I like to think that nothing much frightens me anymore. Some may call me jaded by my many years of watching horror and anything that pushes the boundaries of acceptable film – but despite my quite robust experience in the genre, there is still one way to make me cringe… and it involves the eye.
It doesn’t even have to be a top horror film – pretty much anything involving eyes creeps me out. Even Jim Carrey poking his eye in Ace Ventura for laughs makes me a bit queasy. So if there is one thing that can make me cringe, it’s something terrible happening to the regular old eyeball. Here, then, are my favorite horror moments where the eyes have it. Needless to say, there are spoilers to be had – you’ve been warned.
5) John Carpenter’s Cigarette Burns – Part of the Master’s of Horror series, Cigarette Burns is one of my top three out of the many films that quite a respective group of horror directors took part in. Norman Reedus (probably known to many as the redneck, crossbow-wielding zombie killer Darrel on The Walking Dead) is charged with tracking down a film that, by all accounts, leads everyone who views it to kill themselves or go mad. But, hey, the money’s good and he’s not planning on watching it, so why not? Of course, after encountering the ruin and madness the film has caused, he tracks it down, collects his money and goes on his way. But the movie is not done with him – the man who hired him calls him back in distress. When he arrives, he’s just in time to find the butler, who proceeds to stab out his own eyes. I’ve said I’ve wanted to gouge out my eyes after watching a particularly bad film, but I don’t think I’ll ever follow through on it.
4) Hostel – Eli Roth’s initial entry that started the whole “torture porn” trend is cruel, violent and oh so wicked. You have tendons slashed, decapitations, impromptu surgery, severed body parts but nothing compares to taking a blowtorch to the face. If you came across someone with their eye just dangling there from a severely burnt face, I’m sure you’re reaction would be to cut the thing off. No, wait, I would probably just leave it there and cover it with a towel or something while seeking actual professional help. Snipping off an eye is bad enough, but the goo that issues forth really puts it over the top.
3) Audition – For any horror fan who hasn’t seen this yet – what they hell are you waiting for? For the love of all that is good – don’t read up on this ahead of time, either, or it loses all impact. Anyway, what starts off as some kind of messed up way to get a date (holding a fake casting call) turns very dark after the woman picked turns out to be much worse than pretty much any other crazy girlfriend can get. By the end our would-be suitor is knocked out and faces the dreaded call of “kiri, kiri, kiri” – leading to the world’s most disturbing display of acupuncture in the history of film. If you can make it through the last 15 minutes of this film without being a bit disturbed, congratulations, you have no soul.
2) Zombi 2 – Lucio Fulci is known by is moniker the “Godfather of Gore” and the Italian director certainly lives up to his reputation. While many could consider Zombi 2 as a knockoff of George A. Romero’s “… of the Dead” films, it takes a much different approach. Many recall the quite insane scene of a zombie fighting a shark, but the scene that stands out most in my mind is the oh so slow impaling eyeball scene. Just remember, a splintered door and human eyeball do not mix – and the effect of seeing someone’s eye come in contact, especially at such slow speed, really puts the gag into eyeball gag.
1) Un Chien Andalou – Not a horror film, more of an experimental journey between Luis Buñuel and surrealist artist Salvador Dali, it none-the-less contains the single most shocking scene of violence towards the eye I have yet to see. A man sharpens a razor, a young woman sits, then he calmly slices the eye with said razor. It’s not drawn out, but the impact is immediate and visceral. Even though it was released in 1929, I don’t think this particular instance has been topped. Given my feelings toward this particular type of thing, I kind of hope it stays that way.
I think everyone has something that makes them supremely uncomfortable when it comes to horror films. Teeth being pulled, digits being removed, tongues cut off, important male parts being separated from the body – or something disturbing happening to an eye. The best (or most terrible) part is that no matter what makes you uncomfortable, chances are there is a film (or two or a dozen) that take advantage of your weakness, cranks it up to 11 and makes you want to revert to your 10-year-old self and hide yourself behind your hands or just curl up in a ball and rock slowly while changing the mantra “it’s just a movie”.
Chris Kavan is the Community Manager of FilmCrave.com and he firmly believes eyes are for flirting, not for gouging.
