For our next installment in our Best Movies series, we've picked a topic that is inherently polarizing and controversial. These are the movies that you would never watch twice or feel entertained while watching them, yet somehow every one of us has watched at least one such movie. These are the freakiest, most disturbing movies ever made, and we've gathered them all into this one harrowing list. So, be advised to watch these movies at your own risk and never in front of younger audiences!
Anyhoo, light entertainment sometimes just doesn't cut it, and that’s when it is time to turn to horror movies. However, if you deem scary movies to be meant for those faint of heart, then there's only one choice left for you, and it is freaky movies. A movie can be named as such not only for, say, depiction of extreme violence or rivers of blood running free, but also for its touchy topics, a view of horrific real events, or something that will terrorize your psyche for many nights to come. Yet, if you still wish to continue and to see these controversial movies, then be our guest and scroll on down below!
We've added short descriptions to our top 20 choices of these freaky movies because sometimes the poster might seem quite innocent, and you might unknowingly watch something that you did not intend to. So, read them carefully before choosing one of these disturbing movies! If you still wish to proceed, then, dear reader, we wish you a stomach made of steel and a psyche made of titanium.
#1 We Need To Talk About Kevin
2011 | 1 hour 52 minutes | Directed by Lynne Ramsay
Starring Tilda Swinton, John C. Reilly, Ezra Miller
We Need To Talk About Kevin is a psychological thriller drama that will thrill your psyche indeed. The story, same as the characters in it, is quite a complex one. The titular Kevin is a very disturbed child, speaking and doing things that grow more terrible together with him. His mom struggles deeply to love him in light of his behavior, but Kevin is only getting started, and his final pièce de résistance will see your jaw hanging ajar. And though it is an impressively well-made plot brought to life by stellar acting, chances are you won't be watching We Need To Talk About Kevin twice.
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72points
#2 Child Of Rage
1990 | 27 minutes | Produced by Anne H. Cohn, Dalton Delan, Gaby Monet
Starring Joel Craiger, Ken Magid, Beth Thomas
Child Of Rage is a short TV documentary running for 27 minutes. In this short period, you will be subjected to an involuntary whirlwind of emotions - ranging from helplessness to disgust - while listening to Beth talk about her experience and the outcomes of abuse as an infant. Six-year-old Beth Thomas was healing from reactive attachment disorder caused by the horrific sexual abuse she had endured. Because of that, she poured her rage into torturing small animals and abusing her little brother. This story of her recovery is truly a bone-chilling one that leaves you hoping you will never again hear Beth's words repeated in real life. However, Beth did manage to heal from the terrible RAD syndrome and now lives a completely normal life working as a nurse.
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Report61points
#3 Jesus Camp
2006 | 1 hour 24 minutes | Directed by Heidi Ewing, Rachel Grady
Starring Mike Papantonio, Lou Engle, Becky Fischer
Jesus Camp is a documentary film following the events occurring at a charismatic (as in the form of Christianity, not as in 'charming') Christian summer camp where kids are being taught they have 'prophetic gifts' and can 'take back America for Christ.' According to the creators, this movie doesn't have a prepackaged point of view and tries to show an impartial glimpse of the happenings at this particular summer camp. However, soon after its release, the controversy this movie caused led to the eventual closure of the institution. So, try and watch Jesus Camp without cringing your face off and decide for yourself whether it was an impartial view or an attempt to dismantle the camp that caused obvious suffering of children.
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56points
#4 Funny Games
1997 | 1 hour 48 minutes | Directed by Michael Haneke
Starring Susanne Lothar, Ulrich Mühe, Arno Frisch
Funny Games is an Austrian psychological thriller that's so terrifically disturbing it even got a shot-for-shot American remake a decade later. The plot involves two young sadistic men who hold a family hostage in their vacation home by playing villainous cat-and-mouse games with them. Each of their schemes is even more brutal than the last, and our unsuspecting family soon finds themselves fighting for their lives. However, for the young men, it's all just a funny game. Funny Games will leave you feeling a weird mixture of outrage for its violent tendencies and admiration for its superior directing and acting. Either way, it might very well enter your personal list of Amazing Films You Will Never Watch Again.
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54points
#5 Strange Circus
2005 | 1 hour 48 minutes | Directed by Sion Sono
Starring Masumi Miyazaki, Issei Ishida, Rie Kuwana
Strange Circus (奇妙なサーカス, Kimyō na sākasu in Japanese) is a horror-drama film that's so unsettling you might want to watch some children's programming just to get the images out of your head after you are done with it. Here, an erotic novelist is writing a story about a family destroyed by incestuous relationships, abuse, and murder. The writer's new assistant, Yuji, sets out to dig deeper into the roots of the disturbing story, only to find that the reality might be even more morbid than the written story. Strange Circus is vile, gory, and absolutely sinister, so be advised to watch it at your own risk of a sleepless week or so.
