Indiana Jones Temple of Doom, Dumb and Dumber ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (which I forgot even had this scene until rewatching today) and several other movies have a heart ripped out of chest scene. This got me thinking …
Is the heart ripped out scene creating the desired emotional impact with viewers any more?
I think once something has become lampooned it is past being a cliche. One could argue that after so many movies over so many years the act of removing the human heart from a chest is not all that shocking to viewers any more. In Dumb and Dumber it’s meant to be over the top humor. In Indiana Jones Temple of Doom the intention is suspense and dread. In horror genres, it’s meant to invoke fear, but graphic scenes we’ve seen like this lose their emotional impact over time. Especially when we’ve seen the same scene many times before.
Faces of Death might be the first time I ever remember seeing a graphic heart ripping scene (blatantly staged). There were also some intense autopsy scenes and because it involved a real human being and not some movie prop, it disturbed me even more.
Yes, the heart ripped out scene has long since jumped the shark. Probably best used as comedy because it doesn’t invoke any decent scare (maybe a grimace still, if the portrayal is particularly graphic). In another movie we saw recently — and I won’t spoil by naming any names here — this scene was supposed to be the climax, the “ooooo, can you believe that?” moment. It wasn’t that dramatic..
Guess if you’re making a film, unless it is a comedy like Dumb and Dumber, you probably want to avoid the heart ripped out scene. At least it isn’t working the way the filmmakers are intending it to go off any more.
Movies, Movies, Movies 
You are right, the heart rip has been overdone and now only works as comedy (if that!). Even as a kid I remember being turned off by the Temple of Doom scene – not because I was scared, but because it felt cartoonish.
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