22 Dark Deleted Scenes From Popular Films That Once You See Them, You'll Get Why They Were Cut

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

It's no surprise that not every scene makes it to the final cut, but some of these scenes are so dark that they might change the way you see these films.

🚨 Warning: some of the scenes include violence, murder, and in one instance, rape. 🚨

1. Geppetto contemplating eating his pet fish Cleo in Pinocchio.

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Fish clearly got a bad deal in the original Disney movies, but I'm glad they realised that eating pets is a step too far.

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

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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.

3. Pennywise eating a baby in It.

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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."

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

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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.

5. The graphic death of Bambi's mum in Bambi.

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You're probably thinking that Bambi was pretty sad already, but the original storyboards showed the actual moment that Bambi's mum was shot dead. Thankfully it was ultimately deemed too violent to include.

6. And a very bloody murder at the start of Tarzan.

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The opening of Tarzan that we know is pretty sad, but it does a good job of telling us what happened to his parents with minimal trauma. This original storyboard – not so much. The terrifying scene actually shows Tarzan's dad being dragged away by the leopard, while a music box version of "You'll Be in My Heart" plays in the background. Chilling.

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

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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.

8. E.T. watching Elliott's mum as she sleeps in E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial.

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This bizarre scene has never seen the light of day, but it's pretty creepy when you notice that Elliott's mum is naked...

9. Casey's boyfriend being graphically gutted in Scream. (Warning: graphic)

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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.

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

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

11. A cinema massacre in Gangster Squad. (Warning: graphic)

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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."

12. Eddie's head turning into a cartoon pig in Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

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Eddie has a giant cartoon pig’s head, which seems innocent enough, but he ends up washing it down the shower drain in a scene that wouldn’t feel out of place in a horror movie.

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

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

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

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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 all very bleak for a kid's movie.

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

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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.

16. 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.

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

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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.

18. The scene where Alex is brutally eaten by the shark in Jaws. (Warning: graphic)

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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.

19. Edward being stabbed in the eye in Divergent. (Warning: Graphic)

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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.

20. Peggy's brutal murder in The Mask.

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In the version that was released, Peggy seems to disappear without a trace, but this deleted scene reveals her unlucky fate.

21. An explosive argument between Daniel and Miranda in Mrs Doubtfire.

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We don't see much of the aftermath of Mrs Doubtfire's identity being revealed, but these deleted scenes are very sombre compared to the rest of the film.

22. And finally, a chicken being decapitated during the tunnel scene in Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory.

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I can’t tell you why this disturbing scene was included in the movie in the first place, but it's not hard to see why it was left out of most international versions of the film. If you had a VHS that had the chicken moment left in, let us know in the comments!