A TERRIBLE WAY TO DIE: The TOP 10 Horror movie deaths of all time.
By RJ Young

The hardest part about listing the top 10 horror movie deaths is that there are so many gruesomely excellent scenes to choose from. Narrowing it down to ten is a daunting task. Inevitably, it will leave people saying, “But what about (Fill in the blank)?” There are so many cinematic scenes of horrific character deaths which deserve to be included; such as Danica Scott’s (Debra Lynn McCabe) freezing demise in Saw 3, or Father Damien Karras (Jason Miller) hurling himself from the window in The Exorcist, or Carrie’s mother (Piper Laurie) being killed by flying cutlery in Carrie. But only ten can make the list. So after much deliberation, I’ve chosen the following scenes as the pick of the lethal litter.

10. Johnny Depp’s blood geyser death at the hands of Freddy Kruger:
A then-unknown Johnny Depp appeared as Glen, one of Freddy Kruger’s first victim’s in the original A Nightmare On Elm Street (1984). Glen is in his room, lying on his bed while watching television. Then he makes his last mistake. He falls asleep! Suddenly, Freddy’s gloved hand rips its way out of the mattress and grabs Glen, dragging him down screaming, as if he were being sucked down to hell. Nothing is left but a big hole in the mattress. A few moments later, an endless geyser of blood spurts out of the mattress hole like a crimson Old Faithful. The entire room is permeated with Glen’s blood as his mother enters and screams in horror!

9. A Steel Cable slices the passengers and crew in half aboard a cruise ship:

The opening sequence of Ghost Ship (2002) is a bloody feast of mass carnage. The scene is set on an Italian Ocean Liner in the 1960s where a crowd of passengers are dancing in a large, fancy ballroom. Beautiful torch singer Francesca is entertaining the crowd of partiers. But then in another room, we see a hand pull a switch that triggers a steel cord to unravel from a spool, unleashing the cable like a bowstring. The music dulls and the scene goes into slow motion.

The unleashed steel wire slashes across the room like a guillotine. A moment later, we see it covered in blood. Next we get a look at the people in the dance hall. They are all standing still, looking stunned and shocked. Then they begin to literally fall to pieces. Everyone in the ballroom, except for one little girl, has been chopped in half. They all fall in pieces to the ground. Some of them live long enough to see the severed lower half of their bodies lying next to them. The little girl looks up at the Captain, only to see his decapitated head fall off.  

8. Quint becomes a meal for a great white shark:

One of the all-time great characters in one of the all-time great films met an unpleasant demise inside the mouth of the shark he was hunting in Jaws (1975). Robert Shaw plays charismatic shark hunter Quint, who is hired by small town cop Brody (Roy Scheider) to find the shark that has been munching on tourist in Amity, Long Island. After days of hunting and harpooning the shark in question, the finned eating machine turns the tables and attacks the small boat, which is already sinking. The boat is half underwater and the 25 foot Great White Shark takes the opportunity to have the shark hunters for lunch. When the Shark’s weight causes the boat to lurch, Quint goes sliding along the deck, straight toward the shark’s large, toothy maw. He tries to grab something, but unfortunately, he clutches something hot and scorches his hand, causing him to instinctively let go. Brody tries to stop Quint from sliding further but he can’t. The lower half of Quint’s body slide’s into the beast’s huge jaws. The shark clamps down, sinking its knife-like teeth into Quint. The dying hunter screams, blood coming from his mouth. The shark drags the struggling Quint under water and that’s the last we see of him.

7. Michael Ironside makes a head explode on stage. 

In David Cronenberg’s cult favorite Scanners (1981) Michael Ironside, who always makes a great villain, plays the psychic psycho Revok, who has the ability to telepathically kill his enemies. He’s so powerful, in fact, he can make their head’s explode. He first demonstrates this impressive ability early on in the film when he kills a fellow scanner during a press conference, in front of a terrified audience. The look of joy on Revok’s face as he psychically overpowers his quarry borders on sexual ecstasy. When the victim’s head blows up as if it were blasted by a shotgun, blood splatters all over the stage and the press runs away in fear.

6. Jennifer Jason Leigh gets torn apart by the two trucks she is chained to:

Psychotic hitchhiker John Ryder (Rutger Hauer) torments young Jim (C. Thomas Howell) in The Hitcher (1986). Ryder’s most malicious moment comes when he chains sweet waitress Nash (Jennifer Jason Leigh) between a large truck and a detached semi-trailer. If anyone shoots Ryder, he’ll release the break, causing the truck to roll downhill and rip the unfortunate waitress apart. He challenges Jim to stop him but our young hero fails and poor Nash is torn in half.

