20 90s Movie Scenes That Traumatized Us All
2. Casino - Nicky's Terrible End
Martin Scorsese has never shied away from depicting graphic violence in his movies, but this sequence from 1995's Casino makes most of his oeuvre look like Looney Tunes. Without question, the violent death of Nicky Santoro (Joe Pesci) is the most unpleasant moment in any of Scorsese's films, and while Nicky himself was an undeniable s**t, no-one deserves this.
Having finally driven his mob bosses over the edge with his reckless violence and criminality, Nicky is served up a death from your worst nightmares. He and his brother Dominic (Philip Suriano) are lured into an isolated cornfield, and then attacked. As Nicky is forced to watch, Dominic is beaten to death with a baseball bat, and then, after Nicky himself is viciously beaten, he's buried alive with his brother's corpse. Truly, truly horrible.
Casino almost got an NC-17 rating largely thanks to this scene alone, and Scorsese had to tone it down in order to secure the R-rating. Nevertheless, the version that we got is still grim in the extreme, and you'll never look at a baseball bat the same way again.