Top 10 slasher kills - from Friday the 13th to Terrifier
Slasher movies have been preoccupied with the most inventive ways to kill folks for decades. Here's ten of horror's most elaborate murders from artisans such as Jason Voorhees, Freddy Krueger and Art the Clown.
The kills are ranked on originality, gore effects and just how much they make your stomach turn. There's also a bit of info on how the special effects team worked their magic.
It hardly needs saying, but be advised there are some bloody images and video clips below.
It hardly needs saying, but be advised there are some bloody images and video clips below.
10/ Caught in a cat flap - Scream (1997)
Killer: Ghostface
Victim: Tatum Riley (Rose McGowan)
What goes down: Tatum is confronted by Ghostface while grabbing some beers from the garage. What she thinks is a prank escalates quickly as the masked killer pulls a knife.
Tatum looks to have the upper hand as she batters a flailing Ghostface with fridge doors and beer bottles. Yet then she makes the ill advised decision to try and squeeze through a cat flap. Ghostface can't believe his luck, and promptly raises the garage door which crushes Tatum's head.
Gore effects: A blink-and-you'll-miss it moment sees Tatum's face get squished, accompanied by a loud squelch. Craven was forced by the MPAA to make a quick cutaway at the moment of Tatum's death - so this kill could have been even more brutal.
Why it's iconic: Perhaps the best example of a slasher victim meeting her end through her own sheer stupidity.
Watch it:
9/ Dunked in liquid nitrogen - Jason X (2001)
Killer: Jason Voorhees (Kane Hodder)
Victim: Adrienne (Kristi Angus)
What goes down: Most of us tend to be a bit groggy when we wake up after a long doze, but not Jason. Thawed out after 400 plus years of cryogenic stasis, Voorhees gets straight down to business with one of the Friday the 13th franchise's goriest kills.
Quite why the Grendel had a sink full of liquid nitrogen is anyone's guess.
Gore effects: The frozen flesh chunks when Jason smashes Adrienne's face on the counter certainly make your stomach turn. So memorable was this kill that Mythbusters felt obliged to check out if a head would actually shatter if dumped in liquid nitrogen.
Using real human skulls and pigs' heads, they concluded that Adrienne's frozen head wouldn't shatter but might get slightly dented when Jason smashed it onto the counter. A pity considering the rest of the movie is so true to life.
Why it's iconic: For a moment it makes you think that a slasher set in space isn't such a bad idea after all. That moment quickly passes.
Watch it below:
Using real human skulls and pigs' heads, they concluded that Adrienne's frozen head wouldn't shatter but might get slightly dented when Jason smashed it onto the counter. A pity considering the rest of the movie is so true to life.
Why it's iconic: For a moment it makes you think that a slasher set in space isn't such a bad idea after all. That moment quickly passes.
Watch it below:
8/ Massacred on a raft - The Burning (1981)
Killer: Cropsy (Lou David)
Victims: Eddy (Ned Eisenberg), Fish (J.R. McKechnie), Woodstock (Fisher Stevens), Marnie (Bonnie Deroski), Barbara (Sarah Chodoff)
What goes down: When fire-damaged caretaker Cropsy nicks the camp's canoes, five unlucky campers set out on a makeshift raft to get help.
They find one of the missing canoes but - surprise - Cropsy is inside primed with his trusty garden shears and ready for a butchering.
Gore effects: Turning down Friday the 13 Part 2 because he disliked the decision to introduce an adult Jason, Tom Savini opted instead to do the special effects for this classic slasher.
Director Tony Maylam stepped in as Cropsy for this scene after becoming frustrated that Lou David couldn't hold the shears to catch the light effectively.
In the UK, the BBFC demanded around thirty seconds of cuts to Savini's gore effects, including some details from this notorious raft scene. An uncut version was accidentally given a home release and ended up on the list of banned 'video nasties' - the uncut version was only released officially in 2002.
Why it's iconic: It's unusual to see so many teens killed off in a matter of seconds. The creepy repeated synth motif in the score and drawn out approach to the canoe make the massacre all the more memorable.
Why it's iconic: It's unusual to see so many teens killed off in a matter of seconds. The creepy repeated synth motif in the score and drawn out approach to the canoe make the massacre all the more memorable.
Watch it:
7/ Head exploded by gunshot - Maniac (1980)
Killer: Frank Zito (Joe Spinell)
Victim: Disco Boy (Tom Savini)
What goes down: Tom Savini is enjoying a bit of backseat nooky in his car when Disco Girl (Hyla Marrow) becomes convinced somebody's watching them.
She's right of course - serial killer Frank Zito soon comes out of nowhere, shooting Savini at close range and exploding his head.
Gore effects: Another Savini special. The horror maestro had a bust of his head - for some reason - and decided it would be fun to fill it with goo and blow it up.
They used a real gun, so as soon as they wrapped the scene they had to make a hasty exit in case the fuzz showed up.
Why it's iconic: It's a ridiculous slow motion kill with a nice tense build-up, what's not to love.
Watch it:
6/ Stabbed in the head with your own arm - Scare Package (2020)
Victim: Brandon (Justin Maina)
What goes down: In a hilarious showdown, musclebound Brandon takes on Jason Voorhees/Leatherface wannabe The Devil's Lake Impaler.
After some gratuitous backflips, the masked killer snaps Brandon's fingers, rips his arm off and then impales him through the head with his own bone. Wow.
Why it's iconic: Probably the most insane way to murder someone on the list. Plus the performances from Maina and Rhodes makes this one of the funniest kill scenes in horror.
