The Controversial Horror Scene Fans Would Have Refused To Film
Why do we watch horror movies? It's an interesting question to consider — why seemingly rational human beings would knowingly and intentionally subject themselves to the heebie jeebies. The best horror movies terrify us, make us wince and cringe, gross us out, and make our skin crawl, but we keep on watching them.
According to Malcolm Turvey, director of the Film and Media Studies program at Tufts University, there is a wide variety of theories as to why we watch horror movies. The most popular theory is one called "the beast within," which postulates that seeing what goes down in a given horror movie taps into and satiates our baser urges. "It argues that an unconscious, repressed part of every human is actually savage; that the veneer of civility is very thin, and beneath that is essentially a monster," Turvey told Tufts Now. "According to this idea, although we consciously disapprove of what the monster is doing, deep down part of us enjoys seeing the murder and mayhem the monster unleashes — because if we could, we would do that." Turvey concedes that there has to be more at play, given that not everyone enjoys horror movies. We also enjoy rooting for a hero or protagonist to triumph over a villain or dark force and horror flicks also key in our fascination with the alien, unknown, and monstrous.
Regardless of what watching horror films does to viewers, there's no denying that there's plenty of money to be made because plenty of people watch them. And while we might keep coming back for more, there are certain scenes in a handful of horror films that plenty of fans would nope out on at the drop of a hat. Looper surveyed 619 movie fans in the United States, asking which horror scene they would have refused to film, and the results might surprise you.
Nearly 30% of respondents gave the same answer
When Looper polled its audience, asking which horror scene they would have refused to film, one in 10 respondents — 10.82% — chose the shower scene in Alfred Hitchcock's classic 1960 psychological thriller, "Psycho." There's just something about getting stabbed by Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins) — a crazy man who dresses as his mother — that makes folks not want to take on the role of Marion Lane (Janiet Leigh). Fun fact: that's not fake blood you're seeing in that infamous scene; "Psycho" used chocolate syrup instead, as the film was shot in black and white.
A slightly higher number, 11.79% would not have participated in the scene from David Cronenberg's "The Fly" in which Seth Brundle (Jeff Goldblum) removed his fingernails and we're cringing just thinking about it. Even more people could not handle shooting the scene from 1980's "Cannibal Holocaust" with the woman impaled on the pole and we totally get that too. With 15.02% of respondents saying nay comes the eyeball scene in Eli Roth's "Hostel" — you know, the one in which good guy Paxton (Jay Hernandez) severs Kana's (Jennifer Lim) hanging eyeball after rescuing her.
One in five respondents, or 20.84%, cried no joy on Regan's crucifix scene in "The Exorcist." That's all we can really say to describe it; if you know, you know. If you don't, research at your own peril. The clear winner, though, with nearly 30 percent of the vote, comes from the "Human Centipede" franchise. It seems 28.27% of voters would refuse to participate in the birth scene in "The Human Centipede 2," though we're almost surprised that many people willingly watched the film, given that strapping someone down and forcing them to watch it seems like a form of torture befitting the "Hostel" or "Saw" franchises.