10 top macabre movie mutilations

Arguably one of the best horror movies around, John Carpenter’s The Thing is soon to get a sequel – or rather a prequel. In honour of the macabre ways in which this movie maimed men, Scott Snowden looks at the most gruesome ways to go, as given to us by Hollywood

The genius behind the recent re-imagining of Battlestar Galactica, Ronald D. Moore, had been determined to make a prequel to John Carpenter’s 1982 remake of The Thing for some time. The project was given a green light in early 2009 and a release date of some time around the end of this year has been announced.

For many, Carpenter’s The Thing was the benchmark in fantasy horror. Itself a remake of the 1951 original The Thing from Another World, which is an adaptation of the short story Who Goes There, Carpenter excelled himself in new and gruesome ways with an alien that could attack its pray, absorb them and then mutate itself into their form.

The reason the new project is generating so much excitement is that Moore is centering his prequel on what happened at the Norwegian Antarctic research station – before rough, tough R.J. MacReady and his team are interrupted by the men in the helicopter trying desperately to shoot the fleeing husky.

Despite being made over 25 years ago, the special effects in Carpenter’s film were way ahead of their time. We are treated to dissolving dogs, a torso with teeth and a decapitated head that sprouts spider-like legs and scuttles away.

So, to celebrate this glorious, gory return to the fantasy horror genre, we consider some of the more disturbing ways to depart, as seen in the cinema.

Movie: Robocop (1987)
Victim: Emil (played by Paul McCrae)
Scene: during a perilous car chase through an abandoned steel mill, Robocop craftily sidesteps Emil’s attempt to ram him with his speeding van. Instead Emil drives straight into a giant metal vat, emerging a few minutes later in a somewhat disturbing state
Cause of death: slowly dissolving after being drenched in toxic waste
Coroner’s report: Clearly the toxic waste weakened the molecular bonding throughout Emil’s body as we see when he “splashes” all over the windscreen of crime boss Clarence Boddicker’s speeding car: a blessing really
Time taken to die: approx 3 ½ minutes
Agony rating: 5

Movie: Alien (1979)
Victim: Kane (played by John Hurt)
Scene: the crew of the Nostromo are enjoying one last dinner – after a troublesome experience on an alien planet – before entering cryogenic hibernation for the trip back to Earth
Cause of death: a particularly pesky alien fetus rips through your major organs and burst out of your chest a day or so after the embryo is unceremoniously ejaculated down your throat
Coroner’s report: as the fetus is ready to be “born” it starts tearing at your organs to be able to get out, and that’s got to hurt
Time taken to die: approx 20 seconds
Agony rating: 8

Movie: Starship Troopers (1997)
Victim: Zander Barcalow (played by Patrick Muldoon)
Scene: having crash-landed into a cave on Planet P, the wounded Zander and Carmen Ibanez inadvertently face off against the giant “brain bug”
Cause of death: having your brains sucked out like you’re slurping on a milkshake
Coroner’s report: the enormous alien limb that’s rammed into his head doesn’t penetrate at a point to cause actual death – that results from his brains being sucked out
Time taken to die: approx 8 seconds
Agony rating: 5

Movie: The Thing (1982)
Victim: everybody? Well, we don’t know for sure…
Scene: throughout the movie, the alien parasite uses stealth to attack and “become” the victim in order to slowly and strategically take over
Cause of death: being utterly absorbed or digested by an alien life form
Coroner’s report: since the creature seems to inherit memory and basic characteristics from the victim in order to camouflage itself more effectively, complete osmosis seems to take place at a genetic level
Time taken to die: unknown
Agony rating: 6

Movie: Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
Victim: Gestapo agent Toht (played by Ronald Lacey)
Scene: the Ark of the Covenant is finally opened to see if the broken tablets of stone on which the Ten Commandments were inscribed are inside
Cause of death: being melted by the power of God
Coroner’s report: rapid though it may be, it looks like the liquefying progresses inward as opposed to an all-at-once process, so death is far from instantaneous; the flesh and eyes would melt first and the skull itself would take a little longer
Time taken to die: up to 10 seconds
Agony rating: 6 ½

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