Line #33 NightmareFuel/Dredd


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/dredd_ma_ma_522484.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:''"[[TheDreaded Don't fuck with the Ma-Ma Clan]]."'' [[note]]For reference, this is just after hearing how she [[GroinAttack castrated a pimp with her]] ''[[GroinAttack teeth]]''.[[/note]]]]
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4	Dredd surpassed [[Film/JudgeDredd its 1995 predecessor]] in every way imaginable - especially when it comes to scare factor.
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6	%% Please note, being gory or gross alone does not qualify an entry as being nightmare fuel. Please see the Nightmare Fuel Clean UP Project https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=15046601260A53602600&page=1.
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8	* Ma-Ma's gang catches three rogue dealers on their turf and decides to make an example of them. Ma-Ma orders them [[FlayingAlive skinned alive]] and [[DisneyVillainDeath thrown from the top floor of the building's atrium 200 floors up]]. Ma-Ma's Lieutenant, Kay, suggests they be dosed with the drug Slo-Mo before throwing them off. The drug [[ColdBloodedTorture artificially prolongs the suffering]] during their fall to the bottom floor, by altering their perception of time to a fraction of what they would normally experience. The [[HellIsThatNoise sickening wet splatters as their mutilated corpses hit the ground]], and the terrified reactions of the onlookers below -- including a woman with a pushchair who ''narrowly'' avoids being hit by the first body -- do nothing to help.
9	* [[TheWoobie The Clan Techie]] getting his eyes gouged out by Ma-Ma. You only see it briefly, but she personally gouges his eyes out with her thumbs without any medical aide or anaesthetic while he is forcefully held down by some of her goons. His high-pitched wails are skin-crawling and his cybernetic prosthetic replacements after the fact appear red-rimmed and sore, suggesting it wasn't that long ago. Any time she's near him, it's clear that he's terrified out of his mind.
10	* Dredd's very first execution involves him firing a "Hot Shot" flare into the open mouth of a criminal holding a woman hostage. The man's face and head are brightly lit in a reddish hue as the flare quickly burns him to death from inside his mouth and face and then his head. He collapses slowly to the floor with his face partially charred and a puff of smoke gushing from the back of his head.
11	* The time it takes for the food court to recover from the shooting? ''Thirty minutes.'' A floor-sweeper casually pushes aside a dead Fattie -- yes, that is what they are actually called -- as it mops up blood. The bodies are collected in a bin for [[HumanResources resyk]] like they were dirty laundry.
12	* The page image is taken from Ma-Ma's backstory, where she had just [[GroinAttack castrated Lester, her abusive pimp]], with her teeth. The prequel comic steps it up a notch, where [[https://html.scribdassets.com/uo7tqp4qo1s8dwm/images/11-703b38b797.jpg she gets him to take a dose of Slo-Mo first, dragging out the pain from his perspective,]] and his body is later found dumped on an abandoned building site by the Judges, after he's completely bled to death. [[AssholeVictim Not that the bastard didn't deserve it]] after he tortured and murdered her boyfriend, but it's still a [[ShareTheMalePain horrifying thing to think about]].
13	-->'''Madeline:''' I'm sorry, you're right. (''offers him the Slo-Mo'') Try this. It'll... enhance the experience.
14	-->'''Lester:''' Dope?
15	-->'''Madeline:''' And then some. [[ExactWords It'll make it last forever]].
16	-->'''Lester:''' Cool. (''does himself up on the Slo-Mo as he unzips his pants'') Glad you've finally accepted who's in charge, Madrigal.
17	-->'''Madeline:''' (''[[https://html.scribdassets.com/uo7tqp4qo1s8dwm/images/12-9d3d835f24.jpg baring her teeth]]'') Lester... [[StartOfDarkness call me]] '''[[StartOfDarkness Ma-Ma]]'''.
18	* Ma-Ma brings out the [[MoreDakka big guns on Dredd]]. And ''literally'', in the form of [[GatlingGood three enormous rotary cannons with anti-aircraft rounds]]. Dredd makes it out alive, but dozens to hundreds of citizens, including those with ''families'', do not; and it ''especially'' says a lot when [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness even he's unnerved by what he's seeing]].
19	-->'''Dredd:''' (''visibly taken aback'') [[PrecisionFStrike Oh,]] ''[[PrecisionFStrike shit...!]]''\
20	'''Ma-Ma:''' FIRE!
