of a window and dragging him into the night. Jaime (Demián Salomon) drives after them, only to discover the zombie-like woman has broken into Santino’s skull and begun feasting on his brains like popcorn. It’s as gory as it is disturbing.
Kids vs. Aliens – Melted for Fuel
When Gary (Dominic Mariche) and Samantha’s (Phoebe Rex) parents head out of town on Halloween weekend, a teen house party turns to terror when aliens attack, forcing the siblings to band together to survive the night in Jason Eisener’s wild horror movie. Eventually, the protagonists, their friends, and their bullies find themselves aboard the alien spaceship submerged in the lake behind the house. Worse, Sam discovers what the aliens want when she sees bully Trish (Emma Vickers) held captive over a slime pit as weird ooze melts her alive. In Eisener’s hands, this means one gnarly, painful dissolution of flesh for the teen. Trish’s burbling screams as the orange slime melts her down, combined with the entrails spilling out, sticks with you in the best and grossest way. And to think, it’s all for ship fuel.
Malum – A Head-Popping Hanging
Anthony DiBlasi’s update of his own Last Shift comes with a bigger budget that the director utilizes to its fullest with practical effects. In other words, Malum brings the gore when it comes to the film’s death and violence. The pinnacle of this comes in the form of one grotesque hanging; rookie cop Jessica (Jessica Sula) finds herself doused in buckets of blood when she attempts to thwart the supernatural hanging of cult victim Anna (Valerie Loo). An unseen force wraps a noose around Anna’s neck and snaps her fingers in deeply unnatural ways as she attempts to claw for air. DiBlasi lingers longer, the camera watching as Anna’s eyes protrude from the squeezing pressure until, eventually, her head pops. Jessica’s blood-splattered shock emulates our own.
Dark Harvest – Bunker Bloodbath
Director David Slade (30 Days of Night) and screenwriter Michael Gilio (Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves) offset this barebones story, an adaptation of Norman Partridge’s 2006 novel, with style and horror. An annual Halloween hunt sees teen boys let loose upon the town so they may kill Sawtooth Jack before midnight, and the pumpkin boy won’t go down without a fight. It results in a gauntlet of gruesome deaths, the most stunning of which revolves around Bud (Alejandro Akara) fleeing the cornfield after witnessing the grisly beheadings and deaths of his pals. Bud attempts to make his way into a bunker where other kids are hiding, only for Sawtooth Jack to catch up and rip his head in half. Sawtooth Jack then makes his way into the bunker, where a geyser of blood erupts in spectacular fashion.
Cocaine Bear – Ambulance Road Rash
Director Elizabeth Banks leans into every bit of the excess you’d hope for with a comedy-horror movie about a rampaging bear dosed up on cocaine. That means the titular Cocaine Bear’s carnage gets surprisingly violent in the most delightful way. The showstopper kill, of course, comes via a sequence that sees a battered and bleeding Ranger Liz (Margo Martindale) rescued by paramedics and loaded into the ambulance mid-bear attack. With the bear in pursuit, Liz attempts to shoot the bear from the back of the ambulance, but hell hath no fury like a coked-up bear. While the poor paramedics receive violent ends, it’s the prolonged series of injuries Liz sustains, followed by her face getting dragged against the concrete as she’s thrown from the back of the vehicle, that leaves us cringing and recoiling in horror.
Thanksgiving – Carve That Turkey
Director Eli Roth ensures every kill leaves a nasty mark in his holiday slasher, presenting a few worthy nominees to consider. But it’s difficult to top the Thanksgiving centerpiece, the turkey. The town’s annual holiday parade, complete with brutal carnage, heralds the film’s climax, which sees John Carver prepare an unconscious Kathleen (Karen Cliche) as the main course of his murder frenzy. Kathleen manages to sneak away, prompting a thrilling stalk-and-chase slasher sequence. When Kathleen is finally caught, she’s cooked alive in the oven. The entire staging of Kathleen’s extended death would earn a spot on this list, but then Roth takes it a step further; John Carver slices up her corpse on his dinner table to feed to his guests.
