It’s spooky season y’all, and you know what that means; movies like Scream, Halloween, Final Destination, and Psycho are on the brain. You know the phrase it takes all kinds of kinds? The same is true in the horror realm, from slashers to stalkers and terrifying dolls — we’re all drawn to (and terrified by) the worst of the worst.
Sometimes, it’s not the killers that terrify us the most; it’s the deaths themselves — scary movie end-game moments are brutal and horrifying! From the deaths we saw coming and were still shocked by to ones that took our breath away from surprise and horror, some scenes in scary movies are seared into our brains, giving us life lessons on things to avoid and urging us not to answer phones or place our knives in the dishwasher without a buffer.
When it comes to the type of deaths that leave a lasting impact, aside from romantic dramas that leave audiences crying enough tears that we could float out of the room in them, no one does it like horror films; none stay with you like deaths in the realm of everything spooky and unnerving. When thinking back to the most brutal horror deaths that stay with us, we consider a few things: one — the way the death happened; some of them are so gory that we can’t erase them from our minds.
We also thought back to what we were experiencing when we saw them and how our parents tried to shield us from the painful truth of what would soon play out on screen. We also look at the circumstances surrounding the death, who was around…who tried hard to stop them unsuccessfully, and finally, we examine the moments that made it hard to think of scary movies without thinking of these instances of death.
Kirk’s early death – Texas Chainsaw Massacre
Almost every horror movie boasts at least one death that will stick with you forever, and — while certain gruesome ends will haunt me to the end of my days — never has a movie death affected me, over seemingly so little, like the earliest kill in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. The film is, as one can easily guess, overflowing with death, but the film’s presence as a ‘70s staple really tones down the express violence. You don’t see much in the way of actual gore in the flick, but I’d argue the decision serves it well. Instead of recoiling at the gratuitous violence, Texas Chainsaw Massacre reels you in by teasing viewers with minor but still deeply impacting moments of violence.
The one that sticks with me, years after first setting eyes on the film, serves as the first death in the lineup. It’s not as eye-catching as the meat hook, nor as iconic as Sally’s flight through the fields, but Kirk’s swift, merciless death purchased prime real estate in my brain and refuses to sell. The suddenness of Kirk’s death, paired with its stark simplicity, is a big reason behind my fixation. A simple, jarring strike to the head is all it takes to end his life forever, and the fact that it’s so carefully foreshadowed only heightens its impact. – Nahila Bonfiglio
Olga’s last dance – Suspiria
After crossing Madame Blanc (Tilda Swinton), Olga (Elena Fokina) is locked in the mirrored rehearsal hall. She obviously knows that she’s in danger and tries frantically to find a way out. What follows is a ghoulish choreography where she’s seemingly under a spell, and her limbs are tied to those of Susie (Dakota Johnson) as she practices a sequence for the upcoming Volk for Madame Blanc in another room. Her body is impossibly contorted in conjunction with Susie’s every move, causing her skin to rip and bones to break until she’s left a wrecked bloody mess on the floor.
The artistic quality, intercut with Johnson’s lithe performance, is palpable. And you gotta admit, killing someone without ever actually laying a hand on them is pretty metal. – Misty Contreras
The reason we don’t drive behind trucks – Final Destination 2
When it comes to horror deaths, films like the Final Destination franchise stay with you in a way that many others don’t. These deaths stand out because they could happen; that’s the major component of the horror in movies like these — it hinges on death not being cheated and life ending in inhumane ways when you try to outsmart it. When I first saw Final Destination 2, I knew I was in for a wild ride, but I didn’t anticipate impacting me as much as it did.
The crash scene changed me forever, and that’s not a euphemism; when I saw the unsuspecting victim being taken out by things falling off of a tractor-trailer, I vowed there and then to never drive behind one, and it’s a promise I’ve kept to myself. In fact, I missed an exit once because I was too scared to try to drive behind a truck carrying something in its trailer, and it’s illegal to pass it on the right. I knew Becky (my map on my phone) would soon yell at me about missing my exit, but that was fine with me — I’d rather her have to rework a route for me than end up, well, impaled and inflamed. – Ashley Marie
That shower scene – Psycho
There’s a reason this iconic Psycho moment is basically in every horror movie parody nowadays. Watching Janet Leigh in such a vulnerable moment about to meet her grizzly doom may seem overrated now, but the first time you watch Psycho, it disturbs you to the point of not wanting to shower for a week. No wonder Jamie Lee Curtis is such an iconic scream queen; her mother is the original one. — Bethany Wade
Impaled by knives – Chucky TV show
Don Mancini’s Chucky series on the SyFy network has proven to be a gift in the world of horror, not least of all because of all the creative kills seen in the show that, for the most part, are filmed in a rather traditional manner, instead of overly-relying on CGI. A great example of this can be found in season 1, episode 2, “Give Me Something Good To Eat,” in which the killer doll targets a housemaid. Looking for a knife, the maid opens the dishwasher, only to find several of the utensils blade side up in the front slot. As she is bent over and about to grab one, Chucky uses the opportunity to push her into the sharp objects, impaling her in the face.
