It’s been a while since a new Jason movie featured on the big screen or a green and red striped jersey brought terror to our dreams. While those horrors have been left behind in their own era, a host of new scary movies exist to keep us shivering. And as with most movies, the fan theories follow close behind. WARNING: spoilers ahead!

SEE ALSO: Top 10 Must-See Recent Genre-Defying Horrors

10The Cabin in the Woods

You would be forgiven for thinking of The Cabin in the Woods as the horror movie starring Thor and the hot doctor from Grey’s Anatomy. This popular horror film surprised audiences in 2011 with its fresh approach and massive plot twist at the end.

However, not all viewers were convinced that the twist at the end was all it seemed to be. A fan theory has it that Chris Hemsworth’s character, Curt Vaughan, was in on the plot from the beginning. Proof of this theory is presented in the fact that Curt is the one who gets the group of friends to go to the cabin. Curt is also the only one who doesn’t choose a summoning object down in the basement.

More ‘proof’ indicates that Curt knew his girlfriend Jules had to die first according to the rules, so he made sure to get her alone so the zombies could kill her. It is also thought that Curt would have been given the title of ‘hero’ if he played along with the Facility.^[1]

9The Texas Chain Saw Massacre

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre 1974 classic horror is one of the creepiest movies on this list. The killer, Leatherface, dons a mask made of human skin and runs around with a chainsaw and an insatiable bloodlust. Not to mention the Leatherface character is based on real life murderer, Ed Gein.

As such, it has always been assumed that Leatherface is a man, but a Reddit fan theory has it that the crazy murderer might in fact be a woman. Proof of this is said to be the way the killer applies lipstick and blusher to another mask. Leatherface also goes mental when the freezer is tampered with and makes very high-pitched sounds for what is supposed to be an above-average sized man. It is also alleged that since Leatherface prepared the food and probably ‘decorated’ the creepy house depicted in the movie, he is probably a she.^[2]

8Halloween

The most recent Halloween movie was a huge box office hit in 2018. In it, Michael Myers allegedly crashes the bus he was being transferred in, to return to Haddonfield to kill a bunch of people. He also goes after Laurie Strode, who has turned her house into a fortress.

Eagle-eyed viewers were quick to notice something off about Laurie, however. While sitting in her truck, drinking, she waits for the bus to leave for the maximum-security prison. She then pitches up at a family dinner drunk and starts crying. A fan theory has it that is wasn’t fear causing her to react like that, but guilt. The theory goes that Laurie, and not Michael, was the one responsible for the bus crash. It is also said that her almost non-reaction to the news report on the crash is a further indication that she planned the whole thing. Why would she do such a thing? Well, because she had been waiting for her fight with Michael for 40 years and wasn’t about to be unprepared for when he arrived at her house.^[3]

7 Us

Michael Myers has also been tied to the popular 2019 horror movie Us. The sequel to Get Out has spawned quite a few fan theories including one that says Michael is a Tethered and was swapped with a clone and trapped for 60 years.

Not only has Jordan Peele, writer and director of US, referenced Halloween during several interviews about his movie, he also mentions the rabbits that feature in the film and how if you should put a rabbit brain in a human body, you’d end up with Michael Myers. What further gets the theory going, is that Michael doesn’t talk, but rather grunts much like the Tethered in Us. Also, in Halloween Resurrection it is revealed to viewers that a tunnel system runs under the Myers house linking to the basement and ultimately enabling the clone swapping.

Moreover, Michael’s psychiatrist, Dr Loomis, tracks him using a ‘Rabbit in Red’ matchbox and describes his patient as not having a soul. Which pretty much describes the Tethered.^[4]

6 Hereditary

Hereditary is arguably the most disturbing entry on this list. There is bleakness and gore and shock value all culminating in a terrifying reveal involving a demon king named Paimon.

Fans were quick to come up with theories involving aspects of the movie, such as linking it to Midsommer (another disturbing horror flick by Hereditary director: Ari Aster). The theory says that since both movies feature cults, they must play out in the same universe. Some fans are also convinced that the couple walking past Annie in Hereditary is the one and only Dani and Christian from Midsommar.

Another popular theory supported by many fans says that none of the horrifying things in the movie, such as Charlie’s decapitation, actually happened. Instead it was the manifestation of both Annie and Peter’s mental disorders.^[5]

5 A Quiet Place

A Quiet Place took what we knew about horror and turned it on its head. Featuring silent characters and monsters reminiscent of the Demogorgon in Stranger Things, this movie made for a unique cinematic experience. Many movie-goers reported feeling uneasy throughout the movie because of the ongoing silence.

In the movie, the monsters are extremely sensitive to noise and attack anyone that makes a sound (as is evident in the very disturbing scene with the little boy and the toy rocket). Hence the silent characters.

