History Main / HumanHeadOnTheWall

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

* ''Literature/{{Excession}}''. The human ambassador to the Affront notes a couple of human heads far up on the wall, and wonders if the failure to cover them up is meant as an insult towards him or a sign of respect.

* One cutaway gag in ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' has Peter imagining that Chris had his and Lois' head mounted on the wall. Set up to sing ''Hooked on a Feeling'' at clapping.

** The opening issue of ''ComicBook/{{Hunted}}'' has Kraven seated beneath a wall with multiple animal-themed heroes and villains mounted on walls like trophies.
** The cover of ''Giant-Size Amazing Spider-Man: ComicBook/TheChameleonConspiracy'' shows the Chameleon sitting in front of a wall covered with the heads of various Spider-Man characters while holding Spider-Man's mask. This is likely a nod to the fact that Chameleon and Kraven are brothers.

* ''ComicBook/TheAmazingSpiderManNickSpencer'':

** The cover of ''Giant-Size Amazing Spider-Man: ComicBook/TheChameleonConspiracy'' shows the Chameleon sitting in front of wall covered with the heads of various Spider-Man characters while holding Spider-Man's mask. This is likely a nod to the fact that Chameleon and Kraven are brothers.

* In one early ''ComicBook/{{Cattivik}}'' story, the titular character sneaks in the mansion of an eccentric old baron who was a prolific tiger hunter and now that he's retired he's taken the hobby to [[HuntingTheMostDangerousGame hunt down thieves and criminals who break into his house]] and mount their heads on a wall, and tries to do the same to Cattivik. Played for laughs by the end of the story, where Cattivik's head is seen mounted on the wall... but since the baron's butler accidently died during the hunt, he has hired Cattivik as the new butler and the trophy thing is part-time.

* In ''ComicBook/ArkhamAsylumLivingHell'', Jane Doe kills and dismembers Dr. Anne Carver to [[KillAndReplace steal her identity]]. She hides most of Dr. Carver's body parts in Dr. Freeze's chamber to preserve them as BorrowedBiometricBypass, but hides her skull behind a decorative mask hanging in her office.
* In one early ''ComicBook/{{Cattivik}}'' story, the titular character sneaks in the mansion of an eccentric old baron who was a prolific tiger hunter and now that he's retired he's taken the hobby to [[HuntingTheMostDangerousGame hunt down thieves and criminals who break into his house]] and mount their heads on a wall, and tries to do the same to Cattivik. Played for laughs by the end of the story, where Cattivik's head is seen mounted on the wall... but since the baron's butler accidently died during the hunt, he has hired Cattivik as the new butler and the trophy thing is part-time.
* [[http://www.comics.org/issue/794734/cover/4/ This cover]] of ''ComicBook/GrimmFairyTales Holiday Edition'' #2 shows Sela with the head of TheKrampus mounted on the wall behind her.

** The opening issue ''ComicBook/{{Hunted}}'' has Kraven seated beneath a wall with multiple animal-themed heroes and villains mounted on walls like trophies.
** The cover of ''Giant-Size Amazing Spider-Man: ''ComicBook/TheChameleonConspiracy'' shows the Chameleon sitting in front of wall covered with the heads of various Spider-Man characters while holding Spider-Man's mask. This is likely a nod to the fact that Chameleon and Kraven are brothers.
* There's a rather famous [[https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/joker_copy_4176.jpg piece of comic book artwork]] drawn by Brian Bolland featuring ComicBook/TheJoker lounging in a chair in front of a trophy wall mounted with the decapitated heads of various Creator/{{DC|Comics}} heroes and villains, all of them painted white and their faces distorted into a smile like the Joker himself. It's even been [[ArtImitatesArt parodied a bunch of times]] with other comic supervillains sitting in Joker's place.
* A MarvelUniverse villain takes the name Zodiac and kills every single member of a team by the same name before mounting their heads on his wall.
* During his run on ''[[ComicBook/SubMariner Namor]]'', John Byrne introduced a corporate villainess named Headhunter, who had the heads of former business execs mounted on her wall, and each head was able to talk and provide Headhunter with information about their corporations. In a twist, it's revealed that her victims were never beheaded; their bodies were tied up on the other side of her office wall, with the heads poking out of holes in her wall, in a hypnotic state so they would surrender any information she asked of them.

* In the ''ComicBook/TeenTitans'' relaunch, ComicBook/{{Deathstroke}} is possessed by his son Jericho, who murders Slade's loyal butler Wintergreen and mounts his head on a wall.
* A variant occurs in the ''[[Creator/ECComics Vault of Horror]]'' story [[http://www.backfromthedepths.co.uk/thetheatreofterror/2011/comic-scans/hook-line-and-stinker-from-the-vault-of-horror/ "Hook, Line, and Stinker!"]] where the victim is not a hunter but a fisherman--or so he says. When he claims to be out fishing, he's actually out cheating on his fiancée, and when she finds out she kills him and mounts his ''entire body'' on a plaque on the wall like a fishing trophy.

[[folder:Fanfic]]

[[folder:Film - Animated]]

[[folder:Film - Live Action]]
* PlayedForLaughs on ''Film/NineToFive'': Judy's fantasy about getting even with BadBoss Frank is to [[HuntingTheMostDangerousGame hunt him down like wild game]]. It ends with Frank's head mounted on Judy's office.

