The Most Cringe-Worthy Movie Scenes of All Time

I am easily disturbed. I tend to keep a reasonable distance from blood donation drives, and I avoid stomach-churning movies. Can you imagine me watching the splatter film, The Wizard of Gore? …Eww. Who knew writing about cringe-worthy movie scenes could induce projectile vomiting? Let’s cut to the chase and get this over and done with.

Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist

A romantic comedy-drama film sounds completely harmless, doesn’t it? Well it’s not! Based on the novel by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan, the story tells of teenagers Nick and Norah, who meet when Norah asks Nick to pretend to be her boyfriend for five minutes. The pair has a similar taste in music and over the course of the night, they try to locate their favorite (and publicity-shy) band’s secret show and hunt for Norah’s drunken friend Caroline–the breakout star of the show. There’s a particularly gross scene where Caroline drops her gum in a vomit-filled toilet bowl and if you think this is the end of it, think again. She proceeds to retrieve her gum and pop it back in her mouth! GAG!

Thirteen Ghosts

My dad made three inexcusable mistakes. One, when he complimented Katy Perry’s Teenage Dream; two, when he chose Emilia’s Big Big World over Eric Clapton’s Layla; and three, when he showed me Thirteen Ghosts when I was eight. It tells the story of a ghost hunter leading a team  on an expedition to catch a spirit called the Juggernaut. The ghost was captured but many men were killed, including the ghost hunter. Long story short, his mansion (a residence full of ghosts) was left to his nephew. Like all horror movies, the nephew moves in with his family and all hell breaks lose. The death scenes are gory, to say the least. The worst is when one of the characters is killed by sliding glass doors that cut him clean in half. Well… not clean; it was quite messy actually. It’s not the type of movie you’d want to enjoy while eating a box of popcorn–or anything. I can’t even look at the movie poster as it gives me chills.

Final Destination

Thanks to this franchise, I can no longer ride an elevator, get in a tanning bed, go outside in a lightning storm, drive behind a cargo truck…. The writers behind the Final Destination series are, without a doubt, a disturbing bunch. They have no qualms with writing nerve-racking scenes that make our blood run cold, and it’s worked for them. Despite generally negative reviews, there seem to be a lot of people who enjoy getting the heebie-jeebies; the five films have made over $600 million bucks. Anyway, by far the Final Destination scene the disturbs me the most is Rory Peters’ death. A barbed wire fence slicing a man to pieces? I still shuddered at the thought of it.

Grown Ups

This comedy film boasts a star-studded cast of Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Salma Hayek, Chris Rock, David Spade, Rob Schneider, Maya Rudolph and Maria Bello. It’s one of the worst movies ever made. No offence, Dennis Dugan. (I’m sure there’s none taken…) Grown Ups may be filled with bad acting and yucky scenes, but the worst includes some crazy tongue action between Rob Schneider and Joyce Van Patten. The huge age gap between them and the public display of affection is way too much for me.

Orphan

Actress Isabelle Fuhrman has a knack for playing off-putting baddies. She may have portrayed Clove in The Hunger Games but it was her role as Esther that made us afraid of our own shadow. She’s violent and cold-blooded: a perfect recipe for a psychological thriller/horror film. And she’s played by a (then) 12 year old kid, which makes everything even more creepy. The way she kills one of the characters with a hammer is a nightmare.

Know of another repellent scene that’s not included in this list? Don’t forget to share with the class!