Most disturbing movies ever made

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15. Threads


Threads actually wasn’t a feature film. It was a BBC mini-series that aired in 1984 that detailed in excruciating detail the after effects of a nuclear war between the United States and Russia that escalated to include the UK. The movie follows two families as they all basically die for various reasons (medical, economic, etc.) in the months and years following the attack, culminating in the devastating conclusion that showed a UK with a completely broken civilization where kids can’t even read just thirteen years after the bombs dropped.

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14. Requiem For A Dream

The movie might be the rare adaptation that actually packs a more devastating punch. The film had top notch talent involved, from director Darren Aronofsky to actors Ellen Burstyn, and Jennifer Connelly, and that’s not even mentioning the beautiful, haunting score penned by Clint Mansell. The anti-drug message is a little goofily over the top, but it’s still horrible watching people go all the way down the rabbit hole. Like most of the movies on this list, Requiem for a Dream doesn’t have a ton of replay value

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13. Last House On The Left

There was a time when Wes Craven was kind of cool. Back in the 70’s Craven directed some genuine classic horror movies, and the best of the bunch was probably Last House On The Left. The film is pretty non-stop with torture and gore, and even today is pretty shocking, especially when you reflect upon the fact that the movie was made all the way back in 1972. Last House was pretty controversial, having been banned in the UK for years. A remake was recently released, but it should go without saying that you are better off checking out the original (if you’re so inclined).

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12. Hard Candy

Hard Candy isn’t a horror film at all, and it doesn’t rely on blood to get a rise out of the audience. It actually could have been performed as a play without losing much of it’s power, something that couldn’t be said about any other film on this list. The film is extremely uncomfortable throughout, and it’s fair (although perhaps controversial) to say that both of the movie’s characters are monsters, to different degrees. Men in particular will cringe spectacularly at one particular scene

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11. Jacob’s Ladder

The movie features tons of disturbing imagery as Tim Robbins spends the film in a nightmare-ish state where you’re never really sure exactly what is going on. Director Adrian Lyne used a film technique in which an actor is recorded waving his head and body around at a low frame rate, resulting in pure nightmare fuel when played back at normal speeds.

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10. Irreversible

Irreversible is a French movie presented in non-chronological fashion. Specifically the movie contains thirteen scenes and starts at the end of a night, going backwards to the beginning. The film is particularly famous for a Monica Belluci rape scene that is extremely graphic and just goes on … and on … and on, clocking in at over nine minutes. That might not sound horribly long, but you will think otherwise when viewing.

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9. Happiness

Director Todd Solondz is an odd duck, and while Happiness isn’t the only disturbing movie he’s ever made Unlike most of the movies on this list, the cast of Happiness is relatively star studded and includes Philip Seymour Hoffman, Laura Flynn Boyle, Jon Lovitz as well as Jane Adams and Dylan Baker, names you might not instantly recognize but whose faces you’ll definitely know.

The plot, without going into too many specifics, involves three sisters and their extended families. The movie seemingly centers on a child molester, but has many sub-plots including Philip Seymour Hoffman having a fetish for making bizarre obscene phone calls . There’s no happy ending here, just a pit of suburban despair that will stick with you for years.

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8. Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer

Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer is a 1986 low budget film shot for just $110,000 and is, as the title would indicate, about a serial killer’s crime spree and eventual education of another killer. This is well covered ground, but Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer still manages to get to you by showing Henry to be completely and utterly without empathy. There’s a realness here that most slasher movies lack, and the critical response to the movie reflects that. It’s even certified fresh at Rotten Tomatoes with an 88% rating, an achievement these sorts of movies rarely attain.

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7. I Spit On Your Grave

The 70’s had a lot of gory horror, and one of the best examples is probably I Spit On Your Grave, a movie centered around a woman’s rape and eventual revenge. The rape sequence rivals Irreversible’s in length and intensity, but the rapists certainly do get what they have coming to them, in all sorts of brutally graphic ways. The bathtub scene in particular will stick with you. I Spit On Your Grave was banned in many countries and was censored for many years in the US. Roger Ebert called the movie “a vile bag of garbage…without a shred of artistic distinction,” and further said that “Attending it was one of the most depressing experiences of my life.”

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6. Cannibal Holocaust

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5. Audition

Audition is still one of the weirder movie watching experiences Eventually it takes a 180 into insanity with one of the most visceral endings. Takashi Miike could have filled several spots on this list

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4. Eraserhead

Much like Takashi Miike, David Lynch could easily occupy several spots on a list like this. In our eyes however, Erasherhead narrowly edges out the rest of his oeuvre to be the most disturbing Lynch film of all time, and one of the most disturbing movies of all time period. Eraserhead is about a printer named Henry Spencer who has a deformed baby with his girlfriend who soon leaves him, forcing him to take care of the bizarre creature on his own. The pacing of the movie and it’s use of white noise both contribute to the immense feeling of dread that clings to you the entire time you are watching it, and like most Lynch films the entire thing is so confusing and dreamlike that you are never sure exactly what is happening, leading to a feeling of disorientation. If you are actively seeking out disturbing movies Eraserhead should be pretty high on your list. It will give you a weird night

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3. Salo

The 120 Days of Sodom was a work by Marquis de Sade, who had to have at least one work on this list. The book deals with four wealthy men who want to have the ultimate orgy. To accomplish this they seal themselves away with a bunch of young men and women. The sex quickly turns sadistic and matters quickly turns to humiliation, pain, and killing. Pretty much every debased and bizarre sexual fetish is explored in detail in the book, with much of the work crossing lines that even today would be declared obscene in many parts of the US.

Director Pier Paolo Pasolini murdered shortly before the film’s release.

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2. Nekromantik

Nekromantik is a 1987 German horror movie that centers on a character named Rob Schmadtke who works for a cleaning company that cleans up crime and death scenes. But this isn’t an early Sunshine Cleaning, because Rob likes to take the corpses home and have sex with them, something you might have guessed from the movies title. It’s not just Rob though, he has a girlfriend who if anything is more enthusiastic about necrophilia than her boyfriend. Copious amounts of blood, gore, and outrageousness are pretty much guaranteed to have you reaching for the stop button on your DVD remote control over and over and over

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1. August Underground Mordum

August Underground’s Mordum is a direct to DVD movie that was released in 2003.

The movie is a simulated snuff film that is ostensibly about a love triangle between two men (one of whom is the film company’s owner) and a woman. There’s really no plot to speak of though, the movie is shot with a handheld camera to enhance the faux-reality of it all and, much like porn, any plot is just there as a vehicle to get the viewer to the “good stuff”. Which in August Underground’s Mordum’s case includes infanticide, pedophilia, necrophilia, and lots and lots of extremely graphic and brutal murder. The movie literally has no reason to exist, except perhaps to show off the special effects capabilities of the production company.