My list of most disturbing movies I've seen
by Avwillfan89 | created - 27 Sep 2011 | updated - 6 months ago | PublicWhile the discriptions seem mostly negative, it has to be noted that I enjoyed and apprieciated some of the qualities in several of the films but find them difficult to watch because of the subject matters, or strong violence. Watch them if you're brave enough.
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1. The Nightingale (I) (2018)
R | 136 min | Adventure, Drama, Thriller
Set in 1825, Clare, a young Irish convict woman, chases a British officer through the rugged Tasmanian wilderness, bent on revenge for a terrible act of violence he committed against her family. On the way she enlists the services of an Aboriginal tracker named Billy, who is also marked by trauma from his own violence-filled past.
Director: Jennifer Kent | Stars: Aisling Franciosi, Maya Christie, Baykali Ganambarr, Addison Christie
Votes: 35,670 | Gross: $0.39M
While many on this list feature only a couple of disturbing scenes, this one has it all ALL the way. Rape, infanticide, violence against women, gang rape, racial violence, genocidal massacres and children getting murdered. A rough two hours, I'll tell you!
2. Irreversible (2002)
Not Rated | 97 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
Events over the course of one traumatic night in Paris unfold in reverse-chronological order as the beautiful Alex is brutally raped and beaten by a stranger in an underpass tunnel.
Director: Gaspar Noé | Stars: Monica Bellucci, Vincent Cassel, Albert Dupontel, Philippe Nahon
Votes: 147,728 | Gross: $0.75M
I get annoyed when the rape scene is shown on either documenteries or on the internet. I never want to see this again, ever. That's how badly disturbing it is.
3. Martyrs (2008)
R | 99 min | Horror
A young woman's quest for revenge against the people who kidnapped and tormented her as a child leads her and a friend, who is also a victim of child abuse, on a terrifying journey into a living hell of depravity.
Director: Pascal Laugier | Stars: Morjana Alaoui, Mylène Jampanoï, Catherine Bégin, Robert Toupin
Votes: 106,507
Sick, horrible and makes you feel so dirty you feel like it's never going to wash off.
4. Audition (1999)
R | 115 min | Drama, Horror, Mystery
A widower takes an offer to screen girls at a special audition, arranged for him by a friend to find him a new wife. The one he fancies is not who she appears to be after all.
Director: Takashi Miike | Stars: Ryo Ishibashi, Eihi Shiina, Tetsu Sawaki, Jun Kunimura
Votes: 89,282
So creepy and disturbing I couldn't even finish watching it. Can't even begin to discribe how f - ucked up it is.
5. The Human Centipede (First Sequence) (2009)
R | 92 min | Horror
A mad scientist kidnaps and mutilates a trio of tourists in order to reassemble them into a human centipede, created by stitching their mouths to each others' rectums.
Director: Tom Six | Stars: Dieter Laser, Winter Williams, Ashlynn Yennie, Akihiro Kitamura
Votes: 87,309 | Gross: $0.18M
Ultimately, nothing more than a sick and gleeful fantasy put on screen. Not the best film on this list, but notorious enough.
6. Eraserhead (1977)
Not Rated | 89 min | Fantasy, Horror
Henry Spencer tries to survive his industrial environment, his angry girlfriend, and the unbearable screams of his newly born mutant child.
Director: David Lynch | Stars: Jack Nance, Charlotte Stewart, Allen Joseph, Jeanne Bates
Votes: 127,543 | Gross: $7.00M
David Lynch's first film. And possibly the most unsettling of his collection.
7. Pulse (2001)
R | 119 min | Horror, Mystery, Sci-Fi
Two groups of people discover evidence that suggests spirits may be trying to invade the human world through the Internet.
Director: Kiyoshi Kurosawa | Stars: Haruhiko Katô, Kumiko Asô, Koyuki, Kurume Arisaka
Votes: 25,616 | Gross: $0.05M
If you want something scarier and creepier than the Shining, turn to this one. It's scary in ways you wouldn't even imagine!
8. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2009)
R | 152 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
A journalist is aided by a young female hacker in his search for the killer of a woman who has been dead for forty years.
Director: Niels Arden Oplev | Stars: Michael Nyqvist, Noomi Rapace, Ewa Fröling, Lena Endre
Votes: 223,376 | Gross: $10.10M
Considering the dark premise of its source material, its bound to be graphic, but as a movie it's even more disturbing and horrific. However, it's such a great film and the acting is terrific, I recommend seeing it!
9. Ringu (1998)
Not Rated | 96 min | Horror, Mystery
A reporter and her ex-husband investigate a cursed video tape that is rumored to kill the viewer seven days after watching it.
Director: Hideo Nakata | Stars: Nanako Matsushima, Miki Nakatani, Yûko Takeuchi, Hitomi Satô
Votes: 77,532
Forget the American remake, the original is absolutely terrifying!
10. The Exorcist (1973)
R | 122 min | Horror
When a young girl is possessed by a mysterious entity, her mother seeks the help of two Catholic priests to save her life.
