Whether because of touchy audience expectations, sneaky moral implication, or thoroughly disturbing imagery, there are plenty of ways that horror movies can make death unforgettably controversial.
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00:00Whether because of touchy audience expectations, sneaky moral implication, or thoroughly disturbing
00:05imagery, there are plenty of ways that horror movies can make death unforgettably controversial.
00:11Mostly remembered today for popularizing the found footage genre, 1999's The Blair Witch
00:16Project memorably blurred the line between reality and fiction.
00:20The film's inspired marketing campaign grounded the story in reality to the extent that some
00:24viewers actually believed it was a legitimate documentary.
00:28This extended to the production of the movie itself, as the actors were deliberately kept
00:32in the dark about their fates.
00:34Some of their frightened reactions were genuine, which caused real tension between the cast
00:38and crew, and further added to the sense of realism.
00:41The final sequence plays on the mental exhaustion of the two remaining actors, with their characters
00:46drawn to an abandoned cabin in the woods by the cries of their missing friend.
00:50Heather runs down to the cellar to discover Mike standing in the corner in a recreation
00:54of past victims of the witch.
00:56Then Heather is attacked herself, and her camera drops to the ground.
01:00It's a shocking, abrupt end that led audiences to believe that the actors had really been
01:05killed.
01:06Their families even received condolences from some viewers.
01:09I'm so sorry.
01:12Critics pilloried 1960's Peeping Tom as morally reprehensible for forcing the audience to
01:17identify with its serial killer lead character.
01:20That lead character is Mark, a photographer who kills young women while filming them,
01:25thereby capturing their final terrified expressions.
01:28The death of the dancer Vivian might be the most upsetting scene, as the mood shifts suddenly
01:32from carefree to intensely sinister.
01:35The look of dawning realization on Vivian's face as Mark advances on her remains unsettling
01:40even decades later.
01:42Peeping Tom elicited negative reviews from contemporary critics, who decried it as lurid
01:46and disgusting.
01:48It effectively ended director Michael Powell's career in the UK, and forced him to spend
01:52the remainder of his career in Australia.
01:55But the film has since been re-evaluated, with the likes of Martin Scorsese praising
01:59the way it depicts filmmaking's obsessive grip on a creative mind.
02:03Looking back on Peeping Tom nowadays, it's a little starchy and stilted, but there's
02:07something undeniably subversive that helps it retain its status as a classic.
02:11The 1997 Austrian film Funny Games is an incredibly uncomfortable watch, despite being described
02:17by writer-director Michael Haneke as a self-reflexive anti-horror film.
02:22It follows a family held captive by a pair of disarmingly confident sociopaths, who delight
02:27in playing childish, often fatal games with them.
02:30However, the most controversial death occurs when the family's mother, Anna, finally gains
02:35the upper hand by grabbing a shotgun and killing one of the invaders, Peter.
02:39But soon after he hits the ground, his accomplice Paul picks up a remote control and rewinds
02:44the film to undo the shooting, thus completely erasing Anna's actions.
02:49This audacious move drew hostility from audiences, who thought they finally saw a glimmer of
02:53light in this relentlessly fatalistic film, only for it to be cruelly snuffed out.
02:58Haneke plays a cynical game of his own with the audience's expectations, by compelling
03:03viewers to re-evaluate how we consume entertainment, especially horror films.
03:08With several fourth-wall-breaking looks to the camera, he directly addresses the audience's
03:12complicity in the violence by how we choose to watch scenes of horror, and he basically
03:16welcomed the backlash to this depiction of violence when he declared,
03:19''Anyone who leaves the cinema doesn't need the film, and anyone who stays, does.''
03:28Danish filmmaker Lars von Trier has never been one to shy away from controversy, and
03:33his first outright horror film, 2018's The House That Jack Built, may be his most controversial
03:38yet.
03:39It reportedly resulted in about 100 walkouts at the Cannes Film Festival, as well as a
03:44standing ovation.
03:46Playing Matt Dillon as the titular Jack over the course of 12 years, he recounts numerous
03:50encounters with women, whom he kills in truly horrific ways.
03:54In the most controversial scene, he goes hunting with his new girlfriend and her two sons,
03:59only to ruthlessly hunt them down.
04:01Von Trier doesn't spare the audience from the gruesome moment, as his dispassionate
04:05camera reflects his protagonist's cold-blooded nature.
