What is it about disturbing horror films that divide the community? Nearly every list of “top 10 most disturbing horror films” is met with a barrage of comments saying, “THAT’S not a disturbing movie,” or, “Wow, you thought Cannibal Holocaust was disturbing? Have you ever seen a horror film before?” Gatekeeping is a real issue within the genre, and the discourse behind disturbing/grotesque films might be one of the most toxic conversations you can have with genre fans (it somehow beats out conversations on the DGG Halloween movies). Recently I stumbled upon a Buzzfeed article on “The 11 Grossest Horror Movies Ever,” and I started to feel the keys jingle in my pocket…that gate needed keeping. 

Why Disturbing Horror Films Spark Controversy

Digging through the respective Buzzfeed author’s page, I noticed they had 149 pages of articles since joining Buzzfeed in 2021. Their final article was in September 2021, so within the 92 days this author wrote for Buzzfeed, their average daily output was two articles a day. Going through every single article this author had written brought two things to the surface. Firstly, Buzzfeed is abhorrently negligent with the mental health of their writers to expect an output of that nature. Secondly, this author covered an obscene array of topics, posing as a fanatic of each. I’m not saying someone can’t be a fan of multiple things, but using context clues throughout their articles helped me piece together this author’s estimated age. Someone who is the age I’ve estimated them to be shows me that it’s nearly impossible to deeply know, inside and out, the lore of Lost, Desperate Housewives, Game of Thrones, Friends, The Office, and many many others that they claim to. There are only 24 hours in a day. Something reeks of journalistic disintegrity. 

Besides this author’s laughably googled disturbing movies list, I got to thinking, is there a consensus on the most disturbing movie? While this is a noble quest to embark on, it is also one for a madman. And my name isn’t Marz. Rather than going through EVERY SINGLE disturbing movie list and video out there, I picked fifteen different lists from places like Screenrant, Nylon, Mubi, and many others. I wanted to cast a wide net between all types of publications to see if there was a consensus on the most disturbing horror film ever made. 

Spoiler alert: there was not. 

Some Disturbing Films That Get an Honorable Mention

Before we get into our list of disturbing films, I wanted to discuss what I came to notice on my weeklong quest. For starters, there were a lot of lists that had The Human Centipede (First Sequence) fairly high on the list. This is how it became clear which lists were formed from randomly picking movies from other lists and which were genuine. If you’re making a list of disturbing horror movies and one of your picks is the first film of a franchise, you might want to watch the rest of the films in the franchise, too. First Sequence is a well-made and exquisitely thought-out film. Tom Sixx tapped into something special with that film, and it’s not that graphic. The idea of stitching three people together in an ass-to-mouth configuration was more disturbing than First Sequence was. As someone who has seen all three films, I know it’s far from the most graphic of the series. If the Buzzfeed author took a quick gander into the parental guide for The Human Centipede 2 (Full Sequence) they’d see how someone is raped by a man who has barbed wire wrapped around his penis, and a woman gives birth in a car and proceeds to step on the baby’s head. The Human Centipede 3 (Final Sequence) has scenes of castration (which you see), waterboarding with boiling water (which you see), and a damn 500-person centipede. Get real. First Sequence being listed on any of these lists is laughable. Among all of the lists I found, First Sequence comes averaging in as the 10th most disturbing movie of all time. 

For some reason, the 1999 Takashi Miike film Audition was on quite a few of these lists. Audition is a brilliant and incredibly effective horror film. There’s no question about that. But should it be on these lists because of one specific scene? The scene doesn’t even go on for an extended period of time. The average ranking for Audition was seventh. A single list ranked Oldboy as the 9th most disturbing movie ever. I didn’t realize Brian Regan was making disturbing movie rankings. 

Contradicting myself a bit here, there was an entry I wasn’t surprised to see: Gaspar Noe’s Irreversible. Noe’s seizure-inducing opus is a sight to behold, and every person who makes it through deserves an award. Irreversible is less of a disturbing film and more of an exercise in mental fortitude. In my eyes, Audition does not deserve its spot on the list for the pin scene alone, but Irreversible does, at least, deserve an honorable mention for the incredibly horrific 10-minute one-shot rape scene. Noe’s Irreversible averaged in at the 12th rank. Lastly, one of the few films deserving of a spot on all of these lists, which most had, was the incredibly effed-up Martyrs. Averaging as the third most disturbing film, Martyrs is genuinely a one-of-a-kind film. 

The last note I want to make before giving my list is the films that were just truly laughable in some of these rankings: The Exorcist, Maniac, Tusk, Possessor, I Saw The Devil, and The Devil’s Rejects. 

11 Most Disturbing Horror Films to Watch… If You Dare

Now, without further ado, it’s time for “Buzzfeed’s Top 11 Most Disturbing Horror Films, By Someone Who’s Seen More Than 11 Disturbing Films.” (And for those wondering, Sweet Movie will not be on this list, as it’s not categorized as horror, but if it were then it would take the 11th spot). 

