When I had attended this year’s 1st annual Toronto After Dark Film Festival, I watched this short by Dave Mcgrath entitled, Disfingered. (Check out the short’s website here:
www.disfingered.com ). It was about a man who keeps waking up each morning with one of his fingers cut off.
My friends made fun of me for being so creeped out by it, but it was that short that made me realize how squeamish I am by seeing fingers getting hacked off. I know I’m not the only one out there either who feels the same way, which is why I decided to do this week’s top ten on moments that always send chills up my spine. Thanks Dave for the inspiration!
WARNING – SOME SPOILERS AHEAD!
1. Nightwatch
Many of you may not have even heard of this film starring Ewan McGregor and Patricia Arquette, (rent it if you can find it!) but it has one of the most chilling scenes I have ever seen before in a thriller. When Josh Brolin’s character gets handcuffed to a table by the killer, he makes the brave decision to cut off his own thumb to get out of the situation. I still can not watch this scene entirely to this very day. I always thought the filmmakers of Saw were influenced by this scene, but I guess great minds think a like.
2. Hostel
A movie with sliced Achilles tendons, clipped off eyeballs, mutilations, a bloody train wreck… and its the sawed off fingers are what got me the most. (That and when Paxton cuts off the doctor’s fingers at the end.) The “tamest” part of the gore sequences, and it got me. I’m such a wimp. Please Mr. Roth, no more dis-fingered moments in Hostel 2!
3. Wolf Creek
This movie was very disturbing, but the surprising death scene of the lead heroine turned victim will forever be locked in my memory. The Aussie Killer just slices her fingers off in one swift gesture and then sticks the knife in her spine. It was a hard scene to watch, especially knowing it could have happened in real life, since the movie was based on true events.
4. A Nightmare on Elm Street
If you’re a fan of this film, you know exactly what scene I’m talking about, since it’s the scariest f*cking scene in the movie. During the Tina chase sequence, Freddy pops up from behind a tree, calls Tina’s name and proceeds to cut off one of his fingers with his infamous Gansu knife glove.
This causes green blood to spurt out of the wound. I used to wonder why that was written in the script, and then I realized it’s because there’s other squeamish audience members like me who would be completed freaked out by seeing that. Good job, Wes for freaking us squeamish p*ssies out.
5. House of Wax (2005)
Think what you want about this so-so slasher remake, but you can’t tell me you weren’t somewhat shocked or surprised when you saw Elisa Cuthbert’s finger get clipped off. It caught me off guard, because in most slashers, you hardly see the leading lady get hurt like that. She may get roughed up a bit and go catatonic, but by the end of the night, all of her digits are usually in tact.
6. Demons
Dario Argento’s Demons is probably one of the goriest zombie films I have ever seen. I haven’t seen this movie for a while, but I remember the graphic and explicit scenes with zombies biting off the fingers of the movie patrons in the theatre. I’m not going to lie, the fast forward button was pressed a couple of times when I watched this.
7. The Faculty
Remember those guillotine style paper cutters your teachers used in school? Did you ever have the fear some dumb ass classmate was going to play with it and accidentally do something very stupid and cut all their fingers off? The reason for my fear of the paper cutter was depicted onscreen in Robert Rodriguez’s alien-thriller when Zeke (Josh Hartnett) uses it to cut off all the infected teacher’s (played by the great Jon Stewart) fingers off. The most disgusting thing was seeing the dismembered fingers scurry away like mice with the bones showing. Ick!
8. Phantasm
It’s been years since I’ve seen the original Phantasm film, but one scene is still embedded in my memory. Watching The Tall Man not only get his fingers slammed in a door, but also get them all hacked off by Mike freaked the sh*t out of me. Also, seeing that yellow ooze come out of his wounds didn’t help either. Maybe it’s cheesy now, but it wasn’t when I was little.
9. The Hills Have Eyes (2006)
Lot’s of people say the trailer scene affected them the most, but for me it was seeing Doug (Aaron Stanford) getting his fingers hacked off by the ax-wielding, Pluto. (That and hearing Beauty getting butchered.) Yup…forget torture, burnings, blown off heads, and rape, show a man getting his fingers cuts off and a dog being killed, and THEN you crossed the line. (Yes, I know…I need help.)
10. Four Rooms
In Quentin Tarantino’s short for this film, we see Quentin, Bruce Willis, and Jennifer Beals trying to convince the bellhop (Tim Roth) to cut off their friend’s finger if he can’t light a lighter ten times in a row. The moment where Tim Roth easily chops off the finger was actually hysterical, but the scenes leading up to it, made me a little tense. I thought it was going to be a lot gorier than it was. I know this anthology film isn’t a horror movie, but when you have Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino involved, the movie is worthy enough to make it on the list.