These monsters, if one goes by the newspaper clipping on the wall, came from outer space when a meteor hit Earth. However, some fans think that is only a red herring and the creatures are in fact biological weapons left over from WWIII. Others believe that the only way the creatures could have spread so fast if they did indeed crash in only one spot in Mexico, is with the help of the meteor impact. If they had crashed during the spore stage of their lifecycle the impact would have sent the spores flying to the upper atmosphere where they would have caught a ride to locations all over the US.^[6]

4 It Follows

When it comes to psychological horrors, It Follows is a great example of how to do it properly. Rated 96% on Rotten Tomatoes, most reviewers agree that this movie is truly frightening without trying too hard or relying on tired jump scares.

The plot of the movie centres around a curse in the form of a shape-shifting entity passed on to Jay Height after she has casual sex with a guy in the backseat of his car. She then must pass on the curse to another man, otherwise she will be killed by the entity that presents itself in the form of the loved ones of its victims. And so on and so forth.

A twisted theory appeared on Reddit that says the young people in the movie, running from the sinister shapeshifter, were kidnapped from different decades by demons and sent to Hell. On Earth, they had been replaced by changelings. This would mean the monster that follows Jay in the movie, is just another inhabitant of Hell. And the monster doesn’t choose its own form, but rather the victim determines its shape by what may have happened to them in the past such as abuse, rape, attempted murder etc. Since Jay has suffered a sexual assault, the monster chasing her takes the form of a naked woman.^[7]

3 The Babadook

The Babadook is yet another psychological horror that features a creepy kid and even creepier monster. When labor pains overtook Amelia, her husband drove her to the hospital only to get into an accident. Her husband didn’t make it and the movie follows Amelia’s struggle to cope with being a single parent. She reads a book about the Babadook to her son but starts feeling uneasy with the content, especially when her son claims that the Babadook haunts him at night. Amelia then tears up the book and throws it in the bin.

The book shows up on their doorstep, glued back together, and things take a turn for the worse in the household. It seems that the Babadook possesses Amelia with her voice changing during fits of rage. She also kills their dog and eventually goes after her son. When she vomits up black goo, it seems that the Babadook has lost, but instead it runs to the basement where it seems to be fed maggots by Amelia at the end of the movie.

A fan theory has it that the Babadook is a physical manifestation of Amelia’s hatred for her son, since she gave birth to him on the same day her husband died. When the Babadook is heard making weird noises in the movie, Amelia’s rage is evident, giving more weight to this theory. Another theory says that it is not rage, but Amelia’s intense grief that brings the Babadook to life.

A very popular theory claimed that the Babadook is gay, which was eventually acknowledged but not entirely confirmed by filmmaker Jennifer Kent.^[8]

2 Carrie

Carrie is a lesson on the consequences of bullying. And a very disturbing movie to boot. Carrie started out as Stephen King’s first published novel that spawned a film in 1976 and then a remake in 2013.

As with most Stephen King novels and movies, there are many theories surrounding the plot. In this case the main theory seems to be that Matilda, the main character in the novel of the same name by Roald Dahl, grows up to be Carrie.

After Miss Honey and Matilda move to Chamberlain, Maine, they change their names to Margaret and Carietta. Much like Carrie’s mother, Honey/Margaret becomes very religious which leads to Matilda/Carietta hiding away her telekinetic abilities. Which then leads to the start of the story of Carrie, according to theory. This would essentially mean that Matilda is the prequel to Carrie. More proof that these two stories take place in the same universe comes in the form of a car named Christine (another Stephen King title), which is a 1958 Plymouth Fury sold by Matilda’s father. The car caused the death of a passenger, leading to Matilda’s father being arrested and Miss Honey and Matilda’s move to Maine.^[9]

1 IT

The craziest theory by far, on this list anyway, is the one that connects Disney’s Mary Poppins and Stephen King’s IT. Considering that Mary Poppins is a sweet lady that flies around with an umbrella and IT is a killer clown, it might seem ridiculous. However, the theory points out that Poppins and IT share a similar power. They are able to tap into children’s innermost thoughts, whether it be for good or evil.

Both movies feature a young boy named Georgie. While Poppins returns to Cherry Tree Lane after 25 years and relies on children’s joy to keep her energy levels up, IT returns to Derry every 27 years and uses the fear of children to keep his power levels up. In both movies, the children’s encounters with IT and Poppins seem to fade from their minds. Not to mention, Poppins and IT both seem to like dancing. The final thread connecting these two movies comes during the scene where the characters in Mary Poppins grab balloons and float away. Since “floating” and “balloons” are synonymous with IT, the theory seems plausible to many viewers.^[10]

For the sake of your reading pleasure I have tried to balance the scary (jump-worthy even) with the eerie (sinister and uncomfortable). A list like this can’t be ranked so you get it in the order of my preference. Use the comments at the bottom of the list to add your own favorite moments; who knows, maybe it will end up on a sequel list!

See Also: Top 10 Must-See Recent Genre-Defying Horrors

10 Mulholland Drive—Smile, Boomer . . .

Imagine the screen directions: “smile”. So innocuous. So simple. And yet . . . in an early scene of Mulholland Drive, David Lynch shows us that two boomers smiling can be one of the most unsettling things you’ll see all day—at least until they re-appear later in the film in an equally weird (but more disturbing) scene! I never really did understand the point of this scene (can someone let me in on the secret in the comments maybe?). Anyway—David Lynch is awesome and this is a must-see movie.

