We here at CHUD pride ourselves on bringing you the best quality film lists on the web, and we hope this last compendium lived up. To tie a knot on this particular list, I’ve created a detailed index of the included films that you can find below. Each entry includes the film, year of release, victim, classification, and featured pull-quote. To see the original entry in all of its glory, simply click on the handy reference icon*.
You’ll also find an alphabetized list of all included films (that also link to the original article) at the bottom for quick reference.
If your appetite for catalogued amazing has grown insatiable, fret not! It will be a mere fortnight before CHUD brings the itemized pain once again. Enjoy the list!
*Those Chewers that are part of the fantastic CHUD Message Boards should find them perfect for use as board avatars.
: : THE INDEX : :
Day 1 – Nick
The Departed (2006) – Martin Sheen – Bad For Us
“He’s one of the few clean cops in the film and he is rewarded by being beaten to a pulp and thrown off a building. That is enough to kill ANY Sheen, but because Mr. Scorsese likes to be a completist, Captain Queenan’s shattered form is driven over by a vehicle, JUST IN CASE a molecule may have survived the fall.”
Casino (1995) – Joe Pesci – Worse For Them
“…seeing and hearing aluminum on doughy flesh is vicious and extremely effective in making one ponder a life of straight and narrow. They are buried in a shallow grave in the cornstalks in the middle of nowhere, still somewhat pulsating.”
Saving Private Ryan (1998) – Adam Goldberg – Bad For Us
“…There’s a schoolyard innocence to Mellish’s last ditch effort to stay alive, but it’s no use and the knife sinks right into his chest. The last thing Mellish sees is the face of his killer in kissing distance, the last thing he hears is a foreign language he’ll never get translated.”
American History X (1998) – Antonio David Lyons – Worse For Them
“…the camera comes in for an incredibly tight shot on the kid’s teeth against that gravelly curb, and you’re already feeling this in the pit of your stomach. …Norton’s skinhead smashes his boot against the black kid’s dreadhead, destroying it.”
The Fly (1986) – Jeff Goldblum – Bad For Us
“We were afraid – yes very afraid – of the insect who dreamed he was a man, but who nevertheless awoke to a terrifying and tragic conclusion. Few are the times when a shotgun was an instrument of mercy.”
The Fly II (1989) – Security Guard – Worse For Them
“…Then there’s this poor unfortunate rent-a-cop depicted above who gets a taste of some Ark of the Covenant-style face melting. The rub is that these security personnel are putting themselves out there for maiming and death for a corporation with a less-than-great track record for employee advancement.”
Burn After Reading (2007) – Richard Jenkins – Bad For Us
“…Ted manages to go the whole film without being selfish or completely vapid. The Coens will have none of it though! Ted’s one moment of impurity, selflessly intended or not, is punished with a shot to the chest followed by cranial axe disaster.”
Fargo (1996) – Steve Buscemi – Worse For Them
“Carl ends up whacking an old and a young himself before becoming an early entry in the Coen Pantheon of “Dudes Who Run Across A Bunch Of Money And Then Get Their Shit Fucked.” …From the surprise axing to Buscimulch, Carl is one fucked dude.”
The Hidden (1987) – Michael Nouri – Bad For Us
“His gun empty, he raises his hands in the air hoping for a little compassion but the emotion is decidedly alien to his foe, who instead returns his favor of two slugs to the stomach. He falls down as our jaws drop, shocked.”
The Thing (1982) – Richard Dysart – Worse For Them
“After the first shock does nothing Copper tries it again, and instead finds himself plunging the paddles chestlong into what turns into a big gaping maw with gigantic teeth… The chestmaw clamps down and Copper screams as he is disarmed, the alien jaw chomping on his former forearms a couple of times for good measure.”
King Kong (1933) – King Kong – Bad For Us
“…Then he climbs a building, gets shot hundreds of times, and falls to his fucking ape death. It hurts us almost as much as it hurts him. Because Kong is the most likable character in the film. Because he’s the victim. Because even in 1933 guys were led to tragedy by that most overrated emotion, LOVE.”
The Long Kiss Goodnight (1996) – Craig Bierko – Worse For Them
“After enduring no shortage of abuse herself, the then-Harlin bedmate and former Goldblum squeeze finally gets her revenge on the “Bierk”. He is shot. A lot. Probably to his death if she gave him time… Then he falls from his helicopter. To his death if she gave him time… Then the tanker he landed on explodes. To his death. FOR SURE.”
