20 Absolutely Insufferable Film Characters Who Didn't Deserve THAT

And finally, we've got the atrocious murder of Nicky Santoro (Joe Pesci) from Martin Scorsese's 1995 hit Casino, which is so brutal it almost earned the picture an NC-17 rating. Scorsese edited it down to get an R-rating, but what he gave us is still harrowing in the extreme and, impressively, it really makes viewers feel terrible for an absolute scumbag. 

Though nicer with his family, Nicky was a murderer, a psychopathic gangster, and a thug who was such a loose cannon that even his overlords lost all patience with him. He was not a good person in any way, shape, or form... but does anyone deserve this? 

Nicky and his brother Dominic (Philip Suriano) are lured into a cornfield and then attacked. Nicky is forced to watch as gangsters beat his brother to death with baseball bats and then, after beating him to a pulp as well, they bury him alive with his brother's corpse. Even for the hardest viewers, this sequence is a lot, and it certainly puts to rest any of those unfair accusations that Scorsese's work glamorizes the mob. Rarely in all of film has organized crime looked more evil. 

So let the hellish fate of Nicky be a reminder, once and for all: when you're watching a scummy character and crossing your fingers for them to die, be careful what you wish for.