When a film listicle begins with “most disturbing movies,” understanding that adjective is crucial. Horror movies aren’t “disturbing,” they’re scary or gory. Suspense films aren’t “disturbing,” they make you jump or freak out a little. When a film is “disturbing,” there is a part of that movie that sticks with you–and cannot be shaken.
Scenes so deplorable that you’re left questioning who in the world would make a movie like that and why in the world did you just ingest the thing in its entirety. If a film is dark and deranged enough to be considered truly unsettling, seeing the title of the movie may give you the creeps. That is, if you have been brave enough to see it in the first place.
There are disturbing scenes in otherwise random movies, like the infamous “squeal like a pig” scene in Deliverance (1972), when the old man of the cult in Midsommar meets his fate with a sledgehammer, or the equally harrowing sequence in 127 Hours when he is cutting off his arm and severs his nerve. That is butt-puckering stuff that lives in your head rent-free.
Seeing moments like that are never easy. And if they are for you, then we can’t ever be friends. Sicko! These are scenes that haunt you in the middle of a day, times when people talk about horror movies in October that you are plastered with chills because you’re thinking of them. That’s disturbing, and that’s why these movies made this list.
Here are the Top 10 Most Disturbing Movies ever made.
10. Hereditary (2018)
Please understand if Hereditary is only at number 10 for one of the most disturbing movies ever made, the rest of these are sure to make you sit in a corner sucking your thumb. Ari Aster’s masterpiece isn’t a film with demonic jump scares or remorseless gore from Saw.
There are at least a dozen scenes in this movie that make you question sanity as you battle being surrounded with dread. It doesn’t let up and purposely tries to make you feel awful watching it. Hereditary stays with you in an endless loop for your brain to replay for weeks after. And that’s nowhere near a good thing. If you saw it, you know. If you haven’t it, you’ve been warned.
9. The Last House on the Left (1972)
Welcome to Wes Craven’s first movie. Unlike Scream or Nightmare on Elm Street, there is nothing cheeky about The Last House on the Left. It’s painful to watch because it proudly features certain types of violence–the kind that makes you watch something through your fingers covering your face. Even the people who starred in this one of the most disturbing movies regrets ever being involved.
Mind you, it’s 1972. When this film was circulated in theaters, sexual assault was only a hint of what happened. Here, it’s on full display and still gives people nausea. That’s not hyperbole; we’re talking running to the bathroom. It’s exploitation just because, and forces you to wonder if something was wrong with Craven before he was famous.
8. The Green Inferno (2013)
When you get to number 3 on this list, you will understand why that was the predecessor of this Eli Roth extreme film about cannibalism, indigenous people, and countless ways to torture a person. What’s troubling in The Green Inferno is just when you think the victims of this cannibal cult are going to make it to freedom, you are greeted with something so grueling that you may turn off the TV.
Granted, there’s no point to this film other than to put death on full display and highlighting how twisted people can be–or become. And these dolts almost deserve it for traveling into unchartered territory to research climate change. You can do that from your own backyard. Welp, bon appetite! You won’t be eating anytime soon after you see this.
7. I Spit on Your Grave (1978)
True story: Gene Siskel (of “Siskel & Ebert” fame) said this was the only movie that made him stand up and say, “How can you people sit here and watch this and consider this entertainment?” Critics look at movies differently, and one of the most famous critics ever couldn’t stomach I Spit on Your Grave. This is one of the most disturbing movies ever. In fact, it was banned from theaters — it’s that “much.”
You’ve heard the phrase “glorified violence.” Watch this movie and you will know the sheer reality of that message. The realistic scenes (an hour in total) of what happens to the lady in the trailer are brutal. At one point, this movie was banned from theaters. It’s an unrelenting punishment. You won’t forget it and will regret having watched it.
7. Inside (2007)
Synopsis: A woman endures of the death of her husband. Four months later, she is very pregnant when a home invasion happens on Christmas Eve from this left-of-center woman, known as “La Femme,” (Beatrice Dalle) who believes that unborn baby is hers. Sounds like a relatively harmless suspense horror film, right? Oh hell no. So wrong! And on Christmas?! What’s wrong with people?! New Year’s Eve, maybe.
There is a sub-genre called French Extremity, where violence and bloodshed are welcomed. And Inside is its leader. La Femme stops at nothing to get that baby and Sarah (Alysson Paradis) feels the same about protecting it. It makes the Terrifier franchise seem PG and you will be better off having not watched it. So, sure, that’s a dare.
6. Audition (1999)
What makes the Takashi Miike-directed Audition a permanent fixture among the most disturbed movies is you never see it coming. It begins with a widower looking for love. Sweet, right? It’s a Japanese romcom, so get the popcorn. Then, it gets a little weird as our hero literally “auditions” women to become his bae. Suddenly, boom!
