3. Casino Joe Pesci
Joe Pesci invariably seems to be on one side of violence: from his breakthrough performance as the long suffering brother of De Niros Lamotta who both doles out and receives a brutal beating to Oscar winning cold-blooded mob killer Tommy in Goodfellas or the bumbling burglar Harry in Home Alone. In Casino he arguably plays his most volatile and reprehensible character mob boss enforcer Nicky Santoro and receives the ultimate comeuppance at the hands of a group of mob goons led by Frank Vincent, AKA Billy Batts; AKA Salvy; AKA the guy who Pesci beat the snot out of in Raging Bull and stabbed to death in Goodfellas. Pesci is taken out to wheat fields and first has to watch his little brother Dominic get clubbed to death by a group of men who mercilessly murder him with baseball bats, before turning their aggression on him. We watch as the clubs slam into Pescis torso and face until he is covered in a thick layer of claret. Then he is stripped and has the dirt shovelled on to him while he is still breathing.
2. Drive Jeff Wolfe
The most horrific scene in a horrific movie. Ryan Gosling and Carey Mulligan enter the elevator with an assassin that has been sent to kill them played by Jeff Wolfe. Gosling clocks him immediately and after placing a passionate kiss on Mulligans lips, turns and knocks Wolfe to the ground with a serious of pounding blows. He then proceeds to stamp on the assassins head until his skull caves in and his brains pour out and splatter over the wall and the floor of the elevator. When the elevator stops, Carey Mulligan cautiously exits and retreats away with a look of horror glued to her face that mirrors our own as we look on at the crazed Drivers face, utterly shocked by the violent act we have just witnessed. The effect on the audience was very similar. And the winner of the goriest movie death of all time...?
1. The Passion Of The Christ Jim Caviezel
If youre looking for a gruelling, gory, truly horrific endurance trial of a death scene then nothing quite compares to the torture and crucifixion in Mel Gibsons faithful adaptation of the story of Jesus Christ. This is not a blink and youll miss it death, but rather a slow but brutal one that lasts for the majority of the two and a half hour run time. Jim Caviezel (Jesus) is seized by the Jews (Gibsons villains) who drag him to the Romans for judgement, as they deem him a false prophet. Bowing to pressure, Jesus is sentenced to torture until he admits his crime. He is flogged with whips, then cat-o-nine-tails then clubbed. Blood flies as chunks of flesh from his back are hacked away. At one point the whip misses his back and lashes the skin from his forehead and face. Refusing to bow, he is sentenced to crucifixion. A crown of thorns is viciously hammered into his skull and he is forced to carry a giant cross up into the mountains, continually being whipped by the Romans. He then has nails plunged into his wrists and is left to hang on the cross in the searing sun. Then finally, a spear is stabbed into his side. Blood floods out of him until there is no more. I think its safe to say, that outside of a snuff film, this is far and away the most horrific death in all of cinema. Did we miss any of your favourite gorey death scenes? Share your own picks below.