* ''WebAnimation/HelluvaBoss'': Mounted human heads, skins and other parts adorn the walls of Martha's family home in the very first episode. Even Moxxie, an ''HorrifyingTheHorror imp from Hell'', is horrified.

* In ''Webcomic/{{SSDD}}'' the head of one particularly unpopular former First Adviser of the Collective of Anarchist States is mounted in their capital building's rec hall. [[http://www.poisonedminds.com/d/20071030.html Brought up]] when a later First Adviser demands the head of whoever programmed the nuke they'd just accidentally launched.

* ''ComicBook/{{Hunted}}'', the 2019 story event from ''ComicBook/TheAmazingSpiderManNickSpencer'' has its opening issue with Kraven seated beneath a wall with multiple animal-themed heroes and villains mounted on walls like trophies.

A SubTrope of OffWithHisHead, DeadGuyOnDisplay, TaxidermyIsCreepy and CreepySouvenir. If the victim was a WorthyOpponent, then you also have a BattleTrophy. Compare DecapitationPresentation, which is usually a bit more informal; and ShrunkenHead, which is the primitive tribal equivalent of this trope.

* The ''Film/TheThreeStooges'' short "[[Recap/TheThreeStoogesIllNeverHeilAgain I’ll Never Heil Again]]" ends with Dictator Hailstone (Moe), Minister Pebble (Larry) and Field Marshall Herring (Curly)’s heads mounted as trophies.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Villainous}}'': While he's certainly not human, in the "Demencia wuz here" short you can see that Black Hat has [[WesternAnimation/OverTheGardenWall the Beast's]] head mounted on the wall. And in a picture frame next to it is [[WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse Steven's/Rose Quartz's]]/[[spoiler:Pink Diamond's]] gem.

* A variant occurs in the ''[[Creator/ECComics Vault of Horror]]'' story [[http://www.backfromthedepths.co.uk/thetheatreofterror/2011/comic-scans/hook-line-and-stinker-from-the-vault-of-horror/ "Hook, Line, and Stinker!"]] where the victim is not a hunter but a fisherman--or so he says. When he claims to be out fishing, he's actually out cheating on his fiancee, and when she finds out she kills him and mounts his ''entire body'' on a plaque on the wall like a fishing trophy.

* Princess Mombi in ''Film/ReturnToOz'' is actually a CompositeCharacter, of the sorceress Mombi in book two, ''Literature/TheMarvelousLandOfOz'' and Princess Langwidere in the third Oz book, ''Literature/OzmaOfOz''. Despite her display cabinet of thirty interchangeable heads, Langwidere isn't considered an actual villain; though it's never explained where the heads came from, but each one affects her personality, implying that they came from living women. For example, Head no 17, considered the most beautiful head, has 'a terrible temper hidden somewhere underneath the black hair'.

* A particularly disturbing example in ''{{VideoGame/Dropsy}}'': near the end of the game, Dropsy discovers the hideout of the person who started the fire that burned the circus down, and there are two heads mounted on the wall like trophies. [[spoiler: The arsonist was the S-Corporation CEO, who is Dropsy's biological brother; he murdered his human step-father and second brother on Christmas Day, and intended to murder Dropsy to ensure he would be next in line for their family's throne.]]

* ''ComicBook/{{Hunted}}'', the 2019 story event from ''ComicBook/NickSpencersSpiderMan'' has its opening issue with Kraven seated beneath a wall with multiple animal-themed heroes and villains mounted on walls like trophies.

* In ''Film/TheMostDangerousGame'', Rainsford finds a human head mounted on Count Zaroff's wall as he searches the mansion. The ImageSource for this page.

Sometimes it is not enough to merely stalk and kill your targets. Sometimes you want to have a permanent memento. So what better way to preserve the moment than to decapitate your victim, flense the skin off the head, preserve it, re-affix it to the skull, mount it on a plaque and hang it on your den wall?

* One ''ComicStrip/{{Dilbert}}'' strip had Dilbert and Dogbert visiting a guy who had a bunch of creepy hunting trophies on his wall, they leave when he gets to his (former) neighbors.

* UsefulNotes/PeterTheGreat used a variant of this after having his wife's secretary and chamberlain [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willem_Mons Willem Mons]] executed for embezzlement, albeit preserving the head in a jar of alcohol rather than mounting it on a wall. According to some reports, he even put the jar on display in his wife's bedroom--which is grimly appropriate given the rumours of an affair between her and Mons, though ironically, Mons was the brother of one of ''[[DoubleStandard Peter's]]'' own mistresses.

* One cutaway gag in ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' has Peter imagining that Chris had his and Lois' head mounted on the wall. Set up to sing ''Hooked on a Feeling" at clapping.

* Princess Mombi in ''Film/ReturnToOz'' is actually a CompositeCharacter, of the sorceress Mombi in book two, ''Literature/TheMarvelousLandOfOz'' and Princess Langwidere in the third Oz book, ''Literature/OzmaOfOz''. Despite her display cabinet of thirty interchangeable heads, Langwidere isn't considered an actual villain; though it's never explained where the heads came from, but each one affects her personality, implying that they came from living women. For example, Head no 17, considered the most beautiful head, has 'a terrible temper hidden somewhere underneath the black hair'.