These Are the Most Brutal Horror Deaths According to Reddit
For the past two years, I’ve been fortunate enough to round up the best deaths the horror genre saw for a gory, Grand Guignol capstone to our year-end coverage. You can check out my 2022 and 2023 pieces at the embedded links. Those deaths, while often gory, represent the best of the genre saw, though that could mean a dozen different things. Maybe they were fun. Maybe they were creative. And, well, some were wince-inducingly brutal. Similarly, over on Reddit, users have taken to assessing what the most brutal deaths the genre has ever seen are. Be warned. It’s not for the squeamish.
Broadly, horror features death because it allows audiences to psychologically engage with their deepest fears. Death, after all, is the ultimate consequence, though horror is often more concerned with the Bad Death, a death so brutal, it targets a fear even deeper than simply the loss of life. Think about the prolonged torture and death in Pascal Laugier’s Martyrs, a popular choice that popped up several times. Anna’s (Morjana Alaoui) death isn’t just gory—it’s prolonged and cruel.
Kate (Julia Rehwald) from Netflix’s Fear Street: 1994 also features. Unequivocally, her death is the most brutal in the film, and it likely resonates because it’s so unexpected.
Of course, one user has also spotlighted Bone Tomahawk. If you’ve seen it, you know exactly what they’re talking about. Excuse me while I look for a bucket.
Horror means different things to different people, and in much the same way, we all have our own personal barometers for graphic, brutal death scenes. Much as I hate to admit it, I’m definitely getting more sensitive as I get older. Still, the genre wouldn’t be the same without a few boundary-pushing brutal deaths (looking at you, The Sadness).
What do you think? What horror death do you think is the most brutal? More importantly, what role do you think these brutal deaths serve? Definitely let me know over on Twitter @Chadiscollins.
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