Line #20 NightmareFuel/District9


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/3911073221_3436fcb164_0.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:''[[BodyHorror "WHAT THE FOK IS WRONG WITH MY ARM!?"]]]]''
3	Aliens being mistreated? Someone being infected and turned into one of them? Who would think there could be any NightmareFuel in that?
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5	Major spoilers below. Do not enter the District if you do not want to see them.
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9	* The effect that the alien fluid has on Wikus. Most of the scares in this movie run on the BodyHorror of Wikus transforming into a prawn. First, there's the vomiting, which is gross, but not necessarily horrifying. But then he starts hacking up black liquid, which sends him to the hospital and then discovers his hand is turning into a prawn claw. And as the movie progresses, it gets worse, and then at the end, as Tania is being interviewed she shows the metal flower that was left at her door and then there's a cut to Wikus fully transformed into a prawn, making the flower in District 9. The fact that he still can remember his wife, and not knowing whether or not Christopher will return to reverse the transformation or if it can even ''be'' reversed is unsettling.
10	* The scene at the party in which Wikus vomits black liquid onto the cake, and then reaches in his delirium for the paper towels to start futilely mopping it up. That small, subtle gesture represented a last desperate gasp at clinging to normalcy, an attempt to put off just a little longer the appalling BodyHorror that will characterize and shape the rest of the film. The way time stops and slows to draw attention to the precise last moment before reality irrevocably breaks is simultaneously terrifying and heart wrenching.
11	* Wikus's growing exoskeleton puncturing his flesh from the inside, causing it to bleed, and causing excruciating pain for Wikus.
12	* The scene where Wikus's [[{{Fingore}} fingernails start falling off]], a ShoutOut to Film/TheFly1986.
13	* After Wikus's arm is first discovered in the hospital and he's forced into what is basically a body bag for transportation to MNU while alive and fully conscious is pretty damn terrifying in its own right.
14	* The scenes where Wikus is basically being tortured in the MNU hospital room.
15	** In order to determine whether Wikus's nerves have integrated into his mutated arm, the MNU doctors ''drill into his arm without anesthetic'', while Wikus screams in pain.
16	** The doctors attempting to vivisect Wikus, ''[[AndIMustScream live and fully conscious]]''. Not that they managed to do it in the end, but the fact he was one of them, he worked there, and they were willing to do it so ''unquestioningly''. Not to mention his father-in-law just ''ignoring him'' while he pleads for help.
17	* MNU forcing Wikus to test the guns when they walk out a live prawn in front of him. What is even more awful is the fact that they keep on electrocuting him even after he agrees to cooperate.
18	** A subtly horrifying fact is the way that the technician who just shocked Wikus tells him, "[[FauxAffablyEvil Thank you very much]]" after the first weapon test, like he just [[DissonantSerenity asked Wikus to pass him the salt]]. A chilling reminder of how desensitized MNU has become to the utter inhumanity of what they're doing.
19	* The scene where Wikus is scarfing catfood (which is pretty disturbing in itself), chokes, and suddenly spits out a few molars.
20	* When Wikus tries to cut his alien claw-hand off, but instead just cuts off one of the alien digits. The pain is so great, Wikus then starts to drop the [[ClusterFBomb Cluster Fok Bomb]].
21	* Before his post-mutation CharacterDevelopment starts to kick in, the film makes it pretty clear that Wikus was a monster.
22	** The pure LackOfEmpathy he displays when he's going around and telling the prawns that they're being kicked out of their slums is just a tiny taste of how evil MNU is.
23	** Wikus cheerfully taking a flamethrower to a nest of prawn eggs. The prawn babies are still alive. Despite his claim that the babies fall into a coma when their feeding tubes are removed, they're screaming in pain as they're burnt. And if that weren't enough, Wikus cheerfully explains to the camera what they're doing, and then compares the popping sound the exploding fetuses are making to [[{{Squick}} popcorn]]. One wonders how many theater-goers were put off their snacks after that line.
24	** While carrying out the evictions, Wikus tries to lure out Christopher's child to be taken away, calling out, "[[BlatantLies It's the Sweety-Man...]]", sounding for all the world like someone trying to lure a child into a [[CreepyStalkerVan white van]]. (Which, in a sense, he ''is''.)
25	* The Nigerians eating the poor alien.
26	** For that matter, the Prawns who save Wikus from Koobus at the end of the film. Koobus has him dead to rights, and then a bunch of the aliens emerge from the surrounding slums. Koobus tells them to back off and starts shooting as they close in. You might think that they're here to save Wikus because, as a result of his slow transformation, they now consider him one of them. Nope: they're just really, ''really'' hungry. Hungry enough that they ''tear Koobus limb from limb and start EATING him!'' What really sells the horror of this is that, naturally, Koobus starts screaming as they rip him apart, and then is suddenly cut off without the camera angle changing.
27	** In a sense, they ''do'' consider Wikus one of them: it's the only reason why they don't eat ''him'' as well as Kobus.

Context NightmareFuel / District9