Director: William Friedkin | Stars: Ellen Burstyn, Max von Sydow, Linda Blair, Lee J. Cobb
Votes: 455,203 | Gross: $232.91M
Very famously disturbing. Not just because of a little girl being possessed by the devil and doing the most insanely horrible things, but the demons who appear on screen for mearly half a second.
11. Candyman (1992)
R | 99 min | Horror, Thriller
The Candyman, a murderous soul with a hook for a hand, is accidentally summoned to reality by a skeptic grad student researching the monster's myth.
Director: Bernard Rose | Stars: Virginia Madsen, Xander Berkeley, Tony Todd, Kasi Lemmons
Votes: 100,185 | Gross: $25.79M
So frightening, unfairly cruel and violent, I'm too afraid to watch it again.
12. Requiem for a Dream (2000)
R | 102 min | Drama
The drug-induced utopias of four Coney Island people are shattered when their addictions run deep..
Director: Darren Aronofsky | Stars: Ellen Burstyn, Jared Leto, Jennifer Connelly, Marlon Wayans
Votes: 899,140 | Gross: $3.64M
Dead hopes and dreams. All because of the drugs. But saddest story lies with a character whose drugs were diet pills. Very smartly filmed.
13. Pet Sematary (1989)
R | 103 min | Fantasy, Horror, Thriller
After tragedy strikes, a grieving father discovers an ancient burial ground behind his home with the power to raise the dead.
Director: Mary Lambert | Stars: Dale Midkiff, Denise Crosby, Fred Gwynne, Brad Greenquist
Votes: 115,086 | Gross: $57.47M
I swear this film has some sort of a plague on it, as it makes you so horribly depressed after witnessing the emotional atrocity on screen.
14. If These Walls Could Talk (1996 TV Movie)
R | 97 min | Drama, Thriller
The movie examines the abortion issue through three stories set in different eras: 1952, 1974 and 1996.
Directors: Cher, Nancy Savoca | Stars: Demi Moore, Shirley Knight, Catherine Keener, Jason London
Votes: 5,026
This made me so angry at the amount of bigotry and sexism that's shown in the 1996 and 1952 parts. I know it wasn't a true story but the religious fanatic's attitudes continue to cast a shadow on the freedom of people who simply want to make a choice with their lives.
15. Boys Don't Cry (1999)
R | 118 min | Biography, Crime, Drama
A young man named Brandon Teena navigates love, life, and being transgender in rural Nebraska.
Director: Kimberly Peirce | Stars: Hilary Swank, Chloë Sevigny, Peter Sarsgaard, Brendan Sexton III
Votes: 103,313 | Gross: $11.53M
One of the saddest stories ever told. Brutally and unflinchyingly honest account of the rape and murder of transgender Brandon Teena.
16. The Shining (1980)
R | 146 min | Drama, Horror
A family heads to an isolated hotel for the winter where a sinister presence influences the father into violence, while his psychic son sees horrific forebodings from both past and future.
Director: Stanley Kubrick | Stars: Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall, Danny Lloyd, Scatman Crothers
Votes: 1,107,329 | Gross: $44.02M
Brilliant film that has something most American horror films don't have: The use of music, flashes of disturbing images and great acting.
17. Jungle Fever (1991)
R | 132 min | Drama, Romance
Friends and family of a married Black architect react in different ways to his affair with an Italian secretary.
Director: Spike Lee | Stars: Wesley Snipes, Annabella Sciorra, Spike Lee, Ossie Davis
Votes: 19,667 | Gross: $32.48M
What kind of maniac would beat his own daughter half to death just for seeing a black man? People should be allowed to date who they like and not have a problem with it. Of course the director doesn't see it that way, at least not with a black man and a white woman.
18. Leaving Las Vegas (1995)
R | 111 min | Drama, Romance
Ben Sanderson, a Hollywood screenwriter who lost everything because of his alcoholism, arrives in Las Vegas to drink himself to death. There, he meets and forms an uneasy friendship and non-interference pact with prostitute Sera.
Director: Mike Figgis | Stars: Nicolas Cage, Elisabeth Shue, Julian Sands, Richard Lewis
Votes: 134,723 | Gross: $32.03M
The rape scene and how the victim was treated afterwards was absolutely atrocious. Overall a very depressing movie.
19. Taxi Driver (1976)
R | 114 min | Crime, Drama
A mentally unstable veteran works as a nighttime taxi driver in New York City, where the perceived decadence and sleaze fuels his urge for violent action.
Director: Martin Scorsese | Stars: Robert De Niro, Jodie Foster, Cybill Shepherd, Albert Brooks
Votes: 921,212 | Gross: $28.26M
Dangerously addicting. The main character is like a drug. You like him, compare your life to him and ultimately try to become him. Possibly one of the best American films in history.
20. A Bronx Tale (1993)
R | 121 min | Crime, Drama
An intense drama about a boy torn between his tough, hard-working father and a violent yet charismatic crime boss.
Director: Robert De Niro | Stars: Robert De Niro, Chazz Palminteri, Lillo Brancato, Francis Capra
Votes: 161,243 | Gross: $17.27M
A bit like a Spike Lee movie, it has racial fights, fierce beatings, killings, but yet has a very tender side with relationships.
