Movies That Shocked Viewers to the Core
by wildthingwriter | created - 12 Jun 2018 | updated - 12 Jun 2018 | Publicvia Shock Waves Horror Movie Club (on Facebook).
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1. Man Behind the Sun (1988)
Not Rated | 105 min | Drama, History, Horror
Japanese troops round up Chinese and Russian prisoners of war and take them to unit 731, where they're horribly tortured and experimented on to test new biological weapons.
Director: Tun-Fei Mou | Stars: Gang Wang, Dai Yao Wu, Runshen Wang, Zhe Quan
Votes: 7,283
2. The Rapture (1991)
R | 100 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
A telephone operator living an empty, amoral life finds God and loses him again.
Director: Michael Tolkin | Stars: Mimi Rogers, David Duchovny, Darwyn Carson, Patrick Bauchau
Votes: 6,032 | Gross: $1.28M
3. Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986)
Unrated | 83 min | Biography, Crime, Drama
Arriving in Chicago, Henry moves in with ex-con acquaintance Otis and starts schooling him in the ways of the serial killer.
Director: John McNaughton | Stars: Michael Rooker, Tracy Arnold, Tom Towles, Mary Demas
Votes: 40,472 | Gross: $0.61M
4. Cannibal Holocaust (1980)
Unrated | 95 min | Adventure, Horror
During a rescue mission into the Amazon rainforest, a professor stumbles across lost film shot by a missing documentary crew.
Director: Ruggero Deodato | Stars: Robert Kerman, Francesca Ciardi, Perry Pirkanen, Luca Barbareschi
Votes: 61,183
5. Aftermath (IV) (2017)
R | 94 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Two strangers' lives become inextricably bound together after a devastating plane crash.
Director: Elliott Lester | Stars: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Scoot McNairy, Maggie Grace, Judah Nelson
Votes: 26,866
6. A Serbian Film (2010)
NC-17 | 104 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
An aging porn star agrees to participate in an "art film" in order to make a clean break from the business, only to discover that he has been drafted into making a pedophilia and necrophilia themed snuff film.
Director: Srdjan Spasojevic | Stars: Srdjan 'Zika' Todorovic, Sergej Trifunovic, Jelena Gavrilovic, Slobodan Bestic
Votes: 71,745
7. Slaughtered Vomit Dolls (2006 Video)
Unrated | 71 min | Horror
The gruesome tapestry of psychological manifestations of a nineteen year old bulimic runaway stripper-turned prostitute as she descends into a hellish pit of satanic nightmares and hallucinations.
Director: Lucifer Valentine | Stars: Ameara Lavey, Pig Lizzy, Maja Lee, Pam McCartney
Votes: 2,968
8. August Underground (2001 Video)
Unrated | 70 min | Horror
Two serial killers go on a murdering rampage as one films the outcome from behind a video camera.
Director: Fred Vogel | Stars: Kyle Dealman, Casey Eganey, Dan Friedman, Alexa Iris
Votes: 3,644
9. Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom (1975)
TV-MA | 117 min | Drama
In World War II Italy, four fascist libertines round up nine adolescent boys and girls and subject them to 120 days of physical, mental, and sexual torture.
Director: Pier Paolo Pasolini | Stars: Paolo Bonacelli, Giorgio Cataldi, Uberto Paolo Quintavalle, Aldo Valletti
Votes: 65,869
10. Begotten (1989)
Unrated | 72 min | Fantasy, Horror
Presented in a surreal, gory and entirely visual manner, Begotten tells of the death of religion, the abuse of nature by Man and a nihilistic outlook on what life ultimately is.
Director: E. Elias Merhige | Stars: Brian Salzberg, Donna Dempsey, Stephen Charles Barry, James Gandia
Votes: 11,763
11. Dead Ringers (1988)
R | 116 min | Drama, Horror, Thriller
Twin gynecologists take full advantage of the fact that nobody can tell them apart, until their relationship begins to deteriorate over a woman.
Director: David Cronenberg | Stars: Jeremy Irons, Geneviève Bujold, Heidi von Palleske, Barbara Gordon
Votes: 53,609 | Gross: $9.13M
12. Guinea Pig 2: Flower of Flesh and Blood (1985 Video)
42 min | Short, Horror
Late at night, a woman is kidnapped by an unknown assailant and taken back to his blood-spattered dungeon, where he turns her into a "flower of blood and flesh" through a series of dismemberment and evisceration.
Director: Hideshi Hino | Stars: Hiroshi Tamura, Kirara Yûgao, Anja Blagojevic
Votes: 4,492
13. Gummo (1997)
R | 89 min | Comedy, Drama
Lonely residents of a tornado-stricken Ohio town wander the deserted landscape trying to fulfill their boring, nihilistic lives.
