10 Most Memorable Death Scenes In Horror Films

Charlie's death produced a collective gasp, followed by a long, deathly silence in cinemas upon Hereditary's release. The film's trailer was constructed in such a way that it cleverly led us all to believe that the story would follow the standard 'grandma dies and haunts her family' type of plot. We were wrong.

When horror fans finally went to see what all the hype was about, they were genuinely shocked to discover that the burial depicted in the trailer was not of the grandmother at all, but of Charlie - the character who we all assumed would be central throughout the film, perhaps even the lead. Even those who didn't particularly care for Hereditary agree that this particular scene is impactful and brilliantly executed.

Yes, Charlie's sudden decapitation is truly shocking, but it's what directly follows that makes the scene so distressing to watch. Peter just sits in the driver's seat, perfectly still for what feels like an hour (Alex Wolfe deserves more credit for his performance, particularly in this scene), before calmly driving home, quietly walking to his room and climbing into bed, leaving his sister's headless body in the back seat for his parents to discover the following morning.

This was the perfect way to follow up such a shocking death scene, as the long, drawn-out silence gives the audience no immediate release; we're left dumbfounded and open-mouthed, trying to register what's just happened. While a graphic, unexpected death would typically invite excited whispering and giggling among cinema-goers to diffuse the tension, it speaks volumes that this one received quite the opposite reaction.

And then, of course, there's Toni Collette's unbearable wailing, which impressively has more of an effect than seeing Charlie's decapitated, maggot-infested head on the side of the road. Ari Aster seems to have a thing about painful, deafening wailing: he had Florence Pugh do the same at the beginning on Midsommar, which had a similar effect. Speaking of Midsommar, its ritualistic suicide and head-crushing scene is also deserving of a mention. Aster has a knack for orchestrating a memorable death, it seems.