Dead Alive

The Thing (1982)

John Carpenter’s 1982 horror classic is renowned for its use of special effects, which at the time were revolutionary. Set in desolate Antarctica, The Thing has enough deaths and body transformations to make you queasy. The film follows a group of American scientists, who find a dog out in the frozen tundra and allow him into their camp. What they don’t know is that the dog has been infected by an otherworldly being, which can take the shape of any creature it inhabits. Once the scientists find out what they’re dealing with, paranoia sets in as no one can be sure as to who is infected and who isn’t. While the effects may look hokey at times, The Thing is still one of the goriest, and scariest, movies ever made.

Dead Alive (1992)

Before he made the epic Lord of the Rings series, or the tedious remake of King Kong, director Peter Jackson made this zombie horror comedy in 1992. Lionel is a grown man living with his overbearing mother. When he tells his mother that he’s found a girlfriend and that they’re in love, his mother becomes jealous and tries to sabotage the relationship. Through a series of events, Lionel’s mother ends up being bitten by a monkey, which turns her into a zombie. She then goes about infecting the majority of the town. Dead Alive features one of the goriest scenes in movie history, in which Lionel attaches a lawn mower to his neck, and quite literally, mows down zombies. It is said that the lawn mower seen was pumping fake blood at five gallons per second during that scene.

The Fly (1986)

Director David Cronen-berg has always used over the top gore effects ever since his debut in the 1970s. Once his films garnered more acclaim, he was able to get bigger budgets, which meant more realistic and elaborate gore effects. The Fly, a remake of the 1958 film starring Vincent Price, shows Jeff Goldblum being a human-fly hybrid (or the brundlefly, as fans like to call it) after a science experiment gone terribly wrong. As the film goes on, his transformation becomes more disgusting, adding suspense as to how much farther Cronenberg can push the gore. By the end of the movie, it’s to the breaking point.