10 WTF Off-Screen Horror Movie Deaths
5. Gage Creed - Pet Sematary
Most horror movies are shy of showing child death, but the original 1989 Pet Sematary adaptation did a masterful job of making the grisly unseen details so much more upsetting.
The story takes a wild turn when the Creed family's adorable young son Gage (Miko Hughes) runs out on a busy road where he's struck and instantly killed by a tanker truck. Yet rather than show Gage get creamed by the truck, director Mary Lambert goes the more tasteful route by simply showing Gage's bloody shoe catapulting across the pavement, followed by the wreckage of the truck and Gage's father Louis (Dale Midkiff) screaming in grief-stricken rage.
Needless to say, this was decidedly more effective than had we simply seen Gage get pureed, focusing instead on the innocence tragically lost, exemplified by some heartbreaking Polaroid shots of Gage as a baby being embraced by his parents. Brutal isn't even the word.
Though 2019's remake made some divisive changes to this sequence, it nevertheless took the same approach to filming the pivotal child death, leaving audiences to imagine the impact in their own minds.