What is it about bathrooms? I think almost universally they are considered a place of vulnerability and for most people there’s an inherent nature of privacy. Bathroom activities are not normally a spectator sport. This makes them a goldmine for horror films as it automatically provides a sense of voyeurism to any scene, as well as providing some gratuitous nudity and placing the victim (usually young and female) at the mercy of whatever the filmmakers care to send in.
Because of this, there were actually too many options for just one list. So, this list will be in two parts – one focused on baths and one focused on showers.
First up: Showers.
10. Arachnophobia
1990 Amblin Entertainment
Arachnophobia made an appearance on another one of my lists where I referenced this scene. It’s definitely one of the milder examples on this list but it’s still shudder inducing, especially for those of us who find eight legged creepy crawlies abhorrent.
Starting with the very standard set up – a girl in a shower. The shadow of a spider crawls across the shower curtain, ascending to the rail above. The spider then throws itself onto her face which is where I immediately want to vomit and takes a soapy ride down her body. The only issue I have with this scene is how long it takes her to notice the intruder. I appreciate that with the running water it might have been difficult to tell but I do think it would have been spotted, before it reached her feet.
Still, this scene is a decent one, providing a bit of a cringe moment without being too gratuitous and since this film used real spiders for filming rather than special effects, someone had to have a real spider crawl on their face and down their chest which is… no. just no.
9. The Grudge
2004 Columbia Pictures
Much like Arachnophobia, this particular example doesn’t involve a bathroom based attack but does feature a disturbing intrusion into the privacy of a character’s shower. In this case Karen, played by Sarah Michelle Gellar.
After hoping into the shower and starting to wash her hair, her hands touch a third hand… coming out of the back of her head. When she turns around, there is nothing.
It’s a fairly short scene but it’s one of the signature scenes of this film and it’s got a nice combination of body horror and the unease that comes from such bathroom based scenes. I’m a fan of scenes that take the voyeurism and fan service aspects associated with nudity before flipping it into something twisted and horrible.
8. Alien: Covenant
2017 Twentieth Century Fox
Even the most casual horror movie fans will know that if you have sex in a horror movie, you are basically sentencing yourself to death. It’s a ‘rule’ that’s been lampshaded in films like Scream and Cabin in the Woods – have sex or even just start to and you will be impaled by something… not necessarily in a pleasant manner.
Alien: Covenant is a fairly unremarkable film that basically copy pastes the plot points from the original Alien film (but was still an improvement on Prometheus). The characters, with the exception of Michael Fassbender’s David and Walter androids, are all in couples when the film starts and are part of a colonisation mission. While most of the couples get picked off by various incarnations of the Xenomorphs, when the ship takes off again there is still one couple with both members intact. And they decide to indulge in some post massacre shower sex.
Given the sexual undercurrent to the Xenomorphs’ nature, it’s not surprising that this draws a stowaway Praetomorph who attempts to turn the encounter into a ménage à trois with its tail before violently murdering the two lovers.
The shot of the tail sliding into view between the legs of the pair and sliding upwards is quite unsettling, building quite a tense atmosphere before the blood starts flying.
7. Carrie
2013 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
At this point there are three different film versions of Stephen King’s Carrie, as well as a dubious sequel. One of the key scenes in all of them features the titular character showering. This scene makes the list as while it’s not horrifying in the same way as the others on the list, it still contains a decent level of fear and horror… as well as quite a bit of blood.
The original Brian De Palma film features extended shots of the female characters in their locker room as well as prolonged pans over the showering Carrie. It’s excessive. The start of Carrie’s period is drawn out with repeated shots of her washing down her thigh, before the water is replaced with blood. This was probably done to exaggerate the effect when it does switch to Carrie’s horror at what she perceives as herself dying.
The 2002 made for TV remake is significantly less uncomfortable as all the girls are covered up and they are given individual stalls rather than the communal showers which has positive and negatives to it, as it means the bullying classmates actively seek Carrie out to humiliate her whereas in the other versions, she is in an open area and reaches out to them for help.
Of all three, I feel the 2013 version did this scene the best. The remake had a lot of flaws to it but that scene was done right. It’s not as needlessly voyeuristic as the original and I personally believed Chloe Moretz’s terror as Carrie slightly more than Sissy Spacek’s. The 2013 version also had the addition of modern technology with the event being filmed which was a good touch I felt.
6. Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child
1989 New Line Cinema
There are reoccurring patterns with bathroom horror scenes. If it’s a shower, chances are the victim will get stabbed. If it’s a bath, it’ll probably be a drowning or an electrocution sequence. There are exceptions obviously but these are the ones that tend to pop up regularly.
This entry into the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise sees a subversion to this where protagonist Alice finds herself in an enclosed shower unit that begins slowly filling up with water. Drowning is one of the more horrific ways to die and unlike when characters are drowned in bathtubs, it’s not a matter of being strong enough to get to the surface. The water rising up inside the shower, going from slow to a sudden downpour that leaves Alice disorientated and almost blinded by it, makes the whole atmosphere more helpless in a way. Especially for such an early scene in the movie.
5. Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter
1984 Paramount Pictures
I had to include this scene if only for the fact that it included a rare example of a male shower victim. This is an incredible rarity as usually male characters only get killed in showers if they’re having sex in one (as with Alien: Covenant).
It’s set up really well and done as a nice inversion of what normally happens. It follows the standard horror movie beats of the camera slowly moving in towards the shower, the silhouette through the glass/curtain, blood mixing with pooling water and flailing legs when Jason strikes.
The death itself is brutal. After the standard slowly building tension as the camera advances and the showering victim calls out to who he thinks is his girlfriend, inviting her to join him, Jason’s hand bursts through the glass and crushes the man’s head against the wall. It’s abrupt, violent and perfect.
4. The Roommate
2011 Sony Pictures
The Roommate is one of many ‘obsession’ based films, where a hapless protagonist unwittingly becomes friends or starts to date someone who is just a little bit too into their relationship. This usually results in other friends of the protagonist being targeted if they get too close to the object of obsession.
In The Roommate, main girl Sara has a party girl friend called Tracy. Her obsessed roommate disapproves. This leads to a scene where Tracy, showering in her dorm, finds herself plunged into darkness. She investigates other shower units where water is running but finds nothing. The scene plays with expectations as she pulls back the curtains more than once, each time allowing the tension to build as she approaches before revealing the empty stalls. When the attack does come, it’s almost when the audience thinks maybe it won’t, that maybe it’s just mind games. Tracy isn’t killed in the scene, she’s pinned down and has her belly button ring torn out as a warning. It’s not as violent as some shower based attacks but it’s certainly a suspenseful and stomach twisting one.
3. Sleepaway Camp
1983 American Eagle Films
Sleepaway Camp has quite a few… innovative attacks. The shower one starts out like any other. A camp counsellor happily showering. The door to the cabin opens. However, where it differs from the standard attack is that instead of the curtain being torn back and the knife coming down, allowing for a moment of recognition between killer and victim that so many films are fond of, instead the attack comes without warning through the back of the shower block.
It’s done with repeated shots of the knife slicing into the shower wall against shots of the victim Meg jerking painfully as she’s impaled. It's really simplistic but effective.
What I really liked about this scene is afterwards, when the killer pulls the shower curtain back just a little and washes the knife in the shower spray, before turning the water off. Cold.
2. Psycho
1960 Paramount
No shower list would be complete without Psycho. There’s not much to say – it’s iconic, it’s been parodied to death. The sharp tearing of the shower curtain, the plunge of the knife, the painful scream and the atmospheric score. It’s a shower kill done right.
1. Evil Dead
2013 TriStar Pictures
I really liked the 2013 Evil Dead remake. It was bloody, gory and probably injured the actors less than the original. Plus it also provided a realistic reason for the enforced isolation.
The shower scene in this one stands out to me because of how it is shot. You briefly see the character, Mia, in the shower but it places more focus on lingering shots of the steam rising, her brother pounding at the door, the water falling. It takes its time with what it does. The viewer knows that Mia is burning herself but you don’t see it. Even when she is shown, it’s at a distance and there is steam obscuring her face.
It holds on just long enough for the viewer to hope that maybe, maybe her brother will get to her before she suffers real damage.
When her face is shown, the damage isn’t over the top and Mia’s catatonic state as her skin blisters is chilling.
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