9 Signs—The Birthday Party

The Sixth Sense was a great film with some amazing acting from Toni Collette. Two years later he followed it with Signs staring the indomitable Mel Gibson and the brilliant Joaquin Phoenix. The scene here is one of the most paused in movie history: and not for no good reason. Joaquin’s reaction? Yup: that’s pretty much how the entire planet reacted upon seeing this scene. On Youtube with a pause button it loses some of its creepiness, but M. Night Shyamalan did a brilliant job of placing it where he did in the movie and the effect upon first seeing it definitely ranks it as a top 10 creepy moment.

8 Sixth Sense—Under The Bed Scene

Speaking of M. Night Shyamalan, did you soil yourself when you first saw this scene from the Sixth Sense? I sure as hell did. This film really is special: it takes a real-life horror concept (münchausen-by-proxy) and puts it into a classic ghost story with a heck of a twist. The director is great but he has never quite managed to attain the same level of awesome as he did with this movie. Embedding of clips from this movie seem to be disabled universally, so if you want to check out this jump scene, here you go.

7 Zodiac—The Posters

Zodiac is a brilliant movie that anyone who loves serial killer lore needs to see. If you haven’t already, watch it today (and skip the clip above until you have). In the creepy scene, the character played by Jake Gyllenhaal thinks he is onto a lead and has a movie poster that he thinks reveals the killer’s identity. He visits a man he thinks can help him find the man who drew the poster because the writing appears to be a match for the killer. Now watch the clip: you won’t be disappointed. This scene, and the few moments thereafter in the basement are some of the most intensely uncomfortable I have experienced watching a film. In my eyes, the director (David Fincher) can do no wrong.

6 The Blair Witch Project—Guy In Corner

It turns out the people behind Blair Witch only needed a handheld camera and a hell of a good propaganda campaign in which audiences were led to believe that the film was based on real footage to get one of the scariest movies ever: involving no horror movie trickery such as bursts of sound to scare you. The final climax of the film is simply the scene above. If you haven’t seen the movie in its entirety you may not appreciate this scene, as it really needs the full length of slowly building tension to truly creep you out.

5 Silence Of The Lambs—Night Vision

If you thought the few minutes in the basement in Zodiac were awesomely creepy: you’ll love this scene! Here we see FBI agent Starling at the home of the man we know to be the killer. He lives in a veritable horror museum and clearly doesn’t bother with the services of a cleaner. The house is a mess, it is dark, and Starling is way out of her league. And then begins a game of cat and mouse in the dark and only the killer can see. . . Look out for that hand! Silence Of The Lambs it a horror movie everyone has to see.

4 Alien—Chest Burst

I suspect this is the one that almost everyone reading will have seen. This scene of the alien bursting forth from a human chest horrified audiences when it was first released. It was totally new and unexpected. I recently re-watched the entire series of movies and even after all these years I had to watch this part with my eyes closed.

3 Carrie—Last Scene

OMFG—it doesn’t matter how many times I watch this movie, that last scene still gets me. Carrie is one of the truly great horror movies—and while it has a special place in my heart because it is the first horror I ever saw, it is genuinely well made and well acted. This scene I have chosen is really the one that most stylistically reflects the type of horrors we see today. Whilst most of Carrie was about her preternatural powers, this scene gives us a dose of the supernatural. Please don’t watch the new Carrie film from a few years ago: this oldie is the one to see.

2 The Conjuring—Closet Scene

If you’ve been reading all the comments on the lists recently you will have probably seen me mention this scene. I rarely see horror movies at the cinema but on this occasion I did. I was sitting in the crowded theater which, despite being full was sitting in total silence. The film got to the clip shown above. At just the moment you would expect, the loudest and highest pitched scream issued forth from deep within me and I physically lifted from my seat. I didn’t just scare the entire place: I scared myself. Thankfully screaming like a teenaged girl in a movie is not something I do frequently—particularly given that I am over six foot tall and have a fairly deep voice! Watch the scene . . . try not to scream!

1 Hereditary—THAT Scene

SPOILER ALERT: this scene above has spoilers for a particular scene in the film. If you haven’t seen the movie, the clip will spoil a big part of it. And whether or not you have seen it, it will spoil your life. This is only included on a list of oddly creepy scenes because it is entirely unique in the history of horror movies. But it is not just unnerving—it is outright horrifying, brutal, gruesome, violent, and disturbing. Do not watch this video. You’ll regret it. The guy driving has since stated that taking part in this film has given him post traumatic stress disorder.

Most of us like to plonk ourselves down on the sofa with a bowl of popcorn, maybe a beer or two, and take in a good movie. Sometimes though, the backstories, legends and origins of the films are at least just as interesting as the finished product. Whether it is tales of curses, films which may or may not be based on “true” events, or even movies that have proven to have chillingly predicted future happenings, the stories behind the stories are usually quite captivated in themselves. Here are just ten of them….

