Let’s be real: we all love a good horror film even if we can’t explain why watching someone be savagely murdered by a deranged psychopath brings us joy. (Does that also make us psychopaths? Yes? OK. Good talk.) Here are 13 (because, obviously) of the most horrific-ly pleasing scary movie murder scenes to help you get into the holiday spirit.
Saw definitely doesn’t get enough credit for how deep its horror film plot actually is (Jigsaw is the Robin Hood of serial killers—I mean, come on, that’s brilliant). While it’s hard to pick just one insane murder out of a sea of insane murders in all EIGHT (yes, eight) Saw films, we had to go with the chillingly iconic reverse bear trap. Amanda is told by Jigsaw’s bicycle-riding puppet that the key to unlocking the bear trap attached to her head is inside the stomach of another man in the room. She ends up savagely murdering her cellmate with a scalpel and just barely escaping her own death. Love it.
Christian Bale’s breakout role: Patrick Bateman, a wealthy lawyer by day, a psychotic chainsaw-throwing murderer by night. Patrick becomes jealous of his colleague, Paul (hi, Jared Leto!), and decides it’s time for Paul’s death. Patrick invites him to his swaggy home for some Huey Lewis and a surprise death via an ax. Creative AND gory.
Wes Craven ~literally~ brought our nightmares to life in this 1984 horror film. Elm Street kids are afraid to fall asleep after discovering that the horrific things Freddy Krueger does to you in your dreams actually happen in reality. A young Johnny Depp accidentally dozes off (while holding the most 1980s rabbit ear TV in his lap) only to be violently squeezed to death in his own bed. His blood-soaked room is later discovered by his mom. Yikes.
Poor Drew Barrymore. Barrymore was the face of all Scream previews and posters only to be murdered in the first 10 minutes of the film. A completely disfigured Barrymore is found hanging in her parents’ backyard before we’ve even been given the chance to remember her character’s name (it’s Casey). She didn’t even get to eat her Jiffy Pop.
This zombie movie is heartbreaking at best. When Don’s wife is bitten, he and their children escape before she turns into a murderous zombie. But months later, they discover she actually never turned and *seems* perfectly normal. The couple reunites and shares a loving kiss only for the wife to pass the virus on to her previously uninfected husband, causing him to turn full-fledged zombie and murder her, gouging out her eyes and smashing her skull. #men
The 1992 film won five Academy Awards, including Best Picture. The scene that qualifies it for this list (which may be a bigger deal than winning an Oscar, but idk), is Hannibal Lecter’s infamous pen escape. While being housed in a special prison cell in Tennessee, the cannibalistic serial killer uses a pen to free himself of his handcuffs. He then attacks two guards, biting one’s face and macing and beating the other with a nightstick. He then hangs the guards from his own prison cell as cheery piano music creepily plays in the background.
Jaws somehow turned a little harmless skinny dipping into a terrifying murderous nightmare. Two teens leave a summer beach campfire to run off into the ocean. The girl treads water while looking around for her male companion. Before you know it, she’s being dragged under by an unidentified object that is so obviously not her boyfriend (who drunkenly passed out on the beach before making it into the water.) The film led to a society-wide shark/ocean/sea creature fear and a plethora of copy-cat shark attack movies that have yet to live up to the Jaws hype.
Even though the M. Night Shyamalan film hasn’t been hailed as a cinematic horror masterpiece, we’re only focusing on crazy deaths here. The Happening created a very specific death scenario we didn’t even know could exist: the lawn mower. The simple chore of cutting the grass will never be the same.
This classic film combined some of our greatest fears: aliens, parasites, and death. John Hurt’s character, Kane, begins thrashing around uncontrollably in the most exorcism-y way, until an unknown freaky little alien man breaks through his chest, spewing blood everywhere, and killing poor Kane.
This 1976 film took something as cute as children and made them sadistic and creepy AF. During a birthday party for little boy Damien (who is also casually the antichrist), his nanny jumps out of an open window and hangs herself in front of the hundreds of party guests while shouting “It’s all for you, Damien!” (I told you; it’s creepy.)
In one of the more elaborately unbelievable death scenes, a car accident sets off a chain of events that ends in two gruesome murders. One character has a pipe shoved through her skull and another is cut into three pieces by a flying chain of barbed wire. While we’re *almost* positive this insane scenario will never happen in real life, we can’t be too sure.
Alfred Hitchcock’s black-and-white film is best known for its surprise shower slasher murder scene, which is so perfectly yet frighteningly accompanied with shrieking string music. The plot twist involves Marion, the main character, being unexpectedly killed mid-movie; the camera then pans to her blood rushing down the drain, reminding us all to lock that bathroom door, honey.
Leatherface has brought us all a nightmare or two at one point or another. The original movie features a terrifying scene where you actually see Leatherface attack a harmless intruder. He hits the man over the head with a large mallet, cuts up his body and hangs him from a meat hook. Repulsive and terrifying yet somehow forces you to keep watching the film (and all of the sequels.)
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