I really hoped for American Psycho to make the list. The scene where Patrick Bateman calmly talks about Huey Lewis and puts his raincoat on and then "Hey, Paul!"
Batemans stone cold bloody face after that deed was my avatar icon for years. =P I even found a twin here on youtube from almost exactly the same frame.
Two thumbs up for Let The Right One In. It's the anti-Twilight. That pool scene was a masterpiece. Brilliantly shot. Every time I watch it I try to hold my breath like Oskar.
I am Swedish, and I was quite young when I watched Let The Right One In (Låt den rätte komma in) for the first time. I remember that pool scene so vividly, and the emotional void it opens within you when you know the context of the scene. There truly are monsters - we just get confused because they come in the form of other people.
I agree with your #1. That scene from Let the Right One In may not be gory but it is still horrifying. It was very artistically done. It shows that movies don't need blood and too much graphic violence to horrify the audience.
+libertangel The death of the Red Dragon in particular and the final embrace between Will and Hannibal... so gorgeous. The line about blood looking black under the moonlight further accentuated the beauty of the scene.
My favorites you missed? _Suspiria_'s stained glass double murder, which you mentioned. The final set piece is breathtakingly, beautiful and horrifying. The rest of the movie doesn't hold up to the promise, but it still is one of my favorites. _Texas Chainsaw Massacre_, not the honorable mention you gave us, but the meathook scene instead. Okay, she doesn't die in that scene, the "can't barely be bothered" nature which Leatherface puts her up there because she's in the way, tells us all we need to know. It's the only scene I've ever watched that made me flinch in sympathetic pain. Great top pick though, such a beautiful death scene. I used that as a desktop background for a long time).
Agreed. It should replace number 10. While I get the placement of final rest. Movies, the Suspiria scene is amazing Also, Psycho should be number 1. It’s still effective and such a watershed moment in film history
I just saw Let the Right One In based on the list here. It is such an amazing film. I was speechless. Everyone here who appreciates a good film must watch this. But, if you can, don't look into what the movie is fully about. Its better to be surprised. All you need to know is its a love story that's both sweet and innocent and yet has some really dark and grisly elements. Its on Netflix, Hulu Plus and Amazon Prime. Go see it right now.
+davidml1023 I'm sorry if I come of as a douche, but I recommend the book the movie is based on with the same title, by John Arjvide Lindqvist. He's without a doubt one of the best horror writers in our modern time :) (and the book in this case does beat the movie)
Aah yes, the novel is amazing too :D It does a fairly good job at presenting the book and is still equally as beautiful, unlike some movies out there :P
The Omen II, those deaths gave me nightmares; the woman who got her eyes pecked by a crow and was then ran over, and the guy who drowns in a frozen lake. For some reason they scarred me for life.
One of the most horrendous death scenes of all time was in Pan's Labyrinth and was executed with the butt-end of a wine bottle. Those who have seen Guillermo Del Toro's psychotronic make-up masterpiece know what I mean.
Considering how you make your lists now, I would love to see an updated version of this list- especially considering all the fantastic horror movies we've gotten in the years since.
Wait..The Shower Scene isn't in top 5!? That scene inspired many writers and directors,the icon of horror movies! And the movie started the slasher genre
First off I'm extremely happy to see Scream get some love. It's one of my favorite movies of all time. As for other horror movie death scenes, I would say some from a more recent film in Sinister. The footage from that movie was terrifying but I think either the opening shot or the lawnmower scene is the best from that movie. Anyone else agree or have an opinion on that?
Brilliant top pick! That movie ending was so well shot and satisfying, it gives an otherwise dark and depressing movie a feel good ending without changing the tone of the movie.
watching final destination 3 as a 10 year old definitley taught me that I don't handle watching people burn alive well. Can handle most extreme movies but you bring fire into the equation and I am out.
The tanning scene in Final Destination 3 scarred me for years when I was little. I was horrified of tanning salons. Dunno why my mom let me watch that movie.
Really glad you guys put Let The Right One In on this list and actually went into detail about how a death scene can be a form of art. Great job, Cinefix!
