My general rule for physical fitness is, “If your chonk gets in the way of your breathing or HURTS in any way, then (safely) trim down until it doesn’t; but, otherwise, you do you.” Aesthetically, as long as I can fit into Fright Rags tees, I’m good to go! But I do have a gym membership to help maintain my “able to stroll comfortably without gasping” personal wellness goals.
That said, I don’t always WANT to go to the gym! And you probably don’t either or you wouldn’t be reading this post. But there’s a lot of guilt and pressure surrounding gyms this time of the year. The feeling that we have to “work off” the holiday-related foods we’ve consumed. Or the compulsion to make New Year’s Resolutions revolving around workout progress at the gym. It’s exhausting!
So, I’ve gathered together 8 significant workout-related gym death scenes from horror movies for you to point to and say, “See? THAT could be ME if I go!!” the next time you need to justify taking a Rest Day. You’re welcome.
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Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master (1988)
A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master is the first film in the NOES franchise to feature Alice Johnson (Lisa Wilcox) as the primary protagonist. It also features one of all of cinema’s — not just the horror genre’s — most memorable gym scenes.
Alice’s friend Debbie decides to pump some iron in her home gym, dozes off, and ends up with a horrible spotter for her bench press: Freddy Krueger.
What comes next are some truly masterful 1980’s practical FX that’ll make you go “Gyahhhhh!” and empathetically hold your elbows. Ouch!!
Oh, and, minor spoilers, but Debbie is also transformed into a cockroach. No, thank you! Couldn’t be me.
Where Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master Is Streaming Now:
Final Destination 3 (2006)
Crowded, chaotic gyms can already be pretty nerve-wracking. Now, compound that by having a near-death experience that Death wants to follow-up on by making it an all-the-way-death experience. Sure, getting your pump on and upping your endorphins might make you feel a bit more optimistic about your survival chances… but just how sturdy ARE those weight machines?
Final Destination 3 will have you eyeballing the cables on all of the lifting machines after witnessing Lewis’ gym death scene.
Where Final Destination 3 Is Streaming Now:
Final Destination 5 (2011)
You can’t spell gymnastics without “gym!” Maybe I’m stretching it with this one as far as my theme goes, but the gymnast’s death scene in Final Destination 5 is one of the most memorable in the entire franchise.
I chose to buy a slightly-less-graphic photo still of that particular scene to not gross out casual scrollers, but look at that. Plot-wise that is ONE person represented in that photo and she’s NOT doing a yoga pose. So, how did she get folded up like that? And how do YOU avoid doing that?? The answer to both of those questions is: Skip the gym today and watch Final Destination 5!
Where Final Destination 5 Is Streaming Now:
Death Spa (1988)
First of all, the VHS cover for Death Spa AKA Witch Bitch is fantastic. Is it an accurate representation of the film? Not really. The expectations it sets are far too high for what you actually get.
Much like the experience of belonging to a “luxury” gym, right? Sure, you might have access to a sauna as part of your gym membership package, but that can lead to all KINDS of trouble! In Death Spa, the sauna “dissolved a girl like an Alka-Seltzer.” And that’s just within the first ten minutes of the film!
There are malfunctioning weight machines, broken pool diving boards, showers-gone-wrong, and locker room attacks. Are those features you want to pay extra for? I think not!
Where Death Spa Is Streaming Now:
Murdercise (2023)
When shooting an aerobics workout video at your local gym goes wrong, you get Murdercise!
I haven’t watched this one myself, but it was thoroughly covered by Isaiah Swanson when it debuted last year. Check out his Izzy’s Eerie Indies review of Murdercise if you’d like to know more!
Where Murdercise Is Streaming Now:
Killer Workout (1987)
When you join a gym, you want to feel safe. You want to be able to trust your fellow gym patrons as well as the owner, managers, and other staff members. It would be a huge turn-off if one of them were, say, a serial killer. Right?
Killer Workout AKA Aerobicide explores that premise as gym death scenes occur one after another within a 1980’s exploitation slasher-thriller framework. (Death Spa, Murdercise, Killer Workout, and the next film on this list all have a LOT of T&A… I guess that’s a common theme with gym horror movies?).
Where Killer Workout Is Streaming Now:
The Toxic Avenger (1984)
Health club janitor Melvin gets transformed into The Toxic Avenger after a being thrown into a barrel filled with toxic waste by some of the rowdier patrons. From there, he goes on a revenge killing spree which, at one memorable instance, culminates in a gym death scene involving some workout equipment.
I mean, check out the photo above. See that metal stake holding the weight stack? There’s a guy being held onto the bench directly underneath that. You can guess what happens next! Even if you’re a decent person who wasn’t mean to Toxie’s janitorial alter-ego, you don’t wanna be around to see THAT go down. Bleh. At least, not in person anyway – not when you could be at home watching it happen in one of the weirder horror films of 1984!
Oh, and fun fact: The Toxic Avenger has the first movie appearances of both Marissa Tomei (cut in 1984 but added back into the film in 2002 after she was famous!) and Class of 1999‘s Patrick Kilpatrick!
Where The Toxic Avenger Is Streaming Now:
Tragedy Girls (2017)
Tragedy Girls follows BFF serial killers (think female Billy & Stu) as they try to gain a social media following for their online true crime show while also navigating their senior year of high school. It’s a horror comedy with the baddies as the protagonists. I had mixed feelings about the last few minutes, but overall I really liked this one and was super happy Christi Bandy recommended it to me!
What I didn’t have mixed feelings about was the gym death scene. Once it gets going, it’s really cool! And you’ve never seen Craig Robinson (Darryl on The Office) more badass! He holds his own in a 2V1 fight and even snatches a dumbbell hurled at his head out of mid-air like Cap grabbin’ his shield! It’s awesome.
But, uh, someone’s gotta go otherwise Tragedy Girls wouldn’t be on my list of gym death scenes in horror movies. And when it happens, you’ll wanna rewind and play it again just to admire that practical FX stand-in dummy’s head getting the business from a barbell. WHAM! POP!
Where Tragedy Girls Is Streaming Now:
But Maybe You Were Looking for Another Kind of “Gym” Horror Movie…?
When I came up with this idea, I asked my dad if he could think of any gym horror movies or gym death scenes within horror movies, and he came back to me with several films that had prominent plot points taking place within school gymnasiums.
For example, Earth VS. The Spider AKA The Spider (1958) involves townsfolk discovering an enormous spider in a nearby cave, thinking they killed it by pumping the cave full of DDT, bringing the corpse of the gigantic spider back to the local high school’s gym, and then getting a not-so-surprising surprise during the school dance. Oopsie!
One of my personal favorites, The Faculty (1998) has a significant stand-off in their school’s gymnasium. And Dad also suggested Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992) for its big ol’ vampire brawl during the senior dance/prom — held in the school gym — as well as the gym-based werewolf scuffle in I Was a Teenage Werewolf (1957).
So, if you were looking for THAT type of “gym” horror movie, those are four suggestions for you to choose from (and let me know if you think we should to another post focusing on even MORE school gym horror movies!). In the meantime, I hope you enjoyed my list of 8 workout-related horror movie deaths that occur in gyms. And make sure you enjoy some guilt-free food this season!
Images for this post were purchased on MovieStillsDB & CineMaterial, except for the featured image which is a free stock photo vector from Pixabay.