See Also: Top 10 Creepy Scenes In Movies

10 Three Men And A Baby (And A Ghost That Wasn’t)

Back in 1990 when we were still renting videos from the shop in order to see the latest movies, one particular film that was hard to get your hands on for a time was the comedy “Three Men And A Baby.” This was in part due to the upcoming release of its sequel, but mostly because people were eager to see for themselves the ghost that had seemingly been captured on tape in one of the scenes.

The scene in question is just over an hour into the film and features Ted Danson (Jack) and Celeste Holm (his mother). As they are walking through their apartment with Holm carrying the baby, a strange figure is seen standing near the window and peering through the curtains.

Stories, that were really never anything more than rumours at best, began to spread that the figure was the ghost of a young boy who had committed suicide in the apartment by throwing himself from the window. The story went that the grieving family had left the apartment soon after, and as it was without tenant, it was rented to the film company to film in.

Shortly after the stories began to circulate, another eagle eyed watcher claimed to have spotted a rifle in the same window about thirty seconds prior to the boy’s appearance. Suddenly the tale began to change – the boy had now committed suicide by shooting himself by the window.

Disney studios deemed it necessary to release a statement about the scene following increased interest and theories about the alleged ghost. They claimed that the “boy” was in fact a cardboard cut-out of Jack – who in the film is an actor – from one of his performances. It had simply been left by the window and the angle it was shot from made it look smaller than it was. This was the same they said with the “rifle” that was spotted – it was in fact one of the prop’s arms. What’s more, they claimed, the scenes of inside the apartment were actually shot on set and not on location. In short, there was no boy who had committed suicide there – there simply was no boy at all!

Some people however, would not accept the explanation from the studios, stating that the prop and the “boy” looked completely different. The legend of the ghost at the window, at least for some, continues.

9 The Poltergeist Films – Strange Deaths and Premonitions

The Poltergeist movies are perhaps some of the better known films said to be cursed, not least of which because of the several untimely deaths of cast members in the years following the first film’s release in 1982.

Less than six months after the release of the first film, Dominique Dunne, who played the eldest daughter of the Freeling family, was strangled to death by her ex-boyfriend – he was ultimately found guilty of voluntary manslaughter. She was just twenty-two years old. In the years that followed, Julian Beck (who played Henry Kane) and Will Sampson (who played Taylor) died from stomach cancer and kidney failure respectively. Two years later, Heather O’Rourke, who played the young girl, Carol, died suddenly aged only twelve years old on 1st February 1988.

Some people believe that the curse stems from the decision to use real skeletons for the scene where Carol (played by JoBeth Williams) desperately tries to escape the unfinished swimming pool in the yard, in which skeletons are coming up from the mud due to the heavy rainfall. In an effort to keep costs down, it was decided it was much cheaper to use real skeletons as opposed to having several fake ones made. Some have stated that it is this “disrespect” to the dead that has led to the film being cursed. This would be quite ironic given that the plot for the film is very similar.

Possibly the most spine-chilling aspect of the alleged curse of the Poltergeist movies though, is the Super Bowl XXII poster that is seen on several occasions during the first film. Super Bowl XXII was eventually played in San Diego on 31st January 1988. Also on that date, after suffering from the flu all week, the aforementioned Heath O’Rourke was rushed to hospital with persistent vomiting, before losing her life the following day.

8 Dark Waters – Unwittingly Tells of Murder Eight Years In The Future

Released in 2005, the horror flick, Dark Waters, tells the story of a tragic young girl who is drowned in the water tank that sat on top of the apartment building where she lived. Her body however is undiscovered for some time, and as it slowly decomposes, the residents in the apartment building begin to complain of “foul tasting” water.

Almost eight years later in February 2013, the body of Elisa Lam was discovered in the water tower of the Cecil Hotel in Los Angeles. She had been missing for nearly three weeks. As in the film, guests at the hotel had complained, before the body was discovered, of the water not smelling or tasting as it should. It also had a strange colour to it.

Elisa Lam’s murder is both unsettling and interesting in its own right – and more to the point it is still unsolved. While she was almost certainly murdered, there is still the outside possibility that her death was a tragic accident or even a suicide.

7 The Amityville Horror – Cast Affected By The True Events

The Amityville Horror is based on true events, although what actually happened, and what parts were embellished is very much open to debate. What is very real are the murders of the DeFoe family at their home on 112 Ocean Avenue by the eldest son, Ronnie DeFoe, who calmly went from room to room and executed his siblings and parents in November 1974.

The following year, George and Kathy Lutz bought the property. They knew of the murders, and even asked a priest to come and bless the house for them. According to the Lutz’ they almost immediately began to experience paranormal activity in the house. Twenty-eight days after they took up residence there, they moved out, never to return.

They sold their tale to author Jay Anson, and while they admitted that certain parts of their claims were overstated for the purpose of the story, they maintained that the experiences they had were very real.