04:09The deaths are presented in graphic detail, as Jack forces the mother to have a picnic
04:13with her son's corpses before killing her as well.
04:16The House That Jack Built is filled with moments that are stomach-churning, and others that
04:20are darkly comic.
04:22It's controversial, to be sure, but a calculated kind of controversy, where you get the distinct
04:26feeling that von Trier simply made it to upset people.
04:29He's even been quoted as saying, ''I'm not sure they hated it enough.''
04:34With one of the most bonkers horror premises ever, the 1976 Spanish film Who Can Kill a
04:39Child follows Tom and Evelyn, a young couple with a baby on the way, as they take a relaxing
04:44vacation.
04:46On a remote Spanish island, they slowly discover something very sinister, as an unseen force
04:51compels the children to kill every adult who crosses their path.
04:54''There is something wrong on this island.''
04:57The death of Evelyn is easily the most upsetting part.
05:00After allowing a child to touch her pregnant belly, her fetus begins killing her from the
05:04inside.
05:06It's not a particularly gory scene, but it's incredibly disturbing, and the horror is vividly
05:11presented.
05:12It proved disturbing enough for the film to be heavily censored upon its release.
05:16It's not so much the violence of Who Can Kill a Child itself that's controversial, but rather
05:20the macabre idea of children committing these crimes.
05:24The Video Nasties era of the United Kingdom in the 1970s meant that films that otherwise
05:29might have been ignored were instead granted notoriety by being banned.
05:33Italian filmmaker Luccio Fulci had three entries on the Video Nasties list, more than
05:38any other director.
05:39One of them, Zombie Flesh Eaters, also known as Zombie 2, has plenty of stomach-churning
05:44moments, as well as one scene of a zombie fighting a shark.
05:48But the most famous of all is the sequence in which the character of Paola has her face
05:52slowly pulled towards a jagged splinter of wood conveniently positioned exactly at eye
05:58level.
05:59Just when you think that Fulci will cut away, he instead shows the splinter slowly puncture
06:03her eyeball.
06:04It's a prolonged, agonizing sequence that remains upsetting to this day, so you can
06:09understand the authorities' decision in this case.
06:12This scene in particular drove the censors mad, and was edited way down by the British
06:16Board of Film Classification.
06:18The film wasn't fully released in its intact form until 2005, when all the gore was finally
06:23restored in all its glory.
06:26The infamous scene from the 2015 horror western Bone Tomahawk truly lives up to its reputation.
06:32It's grisly, graphic, and realistic, and considering the relative quaintness of the film up to
06:37this point, it really comes out of nowhere.
06:40When a group of townspeople are abducted from his quiet little town, Sheriff Franklin Hunt
06:44leads a rescue mission to bring them back.
06:47The expedition brings him face-to-face with a monstrous, barbaric tribe, who take him
06:51captive and then bisect and dismember his loyal deputy, Nick, in front of him.
06:56This may very well be the most viscerally horrific death scene ever committed to film.
07:00Without it, Bone Tomahawk may have faded into undeserved obscurity, but instead, it
07:05helped bring attention to the film's wonderful script and the perfectly judged performances.
07:10Many viewers argued that this scene was gratuitous and crossed a line, and it's true that it's
07:14an incredibly tough watch.
07:16What really sells the horror, though, is Kurt Russell's utterly numb reaction.
07:20By the end of the sequence, Sheriff Hunt is completely bereft of any hope, and Russell
07:25memorably conveys this without any hysterics.
07:28I thought it might be possible that you had a secret backup plan.
07:32I'm sorry, old man.
07:36The 2018 remake of the 1977 Italian classic Suspiria proved controversial in a number
07:41of ways, especially for the particularly gruesome death of one character.
07:46After a student named Olga decries a dance school as being run by witches, she attempts
07:51to leave, only to find herself trapped in a dance hall.
07:54The Covens' revenge is swift, as they use magic to link Olga to Dakota Johnson's Susie,
08:00who's beginning her dance routine.
08:02Olga is thrown around in a grotesque mockery of Susie's beautiful choreography.
08:07Powerless to protect herself, Olga's body contorts and breaks.
08:11It's a truly disturbing scene, made even more so by the bone-crunching sound design.
08:16The worst thing is how at the end of all of this, Olga doesn't even die.
08:20Instead, she's just a twisted, broken mass of bones and muscles, eventually moved out
08:25of the hall by witches brandishing meat hooks.
08:28She survives in that state until the very end of the film, when she's finally mercifully
08:32put out of her misery.