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52points
#6 Splice
2009 | 1 hour 44 minutes | Directed by Vincenzo Natali
Starring Adrien Brody, Sarah Polley, Delphine Chaneac
Splice is a science fiction horror film with a story concerning experiments in genetic engineering. To be more specific, introducing human DNA into the duo of leading scientists' work of splicing animal genes. Now, this already sounds creepy, but add in the factor that these human/animal hybrids are going to be used for further scientific experiments, and it all gets a good chunk more morbid. Besides being a nice specimen of the horror movie genre, Splice also discusses such unsettling topics as bioethics, abortion, corporate-sponsored science, and so much more. A truly cerebral watch!
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51points
#7 Megan Is Missing
2011 | 1 hour 29 minutes | Directed by Michael Goi
Starring Amber Perkins, Rachel Quinn, Dean Waite
Megan Is Missing is a found footage psychological horror film following two best friends - 14-year-old Megan and 13-year-old Amy. Megan is a popular high school student successfully masking her secret lifestyle of hard partying, drugs, and indiscriminate sex. So, unsurprisingly, Megan decides to meet up with a boy she was interacting with online, leading to her disappearance. Amy, an unpopular and socially awkward girl, launches a full-scale investigation into it, but the truth she discovers is beyond terrifying. Based on actual cases of child disappearances, Megan Is Missing is a gut-wrenching and a harrowingly realistic look into the world children are living in today.
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48points
#8 A Tale Of Two Sisters
2003 | 1 hour 54 minutes | Jee-Woon Kim
Starring Lim Soo-Jung, Jung-ah Yum, Kim Kap-su
A Tale Of Two Sisters (Korean: 장화, 홍련; lit. "Rose Flower, Red Lotus") is a psychological horror-drama film inspired by a Joseon Dynasty era folktale entitled Janghwa Hongryeon jeon, which has been adapted to film several times before. To put it in short, it's a story of a family haunted by tragic deaths within. However, the movie itself is nothing but simple, with a plot that will leave you questioning what is real and what's a hallucination and whether reality is really something you wish to learn about. Although it isn't as gory as some other South Korean horror movies, A Tale Of Two Sisters is still a deeply unsettling watch.
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48points
#9 A Serbian Film
2010 | 1 hour 44 minutes | Directed by Srdjan Spasojevic
Starring Srdjan ‘Zika’ Todorovic, Sergej Trifunovic, Jelena Gavrilovic
A Serbian Film is a horror film that follows a financially struggling aging porn star. To earn some money, he agrees to star in an 'art' movie, which turns out to be a snuff film with pedophilic and necrophilic themes. Now, if you’re hearing the term snuff film for the first time, let us explain - a snuff film is a video that purports to show scenes of actual homicide. Need we say more..? Although A Serbian Film debuted only in certain 'art film' circles, it caused so much controversy that it got banned in plenty of countries around the world.
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47points
#10 Irréversible
2002 | 1 hour 37 minutes | Directed by Gaspar Noe
Starring Monica Bellucci, Vincent Cassel, Albert Dupontel
Irreversible is an experimental psychological art film with a story told in reverse chronological order (hence the name). It depicts the events of one tragic night in Paris as two men attempt to avenge a brutal rape and beating of a woman they both love. Full of extreme violence, Irreversible will not be everyone's cup of tea. But, despite it, this movie gained cult status in the decades after its release.
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46points
#11 Elephant
2003 | 1 hour 23 minutes | Directed by Gus Van Sant
Starring Elias McConnell, Alex Frost, Eric Deulen
Elephant is a psychological drama film that is in part based on the 1999 Columbine High School massacre. Need we explain anything further for you to be sure it is going to be one grim watch? So yeah, a group of your regular teenagers goes about their regular lives at a high school, but, unbeknownst to anybody, two of them are planning something absolutely abhorrent. Elephant is sure to shake you to your very core with its bleak, flat, and implacable depiction of innocent deaths with no lingering or release.
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45points
#12 Tusk
2014 | 1 hour 42 minutes | Directed by Kevin Smith
Starring Justin Long, Michael Parks, Haley Joel Osment
Tusk is a comedy horror film that, despite receiving a lukewarm greeting upon its release, has nevertheless gained a cult status in some circles of movie fans. This is how the story goes - a brash podcaster, Wallace, travels to Canada. There he meets a strange man called Howe who's eerily fond of walruses. Despite being the most interesting person to talk to, Howe soon shows his darker side, and Wallace figures out that he's about to be turned into a walrus - mentally and surgically - himself. It is definitely an oddball movie that is both uniquely original and strangely compelling.
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45points
#13 Brimstone
2016 | 2 hours 28 minutes | Directed by Martin Koolhoven
Starring Dakota Fanning, Guy Pearce, Emilia Jones
Brimstone is a Western drama thriller film that caused some decent controversy upon its official release at the 73rd Venice International Film Festival. What was the controversy about? Well, its story, mostly. Brimstone is an epic survival movie where our heroine Liz is quite literally hunted by a diabolical zealot preacher. She shows immense bravery battling her hell on earth, all ending in such a way you would never expect. Brimstone gets deep under your skin, and you would probably never watch it again.