21. American History X (1998)
R | 119 min | Crime, Drama
Living a life marked by violence, neo-Nazi Derek finally goes to prison after killing two black youths. Upon his release, Derek vows to change; he hopes to prevent his brother, Danny, who idolizes Derek, from following in his footsteps.
Director: Tony Kaye | Stars: Edward Norton, Edward Furlong, Beverly D'Angelo, Jennifer Lien
Votes: 1,186,709 | Gross: $6.72M
Racist fights, curb stomp, anal rape, graphic shootings, all based on hate and intent to humiliate. Beware.
22. Once Were Warriors (1994)
R | 102 min | Crime, Drama
A family descended from Maori warriors is bedeviled by a violent father and the societal problems of being treated as outcasts.
Director: Lee Tamahori | Stars: Rena Owen, Temuera Morrison, Mamaengaroa Kerr-Bell, Julian Arahanga
Votes: 36,858 | Gross: $2.20M
Graphic domestic violence, brutal bar fights, child rape and suicide and emotional battery, but yet the characters have the strength to move on from these horrible events and build a new life. Also a depiction of how a good number of homes are all around the world, not just New Zealand.
23. Mississippi Burning (1988)
R | 128 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
Two F.B.I. Agents with wildly different styles arrive in Mississippi to investigate the disappearance of some civil rights activists.
Director: Alan Parker | Stars: Gene Hackman, Willem Dafoe, Frances McDormand, Brad Dourif
Votes: 111,106 | Gross: $34.60M
Brutal account of the most extreme of insane prejudices that plagued the American south in the early 1960s. The picture of Dafoe and Hackman looking up at a burning cross and the tagline "1964 when America was at war with itself." sums up but does not explore the content of the movie.
24. What's Love Got to Do with It (1993)
R | 118 min | Biography, Drama, Music
The story of singer Tina Turner's rise to stardom and how she gained the courage to break free from her abusive husband, Ike Turner.
Director: Brian Gibson | Stars: Angela Bassett, Laurence Fishburne, RaéVen Kelly, Virginia Capers
Votes: 24,595 | Gross: $39.10M
Depicts the domestic horrors that Tina suffered at the hands of Ike Turner, only to turn into one of the most fearless and brilliant singers of all time. The ending is very fufiling.
25. The Secret Life of Bees (2008)
PG-13 | 114 min | Drama
In 1964, a teenage girl in search of the truth about her mother runs away to a small town in South Carolina and finds a family of independent women who can connect her to her past.
Director: Gina Prince-Bythewood | Stars: Dakota Fanning, Jennifer Hudson, Queen Latifah, Alicia Keys
Votes: 27,959 | Gross: $37.77M
Set in such hateful time, the sweetness of the characters make the terrible things that happen to them even sadder
26. Dead Presidents (1995)
R | 119 min | Action, Crime, Drama
A Vietnam vet adjusts to life after the war while trying to support his family, but the chance of a better life may involve crime and bloodshed.
Directors: Albert Hughes, Allen Hughes | Stars: Larenz Tate, Keith David, Chris Tucker, Freddy Rodríguez
Votes: 24,491 | Gross: $24.20M
Over the top graphic, and not intended to be funny, it doesn't make the characters redeamable or worth feeling strongly about them.
27. Running Scared (2006)
R | 122 min | Action, Crime, Drama
A low-ranking thug is entrusted by his crime boss to dispose of a gun that killed corrupt cops, but things get out of control when the gun ends up in wrong hands.
Director: Wayne Kramer | Stars: Paul Walker, Cameron Bright, Chazz Palminteri, Vera Farmiga
Votes: 103,706 | Gross: $6.86M
Such a corrupt society, it looks more like a video game than anything else.
28. Hobo with a Shotgun (2011)
Not Rated | 86 min | Action, Comedy, Crime
A homeless vigilante blows away crooked cops, pedophile Santas, and other scumbags with his trusty pump-action shotgun.
Director: Jason Eisener | Stars: Rutger Hauer, Pasha Ebrahimi, Robb Wells, Brian Downey
Votes: 48,661 | Gross: $0.70M
The violence is so over the top gory and frequent, guaranteed it's bound to be funny in a sick way, but when it concerns children, it goes too far.
29. Showgirls (1995)
NC-17 | 128 min | Drama
A mysterious young drifter who calls herself Nomi Malone hitches a ride to Las Vegas, Nevada, and begins working as a strip club dancer, and sets about clawing her way to the top of the Vegas showgirls.
Director: Paul Verhoeven | Stars: Elizabeth Berkley, Kyle MacLachlan, Gina Gershon, Glenn Plummer
Votes: 74,678 | Gross: $20.30M
One of the worst movies ever, its so floozy it doesn't even focus on things. The horrible rape scene just made it look 10 times worse than Glitter.
30. Human Trafficking (2005)
13+ | 63 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
Girls that have been kidnapped a d sold as slaves, police find and help them back to their home and family.
