SMD

I watched Interview with the Vampire recently, again, because it is one of my favorite movies. I'm also reminded when I watch it of how much more richly detailed the book is. But isn't that usually the way? At any rate, at the end of Louis' tale he sets fire to the Paris vampires' catacombs and hacks away at them with a scythe. When he finally kills Santiago (played to infuriating annoyance by a wonderful Stephen Rea) in what I refer to as the Slo-Mo Deathstroke, I realized I've seen far too much of this great death technique in recent years.

Simply put, the SMD is when a character takes a hack (usually with a sword, but always something sharp) at the bad guy and misses. Until the bad guy stops and you see his body slowly slide apart, cut in two by the blow that did indeed land.

Now Interview... (1994) was the first movie I could remember using this move and at the time it seemed bad-ass. I mean, it still does because Louis is twirling the scythe around, eyes in full vampire mode, the place going up in flames behind him. This was unfortunately, not nearly the last place I saw this used. At this point, I'm on overload. There has to be another cool way to kill someone off.

Louis takes a scythe to Santiago in Interview with the Vampire.

I saw this for the second time in Cube (1997). A high school friend recommended the movie to me, as I will to you. It is a unique concept, which is why I can't bring myself to watch Cube 2: Hypercube or Cube Zero. In the first movie, though, Alderson gets sliced into little cubes by a large razor-wire grate or trellis. The trellis swoops down from the ceiling so quickly that -- again -- you don't realize what's happened until Alderson's body starts to bleed and falls into a pile of flesh blocks. It isn't until you see the trellis slowly folding back up that you realize how he was killed. You can watch the YouTube clip of this death here. It's sort of graphic, but very well done, and the expression on his face is priceless.

I witnessed my 3rd SMD in Resident Evil (2002) and was immediately reminded of Cube. I remember thinking how blatently this killing style was copied. Resident Evil does up the ante by creating an SMD threesome. It's also done by a laser trap, not a sword or the like, which was new. But it also copied Cube's multiple piece body-split. In other words, it would have been a cool death scene if it hadn't already been done. Here's the YouTube video. Forward to :45 for the actual deaths.


Ok Milla, just put the guns down. On second thought, don't.

I've previously mentioned my feelings about Kate Beckinsale. Despite all her leathery hotness in Underworld (2003), I was still immensely disappointed when the movie ends with (Spoiler Alert!) an SMD. That's right, Selene takes Viktor's sword to him in true SMD fashion. And in true Interview with the Vampire fashion, you really don't think she's killed him. Until he gets that puzzled look on his face...and it slowly slides into two pieces.

Ouch.

I'm sure there are other movies that have used/overused the SMD approach to killing. This was probably used prior to Interview... in movies I simply haven't seen. Not to mention there are other ways to die that have been overused. This one is my own pet peeve because it was new and brilliant to me the first time I saw it. I enjoyed all the above-mentioned movies (I own them all, and I just don't buy movies willy-nilly), so it's disheartening to see the same technique recycled so often. As realistic as they make the body parts, and as graphic as the bloody, squishy noises are, the first time is always the best.