The subtle (and not-so-subtle), gory glory of the horror kill scene
Sure enough, the quality of a horror movie can arrive a as a result of several varying facets. For instance, a given film’s tone and atmosphere might cast a terrifying sense of dread over the audience and give them nightmares for days on end, or the narrative of a horror might provoke questions about humankind that we are used to finding within other cinematic genres like science fiction.
However, once we have finished kidding ourselves about the more high-minded brilliance that horror can provide, we are left with the real meat and bones of a scary movie: the kill scene. Whether captured in sickening, bloody, gory glory or in a moment that could scare the living daylights out of any supposedly seasoned horror veteran, a film’s kill scenes are often what we remember most once the credits have rolled at the terror is finally over.
The question remains, though, as to just what the greatest horror movie kill of all time is, so let’s run through a handful of contenders and see if we can sort out the wheat from the chaff. Of course, there are simply too many brilliant horror kill scenes to ever mention, so whittling down the list to just one winner is nigh on impossible. Still, by looking at some of the all-time great kills, we might be able to see what makes one so eternally memorable.
Back in 1979, Ridley Scott delivered one of the most influential science fiction horror movies of all time in the shape of Alien. The movie contains a moment of genuinely iconic status, in which John Hurt’s character, Kane, suddenly starts convulsing at the dinner table of the spaceship Nostromo. Eventually and yet suddenly, an alien embryo bursts out of Kane’s chest in what is easily one of the most memorable scenes in the entire Alien franchise, showing that sometimes the best kills are those that come out of the blue without warning.
After all, at the core of a great horror movie is an air of the unknowable. At least, we might think… because there have also been instances where horror movie kill scenes have seemingly telegraphed their intentions and yet still provided outright fear and shock. The most obvious answer in this light came in Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho and its legendary shower scene, in which Janet Leigh’s Marion Crane takes a shower at the Bates Motel, only to be stabbed to death by a mysterious figure, later revealed to be Norman Bates. What’s best about the Psycho shower scene is its artistic quality, proven through the stunning combination of masterful cinematography and tense score, showing that a horror kill can sometimes transcend the genre and become art in its own right.
Of course, beyond the more subtle horror kills, there are some brilliant moments in the history of the genre that show the brilliance of outright gore. While the chest-burster sequence of Alien could certainly fit into this category, there are even more brutal moments dripping in blood and squelching in visceral matter. Let’s take, for example, any of the kills in Ari Aster’s Hereditary, which usually end up with some kind of bodily decapacitation or evisceration as a result of demonic possession and invariably have audience members turn away from the screen in shock or disgust.
Gory kill scenes can be so damn violent that sometimes the only reaction one can seem to muster out of their quivering body is a laugh, a chuckle at the absurdity of brutality. In Chris Nash’s ambient horror movie In a Violent Nature, there is one particular kill scene in which the hulking antagonist shoves a logger’s hook through the stomach of one of its victims, attaches said hook to her head and then proceeds to pull her head all the way through the hole in her stomach via a metal chain. The moment is bloody, squelchy, and, ultimately, hilarious, showing that the great moments of horror can elicit far vaster emotions than just fear.
Elsewhere, we have seen some unforgettable horror kills in the likes of Steven Spielberg’s Jaws, when a hopeless swimmer is dragged into the endless dark blue of the ocean by a killer shark, Luca Guadagnino’s remake of Suspiria, when a hopeful ballet dancer is twisted all out of shape, bones and limbs cracking and splitting via demonic and possessive contortion, John Carpenter’s The Thing, when an imitation human body opens up its chest to have a defibrillating rescuer fall into its chasm, and God knows we’ve seen David Cronenberg bring an end to countless characters by having their skin melt, limbs fall off, or even their heads exploded as a result of telekinesis.
The truth is that it’s nearly impossible to name the greatest horror kill scene of all time because to single one ought would be to negate its competitors. However, what’s clear is that there is no unique method to detailing a death in a horror movie in the best manner. Rather, a horror kill scene can provide a wide range of reactions and emotions in an audience, from abhorrence to humour, from outrage to fear, and thankfully, the history of horror has provided so many brilliant horror kills for us to gaze upon in terror and eternally quake in our boots.