Stars: Robert Carlyle, Mira Sorvino, Donald Sutherland, Anna Hopkins
Votes: 7,158
Based on thousands of true stories, it doesn't hold back on anything you can imagine.
31. WiseGirls (2002)
R | 96 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
A new waitress working at an Italian restaurant in New York City finds herself entangled in a mob-run underworld of drug dealing and murder.
Director: David Anspaugh | Stars: Mira Sorvino, Mariah Carey, Melora Walters, Arthur J. Nascarella
Votes: 3,147
Very refreshing to see Mariah Carey act so well in this mob girl story. Neither the police or the mob are perfect in their organisations and Mira Sorvino's character become the target victim of both.
32. Once Upon a Time in America (1984)
R | 229 min | Crime, Drama
A former Prohibition-era Jewish gangster returns to the Lower East Side of Manhattan 35 years later, where he must once again confront the ghosts and regrets of his old life.
Director: Sergio Leone | Stars: Robert De Niro, James Woods, Elizabeth McGovern, Treat Williams
Votes: 377,900 | Gross: $5.32M
Two rape accounts, constant woman stereotyping and despicable "heroes" just makes this lengthy film bad.
33. Daisy Diamond (2007)
94 min | Drama
Anna dreams of being an actress when she becomes pregnant. Though she struggles to give her daughter a good life, she fails to unite her dream of acting with creating a safe environment for her child.
Director: Simon Staho | Stars: Noomi Rapace, Thure Lindhardt, Benedikte Hansen, Morten Kirkskov
Votes: 1,508
Heartbreaking misanthropic tale about a struggling actress who's life is put in misery by her constantly crying baby, and it all leads to an extreme and dramatic act.
34. Freeway (1996)
R | 102 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
A twisted take on "Little Red Riding Hood", with a teenage juvenile delinquent on the run from a social worker travelling to her grandmother's house and being hounded by a charming, but sadistic, serial killer and pedophile.
Director: Matthew Bright | Stars: Reese Witherspoon, Kiefer Sutherland, Bokeem Woodbine, Paul Perri
Votes: 31,772 | Gross: $0.30M
Has almost everything: Pedophilia, racial violence, woman beaters, rapists and girl on girl prison fights. Reese Witherspoons character just travels from one absurd situation to the other.
35. Coffy (1973)
R | 90 min | Action, Crime, Thriller
A sexy Black nurse takes vigilante justice against inner-city drug dealers after her sister becomes their latest victim.
Director: Jack Hill | Stars: Pam Grier, Booker Bradshaw, Robert DoQui, William Elliott
Votes: 12,941
At a time when blacks and women were brutalized, run down and kept in the mud, one woman is finally able to stand up to them all: Meet Coffy!
36. Foxy Brown (1974)
R | 92 min | Action, Crime, Thriller
A voluptuous vigilante takes a job as a high-class prostitute to get revenge on the mobsters who murdered her boyfriend.
Director: Jack Hill | Stars: Pam Grier, Antonio Fargas, Peter Brown, Terry Carter
Votes: 12,049 | Gross: $2.46M
Pretty much the same as above. Only in this one she's Foxy Brown and a whole lotta woman!
37. A Clockwork Orange (1971)
R | 136 min | Crime, Sci-Fi
In the future, a sadistic gang leader is imprisoned and volunteers for a conduct-aversion experiment, but it doesn't go as planned.
Director: Stanley Kubrick | Stars: Malcolm McDowell, Patrick Magee, Michael Bates, Warren Clarke
Votes: 881,604 | Gross: $6.21M
Strange and disturbing. Perhaps not the best film to watch in order to enjoy yourself. But what a thoroughly brilliant film this is!
38. Savage Streets (1984)
R | 93 min | Action, Crime, Drama
A teenage vigilante seeks revenge on a group of violent thugs who raped her handicapped sister and killed her best friend.
Directors: Danny Steinmann, Tom DeSimone | Stars: Linda Blair, John Vernon, Robert Dryer, Johnny Venokur
Votes: 5,701
So trashy it's funny, maybe, but the blatent misogyny, constant female nudity and sensless violence, you're waiting for moment where the rapists get killed, which makes it a long wait.
39. Mulholland Drive (2001)
R | 147 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
After a car wreck on Mulholland Drive renders a woman amnesiac, she and a Hollywood-hopeful search for clues and answers across Los Angeles in a twisting venture beyond dreams and reality.
Director: David Lynch | Stars: Naomi Watts, Laura Harring, Justin Theroux, Jeanne Bates
Votes: 384,027 | Gross: $7.22M
Unsettling dream-like situations such as a dead body, a recorded band, hallucinations and a hobo behind a fast food restaurant (shudders) make this film a true lynchian thriller. Also features a hot lesbian scene.
40. Higher Learning (1995)
R | 128 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
People from all different walks of life, encounter racial tension, rape, responsibility, and the meaning of an education on a university campus.
Director: John Singleton | Stars: Omar Epps, Kristy Swanson, Michael Rapaport, Jennifer Connelly
Votes: 21,560 | Gross: $38.29M
Exploitation not done in a good way. Black power, Nazis, lesbian feminists that lead to a shootout at a peace rally. Could have been avoided very easily.
