Random Most Horrifying Non-Horror Movies (14 items)

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  (#1) Seven

  • Brad Pitt, Gwyneth Paltrow, Morgan Freeman, Kevin Spacey, R. Lee Ermey, Charles S. Dutton, John C. McGinley, Richard Schiff, Richard Roundtree, Mark Boone Junior, Leland Orser, Michael Massee, Richard Portnow, Bob Stephenson, John Cassini, Reg E. Cathey, Peter Crombie, Emily Wagner, Endre Hules, Richmond Arquette, Lennie Loftin, Hawthorne James, Daniel Zacapa, Alan Migicovski, George Christy, Andrew Kevin Walker, Dominique Jennings, Harris Savides, Gene Borkan, Shannon Wilcox, Alfonso Freeman, Lexie Bigham, Charles A. Tamburro, James Deeth, Heidi Schanz, Michael Reid MacKay, Brian Evers, Tudor Sherrard, David Correia, Duffy Gaver, Pamala Tyson, Evan Mirand, Bob Collins, Paul Eckstein, Rachel Flanagan, Mario Di Donato, Julie Araskog, Grigori, Martin Serene, Jimmy Dale Hartsell, John Santin, Beverly Burke, William Davidson, Ron Blair, Cat Mueller, Bob Mack, Charline Su, Harrison White, Sarah Reinhardt

  After you've seen Seven, the opening of a box will forever be no simple task. David Fincher's 1995 stylish neo-noir tells the sordid tale of a serial killer who bases his victims off of the seven deadly sins.

  Fincher creates a hellish unnamed city in which it it never stops raining, and the streets always seem dirty and dank. Each crime scene is carefully crafted to take the spectator inside the psychotic mind of the aptly named John Doe. The film's twist ending still packs a walloping punch, no matter how many times you've screamed in mock horror, "What's in the box?" 
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  (#2) Schindler's List

  • Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes, Ben Kingsley, Embeth Davidtz, Norbert Weisser, Emilie Schindler, Andrzej Seweryn, Caroline Goodall, Anna Mucha, Ludger Pistor, Mark Ivanir, Elina Löwensohn, Jerzy Nowak, Jonathan Sagall, Branko Lustig, Olaf Lubaszenko, Maria Peszek, Götz Otto, Joachim Paul Assböck, Gerald Alexander Held, Agnieszka Krukówna, Eugeniusz Priwieziencew, Maja Ostaszewska, Rami Heuberger, Friedrich von Thun, Erwin Leder, Hans-Michael Rehberg, Edward Linde-Lubaszenko, August Schmölzer, Paweł Deląg, Henryk Bista, Vili Matula, Shabtai Konorti, Maciej Kozłowski, Małgorzata Gebel, Marian Glinka, Tadeusz Bradecki, Jochen Nickel, Poldek Pfefferberg, Maciej Kowalewski, Radosław Krzyżowski, Grzegorz Damiecki, Leo Rosner, Alexander Strobele, Miri Fabian, Uri Avrahami, Hubert Kramar, Béatrice Macola, Martin Semmelrogge, Geno Lechner, Piotr Cyrwus, Piotr Polk, Thomas Morris, Razia Israeli, Aldona Grochal, Haymon Maria Buttinger, Krzysztof Luft, Tomasz Dedek, Agnieszka Wagner, Wojciech Klata, Leopold Kozłowski, Etl Szyc, Dominika Bednarczyk, Beata Rybotycka, Grzegorz Kwas, Osman Ragheb, Peter Flechtner, Ryszard Horowitz, Ezra Dagan, Adam Siemion, Jerzy Sagan, Beata Nowak, Harry Nehring, Albert Misak, Adi Nitzan, Shmulik Levy, Ewa Kolasinska, Maciej Orłoś, Stanislaw Koczanowicz, Jacek Wójcicki, Stanislaw Brejdygant, Georges Kern, Sebastian Konrad, Jan Jurewicz, Magdalena Komornicka, Magdalena Dandourian, Zbigniew Kozlowski, Michelle Csitos, Slawomir Holland, Wilhelm Manske, Jacek Lenczowski, Wieslaw Komasa, Marcin Grzymowicz, Michael Schiller, Marek Wrona, Bettina Kupfer, Dirk Bender, Anemona Knut, Michael Z. Hoffmann, Wolfgang Seidenberg, Tadeusz Huk, Agnieszka Korzeniowska, Oliwia Dabrowska, Andrzej Welminski, Artus Maria Matthiessen, Katarzyna Tlalka, Marta Bizon, Michael Schneider, Michael Gordon, Lidia Wyrobiec-Bank, Katarzyna Śmiechowicz, Ruth Farhi, Ben Talar, Dieter Witting, Maciej Winkler, Sebastian Skalski, Hanna Kossowska, Jeremy Flynn, Sigurd Bemme, Ravit Ferera, Zuzanna Lipiec, Danny Marcu, Alexander Buczolich, Alicja Kubaszewska, Daniel Del-Ponte, Lucyna Zabawa, Piotr Kadlcik, Lech Niebielski, Jacek Pulanecki, Dorit Seadia, Kamil Krawiec, Hans-Jörg Assmann, Dariusz Szymaniak, Ryszard Radwanski, Peter Appiano, Esti Yerushalmi, Martin Bergmann, Hans Rosner

