As promised, I’m back with my second post of the day.

When most people hear the word “gag” they think of laughter… of a joke, usually with some kind of physical element… something with a “gotcha” moment or a “switch-a-roo”. Me? I think of horror movies… at this point of the summer there’s not much that doesn’t make me think of horror movies… but, this is something that predates this crazy experiment. Somewhere along the line I heard the term “gag” used in connection with horror movies. It is used in a somewhat similar way as it is in comedy…it’s usually something quick, something with a physical component, it could be a bit of a “gotcha” or a “switch-a-roo”… in the end, though, it doesn’t elicit a laugh (usually) it elicits a much different physical reaction… an actual gag. Therefore, I think this is a much more honest use of the word.

Most horror movies (at least any horror movie worth its salt) will have a least one gag in it. Perhaps the most famous is the chest-bursting scene from Alien or the pee-soup vomit in The Exorcist. I’ve included my “favorite” example below (and by favorite, I mean the one that gets me every time… it makes me squirm no matter how many times I watch it). It’s from the Italian “classic”, Zombi 2. I want to write more about the film… there are so many great stories and factoids surrounding it… but I’ll save that for a Classics Revisited post later in the summer. What I will say, is if you’re squeamish you probably don’t want to watch it… also, no surprise here, but it’s pretty violent, so it may not be totally safe for work.

Finally, whenever you talk about Zombi 2 you can’t skip over the shark-versus-zombie scene… so, I’ve included it at the very bottom. Regardless of how you feel about watching the eye scene you should check this one out… crazy…

me.