Everyone needs a good scare every once in a while, and these movies surely will satisfy that craving for a long time. Some of the films on this list are so disturbing, just reading the descriptions will give you the chills.
Watch at your own risk…
Get Out
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.
Rosemary’s Baby
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.
House
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.
Rubber
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…
Alien
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
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
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.
A Clockwork Orange
Creepy and grotesque, this 1971 film will make you squirm. Set in a futuristic England, this cult classic is truly ahead of its time.
Akira
This is the first completely animated movie to make the list. Akira is psychologically challenging, and it’s full of body horror.
Videodrome
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.
They Live
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.
Annihilation
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
SAW kicked off the fine era of torture movies. SAW was an absolute hit in its own gruesome, sadistic way.
The Shining
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…
The VVitch
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.
The Ring
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 Babadook
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…
It Follows
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…
Antiviral
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.
We Need to Talk About Kevin
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.
Excision
This movie is gore-city. A teen outcast practices surgical procedures and lives out violent, psychosexual fantasies.
The Vanishing
This is the unsung hero of psychological-thriller movies. The Vanishing is about three lighthouse keepers on an isolated island who find an object that becomes the catalyst to a struggle for survival.
Creep
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…
Hannibal
This movie is a deep dive into the strange mind of serial killer, Hannibal Lecter, seven years after he escapes custody. His obsession with Clarice is the tool used to draw him out of hiding…
The Strangers
While it is highly unlikely that you will be confronted by masked murderers when you’re on vacation deep in the woods, it is not impossible, and The Strangers will make that fear all the more believable.
Enemy
We love Jake Gyllenhaal, and his performance in this film is significantly different from other works, especially Donny Darko. Enemy is about a college professor who discovers a look-alike actor that delves into the private life of another man.
Green Room
The Green Room is everything that is punk rock, including a nasty scene when some dude has to tape his arm back together. This slasher is a celebration of punks fighting against nazi posers.
The End of Evangelion
A late 90s drama/fantasy, this is arguably one of the most important pieces of animation in history, but make sure to watch Neon Genesis Evangelion first.
Perfect Blue
This movie is about stalking and given recent news, we could all learn a thing or two from watching Perfect Blue.
The House That Jack Built
This movie is so disturbing that it verges on comical. With an all-star cast and a director with a seriously disturbing vision for his films, this movie is a borderline masterpiece. Matt Dillon plays Jack, a brilliant serial killer who’s been on a spree for 12 years. Some of the depictions of violence chased people away from the theaters.
Bite
After being bitten by some kind of strange insect in Costa Rica, a young woman starts to transform into an insect-like creature who needs human flesh to feed her eggs. Bite is swimming with body horror, so much so that the first viewers of the flick were given themed vomit bags when entering the theater.
Revenge
Revenge is about a woman who was left for dead after her boyfriend and his friends attacked her and dropped her in the desert. This movie is gory, disturbing, and not at all uplifting…proceed with caution.
The Green Inferno
Made by Eli Roth, the creator of ‘Hostel,’ the former gold medal holder for the most disturbing movie of all time, The Green Inferno tops that and then some. When Justine and Alejandro’s flight crashes in the Peruvian jungle, they get held captive by a tribe of hungry cannibals…
Raw
Raw is about a vegetarian veterinarian who tastes meat for the first time and loses control. If medical horror, dismemberment, and cannibalism isn’t your thing, you might not want to tune in for this one.
Hereditary
Hereditary was a game-changing film, not because of its setting or theme, but because of the writing and acting. If you think you can handle a standard horror film, Hereditary will take that and crank it up to 11 for you.
A Serbian Film
This movie is not for the faint of heart, and it absolutely IS NOT okay for children to watch. A Serbian Film is about an adult film actor floundering for cash, who agrees to work on some movies that forced him to commit horrific acts of violence and torture to his co-stars. This movie is actually banned in seven countries.
Meet the Feebles
Meet the Feebles covers topics like lust, drug use, terminal illness, war, greed, and if you can believe it, golf. If you have the stomach for the nastiest puppet movie ever created, give this one a watch.
Mother
This is a biblical film but in the most abstract sense imaginable. This 2017 psychological-horror film follows the characters Mother and Him, an allusion to God and Mother Earth. As the movie progresses, the scenes get more confusing, disorienting, and violent.
Caligula
This film was made to accurately attempt to depict the life of Caligula, one of the rulers of the Roman Empire. This was originally political satire but turned into something much more unsavory. One of the original directors disavowed the film, and it is banned in several countries.
The Human Centipede II
The sequel to the cult classic The Human Centipede does not shy away from gore, disturbing imagery, and torture. A deranged fan of the original film follows in the footsteps of the German surgeon who got the ball rolling, this one is literally four times as disturbing as the first.