  Steven Spielberg's Academy Award winning 1993 drama takes the spectator back to one of the darkest times in world history. Shown in black and white, Schindler's List has an almost documentary feel, delivering many of the most dreadful horrors of the Holocaust via handheld cameras.

  In a movie filled with scenes that will forever remind us how easily humanity can be erased by evil, one sequence in particular stands out. Due to the arrival of more Jews to the Plaszow Camp, Amon Goeth must weed the sick from the healthy in order to make room. Every prisoner is stripped naked and forced to run around to determine whether they will live or die. Some prisoners even cut themselves, using the blood to create a rosier picture of good health. 

  Schindler's List is one of the most important films of the past 100 years, but, despite its artistic excellence, it's not a picture that many people can watch more than once. It's only more heartbreaking to realize that these events actually happened and people were actually this cruel.
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  (#3) Buried

  • Ryan Reynolds, Samantha Mathis, Stephen Tobolowsky, Anne Lockhart, Kali Rocha, Erik Palladino, Chris William Martin, Robert Clotworthy, Kirk Baily, José Luis García Pérez, Heath Centazzo, Warner Loughlin, Ivana Miño, Joe Guarneri, Robert Paterson, Cade Dundish, Abdelilah Ben Massou, Juan Hidalgo, Michalla Petersen

  Buried tells the story of Paul Conroy, a US contractor working in Iraq who is kidnapped and buried alive. With nothing to save him other than a lighter and a cell phone, Buried is a horrifying movie that make its audience feel as though they are choking for air alongside the protagonist.

  If a spectator was not claustrophobic heading into the cinema, they definitely were after watching Paul struggle helplessly in his confined space for an hour and a half.
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  (#4) Requiem for a Dream

  • Jennifer Connelly, Jared Leto, Ellen Burstyn, Marlon Wayans, Keith David, Darren Aronofsky, Christopher McDonald, Louise Lasser, Dylan Baker, Jack O'Connell, Hubert Selby, Jr., Mark Margolis, Ajay Naidu, John Getz, Ben Shenkman, Marcia Jean Kurtz, Peter Maloney, Suzanne Shepherd, Denise Dowse, Olga Merediz, Samia Shoaib, Bill Buell, Aliya Campbell, Henry Stram, John Bryant Davila, Jimmie Ray Weeks, Charlotte Aronofsky, Gregg Bello, Sean Gullette, Abraham Aronofsky, Michael Kaycheck, Scott Franklin, Diana Berry, Janet Sarno, James Chinlund, Leland Gantt, Todd Miller, Allison Furman, Lianna Pai, Heather Litteer, Stanley Herman, Joanne Gordon, Ami Goodheart, Eddie De Harp, Shaun P. O'Hagan, Jim Centofanti, Peter Cheyenne, Ricardo Viñas, Jenny Decker, Chris Varvaro, Scott Bader, Ross Lombardo, Robert Dylan Cohen, Bryan Chattoo, Te'ron A. O'Neal, Craig Rallo, Keith Scandore, Brian Costello, Eric Cohen, Joshua Pollack, Brett Feinstein, Greg Weissman, Jesse Weissberger, Andrew Kessler, Chad Weiner, Ricky Fier, Ben Cohen, Geordan Reisner, Chas Mastin, Scott Miller, Scott Chait, Abraham Abraham, Daniel Clarin, David Seltzer, Carter Mansbach, Nina Zavarin