Whatever the finer truths of the Lutz’ story, there have been genuine claims of strange activity concerning cast members from both the original film in 1979 and the remake in 2005. James Brolin, who played George Lutz in the original film, was said to have bought into the Lutz’ experiences – even stating he experienced clothing falling to the floor from its hanger of its own accord while he read the book upon accepting the role. Perhaps even stranger was the experience of Ryan Reynolds, who played the same character in the 2005 remake. He stated that he would awaken at 3:15am almost every night for no good reason – that particular time is alleged to have been when the real murders of the DeFoe family occurred, and this had also allegedly happened to the real life George Lutz during his brief time living in the house.

There have also been numerous paranormal investigations on the property where the murders took place. Perhaps the most chilling was one that took place in 1976, before the first film had been released, which claimed to have caught on camera the ghost of the youngest DeFoe son.

6 The Entire Superman Brand and Franchise – Bringer of Bad Fortune?

Whether it is the original television series, “The Adventures of Superman” from the 1950s, the classic Superman films starring the late Christopher Reeve or the new “Man of Steel” movies, to some, the whole Superman franchise is cursed.

The star of the original television series, George Reeves, shot himself in the head in 1959 after playing the role successfully for eight years.
Christopher Reeve made the role his own for the series of hugely successful films in the late-70s and 1980s. Off the back of the movies, Reeves became a star almost overnight. However in 1995 he was thrown from his horse while riding and was paralysed from the neck down. He died nine years later in 2004 from a heart attack following a reaction to an antibiotic. In an even stranger twist, two years later, his widow died from lung cancer, despite never having smoked a cigarette in her life.

Margot Kidder, who played Lois Lane in the movies, not only found it hard to land other similarly high profile roles, she was involved in a serious car accident in 1990 that left her temporarily paralysed. Also suffering from depression, in 1996 she experienced a very public meltdown, during which she became convinced her ex-husband was trying to kill her. This prompted her to hack away all of her hair with a razor blade and sleep rough on the streets. She was found in a state of serious distress in a person’s back yard and was admitted to UCLA medical centre.

Three years after his appearance in Superman III, comedian Richard Pryor was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, which led to him requiring triple bypass heart surgery in 1990. His health steadily declined until his death in 2005.

The young child who played Superman as a baby, Lee Quigley, died at age fourteen in 1991 following years of substance and solvent abuse.
While Henry Cavill, the star of the “Man of Steel” films does not appear to have succumbed to the curse yet, some have alleged that the actor appears to “almost” get the big role before being snubbed at the last minute. He was alleged to have auditioned for James Bond but lost out to Daniel Craig, and Batman before the part was given to Christian Bale. Cavill himself states that the Batman story isn’t at all true, while the reason he lost out on James Bond was due to him simply being too young. Time will tell – at least for some.

5 The Crow – The Tragic “Curse” of the Lee Family

The Crow was Brandon Lee’s big break, set to catapult the cult star to being a house hold name. Unfortunately for Lee he didn’t live to see the film released. In what was a tragic accident, Lee was shot during the scene that sees him remembering entering his apartment to find a crazed gang there. One of the gang members shoots Lee’s character (Eric Draven).

The gun used was obviously loaded with blanks, but due to various safety measures not being followed as they should have been, the scene ended in disaster. A lead tip from a previous blank bullet was still lodged in the gun from a previous shoot. When it was fired, it fired from the gun and pierced Lee’s abdomen. He died a little over twelve hours later.

The gun used it seemed, had not been properly checked – for example had a cleaning rod been run through the weapon, it most likely would have dislodged the tip. The fake bullets themselves were also questionable, in that they were real bullets with the gunpowder removed as opposed to dummies – this was due to time restraints it is alleged.

In short, it appears if correct procedure had been followed instead of the filming geared towards keeping everything on time, Brandon Lee most likely is still alive today. Perhaps even more depressing is that the actor who fired the shot, Michael Massey (who played Funboy) didn’t actually need to aim the gun at Lee, as both were not in the frame at the same time – he could have simply aimed at the wall for example. That is not to apportion any blame on Massey. For his part he has stated afterwards that he still has nightmares over the incident and it is something that he will never fully get over.
While Brandon’s death was surely a tragic accident, many conspiracy theories soon circulated about a Lee family curse, with more than a few people referencing not only how his father, Bruce Lee had himself died suddenly from a freak reaction to a headache tablet, but also a particular scene in his last film, “Game of Death” – which Bruce was filming when he died seemed to predict his son’s demise.

The scene in question featured Bruce Lee playing an actor, who while filming a scene was shot and left for dead when the “fake” guns were replaced for real ones. He doesn’t die however and proceeds to hunt down the gang who attempted to kill him and take his revenge. While this is seemingly pure coincidence, it really is quite spine tingling how it mirrors not only the tragic circumstances of his son’s death fifteen years later, but also the plot of The Crow sees Draven return from the grave to take revenge for his death.

