History Main / GuttedLikeAFish

-->-- ''Film/{{Scream 1996}}''

* ''Film/{{Scream 1996}}'' provides the trope name (where the killer threatens to gut Casey like a fish if she hangs up on him again) and two examples right in the opening scene, which has both Casey and her boyfriend Steve being murdered this way, with Casey's body being hung from a tree for extra nasty points.

-->-- ''Film/{{Scream}}''

* ''Film/{{Scream}}'' provides the trope name (where the killer threatens to gut Casey like a fish if she hangs up on him again) and two examples right in the opening scene, which has both Casey and her boyfriend Steve being murdered this way, with Casey's body being hung from a tree for extra nasty points.

* One-Eye executes a man like this in ''ValhallaRising''. He slices him open, pulls his innards out with his bare hands and throws them to the floor at the man's feet as he dies.

One of the nastier ways to kill a character that tends to show up in a lot of {{Slasher Film}}s. Quite simply, the killer takes a knife or other blade (or if the killer is a monster, its claws will do quite nicely) and slashes the victim's belly open (often from groin to sternum), usually resulting in the poor unfortunate's insides spilling out.

* One-Eye executes a man like this in ValhallaRising. He slices him open, pulls his innards out with his bare hands and throws them to the floor at the man's feet as he dies.

* An off-screen, er, off-''page'' example is described in the first act of ''Theatre/{{Macbeth}}''; the titular character is said to have confronted MacDonwald and in the end, "he unseam'd him from the nave to the chops / And fix'd his head upon our battlements." How lovely.

-->-- ''{{Film/Scream}}''

* ''{{Film/Scream}}'' provides the trope name (where the killer threatens to gut Casey like a fish if she hangs up on him again) and two examples right in the opening scene, which has both Casey and her boyfriend Steve being murdered this way, with Casey's body being hung from a tree for extra nasty points.

* Many StephenKing books contain this. He especially likes to have characters step on a loop of their own intestines.
* An off-screen, er, off-''page'' example is described in the first act of ''{{Macbeth}}''; the titular character is said to have confronted MacDonwald and in the end, "he unseam'd him from the nave to the chops / And fix'd his head upon our battlements." How lovely.

* ''TheSimpsons:''

* Near the beginning of ''JurassicPark'', Dr. Grant gives an impromptu lecture about the possible links in ancestry between the velociraptor and birds while at an archeological dig site. He gets interrupted by an obnoxious kid, who quips the raptor, "looks like a big turkey." So Grant, much to the amusement of his students, teaches the boy a lesson in respect by explaining exactly how that "turkey" hunted and killed its prey. Grant shows him the raptor's middle toe claw and swipes it across the boy's belly then down his midsection to illustrate the cutting motion it used to spill the victim's intestines; finishing his tutorial by telling him that, [[ChekhovsGun "The point is, you are alive when it starts to eat you."]]

* In ''JurassicPark'', Dennis Nedry dies in this fashion when he has the misfortune of encountering a Dilophosaurus, nicknamed a "spitter" among fans of the films. It blinds him by spitting into his eyes, then [[spoiler:rips open his midsection, similar to the way Grant described in the film version. Likewise, Nedry was alive when it began to eat him. His final thought was to pray for a quick end]].

* In the ''WarriorCats'' series, the BigBad is killed in this manner when the cat he tried to order around got fed up with it - the wound is bad enough that he [[CatsHaveNineLives loses]] ''[[CatsHaveNineLives all]]'' [[CatsHaveNineLives of his nine leader's lives]].

** It happens again [[HighOctaneNightmareFuel quite explicitly]] with [[spoiler:Olivia]] in ''Scream 4''. A deleted scene shows that [[spoiler:Jenny and Marnie]] suffered the same fate.

* ''WebOriginal/TeenGirlSquad'': "I gut you like sheep!"

->'''Sidney:''' How do you...gut someone?

* ''{{Film/Scream}}'' provides the trope name (where the killer threatens to gut Casey like a fish if she hangs up on him again) and two examples right in the opening scene, which has both Casey and her boyfriend Steve being murdered this way.

* ''TeenGirlSquad'': "I gut you like sheep!"

Related to HalfTheManHeUsedToBe.

-->-- '''{{Film/Scream}}'''

* One NickFury miniseries concludes in a two-sided NoHoldsBarredBeatdown between him and an ex-Soviet colonel and culminated in Nick slashing his opponent's abdomen open and strangling him with his own guts.
* ''TheSimpsons:''
** In a commercial for Itchy And Scratchy cereal, Itchy fills Scratchy with the cereal and then opens him up (like those single serve cereal boxes).
** This probably happens in a bunch of "Itchy and Scratchy" shorts too.
** In the episode where the family goes to Japan, a fish preparation plant feature an animation showing a cartoon squid singing about gutting fish. He guts out his own organs and dies.

* This can happen with the endodroid in ''Space Quest 6''.
* ''JurassicPark'':
** Near the beginning, Dr. Grant gives an impromptu lecture about the possible links in ancestry between the velociraptor and birds while at an archeological dig site. He gets interrupted by an obnoxious kid, who quips the raptor, "looks like a big turkey." So Grant, much to the amusement of his students, teaches the boy a lesson in respect by explaining exactly how that "turkey" hunted and killed its prey. Grant shows him the raptor's middle toe claw and swipes it across the boy's belly then down his midsection to illustrate the cutting motion it used to spill the victim's intestines; finishing his tutorial by telling him that, [[ChekhovsGun "The point is, you are alive when it starts to eat you."]]
** In the book, Dennis Nedry dies in this fashion when he has the misfortune of encountering a Dilophosaurus, nicknamed a "spitter" among fans of the films. It blinds him by spitting into his eyes, then [[spoiler:rips open his midsection, similar to the way Grant described in the film version. Likewise, Nedry was alive when it began to eat him. His final thought was to pray for a quick end]].
* One of the possible critical hits you can inflict in ''WarhammerFantasyRoleplay'' -- also an easy way to kill yourself when fighting a troll (they are the local staple of ExtremeOmnivore with metabolism to match, so gutting one will get you covered in HollywoodAcid with nasty results).
* Invoked in ''TheOrderOfTheStick'' (used to provide a page quote for NotHyperbole).

* Hannibal from ''{{Hannibal}}'' cuts a man open then throws him out a window with a noose around his neck. His intestines fall out and splatter on the ground. A little earlier in the movie, Hannibal had described how this same method of execution was used on the person's ancestor.

* Kratos in ''GodOfWar 3'' does this as a finisher move to the Centaur Generals after bringing them on their knees. Later during the game he does the same to [[spoiler: [[ColossusClimb Kronos himself.]]]]

* [[TeenGirlSquad "I gut you like sheep!"]]

* ''TheSimpsons:'' In a commercial for Itchy And Scratchy cereal, Itchy fills Scratchy with the cereal and then opens him up (like those single serve cereal boxes).

* Near the beginning of ''JurassicPark'', Dr. Grant gives an impromptu lecture about the possible links in ancestry between the velociraptor and birds while at an archeological dig site. He gets interrupted by an obnoxious kid, who quips the raptor, "looks like a big turkey." So Grant, much to the amusement of his students, teaches the boy a lesson in respect by explaining exactly how that "turkey" hunted and killed its prey. Grant shows him the raptor's middle toe claw and swipes it across the boy's belly then down his midsection to illustrate the cutting motion it used to spill the victim's intestines; finishing his tutorial by telling him that, [[ChekhovsGun "The point is, you are alive when it starts to eat you."]]

Examples: