10 WTF Horror Movie Scenes Inspired By Real Life
6. The Shotgun Scene - Maniac
William Lustig's cult classic 1980 horror film Maniac boasts one of the most shockingly violent deaths in the history of genre, as titular murderous psychopath Frank Zito (Joe Spinell) blows a man's head apart with a double-barrelled shotgun.
The gore effect continues to receive praise to this day for its shocking level of realism as a result of special effects maestro Tom Savini, who also plays the part of the slaughtered man himself.
But the success of the effect runs deeper than Savini's sheer status as a master craftsman: prior to coming to Hollywood, Savini was a combat photographer during the Vietnam War, and the carnage he witnessed there massively enhanced his ability to create realistic gore scenes. He said of his time at war:
"My job was to shoot images of damage to machines and to people. Through my lens, I saw some hideous [stuff]. To cope with it, I guess I tried to think of it as special effects. Now, as an artist, I just think of creating the effect within the limitations we have to deal with...I incorporated the feeling of the stuff I saw in Vietnam into my work."