Saw X – Brain Self-Surgery
Cecilia Pederson (Synnøve Macody Lund) picked the wrong person to scam in this milestone sequel. When John Kramer (Tobin Bell) realizes he’s been duped in Cecilia’s experimental medical con, he enlists Amanda (Shawnee Smith) to plot an elaborate retribution that sees Cecilia and her cohorts forced to play Jigsaw’s deadly games. It unleashes some of the gnarliest sequences of the franchise yet, including one gruesome act of self-amputation. Yet all of it pales in comparison to the trap set for Mateo (Octavio Hinojosa), who must drill into his skull, extract brain tissue, and dissolve it to obtain the key to his freedom. The clock, of course, is ticking. Director Kevin Greutert ensures this already grisly trap becomes even more so through tactile details and wince-inducing sound design. Mateo’s self-surgery without anesthesia would warrant sympathy pain on its own, but the palpable rust and grime of the warehouse setting and its rudimentary trap devices put it over the top, much to a horror fan’s twisted delight.
Project Wolf Hunting – The Whole Bloody Affair
It may seem like a cop-out to simply attribute all of the deaths featured in Project Wolf Hunting as the best of the year unless you’ve seen the glorious carnage that is Project Wolf Hunting. All hell breaks out on an ocean transport from the Philippines to South Korea when a group of dangerous criminals unites to stage a coordinated escape attempt. As the jailbreak escalates into an ultra-violent riot, the fugitives and their allies from the outside exact a brutal siege against the special ops team on board. It results in an almost nonstop bloodbath with arterial spray like you wouldn’t believe; we’re talking a kill count of at least 80 bodies, each one spilling gallons of the red stuff. It’s the goriest actioner of the year, and director Kim Hong-sun ensures that every single death results in excess of entrails and blood flow.
It took nearly five decades for it to happen, but the tide has turned for Jaws 2. Not everyone has budged on this divisive sequel, but general opinion is certainly kinder, if not more merciful. Excusing a rehashed plot — critic Gene Siskel said the film had “the same story as the original, the same island, the same stupid mayor, the same police chief, the same script…” — Jaws 2 is rather fun when met on its own simple terms. However, less simple is the novelization; the film and its companion read are like oil and water. While both versions reach the same destination in the end, the novelization’s story makes far more waves before getting on with its man-versus-shark climax.
Jaws 2 is not labeled as much of a troubled production as its predecessor, but there were problems behind the scenes. Firing the director mid-stream surely counts as a big one; John D. Hancock was replaced with French filmmaker Jeannot Szwarc. Also, Jaws co-writer Carl Gottlieb returned to rewrite Howard Sackler’s script for the sequel, which had already been revised by Hancock’s wife, Dororthy Tristan. What the creative couple originally had in store for Jaws 2 was darker, much to the chagrin of Universal. Hence Hancock and Tristan’s departures. Hank Searls’ novelization states it is “based on a screenplay by Howard Sackler and Dorothy Tristan,” whereas in his book The Jaws Log, Gottlieb claims the “earlier Sackler material was the basis” for the tie-in. What’s more interesting is the “inspired by Peter Benchley’s Jaws” line on the novelization’s cover. This aspect is evident when Searls brings up Ellen’s affair with Hooper as well as Mayor Larry Vaughan’s connection to the mob. Both plot points are unique to Benchley’s novel.
The novelization gives a fair idea of what could have been Jaws 2 had Hancock stayed on as director. The book’s story does not come across as dark as fans have been led to believe, but it is more serious in tone — not to mention sinuous — than Szwarc’s film. A great difference early on is how Amity looks and feels a few years after the original shark attack (euphemized by locals as “The Troubles”). In the film, it seems as if everything, from the townsfolk to the economy, is unaffected by the tragedies of ‘75. Searls, on the other hand, paints Amity as a ghost town in progress. Tourism is down and money is hard to come by. The residents are visibly unhappy, with some more than others. Those who couldn’t sell off their properties and vacate during The Troubles are now left to deal with the aftermath.
Image: As Martin Brody, Roy Scheider opens fire on the beach in Jaws 2.
It is said that Roy Scheider only came back to fulfill a three-picture deal with Universal (with Jaws 2 counting as two films) and to avoid having his character recast. Apparently, he was also not too pleased (or pleasant) after Szwarc signed on. Nevertheless, Scheider turned in an outstanding performance as the returning and now quietly anguished Martin Brody. Even in the film’s current form, there are still significant remnants of the chief’s psychological torment and pathos. Brody opening fire on what he thought to be the shark, as shocked beachgoers flee for their lives nearby, is an equally horrifying and sad moment in the film.
