The question is how does a filmmaker do that when everyone has a different threshold? The answer is that he can’t guarantee that he will, but he can try by pushing the envelope to the best of his ability.
The following scenes did that in their time and continue to do so for many today. They catch us off guard and induce nightmares that follow us into our waking hours. Be warned, spoilers abound. These are the top scenes in horror that shocked us till we dropped…
Most Shocking Scenes in Horror
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#15
Chestburster (Alien 1979): Nowadays, we want to see an alien burst out of someone’s chest but in 1979, that was the furthest thing from our mind. People vomited and left the theater when they saw that the first time. Hell, the cast was shocked because they, too, were kept in the dark as to what they were going to see. No CGI, all in-your-face practical effects. This is why the film still works.
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#14
Rosemary realizing that her baby is alive and the son of Satan (Rosemary’s Baby 1968): After being drugged and mentally assaulted for months, Rosemary escapes two men watching her and locks herself in the apartment to no avail. After having the baby while drugged, she is told it died. While distraught, she uncovers a secret door leading to the neighbor’s apartment. The baby is alive and surrounded by Rosemary’s husband, Guy, and all of her neighbors. Rosemary’s baby has the eyes of a demon and Satan is the baby’s father! The realization that she was raped by Satan who was cheered on by her husband and neighbors was a lot to digest. That, coupled with the baby’s demonic eyes, terrified pregnant women who began being very cautious of others. The film is partly responsible for creating the “Satanic Panic” of the late '60s and early '70s.
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#13
The Red Hooded Dwarf Murder (Don’t Look Now 1973): Grieving father, John (Donald Sutherland), tracks down what he thinks may be his daughter in her red hooded coat that she was wearing when she died. He follows and corners her only to find that she is a dwarfed old woman who promptly slits his throat. The pain of losing a child is intense and can drive a couple apart. But what if you think you still see her? We want so bad to believe something good will come out of this. The shock of seeing the old woman’s face combined with the subsequent murder gave no time to process the events.
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#12
Sarah Stabs Her Own Mother (Inside 2007): Pregnant Sarah is attacked by a woman in her own home with a pair of scissors. The woman intends to cut the baby out and keep it. Sarah hides in the bathroom and when she believes the attacker is trying to get in, she blindly stabs her in the neck as she comes through the door. We then see it’s her mother who has come to check on her. Inside is one of the hardest films to watch as a whole. The worst part is watching the baby’s reaction in the womb to what is going on outside of the body. It’s horrid!
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#11
Home Invasion Video (Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer 1986): Now found footage is so passé that it makes me sick, but in 1986, seeing a murder happen on camera in its entirety was so authentic looking that it froze us to our core. What was even worse is that we then realize that the killers are actually rewatching the footage at home in the living room on the couch.
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#10
Megan Gets Her Brains Blown Out (House of the Devil 2009): Samantha gets dropped off by her BFF Megan. On her way out she is stopped by a stranger (A.J. Bowen). We figure she may return at the end to save Sam or die. What we don’t count on is the stranger suddenly and quickly blowing her brains out. It’s graphic and completely unexpected. From that point forward, all bets are off.
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#9
The Head in the Box (Seven 1996): One thing we can count on in Hollywood is that the good guy always wins, especially when the good guy is Brad Pitt. So, we couldn’t accept when we are told that his wife’s head was in the package that was just delivered. It was too sick, too wrong, and in the end, all too accurate. When I first saw the film on home video, I rewound that final bit several times because it just wouldn’t click. To this day I see the image as created in my mind. I never really got over it.
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#8
Norman Bates in Drag (Psycho 1960): We had been watching Norman for an hour and he seemed like a victim and a tool. What we didn’t expect was him to run in dressed in his mother’s clothes and for mother to be a rotted corpse sitting in the rocking chair. To put it into perspective, none of that was ever seen in 1960 before. Hitchcock had never made a film like that before and Anthony Perkins was known as a nice guy with a supporting Oscar nod and three Pop albums under his belt. Though we weren’t sure how it would end, we didn’t think it would be like this.
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#7
Pre-Mature Group Death (The Mist 2007): Stephen King’s The Mist was a fun monster mash until the end. It made its points seriously but still had a sense of fun about it. So, when we got to the end and the group decides to die, it was jaw dropping. I’ll never forget the site of Thomas Jane sitting, screaming, the hot gun in his hands and surrounded by several bodies including his young son. Out of bullets, Thomas gets out of his car to await his fate, only to find that the army has showed up, and if they had just waited two more minutes, everyone would be alive.
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#6
Eating the Fetus (Anthropophagus 1980): When you are watching a film called Anthropophagus, you expect certain things, but not what we got in the cave. Niko, our local cannibal, rips out the unborn fetus of a woman he has kidnapped and proceeds to eat it, while it is still attached to its mother! It is something that you wish you could unsee, but you can’t.
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#5
Crucifix Masturbation (The Exorcist (1974): If you are religious, especially Catholic, there was never anything more shocking than the moment when Regan (Linda Blair) uses a crucifix to masturbate. Doubly wrong because she is under age by quite a bit. What’s worse is that averting your eyes doesn’t take it away. You can still hear her scream in a demonic voice “Let Jesus Fuck You!”
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#4
Breaking the Fourth Wall (Funny Games 1997): Funny Games is a home invasion film unlike any other. Two boys make a bet and take a family hostage to kill by morning. In its most horrific scene, they kill the young son in front of the mother. She manages to get the gun away from one of the killers giving the audience a sense of hope. The fact that the boy is dead is unsettling, especially with a pillowcase tied over his head, but the thing is, it gets worse. The killers don’t like that they have lost control and that the rules have been broken so they break a rule as well. They TALK to us, let us in on the plan, then they take a remote control and “Rewind” the scene so they can stop the mother from ever getting the gun. It’s weird and doubly upsetting because you witness the murder, then are given a moments relief where you can take a breath. But then the killers violate your trust as a viewer by addressing you and taking away the light at the end of the tunnel. The viewer never has a chance to be vindicated.
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#3
What This Little Girl Is Made Of (Sleepaway Camp 1983): Sleepaway Camp will always be remembered for the ending that gave you nightmares for years and made you a little cautious of young girls. When I had seen the film for the first time, I was young and had never seen the things I saw in this film. It ends abruptly leaving with that terrifying image as it fades to black.
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#2
Tag Team Reveal (A Serbian Film 2010): I couldn’t erase this moment from my mind though I’ve tried. Our “hero," porn actor Milos, is drugged and forced to have intercourse along with a masked man on two unconscious bodies hidden under a sheet. His partner turns out to be his brother and the person he is raping is Milos’ wife. Milos looks down in horror as he realizes who is under his sheet! If you haven’t seen it, you NEED to!
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#1
Murder-Suicide (Combat Shock 1986): Combat Shock aka American Nightmares is one of the most nihilistic films ever made. It builds and builds the tension while dragging the viewer into such depths of depression and depravity that one wonders how it will climax. Well, after sustaining injuries, our anti-hero is being cared for by his wife. He suddenly has a 'Nam flash back and shoots her several times before turning the gun on their deformed baby and then putting the corpse in the oven. Sitting at the kitchen table, he pours a glass of chunky, spoiled milk and blows his brains out. Its power is that it isn’t quick; it is slow and constant in its ending. Slow enough that you could turn it off…but you won’t.