+1ranjeeves21 Definitely one of the best. Craven and Williamson threw the fans off with that homage to Psycho. Think about it: in 1996, spoilers were rare. No one expected Drew Barrymore to be killed off in the first scene; especially when she's on the poster. Such a great scene and great movie. EDIT I wrote that down before it appeared on this list so everything I wrote just repeats what they already said lol
I think you need to consider some films of the 40s before you create an all time list. The death of the Leopard Man has one of the most suspenseful and chilling deaths as a young girl is mauled to death outside her home, crying and begging for her mother to let her in who does not thinking her daughter is fooling around. not only does the scene work because of the build up to the chase with atmospheric and blackened visuals questioning every creak and moving shadow as something sinister, but listening to that girl scream from behind a locked door and the blood trickling under after she's dead really resonates and every horror film from then on borrowed from it.
My favorite moment in Let the Right One In are the few moments after the massacre, where Eli looks at Oscar as if she is shielding him from the gore and horror around him. It's absolutely beautiful and breathtaking. So many of my friends miss out on this fantastic films because of the subtitles and it's really sad.
#1 ,imo, should be the first death scene in "JAWS". The scene of Chrissy all alone and with absolutely no hope of being rescued from the shark attack was so emotionally charged and shockingly terrifying it had cinema viewers vomiting in the aisles and others passing out.... People were left with an irrational fear so intense that people were afraid to take a bath or use the toilet. Only "The Exorcist" came as close to the sleepless nights from nightmares.. Top 2 right there... Especially for the 1970's era of cinematic film.
In the beautiful death category you should toss an honorable mention to Dredd for Mama's death at the end; it was a cool use of slow mo and a really well shot sequence.
Love that the best Swedish movie ever made is on the top! A Horror Movie Death that I love is the Microwave death in The Last House on the Left... It's pretty epic.
I REALLY liked that last one. As a director/cinematographer I am always looking for a different way to show something happening, so in my opinion, that is pretty awesome!
this is a great list. cannot argue the order of your choices. my list would have to include Dr. Copper's death when attempting to defibrillate Norris in The Thing and Quint's horrifying death in Jaws. The Jaws scene still gives me chills and is one the most intense scenes in movie history. For me anyway...
+theguitarczar Absolutely. The most iconic, important and memorable scene in horror history (and maybe even film history) doesn't even make the top 5? Come on. That scene changed Hollywood forever.
they definitely didn't get anything "wrong!" that's for sure. this is what makes lists like this so interesting....we all don't agree with each other but at the end of the day every flick on the list is worth watching.
the death scene from Nightmare on Elm Street, with Johnnie Depp ? I don't remember the part where he comes out of the bed, and drops onto the mattress...@6:15 mark...
10. This death scene, no one really saw coming. It plays on the fear that this could possibly happen. A person could get stuck in a tanning booth and get burned badly. This is a good reason to stay clear of tanning salons. 9. The scariest thing about this death is that after the filming, the man who played this.. He actually got into car wreck that claimed his life in almost the same manner as his character died in the film. 8. You think you see the knife going in, but all you hear is sounds. The blood itself was chocolate sauce in the water to give the impression blood was going down the drain. Amazing.. The things you can do with a lower budget. You don't need a lot of CG, all you need is imagination. 7. In this scene, what you don't know is that the stabbing into the side was Michael actually stabbing into a watermelon. The actor held it under his arm while standing on a box the whole time. Remember, this movie was done with the budget of $300,000 and most of that went to Donald Pleasance. 6. While Johnny's death was good, Tina's death was perfect. It showed that you can't tell when you're in the dream and when you're in the real world. You don't make a break between the 2 worlds and it was hard to tell the difference. 5. Her death was kind of expected, but it was her boyfriend's death that was more expected than her own. Being stabbed so many times that you're virtually disemboweled, that's something Wes did in Last House on the Left. With the exception that ghostface didn't pull out her innards. 4. Honestly.. I didn't like Saw. I did, however, like Saw 3. The death in that movie that made me cringe was the freezer death. Its about how parts of it is accurate and how much of it is pure fiction. Getting wet and put into a freezer completely naked is extremely dangerous. Hypothermia is the major killer here, but, turning into a popsicle.. That's not accurate. 3. That's my problem here.. Instead of coming up with something new and original, they use every monster on Syfy that went straight to television instead of going to theaters or DVD. The monsters are not that good, and gore is thrown around with no story and no real reason for them being there. Gore does not make a horror movie, it can ruin a horror movie. 2. That scene.. That was all improvised. Ridley Scott wanted to make a scene that would leave not only the audience shocked, but the actors as well. It was not supposed to happen, only the crew and the actor who had the chestburster coming out of him, they're the only ones who knew. Its still one of the best shock factors in horror movie history. 1. The deaths of the bullies were so satisfying. They felt so good to see these bullies get theirs in the end. They deserved it, but, with what they did to the boy.. They needed much, much more. The fact that you don't see what really happened to them, allows you, as an audience member, to use your imagination as to what is really happening. That's the key to a brilliant horror film.