4 The Fourth Kind – Fake “Real” Promotional News Angers Real Residents

As many films do, The Fourth Kind, which was released in 2009, advertised itself as being based on true events. They even aired “real” archive footage relating to the movie on the Internet, as well as publishing alleged authentic news articles from local newspapers. They drew people’s attention to the fact that many people had actually gone missing over the years in the small town of Nome, Alaska, where the movie is set.

The film tells the story of Dr. Abigail Tyler, who following her husband’s murder, is plagued by visits from aliens who are seemingly abducting people from the small town. Tyler herself studies the phenomenon and conducts interviews and sessions with other residents of Nome who are having similar experiences.

The real life residents of Nome however, including the press local to the region, were less than happy with Universal for their portrayal of their community through the “real” news articles that turned out to be completely fake. Not only were Universal forced to pay $20,000 in compensation, but they had to remove all of their promotional material that claimed to be “real” from the Internet.

The film itself was slated by critics, not least due to what was perceived as the studio using real life deaths and disappearances for the their own ends.

3 Rebel Without A Cause – Classic Flick With Far Reaching Curse

Arguably one of the greatest films of the 1950s “Rebel Without A Cause” is said by some to have been one of the most “cursed” films in movie history. Four of the cast died in suspicious or tragic circumstances, including the two leads, James Dean and Natalie Wood.

James Dean actually perished in a car accident a month before the film’s release. Ironically one of the last things he filmed was a piece for television to raise awareness about safe driving.

Nick Adams, who not only appeared in the film, but was a one-time lover of Wood and very close with Dean, was discovered in his bedroom dead and fully clothed, with no signs of a struggle or forced entry to his home. The autopsy discovered sedatives and other drugs in his body – including the drug paraldehyde, which was used sometimes by alcoholics in their attempts to beat their disease. Adams however was not known to drink, not even socially, and there was no prescription or bottle of the drug found anywhere in his home. His death was ruled an accidental death.

Salvatore Sal Mineo, who was nominated for an Oscar for his role in the famed film, was found stabbed to death in his home less than a decade later. Some stated he had been killed in a homophobic attack, although Lionel Ray Williams, the man who killed him, stated he had no idea who he was much less that he was homosexual.

Perhaps the most investigated death connected with “Rebel Without A Cause”, came in 1981, when Natalie Wood drowned after seemingly falling overboard from the yacht she had been drinking on for some hours with her husband, Robert Wagner, and fellow actor, Christopher Walken. Although her death was officially recorded as an accident, the many accounts of arguments and fighting that was said to have taken place that evening eventually led to the case being reopened in 2011.

2 The Entity – True Events Stranger Than The Film

The 1982 supernatural film “The Entity” follows the story of Carla Moran, who after experiencing years of paranormal experiences, is physically attacked and seemingly raped by an invisible entity from the other side. What’s more is that the story is based on actual true events that were legitimately investigated and studied by two researchers into the paranormal from UCLA University.

The real victim is called Doris Bither, and in the summer of 1974 she sought the help of parapsychologists Barry Taff and Kerry Gaynor. Over the following two and a half months the team conducted extensive investigations and, just as Doris and her children had done, they witnessed numerous amounts of paranormal activity. This included seeing strange lights, glowing orbs appearing out of nowhere, general “poltergeist” activity and perhaps most frightening of all, the appearance of a green mist that formed and took the shape of an adult male.

In recent years many opportunists have jumped on the bandwagon of the case claiming to have been part of the original research team. Taff himself is still fascinated with the events of that summer, and states that although what they experienced was very real, he wonders how much of Bither’s horrid early life, as well as her fascination and experimentation with Ouija boards played into the happenings.

Perhaps the story that makes the skin crawl the most is said to have occurred when the Bither family first moved into the house in California. A strange lady was said to have come to their front door and proclaimed to Bither before leaving as quickly as she had come, “You need to get out! I used to live here in this old house, back when it was just a farm and I was a little girl. There is something very evil here. This place is haunted and you need to get out!”

By all accounts, Bither continued to experience paranormal phenomenon of varied levels of intensity until her death in 1999 aged only fifty-nine.

1 Atuk – The Film That Can Not, Maybe Must Not Be Made

Perhaps one of the most interesting and mysterious backstories to a film comes from one that hasn’t actually been fully made, much less released. It hasn’t been for a lack of trying though. Legend now sates that anyone who reads the script with a view to accepting the main role, will drop dead shortly thereafter.

It is said that the script for Atuk – based on the book “The Incomparable Atuk” was said to have been offered to John Belushi in 1982, who after reading it, felt it was perfect for his persona. A month later he was dead from a drugs overdose – he was just thirty-three years old.

Sam Kinison was next offered the starring role in the film a decade later in 1992, and production this time did begin. However it wasn’t long before the outspoken comic was demanding that his rewritten script be used instead, otherwise he would simply “go through the motions!”

The film was ultimately pulled from production once more, and shortly after, Kinison was dead from injuries sustained in a head on collision. Perhaps chillingly, although probably a shock reaction, Kinison was heard speaking to an “invisible” person in the seconds before he died stating, “I don’t want to die!” several times before seemingly listening to a reply. “But why?” he was then said to have replied before “listening” again for a moment. He then seemed to be resigned to his fate and simply said “Okay! Okay!” before he passed away.