11. Kuso (2017) 

FlyLo is one of those artists who has a specific vision. I don’t know what that vision is, but it’s damn impressive. His music is like whiplash for your brain, and his films are like…whiplash for your brain. Kuso is the definition of a midnight movie; it’s best viewed in a packed theater of inebriated people on a Friday night. This shit-slinging apocalypse film doesn’t garner groans of discomfort from sexual violence or inhumane acts of violence. If you watch Kuso, you will see a man getting his erect penis stabbed multiple times, a camera crawling out of someone’s butt, countless pulsating and dripping boils, and lots of fecal matter. And that’s just scraping the surface. 

What makes Kuso so intriguing as a disturbing film is how impressive it truly is. If FlyLo were a hack filmmaker who just wanted to make something gross, for gross’s sake, this film would have been a septic slog to sit through. Instead, FlyLo’s impressive vision and great direction turn this film into something beyond art. Can we talk about the cast too? You have Hannibal Buress, Tim Heidecker, funk icon George Clinton, Salad Fingers himself, David Firth, musician Busdriver (!), and even porn star Lexington Steele. That’s a wild cast. Kuso is genuinely a wild film that delivers the goods and makes its exit before overstaying its welcome. 

10. Megalomaniac (2022)

Megalomaniac is not just a disturbing film, it’s a part of a larger whole. There’s a Newer Extremity Movement in horror spearheaded by films like Megalomaniac, Repulse (2021), and Beaten to Death (2022). Just like the New French Extremity movement in the early to mid-aughts, we are in a world of political upheaval and widespread violence. Disturbing horror has existed for a long time, but it’s clear there’s a correlation between an influx of disturbing horror and worldwide unrest. The Newer Extremity Movement is just getting started. 

Unlike Kuso, Megalomaniac is extremely graphic. When it comes to graphic horror films, there is just an imbalance between story and violence. Look at the Terrifier franchise. The first film has no story, while the second film tries so hard to force a story that doesn’t work. Damien Leone took the criticism of Terrifier having no story and tried course correcting. Only he hydroplaned in the process. Megalomaniac tells a heartwrenching story of a brother and sister who live in the shadow of their father’s serial killings, only they might be closer to the person he is than they’d like to admit. Brutally unflinching, Megalomaniac is a darkly tragic tale of nihilism, pain, and family.

9. Inside (2007) 

This entry will most likely be the only Christmas film on the list, those are some weird wires to cross. Collaborators Maury and Bustillo sliced their way into the scene with their debut feature, Inside, which helped bring more eyes to the New French Extremity movement. As with the films of this movement, Inside is steeped in social commentary. Where Inside differs from films of this ilk is how it doesn’t compromise its commentary for the sake of violence. There’s a haunting juxtaposition between what the film tries to say and how it handles the extreme violence. The biggest example of this comes to light with the use of a riot gun later in the film. This mirrors the use of extreme force by French police against protestors (which is still going on today). 

I would wager to say the majority of viewers picked this film up based on the brutal Dimension Extreme cover art. Walking through the aisles of a Blockbuster and seeing the title with the word “UNRATED” in blood-red text overtop a pair of bloody and rusty scissors hovering over a pregnant stomach was enough to catch my attention, although not in a positive way. I distinctly remember being scared to walk past this film whenever I went to Blockbuster as a kid. Well, I was 13, but still. Once Inside kicks off, it doesn’t stop. The film is relentlessly grotesque with impressively stomach-churning practical effects. And who can forget the staircase scene? 

8. A Serbian Film (2010)

Like Cannibal Holocaust, A Serbian Film is the only other film I found on every list I researched. Through disturbing horror threads I’ve taken part in from Twitter, to Facebook, to Reddit, A Serbian Film is the most hotly contested. For some reason, half of the people in these threads say it’s the most disturbing film ever, while the other half think it shouldn’t be on the list at all. Personally, I don’t understand how it can’t be on a list like this. 

Let’s just go over a few things: eye-hole copulation, beheadings, graphic sexual assault on an adult, graphic sexual assault on a child (both alive and dead), and double murder-suicide. I know I made a joke earlier about being all gatekeepy when it comes to what can/can’t be described as disturbing horror, but I really draw the line here. Sure, films like American Guinea Pig and August Underground are disgusting. Still, there’s something about the high production value of A Serbian Film that brings a higher sense of validity and terror that these other films don’t have. Not saying August Underground or American Guinea Pig hide behind lower production quality. All I’m saying is it’s easier to hide behind film grain and low-budget cameras to sell your product. 

7. We Are The Flesh (2016) 

We Are The Flesh is one of a handful of films to receive a D certification in Mexico, a rating typically reserved for pornography. The mid-teens were fraught with highly sexually explicit films. This was [possibly] kicked off by the hypersexual Under the Skin. Films like Heli and The Untamed took the idea of hypersexuality and amped it up tenfold. We Are The Flesh, and Love took that tenfold and amped THAT up tenfold. Both of these films had the audacity to include unsimulated sex, something that is pretty taboo in the film world. 