41. Sleepers (1996)
R | 147 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
After a prank goes disastrously wrong, a group of boys are sent to a detention center where they are brutalized. Thirteen years later, an unexpected random encounter with a former guard gives them a chance for revenge.
Director: Barry Levinson | Stars: Robert De Niro, Kevin Bacon, Brad Pitt, Jason Patric
Votes: 237,632 | Gross: $49.10M
Supposedly based on a true story, it tells a chilling tale about institutional corruption and damaged children.
42. Strange Days (1995)
R | 145 min | Crime, Drama, Sci-Fi
A former cop turned street-hustler accidentally uncovers a conspiracy in Los Angeles in 1999.
Director: Kathryn Bigelow | Stars: Ralph Fiennes, Angela Bassett, Juliette Lewis, Tom Sizemore
Votes: 78,449 | Gross: $7.92M
Unflinching violence against women, political corruption regarding police brutality and black market tools has Ralph Fiennes unusually playing the good guy and Angela Basset doing her best as a kick ass female heroine.
43. Dancer in the Dark (2000)
R | 140 min | Crime, Drama, Musical
An Eastern European US immigrant with a love for musicals has to cope with the gradual loss of her vision.
Director: Lars von Trier | Stars: Björk, Catherine Deneuve, David Morse, Peter Stormare
Votes: 116,827 | Gross: $4.18M
Very brutal in terms of emotion. Bjork is really the person that makes the film work like it works.
44. Baise-moi (2000)
Not Rated | 77 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
Two young women, marginalised by society, go on a destructive tour of sex and violence. Breaking norms and killing men - and shattering the complacency of polite cinema audiences.
Directors: Virginie Despentes, Coralie Trinh Thi | Stars: Raffaëla Anderson, Karen Lancaume, Céline Beugnot, Adama Niane
Votes: 18,567 | Gross: $0.01M
I'm confused. Is this a porno? A fetish film for rape enthusiasts? A crime drama that's an extreme version of Thelma and Louise? It's not very clear.
45. The Thing (1982)
R | 109 min | Horror, Mystery, Sci-Fi
A research team in Antarctica is hunted by a shape-shifting alien that assumes the appearance of its victims.
Director: John Carpenter | Stars: Kurt Russell, Wilford Brimley, Keith David, Richard Masur
Votes: 466,941 | Gross: $13.78M
It's about this alien "Thing" that can replicate itself into any living species and create horrible and monsterous beings. Some of it almost made me throw up.
46. We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011)
R | 112 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Kevin's mother struggles to love her strange child despite the increasingly dangerous things he says and does as he grows up. But Kevin is just getting started, and his final act will be beyond anything anyone imagined.
Director: Lynne Ramsay | Stars: Tilda Swinton, John C. Reilly, Ezra Miller, Jasper Newell
Votes: 167,826 | Gross: $1.74M
Just the thought of this actually happening is absoultely terrifying.
47. The Human Centipede 2 (Full Sequence) (2011)
Not Rated | 91 min | Horror
Inspired by the fictional Dr. Heiter, disturbed loner Martin dreams of creating a 12-person centipede and sets out to realize his sick fantasy.
Director: Tom Six | Stars: Laurence R. Harvey, Ashlynn Yennie, Maddi Black, Kandace Caine
Votes: 42,975 | Gross: $0.12M
Huge mistake to be watching this in the middle of the night. Let's just say you get enough warnings and despite them, I did watch it and I was traumatized for a day, not eating.
48. The Woman (I) (2011)
R | 101 min | Drama, Horror, Thriller
When a successful country lawyer captures and attempts to "civilize" the last remaining member of a violent clan that has roamed the Northeast coast for decades, he puts the lives of his family in jeopardy.
Director: Lucky McKee | Stars: Pollyanna McIntosh, Brandon Gerald Fuller, Lauren Ashley Carter, Chris Krzykowski
Votes: 25,857
CONSTANT misogyny and violence against women in this film, however, the most graphic moments of violence are saved for the men that do it.
49. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011)
R | 158 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
Journalist Mikael Blomkvist is aided in his search for a woman who has been missing for 40 years by young computer hacker Lisbeth Salander.
Director: David Fincher | Stars: Daniel Craig, Rooney Mara, Christopher Plummer, Stellan Skarsgård
Votes: 495,011 | Gross: $102.52M
The horribly long and graphic rape scene and animal cruelty are really disturbing and hard to watch scenes but the whole movie is worth watching because its so damn good!
50. The Color Purple (1985)
PG-13 | 154 min | Drama
A tale spanning forty years in the life of Celie, an African-American woman living in the South who survives incredible abuse and bigotry.
Director: Steven Spielberg | Stars: Danny Glover, Whoopi Goldberg, Oprah Winfrey, Margaret Avery
Votes: 97,400 | Gross: $98.47M
If there isn't racism from whites, there is sexual discrimination and abuse from the black men. Ultimately this is one of the most refreshing, beautiful and best female empowered movies ever.
