10 Best Horror Movie Kills Of All Time

There are quite a few elements to love about the horror genre. Whether it be monsters, slashers, the supernatural, or that one character who seems to know exactly how to survive the night, horror movies consistently provide a thrilling escape into a different world. A world that can be terrifyingly bloody, darkly funny, or slowly haunting that causes hairs to stand on end and frights that would make anyone jump through the ceiling.

A big part of why many love horror movies are the superbly original and outrageous death scenes. A lot of these horror movie kills are iconic and have been remembered by fans even if they took place 40+ years ago.

10 The Marionette In Nightmare On Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987)

Freddy Krueger had already killed a bunch of kids in previous films, but in Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors, the burnt boogeyman delivered his best kill inside a psychiatric hospital. One poor teenage kid, unfortunately, fell asleep and left Freddy to slice open his arms and pull his veins out.

Freddy then used those veins as the strings for a marionette, forcing this young man to walk around in pain until Freddy leads him to the roof of the hospital and cuts the “strings,” resulting in a deadly plummet to the concrete below.

9 The Boat Wire In Ghost Ship (2002)

What seemed like a run-of-the-mill horror movie to start the century, Ghost Ship had some great supernatural elements and scares. However, the most memorable part of the film was its first few minutes that revealed a luxury cruise liner in 1962 that was packed one night with people dancing to romantic songs in their best-dressed outfits.

It was the perfect night, until someone pulled a lever that released a metal wire that snapped and swept the distance of the boat in a matter of seconds. Without anyone realizing it, this sharp wire had just sliced everyone in half, killing all on board with the exception of a young girl who was too short to catch the dangerous wire.

8 Reviving Norris In The Thing (1982)

There were many wonderful scenes of carnage and horror in John Carpenter’s The Thing, but the one that stood out above the rest was also its most shocking kill.

Norris is out for the count, which is when Copper tries desperately to revive him. Copper even grabs the defibrillator and tries to shock him back into existence, which is where Norris’ stomach opens wide with giant teeth and completely engulfs Copper, biting, stinging, and killing the poor man that was trying to save his life. It’s gnarly, energetic, and chaotic all at once.

7 Quint Vs. Jaws (1975)

Steven Spielberg scared the world from going into any body of water, even the bathtub, with his great white shark film Jaws. When a giant shark starts killing tourists on Amity Island over July 4th weekend, it’s up to a trio of men to kill the beast and save the people— unlike the cowardly mayor.

Among these three men is an older shark hunter named Quint, who meets the bloodthirsty fish head-on in a bloody showdown which Quint loses— but not without an amazing fight beforehand.

6 The Crew Of The Event Horizon (1997)

The lovely, charming sci-fi horror film Event Horizon turned out to be one of the scariest, goriest, and most violent films ever made. The movie follows a search and rescue team in space that is called into action on a top-secret mission. That mission is to head to the Event Horizon, a ship that had vanished without a trace several years prior but has now popped up near Neptune.

Once there, the former crew is nowhere to be found. Through the last footage recorded on the ship, it’s shown that the entire crew was possessed by hell itself where they tortured, violated, and forced to brutally kill each other in some sort of blood sacrifice ritual.

5 Hannibal Escapes In The Silence Of The Lambs (1991)

The genius, charming psychopath Hannibal Lecter flawlessly executes his escape plan in The Silence Of The Lambs by killing two police officers who are guarding him in his makeshift jail cell in a courthouse.

After his final meeting with Clarice Starling, Hannibal is about to eat a delicious meal when he viciously attacks the two police guards by tearing one of their faces off and completely gutting the other one, propping his lifeless body up like an angel. Hannibal gets away unnoticed, leaving the carnage behind for some poor soul to discover after he is long gone.

4 The Breakfast Massacre In Children Of The Corn (1984)

It’s hard to imagine a more terrifying and unsettling scenario than a group of young kids butchering an entire town of people at breakfast time due to a satanic entity. This was the case in Stephen King’s story Children of the Corn, where a cult led by a young kid named Isaac indoctrinates all the kids in town to his sadistic belief system, resulting in them brutally murdering all the adults at once in this small town restaurant. It’s bloody carnage, all over eggs, milkshakes, and toast.

3 The Chest-Burster In Alien (1979)

Everybody heard Kane scream in space when a slimy creature popped out of his body in Alien. The crew of the Nostromo is headed to a distress signal, and once there, they come across some alien-like artifacts and dormant creatures. Unfortunately, Kane gets the worst end of the stick where an alien latches on to his face and lays an egg. Shortly thereafter, he’s fine, in good health, and laughing.

That doesn’t last long as when he’s eating with the rest of the crew, he starts to have severe stomach pains that results in his entire chest bursting open in a big bloody way, where the first alien pops out and runs off.

2 Judy’s Hot Curling Iron In Sleepaway Camp (1983)

The twist ending that shocked the world about Angela in Sleepaway Camp is something that no horror fan will ever forget. However, the best kill in the film is a ferocious and creative kill against a horribly bully named Judy, who is constantly tormenting everyone at camp.

Towards the end of the film, she gets her comeuppance when the killer begins to smother her with a pillow with one hand, and doing something unspeakable to her with a scolding hot curling iron with the other.

1 Lionel Uses The Lawnmower In Braindead/Dead Alive (1992)

The unlikely hero of a demonic zombie invasion of a small town utilized some household gardening appliances to save humanity in Peter Jackson’s Braindead, released in the U.S. as Dead Alive. Lionel is constantly abused by his sadistic mother and usually bullied by everyone in town. After a Sumatran rat monkey is captured and brought to the zoo, it attacks Lionel’s mother, which starts off a chain reaction of people becoming infected.

It all culminates at a giant party at Lionel’s house where he and his girlfriend must survive dozens of these demons, where he uses his lawnmower to chop them up in slapstick gruesome fashion everyone at the party. An ocean of blood, guts, and other assorted goo is thrown everywhere.

About The Author

Bryan Kluger
(34 Articles Published)

Former husky model, real-life Comic Book Guy, genre-bending screenwriter, nude filmmaker, hairy podcaster, pro-wrestling idiot-savant, who has a penchant for solving Rubik’s Cubes and rolling candy cigarettes on unreleased bootlegs of Frank Zappa records.

Bryan has been in front and behind the camera since the early ’90s and is the head film critic on Boomstick Comics, High Def Digest, and also leads multiple podcast shows related to film, TV, music, and pro-wrestling (My Bloody Podcast, The Celebrity Hour, NO BS Podcast.)

He can be found writing screenplays, serving as Deejay at iconic bars and clubs in the Dallas area, and playing video games on Twitch.

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