31 Days of Creepy Scenes, #7: Splinter In The Eye

They've given us nightmares, given us chills, made us cringe, made us  laugh, made us gag, and made us stare at the screen in awe: these are  the scenes that pop into our minds when we think of great Horror Films, and we love them all.

*We recommend that if you've never seen these scenes before, that you experience them for the first time unspoiled in the movies that they come from, if you can. With that in mind, we'll try to be as spoiler-free as possible while discussing them; try, being the key word here.

Zombie aka Zombi 2 and Zombie Flesh Eaters, was Italian Horror's attempt to cash in on the worldwide phenomenon of George Romero's Dawn of The Dead. It was Rated-X and added to the "Video Nasties" list in Great Britain; it was banned in several countries; and it was edited for content in many others, all because it was deemed too violent and perverse for audiences... all of which only served to make Horror fans want to see it more.

It's also probably Lucio Fulci's most well-known film.

Zombie is a classic Italian Horror film in many ways, but it's mostly known and loved for two scenes; the one in which a zombie fights a shark underwater, and the one where Olga Karlatos gets a massive splinter of wood jammed into her eye, by a pissed-off zombie.


Did you notice how Lucio Fulci ratcheted up the tension in this scene, little by little, making what should have been a quick gore gag into a study on effective editing? It took forever for her eye to meet that splinter, and every second of it made us squirm. That's what made Italian Horror movies so great back in the 70's and 80's; they took their time and let the creepy atmosphere breathe. Many of them were silly and nonsensical when it came to plot, dialogue, etc... but you cant honestly say that they didn't absolutely nail it with the scares and gore. Every single time.

While not our favorite Fulci film, Zombie is a seminal movie for any fan of all things undead... and splinters going into eyeballs.

*Did we mention that a zombie fights a shark underwater in this one?

31 Days of Creepy Scenes, #8: Look Who's On TV

They've given us nightmares, given us chills, made us cringe, made us  laugh, made us gag, and made us stare at the screen in awe: these are  the scenes that pop into our minds when we think of great Horror Films, and we love them all.

*We recommend that if you've never seen these scenes before, that you experience them for the first time unspoiled in the movies that they come from, if you can. With that in mind, we'll try to be as spoiler-free as possible while discussing them; try, being the key word here.

When it comes to atmospheric Horror movies, few do it better than the Japanese and the South Koreans; there's just something about the way they approach a "ghost" story that is uber-effective. It's got a lot to do with cultural differences, and the way that they pace their films, but whatever it is, it works extremely well. Naturally, Hollywood is interested in remaking anything foreign that might be even slightly profitable, so in 2002 they set our to do an Americanized version of the International phenomenon, Ringu. Thus, The Ring was born.

The Ring is the story about a little girl named Samara Morgan, who is thrown down a well, and subsequently possesses a video tape to get revenge. Anyone who watches the possessed (or is it infected?) videotape gets a phone call from a dead Samara, letting them know that they have 7 days to live. Also, before they die, they see the ring. Yes, it all sounds bat-shit crazy, but that's J-Horror for you.

WELL, SHE'S DEAD.

The Ring is all sorts of creepy, and it has a bunch of scenes that are pretty damned scary, but it's the scene at the end of the movie that is the most terrifying of all... mainly because you don't see it coming.


Yeah, that scene really messed with our minds when we first saw it. The story of The Ring is a great one, and it offers all sorts of twists and turns that not only keep you guessing, but give you goosebumps, and they all build the tension so much, that by the time that damned ending arrives, you just can't help but being completely skeeved out. It gets us every time.

The Ring is one of the best Horror remakes ever made, and if you haven't seen it already, then you're missing out on a truly scary movie.

*The Blu-ray is only $5.99 right now. Grab one quick!

31 Days of Creepy Scenes, #9: The Exploding Head

They've given us nightmares, given us chills, made us cringe, made us  laugh, made us gag, and made us stare at the screen in awe: these are  the scenes that pop into our minds when we think of great Horror Films, and we love them all.

