Best kills
by klday | created - 27 Jun 2021 | updated - 6 months ago | PublicSome kills are better than others. Might be some spoilers, so duh, stay out of Riverdale.
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1. Dr. Giggles (1992)
R | 95 min | Comedy, Drama, Horror
A madman who believes he's a doctor comes to the town where his crazy father was killed, and soon begins murdering people and becoming infatuated with a teenage girl who has a heart condition.
Director: Manny Coto | Stars: Larry Drake, Holly Marie Combs, Cliff De Young, Glenn Quinn
Votes: 7,211 | Gross: $8.40M
School slut Corinne runs into a wall in the hall of mirrors and gets a nosebleed. Dr Giggles, who is actually not a doctor, prescribes a simple fix: a bandaid. Specifically a giant novelty bandaid that pins her to the wall and obstructs the mouth and nose, suffocating her to death.
Runner up: strangulation by sphygmomanometer.
2. Gremlins (1984)
PG | 106 min | Comedy, Fantasy, Horror
A young man inadvertently breaks three important rules concerning his new pet and unleashes a horde of malevolently mischievous monsters on a small town.
Director: Joe Dante | Stars: Zach Galligan, Phoebe Cates, Hoyt Axton, John Louie
Votes: 247,784 | Gross: $148.17M
Mrs Deegle is like the only person who dies in this movie, but oh, what a death.
3. Scanners (1981)
R | 103 min | Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller
A scientist trains a man with an advanced telepathic ability called "scanning" to stop a dangerous Scanner with extraordinary psychic powers from waging war against non scanners.
Director: David Cronenberg | Stars: Jennifer O'Neill, Stephen Lack, Patrick McGoohan, Lawrence Dane
Votes: 61,746 | Gross: $14.23M
Still the gold standard of exploding heads.
4. Hell Up in Harlem (1973)
R | 94 min | Action, Crime, Drama
A gangster in Harlem must rescue his ex-wife, who has been kidnapped by the Mafia.
Director: Larry Cohen | Stars: Fred Williamson, Julius Harris, Gloria Hendry, Margaret Avery
Votes: 1,758 | Gross: $1.45M
There’s gonna be some overlap between this list and the best scene in a bad movie list. Ok, maybe a lot of overlap. Which brings us to the divine spectacle of Fred “The Hammer” Williamson impaling a gangland rival with a beach umbrella.
5. Cube (1997)
R | 90 min | Horror, Mystery, Sci-Fi
A group of strangers awaken to find themselves placed in a giant cube. Each one of them is gifted with a special skill and they must work together to escape an endless maze of deadly traps.
Director: Vincenzo Natali | Stars: Nicole de Boer, Maurice Dean Wint, David Hewlett, Andrew Miller
Votes: 247,618 | Gross: $0.50M
The opening. Pun intended, but perhaps not achieved.
6. Bone Tomahawk (2015)
Not Rated | 132 min | Drama, Horror, Western
In the dying days of the old west, an elderly sheriff and his posse set out to rescue their town's doctor from cannibalistic cave dwellers.
Director: S. Craig Zahler | Stars: Kurt Russell, Patrick Wilson, Matthew Fox, Richard Jenkins
Votes: 117,971
Talk about a pain in the butt.
7. The Blob (1988)
R | 95 min | Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller
A deadly entity from space crash-lands near a small town and begins consuming everyone in its path. Panic ensues as shady government scientists try to contain the horrific creature.
Director: Chuck Russell | Stars: Shawnee Smith, Kevin Dillon, Donovan Leitch Jr., Jeffrey DeMunn
Votes: 43,505 | Gross: $8.25M
Take your pick from the smorgasbord of slimy deaths on display here. The sewer kid’s a good one, the phone booth’s a twofer, but if we’re being honest, and hey, that’s an admirable policy, the skeevy lovers’ lane hookup between the supporting jock and a passed out Erika Eleniak is the creme de la creme. Only thing that can match that is the gory fate of the diner worker who gets yanked down the drain by the blob when it clogs the kitchen sink and he attempts to dislodge it with a plunger. Bad move, dude.
