100 Most Disturbing Horror Movies Netflix Amazon Prime (2022 Psychologically Traumatizing)

Warning: The movies listed here are extremely disturbing, violent, and sadistic. I wouldn't recommend them to you if you have heart problems or don't want to develop them in the future.

You might have seen horror films that scare you whenever you think about them, but have you ever sat through a movie that not only scares you, but also disturbs your mood, nervous system, and thoughts? It would be logical to stay away from such movies, but many film lovers have developed a taste for such disturbing flicks. These kind of films are said to be based on or inspired by real life events.

Personally, I get too scared while watching such exploitation movies. I have seen a few of these, and they were enough to make me want to stay away from such torture flicks. I have seen a few of these torture flicks, and they were enough to make me want to stay away forever. I want to avoid watching any more disturbing movies so badly that I have made a list of movies that I will never watch again. This is that list.

These 10 movies were selected based on the level of violence, torture, and sadism they contain. Movies that are based on true life events were preferred over fictional films. Some movies on the list have won many reputable awards, performed exceptionally well at the box office, and received critical acclaim. Other movies were almost unheard of when first released, but gained notoriety later on.

As I do not watch such films, chances are I might have missed a few popular disturbing movies. I would be more than happy to add them to the list if you make me aware of the omission in the comments.

Frankly speaking, I haven't seen all the films listed here. I do not have the stomach to watch sadism and masochism in films.

The list here represents the most sadistic horror and gore movies. I did lots of research to come up with this final list. If you've seen any of the horror films listed here and thought that it was too much for you, than vote for it in the poll at the end of this article.

Please note that you may even find movies that are not of horror genre but were still disturbing due to the theme or plot; feel free to add these in the comments as well.

1. Battle Royale
2. Jacob's Ladder
3. Freaks
4. Blue Velvet
5. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
6. Waltz With Bashir
7. In My Skin
8. 71 Fragments of a Chronology of Chance
9. The Seventh Continent
10. Trash Humpers
11. The Piano Teacher
12. La Vie Nouvelle
13. Kichiku Dai Enkai
14. Emanuelle in America
15. Blindness
16. Scrapbook
17. Killing Zoe
18. Man Bites Dog
19. Baby of Macon
20. Trouble Every Day
21. Tarnation
22. Cache
23. Kika
24. Kids
25. Johnny Got His Gun
26. Benny's Video
27. American Psycho
28. La Grande Bouffe
29. The Idiots
30. I Stand Alone
31. The Cook, The Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover
32. Murder Set Pieces
33. Them
34. Altered
35. Inland Empire
36. Elephant
37. Lilja 4-ever
38. American Crime
39. Little Otik (Otesanek)
40. An Andalusian Dog
41. A Zed & Two Noughts (Z+00)
42. Precious
43. Isolation
44. Cube Zero
45. Possession
46. Maniac
47. Threads
48. Gummo
49. The Orphanage
50. Taxidermia
51. Sombre
52. White Noise
53. Dark Water
54. Thirst
55. El Topo
56. Hard Candy
57. Eden Lake
58. Videodrome
59. Children
60. Calvaire: The Ordeal
61. Happiness
62. High Tension
63. The Eye
64. The Devil's Rejects
65. Eraserhead
66. Nekromantik
67. Wolf Creek
68. Funny Games
69. Bad Lieutenant
70. Frontier
71. Teeth
72. Deadgirl
73. Ken Park
74. Requiem for a Dream
75. Oldboy
76. The Hills Have Eyes
77. A Clockwork Orange
78. The Exorcist
79. Hellraiser
80. Pink Flamingos
81. Flower of Flesh and Blood (Guinea Pig Series)
82. Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer
83. Last House On The Left
84. Irreversible
85. The Strangers
86. Sweet Movie
87. Cutting Moments
88. August Underground's MORDUM
89. The Human Centipede
90. Men Behind The Sun
91. Slaughtered Vomit Dolls
92. 3 Extremes
93. I Spit on Your Grave
94. Texas Chainsaw Massacre
95. Cannibal Holocaust
96. Audition
97. Inside
98. The Girl Next Door
99. Martyrs
100. Salo

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is a cult classic horror film directed by Tobe Hooper. The film may have received critical acclaim but you just cannot overlook its graphic depiction of gore, violence and torture. The original 1974 film was banned in parts of the US for more than seven years—in the UK, the film was denied a rating for 25 years. But the bans did not affect the film's success. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre spawned a large number of sequels, remakes, and reboots. The film is said to be based on real life events. However many people deny this and consider it to be purely fictional. Whatever the case, you can't deny that The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is disturbing, featuring scenes such as the one in which Leatherface kills his victims and cuts them into several parts before serving them to his family for dinner.