5. Samara comes out of the TV to kill Noah.

In The Ring (2002), the excellent remake of the 1998 Japanese horror flick Ringu, our killer is a supernatural little girl named Samara. Our little killer piles up a decent body count, which is the hallmark of a good horror villain. But her most shocking moment comes near the end of the film when Noah (Martin Henderson) turns off his TV but it turns itself back on. The image of a well appears on the TV and Samara crawls out of it. Her hair is covering her face so we can’t get a good look at her. She starts crawling closer and closer, and suddenly she starts to crawl out of the television and into Noah’s living room. Noah backs up in terror. Then we finally see the decayed face of Samara as she lunges at Noah.

The scene cuts to Rachel (Naomi Watts) rushing to Noah’s apartment to save him, but she’s too late. She finds Noah’s decomposing corpse lying on his living room floor.

4. Juno cuts Beth’s throat while being attacked by the Crawlers.

The Descent (2005) is one of the scariest and most claustrophobic films to come along in recent years. The tunnel-dwelling, skittering beasts known as the Crawlers are creepy horror film beasties. But the best kill in the frightening film comes not from the monsters but rather from one of the victims.

Juno (Natalie Jackson Mendoza), one of the four female spelunkers hunted by the vicious crawlers, goes Rambo at one point when she is surrounded by a hoard of the creatures, hacking away at them like a modern Red Sonja. Something comes up behind her and she spins, slashing out at the apparent threat at her rear. But it wasn’t a monster at all. It was her fellow explorer Beth (Alex Reid) who gets her throat slit. Beth stares shocked at Juno for a moment and falls, grabbing Juno’s pendant as she collapses. Juno backs away, shocked by what she’s done and runs away, leaving the wounded Beth to die. 

3. The classic Shower Scene with Janet Leigh.

Of all movie murders, the most iconic is arguably the infamous shower sequence from Alfred Hitchcock’s legendary Psycho (1960). The scene has been imitated and parodied many times and with good reason. The artistry that Hitchcock brings to an otherwise simple scenario is visual genius.

The scene itself is quite simple. Gorgeous runaway thief Marion Crane (Janet Leigh) is hiding out in a second-rate inn, far off the beaten path, called the Bates Motel. Schizophrenic Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins), owner and manager of the motel, becomes attracted to the lovely Marion. This brings out his jealous split-personality as his murdering mother. When mother’s insane personality takes over, Norman dresses in her clothes, slips stealthily into Marion’s room while she’s showering and hacks her to death with a large kitchen knife.

Leigh plays the scene beautifully. Her shock and terror as she is stabbed to death is done perfectly. Hitchcock films the scene magnificently. Never has a butchering been so artistic.

2. The death of Captain Rhodes at the hands of Zombies.     

Day of the Dead (1985) was undoubtedly the weakest of George Romero’s Dead Trilogy but it did have one of the greatest and most grizzly deaths ever. Captain Rhodes (Joseph Pilato) is shot and wounded by “Bub”, a zombie trained to do simple things like shoot a gun. Trying to stagger away, he inadvertently runs into a whole hoard of the living dead, who go to town on his anatomy, ripping him open and making him into a smorgasbord. As the zombies tear out his innards, Rhodes shouts his defiant last words “Choke on ‘em!”

And the best horror film death ever…

1. An Alien bursts out of Kane’s chest.

Ridley Scott’s Alien (1979) is one of the most popular horror films ever. And the scene when the titular beast first reveals itself in a very bloody debut is an iconic moment in film.

When the crew of the Nostromo find the wreckage an Alien ship, Kane (John Hurt) gets an alien “face-hugger” stuck to his visage, and goes into a coma. Later, he wakes up on the ship and seems to be recovered. But while having a meal with the rest of the crew, Kane starts gagging and choking. Suddenly he goes into convulsions. His chest starts bulging as if something were trying to get out. And something was!

In a grand moment of film history, the alien explodes out of Kane’s chest in a spray of blood. The rest of the crew stands shocked as the creature rises from the late Kane’s chest, examines the crew and then springs up out of Kane’s body, slides down the table and slithers off into the darkness as the stunned crew watched.

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