10 Horror Movie Props You Didn't Know Were Reused

1. Gwyneth Paltrow's Severed Se7en Head Was Used In Contagion

Child's Play Tales from the Crypt Chucky Crypt Keeper
New Line Cinema/Warner Bros.

One of the all-time great scenes that so many of us think we've seen but haven't, is the sight of Gwyneth Paltrow's severed head in a box at the close of David Fincher's Se7en.

At that close, Kevin Spacey's John Doe goads and torments Brad Pitt's Detective Mills. Insinuating that the head of Mills' wife Tracey (Paltrow) is in a box that gets delivered to the scene, Doe proclaims how she begged for her life and the life of her unborn child that Mills had yet to be told about.

Morgan Freeman's Detective Lieutenant Somerset sees what's in the box, yet we the audience don't ever get to see Tracey's head. Well, at least not in Se7en, that is.

Fincher's 1995 movie did originally plan to show Tracey's severed head in the box, and so a model of Paltrow's decapitated head was actually made. And while that model didn't make it into Se7en, it was used in 2011's Contagion.

In that Steven Soderbergh effort, Paltrow's Beth is the first big-name casualty of a mystery virus that is taking over the globe. When an autopsy is performed on Beth, the production made use of the fake Gwyneth Paltrow head that had been made for Se7en all those years prior.

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Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.