50 Goriest Movie Moments

The Godfather (1972)

The Moment: After turning down a request from Marlon Brando’s Godfather, a movie producer wakes up one morning to discover the severed head of his beloved racehorse in bed with him.

Look Away When: The movie producer wakes up – this is going to get ugly…

Hostel (2005)

The Moment: Paxton (Jay Hernandez) saves a woman from being tortured by the American Client (Rick Hoffman), but is too late to save her right eye, which is dangling from its socket.

Look Away When : The American guy doing the torturing says: “Hey buddy, get your own fucking room,” while shielding us from the sight of his victim.

Saw IV (2007)

The Moment: For once, the knives are turned on Jigsaw, aka John Kramer (Tobin Bell), as he’s subjected to a very thorough autopsy.

Look Away When: The coroner discovers some “backdoor brain surgery”.

Suspiria (1977)

The Moment: Pat Hingle (Eva Axén) is attacked by a mysterious force that first smooshes her face against a window, then stabs and disembowels her before she is hanged.

Look Away When: The knife comes out…

The Thing (1982)

The Moment: Dr. Cooper (Richard Dysart) uses a defibrillator in an attempt to revive Norris (Charles Hallahan).

Except Norris has been taken over by The Thing and his chest bursts open to chomp on Cooper’s arms, severing them.

Look Away When:
Dr Cooper yells “clear”, unaware that he’s the one who’s in danger.

Friday The 13th (1980)

The Moment: Kevin Bacon enjoys a post-coital cigarette in bed, except he’s not alone.

Look Away When: A hand emerges from under the bed and pins our doomed slash-fodder to the bed for a bloody death-by-arrow…

Alien (1979)

The Moment: Everything seems hunky-dory as Kane (John Hurt) wolfs down some food, relieved of an alien parasite.

Except then he starts convulsing and something bursts out of his chest…

Look Away When: A wooden spoon is shoved into his mouth – here it comes…

Society (1992)

The Moment: Ever heard of ‘shunting’?

You won’t be able to get the word out of your head when you see it in motion. Basically, a group of society types meld into an amorphous blob while pleasuring one another…

Look Away When: Just look away. Nothing good will come of looking at this.

Riki-Oh: The Story Of Ricky (1991)

The Moment: During an epic fight, a big bruiser karate chops a prisoner’s head, causing it to explode.

Look Away When: The bruiser starts swinging his hands together.

And BLAM. Tomato sauce for all.

Poltergeist (1982)

The Moment: The haunting in the Freelings’ house gets decidedly gory as psychic investigator Marty (Martin Casella) goes into the bathroom and stares into the mirror…

Look Away When: Marty starts picking at his face, pulling off great chunks.

Josh Winning has worn a lot of hats over the years. Contributing Editor at Total Film, writer for SFX, and senior film writer at the Radio Times. Josh has also penned a novel about mysteries and monsters, is the co-host of a movie podcast, and has a library of pretty phenomenal stories from visiting some of the biggest TV and film sets in the world. He would also like you to know that he "lives for cat videos..." Don't we all, Josh. Don't we all.