8. Hobo with a Shotgun (2011)
Not Rated | 86 min | Action, Comedy, Crime
A homeless vigilante blows away crooked cops, pedophile Santas, and other scumbags with his trusty pump-action shotgun.
Director: Jason Eisener | Stars: Rutger Hauer, Pasha Ebrahimi, Robb Wells, Brian Downey
Votes: 48,642 | Gross: $0.70M
A whole damn busload of kids gets incinerated by a flamethrower wielding goon to the strains of “Disco Inferno”. Burn baby burn.
9. Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night II (1987)
R | 97 min | Horror, Thriller
Thirty years after her accidental death at her 1957 senior prom, the tortured spirit of prom queen Mary Lou Maloney returns to seek revenge.
Director: Bruce Pittman | Stars: Lisa Schrage, Michael Ironside, Wendy Lyon, Louis Ferreira
Votes: 7,622 | Gross: $2.68M
Locker room.
10. Re-Animator (1985)
Unrated | 84 min | Comedy, Horror, Sci-Fi
After an odd new medical student arrives on campus, a dedicated local and his girlfriend become involved in bizarre experiments centering around the re-animation of dead tissue.
Director: Stuart Gordon | Stars: Jeffrey Combs, Bruce Abbott, Barbara Crampton, David Gale
Votes: 71,501 | Gross: $2.02M
Dr Hill dies three excellent deaths: being beheaded by a shovel wielded by a vengeful student is a nasty way to go, but that ain’t the last of him.
11. Street Trash (1987)
Unrated | 91 min | Comedy, Horror
A liquor store owner sells alcoholic beverages to homeless people, unaware of what the bottles actually contain: toxic brew.
Director: J. Michael Muro | Stars: Mike Lackey, Bill Chepil, Vic Noto, Mark Sferrazza
Votes: 11,442
Ok, here you can’t pick just one. It’s all gravy.
12. Day of the Dead (1985)
Not Rated | 101 min | Horror, Thriller
As the world is overrun by zombies, a group of scientists and military personnel sheltering in an underground bunker in Florida must decide on how they should deal with the undead horde.
Director: George A. Romero | Stars: Lori Cardille, Terry Alexander, Joseph Pilato, Jarlath Conroy
Votes: 74,368 | Gross: $5.80M
Captain Rhodes
13. Puppet Master: The Littlest Reich (2018)
Not Rated | 90 min | Comedy, Horror
All hell breaks loose when a strange force animates the puppets up for auction at a convention, setting them on a bloody killing spree that's motivated by an evil as old as time.
Directors: Sonny Laguna, Tommy Wiklund | Stars: Thomas Lennon, Jenny Pellicer, Nelson Franklin, Charlyne Yi
Votes: 4,460
Beheaded by helicopter robot. Not even the nastiest death in the picture, but definitely the funniest.
14. Double Team (1997)
R | 93 min | Action, Comedy, Sci-Fi
An international spy teams up with an arms dealer to escape from a penal colony and rescue his family from a terrorist.
Director: Hark Tsui | Stars: Jean-Claude Van Damme, Dennis Rodman, Mickey Rourke, Paul Freeman
Votes: 36,666 | Gross: $11.44M
Mickey Rourke, by tiger and land mine
15. Krampus (I) (2015)
PG-13 | 98 min | Comedy, Fantasy, Horror
A boy who has a bad Christmas accidentally summons a festive demon to his family home.
Director: Michael Dougherty | Stars: Adam Scott, Toni Collette, David Koechner, Allison Tolman
Votes: 84,069 | Gross: $42.59M
Swallowed whole by carnivorous Jack-in-the-box
16. Maximum Overdrive (1986)
R | 98 min | Action, Comedy, Horror
A group of people try to survive when machines start to come alive and become homicidal.
Director: Stephen King | Stars: Emilio Estevez, Pat Hingle, Laura Harrington, Yeardley Smith
Votes: 35,826 | Gross: $7.43M
Steamroller
17. Trucks (1997 TV Movie)
R | 95 min | Drama, Horror, Sci-Fi
Aliens arrive, parking in a geostationary orbit over Nevada. Using powers unknown to us, they declare war, and use unmanned trucks as weapons.
