Summary
- Terrifier 2 pushes the boundaries of brutality with a graphic death scene that involves Art the Clown torturing a young girl, inflicting unimaginable pain and suffering.
- The Haunting of Hill House delivers a shocking twist as Nell Crain discovers that she is the bent-neck lady, reliving her trauma as an apparition, revealing the true horror of her past.
- Halloween Kills features one of the most brutal scenes in the franchise, where Michael Myers ruthlessly kills Cameron, crushing his hand, impaling him on a spike, and ultimately twisting his head 180 degrees.
Over the last 10 years, some of the most gruesome horror deaths ever created have appeared in TV and movies. While not every horror project leans into the blood and gore, or hack and slash, there are plenty of horrors that elevate the tension and shock with some truly horrifying death scenes. A good death scene should shock the audience, whether because of the person performing it, the way it's carried out, or even the sudden nature and tonal shift.
Horror is a genre designed to make viewers uncomfortable, and several projects do just that in particularly visceral and disturbing ways. Whether the scene is brutal because of the slow build and increasingly cruel and torturous methods used by killers, or if the death happens fairly swiftly, with the victim's body contorted and broken, death scenes can be incredibly intense. From the dark minds of creatives like Damien Leone and Mike Flanagan, some of the most violent and terrifying deaths have come out in recent horror projects like Terrifier and The Haunting of Hill House.
13 Terrifier (2016)
Dawn Played By Catherine Corcoran
When Art the Clown brutally murders Dawn in Terrifier, this is the moment that cemented the film's status as an instant horror classic. Dawn is captured by the clown and restrained, naked and upside down. Just as the reality of this terrible situation sets in, Art saws Dawn vertically with a hacksaw. What makes this scene especially horrific is just how little the camera cuts away from the bloody action. Dawn's excruciating death plays out, for what appears to be an eternity, and audiences are simply forced to endure the torture with little relief from the horror.
12 All Of Us Are Dead (2022-Present)
Han Gyeong-Su Played By Ham Sung-Min
All of Us Are Dead is a South Korean horror series following a group of high school students, and a virus that begins to infect people and turns them into bloodthirsty zombies. One of the most upsetting and disturbing deaths of the series is that of the poor student, Han Gyeong-su. In a school where many of the students were middle and upper class, Gyeong-su was looked down on for his poverty. One of the other students accused him of being infected, and he was locked in a room to prove he was well before he could re the group.
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It's at this point that the student who accused him of being infected then intentionally infects him with zombie blood in his open wounds to prove herself right. Gyeong-su then has a brutal and terrifying transformation as the virus takes over him and turns him into a monster. The betrayal, unfairness, and brutal nature of his transformation as he becomes an undead creature make this one of the most impactful deaths of the series and certainly the most brutal.
11 Scream VI (2023)
Anika Kayoko Played By Devyn Nekoda
The tension of the ladder scene in Scream VI bubbles over when Anika, the last of the young girls in the New York apartment invaded by Ghostface, slowly tries to climb from her window to the apartment across the way on a ladder. Anika is terrified of heights and with the murderous killer hot on her heels, she needs to overcome those fears fast. When she almost makes it across, the Ghostface killer savagely shakes the ladder until she loses her grip and plummets to her death below.
As if that wasn't bad enough, her face makes with a large bin in the alley below before her body hits the ground and her face ends up terribly disfigured; and presumably some neck injuries due to the force before hitting the ground. The fact she was so close to being saved, had the added fear of heights and all hope disappears makes this scene more intense. Ghostface didn't need to physically do the deed himself, building the tension and destroying all hope worked just as effectively to make this scene incredibly brutal.
10 Stranger Things (2016-2025)
Chrissy Cunningham Played By Grace Van Dien
In Stranger Things season 4, episode 1, Chrissy gets stuck in a trance while she is in Eddie Munson's trailer. As it turns out, Vecna took control of her from inside the Upside Down. While Eddie desperately tries to coax Chrissy out of the coma she appears to have entered, her body begins to levitate. Vecna tells her it's time for her suffering to end, and then her body savagely hits the roof before her limbs and body contort and snap beyond recognition. Her jaw snaps and her deformed face is seen up close just before both of her eyes burst. A terrifying introduction to the villain of Stranger Things 4 showcasing his incredible powers.
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9 Midsommar (2019)
Dan & Ylga Played By Björn Andrésen & Katarina Weidhagen
Midsommar is full of disturbing and horrific scenes, but one of the most terrifying is the first ritualistic murder witnessed by the group invited to the festivities. Dan and Ylga have both reached the ripe old age of 72, and as is common practice in the community, they commit suicide by jumping from a tall cliff onto the rocks below. Ylga bounces off the large rock, which quickly kills her due to the extent of her gruesome injuries.
