Movies don’t always have to rely on tried-and-tested tropes to scare the average viewer. Sometimes, the casual manner in which characters are subjected to physical and emotional pain highlights how evil exists everywhere. The unflinching depiction of events that should disturb a person makes films like The Strangers, Speak No Evil, and certain others stand out.

Whether they feature extreme violence, psychological manipulation, or a painful reality portrayed onscreen, we’ve compiled a list of films that show how unchecked cruelty is a fear-inducing prospect on its own. This vibe isn’t limited to just horror – you’ll find films from various genres, all of which have you questioning humanity.

1

The Last House on the Left

• Photo:
  • Hallmark Releasing, American International Pictures

What It’s About: Two girls are captured by a group of assailants who subject them to intense and horrifying assault. After realizing their hiding spot belongs to the parents of one of their victims, the villains attempt to harm them as well – only to find themselves facing brutal and unforgiving revenge.

Why It’s Disturbing: The Last House on the Left has been a terrifying watch for five decades and counting. The majority of the film details how disturbingly the girls are manhandled, dehumanized, and ultimately slain. The portrayal is not only unsettling but remains controversial for how openly such a terrible degradation of human life is depicted. It’s so infuriating that viewers end up encouraging the parents’s savage revenge with absolute glee.

2

Hostel

• Photo:
  • Lions Gate Films

What It’s About: American tourists Paxton and Josh travel across Europe, coming across a seemingly idyllic town. However, their dreams turn into nightmares after they’re captured by an organization whose clientele specializes in torture.

Why It’s Disturbing: Hostel is a lot to stomach even for fans of horror gore. The film depicts torture in extremely graphic detail, making viewers grimace and wince with the brutality on display. The people committing the crimes have a disturbingly casual energy, taking lives with a kind of glee that is eerie to fathom.

3

Funny Games

• Photo:
  • Attitude Films

What It’s About: Two men break into a family’s holiday home and come up with increasingly sadistic “games” to torture their hostages with.

Why It’s Disturbing: Funny Games might just be the original “torture p*rn” movie. The violence is completely unwarranted, with the bad guys offering no justification for why they’ve targeted the family. In fact, the movie is meant to be viewed with a satirical lens, and the villains break the fourth wall to inform audiences how things are going to get worse. Unlike many other horror films, even a child is unsafe here, as the men devise terrifying scenarios to harm the family while having the time of their lives.

4

Speak No Evil

Did you know?

Speak No Evil is also ranked #17 of 51 on The Best Scary Movies That Are Not Rated R

• Photo:
  • Shudder

What It’s About: A family is invited to a farmhouse by a couple they’ve befriended. However, they soon begin to regret this decision after their hosts slowly reveal the devious plans they have in store for them.

Why It’s Disturbing: Speak No Evil revolves around a cat-and-mouse game between the protagonists and the villains. The slow build toward the true nature of the bad guys is deeply unsettling, as the couple reveals their sickening pleasure from tormenting the family. The villains treat things like removing a child’s tongue, drowning someone, and engaging in inappropriate sexual activity in front of the family as part of their twisted ritual.

5

The Strangers

• Photo:
  • Universal Pictures

What It’s About: Kristen and James arrive at their isolated cabin, realizing too late that a trio of crazed killers is hunting them.

Why It’s Disturbing: The Strangers never explains why these killers have it out for the couple. The ambiguity behind their motives is spine-chilling, as the murderers stalk, capture, and torture the pair for nothing more than their sick enjoyment. The film dangles a thread of hope in front of its protagonists and the audience, yet that tide-turning moment of triumph never arrives. The idea that this could very well happen to you is what heightens the film’s fear factor.

6

Requiem for a Dream

• Photo:
  • Artisan Entertainment

What It’s About: Four people in Brooklyn, New York, deal with an intense addiction to drugs. Foregoing any attempts to control their vices, the characters spiral into a toxic circle of desperation and dependency, destroying their lives in the process.

Why It’s Disturbing: Requiem for a Dream is a harrowing viewing experience, mainly because of how true-to-life it is. It’s not a horror movie, but the way it portrays real-life issues with substance abuse might as well qualify it as one. Watching the characters shed all dignity and self-respect just for fleeting bouts of ecstasy is torturous – particularly during scenes when Marion sells herself in a publicly humiliating fashion. No one is treated with basic human decency.

