Oz/Nightmare Fuel



Here be the Nightmare Fuel page for Oz. With examples like the following, it is not at all hard to see why this show was one of the most disturbing of its time.

- "Winthrop: "Sir? May I watch?" Schillinger: "Well if you don't, how are you ever gonna learn?""
 * The season two finale, which is jam packed with High Octane Nightmare Fuel: Alvarez gouges out a prison guards eyes, complete with gratuitous shots of his bleeding, empty eye sockets; a pedophile priest is nailed to the floor in a crucifix position; Beecher gets his legs AND arms broken after finding out that the man he fell in love with was working with his arch enemy all along (and never loved him); Said loses all of his faith towards making a difference behind bars; Adebisi's guru, who is trying to redeem him, is murdered and Adebisi goes batshit crazy as a result; two skinheads are buried alive in an escape attempt; and a guy is unknowingly injected with a needleful of AIDS-infected blood.
 * Johnny Post being dismembered, his penis cut off and mailed to the Homeboys, as a retaliation for burning Dino Ortolani alive.
 * What happens to poor Luke Perry (being bricked up behind a wall and then burnt beyond all recognition afterwords when a gas leak explosion ends up freeing him) in particular was very nightmarish.
 * Reverend Cloutier, who is sealed inside the cafeteria wall by Timmy Kirk and the bikers, remains there forgotten for what must be at least several days, is caught in an enormous gas explosion, survives, sustaining horrifying burns, then as his throat begins to recover so that he can almost produce more than a raspy gurgle, the bikers pick up his charred body and brick him behind another wall to keep him from naming names. As if detaching him from life support wouldn't have been enough. Father Mukada finds his decaying corpse in the final episode, only to seal it back up, figuring he's better off left where he is.
 * And remember this guy was only in prison on a charge of embezzlement. Serious crime, yes, but what a cruel fate to wind up alongside serial murderers who rape and torture people for fun.
 * Schillinger. Holy shit, just about anything and everything involving him qualifies. And of course, the Aryans. Robson comes to mind, but only in the shit he endures as a side-effect of his own assholery (having the tip of his penis bitten off, a spoon rammed up his ass, not to mention the subplot with the dentist).
 * Ryan's obsession with Dr. Nathan.
 * Timmy Kirk takes a woman's baby from her, and proceeds to place the crying infant in a nearby dumpster filled with rats while the mother is forced to watch, horrified beyond belief.
 * Reverend Cloutier confirmed it was Kirk's own baby he was dumping. I think the child survived the experience, but Timmy just got scarier as the series wore on.
 * It was his, as confirmed by Reverend Cloutier. We're never told for sure whether the child survived, but we do know that he was originally sent to prison on charges of manslaughter and endangering the welfare of a child, with a sentence of 12 years. Given how intentional his act was, I find it hard to believe it wouldn't be considered at least second degree murder. So it's possible that the manslaughter charge referred to him doing in someone else, but if so, we never found out who.
 * Adebisi, even when he's not being evil.
 * Ryan and Chris at times. Plus their tendency to manipulate people, use them, and how you can never completely tell if they are good guys or bad. Or what they're planning on doing next.
 * The nightmares that many of the inmates have while in prison.
 * The disturbingly realistic portrayal of drug addiction, alcoholism, sexual abuse, rape, sadism, torture, bullying, suicide, murder, etc. Makes one want to avoid even entering a prison at all costs.
 * Even scarier, some death row inmates have claimed in interviews that the prison experience depicted in this show was BETTER than life in a real prison, saying that this show was cleaned up for television. HOLY SHIT.
 * How the hell could it be WORSE? Dear God.
 * The fact that the Aryans target the most vulnerable inmates and make them their sex slaves, for as long as they want, until they grow tired of them and just dispose of them. And the terrible truth that the inmates would have to endure that cruel and humiliating treatment for the rest of their lives. A few did deserve it... Still...
 * While Adam Guenzel was a piece of shit rapist, it doesn't make the rapes he endures at the hands of the Aryans any less disturbing. His anguished protests for them to let him go are what got me shivering.