I got goosebumps while watching the ending chase scene of the original film. Since then, I have tried not to think about it; I am too scared to recall it exactly. If you choose, you can watch it below.

For fans of graphic gore, violence, and inhuman torture, I Spit on Your Grave is a masterpiece. The film is often mentioned in pop culture and on lists of best horror movies, not because of scary paranormal things, but because of its shocking violence, torture, pain, and disturbing images.

The film was made twice. Meir Zarchi wrote and directed the original in the later '70s, when the slasher genre was full of rape revenge films. However Meir's I Spit on Your Grave was so violent and controversial that it developed its own place in the list of beloved controversial movies. The 2010 remake of the film was praised by critics. Advances in visual effects made the violence shown in the film made the violence more real and raised the eyebrows of a few critics.

Here is my not-so-favorite scene from the film:

The film is based on the life of Henry Lee Lucas and his acquaintance Ottis Toole. They met in Florida in 1976 and stayed at Toole's apartment with his 12-year-old niece, Powell (the basis for Becky in the film), with whom Lucas had a sexual relationship. The duo went on a cross-country killing spree—Lucas later confessed to killing over 600 people. While newspapers pointed out the impossible logistics of such a sensational number, Lucas was convicted of 11 murders and the true number is probably higher.

Henry claimed that he and his nine elder brothers were victims of child abuse. His mother allegedly beat him often, without reason, and he once even went into a coma for three days. Lucas's first victim was his own mother.

The film outlines the cross-country run of Henry, Ottis, and Becky, during which the two men kill people without any reason. The duo choose random victims and occasionally kill people with whom they were annoyed. The film won many awards for best director, best actor, best actress, and best screenplay.

Here is the official trailer for the film:

The Girl Next Door is based on the 1989 novel of same name by Jack Ketchum. The novel was inspired by the murder case of Sylvia Likens in the mid '60s.

In actual events, Sylvia Likens and her sister, Jenny (both born to carnival workers), were sent to live with their aunt, Gertrude Baniszewski, in Indiana. Sylvia and Jenny agreed to pay $20 a week to Gertrude Baniszewski. However when the money didn't arrive in time, Gertrude started beating girls and focused her torture plans on Sylvia Likens. Gertrude began routinely abusing Sylvia, and allowed her children and other kids of neighborhood to do so as well. She was raped multiple times, forced to eat her own urine and feces, burned, and usually kept naked in the basement.

The film visualizes the horror that the two girls faced as a boy tries to help the girls escape from the house.

Here is the trailer for the sadistic film:

The most popular banned film of all time, Cannibal Holocaust is widely regarded as the pioneer film that led to popular use of the "found footage" formula in movies. Upon its initial release, the film was thought be a snuff film and a case was even filed against its director, Ruggero Deodato, because people claimed some of the actors were killed on camera during the filming. (For those who don't know about snuff films, they are a genre of films that show people actually getting murdered to add more reality to the film.) These rumors were later denied by the actors concerned. However, the actors did agree that they had no idea what kind of film was being made at the time.

The film takes place in an Amazon jungle where cannibal tribes are found. Some believe that the cannibals shown in the film are rea-life cannibals and they were provided with the meat and blood of animals to shoot for the film. Cannibal Holocaust includes disturbing images and videos of cannibalism and authentic footage of killing animals. The film was banned in several countries and remains banned in many of them to this day.

Here is the final scene from the film, which made me to go sad and silent for almost a week:

The film is based on the true event of human experimentation carried out by Unit 731 of the Japanese army during the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937-45). During that period, Japanese soldiers captured Russian and Chinese units and kept the soldiers as hostages. The hostages were then taken to Unit 731 of the Japanese army, where soldiers attempting to develop a biological weapon experimented upon them. However the unit was abandoned and the experimentation discontinued after the end of World War II.