Director: Chris Thomson | Stars: Timothy Busfield, Brenda Bakke, Aidan Devine, Roman Podhora
Votes: 3,699
Tonka truck
18. Slither (2006)
R | 95 min | Comedy, Horror, Sci-Fi
A small town is taken over by an alien plague, turning residents into zombies and all forms of mutant monsters.
Director: James Gunn | Stars: Nathan Fillion, Elizabeth Banks, Michael Rooker, Don Thompson
Votes: 88,858 | Gross: $7.77M
Brenda in the barn
19. Braindead (1992)
R | 104 min | Comedy, Fantasy, Horror
A young man's mother is bitten by a Sumatran rat-monkey. She gets sick and dies, at which time she comes back to life, killing and eating dogs, nurses, friends, and neighbors.
Director: Peter Jackson | Stars: Timothy Balme, Diana Peñalver, Elizabeth Moody, Ian Watkin
Votes: 103,289 | Gross: $0.24M
Hard to pick just one. The lawnmower? The poor soul whose head gets impaled with a lightbulb? The lady whose head gets torn in half by the zombie baby? It’s another movie with more than its share.
20. Brain Damage (1988)
R | 84 min | Comedy, Horror
One morning, a young man wakes to find that a small, disgusting creature has attached itself to the base of his brain stem. The creature gives him a euphoric state of happiness but demands human victims in return.
Director: Frank Henenlotter | Stars: Rick Hearst, Gordon MacDonald, Jennifer Lowry, Theo Barnes
Votes: 13,166
The blowjob
21. The Omen (1976)
R | 111 min | Horror, Mystery
Mysterious deaths surround an American ambassador. Could the child that he is raising actually be the Antichrist? The Devil's own son?
Director: Richard Donner | Stars: Gregory Peck, Lee Remick, Harvey Stephens, David Warner
Votes: 132,487 | Gross: $4.27M
David Warner loses his head
22. Phantasm II (1988)
R | 97 min | Action, Fantasy, Horror
Mike, now released from a psychiatric hospital, meets with Reggie, and discover his dreams (the events of the original film) are real, and they both journey to find and stop the evil Tall Man from his grim work.
Director: Don Coscarelli | Stars: James Le Gros, Reggie Bannister, Angus Scrimm, Paula Irvine
Votes: 16,755 | Gross: $7.28M
The Tall Man gets embalmed alive. Lots of gory, gooey deaths in this series, for sure. The first Phantasm has a great death when a creep at the funeral home takes a ball to the face, but part II ups the ante in a big way: you got a group of zombie dwarves blown away with the ol’ quadruple-barrel shotgun, a chainsaw duel, and more. Part III is no slouch either: there you got a band of thieves murdered “Home Alone” style by a mischievous imp defending his home, you get one of the Tall Man’s death spheres smash a giant hole through a zombie lady’s head, you’ve got… more good stuff, I’m sure.
23. Army of the Dead (2021)
R | 148 min | Action, Crime, Drama
Following a zombie outbreak in Las Vegas, a group of mercenaries take the ultimate gamble, venturing into the quarantine zone to pull off the greatest heist ever attempted.
Director: Zack Snyder | Stars: Dave Bautista, Ella Purnell, Ana de la Reguera, Omari Hardwick
Votes: 188,133 | Gross: $1.00M
A zombie gets machine-gunned to a pulp in the opening credits. Later, a booby trap outside the safe smashes another zombie to pulp. Pretty lousy movie, with effects that are mostly not on this level.
24. The Suicide Squad (2021)
R | 132 min | Action, Adventure, Comedy
Supervillains Harley Quinn, Bloodsport, Peacemaker, and a collection of nutty cons at Belle Reve prison join the super-secret, super-shady Task Force X as they are dropped off at the remote, enemy-infused island of Corto Maltese.
Director: James Gunn | Stars: Margot Robbie, Idris Elba, John Cena, Joel Kinnaman
Votes: 409,586 | Gross: $55.82M
Another movie where we can’t pick just one. Let’s break it down. For the A team, it’s Weasel, airdropped from a helicopter off the coast of Corto Maltese for an amphibious landing; too bad nobody bothered to find out if he could swim.
From B team, it’s, well, the only member of B-team who actually dies.
