Nightmare Fuel / The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1

Here is what remains of District 12.

• Katniss's visit to the bombed-out ruins of District 12. She walks through the ruins and over a hill...and sees hundreds upon hundreds of burned, mutilated corpses. She's so horrified by the sight that she collapses to her knees, unable to stand or make a sound. You can even see vultures and dogs eating the corpses.
• In District 8, dozens of badly burned bodies are lined up by the entrance to the hospital. Katniss sees them on the way there and is visibly trying not to break down.
  • And then the above is topped out by the bombing of the hospital by Capitol jets. There are hundreds of people inside that hospital, all of them perishing simply because Katniss is spotted in the district. Or simply maybe because it is war and no one takes any deaths and suffering personally. What's horrifying is that this sometimes does happen in Real Life, too, as in, the bombing of facilities designed to care for civilians, simply because those facilities are housing figures undesirable to the bombers' side.
• Peeta's deteriorating physical state as the movie progresses is horrifying to watch.
• The attack on the hydroelectric dam. There was no way for the rebels to sneak in and plant the explosives, so they gathered what appear to be several hundred people to carry the explosives up the access walkways in full view of the Peacekeeper guards. They appear through the fog at night, all of them chanting "The Hanging Tree", which is more than a little unsettling, but not enough to intimidate the Peacekeepers into breaking ranks. Dozens die in the initial gunfire volleys and knew they were going to, sacrificing themselves in the hope that the survivors behind them will get the bombs through and into place... and then those survivors setting the timers for those bombs and running for their lives. The way the shots are edited also leave it ambiguous as to whether or not those survivors made it out past the flood plain before the explosives went off, so for all the viewer knows, every single one of those rebels paid for that victory with their lives.
• "The Hanging Tree", a hopeful sounding anthem... about a tree where the spirit of a man who was hanged waits for his lover to come to join him in death.
• The Capitals Air Raid on District 13, as horrifying as the bombing of District 8's Hospital is, this is a full battalion, and we see it from the perspective of the civilians as they make their panicked run to the shelters, as Katniss frantically searches for Prim who had gone back for Buttercup. Then while in the shelter hearing the peoples screams and the rumbling from each impact by the bombs.
  • The next morning, Katniss discovers the ruins covered in White Roses. And then the realization hits her.
    Katniss: (voice quivering) He did this for me! He's gonna kill Peeta. He's gonna kill Peeta. I can't, I can't do this, he's just gonna keep... He'll never stop... He warned me, he warned me! He's doing this because I'm the Mockingjay! He's punishing Peeta to punish me! DON'T MAKE ME DO THIS!!!!
• Peeta attacking Katniss comes completely out of nowhere. First of all, Peeta looks heart-wrenchingly bad: you can see the abuse on his malnourished body and face, and in his eyes. Then, he starts choking the life out of poor Katniss, throwing her across the room as she struggles. What really sells the horror is Katniss's genuine surprise as her eyes bulge out, and for a moment the audience is truly afraid that she'll die. Thankfully, Boggs manages to subdue Peeta before he can kill Katniss.
  • Peeta thrashing about in his cell like a wild animal at the end. Josh Hutcherson's nightmarish performance completely sells it.
  • Don't forget the deep redness in Katniss's eyes as a result of the attack.