Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Who Needs Birth Control: Terrifying Births In Horror History


Look, I'm not going to beat around the bush (pun intended?)--child birth probably blows. If men have their temporary meltdowns when watching a guy get kicked in the balls, than women have theirs when a giant mutant baby comes roaring through their birth canal. I know I reuse a lot of phrases but perhaps my most overused is the phrase, "I am never getting pregnant".

Horror movies have that uncanny ability to convince us to NEVER do something. Whether it be driving through Texas, taking a short cut in West Virginia or going to summer camp--horror movies are always reminding us they are the authority on all matters concerning our lives. Chances are you will not encounter a maniacal cannibalistic family in Texas, you probably will not meet an inbred mutant clan of beasties in West Virginia and you will definitely not receive the fine pleasure of having a she-male for a camp counselor.

However. If you get pregnant, you will almost certainly be in pain. The following moments are some of my most scarring remembrances from horror films that depict birth in some form. These are the moments that make me very, very afraid for the day that I too give birth to a full sized man.


Grace

The entirety of Grace is one big public service announcement to never have a child. Not only is there the impending threat of having a stillborn, but you could also suffer the unfortunate ordeal of having your stillborn baby miraculously come back to life as a zombie baby. I don't think I need to remind you all of what breast feeding a zombie baby looks like.



While the birthing pool scene is also excruciating


and...gross--

the scene that always come to mind when thinking of traumatic birth scenes is the toy store incident. I'm pretty sure there would be nothing worse than to work in a baby store, see a pregnant woman with bad hair amble in and then have her vaginally poop out a blob of blood--and on that adorable pastel baby rug too! Who got to clean that up?



It's Alive

Although it's the only part of the movie that I really liked---the birth scene from It's Alive is one of the most frightening ones out there. Imagine giving birth to something so mutant, that it comes out of your vagina immediately killing people?


Poor Lenore...all she wanted was a normal, healthy birth.


Instead, her mutant baby killed everyone in the delivery room and then fled out the window. She was left bloody and alone screaming while the last gurgling breaths of the dying hospital staff could be heard. Trauma inducing indeed.


The Fly

The only thing worse than giving birth to an evil mutant baby, is giving birth to a writhing maggot.


Although Geena Davis' nightmare of a birthing story really was a nightmare--there is something so completely outrageous and terrifying about it that it cannot be ignored.


I'm pretty sure that if you did manage to have sex with someone who was part fly, there would be a good chance that you could give birth to a maggot fetus. And even though the chances are that I will not giving birth to a maggot, I'm betting that David Cronenberg WILL be delivering my baby in which case--we're all doomed.


The Brood

While this may not have been traumatic to Nola, the birthing scene in the Brood is one of the most disgusting things I have ever witnessed.

I like to think that no one should ever talk the talk about being a badass until they have licked a just born fetus clean, and after watching this scene, I think you will agree.


Nola's "babies" may not have actually come from her vagina--but her rage incarnate birth scene is still one of the most cringe inducing of the bunch. Welcoming this beastie into the world is not exactly something any of us wanted to do, and yet we get an up close and personal view of how Nola immediately assumes her motherly role. Fetus barf.

Inside

I can think of few worse ways to spend Christmas than being trapped inside a bathroom and having a crazy lady with scissors trying to get in and cut your baby out of your stomach. While giving birth may suck the big one--I'm pretty sure that getting a baby cut out of your stomach with a pair of scissors while you are still ALIVE may be substantially worse.


Sheitan

I touched on this a bit yesterday in my review, but this scene in Sheitan is all kinds of wrong. If you thought the vaginal pooping in Grace was bad, wait until you get a load of Vincent Cassel in a wig vaginally pooping a baby onto the floor. As her chubby legs amble up the hallway, and more and more disgusting vaginal baby juices seep out


---we immediately start looking for the nearest barf bag. Think it's over? Think again! We then pan out to see the monstrosity squatting and wincing in pain


and then....it happens. A baby plops out! Umbilical cord and all. It's shocking, it's disturbing and you won't believe what they show.