For non-Squaddies, and this is visually the best death here, there’s the soldier who King Shark rips in half in the middle of a rainstorm. Practical effects, using a dummy. The Shark, of course, is CGI. Beautiful. But I have to give some props for the rescue of Colonel Flag, which ends with a terrific gag.
Pour one out for Milton here, too, remarkable chiefly because it goes tragically unnoticed. Poor Milton.
25. Jason X (2001)
R | 92 min | Action, Horror, Sci-Fi
Jason Voorhees is cryogenically frozen at the beginning of the 21st century, and is discovered in the 25th century and taken to space. He gets thawed, and begins stalking and killing the crew of the spaceship that's transporting him.
Director: James Isaac | Stars: Kane Hodder, Lexa Doig, Jeff Geddis, David Cronenberg
Votes: 61,525 | Gross: $13.12M
Not crazy about this franchise, but the kill that sticks with me is the scientist getting her head dunked in liquid nitrogen.
26. Brightburn (2019)
R | 90 min | Drama, Horror, Mystery
What if a child from another world crash-landed on Earth, but instead of becoming a hero to mankind, he proved to be something far more sinister?
Director: David Yarovesky | Stars: Elizabeth Banks, David Denman, Jackson A. Dunn, Abraham Clinkscales
Votes: 107,800 | Gross: $17.30M
Badger gets into a bad car accident. And when you think it’s over… it’s not. He’s still alive. A “jaw-dropping” scene, some say
27. Death Race (2008)
R | 105 min | Action, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Ex-con Jensen Ames is forced by the warden of a notorious prison to compete in our post-industrial world's most popular sport: a car race in which inmates must brutalize and kill one another on the road to victory.
Director: Paul W.S. Anderson | Stars: Jason Statham, Joan Allen, Tyrese Gibson, Ian McShane
Votes: 218,903 | Gross: $36.32M
14K and his navigator getting wiped out by the big rig, which bores through the passenger door with a hubcap-mounted death drill then blows them away with a cannon.
28. Prophecy (1979)
PG | 102 min | Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller
A government health inspector is dispatched to assess the damage a logging company is causing to a patch of forest claimed by Native Americans, and comes face to face with true terror wreaking havoc in the woods.
Director: John Frankenheimer | Stars: Talia Shire, Robert Foxworth, Armand Assante, Richard Dysart
Votes: 6,137 | Gross: $18.39M
The kid in the sleeping bag frantically hopping away from the bear, alas, was just not hopping fast enough. With one swipe Katahdin smacks his ass into a tree and stuffing flies everywhere. Tres magnifique.
29. Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982)
R | 98 min | Horror, Mystery, Sci-Fi
Kids all over America want Silver Shamrock masks for Halloween. Doctor Daniel Challis seeks to uncover a plot by Silver Shamrock owner Conal Cochran.
Director: Tommy Lee Wallace | Stars: Tom Atkins, Stacey Nelkin, Dan O'Herlihy, Michael Currie
Votes: 60,993 | Gross: $14.40M
Silver shamrock!
30. A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
R | 91 min | Horror
Teenager Nancy Thompson must uncover the dark truth concealed by her parents after she and her friends become targets of the spirit of a serial killer with a bladed glove in their dreams, in which if they die, it kills them in real life.
Director: Wes Craven | Stars: Heather Langenkamp, Johnny Depp, Robert Englund, John Saxon
Votes: 262,476 | Gross: $25.50M
Johnny Depp gets pulled into a hole in his mattress and a fountain of gore erupts. Part one has the best kills by far. From what I’ve seen. Otherworldly and strange. The kills in the sequels are often just silly.
31. A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987)
R | 96 min | Fantasy, Horror
A psychiatrist familiar with knife-wielding dream demon Freddy Krueger helps teens at a mental hospital battle the killer who is invading their dreams.
Director: Chuck Russell | Stars: Heather Langenkamp, Robert Englund, Craig Wasson, Patricia Arquette
Votes: 90,297 | Gross: $44.79M
Poor girl just wanted to be on television.
32. Deadly Friend (1986)
R | 91 min | Drama, Horror, Sci-Fi
After his friend is killed by her abusive father, the new kid in town attempts to save her by implanting a robotic microchip into her brain.