While Love is more of a drama, lacking any true disturbing elements, We Are The Flesh is 80 minutes of unadulterated unsimulated sex…between siblings…at the request of an older man in exchange for food and shelter. If the sexual acts were implied, this would have been a bit more palatable, but the obscenely intense and frequent sex scenes with visible penetration, again between siblings, make We Are The Flesh a truly disturbing film. 

6. Slaughtered Vomit Dolls

This is definitely where subjectivity comes into play, as Lucifer Valentine sort of spearheaded, what he calls, the vomit gore subgenre. And vomit is not my thing. Now this is not me equating anyone who has a vomit fetish to being gross or disturbing, it’s just not for me. Now, you might be saying SVD isn’t even the most disturbing film in the subgenre’s subgenre, but watching one of them was more than enough for me. 

*Exasperated sigh* If you’re looking for vomit, face skinnings, more vomit, screwdriver eyeball removals, and bloody vomit then Slaughtered Vomit Dolls is for you. Moving on. 

5. Grotesque (2009)

Sometimes, disturbing films don’t need a second viewing, and for me, Grotesque is one of those films. When a film has something to say, like the New French Extremity movement, it makes the gore and viscera a bit easier to digest. The story within Grotesque is barebones and is a story in the sense that Terrifier has a story because it follows Art the Clown killing people. Shiraishi was elated with the backlash from his film stating his intent with the film was to upset moralists. I think that tells you all you need to know about the film. His intent behind it wasn’t to tell a story about love and its boundlessness; instead, he just wanted to shock, and that’s where the disturbing horror subgenre gets a bad name from. 

4. Nekromantik (1988)

Banned in multiple countries and labeled, “the first ever erotic film for necrophiliacs,” by John Waters, Nekromantik isn’t a film to shake a stick at. Graphic depictions of necrophilia carry the disturbing torch of this film. Crazily enough, when this film was released in 1988, it was met with surprisingly favorable reviews. I think this shows how disturbing horror can be done right and well. Nekromantik blends commentary and shock to tell an effectively ghastly tale. 

It’s full of exactly what you’re thinking, and it’s pretty graphic. But the scenes of sexuality aren’t the only disturbing elements. There is some violent brutality within the film, though that’s definitely not where the film gets its notoriety from. There is a point to this film, and I find it surprising how many of the films in my top 11 are well-made films. Maybe that’s because I shy away from the type of disturbing films that serve no purpose as films and have no point of existence (looking at you Slaughtered Vomit Dolls). I tend to avoid films that are purposefully intended to make you hate yourself for taking the time to watch them.

3. The Angels’ Melancholia (2009)

Get this. A woman gives a man oral sex. Then she vomits it up while simultaneously cutting herself. And that’s tame compared to the rest of the film. 

Thank you, next.

2. The Human Centipede (First Sequence) 

SIKE.

2. Martyrs (2008) 

So, 2015’s Martyrs…just kidding. Two jokes in a row! I’m just honestly drained at this point. Writing this has been hell. The films I’ve watched in short succession to write this piece have made me a shell of a human. What are we talking about? Oh yeah, Martyrs. 

Martyrs is a disturbingly accessible horror film. It’s on many respectable top 100 horror film lists and is the film that gets a lot of gore hounds into the subgenre. Unlike most films on this list, Martyrs has a truly interesting and deep story, which is used to exacerbate the on-screen atrocities. Full of realistic practical effects that push the boundaries of depravity, this film is one of a kind. If you haven’t seen it you really must. Fair warning: it will set the bar incredibly high for disturbing horror films. 

1. Philosophy of a Knife (2008) 

Well, here’s number one. We have Andrey Iskanov’s docu-drama Philosophy of a Knife. Intent and application don’t always go hand in hand when making a film. Philosophy of a Knife has possible good intentions behind it, bringing light to wartime atrocities, but whether or not they pulled it off is questionable. This film, like Grotesque, does not need a revisit. A mixture of documentary footage and near-accurate recreations of torture, this film isn’t one to scoff at. The reason it’s number one on this list is just for the fact it is based on real-life events. 

The story behind Philosophy is incredible as it brings the story of Manshu Detachment 731 to light, something much of the world might not be too knowledgeable about. If you’re unfamiliar, here is the TL;DR: during World War II, the Imperial Japanese Army had two prisons where they committed acts of brutality and torture in pursuit of “research.” Unit 731 has an estimated 200,000 to 300,000 deaths on their hands. Is this film necessary? Debatable. Is it poignant, and does it open our eyes to how awful the human race is? Absolutely. 

If you want to see decapitation, white phosphorous to the face, and forcible fetus removal, then this film is for you. My only question is, why do you want to see that? 

So what do you think about our list? Are we missing any crazy disturbing movies? Care to tell us how soft we are? Let us know in the comments!