And here we arrive at the all time number 1 reason to never give birth. Although there is a small chance of it happening, I think we all run some kind of risk of giving birth to a full grown man. It's just a fact of life, that one day, a weird alien may come looking for a human to give birth to his new human form. That human could be YOU.

We all know how painful giving birth to a baby is--so imagine giving birth to someone that is regular size--and a man. Are you imagining it? Does it look like this?





That's right--never in our wildest dreams could we ever possibly fathom what that would be like. X-TRO is by far the winner of the most traumatic birth. Congrats.




Honorable Mentions

Dead Alive
Wrong Turn 2
Dawn of the Dead (2004)
Orphan
Alien (So it's not a vag....still its coming out of somewhere!)

14 comments:

Christine Hadden said...

You never cease to amaze me with the originality of your ideas/posts!
That being said, I think I need a shower. Those scenes (and the movies, natch) are so very disturbing. Have not seen Sheitan, but not sure I can get through that one after those pics. Gah!!

Once again, it makes perfect sense why I chose NOT to have children.

The Mike said...

Ewww. And I was finally eating dinner.

James Gracey said...

Bleurgh! Great post Andre, but it has left me feeling all kinds of queasy. Particularly that scene you described in Sheitan, a film I've yet to see... *winces*
There's a similar birthing scene to that of X-Tro, in Takashi Miike's Lynchian weird-fest Gozu. It also featured a lactating house... You know, just in case it wasn't a weird enough film already!

*e said...

omg. most disturbing post ever.

Genruk said...

Fun topic. All perfect fare just before dinner. There's a Takashi Miike flick with a wicked birth as well, but I am a little weary about posting its title cuz it would be quite the spoiler. Stupid good judgment. Merci beaucoup.
Genruk

Anonymous said...

OMG!!!! i totally wrote an essay on this topic!!! this is a great post!

Andre Dumas said...

Genruk, you're the 2nd person to bring that up! I'll have to seek out that movie and watch it.

Hannah that is amazing! What exactly was the paper on? Sounds fascinating!

deadlydolls said...

So much gold in this post. The Fly is probably my favorite reason to not be pregnant, though Xtro's birthing scene is incredible. Don't forget Who Can Kill a Child!

Andre Dumas said...

Was there a birth scene in Who Can Kill a Child?! I went back to that one to think about it...
Or do you mean oh....a reason to not have a child is who to kill a child. Aha! Ooooh it's not even Friday yet...

Japan Cinema - Marcello said...

Gross. lmao

Emily said...

Urgh, I shouldn't have read this before I had breakfast, now I'll have to wait to eat my delicious donut until after the nausea that this post induced passes.....haha....but for serious, this is an awesome list! I've seen most of these, and you're definitely on the ball with their traumatizing nature. I still need to see Xtro and Sheitan- you're post the other day on the wackiness of Sheitan has me intrigued, and who doesn't like Vincent Cassell, especially in a sweater vest!

amrith888 said...

Awesome post--but I have to concur with everyone else who was eating or about to eat--EWWWWWWW!! Now I'll have to come back to my bagel with ham later.
*makes note to self not to read Andre's blog while eating*

That's actually a compliment--it takes alot to gross me out.....

Anonymous said...

Great post as always, Andre!

I chose to include it in the ToC of the (late) third issue of Spatter Analysis!

Check it out!

--J/Metro

Unknown said...

There is another horror movie which was playing at my friend Bryan Hugh Warner aka Marilyn Manson's record release party which I was on the guest list for Portrait of an American Family.Back when I sang for Jesus H.Christ and we were both in the Local band circuit in Fort Lauderdale Florida at Squeeze.Right before they went on stage,like I mentioned before they were playing different horror movies on T.V.Screens.And there was this particular movie where a woman was giving birth to Creature who was Eating her Vagina at the same time.I would pay money to KNOW the name of that movie.Does anyone KNOW what it IS????