Director: Harmony Korine | Stars: Nick Sutton, Jacob Sewell, Lara Tosh, Jacob Reynolds
Votes: 38,265 | Gross: $0.02M
14. Megan Is Missing (2011)
Not Rated | 85 min | Drama, Horror, Thriller
Two teenage girls encounter an Internet child predator.
Director: Michael Goi | Stars: Amber Perkins, Rachel Quinn, Dean Waite, Jael Elizabeth Steinmeyer
Votes: 15,507
15. Kids (1995)
Unrated | 91 min | Drama
A day in the life of a group of teens as they travel around New York City skating, drinking, smoking and deflowering virgins.
Director: Larry Clark | Stars: Leo Fitzpatrick, Justin Pierce, Chloë Sevigny, Sarah Henderson
Votes: 84,678 | Gross: $7.42M
16. The Eyes of My Mother (2016)
R | 76 min | Drama, Horror, Thriller
In their secluded farmhouse, a mother (a former surgeon) teaches her daughter, Francisca, anatomy, and how life and death are not to be feared. One afternoon, a mysterious visitor shatters ... See full summary »
Director: Nicolas Pesce | Stars: Kika Magalhães, Will Brill, Olivia Bond, Paul Nazak
Votes: 14,471 | Gross: $0.03M
17. Session 9 (2001)
R | 97 min | Drama, Horror, Mystery
Tensions rise within an asbestos cleaning crew as they work in an abandoned mental hospital with a horrific past that seems to be coming back.
Director: Brad Anderson | Stars: David Caruso, Stephen Gevedon, Paul Guilfoyle, Josh Lucas
Votes: 62,922 | Gross: $0.38M
18. Asylum Blackout (I) (2011)
Not Rated | 85 min | Horror, Thriller
A group of cooks at an asylum for the criminally insane get locked in with the inmates during a massive thunderstorm.
Director: Alexandre Courtès | Stars: Rupert Evans, Kenny Doughty, Joseph Kennedy, Dave Legeno
Votes: 5,315
19. Funny Games (1997)
Not Rated | 108 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
Two violent young men take a mother, father, and son hostage in their vacation cabin and force them to play sadistic "games" with one another for their own amusement.
Director: Michael Haneke | Stars: Susanne Lothar, Ulrich Mühe, Arno Frisch, Frank Giering
Votes: 84,170
20. Eden Lake (2008)
R | 91 min | Horror, Thriller
Refusing to let anything spoil their romantic weekend break, a young couple confront a gang of loutish youths with terrifyingly brutal consequences.
Director: James Watkins | Stars: Kelly Reilly, Michael Fassbender, Tara Ellis, Jack O'Connell
Votes: 94,910 | Gross: $0.01M
21. The Poughkeepsie Tapes (2007)
R | 81 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
In an abandoned house in Poughkeepsie, New York murder investigators uncover hundreds of tapes showing decades of a serial killer's work.
Director: John Erick Dowdle | Stars: Stacy Chbosky, Ben Messmer, Samantha Robson, Ivar Brogger
Votes: 24,758
22. Irreversible (2002)
Not Rated | 97 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
Events over the course of one traumatic night in Paris unfold in reverse-chronological order as the beautiful Alex is brutally raped and beaten by a stranger in an underpass tunnel.
Director: Gaspar Noé | Stars: Monica Bellucci, Vincent Cassel, Albert Dupontel, Philippe Nahon
Votes: 147,738 | Gross: $0.75M
23. Playground (2016)
82 min | Drama, Thriller
It's the last day of school in small town Poland and Gabrysia wants to tell her classmate that she loves him. But it will not end well.
Director: Bartosz M. Kowalski | Stars: Michalina Swistun, Nicolas Przygoda, Przemyslaw Balinski, Patryk Swiderski
Votes: 1,082
24. Möbius (2013)
R | 103 min | Drama, Thriller
An FSB officer falls in love with his agent, an American woman, who works as a trader in a Russian bank.
Director: Eric Rochant | Stars: Jean Dujardin, Cécile de France, Tim Roth, Émilie Dequenne
Votes: 5,807
25. Dogville (2003)
R | 178 min | Crime, Drama
A woman on the run from the mob is reluctantly accepted in a small Colorado community in exchange for labor, but when a search visits the town she finds out that their support has a price.
Director: Lars von Trier | Stars: Nicole Kidman, Paul Bettany, Lauren Bacall, Harriet Andersson
Votes: 158,724 | Gross: $1.53M
26. Thanatomorphose (2012)
Not Rated | 100 min | Horror
A Hellenic word referring to the visible signs of an organism's decomposition caused by death. One day, a young and beautiful girl wakes up and finds her flesh rotting.
