12 Most Paused Horror Movie Moments

It’s since gained cult status, but when John Carpenter’s The Thing was first released back in 1982 it was derided by critics for its excessive gore. Clearly, they were all idiots because the movie’s excessive gore and amazing (at least for the time) effects were exactly what made The Thing so brilliant.

One of its most gruesome and pause-worthy scenes comes when geologist Norris suffers what seems to be a heart attack. It turns out he’s been assimilated by the alien thing and when Dr Cooper tries to defibrillate him, he gets his arms chomped off and a huge spider-like creature bearing Norris’ gruesomely distorted face bursts out of Norris’ chest.

For 1982, they were some pretty impressive special effects and definitely made for a moment that needs to be seen more than once and its thanks to the talents of genius SFX makeup creator Rob Bottin, the same guy behind the three-boobed Martian hooker from Total Recall. Cheers, Rob.