Jaws (1975) – Robert Shaw – Bad For Us
“So for Quint, who didn’t have long to stew in the belly of the beast before being blowed to bits along with him, it’s farewell and adieu you fair Spanish ladies…”
Deep Rising (1998) – Wes Studi – Worse For Them
“And rather than literally bite the bullet, Hanover chose trying to put the last one into Pantucci. The result was nothing left for him to put himself out of his own misery, which, I’m sure, will be considerable.”
All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) – Lew Ayres – Bad For Us
“After all the suffering and guilt and starvation and tragedy, Paul is taken by this omen of happiness and he reaches out to touch it – and just as he does he is sighted by a French sniper, who puts a bullet through his head. The character we’ve followed doesn’t come out of the war a hero or a changed man. He doesn’t die in a heroic moment on the battlefield. He is suddenly and unceremoniously killed by an enemy whose eyes he will never see.”
The Searchers (1956) – Pippa Scott – Worse For Them
“Even the aftermath of her death, the discovery of her body, happens offscreen. But John Ford, using his full and masterful command of cinema, and John Wayne, an undervalued actor using a lifetime of mythological baggage, help create something that resonates in our imaginations more painfully and horribly than could ever be shown to us.”
Amadeus (1984) – Tom Hulce – Bad For Us
“The fact that this annoying wet blanket mother fucker -this mediocre piece of shit- kills a master musician and maybe the greatest artist in human history, just plain sucks.”
Paths of Glory (1957) – Ralph Meeker, Timothy Carey, and Joe Turkel – Worse For Them
“…Kubrick is unafraid of capturing the weeping and slobbering fear these men face before their deaths, rather he decidedly dwells on it, until all three dead men unceremoniously slump from their wooden poles.”
Combat Shock (1986) – Rick Giovinazzo – Bad For Us
“The tension in the film builds and it builds and it builds and then, when some drug dealers attempt to kill him and he fights back and shoots to death, he finally snaps… It’s absolutely brutal, absolutely haunting, and the only way the nightmarish movie could have ended.”
Jack-O (1995) – Helen Keeling – Worse For Them
“..she grabs it and immediately slips on the little rug in front of her sink and plants the knife in her toaster, electrocuting herself. As Sith Lightning courses through her body she screams and screams until she becomes a skeleton, which keeps screaming. And film was never the same.”
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982) – Leonard Nimoy – Bad For Us
“Hands down, the most gutwrenching death in the entire Trekverse: Spock’s heroic demise in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan… So heartfelt that the next movie found the rest of the Enterprise crew committing space treason and risking everything just to pick up his body for a proper Vulcan burial ritual.”
Robocop (1987) – Paul McCrane – Worse For Them
“Now it can be pretty much surmised that Emil was already a dead man walking when he came up on Leon with dripping flesh and a bad case of radioactive asthma. But just to put the capper on things, when you pit Tarcousin against speeding 6000 SUX, you get the mother of all nastified roadkill.”
To Live and Die in LA (1985) – William L. Petersen – Bad For Us
“He’s a great character, an asshole willing to do whatever it takes to get the bad guy caught and a man with impressive 80’s sexual needs. Whatever it takes apparently means getting shot in the face at point blank range with a shotgun.”
Irreversible (2002) – Some French Guy – Worse For Them
“In a scene that is technically both a marvelous bit of filmmaking and an assault on one’s ability to feel love, Pierre smashes the face of the armbreaker over and over and over. We see a head go from being stunned to confused to seriously damaged to ruined to shattered to a husk of humanity as the camera sickeningly twists us around, but always regaining focus during the moment of impact.”
Escape From the Planet of the Apes (1971) – Roddy McDowall, Kim Hunter – Bad For Us
“In a horrifying final shootout – during which mild-mannered Cornelius commits murder – the parents are shot dead and the baby is machine-gunned at close range. Imagine that you took the death of Spock at the end of Wrath of Khan and you put it at the end of The Voyage Home. I think that gives you the sense of the tonal shift into horrible that happens here.”
The Fly (1958) – David Hedison – Worse For Them
“To my mind the ending of The Fly contains one of the most horrifying suicides ever, and it’s followed up by the same guy dying again. How many other movies on this list have characters that die not once, but twice?”
