10 of the Greatest Deleted Scenes the Horror Genre has Produced

Deleted scenes are an interesting thing. Many an uninformed fan may believe a scene is cut from a film because the scene simply stinks, but that’s not necessarily the case. Maybe the studio is aiming for a particular rating, and is forced to cut a shot in order to get that rating; maybe a scene doesn’t properly fit a film once editing is in full swing and the editor and director can see the story coming together; maybe a scene was even shot with the idea that it would make for a big buyer incentive positioned as a bonus feature. You just never know, and these 10 scenes will no doubt support the idea that a deleted scene isn’t necessarily a bad scene.

The Thing Alternate Scene/Storyboard

This is an interesting pick, because we don’t really get to see the official scene – it was too expensive to shoot, and was thus axed from John Carpenter’s classic picture about isolation, invasion, shape-shifting, and paranoia – we see some storyboarding and reference points that help us to understand just how awesome Nauls’ death was initially planned to be.

What we see in the available cuts of The Thing is basically nothing: Nauls dies off-screen in one of the pic’s very few rip-off moments. Nauls was a fantastic character, and he deserved the proper ghoulish sendoff. He deserved to be absorbed by the Blair monster and torn to shreds before becoming one with that alien bastard…

Stigmata Deleted Scene

I wasn’t a fan of Stigmata, I’m not really a fan of religious horror in general. It’s really no surprise that I didn’t love Rupert Wainwright’s generally well-received flick about a woman who suddenly develops signs of the stigmata. All hell breaks loose and we see a priest pushed to a pretty intense place. It isn’t a bad film, it’s just not my kind of film.

All that said, whether I loved Stigmata or not, it does boast one of my favorite deleted scenes from a movie. Patricia Arquette goes completely bat in this shot, which features her exercising her right to some good old self-mutilation while the good father, played by Gabriel Byrne, just about falls to pieces. Great scene, and to be honest, I think it probably could’ve worked well within the theatrical release.

The Butterfly Effect Alternate Ending

I can’t say that The Butterfly Effect ever really floated my boat. It was a little too weird, and felt a bit convoluted if I’m being entirely honest. Just the same, I was a massive fan of That ‘70s Show, and Ashton Kutcher spent a little of his off-‘70s time to shoot this trippy little flick, so I had to watch it. I hadn’t yet formed a negative opinion of Kutcher (I still haven’t forgiven him for the D-bag Demi maneuver), so I was in. Again, I didn’t love the film, but I do love this alternate ending.

If you’re looking for some material to piss off a support group or so, this will probably get the job done. How better to erase all the insanity that Evan has caused with his time traveling adjustments than to end it before it ever even truly begins? And what better way to end it than to strangle himself… while still in the womb? Yikes.

Alien Cocoon Scene

I think the right move was made in leaving this shot absent from the official release of Ridley Scott’s Alien. The scene being referenced is a refocus on Dallas, captain of the Nostromo, who ran into a Xenomorph in the airlocks of his vessel. Some may argue that never seeing the actual demise of Dallas sucked, but the mystery behind the man’s disappearance was pretty well-played, utilized as something of a second ignitor piece – the first being Kane’s chest-burster, which really hammers home the fact that this crew is in danger, and then Dallas’ attack, which really gets the confrontation between man and alien moving along.

This cut sequence actually shows Dallas post-Xeno assault. He’s strung up in one of those gnarly alien cocoons, out of it, nearing that stage when the chest promptly explodes, just begging Ripley to kill him. It’s a damn solid scene, but Dallas’ official exit of the film feels almost noble in a strange way. This shot feels as though it almost diminishes that nobility, as crazy as that may sound to some.

Paranormal Activity Alternate Ending

Without running through a thorough search, I seem to remember a couple of different alternate endings of Paranormal Activity. Ultimately Paramount and Blumhouse decided to go with the in your face ending that left us looking at a… pissed off, shall we say, version of Katie, who of course took Micah out of the equation in violent fashion. But of the other endings there’s a pretty brutal version that would’ve likely closed the open door to sequels. It features Katie going a very different route, and it’s pretty wicked!

Aliens Cocoon Scene

Remember how Alien had a pretty awesome alternate cocoon scene? Yeah, Aliens also has a slick cocoon sequence, but this time, instead of the admired and adored Dallas all tangled up in goo, it’s that dingle berry Burke, and let’s just say that Ripley doesn’t eye him with the same pain she casts upon Dallas.

This isn’t the finest deleted scene on the list, but if we’re keeping it real here, it’s fun watching Burke in any uncomfortable position. It gets a nod!

The Fly Baboon Scene

This is the point where the deleted scenes start to hit a different level of greatness.

David Cronenberg’s savagely serious remake of Kurt Neumann’s often silly but rather enjoyable classic, The Fly, is one of the greatest remakes history has ever produced. It’s dark. It’s well-acted. It’s gruesome and graphic. It’s memorable. It’s smart.

It’s also got an awesome, awesome deleted scene that involves a baboon, a cat and three pods that hold a horrific fate. The scene looks just slightly too goofy to make it into the final cut, but it’s still a really, really killer scene!

King Kong Spider Pit Recreation

It’s been years since I first read (I believe it was in an ancient issue of Fangoria, or perhaps Scream) of the lost scene from Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack’s terrifying 1933 monster movie, King Kong. In the mythical scene (a few images eventually surfaced) we see the crew fall into a massive cavern where enormous spiders and scorpions and other horrific oddities attack without mercy. Ultimately the footage was rumored to be so brutal that it stole a whole lot of luster from the titular beast, and it was ordered cut from the film. As was tradition about 85 years ago, there was little concern in saving additional or chopped footage, and it was destroyed, leaving fans to eternally wonder what may have been.

Enter Peter Jackson, who directed the 2005 remake, and also went the extra mile to piece together old footage with some new imagery to completely recreate the lost scene. It looks awesomely old school and totally comes together in proper fashion. It’s not the real deal, per se, but it’s awfully cool to see it, and it gives you an idea of the kind of passionate filmmaker that Jackson really is.

The Devil’s Rejects Deleted Scene

I’m one of the 27 Rob Zombie fans who doesn’t feel that The Devil’s Rejects is his magnum opus (I actually prefer about half of his other films to TDR). But I’m one of the countless many who can’t get over how insanely awesome the deleted Rosario Dawson scene from the film is. It’s just… bloody good!

Doctor Satan returns, and he’s back to rip a throat right out! How cool is that? Even if Doctor Satan really didn’t fit into the scheme of The Devil’s Rejects, this deleted scene should fit in everyone’s favorite deleted scene lineup.

Event Horizon Deleted Scenes

And here we go…

I just want to say that it’s awesome knowing that Event Horizon made it to theaters, but it was even better being one of the 900 people to actually see it there. It’s gruesome in the greatest of ways and every scathing review (I loved it on opening day, so I was shocked to begin hearing negativity about the flick) to surface for the movie ended up being essentially negated by a massive following that happily climbed aboard the bandwagon when the film earned a home release.

Not since Clive Barker’s Hellraiser have we seen a film so over-the-top with gore and grizzly imagery (a nod to Saw for trying). What’s crazier than the gore we got to see in theaters is the additional gore that was trimmed from the film. Somehow the flick avoided an NC-17 rating, not that it mattered. The fans who love this movie have and will stand behind it, R, or NC-17. Get a look at a little bit of that extra footage which is stuffed full of more disturbing shots!

Got a favorite deleted scene we missed? Share in the comments section!