25 Greatest Film Deaths This Century

Director S. Craig Zahler's Bone Tomahawk and Brawl in Cell Block 99 made him a legend in the indie movie scene, committed as he was to bringing the grimmest man-made horrors to screen, while also constructing deep, considered, and well-acted films around them. And Dragged Across Concrete is no different.

Brett Ridgeman (Mel Gibson) and Anthony Lurasetti (Vince Vaughn), two police detectives suspended for corruption, pursue sadistic armed robber Lorentz Vogelmann (Thomas Kretschmann) and his crew, with the intention of relieving them of their next haul. But this only leads to a deadly standoff that has disastrous consequences on all sides.

While for the most part Dragged Across Concrete plays out like a crime thriller, it is the violence - in all its ugly, repugnant glory – that elevates the film. The underlit standoff takes place in an empty lot, and forces the two detectives to take cover behind their car while Vogelmann and Co. hole up in their armoured van, with bank teller Cheryl (Justine Warrington) as hostage.

Cheryl escapes the van, crawling across the lot, but when she arrives to safety, she executes Lurasetti, having been blackmailed by Vogelmann beforehand. After such languorous pacing, the sudden and detailed violence hits twice as hard, the like of which would make even Quentin Tarantino think twice about screening this one again. Cheryl is then slain by Ridgeman, and the whole bloody affair just keeps on unwinding.