by Daniel Stephens

Created on: March 12, 2009   Last Updated: September 08, 2011

Having been a horror movie fan since I can remember I've always felt great horror films didn't have to resort to violence and gore to frighten or affect an audience. That said, there's a place for all types of horror film and the Gore movie is one of them.

When I think of blood and guts flying about the place I immediately envision An American Werewolf in London's devastating attack on the English moors, The Omen's glass-flying decapitation, Robocop's nemesis Ed-209 blowing holes in an overzealous corporate executive, and heads exploding in David Cronenberg's Scanners.

The best gory scenes in horror cinema combine the visual with the emotional - the physicality of human destruction with the emotional response and consequence. Of course sometimes horror films can get out of hand and influence their audience to carry out the events depicted on screen as the Top 10 films to have driven people to murder highlights.

My top 5 goriest horror movie scenes are:

5. HAUTE TENSION (English Title: Switchblade Romance / Alexandre Aje, France, 2003)

French film Switchblade Romance tells the tale of Alexia, who travels with friend Marie, to spend some time on her parents farm. During the night a man breaks into the house, slaughtering Alexia's entire family. Marie stays hidden but is forced to follow the killer when he kidnaps Alexia.

The scene that I refer to here is Alexia's father's death. The killer brutally assaults Alexia's father, beating him over the head. As he tries to escape up the stairs, the killer forces the man's head between the stair banisters. Leaving the dying man stuck there, the killer walks to a chest of drawers, lines them up with the father's head, and rolls the chest viciously into the man's skull instantly decapitating him.

The scene is one of great tension as Marie cowers upstairs listening to the screams while Alexia remains asleep, unknowing of what is going on.

4. ODISHON (English Title: Audition / Takashi Miike, Japan, 1999)

Audition by Japanese filmmaker Takashi Miike is a devastatingly frightening movie because the horror comes as if out of nowhere. He directs the film in such a way that something wrong is taking place but you can't put your finger on what it is. It all leads up to the finale which is not only difficult to watch but one of the best horror endings to come out of Japanese cinema.

The film tells the story of Aoyama, a man struggling to find happiness seven years after his wife's death. With his son about to move away, Aoyama tells

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