Since this is a film about the horrors of slavery, you can expect plenty of nightmarish moments to follow.
- The idea that in one night, your identity could be taken away from you, and every time you try to profess who you are, you either aren't believed or you put your life in danger.
- Solomon and the slaves being taken away, first in a carriage and then on a boat, cramped together like sardines.
- Whippings. If you didn't think A Taste of the Lash was that scary, you will.
- When Patsey has been gone too long from the plantation, Epps throws a tantrum and yells at the other slave women. When Patsey returns, he strips her down, ties her to a post, and demands that Solomon whip her or else he'll shoot him and the others dead. When Solomon doesn't put enough rigor into doing it, Epps takes it instead anyway while his wife voices her pleasure at him hurting Patsey.
- Worse, he whips her that hard and for so long, that when he's finally finished, poor Patsey's back is practically riddled with way over two dozen large, open gashes that are completely raw and bloody. It almost looks like some savage animal has pinned her down and clawed her back.
- When Patsey has been gone too long from the plantation, Epps throws a tantrum and yells at the other slave women. When Patsey returns, he strips her down, ties her to a post, and demands that Solomon whip her or else he'll shoot him and the others dead. When Solomon doesn't put enough rigor into doing it, Epps takes it instead anyway while his wife voices her pleasure at him hurting Patsey.
- The Epps. One's a Bible-thumping rapist, the other is a psychotic Yandere. Both constantly seem thirty seconds away from killing one of their slaves.
- Ms. Epps smashing a glass pitcher in Patsey's face and later deeply cutting Patsey's face (or scratched at her eyes?) with her long fingernails, both times telling her and her husband to fuck off for third-wheeling her. And she never seems to flinch.
- Here's something even scarier: the real Edwin Epps was even worse! He even admitted it: Epps purchased a copy of Northup's memoir and, after reading it, told a curious journalist that all the scary stories about him were completely true, even declaring that he was impressed by how detailed Northup's description of his behavior was.
- While on an errand for Ms. Epps, Solomon attempts to run away, only to come across a group of bounty hunters about to lynch two other runaway slaves. The bounty hunters leave him with a warning and let him pass through (and at the bare minimum, he got pushed), and he exchanges glances with the runaways before he hears them getting choked as he walks away. The message is clear: that could have been him.
- The utterly horrific near-lynching scene will haunt you long after the movie is done.
- Jonathan warns Solomon during the boat ride: "If you want to survive, do and say as little as possible. Tell no one who you really are and tell no one you can read and write. Unless you want to be a dead n***".
- When one slave tries to stop one of the enslavers from attempting rape on Eliza, the enslaver stabs the poor slave to death. And the woman's screams are enough to awaken Solomon and the other slave to what has happened. Smash Cut to the slave's dead body being tossed overboard.
- The Gross-Up Close-Up of the Body Horror wounds the slaves were left inflicted with. Two have multiple whip lashes scars across their backs. One has severe burn marks scarring all over the left side of his face and neck. Another is missing a hand.
