10 Ingenious Scenes In Otherwise Terrible Movies
A gem among the trash.
Even the very worst movies generally have at least one or two meritorious aspects - perhaps there's a decent performance that stands out from the pack, some effective CGI, or maybe a couple of cool musical selections.
But sometimes there's a single scene so creative and clever in both conception and execution, that audiences are left to wonder how it found itself in such an otherwise wretched, worthless work of cinema.
These 10 scenes, from inspired action beats to awesome death scenes, clever one-liners, and everything in-between, all suggest their films had the potential to be so much more than the cynical, cinematic stupidity they otherwise were.
Whether they speak to a movie that was perhaps mangled by studio interference or a filmmaker who struck gold for just a few minutes, these scenes stand out as unexpectedly smart, thoughtful, and straight-up entertaining as hell.
It'll forever be a shame they didn't end up in better movies, but they at least make these terrible films a little easier to tolerate. Or perhaps save hours of your life and just watch the individual scenes on YouTube...
10. Liquid Nitrogen Death - Jason X
Not a single living soul will try to argue in good faith that Jason X, the tenth Friday the 13th movie, is in any way a genuinely good or well-crafted piece of cinema.
But it sure is fun in its badness, right?
A shamelessly schlocky sci-fi horror vehicle which sends Jason Voorhees (Kane Hodder) to space - or rather, "spaaaaaace!" - Jason X is outrageously low-budget, full of groan-worthy one-liners, irritatingly over-sexed characters, and...one of the greatest kills in the history of the entire genre.
The scene in question is, of course, the unforgettable beat where a seemingly dead Jason is roused from his "slumber" and makes short work of medical intern Adrienne (Kristi Angus).
Jason doesn't settle for hacking her up with his trusty machete, though - he dunks her head into a vat of liquid nitrogen, holds it there while it freezes, and then smashes her face on the counter, shattering her noggin into thousands of icy, bloody fragments.
Its impressively gnarly creativity is matched only by the brilliantly nauseating gore effects.