Exploding Head effect

Fer sure but the ones from The Prowler and A L'Interieur are pretty good too.

Dawn of the Dead opening scene in the basement

James Bond think it was Goldeneye when a villain goes in the vacuum chamber

Don't forget Belloq's exploding head when the Ark of the Covenant is opened in Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Dawn of the dead

Raiders of the lost ark



All work and no fun makes Rest a dull boy.

James Bond think it was Goldeneye when a villain goes in the vacuum chamberThis wasn't Goldeneye but Licence To Kill.

I detest exploding head scenes on the grounds that they're usually gratuitous and sick. I didn't want to see it when it happened in Scanners (and I didn't think I would being as it was, at the time, an unthinkable special effect merely from the pospective of technical feasiblity let alone taste) but when I did I was suitably appalled. Of all the exploding heads I've seen since, nothing has come close to equalling this shot. I don't like to watch it today and actually look away if it happens to be on, even though I've analysed it frame by frame in my time, and seen modern grusome films.

This shot is especially 'good' because, unlike the others I've seen, it wasn't a 'throwaway' effect 'because we can' or 'because it'll be cool' but was an integral part of the plot of what was, after all, a horror film. It was also clever in that it wasn't the climax of the film (as one might have expected given it's novelty and visceral power) but an early scene; this put the viewer in a state of 'numbed mortification' at the prospect of seeing worse as the film got up to speed. That things may not have panned out that way is beside the point on one's first viewing; it did the job of creating fear.

I heard a story from David Cronenberg about that shot. The special effects guy who built the head called David to tell him the model was ready; David happened to be out of town or something at the time and he asked the guy to deliver it to his apartment for him to look at. When Cronenberg eventually got home I think he said he'd forgotten about this call; it was late at night and he walked in and went straight through the living room, which was in darkness, to the kitchen (to unload some groceries into the fridge or something). Then, he said, he came out of the kitchen into the living room and switched on the light - to be confronted with a very realistic decapitated human head staring at him from the dining room table! Far from being angry(!) - although he admitted it gave him a fright - he said he was ecstatic, so beautifully crafted was it. He said he knew the scene would be sensational and called the guy up at once to shower him with praise!

God made procreation; the Devil made it fun.

Fankoo :)