Dan then follows, but he survives the fall with both his legs terribly snapped and broken. As he cries out in pain, the rest of the community mimics the noises before a few walk over with a large mallet and repeatedly smash his head, completely shattering the skull and pulverizing the space where his head used to be. The brutality and surreal sense that this Midsommar scene invokes is disturbing as the true nature of the cult is revealed to the unwitting outsiders.
8 Ash Vs. The Evil Dead (2015-2018)
Heather Played By Samara Weaving
Ash Vs. The Evil Dead season 1, episode 10, featured one of the most intense deaths of the series in 2016. Heather, a young woman hiking through the woods with some friends, decides to rest in a cabin. Over a few episodes, she learns of the true nature of the haunted cabin and the Deadites. By the time she learns the truth though, it's too late.
The cabin throws furniture and nails at her, causing her intense and violent injuries. Then she is tossed around the cabin until she's finally dragged into a door where she is dismembered limb from limb and her body explodes, covering her friend Kelly in blood. At this point, her disembodied head is also possessed. The scene is particularly gruesome for such an unassuming character who ultimately appears in just three episodes.
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7 Bone Tomahawk (2015)
Nick Played By Evan Jonigkeit
Bone Tomahawk may be a horror film, but the majority of the film feels more like a dramatic western until one of the most gruesome horror scenes sneaks in near the climax of the film. The cannibals that the protagonists have been trying to track down have them in captivity and brutally murder Deputy Nick before eating him. But the way the scene plays out, with Nick stripped, scalped, and then the scalp nailed to his mouth to muffle his screams is extremely dark.
The Troglodyte people then brutally separate his body in two with their tomahawks from his crotch and up his body. His screams throughout the scene and the lingering camera shots, which give the audience the perspective of Sheriff Hunt himself, are particularly harrowing. The intensity of this scene compared to the relative comfort that was present until that moment makes it especially jarring and terrifying.
6 Guillermo Del Toro's Cabinet Of Curiosities
Dr. Carl Winters Played By F. Murray Abraham
In Guillermo del Toro's season 1, episode 3, "The Autopsy," one of the most clever death scenes also serves as one of the most brutal. The episode uncovers a mysterious alien invasion, and how the creatures can manipulate and use human bodies to do their bidding. These aliens rely on human senses and blood to survive and navigate, as they have no means to see or hear without a host body. In the episode's conclusion, the coroner, who is investigating dead bodies and learning about this alien's behaviors and needs, hatches a plan to put a stop to the creature.
Recognizing that its strength is tied to its host and seeking to stop it from hurting anyone else, Dr. Carl Winters prepares himself to be taken over by the alien. He slices his throat along major arteries to drain himself of blood, the creature's main source of food, then stabs his eyes and ears to prevent the creature from having access to his vital senses and harming others. Ultimately, the self-inflicted wounds kill Dr. Winters, but they also serve to trap the creature within him, unable to harm anyone else.
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With Guillermo del Toro's anthology series bringing new horrors, take a look back at the scariest creatures in the director's filmography so far.
5 It (2017)
Georgie Denbrough Played By Jackson Robert Scott
In It, when the small 7-year-old boy, Georgie Denbrough, goes out in the rain to play with a small toy boat built by his older brother Bill, neither of them knows it would be the last thing he'd do. Georgie's boat floats into a storm drain and the young boy is nervous that Bill will be upset because he lost it. As he crouches down to retrieve the boat, a clown suddenly appears from inside the drain and introduces himself. Pennywise then encourages the boy to reach into the drain and grab the boat which he holds up in front of him.
As the innocent child reaches out, the clown grows long sharp fangs which he uses to bite his arm off. As he screams for his brother, Georgie bleeds out on the street before being dragged to his inevitable death by Pennywise. The fact that an innocent child is the victim, and he dies suffering, alone, and scared adds to the terrifying nature of this scene.
4 Midnight Mass (2021)
Riley Finn Played By Zach Gilford
Midnight Mass is a miniseries by director Mike Flanagan. Riley returns to his small island community after having served time in prison for killing a young girl in a drunk driving incident. He finds that the town has recently welcomed a young priest who appears to be making quite a stir in the community with his enigmatic sermons. Riley is the unfortunate victim of a monstrous attack by the priest and a monster he appears to control, and Riley becomes a bloodthirsty creature who burns in sunlight. In Midnight Mass, "Book V: Gospel," Riley understands the gravity of what he is becoming and chooses to reveal the truth and sacrifice himself.
He takes Erin on a small boat in the early hours of the morning and shares the truth about what is going on before the sun rises, and he burns to dust in front of her. The sadness of this scene, Riley's desire to be good and his remorse at his past actions, as well as the terrible secrets of the priest make his death all the more impactful. He suffered a brutal attack which turned him into the monster he was trying so hard to put behind him, and ultimately sacrifices himself in a tragic way while Erin watches on screaming in terror and confusion.
Why Midnight Mass Never Uses The Word Vampire
Midnight Mass never actually calls the creature infiltrating the island a "vampire," and Mike Flanagan had a very important reason for omitting it.
