The Baby Elizabeth Awards (disturbing images in movies &

Scott Gardener · Post by **Scott Gardener** » Fri Feb 03, 2006 12:23 pm

The Baby Elizabeth Awards!

OK, I'm too young to remember The Exorcist, but I do remember the climax of Raiders of the Lost Ark. But, as disturbing as both of those movies' imagery were, the thing that really kept me up for weeks had to be the second of the three parts of "V: The Final Battle," particularly the birth of the baby with the forked snake tongue. That scene stuck in my head for months. Ever since then, that's been the standard to which all other disturbing movie images have been compared. Those that make the cut earn the coveted Baby Elizabeth Award. Here are the current other title bearers...

"Wonder Woman" TV series: "Melting androids." In one episode, android dopplegangers are disguised as important political figures. When exposed, they melt in a way that I found very visually disturbing as a child.

Star Trek: the Motion Picture: "transporter malfunction." Science Officer Sonak and another officer are beamed aboard the newly refitted Enterprise before the transporter is working properly. When they abort the transfer, what Starfleet gets back "doesn't live very long... fortunately." Now I understood what Dr. McCoy was always kaveching about.

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan: "Khan's pets." the Ceti Eels in the ear scene really bothered me as a kid. Still gives me the willies.

Twilight Zone: The Movie: "kid without a mouth." Scared the crap out of me then, and it came back to haunt me when The Matrix reprised the image.

The Company of Wolves: "skin-peeling werewolf." the scene in which the werewolf shapeshifts by ripping off his human skin. Scared the crap out of me when I first saw it, but two decades later, I'm a spiritual therianthrope myself. It's got to be one of the best werewolf movies ever made, based more on folklore and old fairy tales than modern horror.

Fire in the Sky: "sugical procedure." Travis Walton is shrunkwrapped and subjected to eye surgery without sedation. UFOlogists and paranoid weirdoes will be glad to know that they made that part up--it's not what he said really happened. Still, I didn't know that until more than a year after I saw the movie.

Alien: Resurrection: "kill me." You know the Alien series had to have an entry here.

The Matrix: "Unable to speak" the scene where Mr. Anderson gets his mouth melted. Extra hebbie jeebie points for stretching the scene out and throwing in an implantable abdominal parasite.

John Carpenter's The Thing, "runaway head." The whole movie deseves the award, but the crowning moment would have to be when the crew attempt to recuscitate what they think is their fallen friend, but is instead the shapeshifting monster. Its chest suddenly collapses, forming teeth that bite the hands off the guy holding the defibrillator. It then turns into a horrific mess, while the crew burn most of it. Its head comes off, grows legs, and crawls away.

In 2006, I've given an unprecedented two awards within weeks of each other. One goes out to a movie that hasn't even been filmed yet. I've been given inside information, the details of which I'm not at liberty to discuss.

Freeborn (working title): "warehouse scene." If this scene makes the final cut and lives up to the images generated by the script, it's likely to be a real shocker. The movie is about werewolves, but intentionally breaks from the conventional formula, portraying lycanthropes as intelligent beings with layered motivations. Most are not evil, but, saying more would give too much away.

The Brothers Grimm: "gingerbread face-stealer." Having been deconditioned to melting mouths, I was still notably unsettled when someone's whole face was stolen. (Trekkies might point out that the episode "Charlie X" did this back in the sixties, but it was done quickly and didn't dwell on it.) The movie almost got the award for a scene earlier where a possessed horse spits spider webs and eats another kid.

Rejected applicant: Howling IV: The Original Nightmare: "melting puddle shapeshift." A werewolf shapeshifts by the human form melting into a puddle of goo, and the creature crawls out of it. Poorly done, so it loses shock value, and all the while demonic voices are dubbed over, which get really annoying.

Observations: I appearantly have a thing against distorting the body, particularly the face. A lot of the things that bother me the most involve bizarre and unexpected transformations. The scenes that bothered me the most are realistically done special effects--they look believable. Similar effects that look fake don't have the same impact. That suggests that, in spite of my fascination with lycanthropy, I'd probably wet myself if confronted with the real thing. Watch me panic, begging the genie to let me change my wish as the full moon starts to rise.

Darkmoon · Post by **Darkmoon** » Fri Feb 03, 2006 2:01 pm

I hate the scene in Resident Evil...the first one..I think...when the people are in the elevator and the building is trying to kill them. The lady sticks her head out the opening and the elevator suddenly goes up...*shudder*

The Final Destination movies kinda give me the creeps too...most likely because they are in that same "unexpected elevator squish" genre.

but for me..really, movies that have supernatural/science fiction elements are just not scary. Scary movies that have more realistic (realistic being a very lightly used word here) plots are the ones that make me scared, so those don't quite deserve your award.