08:33The film was even marketed on the strength of this nasty scene, as the horrified reactions
08:38of viewers were captured for a promo video.
08:40Oh God, she twitched.
08:43Director Todd Browning was way ahead of his time in depicting sideshow acts as fully fleshed
08:47out, sympathetic characters for most of 1932's Freaks.
08:51But in the film's climax, he becomes a bit more sensational, as the Freaks take their
08:55revenge on the couple who have been poisoning one of their group.
08:59The murder of circus strongman Hercules is perhaps the most controversial scene, as the
09:03vengeful performers pursue him through the rain, brandishing knives and straight razors.
09:09He's killed off-screen, although in the original cut, his fate is even nastier.
09:14Deleted scenes that have since been lost heavily implied that he was castrated, as evidenced
09:18by a scene showing him singing in a chilling falsetto.
09:21The original cut was so controversial that an audience member at a test screening threatened
09:25to sue MGM for causing her miscarriage.
09:29It was torn apart by critics, with one even predicting the looming production code that
09:33was coming to shape Hollywood.
09:35As a film made before the institution of the Hays Production Code and its rules of self-censorship,
09:40Freaks could get away with some pretty nasty moments.
09:43However, it still faced censorship and was banned in some regions outside the US, including
09:48the United Kingdom, where it only became available in 1963.
09:52It had serious ramifications as well for Browning, whose career never recovered.
09:57A philosophical, existential rumination on mortality and religion, 2008's Martyrs really
10:05pushes the boundaries of what is acceptable in cinema.
10:08Despite whatever thought-provoking message it may contain, the relentless depiction of
10:12violence led many to dismiss it as simply gratuitous torture porn.
10:16The treatment of the character of Anna is particularly cruel.
10:19She is established as a strong-willed young woman, which makes her torture at the hands
10:23of a religious cult all the more disturbing.
10:26The cult is determined to prove the existence of the afterlife, which they choose to do
10:30so by martyring a young woman by torturing her to the point of death.
10:34She will then supposedly receive a vision that will verify the existence of the afterlife.
10:39Anna manages to withstand most of the torture thrown her way until she reaches the final
10:44stage when she's flayed alive.
10:46It's a horrific scene, but in the end, she retains enough of her resilience to take revenge
10:51on her killers, or at least that's one interpretation of the enigmatic ending.
10:56It's an unflinching portrayal of death, though there's a point to it.
11:00Martyrs has gained a reputation as part of the New French Extremity Movement that pushes
11:04the envelope in terms of violence and gore.
11:07It's actually more intellectual and less sensationalist than you might think, but that didn't stop
11:11audiences from walking out of numerous festival screenings, including its premiere at Cannes.
11:17Fans voiced outrage at the death of Randy Meeks when Scream 2 came out one year after
11:22the hugely successful first Scream, and his ultimate demise is unnerving in several ways.
11:28The fact it happens in broad daylight in an open space feels like a violation in itself.
11:33Randy was one of the original core characters, and arguably the most likable of the bunch.
11:37He was certainly the one that movie geeks most identified with.
11:41Killing him off halfway through the sequel was certainly a bold narrative choice, and
11:45it's especially upsetting that it happens just after his finest moment in the series
11:49as he tells Ghostface exactly what he thinks.
11:52And his death isn't signposted at all, as it's instead a genuine gut punch that nonetheless
11:58demonstrates why sometimes it's necessary to kill your best characters.
12:03To this day, Jamie Kennedy is still stopped in the street by fans annoyed that Randy died
12:08too soon.
12:09Meanwhile, Scream screenwriter Kevin Williamson has admitted that he regrets killing off Randy,
12:14and that he wouldn't have done it if he realized just how popular the series would become.
12:18He and director Wes Craven implicitly addressed this misstep in subsequent installments, including
12:23a pre-recorded video of Randy in Scream 3, and his niece Mindy appearing as a surrogate
12:27version of her uncle in the later entries.
12:30It was banned in the United Kingdom for 23 years, so you could easily be forgiven for
12:35thinking that the Texas Chainsaw Massacre is as gory as its title suggests.
12:40But there's actually plenty of restraint demonstrated by director Tobey Hooper in the
12:43death scenes.
12:44Indeed, he originally intended the film to receive a PG rating, as he argued that only
12:49one character actually dies by chainsaw.
12:52Despite the relative lack of gore, this film is still plenty disturbing.