Director: Wes Craven | Stars: Matthew Labyorteaux, Kristy Swanson, Michael Sharrett, Anne Twomey
Votes: 8,738 | Gross: $8.99M
Basketball to the head
33. Valentine (2001)
R | 96 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
Five women are stalked by an unknown assailant while preparing for Valentine's Day.
Director: Jamie Blanks | Stars: Denise Richards, David Boreanaz, Marley Shelton, Jessica Capshaw
Votes: 30,251 | Gross: $20.38M
Victim number 2 gets a couple of Cupid’s arrows straight in the gut. She goes reeling out of a crummy video art exhibit and over the rail of the stairwell, falling several stories into an open dumpster. Not the goriest death in the movie by a mile, but the film’s palpable contempt for this character makes her death nasty and bracing in a way that the film never tops.
34. Phantasm III: Lord of the Dead (1994)
R | 91 min | Action, Fantasy, Horror
Mike and Reggie continue to hunt the mysterious Tall Man, discovering along the way that the invasion has already begun.
Director: Don Coscarelli | Stars: Reggie Bannister, A. Michael Baldwin, Bill Thornbury, Gloria Lynne Henry
Votes: 10,620
Love that kid murdering the burglars Home Alone style, but the second time is the charm for one of the robbers, when one of the flying spheres goes through her head like Swiss cheese
35. Firestarter (1984)
R | 114 min | Action, Horror, Sci-Fi
A couple who participated in a potent medical experiment gain telepathic ability and then have a child who is pyrokinetic.
Director: Mark L. Lester | Stars: Drew Barrymore, David Keith, Freddie Jones, Heather Locklear
Votes: 36,902 | Gross: $15.10M
Charlie is shooting fireballs at everyone during the climax, and Dr Pynchot, the last of the major villains in need of comeuppance, hops on a little go kart to make his getaway. Dude could probably have gotten away faster on foot, and so he gets blowed up real good. Not really an especially inventive or visually spectacular death, it’s really just the unnecessary go kart that makes it so satisfying. Sorry Doc, maybe you should have minored in kinesthesiology.
36. Def by Temptation (1990)
R | 95 min | Horror
An evil succubus is preying on libidinous black men in New York City, and all that stands in her way is a minister-in-training, an aspiring actor, and a cop who specializes in cases involving the supernatural.
Director: James Bond III | Stars: James Bond III, Kadeem Hardison, Bill Nunn, Samuel L. Jackson
Votes: 2,408 | Gross: $2.22M
It’s a little bit Freddy Krueger and a good bit more Videodrome. One of our hapless heroes gets eaten by the tv, which then spits out a mess of bloody guts.
37. Black Sunday (1960)
Approved | 87 min | Horror
A vengeful witch and her fiendish servant return from the grave and begin a bloody campaign to possess the body of the witch's beautiful look-alike descendant.
Director: Mario Bava | Stars: Barbara Steele, John Richardson, Andrea Checchi, Ivo Garrani
Votes: 17,593
Take one Devil mask with spikes on the inner surface and place it over the accused witch’s face. Then simply whack that sucker with a big wooden mallet, and voila! A kill for the history books.
38. Beef (2023– )
TV-MA | 352 min | Comedy, Drama
Two people let a road rage incident burrow into their minds and slowly consume their every thought and action.
Stars: Steven Yeun, Ali Wong, Joseph Lee, Young Mazino
Votes: 135,030
A safe room’s automated door turns out to leave something to be desired in terms of safety. Gruesome but not explicit, unless you count the foley effects. And you should.
39. Friday the 13th (1980)
R | 95 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
A group of teenage camp counselors attempt to re-open an abandoned summer camp with a tragic past, but they are stalked by a mysterious, relentless killer.
Director: Sean S. Cunningham | Stars: Betsy Palmer, Adrienne King, Jeannine Taylor, Robbi Morgan
Votes: 157,430 | Gross: $39.75M
Kevin Bacon getting impaled from beneath, a kill the series repeated time and again. Girl in the hammock in part 3. The girl in the raft in The Final Chapter. The girl in the bunkbed in A New Beginning. Lots of variations on that too. Demon in part V, speared with a pole while on the john, for instance. Kinda the same deal.
