Most Disturbing Movies Ever Made

"People are afraid of themselves, of their own reality; their feelings most of all. People talk about how great love is, but that's bulls**t. Love hurts. Feelings are disturbing. People are taught that pain is evil and dangerous. How can they deal with love if they're afraid to feel? Pain is meant to wake us up. People try to hide their pain. But they're wrong. Pain is something to carry, like a radio. You feel your strength in the experience of pain. It's all in how you carry it. That's what matters. Pain is a feeling. Your feelings are a part of you. Your own reality. If you feel ashamed of them, and hide them, you're letting society destroy your reality. You should stand up for your right to feel your pain." ~ Jim Morrison.

I somehow find this quote as an explanation to the behavioral pattern of almost every single psychologically disturbed character, portrayed in some of the most disturbing movies ever made. I feel that they are somehow the only ones in touch with their inhuman, ultimately gruesome and ugly side of human nature, after shedding every shred of the garb of inhibition and civility.

I do not approve of their behavior and abysmal indulgence in cruelty, inflicted on self or others, but at the same time, I am shocked at their capacity to be what they really are, to tread upon the path of freedom to unleash their innermost instincts and accept the truth as it is. "Bestiality", if we can call it that, as I cannot believe that animals are capable of such abject cruelty, is their reality and that is how they go about life. So, here I give you some of the best studies of human behavior and hidden passions, through this most disturbing movies list.

Most Disturbing Movies of All Time
Most of these movies left me in a disturbed and turmoiled stupor, as is the case whenever we are made to think out of the conservative box. However, I shall list them chronologically so as to avoid any debate about ranking. Here goes.

Salò (1975)
Banned in multiple countries, this disturbing Italian film is based on Marquis de Sade's notorious novel "Le120 giornate de Sodoma" which translates to "The 120 Days of Sodom". Director Pier Paolo Paolini, who was brutally murdered a few days after the film was released, essentially depicted how with power comes the general tendency to annihilate the weak, just for the sake of pleasure. The story of a Bishop, a Duke (Duc de Blangis), the Magistrate and the President of the Republic of Salò, who pick the choicest examples of 9 young men and 9 maidens and inflict the most abhorrent sadistic methods of torture on them just for sexual pleasure, leaves the viewer paralyzed with shock. You have to see to believe the perverseness that actually exists in the human world.

Jacob's Ladder (1990)
"Eckhart saw Hell too; he said: 'the only thing that burns in Hell is the part of you that won't let go of life, your memories, your attachments. They burn them all away. But they're not punishing you,' he said. 'They're freeing your soul. So, if you're frightened of dying and... you're holding on, you'll see devils tearing your life away. But if you've made your peace, then the devils are really angels, freeing you from the earth.'"

A deadly portrayal of the effects of inhuman and unethical experiments done on soldiers by military defense organizations, the film narrates the tale of an American war-fraught soldier called Jacob Singer (Tim Robbins), who is wounded in the Vietnam war and plagued by illogical bizarre hallucinations and past retentions, that defy all chronological patterns and his subsequent mental turmoil, until he is able to detach himself from all earthly temptations and climb the Biblical ladder of Jacob all the way to heaven. Watch it and you shall know that physical pain is a hundred times easier to live with, than with a mind permanently scarred with the vision of the death of a dear one.

Begotten (1990)
This Elias Merhige movie gave me the impression that it is very literal and gory depiction of how the ruthless immorality of mankind has destroyed the existence of the divine consciousness that we choose to call God. The raping and killing of Mother Nature is the symbolic brutal delineation of man's ruthless exploitation of his habitat with the weapons of immorality and sheer greed. The abject remorseless depiction of disturbing distortion of this psychological tickler hammers the message home.

8mm (1999)
This Nicolas Cage starrer deals with the real sadomasochistic world that exists hand in hand with the porn industry, christened 'snuff porn'. The film revolves around a harmless looking 8mm film which happens to contain the filming of the cruel torturous murder of a girl, who had traveled to Hollywood with dreams of becoming a star. Snuff films are basically porn which show the mutilation and dismembering of people with the help of computer graphics, for viewers to draw sexual pleasure out of it. But what would you say if the person shown is actually hacked to death sans special effects? See, and you'll know the chilling sensation I am talking about.

Irréversible (2002)
With exactly thirteen scenes and a motion that moves from present to past, I shall not lie that I too was tempted to watch this Gaspar Noi movie for its controversial 9 minute long Monica Bellucci underpass rape scene. But believe me, this French film left me in shatters. You cannot sit through those nine minutes without feeling raped and outraged yourself and please do not see this film if all you are looking forward to is mindless sensational skin show. Few girls shall not cry in agony after seeing this film.

August Underground Mordum (2003)
Remember snuff porn films that I had spoken about earlier? Well, this movie has nothing to offer but pleasure to those who enjoy watching other people getting tortured and killed. As simple as that. Also, the purpose of the 5 directors (Jerami Cruise, Killjoy, Mike Schneider, Fred Vogel, Cristie Whiles), who spent such precious time to come up with something like this, could have been to make a visual dictionary for different terms that deal with variant murder as well as sexual perverseness such as "pedophilia", "infanticide" and "necrophilia". You shall actually enjoy the movie "Nekromantik" after seeing this mindless portrayal of human mindlessness. It will make you wonder what other convolutions exist in the human brain, other than the ones that are visually apparent.

Oldboy (2003)
Remember the 2007 Virginia Tech shootout carried out by mentally disturbed student, Seung-Hui Cho and his pre-murder photographs carrying a hammer resembling a character from a Korean movie? Well, "Old Boy" is that movie. Even though how far Cho was influenced by it is immeasurable of course, see the movie to understand why it made it to the list!

Hard Candy (2005)
I request all men, especially aspiring pedophiles, to see this film as you shall know what surprise fate might spring on you on a fine day! Please watch it and you shall understand what visual pain denotes.

The House of Wax (2005)
I believe that criminals are often born out of infants who are manipulated in at a very young age. See a new face of wax art in this film. What lies beneath those wax layers of the statues, well that what I know and you should definitely find out!

The Hills Have Eyes (2006)
If you wish to know the anguish that can wash over your mental faculties when you see a mother being raped by genetically deformed mutant as her baby's at gunpoint and a father crying for help when they are set on fire, watch this remake of the 1977 flick of the same name. Disturbed you shall be alright!

The Girl Next Door (2007)
When two sisters are turned into tools for extraction of pleasure through infliction of sexual tortures and physical abuses, by their aunt, the neighborhood kids join her in her endeavors. Disturbing factor? Well the film lives up to its tagline message "In this town, murder became the neighborhood game".

So, that's it folks. I leave you to watch these films with extreme discretion, as they are far from quintessentially happy-go-lucky. You can also check out "Orphan" to see the wreckage, mental and physical, that a hypopituitarism patient can potentially cause in a happy family of five. The special thing about these movies is that they will leave you thinking afterwards and stay with you for times to come. I agree, that some of them were made to serve the entertainment seeking buds of the public and are good movies to watch when bored, but they have the necessary dose of that plus, something more to offer. Look beyond the blood and gore, judge them individually, sans the help of the movie reviews, and you'll know what it is that I wish to convey about these most disturbing movies ever made.