5. Broken Bones
Examples: Misery, The Descent, The Collection. Broken bones actually don't happen all that often in horror movies - not in comparison to the more gory injuries anyway - but when they do they are often very memorable scenes. Such injuries actually work very well on screen, because they're the kind of injuries that most people can actually relate to, as opposed to having your throat slit or losing a finger, for example (I say that, but I'm one of the few people to get to my age without having broken any bones - touch wood). The best example obviously comes from the terrifying Stephen King horror-thriller Misery. After having kidnapped her favourite Author Paul Sheldon (played by James Caan), obsessive nutjob Annie Wilkes (Kathy Bates) drugs him and ties him to a bed. When she learns that he has been trying to escape, she takes a sledgehammer to his ankle and breaks it badly, causing global audiences to wince at the horrendously misshapen outcome. Other scenes of a more gory nature include one in The Descent, when caver Holly falls and breaks her leg to the extent that the bone is sticking through the skin. But nothing will ever beat the scene from Misery on the broken bone front. Excruciating.