Top Ten Cringe-Inducing Scenes In Horror

Horror flicks are infamous for pushing the limits of their devoted viewers. Every now and again, we fans get a scene that’s outright cringe-inducing, making us writhe in our seats with discomfort. That’s when you know that you’ve been fully submerged into a character’s reality. Throughout this article, I’m going to list what I consider to be the most cringe-inducing scenes in horror that I have personally witnessed. I’m going to stick to one scene per franchise. This is more for the mainstream circuit, so it won’t delve in to extreme horror films such as A Serbian Film that only exists to shock and disgust its audience. There might be potential spoilers in here so tread carefully as you proceed.

Aftermath of the leg injury

10) Halloween: H20 – Elevator Service

Halloween: H20 has been acclaimed by even non-horror fans. After skipping a camping trip, Josh and his friends decide to stay behind in an empty boarding school to celebrate Halloween together. Sarah goes looking for her boyfriend and she finds him in a dumbwaiter with his throat slashed. A chase scene immediately ensues and when she finally reaches the top, Michael decides the kitchen doesn’t need the handy elevator anymore and cuts the cord. What follows has you grabbing your ankle in vicarious pain. To this day, I still cringe every single time I watch this scene!

Food disposals are dangerous for hands

9) Last House On The Left (2009) – Need A Hand?

I think that we can all agree that this horror film is full of the cringe. However, one that specifically got to me was the death of Francis. He was the first to feel the wrath of the parents in this vengeful remake. After being bashed over the head with a bottle, stabbed with a butcher knife and thrown around, the father comes into the picture, grabs Francis’s already broken nose and squeezes. That is cringe-inducing on its own. Then, after attempting to drown him in the sink, dad gets the bright idea to shove Francis’ hand into the garbage disposal and flip the switch. There are many films that tease us with this possibiliy but this one actually went all the way.

You scratch my back, I scratch yours?

8) Hostel 2 – The Bloodletting

As if the original Hostel didn’t give us enough to be disgusted over, here comes Hostel 2. This time, we get to see how the clients of this insidious organization pick their prey. When Lorna is seduced away from the group she falls in to the clutches of a woman with an incredibly deviant fetish. She likes to bathe in blood. Fast forward to the actual scene and you will see Lorna, suspended upside down in the air, being sliced open multiple times and blood spraying everywhere. It isn’t necessarily the gore that makes this scene have a spot on this cringe-inducing list. It is how the woman plays with Lorna by dragging the scythe down her skin, teasing her, right before she slices her open for the first time.

7) The Descent – Don’t Stray From the Group

The Descent is probably one of the better horror films to come from the 2000s. It’s full of suspense, gore, and one particular moment that had me grabbing my leg in cringe-inducing agony (what’s with the legs, people?). When adrenaline junkie extraordinaire Holly thinks she sees a way out of the caves, she takes off and it does not end well. She ends up breaking her leg  a compound fracture with the bone protruding out of her skin. There is nothing left to do but set the bone in place, of course. You can feel Holly’s pain as her friends hold her down while they cram the bone back in and it’s a scene not for the faint of heart.

6) Urban Legends: Final Cut

It is safe to say that Urban Legends: Final Cut didn’t do as well as fans would have hoped. However, it did have one specific moment that had watchers clutching their sides in agony. You have all heard of the kidney heist, right? Well, in Final Cut, the opening kill is exactly that. It isn’t the actual removal that will have you squeamish but during the attempted escape, the killer grabs the freshly sewn wound to keep the woman from escaping. Then, he rips it wide open. While the film, in its entirety, might not have been as effective as fans would have hoped, this scene more than exceeded its goal.

5) Hellbound: Hellraiser 2 – Feeding the Mattress

It was blood that brought Frank back in Clive Barker’s original Gothic horror story and that is exactly what an obsessed doctor needs to bring Julia back. How does he do it? He takes a mental patient, gives him a straight razor and then sits him on the mattress. This poor guy thinks that there were bugs, maggots, and other creepy crawlies all over him, and he’s ready to do anything to get them off. What he sees as cutting the bugs off is actually him slashing at own flesh – to us viewers, it’s a cringe-inducing mix of both. The scene is incredibly disgusting and to this day, I skip through it every time I watch it.

Good advice!

4) I Spit On Your Grave (2010) – Bird Food

There are plenty of hard-to-watch moments in this remake. However, one in particular has me scratching at my eyeballs to this day. For those of you who don’t know the synopsis, Jennifer has been brutally raped and she is systematically getting revenge on all of her attackers. When she gets to Stanley (Daniel Franzese: Mean Girls), she ties him to a tree and holds his eyes open with fish hooks and string. After, she rubs fish eggs in to his eye balls and lets the crows have their feast.

Ouch!

3) Evil Dead (2013) – Honey, Are You okay?

Evil Dead has a shit ton of gore, horror, and awesomeness! There are also plenty of moments that could make it on this list. The one that sticks out to me is when Eric goes to check on his girlfriend. She has been possessed and she has sliced off half of her face. Turning on her spouse, she grabs a needle as a weapon and proceeds to stabs him multiple times – through his glasses – into his eyeball. Can we just stay away from eye stuff from this point on?

2) The Ruins – I Think I Got It All

Here is another shining example of a horror film that could have had its entirety put on this list. It is a film about a parasitic plant that gets into your body and slowly kills you. One of the most fucked up scenes deals with a character named Stacy. Stacy has slowly gotten worse and worse throughout the film and finally, in what had to be a psychotic break, slices up almost every part of herself so that she can get rid of every piece of the plant inside her. This is disturbing on both a visual and emotional level.

1) Saw: The Final Chapter – Just Shut The Fuck Up!

In a series that is infamous for its brutal and gory traps, it’s pretty obvious that one of them would hit the number one spot. The final film had one of the hardest scenes to watch out of all of them. A woman who has sold a lie as the truth is punished in one of the most ironic ways possible. She has had a fishing hook lowered into her throat and almost all the way down to her stomach. In order for her to live, her boss has to pull the barbed hook out and she can’t make a sound above a whisper or else the steel spikes surrounding her neck will close in and kill her. Watching him try to pull the hook out and hearing the ripping sounds and gurgling is practically paralyzing.

That’s my list of top ten most cringe-inducing scenes in horror movies. Have you seen anything squirm inducing in your own horror movie travels? If so, let us know in the comments! Make sure to like our Facebook page for the latest updates on all things horror. Thank you for reading!