The audition becomes some of the most jacked-up stuff you’ve ever seen in film–appendages chopped off, consuming bodily…eh, stuff, and some of the worst discomforting scenes ever involved hypodermic needles and hyper close-up of eyeballs. Why go that far? Hell only knows.
5. Martyrs (2008)
When horror movie fans chat up their favorites, Martyrs is rarely in conversation. That’s not to say it shouldn’t be. It’s a film about two women abused as children going on a revenge tour. And then, it stops being about that into something much more heinous entirely. If senseless gore is your thing, it’s here in spades. However, if you can get beyond that, the overwhelming feelings of shuddering and anguish don’t go away.
Imagine wanting to know what it’s like to die, watching this movie, and then being so horrified by what you saw, the topic of death in conversation rocks you to your core. This is the theme of Martyrs, one you will wish you never considered before now. You will look beyond the silly gore because of the abnormal cause behind it — torture is good. And that is so, so bad.
4. Cannibal Holocaust (1980)
Long before The Blair Witch Project and Paranormal Activity established the sub-genre of horror known as “Found Footage,” Cannibal Holocaust reared its ugly head. This movie is a grueling watch with surreal scenes of torture, cannibalism, and on-screen animal deaths–that were real. The scenes are so difficult to watch that its director, Ruggero Deodato, was arrested for murder.
This Italian film is that realistic because it’s shot as a documentary. These filmmakers at the core of the movie go missing in the Amazon. What viewers are forced to look at in this film is an untold amount of grindhouse, sinister events. Some of the most gnarly scenes of death to people and animals caused it to be banned in 40 countries. Truly, this is one of the most disturbing movies ever.
3. Antichrist (2009)
Let’s get this out of the way: Lars Von Trier, director of Antichrist, is one demented individual. How that dude gained satisfaction from making and watching this movie is unfathomable. His catalog isn’t much better. Antichrist stars everyone’s favorite borderline nonsensical actor, Willem Dafoe, known simply as “He.”
He’s not a supernatural being waging war against the Son of God; he’s a widower who is opposed to him (which is what the word actually means). The movie is based around his child plummeting to his five-year-old death, and “he” unleashes psychological and physical punishment on “She” (Charlotte Gainsbourg) for even bringing the child into this world. So, “She” fights back. Hard.
This movie didn’t need to be made. You will ask yourself “Why” countless times if you have enough chutzpah to sit through this troubling movie. There’s no acting, none–just a tale of erotic misery in forms no one should have to see.
2. A Serbian Film (2010)
Ah, nice. A documentary film in eastern Europe, right? Uh, no. This is a senseless snuff film about the Serbian adult film industry. It was banned before it was dropped. The movie is NC-17 for “extreme aberrant sexual and violent content” and that warning doesn’t even help viewers understand what is about to happen.
This is No. 2 on a list of most disturbing movies for a reason — it has no point other than just hacking into your brain and lobotomizing your emotions. Some of these scenes can’t be unseen. It will live in your head because no one is safe — men, women, and yes, children. There is talk that this film is a “political allegory illustrating Serbian plight.” That is a wheelbarrow of crap.
A Serbian Film is a deeply disturbed portrayal of what some people can do to others. You have never seen shock and awe in a film until now. It’s just that unbalanced and deranged. Don’t watch it.
1. Salo, or the 120 Days of Sodom (1975)
And taking its rightful place upon the dystopian throne of most disturbing movies is Salo. Regardless of how twisted you are watching horror movies with a smile on your face, you’re not ready for this. Proof: Ever heard of Marquis de Sade? His name is etymology of the word sadism or receiving joy from watching pain in others.
His own “instructional book” inspired this movie about the depravity someone can go while torturing someone in every way imaginable. And this unabated film strolls into the depths of that freak’s mind for “entertainment.” Marquis de Sade spent 32 years of 74 in life controlled in sanitariums and prisons. Every book he ever wrote has been banned in one fashion or another and was even arrested for writing them. And some French fool decided to make a movie inspired by that work.
Watching the trailer won’t matter one bit because it looks like a Monty Python skit comedy. Once you press play, buckle up and buy a ton of 5-hour energy drinks. You won’t be sleeping for a long, long while. This film is easily the king among the most disturbing movies. If you dare to find it, good luck with that. You’re going to need it.
Since he saw ‘Dune’ in the $1 movie theater as a kid, this guy has been a lover of geek culture. It wasn’t until he became a professional copywriter, ghostwriter, and speechwriter that he began to write about it (a lot).
From the gravitas of the Sith, the genius of Tolkien and C.S. Lewis, or the gluttony of today’s comic fan, SPW digs intelligent debate about entertainment. He’s also addicted to listicles, storytelling, useless trivia, and the Oxford comma. And, he prefers his puns intended.