Everything that happens in a film takes place on the screen. This can be great for those wide-sweeping landscape shots or for films that you never want to look away from.
Unfortunately, some films make you want to look away, but they won’t let you. I’m talking about horror films that have such intense and gory moments that turn your stomach and leave you in a state of shock.
Subconsciously, humans are drawn to matters involving blood and violence because it heightens our curiosity. It is why we all love horror films to a certain degree. We have the desire to watch the goriest films ever made, so naturally, we want to show you the best gore scenes in horror.
Let’s explore the best and goriest scenes in cinema!
'Ichi the Killer'Credit: Media Blasters
Scanners (1981)
No horror list would be complete without mentioning the king of body horror himself, David Cronenberg. His science fiction horror film, Scanners, has one of the greatest head explosions of all time.
The iconic head explosion, which happens 15 minutes into the film, was a product of trial and error. Eventually, the special effects team settled on a plaster skull and a gelatin exterior packed with “latex scraps, some were, and just bits and bobs and a lot of stringy stuff that… would fly through the air a little better,” Gary Zeller, the special effects supervisor for the film, said.
The effect is even more terrifying because of the terror on the victim’s face right before a half second of silence before the head shockingly pops. The first time you see it, you’re sure to jerk back in disgust.
Hellraiser (1987)
Hellraiser is a game-changer of a film and shows just how dark and disturbing Hollywood movies can be. Written and directed by horror legend Clive Barker, the group of extra-dimensional, sadomasochistic Cenobites delivers some gruesome moments throughout the film.
Barker had to make some cuts to the film after the MPAA gave the film an X rating for its gore and sexual nature. Luckily, we still got a unique exploding head scene that involved chains hooked through Larry’s (Sean Chapman) face and body.
Hellbound: Hellraiser II (1988)
Hellbound continued to deliver us some great moments of gore. One of the most notable scenes from the movie is Julia’s revival. After a patient from the hospital who thinks he’s covered in bugs comes to a room, the doctor gives the patient a straight razor and the man starts to cut himself open.
His self-mutilation soaks the mattress in blood, causing some limbs to shoot out of the mattress and wrap around his body. Julia Cotton’s (Clare Higgins) fleshy body comes out of the mattress and chases the man for a while, turning the room into a slippery, gory mess.
'Hellhound: Hellraiser II'Credit: New World Pictures
Society (1989)
Society is a horror movie that is appreciated by fans of the genre. Brian Yuzna’s directorial debut is a paranoid, sleazy nightmare of class commentary. The shunting at the end is a memorable moment in the cult horror film, and it’s truly a sight to see.
With creatures inspired by the self-portrait by special effects artist Screaming Mad George created when he was at the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan and Salvador Dali’s work, the body horror lends itself to an orgy of death and blood that is beautifully gory, and horrifying.
'Society'Credit: Wild Street Pictures
Begotten (1990)
Begotten is an experimental surreal horror film written, produced, and directed by E Elias Merhige. Shot entirely in black-and-white with no dialogue whatsoever, the film is a nightmarish retelling of the Book of Genesis.
The film starts with God disemboweling himself, after which Mother Earth rises from his remains and impregnates herself with his semen. The opening scene is more disturbing than horrifying as the person disembowels themself with a razor. Removed from context, it’s not a hard scene to watch since most of the gore is camouflaged in black-and-white, yet there is something eerily disturbing about this scene.
'Begotten'Credit: World Artists Home Video
Braindead (1992)
Peter Jackson’s Braindead, also known as Dead Alive, is a gory and splatterific mess. The zombie comedy film follows Lionel (Timothy Balme) as he and his love interest try to survive the zombie outbreak in their hometown. With a budget of $3 million, Braindead was Jackson’s most expensive film up to the point.
Unfortunately, the film was a box office bomb, but it developed a cult following and is now regarded as one of the goriest films of all time.
'Braindead'Credit: ORO Films
Ichi the Killer (2001)
Director Takashi Miike has directed over 100 films in his career, spanning all genres, but he is most well known for his boundary-pushing films that are centered around extreme violence, gore, and a warped sense of humor.
Ichi the Killer is the best example of Miike’s sensibilities as a filmmaker. Based on a manga, the film watches Ichi become an effective killer. Each kill in the film is creative, painful, and very gory. The more Ichi is manipulated into the killing, the more the body parts and blood fly across the frame.