  Perhaps no film captures what it means to be a hardcore drug addict better than Darren Aronofsky’s sophomore indie, Requiem for a Dream. The director’s hip montage editing style brings audiences into the world of heroin and speed addiction. Aronofsky pulls no punches, showing audiences rock bottom – the point of absolutely no return for four addicts who would otherwise probably be decent human beings.

  Requiem for a Dream is beyond disturbing. It can make you run out of the room crying, begging for the images to leave your head – but they won't... not anytime soon anyway.
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  (#5) Zero Day

  • Cal Robertson, Christopher Coccio, Johanne Keuck, Samantha Philips, Andre Keuck, David Futernick, Pam Robertson, Rachel Benichak

  Of all the films made surrounding mass school shootings, Benjamin Coccio's 2003 faux-documentary Zero Day may be the most disturbing. In Zero Day, two students make a year-long plan to shoot up their high school, but even though audiences are being told what is going to happen, it somehow doesn't seem like the boys will actually go through with it in the end. 

  However, when the reprieve does not come, the boy's pointless killing spree is terrifying. Knowing that this kind of horror actually happens in real life only makes Zero Day more dizzying to watch.
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  (#6) Room

  • Brie Larson, Jacob Tremblay, Joan Allen, Sean Bridgers, William H. Macy

  In Room, a young woman and her son are being held captive by a violent psychopath in a small shed. The five-year-old son, a product of rape, knows only the sheltered life of the shed, or "room," as Ma calls it. The small space is his whole world, as the young boy doesn't even know that he's a prisoner.

  Room is essentially two horrifying films. The first half deals with Ma and Jack's claustrophobic life inside the shed – culminating in the audience's realization that their captor rapes Ma every night while Jack listens. 

  But then there is the second half, Ma and Jack's life after the escape. After being held captive for years, the elements of the real world seem just as psychologically terrifying to them as their life inside the shed.
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  (#7) Irréversible

  • Monica Bellucci, Vincent Cassel, Gaspar Noé, Albert Dupontel, Philippe Nahon, Eric Moreau, Jean-Louis Costes, Jo Prestia, Stéphane Drouot, Michel Gondoin, Stéphane Derdérian, Mourad Khima, Hellal, Fesche, Nato

  Irréversible was specifically designed to make audiences panic. Gaspar Noé's 2002 graphic revenge drama literally made viewers sick. The director used a 27 hertz bass frequency during the first 30 minutes of the movie, a frequency that cannot be heard by the human ear, but has the ability to induce panic, anxiety, extreme sorrow, and heart palpitations.

  Several audience members reportedly left the theater during the film's opening scenes because they felt sick and disoriented. And the film already features a beyond-disturbing, nine-minute rape scene that is nauseating enough without the low-frequency bass designed to induce panic.  

  Film critic Roger Ebert described the feature as, "a movie so violent and cruel that most people will find it unwatchable."
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  (#8) American History X

  • Edward Norton, Edward Furlong, Beverly DAngelo, Elliott Gould, Fairuza Balk, Stacy Keach, Avery Brooks, Ethan Suplee, Christopher Masterson, Jennifer Lien, Guy Torry, William Russ, Joseph Cortese

  Tony Kaye's extremely controversial 1998 drama, American History X, reminds audiences just how hateful and violent people can be. Kaye pulls no punches, showing the spectator what it's like to be a Neo-Nazi in Venice Beach, California. These mostly young, white men wear their hate on their sleeves and are willing to do anything to anyone who threatens their dangerous dogmatic ideologies.

  At its core, AHX is a family drama, centered around two brothers. The older sibling Derek (expertly played by Ed Norton, who earned an Oscar nod) goes to jail for the crimes showcased in the film's notorious curb-stomping scene. It's a violent, highly graphic scene juxtaposed with brilliant black and white and poetic slow-motion.