It’s all made to look like a freak accident, of course, which only adds to the paranoia I now have around dishwashers. The scene has always stuck with me out of an irrational fear that improperly loading a dishwasher could be deadly. Ever since, I’ve placed the sharper knives in the bottom tray, usually covered by a face-down saucepan, just for good measure. — Danny Peterson
That kitchen scene – Final Destination 2
If I’m cracking my knuckles to type about one of the best yet most disbursing horror scenes ever, then I’d be a complete fool if I didn’t nominate the apartment kitchen scene from Final Destination 2. Yes, that scene. You know exactly what I’m talking about. It’s the scene where Evan gets his hand stuck in the dishwasher after dropping his watch while the food he’s cooking in a pan on the stove catches on fire, which eventually leads to a kitchen explosion.
Still following? Anyway, that’s not even the scariest part about this scene. What’s truly terrifying is when Evan is on the balcony of his apartment, slips on leftover spaghetti, and watches as a fire escape ladder falls and crushes his eye. If I’m being honest, that scene was burned in my brain so badly at eight years old that I was afraid of ladders for the next two years. Yikes. — Taylor Mansfield
That opening kill — Scream
Opening kills don’t come any more iconic than Scream. You could make the argument that it’s the perfect evolution of the Psycho twist. Just as Alfred Hitchcock killed off protagonist Janet Leigh halfway through his movie, Wes Craven fooled ’90s audiences into thinking Drew Barrymore was the star of his film before Ghostface got to fulfill his wish of seeing what poor Casey Becker’s insides looked like.
The threat of the genre-savvy slasher villain has evolved with the times – these days, he can hack into your home security system – but nothing has managed to top the simple fear of someone on the other end of the phone turning out to be a killer. Millennials famously hate receiving unexpected phone calls, finding it to be a source of extreme anxiety. Is it because, deep down, we’re all terrified of being Ghostface’s next victim? – Christian Bone
Alex Kinter – Jaws
“It’s going to be fine,” my mom told me in the moments leading up to a child being eaten by a shark in Jaws. “Kids never get hurt in Steven Spielberg movies,” she continued as the final precious seconds of the little boy’s life ticked by.
In hindsight, the whole situation could have benefited from some critical thinking on my part. I knew who Spielberg was, even as a 10-year-old. I’d watched him vicariously stab a tween named Rufio to death in Hook and shoot Tim off the side of an electric fence in Jurassic Park. I hadn’t finished Temple of Doom at that point, or I would’ve had another solid example of how much child torture we’ve gotten from the director of E.T. – which, by the way, is a movie where a little boy goes into a diabetic coma from loving an alien too much or something.
The point is, I wasn’t thinking critically when Alex Kinter went splashing into the waters of Amity on our family’s old box television that day. I trusted that my mom wouldn’t lie to me about whether or not I was about to watch a kid get eaten by an apex predator from the dawn of time. I’ve since moved past the fear of the ocean that Jaws inspired in my young mind. I have not, and will not, re-learned how to trust my mom. — Tom Meisfjord
Chestbuster scene – Alien
If you’re anything like me, you were introduced to horror films way before you were actually ready for them. Seeing Alien at a tender young age has arguably made me a more interesting person, but it also means the “chest-burster” scene is seared into my retinas. The iconic death/birth scene has been imitated in all sorts of media, but nothing beats the shock value and just plain grossness of the original. What a way to go! – Staci White
Charlie’s untimely death – Hereditary
I know it’s an obvious choice, but someone had to bring up Charlie’s horrifying end in Hereditary. The 2018 film delivered plenty of nightmare fuel across its two-hour runtime, but none of the ever-piling deaths quite match up to its first.
Charlie, for the uninitiated, is the youngest member of the Graham family. She is killed near the film’s front end in a shocking, ghastly accident that leaves her beheaded. Her death launches the film’s primary plot and leaves every single person who’s ever witnessed this flick with permanent scars. It’s not just the shock value that leaves us wounded and unable to rewatch Ari Aster’s gripping directorial debut, either. It’s the carefully ramped-up tension, stunning acting from both Alex Wolff and Milly Shapiro, flawless soundtrack, and the unexpected cause of death. It’s unique and haunting, and — should you ever choose to witness it for yourself — I can guarantee you’ll never forget it. – Nahila Bonfiglio
Wes’ heartbreaking end – Scream (2022)
Wes’ death in Scream was significant for many reasons, one being the distance between himself and his mom when it happened and in the scenes leading up to Ghostface claiming him as a victim. Wes and his mom, Deputy Judy, had been simply having a lovely evening together, and she was going to pick up takeout for the pair for dinner. Wes first hops in the shower and then begins getting everything ready for dinner with his mom, but he begins to hear noises that alert him to something being amiss.
It doesn’t take long for Ghostface to strike, and the scene is ruthless; we’ve seen more bloody kills from the masked slasher, sure, but the emotion here was at an all-time high. Judy was on the phone with the killer as he taunted her while sneaking up on her unsuspecting son, and though she drove as fast as she could, trying desperately to reach him, it was too late.
As fans know, Judy would also meet her untimely fate at the hands of the killer moments later, and the only silver lining is that she didn’t have to live with the pain of losing Wes for long. I’m a dreamer, and I imagine the two spending afternoons together in a great beyond; that’s the only solace in this one. – Ashley Marie
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