Two years later in 1994, the script was offered to larger than life comedian, John candy, who expressed an interest in taking on the project. It is said that the script was found in his possession when he died suddenly of a heart attack at age forty-three.

Several months following the tragic death of Candy, writer Michael O’Donoghue died suddenly from bleeding on the brain. It was claimed that O’Donoghue had been reading the script with Candy before he died and was in discussions with him about how he should play the role. It is also said he had recommended the script to Belushi twelve years earlier.

In 1997, Chris Farley was said to have been on the verge of accepting the role for the Atuk film, when he died of a drugs overdose at age thirty-three. In a bizarre twist, it is claimed that Farley had been reading the script with his fellow actor friend, Phil Hartman, in an attempt to interest him in a supporting role. In the months following Farley’s death, Hartman was shot to death by his wife, before she turned the gun on herself.

Sometimes movies get it right and sometimes they don’t. When it comes to depicting controversial life scenarios such as terrorism, tragedy or mental disturbance, there is an especially fine line between accurate and ridiculous. On this list are much talked-about movies that set the tone for depicting mental disorders. [WARNING: This list contains spoilers]

10 Disturbing Videos Of Violence And Insanity

10 Matchstick Men—2003

Nicolas Cage has some truly terrific films under his belt. One of these is the fantastic black comedy Matchstick Men, in which Cage plays Roy Waller, a con artist suffering from OCD and Tourette syndrome. Roy and his partner Frank swindle people out of their hard-earned cash by selling marked-up water filtration systems. When Roy unexpectedly suffers a severe panic attack, Frank convinces him to go to a psychiatrist.

Roy’s obsessive rituals include compulsive vacuuming and opening and closing a door three times before walking through it. He experiences extreme anxiety when people walk through doors without performing the ritual. Bright sunlight also exacerbates his Tourette’s symptoms. Pile on top of this extreme agoraphobia and you have an unforgettable performance by a theatrical actor. He embodies the personality of someone with extremely conflicted emotions, such as when he stares at his hand after a phone number has been written on it, or when his fourteen-year old daughter opens a beer and slugs it.

Nicolas Cage immerses himself in the role of Roy Waller, complete with facial tics and loud exclamations, virtually radiating anxiety and paranoia.^[1]

9 Betty Blue—1986

Betty Blue begins with an erotic, red-hot love affair between a man in his thirties named Zorg and 19-year-old Betty. Everything is great for a while until the two get into a heated argument and Betty smashes up their love shack.

She eventually burns it down after which the couple move to the outskirts of Paris. Betty’s temper keeps flaring and she even stabs a pizzeria patron with a fork. Meanwhile, Zorg is trying to get published but keeps getting rejected by publishers. He hides the rejection letters from Betty, but she finds one and slashes the face of the publisher.

Betty’s mental health continues to deteriorate throughout the film as she starts hearing voices, hacking off her hair, lures a young boy away from his mother and eventually gouges out her own eye. Then Zorg receives a phone call from a publisher who tells him he loved his manuscript and wants to publish his book. In a very dark twist, Zorg smothers Betty with a pillow, after which he returns home to finish the soon-to-be-published book.^[2]

8 We Need To Talk About Kevin—2011

When We Need To Talk About Kevin was released in 2011, it had the desired effect of getting people to talk about the movie. Based on a novel by Lionel Shriver, the film sets out to highlight the symptoms of Antisocial Personality Disorder and make people very uncomfortable at the same time.

It is clear right from the get-go that Kevin hates his mother, Eve, and it seems to be a reaction towards her resentment of him. She used to travel for work but now must stay home to be mother to a son that can’t stand her. Kevin continually acts out, notably when he pours drain cleaner onto his sister’s face, causing the six-year-old Celia to lose an eye.

The movie takes a dark turn when Kevin, at the age of fifteen, murders both his sister and father with a crossbow. He then proceeds to lock several students into his high school’s gym and murders them as well. Kevin is locked up in juvenile prison and diagnosed with Antisocial Personality Disorder. Although the movie never explicitly uses the term ‘psychopath’, it is clear that Kevin’s behavior is psychotic with a violent outlet.^[3]

7 Hush . . . Hush, Sweet Charlotte—1964

Hush…Hush, Sweet Charlotte is a psychological thriller that stars Bette Davis and Olivia de Havilland. Davis plays Charlotte Hollis who plans to marry her already married lover, John Mayhew. John is brutally murdered shortly after a confrontation with her father and Charlotte discovers his body in the summerhouse. Everyone assumes Charlotte is the murderer while she is convinced it was her father.

Skipping to 1964, Charlotte is a wealthy old maid whose mental health is failing her. She displays all the characteristics of a person slowly losing their mind. She drifts between sanity and insanity, including hallucinations, based on her immediate surroundings and it is fascinating to watch.