51. Meet the Feebles (1989)
Not Rated | 97 min | Comedy, Fantasy, Music
Multiple animals and insects experience the sleazier side of show business while working on a variety show.
Director: Peter Jackson | Stars: Danny Mulheron, Donna Akersten, Stuart Devenie, Mark Hadlow
Votes: 22,211
The opposite of the Muppets? That's putting it mildly. This film is extremely messed up in every way.
52. Eye for an Eye (1996)
R | 101 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
When the courts fail to keep behind bars the man who raped and murdered her daughter, a woman seeks her own form of justice.
Director: John Schlesinger | Stars: Sally Field, Kiefer Sutherland, Ed Harris, Olivia Burnette
Votes: 18,940 | Gross: $26.79M
Twice in a row, a sex offending disgusting murderer is let off to a technicallity??? Since Dexter was not around when this happend, Sally Field delivers a powerful sting of justice and powerful acting in this film. Beware, the rape scenes are very graphic here.
53. Harry Brown (2009)
R | 103 min | Action, Crime, Drama
An elderly ex-serviceman and widower looks to avenge his best friend's murder by doling out his own form of justice.
Director: Daniel Barber | Stars: Michael Caine, Emily Mortimer, David Bradley, Charlie Creed-Miles
Votes: 91,390 | Gross: $1.82M
It's terrible to think this is what parts of England have been reduced to now. The yobs in the film are not just bullies, they're absolute f — ucking scum. Michael Caine, still as tough as nails, delivers a truly brilliant performance.
54. The Fly (1986)
R | 96 min | Drama, Horror, Sci-Fi
A brilliant but eccentric scientist begins to transform into a giant man/fly hybrid after one of his experiments goes horribly wrong.
Director: David Cronenberg | Stars: Jeff Goldblum, Geena Davis, John Getz, Joy Boushel
Votes: 202,020 | Gross: $40.46M
This is a true horror film, with a tragic love story added to it. Some parts are so disgusting it turn me temporally off eating meat.
55. Poetic Justice (1993)
R | 109 min | Drama, Romance
Grieving hairdresser Justice goes on a road trip from South Central L.A. to Oakland on a mail truck alongside her friend and an obnoxious postal worker.
Director: John Singleton | Stars: Janet Jackson, Tupac Shakur, Regina King, Joe Torry
Votes: 16,636 | Gross: $27.52M
Didn't like it. The way women are treated and the way they're portrayed in this film is horrible. The lead character has no spice whatsoever, the male leads are arrogent and misogynisic and the story doesn't particularly go anywhere
56. Introducing Dorothy Dandridge (1999 TV Movie)
R | 120 min | Biography, Drama, Music
Dorothy Dandridge's way to fame and fortune as a dancer, singer and actress.
Director: Martha Coolidge | Stars: Halle Berry, Brent Spiner, Klaus Maria Brandauer, Obba Babatundé
Votes: 3,920
She went through hell, raped by a woman, brutalized by her husband, gave birth to a retarded daughter, treated like dirt by the community and film industry because of her race and gender and caught the same drug addiction that also killed Marilyn.
57. A Time to Kill (1996)
R | 149 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
In Canton, Mississippi, a fearless young lawyer and his assistant defend a black man accused of murdering two white men who raped his ten-year-old daughter, inciting violent retribution and revenge from the Ku Klux Klan.
Director: Joel Schumacher | Stars: Matthew McConaughey, Sandra Bullock, Samuel L. Jackson, Kevin Spacey
Votes: 181,738 | Gross: $108.77M
Matthew Mconaughey plays a lawyer defending a black man accused of killing his daughter's rapists, and ends up endangering all those close to him. Contains horrible racist violence against children and women.
58. Bastard Out of Carolina (1996)
R | 98 min | Drama
A mother and daughter find their lives adversely affected when a new man enters the picture. Will their family ever be what they expect?
Director: Anjelica Huston | Stars: Jennifer Jason Leigh, Ron Eldard, Glenne Headly, Lyle Lovett
Votes: 4,812
I couldn't watch all of it. Anyone subjected to the worst kind of abuse, be it a woman, animal or child, who cannot defend themselves is just horrible to watch. And to think this happens every day in some parts of the world is just unnacceptable.
59. May (2002)
R | 93 min | Drama, Horror
A socially awkward veterinary assistant with a lazy eye and obsession with perfection descends into depravity after developing a crush on a boy with perfect hands.
Director: Lucky McKee | Stars: Angela Bettis, Jeremy Sisto, Anna Faris, James Duval
Votes: 40,512 | Gross: $0.15M
Do you like weird now? I don't think so....
60. True Blood (2008–2014)
TV-MA | 55 min | Drama, Fantasy, Mystery
Telepathic waitress Sookie Stackhouse encounters a strange new supernatural world when she meets the mysterious Bill Compton, a southern Louisiana gentleman and vampire.
Stars: Anna Paquin, Stephen Moyer, Sam Trammell, Ryan Kwanten
Votes: 260,187
Addictive? Yes. But for blood, vicious beatings, intensive gore and too many sex scenes? All in the first season? It's a bit much.