Miike always knows when to remove the violence from realism and blend nicely with over-the-top comical silliness and extreme horror.
Irreversible (2002)
In Gaspar Noe’s Irreversible, Marcus (Vincent Cassel) goes on the hunt for Le Tenia (Jo Prestia), a man who raped Marcus’s girlfriend. What follows is truly sickening and extremely hard to watch as Marcus seeks his revenge.
Pierre (Albert Dupontel), Marcus’s friend and the ex-partner of Marcus’s girlfriend, ends up bashing his “victim” over and over again with a fire extinguisher. He drives the weapon into the man’s face until it is a bloody pulp of skin and bones. The camera follows the fire extinguisher, giving the audience glimpses of the mess but never fully hiding the brutality of the vengeful act.
Hostel (2005)
Known as one of the foundation films for the "torture porn" of the 2000s, Eli Roth’sHostel is well known for its guts and gore. There are so many notable gory moments towards the end of the film, including the train scene and the multiple violent torture scenes that take place in the old factory.
While the Saw franchise might have some gruesome moments, Hostel marinates in its torture and brutality. The gore nightmare and sadistic nature of the film are slow with its painful sequences, making the audience feel phantom pain in the parts of the bodies that are being mutilated on screen.
'Hostel'Credit: Lions Gate Films
Martyrs (2008)
Arguably one of the most disturbing horror films ever made is Pascal Laugier’s Martyrs. The film follows the victim-seeks-revenge formula with a twist, much like Irreversible. The film is grim and horrifying as inhumane methods of torture are pushed onto the victims to experience transcendental pain so a secret philosophical society can find the secrets of the afterlife.
The most distressing scene is when we see Anna (Morjana Alaoui) flayed alive. She survives the ordeal and is then hung up where the audience can see her skinless body. What is more unsettling is that Anna does reach some sort of euphoric transcendental state that would make the Cenobites from Hellraiser satisfied.
Tokyo Gore Police (2008)
Based in a near-future chaotic Japan, Yoshihiro Nishimura’s splatter film Tokyo Gore Police follows a vengeful police officer Ruka (Eihi Shiina) as she battles an army of Engineer Hunters, a private quasi-military force that uses violence, sadism, and streetside executions to maintain law and order.
There isn’t much substance in the plot besides the ungodly amounts of blood and body horror. The film has a lot of body horror moments in it with one character’s lower half being mutated into a venus fly trap creature and another having her limbs replaced with swords. There is no mercy for the criminals in the film, and the gore is plenty. One of the most notable moments of gore is when Ruka faces off with an Engineer who has a chainsaw for an arm.
Antichrist (2009)
Lars von Trier’sAntichrist follows a husband and wife grieving the death of their young son. The film features graphic sex and a talking fox, but it’s the most unsettling moments of mutilation to the pair’s genitals that leave us feeling squeamish.
After knocking her husband unconscious, the wife bores a hole in his leg with a hand drill and bolts him to a grindstone. Then, she smashes his scrotum with a blunt object on the screen. After bringing him to climax, which causes him to ejaculate blood, the wife then mutilates her genitalia with a knife. It’s a disparaging film that you either love or hate and has plenty of violent moments that make us want to cross our legs for the day.
'Antichrist'Credit: Nordisk Film Distribution
Evil Dead (2013)
Although The Evil Dead will remain an indie horror classic, the big-budget remake of the film takes a different approach to the story by leaning heavily onto the gory nature of the supernatural horror story. Fede Alvarez and co-writer Rodo Sayagues take Sam Raimi’sThe Evil Dead mythology and plunge the viewers into a woodland horror story that is a brazen, nasty, visceral nightmare all becaused someone wanted to read a little bit of Latin from the Necronomicon Ex-Mortis.
The goriest scene from Evil Dead will have to go to the blood rain scene. While Mia (Jane Levy) splitting her tongue open with a box cutter will always make me feel deeply uncomfortable, blood raining from the sky is a newer horror trope that I will never get tired of. On top of that, Alvarez pays homage to Ash (Brue Campbell) and his chainsaw hand by having Mia rip off half of her arm and place a chainsaw over the missing limb.
The final kill is a brutal mess with blood soaking every inch of the frame. It’s a gory masterpiece that I will always appreciate.
'Evil Dead' (2013)Credit: Sony Pictures Releasing
Is there a gory sequence that I didn't mention? Let us know the film and the scene in the comments!
