There are people who like scary movies, and people who watch any sort of movie, and more people who will watch something their friends recommend, even if it’s not their typical vibe.
Even for those people who seek out the scary and disturbing, though, some films take it too far – or at least, like these 17, take it far enough that no one is going to come back for a second viewing.
17. I do NOT want to watch this. Ever.
Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father.
F*cked me up.
16. The Russian army was a nightmare.
Come and See. It is a WWII movie that focuses on a young boy who joins the soviets to fight the Germans. And the scenes in that movie are so…so horrific.
There is 1 seen that involves a barn being burned that my mind still flashes to and makes me sick to my stomach.
15. A lifetime of obsession.
Threads.
I was shown the entire film in school and had vivid nightmares for years. Instead of being paranoid about being vaporised without warning at all times, I started to look into the Cold War as a subject. I’m a bit obsessed now, and having rewatched Threads many times, it’s an excellent film. The tiny details in it during the buildup show just how much effort went into it.
14. Why are humans?
I can’t remember what it’s called but it was based off the true story where that girl was hitchhiking and got kidnapped and lived in a box for 7 years.
Wasn’t it called the girl in the box or something along those lines?
EDIT: IT’S CALLED GIRL IN THE BOX
13. She’s not selling it.
In A Glass Cage (Tras el Cristal). I don’t want to give too much away, but it’s a 1988 Spanish film about a former sadistic Nazi who is now paralyzed and living in an iron lung.
This is one of the few movies that left me with a visceral reaction of disgust. It’s not overtly gory or gruesome, but Jesus is it dark. The atmosphere of the film itself is also so oppressive and bleak.
12. Just knowing it’s true. Ugh.
The girl next door (2007) – This movie turned me into an emotional zombie for days after. It’s amazing but don’t watch it.
The part that really messed me up was learning that it was based on a true story far too closely. The people that committed those horrific acts: Some became family counselors and educators.
The mom got parole. No one did their time. People serve more time for marijuana possession.
11. Mother of the year.
Tusk genuinely fu*ked with me. Especially the pool scenes.
this came up on tv one afternoon and my mom invited me to watch this with her, and i’m thinking “oh, this is by kevin smith, i love mallrats!” and such.
she left to do something else within 15 minutes, leaving me by myself, not knowing the first thing about the movie. imagine my face
10. I don’t think I can handle that.
Antichrist is probably the only movie I’ve ever turned off in discomfort.
I have a strong stomach.
9. Understatement.
Haven’t seen “Men Behind the Sun” mentioned. That ones pretty disturbing.
8. Why didn’t she bite them sooner?
Dead Girl.
Some guys find a dead girl (she is a zombie) and proceed to… continuously have s^x with her body. This progresses until one of the guys begins cutting holes into her body to have s^x with as these holes are warmer and cozier(???) and then he gets infected when she bites him.
Forgot the worst part. We rented this as family movie night and for reasons I cannot truly understand, watched it in its entirety. So yeah, watched this horrid film with my mom and siblings.
7. You’ve gotta love a good dose of paranoia.
The White Christmas episode of Black Mirror. It’s not a movie, but it has more plot than most movies. It’s not even about gratuitous gore, it’s mostly psychological and hit paranoias I didn’t know I had. Also you can watch it without seeing any other part of the series.
6. I’m not sure if this is an endorsement.
Old one but it’s seared in my memory : The Cook the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover.
I saw this in my early 20s and came back to it as an older, wiser adult. It’s visually brilliant and emotionally devastating. We now think of Michael Gambon as Dumbledore, forgetting how tall and physically imposing he is.
And we now think of Helen Mirren as prim & proper QEII, forgetting how excellent her emotional performances are. There’s no extraneous detail or character interaction in this movie.
5. I have no idea what’s wrong with people.
“Precious”. I saw it in the movie theater and thought I was going to vomit. It was based on the book Push about a girl who was raped by her own father with her mothers help. The girl was uneducated and had two kids that were a product of rape.
The book showed her progress throughout the years, but watching her story play out on a screen made me look at the world differently. The mom was played by Monique and anything she was in after that movie, I can’t watch it. I get that it was a deep dramatic role for her, but she played it too well.
4. That sounds like a horrible premise.
A French horror movie called Inside (a l’interior). After a car accident kills her unborn child, a woman goes after the other driver, a pregnant woman. It is F*CKED.
3. Unprepared for the ending.
Bone Tomahawk. It was a really great movie until it was awful to watch. It is very slow moving but the dialogue is great. However, the ending is very hard to watch.
2. Not a pretty picture.
Leaving Las Vegas.
Nicholas Cage lives in a shitty hotel and actively, purposely drinks himself to death.
To make it even more depressing, the author of the book it’s based on shot himself right after selling the movie rights. He was also an alcoholic, and the book was a kind of suicide note.
1. A short list.
Dancer in the Dark, emotionally just brutal. Crushed me, never want to see again. Event Horizon was deeply disturbing.
Wolf Creek marked the beginning of gore porn, utterly without hope-of-survival films and end of more ‘fun’ horror films like Scream and I never ever want to watch shit that f*cking bleak again.
Thank babybel Tucker and Dale came along to save the day
Maybe some of these wanted to make their audiences that uncomfortable, but if so, I hope they weren’t planning on DVD sales.
What movie would you put on this list? Give us our fair warning down in the comments!
