8. Zombie Flesh Eaters (1979) - Italian Ocular Mayhem
Over his career, Lucio Fulci - The Italian Godfather of Gore - filmed countless objectionable material to gross the viewer out. This can be seen in movies such as City of the Dead and the repellant New York Ripper, which in itself can be looked at as one giant disgusting, needlessly provocative piece of cinema. However, there is one scene in Fulci's celebrated Zombie Flesh Eaters that has entered the canon of needlessly provocative scenes. It is also a vey famous image in horror cinema. I am of course talking about the splinter induced eye gouging sequence. This sequence - in which a woman gets attacked by a zombie who forces a splinter through her eye - has been excised in many prints of the film. And to tell you the truth, it is better that way. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vfmj75DvWmA In the cut version we see a zombie forcing the actresses' head toward the splinter but we do not see it go through. In the unexpurgated version, we get to see the splinter fully penetrate the eyeball. To me, the film is better off without this needlessly provocative scene which just exists to say 'Look at how mean I can be!". In the cut version, there is enough tension to carry the scene through without eyeball penetration and we know what happens to the woman anyway. Seeing the eyeball getting penetrated by a splinter is overkill and just an excuse on Fulci's part to portray pure nastiness.