Narrative technique · used in 8 films
Never showing the act of violence itself. You only see the aftermath or hear characters describe it, and your imagination fills in what happened.
Examples
Quentin Tarantino · 1992
The torture scene is the most notorious one in the film (Mr. Blonde's dance, the razor, the ear). Nevertheless, the actual cutting happens off-screen. Tarantino pans away at the key moment and comes back to the aftermath.
Where to see it: Mr. Blonde's ear-removal scene. The camera pans to the empty warehouse wall during the act, and what you don't see is more disturbing than any violence the film shows.
David Fincher · 1995
Fincher never shows any of John Doe's murders as they happen. You arrive with the detectives, after the fact. The Gluttony victim, the Sloth victim and the Greed crime scene are each staged like an archaeological find. The horror comes from what your imagination fills in.
Where to see it: The Sloth victim's apartment. The body turns out to have been alive for a year.
Paul Thomas Anderson · 1997
The rumor that Sydney killed John's father in Atlantic City is told and never shown. Jimmy hears it and uses it to blackmail him. Your imagination fills in the worst version.
Where to see it: The blackmail scene. Jimmy threatens to tell John what he heard about the killing.
Joel Coen, Ethan Coen · 2007
Moss dies off-screen at a motel in El Paso. The Coens cut away and come back with Bell arriving after the shootout, to find him already dead, so we are denied the death as viewers. There is no showdown and no final confrontation. The film has been building toward this death and then refuses to show it. That refusal is its argument about what this kind of violence really looks like.
Where to see it: The cut to Moss's body in his motel room. We missed it, and the film moved on without us.
Peter Jackson · 2009
The film never shows the killing. It fades out as Harvey grabs her, and the next thing you see is Susie rushing past her classmate Ruth. You fill in the rest yourself, which is harder to shake than a shown act.
Where to see it: The den: Harvey lures Susie into the underground hideout he built, and the scene fades as he grabs her.
William Friedkin · 2012
The murder at the center of the plot never plays out for you. Chris asks Joe to call off the hit, and then learns Adele is already dead. You only see the dead woman afterward, when Joe and Chris dump the body in a car and burn it.
Where to see it: Chris finding out the job is done. He asks Joe to stop, and Joe tells him it already happened.
Denis Villeneuve · 2013
The film never shows the girls' disappearance. Villeneuve starts after the fact, and that missing scene drives the whole story. Every action, accusation and moral collapse is caused by an event the film never shows and the characters can't fully reconstruct.
Where to see it: The moment the girls are noticed missing. The gap in the story is there immediately. The crime scene you never see becomes the hole the film is built around.
Ridley Scott · 2013
The film never shows Laura's death. The Counselor gets a DVD marked "Hola!" that likely holds a snuff film, and he breaks down. You see her headless body dumped in a landfill. What is on the disc stays out of the frame, and you imagine it yourself.
Where to see it: The DVD: a package slid under his hotel door holds a disc marked "Hola!" and the Counselor realizes what it likely contains.
Questions