7

A Clockwork Orange

• Photo:
  • Warner Bros.

What It’s About: In a dystopian future, Britain is rampant with crime and vandalism. Delinquent criminal Alex DeLarge is incarcerated and subjected to psychological conditioning that pushes him to the brink of madness.

Why It’s Disturbing: A Clockwork Orange is designed to make viewers uncomfortable. Alex and his gang’s horrible acts of “ultra-violence” are far from a pretty sight – the gang strolls into other people’s properties and has their way with them. Whether the characters are assaulting women, beating men to death, or even attacking each other, the film pushes every moral boundary. With even the authorities engaging in inhumane experiments, the film’s universe is a grim depiction of a future truly without hope.

8

The House That Jack Built

Did you know?

The House That Jack Built is also ranked #4 of 23 on The 23 Most Pretentious Horror Movies Ever Made

• Photo:
  • TrustNordisk, Les Films du Losange

What It’s About: Failed architect Jack is determined to create a work of art inspired by Dante’s Inferno. To complete his masterpiece, he goes on a long killing spree, claiming countless lives and acquiring bodies that fill up his storage room to the brim.

Why It’s Disturbing: The House That Jack Built is shown from the point of view of the titular character. As such, the violence is as raw and visceral as you can imagine. Jack stacks up all the bodies of his victims, which are shown in various states of undress. Not only does Jack not feel the slightest empathy, but director Lars von Trier’s positioning of him as the protagonist makes the viewer complicit in his crimes.

9

Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer

• Photo:
  • Greycat Films

What It’s About: Henry is a killer without a purpose, living with his deranged friend Otis, whom he tempts into following his path. After Otis’s sister arrives, Henry finds himself questioning his way of life, while using violence as his only crutch.

Why It’s Disturbing: Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer takes viewers into the lives of people for whom morality and human ethics mean nothing. Henry and Otis engage in creepy, deplorable, and heinous actions without so much as flinching. Otis, in particular, is pushed into accepting his worst impulses, and is even attracted to his own sister. Henry’s murders are normalized over the course of the film, and you’ll be forgiven for wanting this experience to be over as soon as possible.

10

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre

• Photo:
  • Bryanston Distributing Company

What It’s About: A group of friends stumble across an abandoned house in rural Texas. Unfortunately, they run afoul of a family of cannibals out to devour them.

Why It’s Disturbing: The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is credited by many as propelling the slasher genre into popularity. But the first entry remains far more disturbing than the rest in the franchise, mainly because of how casually the villains treat the fact that they’re mutilating people. There’s an incredible abundance of blood and gore onscreen – so much so that you’re certain to avert your eyes more than once. The sheer sadism from the family members – and the now-iconic Leatherface – make the film memorably macabre.

11

Knock Knock

• Photo:
  • Lionsgate Premiere

What It’s About: Family man Evan Webber finds two stranded women at his door, eventually giving in to their powers of seduction. Unfortunately for him, his momentary weakness results in a twisted “game” where the women decide to humiliate him in more ways than one.

Why It’s Disturbing: Knock Knock will make you squirm in your seat watching the injustice that the main character goes through. The villains never get their just deserts – instead, the duo spends the film delighting in torturing Evan both physically and mentally. By the end, it’s more of a contest over who can torment the man in a more creative way. Considering he finds himself half-buried in his backyard, it’s probably a tie.

12

Saw: The Final Chapter

• Photo:
  • Lionsgate

What It’s About: With his identity as Jigsaw’s successor exposed, Mark Hoffman sets about to eliminate the entire police force. Meanwhile, the game featuring the final victim Jigsaw targeted before his demise begins.

Why It’s Disturbing: Saw 3D, or Saw: The Final Chapter, was meant to conclude the series. Unlike previous installments, where the gore was part of the consequences of the characters’s ill-fated decisions, this entry features a lot of bloodshed as part of Hoffman’s killing spree. The other games in progress also feature various forms of brutal deaths, with the final one among the series’s most horrifying traps ever.