*We recommend that if you've never seen these scenes before, that you experience them for the first time unspoiled in the movies that they come from, if you can. With that in mind, we'll try to be as spoiler-free as possible while discussing them; try, being the key word here.

"The first time I ever saw an exploding head..." Now that's a phrase that you don't hear everyday, and that's probably a good thing. For we horror fans though, that very phrase is not only appropriate, but it's also very important; because for most of us, the first time that we ever saw an exploding head was in the 1981 David Cronenberg classic, Scanners.

Cronenberg was in top form in the early 80's, his unique brand of "Body Horror" films just beginning to take hold, and propel him into the pantheon of genre greats. While his other movies may have been more accessible to general audiences (The Dead Zone and The Fly, for instance), it was his more experimental and "out there" offerings like The Brood, Videodrome, and Dead Ringers, that made many regard him as some sort of a subversive genius.

With Scanners, Cronenberg told the story of international espionage, centered around a group of telepaths who could control people's thoughts, and inflict pain on others, using only the power of their minds. In the case of Darryl Revok, the most evil Scanner of them all, they can even make heads explode during seemingly innocuous business seminars.


We can thank the late, great make-up artist Dick Smith (and his crew) for that brilliant, exploding head gag. The man was responsible for some of the best make-up and special effects of all time (The Godfather, The Exorcist), and we'll probably never see his like again. Both he and his work were classics.

The story of how he and his crew pulled off the effect, is almost as great as the gag itself:


Scanners may be David Cronenberg's finest movie; amidst the exploding heads and melting bodies, it has an almost classy feel about it, relying more on the psychological aspects of Horror than the visceral. It may not necessarily be an ideal film to add to your October horror movie marathons, but it certainly is one worth seeing.

After all, it's got an exploding head.

31 Days of Creepy Scenes, #10: Angela's Secret

They've given us nightmares, given us chills, made us cringe, made us  laugh, made us gag, and made us stare at the screen in awe: these are  the scenes that pop into our minds when we think of great Horror Films, and we love them all.

*We recommend that if you've never seen these scenes before, that you experience them for the first time unspoiled in the movies that they come from, if you can. With that in mind, we'll try to be as spoiler-free as possible while discussing them; try, being the key word here.

Sleepaway Camp is one of MANY 80's slasher flicks that we love even more now than we did when it first came out. Why? Because it, like many other lower-budget 80's offerings, has a kitschy appeal to it that didn't really resonate in the same way back then; back then, it just resonated as "that movie sucked, but it had some cool kills!"  It also had a killer ending.

Sleepaway Camp is the story of Angela, who is going to summer camp for the very first time! Of course there's a killer on the loose in the camp, and everyone around her is being killed in creative and grotesque ways, but that's any summer camp, isn't it?

The thing about Angela though is that she's a little bit shy, and the fact that she had a really rough childhood is most likely to blame; she lost her brother in a tragic boating accident, and then she was shipped off to be raised by her odd/creepy Aunt... So really, the chances of her turning out normal were pretty slim from the get-go.

WHAT THE HELL WERE PEOPLE THINKING IN THE 80'S?

*We'd love to show you a video clip of this infamous scene, but not only would it ruin the ending (because it is the ending), but it also involves nudity, and we're not pornographers!

Sleepaway Camp is a fun, bloody little slasher that was rocketed to classic status due to its ending, which is the scene we're highlighting here. Now, we won't spoil the ending in detail, but what we will do is tell you that it's one of the craziest, creepiest endings to a Horror movie that we've ever seen. You can probably gather from the pictures that the ending somehow involves Angela, but it's the way that it involves her that is so shocking; the face she makes, and that growl... The scene plays in an almost silly way, but there's just something about it that is downright chilling.

If you've never seen Sleepaway Camp, we recommend that you seek it out and give it a spin, if only to see its wild ending. The Scream Factory Blu-ray is gorgeous.