 * One word: Robspoon.
 * Robson and another Aryan killing Ahmad Lalar, the youngest and weakest of the Muslim 'herd' just to prove a point to Said. They slice him to death by repeatedly making shallow cuts with a knife, while Ahmad's screams are muffled by his gag and he (as well as we, the audience) can only watch this horrifying scene.
 * Beecher's long nails that he deliberately does not cut while in the hospital and files to razor sharp points. Which he then uses to kill Metzger by slicing into his body, making huge gashes and leaving the unsavory guard to slide down the wall while he claws at his mutilated throat, trying desperately to stop the blood from spurting out and failing miserably before dying in a pool of his own blood. Horrifying doesn't even begin to describe it. Granted, Metzger had it coming.
 * After having arranged the death of Vern Schillinger, the leader of the Aryan Brotherhood, as a twisted display of his love for Beecher, Keller still was rejected, so he kills himself via purposely falling to his death while screaming Beecher's name in order to make it look like Beecher murdered him. Then, as Beecher waits to find out if he'll be charged with Keller's death (with the implication that he might face the death penalty), the second part of Keller's gift arrives, in the form of mailed packages of anthrax, which would kill all the mailroom staff -- all of whom were also members of the Brotherhood.
 * Kenny: "Happy Birthday to me. Happy Birthday to me. Happy Birthday..." Adebisi: "To Kenny...Happy birthday to you... *blows out candle and then later (off-camera) ties Kenny face down on his bunk and rapes him repeatedly in retaliation for how Kenny murdered his guru and framed him for said murder*
 * Chucky Pancamo tying his girlfriend up in a body bag and throwing her into the river. While she's fully conscious.
 * Nino Schibetta ate grounded glass that Ryan and Adebisi secretly put into his food for months until he dies from internal hemorrhaging, suddenly realizing one day that he's bleeding from the ears, nose, mouth,...
 * One of the prisoners throwing a "blood-piss-puke-shit-cocktail" at a CO and another one smearing something similar on Peter Schibetta's face when he was in psyche ward.
 * Beecher's little son being killed and his cut off hand sent to him into the prison...
 * When Schillinger's loyal right hand man, Robson, is found that his gum implants came from the mouth of an African American, he is immedietely cast out from the group. Desperate to return, he uses a shiv to PEEL OUT HIS OWN GUMS. Unbearable -- here, have some Schmuck Bait. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ti 5 f T Psd IOA
 * Aryan's interaction with Cyril when he first came to Oz. And then Schillinger's gleeful expression before him and the Aryan's gangraping of Cyril didn't help things either. This was one of the things responsible for Cyril's downward spiral that led to him being put on death row later just made that scene unsettling.
 * Much like Ryan's obsession with Dr. Nathan, Keller's obsession with Beecher fell into this at times.  after Beecher rejects him for the final time.
 * Beecher's revenge on Schillinger in episode 7, while awesome, was this at the end when he takes a dump on Schillinger after beating him up.
 * Most of the sounds/music in the show is this. Hell Is That Noise indeed.
 * In the sixth season a production of Macbeth is being put on by a number of prisoners with Schillinger in the lead role and Beecher as Macduff. Keller takes a job backstage managing the props. He tells Schillinger that they will kill Beecher then later tells Beecher that he is being friends with Schillinger to keep Beecher alive. He then kisses Schillinger and tells him that he will switch Schillinger's prop knife with a real one so he can kill Beecher onstage. However, during the final fight scene, Keller switches Beecher's knife with a real one. Beecher stabs Schillinger unintentionally during a fight scene, thinking the knife in his hand is a prop. Keller claims to have no idea how a real knife got onto the set. Schillinger's death is considered an accident.
 * Claire Howell's and Chris Keller's Yandere sides.
 * Richie Hanlon has just come off death row and returned to the general population. First night back, he's in the shower when another man starts coming onto him. Both Richie and the audience are expecting some celebratory "off-death-row" loving, until the other man slits Richie's throat with a razor blade he had hidden between his teeth.
 * Shillinger telling Beecher "You belong to me. I make all your decisions."
 * The life of prags (sex slaves) in Oz.
 * The numerous rapes and attempted rapes.