10 Most Dark And Twisted Movie Scenes Of 2016
You might want to keep some eye bleach handy.
Films can evoke a whole range of reactions from moviegoers, from gut-aching laugher to crying like a baby. Often though, it’s the scenes that veer into more twisted territory that stay with us longer than the ones that simply make us laugh or cry.
Scenes so horrifying and jarring, so far removed from the comforts of our boringly safe real lives that they have the power to make us recoil in terror and disgust. The kind of scenes that make us question the sanity of the mind behind the film, and quite possibly our own tastes and morality as moviegoers.
Sometimes scenes like this are surely inserted for shock value’s sake, but whatever the motivation there’s still an undeniable power behind moments that force your mind to go to some very dark, nightmarish places. And luckily for the more warped film fan, 2016 treated us to plenty of memorably macabre moments.
Brace yourselves. It’s about to get grisly.
10. 10 Cloverfield Land – I Accept Your Apology
Set mostly in a nuclear bunker and featuring a cast of just three, Dan Trachtenberg’s directorial debut might seem about as far as you can get from its ‘spiritual successor’ Cloverfield. The clues are there for the diehard ‘Cloververse’ fans though, and 10 Cloverfield Lane is an effective psychological horror nevertheless despite the relative lack of rampaging alien monsters.
One of the movie’s most intense moments involves a confrontation between abductee Michelle (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), bunkmate Emmett (John Gallagher Jr) and kidnapper Howard (John Goodman) after the latter discovers the former two have been stealing tools to make their escape from the bunker.
A crazed Howard threatens to kill the pair by – dissolving them in a vat of acid no less – but Emmett ends up taking the blame and when Howard utters the words ‘I accept your apology’ it looks as though the situation has been defused.
Ha, you thought! Howard whips out a gun and proceeds to shoot Emmett point blank range in the head. There’s not much in the way of gore, but Michelle’s horrified expression and the disorientating ring of the gunshot leave no doubt as to what’s just happened.
It’s a scene made all the more effective for its minimalism but one that’s nonetheless terrifying, tense and shocking.