Tun Fei Mou's movie depicts the torture and violence Unit 731 carried out on Russian and Chinese hostages. The film was banned in many countries due to disturbing content.

A signature torture clip from the film:

The Guinea Pig series consists of seven very famous slasher gore films that gained attention worldwide when Hollywood actor Charlie Sheen contacted the FBI, mistakenly reporting one as a snuff film. The most notorious film in the series is Flower of Flesh and Blood (the one that Sheen reported).

All seven films in the series have different stories, and each story concerns a human being taken as a hostage by a psychopath who experiments on his/her body just for fun. The films are pure fiction and is not based on any true event. However, they did inspire Japanese serial killer Tsutomu Miyazaki. The whole series is banned in several countries, and controversies related to movies arises from time to time.

A very sadistic scene from the Flowers of Flesh and Blood:

The Human Centipede tests your humanity and limits in facing torture and pain on screen. Dutch Director Tom Six came up with an awful fantasy idea of surgically attaching human beings from mouth to anus. The film focuses on Doctor Heiter, who drugs and kidnaps two female American tourists and a male Japanese tourist. He surgically joins them from mouth to anus with the male tourist (who cannot speak English to communicate with the others) in front. The three hostages are forced to crawl, as they can not walk, and eat each others feces during the exploitation course of the doctor.

Director Tom Six said that he was inspired by Salò and always wanted to make a film full of violence and sadism. The Human Centipede was controversial, getting banned in several countries. However the cult following of the original film allowed Tom to release a sequel in October 2011.

The expression of the victims in the film are horrifying:

The series was developed as independent exploitation films about two serial killers who go on a killing spree while filming their victims' last emotions. I literally vomited when I saw them killing their victims in a particularly horrifying manner. Please do not watch this film if you have heart problems, as it may affect your nervous system.

The first film is a sadistic attempt to capture the life of serial killers. The sequel, August Underground's Mordum, is considered much more disturbing and controversial then the original. Many thought it was a snuff film—the director, Fred Vogel, was even arrested on this charge before he dispelled the rumors. Part of the reason for these rumors may lie in the fact that Fred also stars in the film as one of the serial killers.

Here is the trailer of this controversial horror film:

This controversial film was based on The 120 Days of Sodom, a book by the Marquis de Sade. The film's director, Pier Paolo Pasolini of Italy, was murdered (run over multiple times with his own car) shortly before its release.

Salo revolves around four wealthy and powerful men of Salo (a town in Italy).The four men agree to marry each other's daughters. They take nine boys and nine girls as hostages along with four mature female sex workers. The hostages suffer tortures that include incidents of forced coprophagia (being compelled to eat feces) and rape. The film shows the pain and torture experienced by the hostages during a course of 120 days divided into four different sections. I tried to watch this movie but gave up when the torture began.

Here is a video review of the movie:

As the summer comes to an end, it is time for one last hoorah. If you have not taken part in the frightening festivities this month, now is your chance. To help prepare everyone for what horrors await us come October, I have compiled a list of movies that will leave you feeling uneasy and shaken at their core. These are all movies that fall under the thriller genre as they deal with dark subject matter such as murder and rape which can lead to feelings of anxiety and paranoia. The key theme they all share is dread as they make use of unsettling sound effects and imagery throughout their run times.

As always you don't need to watch all or any of these movies but if any catch your eye feel free to give them a try. Please be aware that some of these movies may contain disturbing images and themes.

1) House at the End of the Street (2012)

Starring: Jennifer Lawrence, Max Thieriot, Elisabeth Shue

Recommended if you liked: The Strangers , Bully , The Collector

Jennifer Lawrence on her own is an extremely talented actress but it was not until she starred in this film where I realized how great she can be. She puts everything into this role as her character is dealing with trauma after seeing her new house get involved in a murder that took place next door. This leaves her feeling isolated and paranoid of everyone who comes near. Max Thieriot also turns in an effective performance as the troubled youth of the house