With the recent release of the Taiwanese horror film The Sadness, gore is back in a big way. The movie is a more brutal take on the zombie genre, featuring scenes where the floor is literally flooded with blood. The Sadness pulls no punches when it comes to its kills and is destined to join the pantheon of cult classic splatter flicks, discussed and dissected by gore-hounds everywhere. The extreme violence also calls to question where The Sadness ranks compared to other bloodthirsty fright flicks.
Below are ten films often considered some of the bloodiest ever made. Not all feature gory kill scenes but key moments where astonishingly high amounts of blood are used, breaking records along the way.
‘The Shining’ (1980)
Despite Stephen King famously not loving this adaptation of his work, it stands as one of Stanley Kubrick’s best films. When struggling writer Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) is offered the position of caretaker at a hotel during the off-season, he moves into the isolated building with his wife and young son.
While fleeing from her homicidal husband and searching the hotel for her son, Wendy (Shelley Duvall) stumbles upon an elevator that opens and spills a river of blood into the hallway. The sequence is one of the film’s most iconic moments, and it is speculated that around 3,000 gallons of fake blood were used to achieve the shot. The Shining is available to stream on HBO Max.
‘Saw’ (2004)
A franchise that spans nine films, the Saw series follows the grizzly career of serial killer Jigsaw. Detesting the act of murder itself, Jigsaw instead devises traps that test the will to live of his captives, with typically gruesome results.
Lists have been devoted to the most memorable traps from the series, and some highlights include The Rack from Saw III, where limbs are twisted in ways nobody should bend; the needle pit in Saw II that will have you squirming in your seat; and the scene in Saw 3D where four Neo-Nazis are creatively killed by one car. Saw is available on Pluto TV.
‘High Tension’ (2003)
Hailed as one of the pioneering films of the New French Extremity horror movement, High Tension is a mean and bloody slasher. When best friends Marie and Alex travel to Alex’s family’s farmhouse to study and unwind for the weekend, their peaceful plans are interrupted by the arrival of a serial killer.
Debut director Alexandre Aja really puts an emphasis on the kills in High Tension, often heightening the violence to a cartoonish degree. This is best represented in the scene where the killer murders Alex’s father, locking the man’s head in-between a staircase railing before decapitating him with a bookshelf. High Tension is available to stream on AMC+ and Tubi.
‘Hostel’ (2005)
The follow-up to his breakout horror hit Cabin Fever, Eli Roth‘s Hostel is often credited (along with Saw) for starting the “torture porn” movement. The film follows three backpackers traveling through Europe who run afoul of an underground organization that sells people to rich bidders to engage in their own twisted fantasies.
The first film includes plenty of gruesome moments, including a blow-torched face, but Hostel: Part II (also directed by Roth) features a literal bloodbath. After bookish Lorna is abducted, she is hung naked above an ornate bathtub. Another woman soon arrives with a scythe, slicing Lorna open to bathe in her falling blood. Hostel is available to stream on HBO Max and Starz.
‘Tokyo Gore Police’ (2008)
Tokyo Gore Police is set in a near future Japan that is ravaged by a virus that turns humans into creatures called engineers, who sprout grotesque weaponry from severed limbs. Ruka is a one-woman monster killing machine, wielding a katana as she slices through waves of engineers while seeking vengeance for her father’s murder.
Tokyo Gore Police was part of the wave of splatter flicks that released in Japan during the late-2000s and features constant sprays of blood as limbs are hacked away. The movie also heavily features body horror, and one famous scene involves a girl whose lower half takes the form of a crocodile. Tokyo Gore Police is available to stream on Tubi.
‘A Nightmare on Elm Street’ (1984)
The immortal classic that birthed one of horror’s most iconic franchises. Created by horror master Wes Craven, A Nightmare on Elm Street follows the exploits of undead child killer Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund) as he massacres the children of those who murdered him.
Having already witnessed the deaths of two of her friends, the final girl Nancy (Heather Langenkamp) devises a plan to stop the dream demon with the help of her himbo boyfriend Glen (Johnny Depp in his film debut). However, Glen falls asleep on the job, and Freddy offs the teen by pulling him into his bed. The resulting geyser of blood is a sight to behold, spraying an estimated 500 gallons of blood onto the ceiling. A Nightmare on Elm Street is available to stream on Netflix and HBO Max.
‘Piranha 3D’ (2010)
The second film from Alexandre Aja on this list, the French filmmaker certainly has a thirst for blood. A remake of the 1978 film, Piranha 3D swaps summer camp for spring break. Juggling multiple characters, the film features an ensemble cast including Elisabeth Shue, Adam Scott, Ving Rhames, and Christopher Lloyd.
The film spends its first half building towards the ravenous piranha attack on the spring break festivities, and the resulting carnage does not disappoint. Party goers are ripped to pieces by the hungry fish, and the beach is stained red as an estimated 80,000 gallons were used for the production. Piranha 3D is available to stream on Showtime.
‘Martyrs’ (2008)
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Often cited as one of the most disturbing films of all time, Martyrs is another entry in the New French Extremity movement. When two women begin a quest for revenge due to the abuse they suffered as children, they instead spiral into a terrifying conspiracy with nightmarish consequences.
The villain of the film takes the form of a secret society that wishes to learn the secrets of the afterlife by torturing young women until they reach a state that borders on life and death. The acts inflicted on protagonist Anna are extremely graphic, including being flayed alive, making Martyrs a confronting watch. Martyrs is available to stream on Tubi.
‘Braindead’ (1992)
Before gifting the world the land of hobbits and elves, Peter Jackson made this cult classic gore fest. Dead Alive takes place in a peaceful New Zealand town that is overrun by a zombie horde, resulting in nerdy Lionel having to step up and be the hero to save the woman of his dreams.
Long regarded as being the goriest movie of all time, the most memorable sequence is when the zombie horde invades Lionel’s house during the finale. Armed with a lawnmower, Lionel plows through the undead, ripping through their decaying bodies as blood, guts, and body parts fly through the air and splatter the walls with gore.
‘Evil Dead’ (2013)
Here, we have a remake of a cult classic and one of the few that stands favorably alongside its predecessor. When drug-addicted Mia (Jane Levy) decides to kick her habit, her brother and friends take her to a remote cabin to quit cold turkey. This is Evil Dead, however, and it is not long before the Necronomicon terrorizes the five youths.
The film is a gore lover’s dream, with faces being cut open, limbs sliced off, and tongues severed in two. The final battle between Mia and the Abomination takes place during a bloody rainstorm, where blood rains down from the sky and covers our heroine from head to toe. This scene alone is claimed to have used over 50,000 gallons of blood, earning Evil Dead the record of being the bloodiest film of all time.