5/ Sliced down the middle (lengthways) with a hacksaw - Terrifier (2016)
Killer: Art the Clown (David Howard Thornton)
Victim: Dawn (Catherine Corcoran)
What goes down: As revenge for taking an unwanted selfie with him earlier in the movie, Art dangles Dawn naked upside down by her ankles. He then gets out a saw, slicing her in two while making her friend Tara watch.
Gore effects: Writer-director Damien Leone did all his own practical effects for this shocking modern classic. He admits this saved time and money - though this scene required a head to toe silicone body, Leone designed the effects with his camera coverage in mind, allowing him to cut some corners.
Leone was frustrated by slasher films' tendencies to cut away at the moment of death (most often to achieve an R-rating) and was determined to go all out with Terrifier. He told Dread Central: "Here’s the thing with most slasher movies... even if the scenes are graphic, you only saw them for quick glimpses, a few frames. So it’s a lot of build up, you see the knife go up and then the knife goes into the person’s face and then it’s over. I wanted to try and approach Terrifier with the Italian giallo style."
Why it's iconic: Probably the most brutal kill on this list, one of the most distressing things about it is how long it takes Dawn to die. As Leone himself says, this drawn-out scene is a far cry from kills in earlier slashers which were over in seconds.
Watch it:
4/ Eaten by a bed and spat out as a geyser of blood - Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
Killer: Freddy Kreuger (Robert Englund)
Victim: Glen Lantz (Johnny Depp)
What goes down: After promising girlfriend Nancy he'll stay awake, Glen cheekily grabs fifty winks and is butchered by Freddy. His bed swallows him (and his TV) whole and spits him out again along with improbable quantities of blood.
Gore effects: The scene was shot in an upside down rotating room with all the furniture nailed down - hence why the blood pools on the ceiling. However, it didn't seem to have occurred to special effects designer Jim Doyle and his team that the electricty from the light might cause problems with the massive amount of water they were pouring on it.
The guy pouring the blood got electrocuted, while the sloshing liquid pulled the manually-operated rotating room off balance. The end result left several crew members suspended upside down and covered in blood, but added to gravity-defying way the blood behaves.
Why it's iconic: What Nightmare lacks in gore it makes up for with inventive practical effects, and this is one of the most visually striking moments in the Craven staple.
Watch it:
3/ Suffocated in plaster - Tourist Trap (1979)
Killer: Mr Slausen (Chuck Connors)
Victim: Tina (Dawn Jeffory)
What goes down: Deranged killer and mannequin fanatic Mr Slausen has Tina tied to a bed and treats her to a slow and agonising death by covering her in plaster. Chillingly, he describes Tina's sensations as he applies the plaster, noting that her heart will give out from fright before she suffocates.
Gore effects: Though not outwardly gory, it's a horrifying way to die. Jeffory told EW: "This darned role almost traumatised me! It was either mashed potatoes or whipped cream being put on my face. I can’t remember which. I probably had to act out my death five to eight times. Not having suffocated or died of a heart attack - thank God! - I did some research on the breathing and what happens to the body. You suspend your disbelief, and you go for it."
Why it's iconic: Without the flamboyant practical effects which would characterise 80s slasher films, this death scene relies on the performances, the script and that unsettling heartbeat sound effect to make an impression.
Watch it:
2/ Head mashed by an inverted blender - You're Next (2011)
Killer: Erin (Sharni Vinson)
Victim: Felix (Nicholas Tucci)
What goes down: In a tense showdown, final girl Erin is stabbed by Felix. Refusing to give up, she smashes Felix over the head with the blender, then jams it into his skull and turns it on. It doesn't really bear thinking about.
Why it's iconic: While short on real gore, anyone who has seen You're Next has this kill permanently etched in their memory. If you thought little Tommy Jarvis let loose on Jason, Erin is perhaps the most sadistic final girl in horror history.
Watch it:
1/ Arrow through the neck (and mattress) - Friday the 13th
Killer: Pamela Voorhees (Betsy Palmer)
Victim: Jack Burrell (Kevin Bacon)
What goes down: Jack is minding his own business and enjoying a joint on his bed when a hand grabs his forehead and Mrs Voorhees rams an arrow through his throat.
Gore effects: It's only to be expected that a Tom Savini kill would top this list, although Jason would undoubtedly be jealous that his mum got top billing.
Bacon recalled shooting the scene in a recent interview with US Today. He said: “I was on my knees underneath the bed with my neck in a really uncomfortable angle, and then the fake neck and chest were built out from there. I remember them saying, ‘Listen, we gotta get this right because we only have one of these necks.’ So there was somebody underneath the bed whose job it was to push the arrow through, somebody underneath the bed whose job it was to pump the blood and I had to pretend like it was happening to me."
Like Nightmare, an on-set mishap actually benefited the final product - in this case the pump broke, so makeup artist Taso Stavrakis was forced to manually blow through a tube to get the blood to squirt in the sickening fashion we see onscreen.
Like Nightmare, an on-set mishap actually benefited the final product - in this case the pump broke, so makeup artist Taso Stavrakis was forced to manually blow through a tube to get the blood to squirt in the sickening fashion we see onscreen.
Why it's iconic: It's an impressive practical effect in one of the foundational slasher films which set the bar for all the kill scenes to come, both in the Friday the 13th franchise and beyond.
It's also made a clear cultural impact. Bacon admitted he's most often asked to sign a still from this Friday the 13th scene rather than anything from Footloose or A Few Good Man.
Watch it:
Do you agree with this list? Any heinous omissions? Let me know in the comments!
If you're still in the mood for murder, why not check out our top ten Friday the 13th death faces.
Fill your Twitter feed with witty horror banter. Follow us:If you're still in the mood for murder, why not check out our top ten Friday the 13th death faces.
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