I have not seen most of the films that you mention....but I can agree with you on the ones I have seen

scary stuff...

Silverclaw · Post by **Silverclaw** » Mon Sep 18, 2006 3:06 pm

If anyone here really wants to be creeped out, go watch Eraserhead. *shivers* Just watched it by myself last night in a dark room. Really freaky movie. Just like a strange nightmare. Its kindof funny; I watch ton of horror movies and stuff alright, but this has been the first movie in a long while to disturb me

Well-made and all, just creepy...

PariahPoet · Post by **PariahPoet** » Mon Sep 18, 2006 3:33 pm

Oh now Silent Hill has to be in there somewhere. ^_^

Fenrir · Post by **Fenrir** » Mon Sep 18, 2006 4:23 pm

PariahPoet wrote:Oh now Silent Hill has to be in there somewhere. ^_^

OMG when there stuck in that room and pyrimid head keeps sticking his sword in there!

Kisota · Post by **Kisota** » Mon Sep 18, 2006 4:34 pm

EEHHHH!!

I KNEW you'd have to have the slimey melty puddle TF in there! GEEZ.

I wonder if that's the same one I first saw at like three in the morning that creeped the CRAP out of me...I really dislike skeletons. People melting into skeletons really bugs me.

YA MIGHT SAY IT'S A "QUIRK."

Shadow Wulf · Post by **Shadow Wulf** » Mon Sep 18, 2006 7:51 pm

Fenrir wrote:
PariahPoet wrote:Oh now Silent Hill has to be in there somewhere. ^_^
OMG when there stuck in that room and pyrimid head keeps sticking his sword in there!

Ahahaha, you love that movie dont you fenir?

Terastas · Post by **Terastas** » Mon Sep 18, 2006 11:51 pm

PariahPoet wrote:Oh now Silent Hill has to be in there somewhere. ^_^

When one of the bugs was flipped over and it was shown with a tiny screaming human face. *jibblies*

Other nominees from the cobalt cat include:

The Eye: The elevator scene.

Also from The Eye, Yingying's goodbye.

The Bone Collector: The first rat to attack the student.

Nightwatch: Zavulon pulling his sword out of his spine.

Princess Mononoke: Moro's head detatching from her body and attacking Lady Eboshi.

Sin City: Dwight hallucinating that Jack Rafferty is mocking him. Specifically the way his voice changed depending on wether his head was tilting forwards or backwards (talking that way because Miho "made a Pez despenser out of him").

Lycanthrope · Post by **Lycanthrope** » Tue Sep 19, 2006 10:22 am

The Little Shop of Horrors (1960): "Flowers Bloom"
In this scene a display of a curious plant takes place. Only it's owner knows that the plant is in fact a sentient man-eater that has been fed with quite a few people already. Suddenly, as the present crowd watches it bloom, the revealed flowers are seen to have faces of devoured victims.

Interestingly, the movie is more of a comedy than anything else. Still, disturbing motifs can find their place anywhere.

Kisota · Post by **Kisota** » Tue Sep 19, 2006 7:14 pm

OH!!! I just remembered one of my biggest movie creepouts!

PET SEMETARY. NOT the animals, though. That creepy sister thing! With spinal meningitis or whatever! GOD that freaked me out so bad.

Fang · Post by **Fang** » Tue Sep 19, 2006 7:32 pm

When the guys face started peeling off in Poltergeist

RedWolf · Post by **RedWolf** » Tue Sep 19, 2006 9:03 pm

How about the insect metamorphosis in the 1986 version of "The Fly" ?

Anubis · Post by **Anubis** » Tue Sep 19, 2006 9:54 pm

it may not sound like much but when in the "Land of the Dead" the zombies srounded the dead reconing tank and they tried to claw they're way in but the zombies' nails came of their fingures.

The weird thing is they shown zombies tearing apart an arm right down the middle and a rain of fleash when they blew up the feasting zombies. and they didn't affect me as much as the nail thing did.

The entire DOOM3 game when i first played it

the last sene in the sencond final desination where the kid was blown up and his arm landed on his mother's plate

in the first final destination when that kid was decapatated

the Head-spider thing in "The Thing"

Uniform Two Six · Post by **Uniform Two Six** » Wed Sep 20, 2006 7:01 pm

Ghostship: The opening scene in which the mutiny by the bought-off crew begins and most of the passengers and officers are cut down by the winch-cable snapping across the deck.

Thirteen Ghosts: Scene in which the guy is bisected by a sliding glass door.

House on Haunted Hill: Opening scene in which the inmates overpower the asylum staff and stab one of them to death with his pencil.

All of the above movies generally sucked, but those scenes still make me wince.