Children of Men (2006) – Julianne Moore – Bad For Us
“The chase sequence feels like a real crisis, and Julian expiring in Theo’s hands feels like a real death… It’s a powerful death and a turning point in one of the most sure classics in recent years.”
Death Proof (2007) – Vanessa Ferlito – Worse For Them
“I’ve had few experiences in a theater as visceral as watching an entire midnight screening’s worth of audience members nearly climb out of their seats as Vanessa Ferlito’s head sickeningly slaps back and forth under a spinning tire. The kill involves no blood and no gratuitous results, just a beat of a shot that holds on a truly horrifying moment.”
The Transformers: The Movie (1986) – Peter Cullen – Bad For Us
“Easily the most devastating Autobot death in a movie surprisingly filled with it… Prime went out a hero, and that’s how his fans will remember him.”
Heavy Metal (1981) – Barbarian Leader – Worse For Them
“…it wasn’t Taarna who got the Colombian necktie with her own cuisinart and then a deathblow to the puss worthy of Chong Li.”
The Mist (2007) – Laurie Holden, Jeffrey DeMunn, Frances Sternhagen, Nathan Gamble – Bad For Us
“We’re placed outside the car and forced to watch as four gunshots light it up. And then the screaming starts…”
Phantasm (1979) – Kenneth V. Jones – Worse For Them
“…the caretaker stands there stupefied as the sphere (now with two spikey prongs extended from it!) slams right into his head. Just as he gets hit, a little drill extends from the middle, wasting no time in getting to work on scrambling his brains.”
Midnight Cowboy (1969) – Dustin Hoffman – Bad For Us
“But finally, with just miles to go, with the beach and palm trees in sight, Ratso’s eyes glaze over, and he’s dead. This screwed up little rodent outcast came so close to realizing his dream, but never quite made it.”
Hausu (1977) – Eriko Tanaka – Worse For Them
“Melody is the musical member of the group, and she’s taken by the grand piano at the house. And then the grand piano takes her.”
LA Confidential (1997) – Kevin Spacey – Bad For Us
“The reptilian but good-intentioned Jack Vincennes (Kevin Spacey, duh) serves as a catalyst for the big finale in a death scene that is both affecting and a loss of innocence in some respects for the film’s audience.”
Scarface (1983) – Pepe Serna – Worse For Them
“It’s one of those scenes that registers a lot more vividly in the memory than reality but there’s no way one can deny how brutal and visceral a good ol’ chainsaw murder works its way into your psyche.”
Au Hasard, Balthazar (1966) – The Donkey – Bad For Us
“I don’t believe it is too much of a stretch to label Au Hasard, Balthazar as one of the greatest films of all time, and the death that ends it one of the most profound.”
There Will Be Blood (2007) – Paul Dano – Worse For Them
“…having torn from Eli any shred of dignity he ever possessed in his pathetic little life, Daniel Plainview destroys his fucking skull with a goddamned bowling pin.”
One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest (1975) – Jack Nicholson – Bad For Us
“He brings light to their world and shows them the joys of life, like poker, fishing and hookers. And like most good things in this world, he has to be destroyed.”
The Passion of the Christ (2004) – James Caviezel – Worse For Them
“Ever wonder what Christ’s ribcage looked like? Venture no further!”
: : ALPHABETIZED INDEX : :
Amadeus – B
Au Hasard, Balthazar – B
Burn After Reading – B
Casino – W
Children of Men – B
Combat Shock – B
Death Proof – W
Deep Rising – W
Departed, The – B
Escape From the Planet of the Apes – B
Fargo – W
Fly II, The – W
Fly, The – B
Fly, The (1958) – W
Hausu – W
Heavy Metal – W
Hidden, The – B
Irreversible – W
Jack-O – W
Jaws – B
King Kong – B
LA Confidential – B
Long Kiss Goodnight, The – W
Midnight Cowboy – B
Mist, The – B
One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest – B
Passion of the Christ, The – W
Paths of Glory – W
Phantasm – W
Robocop – W
Saving Private Ryan – B
Scarface – W
Searchers, The – W
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan – B
There Will Be Blood – W
Thing, The – W
To Live and Die in LA – B
Transformers: The Movie – B