21	* This exchange:
22	-->'''Kay:''' Like what am I thinking about right now? ''(imagines himself having rough sex with Anderson.)''\
23	'''Anderson:''' You're picturing a violent sexual liaison between the two of us in a pointless attempt to shock me.\
24	'''Kay:''' You're good. But I wasn't trying to shock you. If I was trying to shock, I'd be thinking about this... ''[[NothingIsScarier (imagines himself doing... something involving heavy breathing)]]''\
25	'''Anderson:''' ''(slaps Kay against the wall)'' [[ShutUpHannibal What are you thinking about now, huh?]]
26	* Just to bring home just how much of a monster Ma-Ma is, she has no qualms against infanticide - including the use of ''ChildSoldiers.''
27	-->'''Child Soldier:''' ''(crying)'' Why did it have to be us who found him first?
28	* Anderson's MindRape of Kay, full stop. She lures him into a state of false confidence by letting him use his gun on her (he misses at point-blank range), before undressing and going down on him... only to morph into Ma-Ma, who [[GroinAttack emasculates]] him instead. ''All of this happens inside his head.'' Kay is so utterly terrified that he [[PottyFailure pisses himself.]]
29	-->'''Anderson:''' ''[[ColdBloodedTorture We haven’t even started.]]''
30	* Kay tries to execute Anderson [[TooDumbToLive with her own Lawgiver.]] When he pulls the trigger, the gun does not recognize the user's DNA. ''[[BoomInTheHand Boom.]]''
31	-->'''Kay:''' Any last words, bitch?\
32	'''Anderson:''' Funny, I was going to ask you the same thing. ''Bitch''.
33	* [[CavalryBetrayal Judge Lex]] sums up the setting ''very'' well:
34	-->'''Judge Lex''': You know what Mega City One is, Dredd? It's [[CrapsackWorld a fucking meat grinder.]] People go in one end, meat comes out the other... and all we do is ''[[TheChainOfHarm turn the handle]]''.
35	* Mega City One's status as a WretchedHive has never been better portrayed. Citizens [[UnusuallyUninterestingSight react]] to vehicular shootouts like it's no big deal, public shootings are treated like [[WeAreExperiencingTechnicalDifficulties technical difficulties]] that just need to be cleaned up -- terrified citizens are told where to find ''other restaurants'' after a massacre at a food court -- and the film's ''entire premise'' is referred to as just another "drug bust", showing the sheer ''scale'' of crime facing the Judges each day.
36	-->'''Dredd:''' Perps were... uncooperative.
37	** Early on, it's established that there's so many crimes in Mega-City One that the Judges can only respond to ''6%'' of them. Even though SinisterSurveillance is the ''norm.''
38	* Taken from the Ma-Ma clan's perspective, the entire film is one long MookHorrorShow. One of your guys gets busted by a cop, so you send someone after him. He kills them all. You bust out .50 Calibre [[GatlingGood gatling]] [[MoreDakka guns]] that wipe out an ''[[TheresNoKillLikeOverkill entire floor]]'' to no effect? Congratulations, you've made him suspicious - and angry. Send your [[TheDragon chief enforcer]] after him? He throws him off the balcony. Manage to kidnap his partner? Congratulations, you've just made him furious enough to literally rain fire down on more of your {{Mook}}s using White Phosphorus rounds - and said kidnapped partner slaughters your lieutenant while escaping, anyway. Send a bunch of {{Dirty Cop}}s after him? Well done, you've given him more ammo. Threatening to blow up the entire block should work, right? Nope, he just [[AgonizingStomachWound shoots you in the stomach]] and [[DestinationDefenestration throws you out a 200-storey window]] instead. Can also be seen as darkly humorous, given how Dredd just casually shrugs off each escalating obstacle - obstacles that would easily flatten any normal person.
39	-->'''Kay:''' How the fuck are we gonna stop this guy?
40	* While the film itself is scary on its own, the real-life subtext of the plot gives it a whole new level of terrifying. With the increased scrutiny and concerns regarding mass surveillance, gun control, police brutality and militarization in recent years, many ''Dredd'' fans are concerned that the film may have been ahead of its time in all the wrong ways.
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Context NightmareFuel / Dredd