Off screen kills
So a couple of utility guys got knocked off when checking the phone lines....is that correct? This is when we see the abandoned truck and two bloody helmets on the ground.
shareNot 100% sure, but I get the impression that the helmet was from a 3rd guy who was sent to check up on the first two utility guys.
We start off with 2 guys by a truck, one of which gets dragged up the hill and (fairly safe to say) eaten whole, probably including helmet. 2nd guy was crushed under the landslide, so his helmet would likely be buried. The truck itself was to the left of the hill as you face it, and unless it was a massive job with whole swathes of machinery needed, 1 truck would be enough to transport them and the pneumatic drill and a few other bits.
Later on, we see a 2nd smaller truck to the RIGHT of the landslide. And even later Val and Earl see the bloodied helmet, when the first 2 are accounted for.
So, yeah... I think 3 people were killed there. 2 by Graboid, and the last by suffocation/crushing/whatever fatal condition resulting from landslide.
--
Insert signature here.
Well the first two construction guys we see working on the highway are wearing white helmets. The later scene with the pickup truck the two helmets on the ground are yellow. If you notice there is also a small 80s style hand phone laying there too, which had me thinking they were probably utility guys working on the communication lines.
Just a guess...but would mean the body count for the movie is 10 and not 8.
I never even noticed the colour of the helmets. I think the phone is just a CB radio made to look like a phone for aesthetics.
10 kills and a whole flock of sheep massacred... To paraphrase The Baconator:
"This film is getting violenter by the minute!"
--
Insert signature here.