Hey, Hereditary isn’t much fun, is it? It’s a horror movie, and so maybe it’s not supposed to be, or, more specifically, it’s one of those fancy-pants “elevated horror” movies, so they’re certainly not supposed to be fun. They’re about real things. Okay, that’s flippant, but Hereditary was a shock to the system, and it felt fresh at a time when the term elevated horror was still fairly new (2015’s The Witch did a lot for this “type” of horror, which is really just art horror, but A24-esque, whatever that might mean).
With Hereditary, it has a reputation for being among the most disturbing horror movies of the past decade or so, and has mostly earned it, provided you don’t go in expecting something more disturbing than what you ultimately get (it can happen, after something is hyped enough). In either event, there are horror movies that rival or even surpass Hereditary when it comes to how disturbing they’re willing to get, and some of those are outlined below.
10
‘Funny Games’ (1997)
Michael Haneke didn’t want anyone to feel comfortable with Funny Games, and he was so dedicated to spreading that discomfort as far as possible that he remade the film, a decade on, in English. It’s essentially the same movie, just with different cast members and a different language, with the 1997 version being in German, and you could honestly flip a coin to decide which of the two goes here.
Both are equally disturbing. Both are about home invasions where the home invaders seem to be incredibly capable of causing the maximum amount of psychological distress and physical harm, and they’re very methodical about it all while also not having to play by the rules that home invaders in most movies would have to. Funny Games, both of them, is/are great at deconstructing broader and more typically entertaining horror/thriller tropes while also functioning as grim and genuinely disturbing horror films.
9
‘I Saw the Devil’ (2010)
I Saw the Devil goes for a pretty long time all up, being a few minutes shy of 2.5 hours, yet it remains persistently grim and undeniably intense for the entire runtime. Things are complicated here, though the premise can be laid out succinctly, as there’s a serial killer doing terrible things (obviously!) while being ruthlessly chased down by an agent who’s also willing to do increasingly terrible things during his pursuit.
Maybe it’s one of those “unstoppable force vs. immovable object” sorts of situations, and it leads to a great deal of suspense, violence, and undeniably grisly horror. I Saw the Devil is one of many movies here not for the faint of heart, though it’s probably a little less emotionally grim than Hereditary… but not by much. It’s the violence and how real the depiction of it feels that makes I Saw the Devil arguably more disturbing, in the end.
8
‘Bring Her Back’ (2025)
The Philippou brothers have, so far, established themselves as willing to make very intense and traumatic horror movies… but maybe don’t call it a pattern just yet. There’s Talk to Me, and the even more upsetting and gruesome Bring Her Back, and it would’ve been quite an effort to make something more disturbing than Talk to Me, so a third movie (making up a traumatic thematic trilogy, possibly) would make it a trend.
They’ve already broken well away from the comedic YouTube videos they used to be known for making, at least. One will likely hope, though, that a potential follow-up to Bring Her Back isn’t quite as gnarly and downbeat, since some might argue this is already about as far as a horror movie could/should push things without being nothing but misery. If you want non-Philippou-directed horror films that are even more miserable, just read on and stuff.
7
‘Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom’ (1975)
Set toward the end of World War II, Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom has a title you might want to run away from as fast as possible, and maybe you’d even be right to do that. The film doesn’t last for 120 days, thankfully, but it is close to 120 minutes, and almost all of those minutes are very difficult to watch, since most of the movie’s about fascists psychologically and physically torturing a group of teenagers.
There’s a purpose to it all, in terms of what it wants to critique and explore without compromise, yet the extent to which it goes to do all that is genuinely mortifying; probably too much for most. Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom is almost as heavy as horror movies get, and if you wanted to count it as a war/drama film as well, then it’s unbelievably heavy by that standard, too.
6
‘Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer’ (1986)
And then, like with Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom, Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer has a rather intimidating title. It really is about a serial killer named Henry, and almost like a slice-of-life thing, but it’s also all about dying and killing, so maybe it’s a slice-of-death film. There’s a narrative too, being mostly about another criminal wanting the titular Henry to tell him how to become a prolific murderer.
Just not in a funny way, even if that premise might sound a little goofy. It’s all in a bleak and upsetting way. Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer goes far enough as a crime film to also become a horror movie at the same time, maybe in a comparable way to the previously mentioned I Saw the Devil, except the vibes here are somehow worse all-around.