31 Days of Creepy Scenes, #11: The Spider-Walk

They've given us nightmares, given us chills, made us cringe, made us  laugh, made us gag, and made us stare at the screen in awe: these are  the scenes that pop into our minds when we think of great Horror Films, and we love them all.

*We recommend that if you've never seen these scenes before, that you experience them for the first time unspoiled in the movies that they come from, if you can. With that in mind, we'll try to be as spoiler-free as possible while discussing them; try, being the key word here.

If you told me that the Spider-Walk scene from The Exorcist made you laugh instead of freaking you out, I wouldn't hold it against you. If you think about it, it does play kind of silly, on some level, but if you think about it even more, especially within the context of the movie, it's truly frightening. Can you imagine what it must have been like for Chris MacNeil to see her daughter moving in such a disturbing way?

When we first saw it back in 2000 though, when The Exorcist was re-released into theaters, it absolutely gave us chills. Maybe it was so effective for us because it felt so odd and abrupt, or maybe it's because it was unexpected, and came out of nowhere. Whatever the reason, it made a bunch of grown men sitting in a big, dark theater, very uncomfortable.


Director William Friedkin cut the scene from 1973's The Exorcist, because you could see the wires holding the stuntwoman (contortionist) up, and back then, there was really no digital means to fix things like that. We're fine with that though, because it's not like the movie was short on scares or shocking scenes to begin with.

The Exorcist remains today one of the absolute best Horror movies ever made, and is an absolute staple for any Horror Movie Marathon.

Fun Fact: In the book, the spider-walk is very quiet, and consists of Regan following Sharon around and occasionally licking her ankle. Good lord, that makes it sound even creepier.

31 Days of Creepy Scenes, #12: Just like Richard Speck

They've given us nightmares, given us chills, made us cringe, made us  laugh, made us gag, and made us stare at the screen in awe: these are the scenes that pop into our minds when we think of great Horror Films, and we love them all.

*We recommend that if you've never seen these scenes before, that you  experience them for the first time unspoiled in the movies that they come from, if you can. With that in mind, we'll try to be as spoiler-free as possible while discussing them; try, being the key word here.

10 to Midnight is a cross-genre movie that combines elements of a Cop thriller, with those of a slasher Horror movie; it is about a Cop chasing after a serial killer after all. The serial killer side of things is also based off of the murders of Ted Bundy (because the killer is handsome) and Richard Speck (because of the scene we're discussing here today.)

Charles Bronson loved to play Cops or vigilantes who were out for revenge, and would shoot any and all bad guys that had it coming. In 10 to Midnight, he plays a hard-boiled detective on the trail of an elusive serial killer, who eventually sets his sights on his daughter. The showdown between the two ends in glorious, 80's fashion. Seriously, it's a kick-ass ending.

Not only does 10 to Midnight have one of the best endings of any Cop movie of the 80's, but it also boasts one of the most terrifying scenes of any that we saw in the 80's, due largely in part to the fact that it was based off of a real life massacre in which mass murderer Richard Speck killed an apartment full of student nurses. *The murders took place in Chicago, in 1966.

THE REAL RICHARD SPECK.

With the real life murders, Richard Speck held the student nurses captive for hours, terrorizing them all, and then lead them out of the room one at a time, to stab them to death. He also raped at least one of the girls. The most terrifying part of the entire ordeal is that one of the nurses who lived in the apartment had managed to hide under a bed, unbeknownst to Richard Speck, and was forced to listen to him kill all of her friends over the course of the next six hours. He never found her, and more importantly, her friends (who knew that she was hiding) never gave her location away. Not even in hopes of saving themselves.

If that's not the pinnacle of terror, I don't know what is.

The movie scene is just reminiscent enough of the real life events to make it extra chilling, because it's horrifying to imagine the events of that scene (which runs for only a few minutes) taking place over the course of six long hours..

10 to Midnight is a really good serial killer movie that has more bloody kills than we would have expected out of a Charles Bronson movie. If you've never seen it, it's definitely worth watching, at least once.

I wish we could have found a video of this scene for you, but it's nowhere to be found online. Copyright laws, and all, we guess.