10 Everyday Objects Horror Movies RUINED For You
Don't talk to us about about crucifixes, box cutters or microwaves ever again.
Horror is one of the places we go to get away from things. When times are tough, it pays to have someone else’s suffering give you some perspective. When things are going well, it’s fun to just kick back and watch the carnage unfold.
Because who doesn’t think nightmare scenarios, gruesome injuries and creative kills are fun, right? Certainly, these elements form half the reason the horror genre, and the slasher and splatter subgenres, have thrived over recent years. And yet, while all of this is good and well to watch on screen, sometimes these films pitch their miseries a little too close to home.
It's one thing to watch the legions of hell have their heads cleaved by a 12th century broadsword, but it's quite another to watch Aunt Myrtle have her fingernails torn off by the tumble dryer door. Final Destination has made us shiver at bathtubs, bricks and screws, the Evil Dead films have given box cutters, nail guns and electric carving knives the permanent ick, and Saw’s home-made traps ensure that our day-to-day anxieties stay in the red.
Yep, like Blue Peter from hell, there are a whole host of films out there that make it their mission to show us just how grisly things can get with whatever we’ve got lying around the house. And here are ten objects they've ruined for good.
10. Screw - Final Destination 5 (2011)
Final Destination is all about the kills, and while by 2011 the well of good will most horror fans were extending to the series had just about dried up, director Steven Quale and writer Eric Heisserer were still going hard on their innovative deaths. And it is here, in number five, where we find one of the most tense and well-orchestrated scenes in the entire series – courtesy of the simple, humble screw.
College gymnast Candice Hooper (Ellen Wroe) is one of the unlucky few to escape their fate in this movie, narrowly avoiding a collapsing bridge. Marked for death, it’s only a matter of time before the reaper gets what he’s owed, and everywhere we look each small detail seems primed to deliver Candice to the other side. And then there’s the screw.
A tiny loose screw from the air con system finds its way onto Candice's balance beam at gymnastics practice, and Quale’s camera follow her feet as she somehow misses it, the tension building with each quick step. When Candice manages to somehow avoid jumping straight onto the screw, and unknowingly foils the parallel danger of exposed wiring and dripping pipe, we think we’re home free. And yet, it’s another athlete who takes the screw straight into her heel, comes off the balance beam, knocks chalk into the fan, which blows into Candice’s face while she’s spinning on the bar, and splat: origami Candice.