  It is difficult to look away from but equally hard to watch. There is no redemption in a film like American History X. Just when we think that Derek has earned it, Kaye makes the film's protagonist pay double for every one of his past sins.
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  (#9) 12 Years a Slave

  • Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael Fassbender, Benedict Cumberbatch, Paul Dano, Paul Giamatti, Lupita Nyong'o, Sarah Paulson, Brad Pitt, Alfre Woodard

  12 Years a Slave tells the story of a Black man who is born free in New York but is kidnapped and forced into slavery for over a decade. Director Steve McQueen depicts the protagonist's struggle with an unapologetic eye. This is a true story adapted from Solomon Northup's memoir, and McQueen made sure that he told Solomon's story, no matter how hard it is to watch.

  One scene in particular is especially excruciating, a sequence in which Solomon is forced to whip his own friend. It's simply heartbreaking to watch, as it pulls at every ounce of human emotion that exists within a person. How many scary monsters can do that?
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  (#10) Happiness

  • Philip Seymour Hoffman, Molly Shannon, Jon Lovitz, Lara Flynn Boyle, Jared Harris, Ben Gazzara, Louise Lasser, Dylan Baker, Camryn Manheim, Jane Adams, Cynthia Stevenson, Elizabeth Ashley, Gerry Becker, Douglas McGrath, Arthur J. Nascarella, Ann Harada, Allison Furman, Rufus Read, Lila Glantzman-Leib, Justin Elvin

  Writer/director Todd Solondz portrays the middle-class suburban life of three sisters and their families in the 1998 dramedy Happiness. Almost every character is a vile human being in their own way, and the scary part is each of them reeks of familiarity.

  In the film, Dylan Baker plays Bill, a loving father and husband – a standup suburban dad. That is... until the audience discovers he is a pedophile. The most disturbing part of Happiness is Solondz's constant challenge to the viewer, attempting to make Bill sympathetic. The spectator is almost rooting for him not get caught.

  Happiness was an extremely controversial film that was denied entry into the Sundance Film Festival. Roger Ebert wrote about the film's combination of tragic irony:

  Happiness is about its unhappy characters, in a way that helps us see them a little more clearly, to feel sorry for them, and at the same time to see how closely tragedy and farce come together in the messiness of sexuality. Does "Happiness" exploit its controversial subjects? Finally, no: It sees them as symptoms of desperation and sadness. It is more exploitative to create a child molester as a convenient villain, as many movies do; by disregarding his humanity and seeing him as an object, such movies do the same thing that a molester does.
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  (#11) 127 Hours

  • James Franco, Kate Mara, Lizzy Caplan, Amber Tamblyn, Clémence Poésy, Treat Williams, Kate Burton, John Lawrence, Pieter Jan Brugge, Priscilla Poland, Robert Bear, Darin Southam, Parker Hadley, Bradford Johnson, Rebecca C. Olson, Bailee Michelle Johnson, Fenton Quinn, Johnny Ahn, Zachary Haycock, Lonzo Liggins, Elizabeth Hales, Sean Bott, Norman Lehnert, Christopher K. Hagadone, Koleman Stinger, Peter Joshua Hull, Kelly Higgins, Amy Savannah, Kyle Paul, Samantha Marsden, Kelsie Mathews, Luke Drake, Xmas Lutu, Jeffrey Wood, Stacey Ann Turner, Terry S. Mercer

  127 Hours is especially terrifying because it actually happened. Hiker Aron Ralston gets his arm stuck in a boulder, and, in an act of both desperation and survival, cuts off his arm with a pocket knife in order to break free.

  Reports came in from around that world of audience members vomiting, passing out, and having seizures in the theaters during the particularly graphic self-surgery scene. Wrap contributor John Foote wrote of the amputation scene, "I cannot remember a reaction to a film like this in a very long time, perhaps not since The Exorcist sent audiences scurrying for the doors."
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  (#12) Trainspotting

  • Ewan McGregor, Robert Carlyle, Jonny Lee Miller, Kevin McKidd, Kelly Macdonald, Dale Winton, Shirley Henderson, 피터 뮬란, James Cosmo, Keith Allen, Ewen Bremner, Irvine Welsh, Kevin Allen, Hugh Ross, Stuart McQuarrie, Tom Delmar, Susan Vidler, Eddie Nestor, Andrew Macdonald, John Hodge, Vincent Friell, Archie Macpherson, Pauline Lynch, Billy Riddoch, Rachael Fleming, Eileen Nicholas, Fiona Bell, Victor Eadie, Annie Louise Ross, Finlay Welsh, Kate Donnelly

  Danny Boyle's 1996 drama draws the spectator into the horrific world of heroin culture in Scotland. As a story about addiction, the highs of Trainspotting are euphoric and the lows are a nightmare. Heroin is not a recreational drug one uses to take the edge off at the end the day; it is an all-consuming, seemingly unwinnable battle against the chase for the next high.

