NOT SAFE FOR WORK: Severed Arms and Legs of Horror Cinema: An Off of Body Experience
Steve Barton
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Is This Cheating? Don’t Electronic Kitchen Blades Deserve Credit?: Forget the fact that there’s already an Evil Dead inclusion on this list. The truth of the matter is, the dismemberment scene in Fede Alvarez’s reboot is marginally more disturbing than the original scene in Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead 2. This is a graphic turn of events that capitalizes on impressive practical effects and complete shock value. Now, to the extremely analytical eye, it’s easy to detect where the real body ends and the prosthetic arm begins. That, however, doesn’t take away from the impact of the shot upon initial viewing, because on that first time around, it looks awfully real. Let’s be honest… Natalie was a somewhat immaterial character in the film; may as well lop off the arm with an electric kitchen blade.
Bro, it’s Infected, it’s Gotta Go: There are no laughs to be found in this scene. There’s nothing humorous about it whatsoever, and that’s something quite endearing. Filmmakers (studios, perhaps) will often opt to include over-the-top insanity with the intention of lightening the extremity of a certain scene by infusing laughable material. Splinter said fuck that and went all out, delivering one of, if not the most brutal of scenes on this entire list (in my mind it comes down to this shot and the one from The Ruins). Picture it: every finger in the hand, snapping and contorting in unnatural directions. The arm hyper-extends, the elbow capsule snaps in vicious fashion, forearm ripped back in the opposite direction of anatomy’s design… and the infection leaping to full-on life. The only answer to such a conundrum is a pocket knife, a cinder block and one of the toughest, greatest anti-heroes independent horror films have ever produced.
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Categorized:Lists