5
‘Visitor Q’ (2001)
With Visitor Q, Takashi Miike kind of puts his spin on Teorema, which was a film directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini, who also did the aforementioned Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom. And then Teorema was a movie that seemed like it might’ve influenced Saltburn, which wasn’t quite as horrific, but some people did act like it was the most horrific and transgressive thing that had ever been made, so there are people being disturbed all around, here.
In Visitor Q, there’s a mysterious stranger who enters the lives of the members of a dysfunctional family, causing further chaos and disturbing things the way you see in those other movies about strange young men slowly bringing down – or psychologically devastating – a whole family. Takashi Miike has made better horror movies, and he’s additionally been behind some surprisingly good action movies that are also better than Visitor Q, yet this 2001 film might well be his most unsettling and difficult to watch effort overall.
4
‘Antichrist’ (2009)
Hereditary is all about unspeakably terrible grief, and how it gets worse and more intense when more expected horrific things start happening, and then Antichrist sort of takes a similar approach. It might be more understated as a horror movie, for what that’s worth, yet the level of despair is potentially stronger… and its early scenes feel like it could’ve influenced the way Ari Aster opened Midsommar, which is the film he directed one year on from Hereditary.
You can expect heaviness when it comes to Lars von Trier, with even his stab at the musical genre (Dancer in the Dark) being one of the most infamously bleak movies of its era, or maybe even all time. With Antichrist, it’s him doing more of a horror thing, alongside making another drama, and it’s always upsetting, not to mention punctuated by certain horrific sights that you probably won’t be able to forget, even if you might like to.
3
‘Cannibal Holocaust’ (1980)
The gold standard when it comes to naming horror movies you might well like to slip away from as fast as possible, Cannibal Holocaust is also the most notorious of all the exploitation movies, and basically all exploitation movies aim to be at least a little notorious/controversial. This one’s about people who go missing while shooting footage for a documentary about cannibal tribes in the Amazon jungle, and when that footage is discovered, it ain’t pretty.
So, Cannibal Holocaust is also a found footage movie, then, and one of the most effective of its kind, not to mention admirable for how it did that kind of horror film pretty early in the overall scheme of things. Less admirable are some of the scenes of animal cruelty here, which are factors contributing to the overall disturbing qualities of Cannibal Holocaust, and yet it goes further with the staged stuff, too. It’s bloody and heavy-going in just about every way it can be, and at every possible turn.
2
‘Bone Tomahawk’ (2015)
With Bone Tomahawk, what you’ve got is a Western that slowly becomes more of a horror movie as it goes along, even if it’s fairly horrifying early on. It just gets so much worse. You can liken the experience to reading Blood Meridian, which is another downbeat and relentlessly bloody Western story (albeit in novel form) that gets a bit more intense the further it goes along.
Bone Tomahawk does show its true colors eventually. Or it shows its true color. And the true color is red.
If you doubt it’s a horror movie, rather than just a very bloody Western, then stick with it, because Bone Tomahawk does show its true colors eventually. Or it shows its true color. And the true color is red. There is so much red here. Every seemingly hyperbolic thing you’ve heard about this movie and its level of violence, it’s all true (unfortunately).
1
‘Martyrs’ (2008)
Martyrs is initially a movie about a young woman seeking brutal revenge against those who wronged her, and yet that whole bloody quest gets so much worse for some honestly quite gonzo – not to mention deeply upsetting – reasons. You might think you’ve seen extreme horror movies about revenge before, but nah. Martyrs probably makes most of them look like one of those especially cuddly and heartwarming Pixar movies in comparison.
And Martyrs would still be hugely upsetting for the psychological horror/drama it digs deep into, with it being the case that the horrific imagery and high level of violence is really just the bitter icing on top of a boldly flavored (and not very sweet, to put it mildly) cake. It’s probably a classic, but also, maybe don’t watch Martyrs, as it can’t be unseen once you do.
Martyrs
- Release Date
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September 3, 2008
- Runtime
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99 Minutes
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Morjana Alaoui
Anna Assaoui
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Mylène Jampanoï
Lucie Jurin
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