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44points
#14 Dogtooth
2009 | 1 hour 37 minutes | Directed by Yorgos Lanthimos
Starring Christos Stergioglou, Michele Valley, Angeliki Papoulia
Dogtooth is a psychological drama and one of the earliest works by director Yorgos Lanthimos, who would later grace us with such incredible films as The Lobster, The Killing Of The Sacred Deer, and The Favorite. In fact, you should add all of his movies to your disturbing and unsettling movies list. But let's go back to Dogtooth here. The story in this film centers around three grown-up siblings who are being kept isolated in their parents' villa. They are kept there not really by force but rather by volatile indoctrination, misinformation, and fear. And trust us, their lives are very far from usual. Dogtooth is as disturbing as it is original, a movie you are sure not to watch on repeat!
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44points
#15 Karla
2006 | 1 hour 42 minutes | Directed by Joel Bender
Starring Laura Prepon, Misha Collins, Patrick Bauchau
Karla is a psychological thriller film based on a very horrific yet very real story. It goes like this - Karla Homolka falls in love with Paul Bernardo. Paul is a violent murderer and rapist, and, despite Karla having helped him torture her younger sister already, she marries him anyway. He brags non-stop about his earlier crimes and even involves Karla in some heinous atrocities. A match made in hell, it seems. And although Karla might not be a directorial gem, the story itself will haunt you for a very long time.
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43points
#16 Audition
1999 | 1 hour 55 minutes | Directed by Takashi Miike
Starring Ryo Ishibashi, Eihi Shiina, Tetsu Sawaki
Audition (オーディション, Ōdishon) is a horror film based on the 1997 novel by Ryu Murakami. Here a widower takes an offer arranged by his friend to screen girls at a special audition. His goal is to find a wife, and he does find a girl who he fancies. Although she seems sweet and innocent, her dark past clouds the relationship and turns it into pure and very real torture. Audition is an amazingly grim movie with some of its scenes making you wish to unsee them. However, despite all that, it is a very well-made movie and one of the favorites of Quentin Tarantino himself.
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41points
#17 Martyrs
2008 | 1 hour 39 minutes | Directed by Pascal Laugier
Starring Mylène Jampanoï, Morjana Alaoui, Catherine Begin
Martyrs is a psychological horror film following the harrowing story of Lucie and Anna. When she was a child, Lucie was abducted and viciously tortured, and now she seeks revenge. Anna, also a victim of abuse, is here to accompany Lucie on her quest; however, their plan soon spirals into something that's sinister beyond belief. The torture scenes in Martyrs are abhorrently gruesome, so if you do decide to watch this movie, be sure to do so with an empty stomach.
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39points
#18 The Woman
2011 | 1 hour 41 minutes | Directed by Lucky McKee
Starring Pollyanna McIntosh, Brandon Gerald Fuller, Lauren Ashley Carter
The Woman is a horror film adapted from its director's, Lucky Mckee's, and Jack Ketchum's novel of the same name and is a sequel to the 2009 movie Offspring. The story goes like this - a misogynistic lawyer finds the last survivor of a cannibalistic tribe living in the woods of the Northeast Coast. That very same lawyer decides it would be a great project to take in the savage, domesticate her, and turn her around. However, his sadistic ways of 'training' leave the savage no choice but to retaliate in the most vicious ways. The Woman is quite a strange movie that doesn't shy away from showing rivers of blood and violence.
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36points
#19 Kill List
2011 | 1 hour 35 minutes | Directed by Ben Wheatley
Starring Neil Maskell, MyAnna Buring, Harry Simpson
Kill List is a psychological horror crime movie that follows the story of a British soldier returning home from Kyiv to join an old friend in his contract-killing business. Soon, he takes upon a job for three killings for a great payoff. And although this task seems pretty doable for our soldier, he soon falls straight into a vortex of darkness that's spinning out of control. Kill List is definitely one of those slow-burn movies where you just don't understand where this gripping visceral kind of horror came from until it's too late. Definitely not one to watch twice!
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35points
#20 Cannibal Holocaust
1980 | 1 hour 35 minutes | Directed by Ruggero Deodato
Starring Robert Kerman, Francesca Ciardi, Perry Pirkanen
Cannibal Holocaust is a, you guessed it, cannibal horror film. Here, one Harold Monroe, an anthropologist from New York University, leads a rescue team into the Amazon rainforest to locate a film crew who went missing while shooting a documentary on local tribes there. They aren't successful in finding the crew; however, they stumble upon cans of film they made. Well, and, upon viewing that video footage, the horrible, terrible, gruesome truth about the crew's actions is revealed. Cannibal Holocaust caused (and is still causing) a great ruckus upon its release, with some people even claiming that the abhorrent atrocities shown in the film were real. They were not, but that doesn't make it any less vile.
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35points