The Part with the boy and the hyenas..SPOILERS...

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Not only does the scene go on for far too long (and it was probably longer in the cut that the MPAA initially slapped with an NC-17) it served no genuine function in the film, other than to provide a cheap shock. I have no problem with horror films that put children in danger (I hate when children are considered 'safe' in horror films and beyond reproach), provided they are there for more than simple-minded kneejerk reactions.
Sure, Renny Harlin was going for the vibe that anything can happen at any time and that no one is safe, that's fine. However, if you aren't going to surround that unpredictability with a real story, or characters with depth and choose to window dress your film with easy scares that is just damn lazy!
That sums up the film in a nutshell; Lazy.
Harlin made his living directing action movies (with the exception of "Prison" and "Nightmare on Elm Street 4", "Deep Blue Sea" was really more of an action film) and it shows. I think Harlin in a great action director and think he should stick to that.
The saddest thing is that I was not even offended by the scene so much as I was bored by it and by it's childish attempts to rub my face in it's forced brutality as a substitute for real suspense and true fear.
The same goes for the stillborn child covered in maggots, lazy attempts at grossing you out. It made some of Lucio Fulci's fun with maggots seem artful (the difference being that I expect to see those things in a Fulci film, not in an Exorcist film).

And people thought The Exorcist II was over the top.

I personally liked the movie and had to watch it with some lights on. But back to the actual topic. I loove horror movies also but the hyena scene REALLY bothered me. It was horrible to see a child eaten and shredded alive with no one to help him. I had my hand over my mouth and I wanted to cry. It did go on too long for my taste. But if it had only been for a second, it wouldn't haven't had the same effect. If the goal of the scene was to disturb people...it worked.

I agree with you entirely on this one, the scene was more brutal and trivial as the sequels themselves. The film held a story that was merely written for its audience which all of Hollywood's directors do nowadays, "what will the audience think of this part?", they spend too much time on creating frightening twists and gory images to stimulate the slasher fans rather than look at what counts most of all, story and plot. After watching that gruesome scene I was quite moved and disturbed and held that mood until the end of the movie; filmmakers must take the time to also consider what sort of mood their films are going to take and how the audience is going to feel before and after each scene, and this one left me disgusted and unhappy for little James. What, were we all supposed to think that he deserved such horrible torcher for teasing his little brother, what is Hollywood coming to? No message, no theme, no character study, then you have no good movie.

I agree with you fallen_dark_angel1306. I'll even go farther to say that if the scene would have been played with the Dutch girl who was shot rather than the African boy, there would be more uproar about the unconscionable exploitativeness of the scene.

The only saving grace was that the situation was so ridiculous and unrealistic that it took some of the edge of the grossness of it. I believe predatory animals like hyennas would go for the throat well before they went for things like the hands and feet. So the kid wouldn't have been alive so long to be screaming the whole time. Also, the loss of blood from major veins being punctured would have prevented him from being so lively to the end, too.

that hyeena part was done without any emotion. It just looked sort of stupid and you could see that it was totally computer animation.

i didn't feel sick at all.. it was just stupid.

I would tend to agree with you about that scene - if it wasn't for the badly animated, cheap looking hyenas that distracted me too much to actually feel anything for the little boy. Had the scene not looked so annoyingly unrealistic, yes, it would have been tough to watch.