Most Disturbing Films Ever Made

This movie is psychologically disruptive. Picture The Matrix, but there is absolutely nothing you can do about it, and everyone around you thinks you’re going insane because you know such a tin-foil-hat-crazy secret–that’s They Live.

This 1968 film is where things began getting strange in the film industry. Rosemary’s Baby shocked audiences because they had genuinely never seen something grotesque and morose on the silver screen before.

Hausu is a Japanese cult classic released in 1977. The film is half animated, half live-action making it completely and totally bizarre. Hausu is actually labeled as a horror-comedy starring all amateur actors.

Nope, this is not a silly comedy like Flubber. Rubber actually follows a bloodthirsty tire that has a crush on a real human woman–no, we didn’t make that up. This movie is super disturbing and plain weird. Whoever came up with this idea is a special, special person…

This 1979 movie practically invented space horror and is just as unsettling as the H. R. Giger artwork it originated from. Chaos ensues when the crew of starship Nostromo encounters an alien egg nest inside an alien vessel…

Eraserhead came out in 1977, and to this day the movie still perplexes critics, viewers, and prop designers alike. This experimental body horror film, directed by David Lynch was not only spooky and weird, but nobody has any idea how the Eraserhead baby actually worked.

Jacob’s Ladder was a 1990 psychological thriller flick. Veterans and civilians alike were equally freaked out, as character Jacob Singer returns from Afghanistan and is lodged in a twisted state of paranoia.

Creepy and grotesque, this 1971 film will make you squirm. Set in a futuristic England, this cult classic is truly ahead of its time.

This is the first completely animated movie to make the list. Akira is psychologically challenging, and it’s full of body horror.

Videodrome is more of an Akira-style body-horror movie, released right before Akira. This movie resembles a cross between Bladerunner and The Thing, and we love it.

Annihilation is a more recent film on this list, created in 2018. The film is metaphorically and environmentally disturbing. The cast included Natalie Portman and Gina Rodriguez and directed by AlexGarland of Ex Machina.

SAW kicked off the fine era of torture movies. SAW was an absolute hit in its own gruesome, sadistic way.

The Shining, debuting in 1980, is arguably the most important horror movie ever made. It was so popular because it was a disturbingly deranged psychological horror starring Jack Nicholson as a writer who becomes a caretaker at a Colorado hotel to cure his writer’s block…

This movie seemed to come out of nowhere in 2015. This Netflix only streamable version of The VVitch shocked audiences with its authenticity to the time period, and its leg-shakingly scary plot.

This classic was popular for a reason. The plot involved a videotape that, if viewed, would make certain your demise within 7 days time. When a reporter decides to watch it, she only has a week to figure out just how it leads to death…

The most disturbing thing in this movie is the human interactions. If you liked Hereditary, you’ll enjoy this one. A single mother is plagued by the violent death of her husband all the while battling her son’s fear of a monster lurking under his bed…

Have you ever felt like you were being watched? This movie embodies that feeling of wanting to be alone but knowing you aren’t. Not to mention the whole fatal curse being passed through sex thing…

If you don’t like medical stuff, especially needles, this isn’t the movie for you. While it’s beautifully shot, this 2012 film is terrifying on all accounts.

This 2011 NC-17-rated film will hurt something inside of you that you never knew you had. This movie, starring Ezra Miller, John C. Reilly, and Tilda Swinton, follows a couple and their child Kevin, who turns out to be a sociopathic teen who commits a horrific act. As chilling as it sounds, it is also really good.

This movie is gore-city. A teen outcast practices surgical procedures and lives out violent, psychosexual fantasies.

This found-footage flick conveys one of the most universally hated feelings, being watched. A videographer answers an online ad for a job for a man that wants to make a film for his unborn child, and as the day unfolds, his requests get weirder and weirder…

This was Jordan Peele’s directorial debut, and he nailed it. He meshed social commentary with traditional horror in Get Out, and it was so well done that it has now opened the door for a new wave of scary movies.