61. Django Unchained (2012)
R | 165 min | Comedy, Drama, Western
With the help of a German bounty-hunter, a freed slave sets out to rescue his wife from a brutal plantation owner in Mississippi.
Director: Quentin Tarantino | Stars: Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz, Leonardo DiCaprio, Kerry Washington
Votes: 1,696,217 | Gross: $162.81M
Extreme racism, over use of the n word and brutal violence makes the film terribly uncomfortable to watch, but the film and the script is so breathtakingly beautiful, it's worth it. Definitely a Tarantino classic!
62. Prey for Rock & Roll (2003)
R | 104 min | Drama, Music
Prey For Rock & Roll is the story of Jacki and her all-girl rock and roll band, Clam Dandy, who are trying to make it in the LA club scene of the late 1980s. After ten years of being ... See full summary »
Director: Alex Steyermark | Stars: Gina Gershon, Lori Petty, Marc Blucas, Drea de Matteo
Votes: 2,059 | Gross: $0.06M
The rape and beating scene of the drummer Sally just came out of absolutely no where, and it really freaked me out. Also, incest, prostitution, drug abuse and loss of friends are also part of the film's themes. Gina Gershon is brilliant however, and has a great singing voice.
63. Game of Thrones (2011–2019)
TV-MA | 60 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
Nine noble families fight for control over the lands of Westeros, while an ancient enemy returns after being dormant for millennia.
Stars: Emilia Clarke, Peter Dinklage, Kit Harington, Lena Headey
Votes: 2,286,283
The entire series gives me a bitter taste in my mouth because of the constant threat and scenes of rape and abuse against women and men. But none of them can match the sheer horror of the infamous Red Wedding.
64. 12 Years a Slave (2013)
R | 134 min | Biography, Drama, History
In the antebellum United States, Solomon Northup, a free Black man from upstate New York, is abducted and sold into slavery.
Director: Steve McQueen | Stars: Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael Kenneth Williams, Michael Fassbender, Brad Pitt
Votes: 741,526 | Gross: $56.67M
Very frank and pulls no punches on the accurate depictions on the horrors of slavery.
65. Nymphomaniac: Vol. II (2013)
Not Rated | 124 min | Drama
The continuation of Joe's sexually dictated life delves into the darker aspects of her adulthood, obsessions and what led to her being in Seligman's care.
Director: Lars von Trier | Stars: Charlotte Gainsbourg, Stellan Skarsgård, Willem Dafoe, Jamie Bell
Votes: 98,212 | Gross: $0.33M
The second part was much more violent and disturbing than the first. Violent beatings of women, pedophilia and an ending so bleak, it makes you hate human beings for a long time. It's pretty easy to say now that absolutely none of Lars Von Tiers' movies are an easy or pleasent watch. Most of which are very misanthropic.
66. Hate Crime (2012)
Not Rated | 73 min | Action, Horror, Thriller
A Jewish family, that just arrived in a new neighborhood, are recording their youngest son's birthday celebrations on video when their home is suddenly invaded by a bunch of crystal-meth-crazed Neo-Nazi lunatics.
Director: James Cullen Bressack | Stars: Jody Barton, Nicholas Adam Clark, Gregory DePetro, Debbie Diesel
Votes: 1,166
The title says it all. Positively an unbreathable, vile, heartbreaking, horrific, terrifying, intense and torturous film. I watched it with the DVD commentary on, which made it more or less tolerable, but frightening all the same.
67. Selma (2014)
PG-13 | 128 min | Biography, Drama, History
A chronicle of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s campaign to secure equal voting rights via an epic march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, in 1965.
Director: Ava DuVernay | Stars: David Oyelowo, Carmen Ejogo, Oprah Winfrey, Tom Wilkinson
Votes: 95,512 | Gross: $52.08M
Details the horrific hate crimes done by white police against peaceful black voters during the Selma To Montgomery march, for the civil rights movement in the early 1960s. It was systematic brutality and murder back then. But the most disturbing thing is, is that things like this still happen today, with Ferguson and New York.
68. Death and the Maiden (1994)
R | 103 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
A political activist is convinced that her guest is a man who once tortured her for the government.
Director: Roman Polanski | Stars: Sigourney Weaver, Ben Kingsley, Stuart Wilson, Krystia Mova
Votes: 26,828 | Gross: $2.10M
Like a reviewer on here pointed out, this film is unbreathable. I was hyperventilating during the second half of this thriller because of its intensity.
69. The Mist (2007)
R | 126 min | Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller
A freak storm unleashes a species of bloodthirsty creatures on a small town, where a small band of citizens hole up in a supermarket and fight for their lives.
Director: Frank Darabont | Stars: Thomas Jane, Marcia Gay Harden, Laurie Holden, Andre Braugher
Votes: 340,621 | Gross: $25.59M
Definitely reevaluates the meaning of the word "horror". Like Stephan King does with many of his stories, he makes a plot about humans in peril from monsters, but its core premise is how far humans are willing to go to survive.
