Let's face it: the best movies make your faith in humanity die just a little.
Films which feature untasteful sex, violence, and psychological disturbances are too often thrown to the wayside, writhing in the dusty crooks of hipster DVD shelves. But these movies, though bound to leave a bad taste in one's mouth, act as a much-needed mirror for the most troubling crevices of the human condition
Here are 20 fantastically f-ed up films worth watching!
20. Mysterious Skin (2004)
Mysterious Skin follows the story of Brian Lackey, a teenage boy turned hustler, and his childhood friend as they attempt to discover what really happened to Brian during a bout of amnesia he had when he was young. He believes he had been abducted by aliens, but the truth, though less fantastical, is no less shocking.
Warning: implication of pedophilia
Watch it on Amazon.
19. Nowhere (1997)
A group of teenagers traipses around LA on an angsty, drug-induced adventure complete with strange suicides, aliens, death, and rape by a television celebrity.
[Note: Director Gregg Araki is well-known for other atypical movies such as Doom Generation and Kaboom]
Warning: drugs, party, rape, vomiting, gore, sadomasochism, death
18. Young & Beautiful (2013)
French teen Isabelle becomes a call girl after losing her virginity on the beach one night. Her motives are unclear and her actions will have consequences
Warning: statutory rape, prostitution, death
Watch it on Amazon.
17. Suicide Room (2011)
Social butterfly turned recluse, Dominik loses everything—his girlfriend, his friends, and his pride—after an unplanned tryst with an acquaintance comes to a humiliating end. Devastated, Dominik isolates himself from the world and instead delves deep into an online chat room called “Sala Samobójców" or “Suicide Room."
Warning: mental illness, suicide, Internet, bullying, infidelity, cutting, dangerous sex
Watch it on Amazon.
16. Karla (2006)
Based on a true story, Karla documents the dangerous marriage of sociopathic serial killer Paul Bernardo through the point of view of his wife, Karla, as she is investigated in prison. Due to her husband's uncontrollable urges, Karla becomes an accomplice to a handful of violent rapes, kidnappings, and murders of young female victims, including her very own little sister...but is it really all her husband's idea?
Warning: rape, murder, drugs, serial killer, psychopathy, kidnapping, domestic abuse, torture
Watch it on Amazon.
15. Happiness (1998)
Fans of American Beauty, this pick is for you! Happiness follows the lives of a group of people, including a couple who do not love each other anymore, a therapist who realizes he is a pedophile, an 11-year-old boy discovering his sexuality, and others who are each messed up in their own special way. Though each story may seem unrelated at first, the movie's progression reveals how they are all intertwined in one big search for human connection.
Warning: social satire, black comedy, dysfunctional relationships, murder, violence, pedophilia, molestation, suicide
Buy it on Amazon.
14. The Lobster (2015)
In the near future, single people are sent to a hotel where they are compelled to participate in a matchmaking program which stipulates that if the subject cannot find a partner within forty-five days, they will undergo a medical procedure that will turn them into an animal of their choice.
Warning: graphic bodily injury, self-harm, attempted suicide, animal cruelty, torture, self-mutilation
Watch it on Amazon.
13. We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011)
A good mother should be able to raise a good son, right? This is what Kevin's mother believes, that is until she discovers that no amount of parenting could fix her son's sadistic tendencies, which only grow more vicious with age. How far will Kevin go when he is pushed to the limit?
Warning: psychopathy, mental illness, massacre, blood, tragic event, accidental death
Watch it on Amazon.
12. Dogtooth (2009)
Three teenagers are isolated from society, limited to the confines of their country residence.
They are told lies of varying degrees and taught a new vocabulary that changes the meaning of outside words. For example, 'the sea' refers to an armchair in the living room and 'zombies' are yellow flowers. The father is the only member of the family who can leave the estate, and his colleague, Christina, who is called upon to satisfy the son's male urges, is the only outsider who can enter. The children are told they can only leave when their "dogtooth" falls out.
Warning: unsimulated sex, child abuse, incest, sadism, prostitution, mutilation
Watch it on Amazon.
11. Gummo (1997)
In the aftermath of a brutal tornado that leveled half the town and killed half its residents, Xenia, Ohio becomes a cesspool for disgusting, nauseating acts of violence, debauchery, and nihilism. Solomon and Tummler are bored teens who fill their days having sex, killing cats, sniffing glue, and introducing a cast of crude characters.
Warning: sexual abuse, racial slur, prostitution, mental illness
10. Deadgirl (2008)
Two teenage boys find a girl imprisoned in an old, abandoned mental asylum. She is naked, she is covered in plastic film, and she cannot die.
