Gore is an important part of many horror movies, to a far greater extent in some than others. And while there’s one genre piece that holds the crown as the bloodiest ever made, it isn’t what many aficionados might assume.
Before Peter Jackson became renowned for bringing Middle-earth to life in lavishly produced trilogies, he brought us a few depraved low-budget efforts from his native New Zealand. One of which, 1992’s Dead Alive (aka Braindead outwith the US), was the undisputed title holder due to a climactic scene where reluctant hero Lionel massacres a huge horde of zombies with a lawnmower (“party’s over!”), with crimson viscera splattering every available surface until it practically turns the floor into a scarlet pond. Due to this, the hilariously depraved comedy held the mantle of bloodiest film for over two decades, until Fede Álvarez’s Evil Dead came along.
The remake of Sam Raimi’s cult classic is rife with violent moments, including mutilations, stabbings, bludgeonings and dismemberments, but that’s par for the course for many horrors; it’s the climax where the red stuff is most liberally distributed. After it’s assumed everything is over, blood rains from the sky as the incorporeal demon the Taker of Souls rises to claim the soul of heroine Mia to realize its earthly form as the Abomination.
This scene alone reportedly utilized 50,000 gallons of fake blood, drenching the entire set in corn syrup. There’s also the moment where Mia bisects the lumbering monstrosity with a chainsaw and its innards are liberally sprayed about the place, but it was the burgundy weather that clinched the movie’s place in the top spot.
This might seem a bit of a cheat, but there’s no rule that states the blood has to be torn from a living being to qualify, and the fact that Evil Dead realized the shot practically rather than with CGI should count for something even if nothing else does.