16 Dark Movie Scenes That Ended Up Being Deleted

Hmmm yeah, maybe eating a baby is a step too far.

1. Pennywise eating a baby in It.

Warner Bros. Pictures

Bill Skarsgård told the Playback podcast that the movie originally included a flashback scene where Pennywise eats a baby. He said: “There was a scene we shot that was a flashback from the 1600s, before Pennywise was Pennywise. The scene turned out really, really disturbing. And I’m not the clown. I look more like myself."

2. Deadpool trying to kill baby Hitler in Deadpool 2.

20th Century Fox

In this scene, Deadpool travels back to 1889, and contemplates killing a newborn Hitler. The writers said they cut that scene because they decided that killing a baby crossed the line.

3. A rape scene in Horrible Bosses 2.

Warner Bros. Pictures

A scene where Jennifer Aniston's character Dr. Julia tells Nick that she had sex with him while he was in a coma, which then cuts to CCTV footage of the act, was left out of the final movie, for obvious reasons.

4. Dan being framed for Alex's murder in Fatal Attraction.

Paramount Pictures

The theatrical release ends with Dan's wife shooting his obsessive lover, Alex. But originally, the film was meant to end with Alex slitting her throat and framing Dan for her murder. The makers reluctantly changed the scene after it didn't go down well with test audiences.

5. Casey's boyfriend being graphically gutted in Scream.

Dimension Films

Scream is already pretty gruesome, but Wes Craven was made to change some of the more graphic scenes to avoid an NC-17 rating. The opening scene, where Steven is gutted and his internal organs spill out on camera, was cut.

6. Evan strangling himself in the womb in The Butterfly Effect.

New Line Cinema

In the original ending of the film, Evan travelled back in time and strangled himself before his mother could give birth to him. This scene didn't go down well with test audiences, and the film ended on a much less unsettling note.

7. Elsa taking on the villain role and torturing some guards in Frozen.

Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

In one deleted scene from the kid's movie, Elsa takes an evil turn and tortures two guards.

8. A cinema massacre in Gangster Squad.

Warner Bros.

The makers of the movie decided to cut the graphic scene of a cinema shooting after a tragic mass shooting occurred in a cinema in Aurora, Colorado. The gory scene appears in the trailers for the movie, but they reshot it before its release. In a press conference, director Ruben Fleischer said: “The Aurora shooting was an unspeakable tragedy, and out of respect for the families of the victims, we felt it necessary to reshoot that sequence."

9. Buford Tannen killing Marshall Strickland in Back To The Future Part III

Universal Pictures

In a scene that explains why Principle Strickland hates the Tannens, Buford cold-bloodedly shoots Strickland in the back.

10. Bruce Banner's suicide attempt in The Incredible Hulk.

Universal Pictures

In this deleted scene, Bruce is about to pull the trigger before he transforms into the Hulk and crushes the gun. It's not the most family friendly of scenes, which probably explains why it was cut.

11. A body being disintegrated in Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom.

Paramount Pictures

After having his heart ripped out, the human sacrifice is lowered into a pit of molten lava that disintegrates his body, leaving behind a floating head. This gruesome scene was eventually cut to avoid the film being rated R.

12. Scar trying to force Nala to marry him in The Lion King.

Buena Vista Pictures

In this scene, Scar tells Nala that she must be his queen, saying: "you know, you really have no choice. I always get what I want," before singing a really creepy version of "Be Prepared". This scene explains why Nala went looking for Simba in the forest, but it's slightly too dark for a kids' film.

13. The scene where Alex is brutally eaten by the shark in Jaws.

Universal Pictures

Jaws is already pretty graphic for a PG-rated film, but Spielberg decided that the scenes that show the shark outside of the water were a step too far, and now only a few gruesome stills of the scrapped scene remain.

14. Shan Yu massacring an entire village in Mulan.

Buena Vista Pictures

In this scene, Shan Yu destroys a village, and even kills one of his own henchmen. It's pretty dark...

15. Edward being stabbed in the eye in Divergent.

Lionsgate

In the book, Edward is stabbed in the eye in the middle of the night. It’s a pretty brutal moment, that looks as gruesome as it sounds, so even though it was filmed, it makes sense that it was cut from a PG-13 rated movie.

16. Stitch basically killing Pudge the fish in Lilo and Stitch.

Buena Vista Pictures

Disney wisely decided to cut this dark scene where Lilo and Pudge are viciously attacked by seagulls while Stitch just watches on, laughing. Lilo then buries her pet next to her parents' graves – it's very bleak for a kid's movie.