Self mutilation

Self mutilation is the conscious act of an individual to commit grievous bodily harm to themselves. Some individuals do this out of a sense of sado-masochism, deriving phsyical, spiritual and even sexual gratification from such acts.

Examples of self mutilation
The most notable examples of self mutilation come from the Saw film series. The premise of the movies focuses on a serial kidnapper named John Kramer, aka, the Jigsaw killer - a man who abducts individuals whom he believes have wasted their lives and places them inside of elaborate traps. In order to escape however, these would-be victims must be willing to commit severe acts of self mutilation. Those who succeed in escaping from the traps (within a pre-arranged time limit) are deemed worthy of life by Jigsaw and are set free. Most of his victims however, fail to muster the intestinal fortitude to escape and die by their own hands.

In the A Nightmare on Elm Street film series, wisecracking dream demon Freddy Krueger often committed acts of self mutilation as a means of terrorizing his prospective victims. In the original film, Freddy severed his fingers before the eyes of teenager Nancy Thompson. As all of these occurrences take place within the dream dimension, Freddy could always reconstitute lost or missing limbs whenever he pleased.