10 TERRIFYING Horror Movie Moments You Don't Actually See
3. Skinned Alive - The Black Cat
The words 'skinned alive' alone should sell the horror of The Black Cat, never mind actually seeing such an act in all of its gruesome glory. Of course, as in keeping with this list, seeing a flaying isn't on the cards in this pre-Code Edgar Allan Poe adaptation, but the film still really wants you to know what's happening.
Employing a clever silhouette near the close of the film, Boris Karloff has his skin stripped from his body by Bela Lugosi - with nothing but clenched fists and shadow puppetry to tell us the story of his pain.
It's a short moment in a movie that might not sit with quite such terrifying spectacularity for a modern audience, but the neat filmmaking tricks that go into making this classic create a scene that has lasted the ages, and still scares many genre fans to date.