Veronica
This Netflix original shook the world in 2018 when it was dubbed by critics as “the scariest horror film ever made.” Words do not do this movie justice. This film is notorious for its ability to make audiences shy away halfway though, only the dumbest and boldest can make it through.
Martyrs
We recommend you watch the American version of this film before you watch the original French version. Martyrs is a film that gives even the biggest horror fans the heebie-jeebies. If you’re spooked by torture and brutal murders, you might want to skip this one.
The Woman
This film is rumored to be a commentary about removing cultural norms in order to make some people “easier to exist with,” however, the director takes that idea and throws the whole thing out the window. This movie is seriously disturbing.
The Bunny Game
This very well may be one of the scariest movies ever made. Every single thing that happened in this film ACTUALLY happened to the protagonist and co-creator Roldeen Gestic. Aside from the on-camera drug and alcohol abuse, every event in this film was experienced by Gestic, and she has the scars to prove it. You should watch this film, but you shouldn’t enjoy it.
Baskin
This is the most accurate depiction of evil since the movie Hellraiser, except Baskin is much more gruesome. The setting of this film is actually Hell, and the characters are put through Hell–full circle, you know?
Requiem for a Dream
This film is about the dangers of narcotics and abusing prescription drugs. Requiem for a Dream is beautifully filmed, gripping, and sad. Viewers might turn away halfway through because they are afraid of seeing the truth behind what narcotics can truly do a person. This depiction is as real as it gets.
Gummo
This movie isn’t outwardly, in your face disturbing, but it makes a statement about depression, neglect, and decay better than most. This dark, dissonant, and seemingly genreless collection of chaotic imagery will absolutely churn your stomach. This one is a must-watch.
The Girl Next Door
This movie is incredibly unsettling. The story is loosely based on a true crime case from 1965, where a girl named Sylvia Likens was tortured and killed by her next-door neighbor. This is one film you might want to avoid on a first date.
I Spit on Your Grave
Based on a true event, I Spit on Your Grave is about a woman seeking deadly revenge on her abusers after experiencing multiple cases of sexual abuse. It’s depressing and vile but a feminist masterpiece at its core.
Goodnight Mommy
When a stranger comes to their house pretending to be their mother after facial reconstruction surgery, two 10-year-old twins conspire against their “mother” in order to get to the bottom of this stranger’s secret.
PIG
This movie only had two public showings, despite positive critical reviews because if its depictions of loss, murder, torture, and cannibalism.
Antichrist
Following the death of their son, a young couple seeks to isolate themselves in a cabin in the woods to gain some clarity about the experience. While in isolation, the couple begins to experience strange and violent tendencies and begin to harm each other.
Audition
This 1999 Japanese cult classic is tempting and terrifying. The antagonist tortures the protagonist with pins and needles more and more every day until…
Attack of the Adult Babies
This film is a disturbing portrayal of the actions of unusual “adults” as they transform from adult babies into disgusting pig creatures. Kind of like Spirited Away, but grosser.
A Field in England
This 17th-century story follows a bizarre witch doctor/alchemist and the people he kept hostage to search for buried treasure. One catch, he dosed his slaves with massive amounts of hallucinogenic mushrooms and forces them to work in the sun for long hours–creativity at its finest.
Valhalla Rising
A Viking, nicknamed One-Eye is a ruthless fighter who travels with Christian Crusade fighters to eradicate North American indigenous folk who were, at the time, plagued by dark and violent visions. Tons of guts and decapitations in this flick, if you’re into that sort of thing.
Snowtown
This movie is a true retelling of the tragic Snowtown murders in Australia in 1992-1999. They were the most tragic murders in modern Australian history. This film follows a troubled young man who joins with another likeminded individual, and they encourage each other to commit these murders.
The Act of Killing
This documentary, directed partially by Anwar Congo, who was a former gangster that was involved in the genocide of over 1,000,000 people, is about the dark and terrible ways that genocide is made possible–it is bone-chilling, and it is real.
Natural Born Killers
If you haven’t taken the time to watch this classic yet, do yourself a big favor and watch it. This movie is a followup regarding the highly televised Manson murders and is chock full of violence, car chases, and political rhetoric, this movie is an unbelievable hit.
Funny Games
Funny Games is like Scream, but so violent that it couldn’t be shown in theaters.
120 Days of Sodom
Made in 1975, 120 Days of Sodom or Saló as it was also referred, was made to purely disgust the viewer. This movie is hard to watch in 2019, let alone in the 70s.
Cannibal Holocaust
This movie masqueraded as a found footage film, and they did such a good job of making this look like such that the director got arrested on obscenity charges and then arrested for murder. Real talk.