Director: Éric Falardeau | Stars: Kayden Rose, Davyd Tousignant, Émile Beaudry, Karine Picard
Votes: 1,792
27. The Snowtown Murders (2011)
Not Rated | 119 min | Biography, Crime, Drama
Based on true events, 16 year-old Jamie falls in with his mother's new boyfriend and his crowd of self-appointed neighborhood watchmen, a relationship that leads to a spree of torture and murder.
Director: Justin Kurzel | Stars: Lucas Pittaway, Daniel Henshall, Louise Harris, Bob Adriaens
Votes: 20,629 | Gross: $0.01M
28. Dead of Night (1974)
PG | 88 min | Drama, Horror, Thriller
A young soldier killed in the Vietnam War inexplicably shows up at his family home on the night of his death.
Director: Bob Clark | Stars: John Marley, Lynn Carlin, Richard Backus, Henderson Forsythe
Votes: 6,003 | Gross: $0.03M
29. Dogtooth (2009)
Not Rated | 97 min | Drama, Thriller
A controlling, manipulative father locks his three adult offsprings in a state of perpetual childhood by keeping them prisoner within the sprawling family compound.
Director: Yorgos Lanthimos | Stars: Christos Stergioglou, Michele Valley, Angeliki Papoulia, Christos Passalis
Votes: 110,538 | Gross: $0.11M
30. The Sound of Insects: Record of a Mummy (2009)
Not Rated | 87 min | Documentary
A hunter in a remote and idyllic forest stumbles on a make shift tent fashioned from sheets of plastic and containing the mummified remains of a corpse. A detailed journal found on site ... See full summary »
Director: Peter Liechti | Stars: Peter Mettler, Alexander Tschernek, Nikola Weisse
Votes: 581
31. The Living and the Dead (2006)
Not Rated | 83 min | Drama, Horror, Mystery
A descent into Hell is triggered when "Ex-Lord" Donald Brocklebank finds that he must leave Longleigh House for London to find a way to pay for the medical treatments for his wife Nancy. ... See full summary »
Director: Simon Rumley | Stars: Leo Bill, Roger Lloyd Pack, Kate Fahy, Sarah Ball
Votes: 2,457
32. Man Behind the Sun (1988)
Not Rated | 105 min | Drama, History, Horror
Japanese troops round up Chinese and Russian prisoners of war and take them to unit 731, where they're horribly tortured and experimented on to test new biological weapons.
Director: Tun-Fei Mou | Stars: Gang Wang, Dai Yao Wu, Runshen Wang, Zhe Quan
Votes: 7,283
33. Angst (I) (1983)
Not Rated | 87 min | Drama, Horror, Thriller
A troubled man gets released from prison and starts taking out his sadistic fantasies on an unsuspecting family living in a secluded house.
Director: Gerald Kargl | Stars: Erwin Leder, Robert Hunger-Bühler, Silvia Ryder, Karin Springer
Votes: 13,481
34. Fat Girl (2001)
Not Rated | 86 min | Drama
Two sisters confront their sexual attitudes and experiences while on a family holiday.
Director: Catherine Breillat | Stars: Anaïs Reboux, Roxane Mesquida, Libero De Rienzo, Arsinée Khanjian
Votes: 12,826 | Gross: $0.72M
35. Subconscious Cruelty (2000)
92 min | Fantasy, Horror
An anthology of horror, consisting of four segments all themed around gory subjects.
Director: Karim Hussain | Stars: Sophie Lauzière, Anne-Marie Belley, Brea Asher, Ivaylo Founev
Votes: 2,088
36. Calvaire (2004)
Not Rated | 88 min | Drama, Horror, Thriller
Marc, a traveling entertainer, is on his way home for Christmas when his van breaks down in the middle of a jerkwater town with some strange inhabitants.
Director: Fabrice du Welz | Stars: Laurent Lucas, Brigitte Lahaie, Gigi Coursigny, Jean-Luc Couchard
Votes: 13,800 | Gross: $0.00M
37. Them (2006)
R | 77 min | Horror, Thriller
Lucas and Clementine live peacefully in their isolated country house, but one night they wake up to strange noise... they're not alone... and a group of hooded assailants begin to terrorize them throughout the night.