Warning: zombification, necrophilia, sex slavery, dehumanization, dangerous sex, torture, rape
Watch it on Amazon.
9. Valerie and Her Week of Wonders (1970)
This is an older film, so the cheese-factor is elevated, but this movie will nonetheless make you question what it means to come of age and lose innocence. Valerie a týden divu follows our protagonist Valerie who, with the onset of her first period, is thrust into a maturation stage littered with possessive sex, vampires, missionaries, and family complications.
Warning: innocence lost, incest, vampires, sexual symbolism, age difference, religious themes, sadism, pact with the devil, pedophilia, sexual repression
Watch it on Amazon.
8. Oldboy (2003)
Based off a Japanese manga of the same name, re-envisioned for a South Korean audience, an ordinary man named Dae-su Oh is inexplicably imprisoned for 15 years.
With just as little explanation, he is suddenly released, equipped with new clothes, money, and a cell phone. Fired up and out for revenge, Dae-su discovers that his mysterious kidnappers have a plan for him chock-full of pain and suffering.
Warning: psychological torture, imprisonment, suicide, incest, twist ending
Buy it on Amazon.
7. Teeth (2007)
Dawn, a high school student who has taken a vow to stay abstinent until marriage, discovers that her body is cursed with an inexplicable “adaptation" that gives her an unlikely advantage when she becomes a victim to male violence.
Warning: vagina dentata, virginity, evolution, mutilation, sexual self-repression, perversion, gore, black humor, attempted rape
Watch it on Amazon.
6. The ABCs of Death (2012)
A truly unique film, The ABCs of Death is an amalgamation of twenty-six short, self-contained sketches created by different teams of producers and directors from around the world, each scene being related in some way to a word starting with a particular letter of the alphabet and the motif of death.
The sketches vary greatly in themes of dark humor, gore, and horror and take on a multitude of different filming and animation styles.
Warning: death, strangulation, suffocation, rape, animal cruelty, corporal injury, execution, murder, nudity, prosthetics, masturbation
Watch it on Amazon.
5. Mulholland Drive (2001)
A Hollywood hopeful turned amnesiac after a car accident on Mulholland Drive wipes her memories gets mixed up in a conspiracy surrounding a girl who was nearly murdered, a mysterious blue box, a director, and the cryptic nightclub Silencio.
Warning: suicide, attempted homicide, cruelty, conspiracy, schizophrenia, mental instability
Watch it on Amazon.
4. Kids (1995)
A day in the life of a group of New York teenagers who are quickly making their way down a dangerous path. Telly, a boy obsessed with deflowering young and naive virgins, is on the prowl, blissfully unaware that he is HIV positive and has been spreading the disease to every girl he gets his hands on.
Warning: HIV, date rape, drugs, underage sex
Buy it on Amazon.
3. Goodnight Mommy (2014)
Twin boys move to a new home with their mother who has undergone extensive cosmetic surgery, rendering her a completely new face. She gives preferential treatment to one son while ignoring the other, and the twins believe that the women under the bandages might not be their mother.
Warning: graphic torture, twist ending, immolation, psychological thriller, death
Watch it on Amazon.
2. Requiem for a Dream (2000)
Four people's doped-up dreams turn into nightmares when their addictions get the better of them. Sarah Goldfarb's lonely life is stirred up when she receives an anonymous phone call informing her that she has won a contest to be on television.
Her heroin-dealing son and his junkie friend and girlfriend think they know how to strike it rich in the Coney Island opioid market. It all comes crashing down when the drugs take control.
Warning: heroin, overdose, addiction, withdrawal, prostitution, infection, schizophrenia, hallucination, force-feeding, amputation
Watch it on Amazon.
1. A Serbian Film (2010)
[Often cited as the most disturbing movie ever created, A Serbian Film is not for the faint of heart. Viewers discretion is strongly advised.]
Retired Serbian porn star Milos is happily married with a son, but financial difficulties have forced him to come out of retirement. Milos is suddenly contacted by a porn actress named Lejla who offers him a contract, with hefty monetary compensation, to do a film for a director named Vukmir.
The catch: the director refuses to disclose the screenplay or story to Milos. Only after Milos signs the binding contract does Vukmir reveal that Milos has agreed to act in a pedophilic snuff film.
Warning: snuff film, necrophilia, torture, pedophilia, sexual violence, incest rape, brainwashing
Please note that all items are in stock as of the time of publication. As an Amazon Associate, Odyssey may earn a portion of qualifying sales.
Image Credit: Fine Line Features