12:56What makes it remain so disconcerting is the sudden, offhand execution of the deaths.
13:01Perhaps the most notorious one is that of easy-going Pam.
13:05This sequence caused a stir at the time due to its perceived gore, but it's actually
13:09relatively bloodless, at least by modern horror standards.
13:13Pam is seized by the imposing Leatherface, who effortlessly carries her to a slaughterhouse,
13:18where he unceremoniously hangs her on a meat hook.
13:21The nastiness is all achieved through editing and the power of suggestion, but that didn't
13:25stop audiences from walking out in outrage.
13:28Ironically, it was the lack of gore that caused serious problems for the film, at least in
13:32the UK.
13:34The British Board of Film Classification decided that the tone was so intense and the scene
13:38so carefully edited that cutting it down any more wouldn't make the film any less nasty.
13:43The head of the BBFC even called it the pornography of terror and refused to release it.
13:48It remained unavailable in the UK until 1999.
13:53George Romero never shied away from social commentary throughout his filmmaking career.
13:57He maintained that the casting of an African-American in the lead role in 1968's Night of the Living
14:03Dead simply boiled down to Dwayne Jones being the best actor for the part.
14:08And it's true that Jones gives a commanding performance as Ben, the story's lone, level-headed
14:13character.
14:14However, considering the social context of when the film was made, it's impossible to
14:18ignore the parallels between the race relations of the era and the treatment of Ben throughout
14:22the movie, and his death in the movie's final scene is the best example of this.
14:27By the end, Ben is the sole survivor after defending a farmhouse from an onslaught of
14:32zombies.
14:33He then emerges from the shadows, only to be unceremoniously shot by a group of redneck
14:38hunters who mistake him for one of the undead.
14:40The subsequent newsreel-style footage that plays over the end credits is especially uncomfortable.
14:46The imagery of Ben's body being dragged along by meat hooks and flung into a pyre recalls
14:51real-life photographs of lynching.
14:54This treatment of one of the few black protagonists as somehow less than human by the overwhelmingly
14:58white mob of hunters held up a mirror to one of the biggest social problems in America.
15:06There were multiple real animals slaughtered during the production of 1980's Cannibal
15:10Holocaust, and there were also serious allegations that the humans were treated just as mercilessly.
15:17Director Ruggero Deodato shot this film with such documentary realism that he was accused
15:21of actually killing his cast, to the point that he had to get them to appear in court
15:25to prove that they were still alive.
15:27This was an unintended side effect of Deodato's plan, as he added temporary disappearance
15:32clauses to his actors' contracts, in which they had to agree to lie low for a year after
15:37filming ended.
15:38There's a subversive symmetry to Deodato's filmmaking and the story on screen.
15:43This Cannibal Holocaust depicts exploitative filmmakers manipulating reality to fit their
15:47own narrative.
15:49None of the characters are particularly sympathetic, and they're shown to be responsible for many
15:53of the film's most barbaric acts.
15:56In perhaps the nastiest human death, the crew sexually assaults an indigenous girl, only
16:00to later discover her body impaled on a huge wooden pole, and it's strongly suggested
16:05that the camera crew bears responsibility for her death, considering how they're shown
16:09smirking when they observe her corpse.
16:12This so-called documentary footage is offensive, it is dishonest, and above all, it is inhuman.
16:20One of the most famous movie scenes ever, the shower kill in 1960's Psycho might also
16:26be the most important death in horror cinema history.
16:29It certainly set the gold standard for the tactic of killing off the main character halfway
16:33through the film.
16:35Janet Leigh was arguably the biggest name in the cast at that point.
16:38Anthony Perkins' star was certainly on the rise, but it was Psycho that really put him
16:42on the map.
16:43It's still jarring today watching the audience identification figure killed so soon, even
16:48when you know that it's coming.
16:50At the time of the movie's release, it caused genuine hysteria in audiences, who reportedly
16:54ran for the doors and fainted in their seats.
16:57It was banned in several countries, and heavily edited for release in the UK.
17:02In addition to all that, the sheer amount of violence in this scene is still genuinely
17:06upsetting, especially considering the shower setting, with Marion Crane at her most vulnerable.
17:11Many viewers at the time swore that they saw the knife actually stabbing Leigh.
17:15However, there isn't a single frame showing the blade going in.
17:19Instead, director Alfred Hitchcock achieved the effect through some incredibly fast-paced
17:23editing and that iconic piercing soundtrack.