Horrible dinner scenes that will make your family meal perfect
Yes, it’s that time of year again. No matter what holiday it celebrates, November and December bring some of the most painful social experiences around a dinner or buffet. Whether it’s the obligatory work holiday party, dinner with the mother-in-law, or a friend’s futile attempt to get the old team together, we’ve all had to endure a few hours of excruciating small talk and grossly unseasoned food. Think about it, it could always be worse if we’re drowning in a second serving out of politeness. And these characters lived it!
Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)
She is the mother of terrible food. It’s hard to talk about absolutely terrible dining experiences without getting started Tobe Hooper masterpiece. After Sally Hardesty (Marilyn is on fire) watches as his brother and his friends are killed, he is forced to sit at a table with his murderers who mercilessly scream at him. Everything is noisy, chaotic and overstimulating. It’s a bit like a gracious invitation from a neighbor that you regret accepting out of politeness. It’s unclear which is worse: Sally’s head at the mercy of Sawyer’s half-dead patriarch’s hammer-wielding abilities, or her potential serving among his friends.
The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)
While super adorable, this dinner scene is a classic example of a group of friends who have a little too much history with each other. Sitting around Frank-N-Furter (Tim Curry) have slept together, cheated on each other, hated each other, or a combination of all three. Unbeknownst to them, they are all eating Columbia’s flesh (Nell Campbell) boyfriend Eddie (meatloaf)…his body is hidden under an ornate tablecloth. Before long, the cloth is ripped from under them, the fun of the little drama is gone, and all hell breaks loose.
Alien (1979)
Have you ever been at a table where someone decided to wreak havoc? Xenomorph Baby Beyond Kane (wounded John) is the equivalent of a guest who asks everyone “who invited them?” prompts the question. This sequence is a master class in creating tension and dread. Everyone’s talking, laughing, and having fun until they’re not. Imagine having a perfectly laid-back dinner with a few friends before hitting the hay and having to watch your friend violently give birth to a hellish little bundle. At the very least, the worst thing on earth that can happen to your dinner party is bad assignments or annoying passive aggression. At least you’re less likely to end up with dinner covered in blood.
Legacy (2018)
By Ari Aster Hereditary perfectly sums up the extremely broken family forced to live together. Sound familiar? Everyone has or is on the verge of having a nervous breakdown. It balances awkward silences broken by even more awkward dialogue as forks are mindlessly dragged between plates. The small talk gradually extends to Annie (Toni Collette) completely jumps on his son Peter (Alex Wolff) and delivers an absolutely iconic line: “All I get is that damn face on your face!” The next time you disappoint your parents or have a family argument at the dinner table, you can at least (most likely) take solace in the fact that you didn’t accidentally kill your sister.
Get Out (2017)
The levels of sheer terror surrounding your first shared dinner experience with your partner’s parents don’t need to be altered to perfectly match the settings of a horror film. However, Jordan Pele is doing great things to increase. Once the focus shifts from your partner’s mild teasing to you, things can go south very quickly. Just ask Chris (To Daniel Kaluuya). Not only does he have to date Rose (Allison Williams) are first-time parents, but she must navigate the expected awkwardness along with the numerous racial microaggressions hurled at her during her stay. Not surprisingly, Rose’s brother Jeremy (Caleb Landry Jones), trying to prove he’s stronger than Chris, gets a little too drunk. Little does he know, the only reason the fight is cut off before it starts is because his body is invulnerable for more nefarious purposes.
Beloved (2009)
On a similar note Get out, By Sean Byrne The movie plays on the same first dinner fears as your partner’s parents, except you’re locked up, gagged, and not even meeting their child. Brent (Xavier Samuel) becomes Lola’s object (Robin McCleavey) love at school. He usually admires her from afar until he works up the courage to ask her to the ball. After Brent rejects Lola, his father, Eric (John Brumpton) helps him get over it so they can still spend the night together. Except for more blood, incest, and cheesy ballads, this movie captures the feeling of being trapped in a dinner party you didn’t want to start.
The Pearl (2022)
you are a westerner the last movie has some very scary dinner scenes! In fact, most of his intense scenes involve the dinner table right in the center. Although, for the purposes of this list, we’ll be using the film Pearl (mia goth) meticulously setting the dinner table in preparation for her husband’s return from the war. Rotting food and the sitting corpses of his parents await his arrival. The magnetism of this scene is twofold. The first is that it conjures up an overcompensating host and a budding housewife who fails miserably, and the second is that her husband’s horrified expression perfectly sums up what it feels like to be over-hospitable by said host. Regardless of which personality type you identify with more, both are equally terrifying.
House of 1000 Corpses (2003)
powerful inspiration The chain slaughter, Rob Zombie He decides to try and raise the bar by wearing a mask on almost everyone except Otis (Bill Mosley). Given that Moseley plays Leatherface’s famously masked brother, this directorial choice seems to be a nod to his inspiration. Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2. This whole sequence feels like you’re being forced to sit through a long joke that you’re not a part of. A group of friends on a road trip get mixed up with the wrong group of people and end up at a dinner party that quickly reveals they’ve been playing a very long and failed prank. In many ways, the sheer awkwardness of this sequence does a great job of conveying what it feels like to sit down to a “party” dinner with an absolute trash fire.
Rope (1948)
Alfred Hitchcock He is known as the master of suspense for a very good reason. Wired It’s like half-cleaning your place before hosting a dinner party and hoping your guests don’t trip over a giant dust bunny or lingering coffee stains on the kitchen counter. Only in Hitchcock’s world is that creepy dust bunny actually a corpse. The body is hidden in a large chest inside the room, and the said chest is used as a table where a buffet of food is served. Talk about a triple something. The audience, host Brandon (John Dall) and Philip (Farley Granger), hide a deadly secret under the noses of their guests.
Eraserhead (1977)
If there’s one director who can perfectly capture what an out-of-body experience feels like, it’s him David Lynch. This whole movie feels like a fever dream, but the dinner scene is the icing on the cake. Grotesque, nightmarish and strangely slimy. It’s like the mysterious pot brought by the twice-abducted aunt, but no one touches it. Everyone at the table is kind of oblivious to the fact that the chickens move a lot and don’t bleed a lot, because it’s not so clear whether it’s worse than the mother’s whim. Like having to sit through a painfully awkward dinner party, this movie makes it incredibly difficult to know whether to laugh, throw up, or cry.
You’re Next (2011)
There’s nothing like the shitshow you know when a family dinner opens with a prayer and half the table sits there laughing and making eye contact with each other. As if waiting for an opportunity, the Davison siblings immediately engage in small talk about each other’s lifestyles and accomplishments. One of the partners of the parents’ children, Tariq (You are the West), is accidentally shot with a crossbow by an unknown assailant. By Adam Wingard The movie perfectly captures a microcosm of how it feels when you finally get a family together and no one seems to get along.
The Invitation (2015)
The first mistake made in this movie is Will’s (Logan Marshall-Green) admission of ex-wife Eden (Tammy Blanchard), an invitation to a dinner party hosted by her and her new husband. It might have been different if the two divorced amicably, but there are still unresolved tensions between the two in the aftermath of their young son’s untimely death. It also doesn’t help that this dinner is being held at the house he and Eden share. Unsurprisingly, tensions bubble beneath the surface of seemingly mundane interactions, and Will’s growing paranoia leads him to discover things that prove he might be better off if left alone. In fact, between this movie The Invitation (2022)maybe we should be a little more selective with the invitations we accept for the rest of this holiday season.