Utilizing decades worth of horror creatures in one sequence IS new and original, it's a reverence and homage to almost every iconic villain in the genre done in the funnest and craziest way possible. And it does have story significance: it's the moment within the film where the organization crumbles under the weight of it's own task and it shows for it.
Chrishaun Baker If the movie was smart, it wouldn't show the lab. It would wait til the right time to show the lab scene and it would make it a short scene. Instead of showing it back and forth, that made it very annoying and very lame. The very last scene made no sense and it should've been taken out. There was no need for it. Overall.. The movie was terrible and not Hemsworth's best work.
There are 2 death scenes from 28 Days Later I wish at least got an honorable mention here. The first, when Selena has to kill Mark after he got a bite from one of the infected. Not only is the pace in which it happens shocking, but you expect that the infected would be doing most of the killing in the film, when it's a female character we've only just met hacking away at a guy we assume she knew well enough at this point. The second is obviously when Frank gets the drop of blood in his eye, and as he tries to push his daughter away he simultaneously begins to turn into one of the infected. Eventually, the soldiers from the barricade shoot him to death right in front of her.
New Nightmare is crazy underrated. It's a grown-up slasher movie with a brain, but sadly came at the tail end of the slasher craze when quality didn't matter, the genre needed new blood. Freddy, Jason, and the Shape were dinosaurs by the mid-'90s and a new teen audience who wanted their own icon. Which is why Scream, a natural extension of the meta horror of New Nightmare, was such a massive success.
what a refreshing list video... watchshitjo just spews out the most cliché shit ever. I mean, this list still has the campy cliché Hitchcock crap but the way you guys do lists is fucking awesome. you do like a group genre per number and discuss multiple films then pick the best. it's awesome. there are so many movies out there that it's impossible to pick a best or 10 for that matter. the top pick you guys chose was brilliant. I forgot all about that movie and now I'm gonna go rewatch it. it would've been cool to see an anime part in this list though. I'm not a fan of it really but they have some incredible death scenes. but it's your video not mine lol. I still loved it. you got my sub!
Kudos! I agree with most of these. The tanning bed deaths really unsettled/amused me. I was 11, when my parents took me to The Omen...I made a notepad animation of that decapitation(and the window fall onto station wagon windshield in Burnt Offerings). My all-time favorite death scene is not from a horror movie, though. It's the slow stabbing-while-being- shushed-by-German soldier in Saving Private Ryan.
Yeah, technically someone died (therefore making it a death scene) but that doesn't make it the death scene that summarizes the Saw franchise. They lumped all of the Saw movies into one guy getting stabbed off-screen (or rather, where we don't see the knife penetrate him. Very un-Saw-like).
let the right one in is one of the best movies ever created there is romance ,comedy, horror and it tells the life of a young child going through a rough life. The remake was equally if not greater.
I think the first death in American Werewolf was brilliantly executed. The final death I'm American Werewolf was also a brilliant scene that created emotional conflict within the minds of the audience. The chest burster scene from Alien would also make my list.