It also has one of the most brutally tragic endings of all time.
70. Precious (II) (2009)
R | 110 min | Drama
In New York City's Harlem circa 1987, an overweight, abused, illiterate teen who is pregnant with her second child is invited to enroll in an alternative school in hopes that she can re-route her life in a better direction.
Director: Lee Daniels | Stars: Gabourey Sidibe, Mo'Nique, Paula Patton, Mariah Carey
Votes: 116,273 | Gross: $47.57M
The *CONSTANT* abuse that the main character suffers is almost unbearable to watch. The mother (played by Monique) is horrifically monstrous, and poor Precious doesn't seem to catch a break at all, even by the end of it.
71. Under the Skin (I) (2013)
R | 108 min | Drama, Horror, Mystery
A mysterious young woman seduces lonely men in the evening hours in Scotland. However, events lead her to begin a process of self-discovery.
Director: Jonathan Glazer | Stars: Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy McWilliams, Lynsey Taylor Mackay, Dougie McConnell
Votes: 158,303 | Gross: $2.61M
There is a scene where a toddler is left stranded on an abandoned beach for a long time after his parents accidentally drown. And several aliens walk past him and take no notice. That was very hard to watch.
72. Colonia (2015)
R | 110 min | Biography, Drama, History
A young woman's desperate search for her abducted boyfriend draws her into the infamous Colonia Dignidad, a sect nobody has ever escaped from.
Director: Florian Gallenberger | Stars: Emma Watson, Daniel Brühl, Michael Nyqvist, Richenda Carey
Votes: 57,195
There's a hell of a lot of physical violence towards women, as well as child molestation scenes and torture. The worst thing is, many of these nasty perpetrators went free in real life. It's repulsive.
73. The Handmaid's Tale (2017– )
TV-MA | 60 min | Drama, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Set in a dystopian future, a woman is forced to live as a concubine under a fundamentalist theocratic dictatorship.
Stars: Elisabeth Moss, Yvonne Strahovski, Ann Dowd, O-T Fagbenle
Votes: 258,132
This is probably the most disturbing series of the moment because this dystopian world could actually happen, and in some countries, these kinds of barbaric laws and tortures are actually happening right at this moment.
74. Mother! (2017)
R | 121 min | Drama, Horror, Mystery
A couple's relationship is tested when uninvited guests arrive at their home, disrupting their tranquil existence.
Director: Darren Aronofsky | Stars: Jennifer Lawrence, Javier Bardem, Ed Harris, Michelle Pfeiffer
Votes: 249,792 | Gross: $17.80M
It starts out as an allegory for Mother Nature and her relationship with God - but it quickly descends into the most sickly disturbing, violent and CRAZY chaos you can ever imagine.
75. Lords of Chaos (2018)
R | 118 min | Biography, Drama, Horror
A teenager's quest to launch Norwegian Black Metal in Oslo in the early 1990s results in a very violent outcome.
Director: Jonas Åkerlund | Stars: Rory Culkin, Emory Cohen, Jack Kilmer, Sky Ferreira
Votes: 19,386 | Gross: $0.25M
Animal abuse, brutal prolonged stabbings and intense misanthropy - all in the name of death metal? They are the real posers.
76. Joker (I) (2019)
R | 122 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
During the 1980s, a failed stand-up comedian is driven insane and turns to a life of crime and chaos in Gotham City while becoming an infamous psychopathic crime figure.
Director: Todd Phillips | Stars: Joaquin Phoenix, Robert De Niro, Zazie Beetz, Frances Conroy
Votes: 1,490,304 | Gross: $335.45M
Disturbing because of its bleak tone, the descent of the main character's madness and what people find funny. Amazing film, though.
77. Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood (2019)
R | 161 min | Comedy, Drama
A faded television actor and his stunt double strive to achieve fame and success in the final years of Hollywood's Golden Age in 1969 Los Angeles.
Director: Quentin Tarantino | Stars: Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie, Emile Hirsch
Votes: 848,560 | Gross: $142.50M
Although certain people found the ultra violent fate of the Manson followers at the end funny, it haunted me profoundly.
78. Euphoria (2019– )
TV-MA | 55 min | Drama
A look at life for a group of high school students as they grapple with issues of drugs, sex, and violence.
Stars: Zendaya, Hunter Schafer, Jacob Elordi, Maude Apatow
Votes: 242,236
Disturbing because of how realistic and graphic it is in its portrayal of teen drug abuse and mental illness. It combines truly heartbreaking and shocking scenes with genuinely good writing and acting.
79. Schindler's List (1993)
R | 195 min | Biography, Drama, History
In German-occupied Poland during World War II, industrialist Oskar Schindler gradually becomes concerned for his Jewish workforce after witnessing their persecution by the Nazis.
Director: Steven Spielberg | Stars: Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes, Ben Kingsley, Caroline Goodall
Votes: 1,451,523 | Gross: $96.90M
A rough but important film about the holocaust, the nature of good and evil and where kindness can be found in the absolute darkest of places. Not happy a movie, but a very moving picture.
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