How much blood would you shed to… be sent home from work?

Workplace safety posters here in America are pretty boring, often featuring cartoonish, nondescript people humorously getting electrocuted and maimed. But Dutch safety posters from the early-mid 1900s, well, it turns out they were haunting works of art that could very easily double for horror movie posters.

One of my all-time favorite movie quotes comes from Se7en. John Does says to Mills and Somerset, “Wanting people to listen, you can’t just tap them on the shoulder anymore. You have to hit them with a sledgehammer, and then you’ll notice you’ve got their strict attention.” These vintage Dutch safety posters take the same approach, using horrifying tactics to essentially, and ironically, scare employees into being safe at the workplace.

After all, no company wants to shell out money for workplace injuries.

Check out a crazy gallery of vintage safety art below, all via Memory of the Netherlands!