You wouldn’t think that a movie titled Robocop would be worthy of being considered in a horror category at all, but just take a look at the above picture. And that’s not the end of it.
I remember first seeing Robocop when it came out in the mid-’80s, when I was in high school. The premise itself seemed pretty damed cool at the time: cop gets turned into a robot to kick all kinds of ass. What none of us were prepared for, though, were two incredible gruesome scenes in particular that will be forever ingrained in our memories.
The first of these scenes was of poor officer Murphy (Peter Weller), when he’s mercilessly plugged so full of holes by Red Forman … I mean, Clarence Boddicker (Kurtwood Smith) and his cronies. And I don’t just mean he was simply shot two or three … or even ten times. Oh no. Murphy has his hand graphically blown off, then the rest of his arm, and then is shot at least 40 times in all parts of his body before he’s seemingly put out of his misery with one poorly-aimed shot to the head. Oof. Just check out the scene:
Next up: Emil Antonowsky (Paul McCrane) and the toxic waste. This scene belongs on any top ten or 20 list of best movie deaths of all time. It sort of comes out of nowhere, in relation to the rest of the movie, which makes it all the more shocking … and then funny.
You can’t help but feel horrible for the guy, as he extremely quickly succumbs to whatever the hell was in that “toxic” waste he was briefly bathed in. Within seconds, Antonowsky is a walking nightmare. His skin is melting off his body, his body is severely deformed inside and out, and he’s barely able to breathe, much less utter words that’re little more than raspy pleas for help. Once again Boddicker delivers the killing blow, though not exactly intentional in this case … though it’s certainly effective (sorry, looks like the publisher didn’t turn on embedding, but go ahead and click below to check it out):
And if you feel bad for Mr. Antonowsky, there’s a Facebook page you can join that might make you feel better. Now go have a nice bowl of cheesy french onion soup.
Robocop may not be a horror movie in every sense of the word, but it certainly has two scenes that were undoubtedly some of the most memorably gory and disturbing of all time.
Clacked by Keith McDuffee 
on Oct 17, 2011 @ 10:00 EST5EDT