In a candid interview coupled with Marvel’s illustrated adaptation of Jaws 2, Szwarc said he had posted the message “subtlety is the picture’s worst enemy” above the editor’s bench. So that particular beach scene and others are, indeed, not at all subtle, but neither are the actions of Brody’s literary counterpart. Such as, his pinning the recent deaths on Jepps, a vacationing cop from Flushing. The trigger-happy drunk’s actual crimes are breaking gun laws and killing noisy seals. Regardless, it’s easier for Brody to blame this annoying out-of-towner than conceive there being another great white in Amity. Those seals, by the way, would normally stay off the shore unless there was something driving them out of the ocean…
Brody’s suspicions about there being another shark surface early on in the film. For too long he is the only one who will even give the theory any serious thought, in fact. The gaslighting of Brody, be it intentional or otherwise, is frustrating, especially when considering the character is suffering from PTSD. It was the ‘70s though, so there was no intelligible name for what Brody was going through. Not yet, at least. Instead, the film delivers a compelling (and, yes, unsubtle) depiction of a person who, essentially, returned from war and watched a fellow soldier die before his very eyes. None of that trauma registers on the Martin Brody first shown in Jaws 2. Which, of course, was the result of studio interference. Even after all that effort to make an entertaining and not depressing sequel, the finished product still has its somber parts.
Image: A page from Marvel’s illustrated adaptation of Jaws 2.
How Brody handles his internal turmoil in the novelization is different, largely because he is always thinking about the shark. Even before there is either an inkling or confirmation of the new one. It doesn’t help that his oldest son, Mike, hasn’t been the same since The Troubles. The boy has inherited his father’s fear of the ocean as well as developed his own. Being kept in the dark about the second shark is also detrimental to Brody’s psyche; the local druggist and photo developer could have alleviated that self-doubt had he told Brody what he found on the dead scuba diver’s undeveloped roll of film. Instead, Nate Starbuck kept this visual proof of the shark to himself. His reasons for doing so are connected to the other pressing subplot in the novelization.
While the film makes a relatively straight line for its ending, Searls takes various and lengthy detours along the way. The greatest would be the development of a casino to help stimulate the local economy and bring back tourists. Brody incriminating Jepps inadvertently lands him smack dab in the middle of the shady casino deal, which is being funded with mafia money. A notorious mob boss from Queens, Moscotti, puts a target on Brody’s head (and his family) so long as the chief refuses to drop the charges against Jepps. In the meantime, the navy gets mixed up in the Amity horror after one of their helicopters crashes in the bay and its pilots go missing. A lesser subplot is the baby seal, named Sammy by Brody’s other son Sean, who the Brodys take in after he was wounded by Jepps. Eventually, and as expected, all roads lead back to the shark.
In either telling of Jaws 2, the shark is a near unstoppable killing machine, although less of a mindless one in the novelization. The film suggests this shark is looking for payback — Searls’ adaptation of Jaws: The Revenge clarifies this with a supernatural explanation — yet in the book, the shark is acting on her maternal instinct. Pregnant with multiple pups, the voracious mother-to-be was, in fact, impregnated by the previous maneater of Amity. Her desire to now find her offspring a safe home includes a body count. And perhaps as a reflection of the times, the author turns the shark and other animals’ scenes into miniature wildlife studies; readers are treated to small bits of infotainment as the story switches to the perspective of not only the killer shark, but also the seals and a navy-trained dolphin. The novelization doesn’t hold back on the scientific details, however weird as it may sound at times. One line sure to grab everyone’s attention: “There, passive and supine, she had received both of his yard-long, salami-shaped claspers into her twin vents.”
Image: Roy Scheider’s character, Martin Brody, measures the bitemark on the orca in Jaws 2.
Up until the third act, the novelization is hard to put down. That’s saying a lot, considering the overall shark action borders on underwhelming. There is, after all, more to the story here than a fish’s killing spree. Ultimately though, Szwarc’s Jaws 2 has the more satisfying finale. Steven Spielberg’s film benefitted from delaying the shark’s appearance, whereas the sequel’s director saw no need for mystery. The original film’s reveal was lightning in a bottle. So toward the end, Jaws 2 transforms into a cinematic theme park ride where imagination isn’t required. The slasher-at-sea scenario is at full throttle as the villain — wearing her facial burn like a killer would wear their mask — picks off teen chum and even a pesky helicopter. And that’s before a wiry, go-for-broke Brody fries up some great white in the sequel’s cathartic conclusion. That sort of over-the-top finisher is better seen than read.
It would be a shame to let this other version of Jaws 2 float out to sea and never be heard from again. On top of capturing the quotidian parts of Amity life and learning what makes Brody tick, Hank Searls drew up persuasive plot threads that make this novelization unlike anything in the film franchise. If the Jaws brand is ever resurrected for the screen, small or big, it wouldn’t hurt to revisit this shark tale for inspiration.
Image: The cover of Hank Searls’ novelization for Jaws 2.
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