Honorable mentions: Kayako Saeki's twisted neck (Ju-On) Father Damien Karas' possession by Pazuzu (The Exorcist) Edouard Delacroix's execution (The Green Mile)
I think someone mentioned it below, but bears repeating. Father Karras' death in THE EXORCIST. the impact was so great as it was an emotional climax, a sacrifice and shockingly real....his fall from the window and you could hear his bones break as he tumbled down that long, long staircase.
The opening murder scene from Suspiria should have been on this list rather than an honorable mention. That's got to be one of the greatest murder scenes of all time.
As much as I respect your list, that first death on Nightmare on Elm Street is one of the most chilling scenes and scary character introductions of horror film history. Also, the end of Night of the Living Dead is the very soul of horror cinema.
My personal favorite - Burke, the Weland-Yutani Corp. toadie from "Aliens". When the alien chomped him (after he tried to stop everyone else form escaping), the entire theater audience I was in burst into hysterical applause - that's how hated the character was, thanks to the great work by Paul Reiser as Burke.
Pretty good list, but it felt a little america-centric. I am glad Dario got a mention, as his contribution to horror is Huge. And while the suspiria death is a good one he had many other fabulous ones like- The boiling hot bathtub drowning sequence in deep red; the gunshot through the keyhole of the door in Opera (which required building a giant to scale gun barrel interior to show the bullet going through it); or some of the other great giallo directors like Fulci (chain whipping scene in don't torture a duckling, or the razorblade torture scene in new york ripper) and Bava (not as familiar personally). Also I am surprised no J-Horror made it onto the list, and they have had some of the most insane deaths in recent years (the finale to the original Ringu for example). Also in terms of artistic horror deaths I think the finale from Diabolique, the face transplant scene from eyes without a face (although it might technically not fall into the death category), or the finale from the innocents. Also no mention of the new french extremity movement (great deaths there in Martyrs or High tension). No mention of body horror related deaths (could use either cronenberg or the tetsuo the iron man trilogy for that). I think the list you have is good, but it feels like if you swapped two or three of the entries it could just as easily be called top 10 slasher movie deaths, which could be an interesting list in it's own right as there are some hidden gems in that genre (the prowler comes to mind off the top of my head).
I agree w/ur picks but u did leave out one of my all-time favs...the death scene in Hannibal where Inspector Patsy is drugged, beaten, sliced, hung & disemboweled all in one sequence, done all to an equally creepy score w/the background music...& if u wanna add 1 more of my favs, it would be the albeit suggested death of Ray Liotta's character at the end. Anyone agree or disagree, or am I alone in this??
the technical aspects of a death scene secondary from an emotional standpoint where most horror movies fail is by creating characters that the audience doesn't give a darn about they die often gratuitously and "unmourned" the great scenes are where you actually care abut the potential victim and their death impacts you within the world of the film, this is where the majority of these films miss the boat for me
The chase scene that almost ends "The Bourne Supremacy" is a major overlook here & it is probably my favorite chase scene of all-time. Along with it's breathless heart pounding action, John Powell's score absolutely kills it. It is some of the best music ever composed. Also there is really cool & effective parody of "Bullitt"'s great scene in Clint Eastwood's "The Dead Pool" featuring a remote control toy car made from plastic explosives chasing Dirty Harry. It is exciting & funny & very sly like the rest of the movie. If you're gonna include a animated chase scene here then why don't you include all the death defying stunts in The Roadrunner cartoons in "Greatest Stunts".
In Alien, Veronica Cartwright thought she was going to be cast as Ripley. And… she slipped and fell in the blood. And... she tried to beat Sigourney Weaver senseless in the hallway outside after the scene. She was truly pissed off.
I forget which Friday The 13th it was, but when Jason picked up the camper in the sleeping bag and whacked them against a tree like a bag of oranges or something....classic....lol...oh, and the midnight swimmer from Jaws
the opening scene from scream will always be my favourite movie death ever. the first slasher i ever saw and it gave me nightmares for weeks but i still love it