  Boyle's film is unapologetically disturbing, but perhaps no scene produces more horror than the death of Allison and Sick Boy's infant daughter.
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  (#13) The Passion of the Christ

  • Monica Bellucci, Jim Caviezel, Claudia Gerini, Rosalinda Celentano, Francesco Cabras, Sergio Rubini, Ted Rusoff, Hristo Shopov, Maia Morgenstern, Jarreth J. Merz, Francesco De Rosa, Mattia Sbragia, Toni Bertorelli, Giovanni Vettorazzo, Hristo Zhivkov, Luca Lionello, Sabrina Impacciatore, Francesco De Vito, Federico Pacifici, Abel Jafri, Giuseppe Lo Console, Lucio Allocca, Matt Patresi, Giacinto Ferro, Romuald Andrzej Klos, Dario D'Ambrosi, Aleksander Mincer, Davide Marotta, Paco Reconti, Pietro Sarubbi, Fabio Sartor, Luciano Federico, Angelo Di Loreta, Luca De Dominicis, Michelle Bonev, Lino Salemme, Valerio Isidori, Roberto Bestazzoni, Tom Shaker, Lucia Stara, Giovanni Capalbo, Emilio De Marchi, Nuot Arquint, Evelina Meghangi, Ornella Giusto, Roberto Santi, Andrea Refuto, Valerio Esposito, Paolo Dos Santos, Chokri Ben Zagden, Vincenzo Monti, Francesco Gabriele, Daniela Poti, Danilo Di Ruzza, Adel Ben Ayed, Emanuele Gullotto, Ivan Gaudiano, Nicola Tagarelli, Arianna Vitolo, Antonello Iacovone, Rossella Longo, Franco Costanzo, Abraam Fontana, Lello Giulivo, Luciano Dragone, Gabriella Barbuti, Francis Dokyi, Danilo Maria Valli, Adel Bakri, Omar Capalbo, Noemi Marotta, Roberto Visconti, Sheila Mokhtari, Maurizio Di Carmine

  Mel Gibson's extremely controversial depiction of the last 12 hours of the life Jesus was so graphic that it sent many spectators racing for the door. Acclaimed film critic Robert Ebert wrote of the 2004 picture, "The movie is 126 minutes long, and I would guess that at least 100 of those minutes, maybe more, are concerned specifically and graphically with the details of the torture and death of Jesus. This is the most violent film I have ever seen."

  If running for the door isn't bad enough, the drama may have also been responsible for the death of one Kansas woman. Despite the fact the woman had no known health conditions, she reportedly suffered a fatal heart attack while watching the extremely graphic crucifixion scene.  
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  (#14) Whiplash

  • J.K. Simmons, Melissa Benoist, Miles Teller, Paul Reiser, Chris Mulkey, Jayson Blair, Damon Gupton, Michael Cohen, Austin Stowell, Kofi Siriboe, Tarik Lowe, Suanne Spoke, Marcus Henderson, Kavita Patil, Adrian Burks, Dakota Lupo, C.J. Vana, Tian Wang, Keenan Henson

  There is a difference between being a tough teacher and harassment. Fletcher (J.K. Simmons) is an instructor at a prestigious music school who wants his students to be the best, and will stop at nothing to push them to what he believes is their full potential. In the case Andrew, a talented young drummer as played by Miles Teller, "stopping at nothing" means playing until his hands bleed. 

  Damien Chazelle's Whiplash is hard to watch at times. Fletcher uses his position of authority to torture his students in the guise of achievement. Nothing less than perfection is acceptable, but perfection is impossible for a dictator like Fletcher.

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