Directors: David Moreau, Xavier Palud | Stars: Olivia Bonamy, Michaël Cohen, Adriana Mocca, Maria Roman
Votes: 32,087
38. The Monster Inside Me (2022)
Not Rated | 147 min | Documentary
A couple turns the cameras towards themselves showing an intimate side of Lyme Disease the world has yet to see. They also take the viewer on a journey researching the truth, lies and ... See full summary »
Director: Tony C. Silva | Stars: Alec Baldwin, Avril Lavigne, Shania Twain, Tony C. Silva
Votes: 65
39. Guinea Pig 5: Mermaid in the Manhole (1988 Video)
63 min | Horror
An artist rescues a mermaid in a sewer who develops bleeding sores all over her body, paints a portrait with her oozes and eventually disjoints her.
Director: Hideshi Hino | Stars: Shigeru Saiki, Mari Somei, Masami Hisamoto, Gô Rijû
Votes: 2,513
40. The Day After (1983 TV Movie)
TV-PG | 127 min | Drama, Sci-Fi
The effects of a devastating nuclear holocaust on small-town residents of eastern Kansas.
Director: Nicholas Meyer | Stars: Jason Robards, JoBeth Williams, Steve Guttenberg, John Cullum
Votes: 18,171
41. Straw Dogs (1971)
R | 113 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
A young American and his English wife come to rural England and face increasingly vicious local harassment.
Director: Sam Peckinpah | Stars: Dustin Hoffman, Susan George, Peter Vaughan, T.P. McKenna
Votes: 64,526
42. Santa Sangre (1989)
NC-17 | 123 min | Drama, Horror, Thriller
A former circus artist escapes from a mental hospital to rejoin his armless mother - the leader of a strange religious cult - and is forced to enact brutal murders in her name as he becomes "her arms".
Director: Alejandro Jodorowsky | Stars: Axel Jodorowsky, Blanca Guerra, Guy Stockwell, Thelma Tixou
Votes: 23,342
43. Tusk (I) (2014)
R | 102 min | Comedy, Horror
A brash and arrogant podcaster gets more than he bargained for when he travels to Canada to interview a mysterious recluse... who has a rather disturbing fondness for walruses.
Director: Kevin Smith | Stars: Justin Long, Michael Parks, Haley Joel Osment, Genesis Rodriguez
Votes: 63,239 | Gross: $1.82M
44. Michael (II) (2011)
Not Rated | 96 min | Drama, Thriller
Five months in the life of a pedophile who keeps a 10-year-old boy locked in his basement.
Director: Markus Schleinzer | Stars: Michael Fuith, David Rauchenberger, Christine Kain, Ursula Strauss
Votes: 5,118 | Gross: $0.02M
45. Dead Hands Dig Deep (2016)
75 min | Documentary, Music
While living in complete isolation in the desert of southern California, a long forgotten shock-rock musician reflects on his dark past of drug abuse, violence, and self destruction.
Director: Jai Love | Stars: Rikk Agnew, Edwin Borsheim
Votes: 120
46. Excision (2012)
Not Rated | 81 min | Comedy, Drama, Horror
A disturbed, delusional high-school student with aspirations of a career in medicine goes to extremes to earn the approval of her controlling mother.
Director: Richard Bates Jr. | Stars: AnnaLynne McCord, Roger Bart, Ariel Winter, Traci Lords
Votes: 24,622
47. House on Haunted Hill (1959)
Approved | 75 min | Crime, Horror, Mystery
A millionaire offers $10,000 to five people who agree to be locked in a large, spooky, rented house overnight with him and his wife.
Director: William Castle | Stars: Vincent Price, Carol Ohmart, Richard Long, Alan Marshal
Votes: 30,849
48. The Wizard of Gore (1970)
Not Rated | 95 min | Horror
A TV talk-show hostess and her boyfriend investigate a shady magician who has the ability to hypnotize and control the thoughts of people in order to stage gory on-stage illusions using his powers of mind bending.
Director: Herschell Gordon Lewis | Stars: Ray Sager, Judy Cler, Wayne Ratay, Phil Laurenson
Votes: 4,020 | Gross: $0.02M
49. Blood Sucking Freaks (1976)
Unrated | 84 min | Comedy, Horror
In the Theatre of the Macabre in New York Sardu and his assistants present a show involving the torture and mutilation of young women. The audience assumes it is just an act but the torture is real, as are the deaths.
Director: Joel M. Reed | Stars: Seamus O'Brien, Viju Krem, Niles McMaster, Dan Fauci
Votes: 6,289
50. I Spit on Your Grave (1978)
R | 101 min | Horror, Thriller
An aspiring writer is repeatedly assaulted, humiliated, and left for dead by four men she systematically hunts down to seek revenge.
Director: Meir Zarchi | Stars: Camille Keaton, Eron Tabor, Richard Pace, Anthony Nichols
Votes: 31,216
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