Monday, October 02, 2006
Halloween@TFL: The A-Z of Horror - B
B is for Beheading!
Horror films are notorious for never taking the easy way out. Sure, guns might get the job quickly, but your average nutjob serial killer will always go for something a bit more, well, creative. But when you really do have to dispatch your victim as quickly and easily as possible, nothing works better than a good beheading.
Obviously, beheading has a big place in history, what with the French Revolution, and it's also a part of Britain's legacy. Recently it's taken on an even more sinister twist, with videos turning up on the internet showing various Middle-Eastern hostages being relieved of their noggin, which is a pretty sick thing, but no less surprising in today's rubberneck world. But let's get away from real life decapitation and take a gander at its place in horror.
First of all, beheading is not a hard trick to pull off, even if you have a micro-budget. It's not hard to make a fake head, rig up some blood packs and pull someone's head inside their sweater and voila, you have a cheap but cool effect. So it's no wonder horror movies have used them frequently. Let's have a look at some of the best.
Friday the 13th - Possibly the most famous one of them all. Who can forget seeing Adrienne King's terrified little face as she swipes Betsy Palmer's head off in slow-slow-slow motion? It's a great little moment and a good cap to one of the better movies in the series, and certainly made sure Mrs. Voorhees was as dead as one can possibly be.
The Evil Dead/Evil Dead II - Poor old Linda. It can't be an easy job to behead your girlfriend twice in a row, but Bruce Campbell's Ash managed it in both movies, although as is usually true in a Sam Raimi flick, the head still managed to have a good amount of screentime after it had left its limber body.
The Omen - Not a traditional beheading, but no less effective for that. David Warner, hot on the trail of finding out how to dispatch the evil Damien, has a little bit of trouble in Italy when a truck carrying sheets of glass manages to roll down the hill towards him. But they don't go for the easy kill with the truck - instead, the truck stops and a sheet of glass flies off the back, decapitating him in one fell swoop, to the horror and amusement of audiences.
Twilight Zone: The Movie - Okay, this one doesn't even happen in the movie, but it's worth a mention. Good ol' Vic Morrow - otherwise known as the owner of the loins wherein Jennifer Jason Leigh came from - plays a racist who is transported back to various times of minority madness in history, seeing the prime time of the Klu Klux Klan, Vietnam, and of course, Nazi Germany. The segment itself isn't that good, but what's more memorable is the fact that during filming, Morrow's head found itself separated from his flabby torso after it came into contact with a helicopter's rotor, thanks in no small part to John Landis' film-safety corner-cutting.
And thus, horror is brought round full circle and connected to real life. The lesson? Real life can really suck sometimes. Especially when it's in the hands of a film director more concerned about his shot than his principal's head. It's a rough world, folks.
Discuss this and other Fakery on our message boards!
Horror films are notorious for never taking the easy way out. Sure, guns might get the job quickly, but your average nutjob serial killer will always go for something a bit more, well, creative. But when you really do have to dispatch your victim as quickly and easily as possible, nothing works better than a good beheading.
Obviously, beheading has a big place in history, what with the French Revolution, and it's also a part of Britain's legacy. Recently it's taken on an even more sinister twist, with videos turning up on the internet showing various Middle-Eastern hostages being relieved of their noggin, which is a pretty sick thing, but no less surprising in today's rubberneck world. But let's get away from real life decapitation and take a gander at its place in horror.
First of all, beheading is not a hard trick to pull off, even if you have a micro-budget. It's not hard to make a fake head, rig up some blood packs and pull someone's head inside their sweater and voila, you have a cheap but cool effect. So it's no wonder horror movies have used them frequently. Let's have a look at some of the best.
Friday the 13th - Possibly the most famous one of them all. Who can forget seeing Adrienne King's terrified little face as she swipes Betsy Palmer's head off in slow-slow-slow motion? It's a great little moment and a good cap to one of the better movies in the series, and certainly made sure Mrs. Voorhees was as dead as one can possibly be.
The Evil Dead/Evil Dead II - Poor old Linda. It can't be an easy job to behead your girlfriend twice in a row, but Bruce Campbell's Ash managed it in both movies, although as is usually true in a Sam Raimi flick, the head still managed to have a good amount of screentime after it had left its limber body.
The Omen - Not a traditional beheading, but no less effective for that. David Warner, hot on the trail of finding out how to dispatch the evil Damien, has a little bit of trouble in Italy when a truck carrying sheets of glass manages to roll down the hill towards him. But they don't go for the easy kill with the truck - instead, the truck stops and a sheet of glass flies off the back, decapitating him in one fell swoop, to the horror and amusement of audiences.
Twilight Zone: The Movie - Okay, this one doesn't even happen in the movie, but it's worth a mention. Good ol' Vic Morrow - otherwise known as the owner of the loins wherein Jennifer Jason Leigh came from - plays a racist who is transported back to various times of minority madness in history, seeing the prime time of the Klu Klux Klan, Vietnam, and of course, Nazi Germany. The segment itself isn't that good, but what's more memorable is the fact that during filming, Morrow's head found itself separated from his flabby torso after it came into contact with a helicopter's rotor, thanks in no small part to John Landis' film-safety corner-cutting.
And thus, horror is brought round full circle and connected to real life. The lesson? Real life can really suck sometimes. Especially when it's in the hands of a film director more concerned about his shot than his principal's head. It's a rough world, folks.
Discuss this and other Fakery on our message boards!
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