40. Friday the 13th Part 2 (1981)
R | 87 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
Five years after the events of the first film, a summer camp next to the infamous Camp Crystal Lake is preparing to open, but the legend of Jason is weighing heavy on the proceedings.
Director: Steve Miner | Stars: Betsy Palmer, Amy Steel, John Furey, Adrienne King
Votes: 77,751 | Gross: $21.72M
My man in the wheelchair, gets a machete to the face and goes tottering down a steep staircase. I dunno, despite Savini turning this one down (he thought having Jason return from the dead was dumb) it’s got good kills. Sandra and her beau getting speared… Well, I’m actually blanking on others. The dude in the snare.
41. Friday the 13th: Part 3 (1982)
R | 95 min | Horror, Thriller
Jason Voorhees stalks a group of friends who have just arrived to spend the weekend at a cabin near Crystal Lake.
Director: Steve Miner | Stars: Dana Kimmell, Tracie Savage, Richard Brooker, Terry Ballard
Votes: 60,406 | Gross: $36.69M
Mama told Vera not to come, and mama was right. After acquiring Shelly’s hockey mask and spear gun, Voorhees walks up and spears her through the eye with it in a fantastic 3D shot. Some may prefer the eye popping from its socket, but I won’t abide that fake looking plastic head on this list. Ok, honorable mention for that one.
Honorable mention also to the dude doing the handstand.
42. Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (1984)
R | 91 min | Horror, Thriller
After being announced dead and taken to a morgue, Jason Voorhees spontaneously revives, escapes from the hospital, and stalks a group of friends renting a house in the countryside near Crystal Lake.
Director: Joseph Zito | Stars: Erich Anderson, Judie Aronson, Peter Barton, Kimberly Beck
Votes: 59,153 | Gross: $32.98M
Tom Savini’s return to the franchise, reteaming with Joesph Zito, who he worked for on The Prowler. There is a corresponding uptick in gore quality. Lots of candidates. The shower head smooshing. Crispin Glover finding his missing corkscrew. But ultimately we’ve got to give it to Jason, who get his machete stuck in his noggin and falls facedown against the blade.
43. Friday the 13th: A New Beginning (1985)
R | 92 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
Still haunted by his past, Tommy Jarvis, who, as a child, killed Jason Voorhees, is sent to a secluded halfway house in the countryside, where the killing of a young man triggers a brutal series of murders in the area.
Director: Danny Steinmann | Stars: Melanie Kinnaman, John Shepherd, Anthony Barrile, Suzanne Bateman
Votes: 43,903 | Gross: $21.93M
With Jason Voorhees well and truly dead, who could be doing all this killing in Final Chapter survivor Tommy Jarvis’ wake? Gee. Well, we don’t see the killer or as much of the kills this time around, but the guy getting his head crushed by a tight leather strap is gonna take the top spot.
Honorable mention to the dumb hillbilly on the bike. I think that’s a situation where we are mostly just glad to see him go, though.
44. Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives (1986)
R | 86 min | Horror, Thriller
Tommy Jarvis exhumes Jason Voorhees to cremate his corpse, but inadvertently brings him back to life instead. The newly revived killer seeks revenge, and Tommy may be the only one who can stop him.
Director: Tom McLoughlin | Stars: Thom Mathews, Jennifer Cooke, David Kagen, Kerry Noonan
Votes: 51,222 | Gross: $19.47M
Camp counselor Cort is knocking boots with a young lady in her stepdad’s Winnebago. When spooky things start happening they hightail it out of there… only Jason has snuck inside and hidden himself in the lavatory. He nabs Cort’s date and bashes her head into the wall so hard an imprint of her face forms on the other side.
45. Cliffhanger (1993)
R | 113 min | Action, Adventure, Thriller
A botched mid-air heist results in suitcases full of cash being searched for by various groups throughout the Rocky Mountains.
Director: Renny Harlin | Stars: Sylvester Stallone, John Lithgow, Michael Rooker, Janine Turner
Votes: 139,952 | Gross: $84.05M
Impaled on a stalactite
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