The 1982 movie scene that scarred Edgar Wright for life: “I’ve still never seen anything like it”
Ask anyone the question, “What’s the most disturbing movie scene you’ve ever seen?” and most people will immediately have an answer.
For some, the choices are obvious, like the scene with the twins in the hallway in The Shining, or the horrific pole scene in Hereditary. For Edgar Wright, the more gruesome the scene, the more it’ll haunt you forever.
Now, it’s no secret that Wright is well-versed in the art of horror storytelling. Granted, one of his best films, Shaun of the Dead, isn’t exactly what you’d call a straight-up horror movie, but it does play on several distinctive horror movie tropes to create its specific flavour of comedy. After all, it’s a spoof of the entire zombie genre, utilising many of the same tropes (gore, jumpscares, an atmosphere of impending doom) to pull off its tone.
Wright also, of course, directed the 2021 psychological horror Last Night in Soho, which follows the story of an aspiring fashion student who is somehow able to visit the 1960s in her dreams. As such, Wright is well schooled in different styles of horror, an interest that stems from a lifelong fascination with a multitude of things, from its aesthetic to its darker existential themes.
And when you look at the list of Wright’s favourite horror films, which includes just about everything you’d expect, from Peter Jackson’s zombie flick Braindead to Peter Strickland’s psychological horror Berberian Sound Studio, it becomes clear that Wright doesn’t just love horror movies that give you a scare. Instead, he’s genuinely interested in the art of horror and how different styles and atmospheres can often guide or dictate the human response to a particularly harrowing story.
This also explains why Wright is so good at it himself. In his films that blend horror and comedy, there’s a masterful balance between the disturbing and the amusing, with many points where the two coincide. He also knows exactly what sorts of scenes you’ll remember forever, like the infamous girl in the garden scene in Shaun of the Dead or that overdramatic supermarket shoot-out in Hot Fuzz.
And he knows this because he’s been there countless times as a viewer himself, whether it’s those hard-to-contain belly laughs at the most ridiculous thing he’s ever seen, or something so horrifying he can’t quite believe his eyes. This is exactly how he felt when he was younger, watching John Carpenter’s The Thing for the very first time.
While watching the film on TV, his main response was just how downright shocking some of the scenes were. “When I was 11 and watching John Carpenter’s The Thing on TV, not even being a junior sci-fi geek had prepared me for the shock of the first set piece,” he said, highlighting one specific scene “where the alien is nesting inside a husky and proceeds to reveal itself in the grisliest way possible”.
“I’d never seen a dog’s head peel open like a banana and spurt out an awful flower of bloody tentacles,” he added. “To be honest, I’ve still never seen anything like it.”
The thing is, those scenes don’t just stick out because they’re overwhelmingly gruesome, although that’s certainly a major reason. It’s also the shock of seeing something you’ve never seen before, which is, in essence, a core principle of horror authenticity: if you can present something in a way that people have no choice but to carry with them for a long time, then you’ve essentially done most of the job.