After her cousin, Miriam (played by Havilland), moves in with her, Charlotte starts hearing a harpsicord playing a song John wrote for her and is haunted by John’s severed head. When Charlotte discovers Miriam has known all along that John’s wife murdered him and has been blackmailing her for years, she kills her. At the end of the film, when Charlotte is being driven away to an asylum, an envelope is handed to her containing John’s wife’s confession to his murder.^[4]

6 Gaslight—1944

Gaslighting is not a new term in 2020. It was coined when the movie Gaslight first graced the silver screen in 1944. In the movie, a husband cunningly manipulates his wife to the extent that she starts believing she is going insane. After charming her into marrying him, he slowly isolates her from the world, sets up situations where the lighting is unexpectedly dimmed, and objects disappear and reappear. He eventually succeeds in convincing his wife of her own insanity.

The twist to this story is that the wife, Paula, is not the one with the mental disorder. Her husband, Gregory, is and displays many of the characteristics of a psychopath. The movie intensely and accurately depicts the lingering effects of gaslighting when in its final moments Paula still isn’t sure of what is real and what isn’t and suspects that the knife in her hand might just be a figment of her imagination.^[5]

10 Things You Probably Don’t Know About Hit Cult Movies

5 Black Swan—2010

Black Swan follows the life of a ballerina named Nina, played by Natalie Portman, who finds herself having to compete for a part in a production of Swan Lake. Her competition comes in the form of Lily, a newcomer played by Mila Kunis.

Nina has a dysfunctional relationship with her narcissistic mother and has psychological problems causing her to self-harm. However, the movie’s portrayal of Nina’s psychotic breakdown makes it difficult to ascertain which of her injuries are real and which are imaginary.

Nina is terrified all the time and as she suffers hallucinations that threaten the line between reality and delusion, it becomes apparent that she also suffers from obsessive compulsive behavior and an eating disorder. Natalie Portman does a fantastic drawing the viewer into her world and keeps them on the edge of their seats as she fights to maintain her sanity. Portman won the Oscar for best actress for her role in this gripping film.^[6]

4 A Beautiful Mind—2001

A Beautiful Mind is based on the life of John Nash, Princeton mathematician and Nobel Laureate, and was inspired by the bestselling novel by Sylvia Nasar.

Nash displayed symptoms of schizophrenia around thirty, suffering from delusions and paranoia. He was in and out of hospital as the years went by and didn’t always stay on his anti-psychotic medication.

In the movie, Nash is brought to life by Russell Crowe who does a great job portraying a character that is not always in control of his own mind and suffers paranoid schizophrenic hallucinations. He stops taking his meds because of the severe side effects and suffers a relapse which causes him to leave his infant son in the bathtub with the water running. His wife, Alicia, gets to the baby in time but realizes Nash has relapsed when he tells her his friend “Charles” was watching their child. Nash realizes at this point that the three people he keeps seeing do not actually exist. Yet he refuses to restart his medication regime and simply ignores the hallucinations. This seems to work and after being allowed to teach again, he finally wins a Nobel Prize in 1994. As he accepts his prize inside a Stockholm auditorium, his hallucinations appear again, and he sees three figures watching him. He refuses to let his illness win and just briefly glances at them before leaving the auditorium.^[7]

3 Psycho—1960

Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock was one of the most influential directors in film history. He gave the world memorable films such as The Birds, Dial M For Murder, Mr & Mrs Smith and of course Psycho.

While Psycho will always be remembered for the infamous shower scene, it is also considered to be one of the earliest slasher films and one of Hitchcock’s best efforts. Most critics agree that the Norman Bates character, played by Anthony Perkins, accurately and chillingly displays the symptoms of a person diagnosed with Dissociative Personality Disorder (DID).

Bates is unable to deal with his childhood trauma that saw him lose his father and killing his own mother, Norma. He develops DID so that he doesn’t have to deal with his extreme feeling of guilt.

He carries on conversations between his mother’s corpse and himself. His Norma personality is extremely jealous of any woman that Norman feels an attraction to and becomes violent enough to kill. When Norma completely takes over Norman’s mind, he dresses as her and satisfies her blood lust.^[8]

2 Joker—2019

Set in 1981, Joker takes the life of Arthur Fleck and turns it into a spiral of darkness and insanity. Joaquin Phoenix took on the role of Fleck and portrays a character who failed at being a stand-up comedian and eventually becomes a criminal struggling with mental illness.

Fleck lives with his mother in Gotham City and suffers from Pseudobulbar Affect (PBA) which causes him to laugh at inappropriate times. He is assaulted by three rich men who work for Wayne Enterprises and shoots them all. When the murders are condemned by mayoral candidate, Thomas Wayne, protests erupt in the city leading to social funding cuts. This causes Fleck to have to make do without his much-needed medication.

After learning that his mother lied about his adoption, he murders her and then proceeds to murder his co-worker, Randall. He also kills a talk show host for mocking his laughing disorder and comedy routine. Towards the end of the film rioters bust Fleck out of the police car he is riding in after being arrested and Fleck dances for the crowds while they cheer him on.

Joker earned itself 11 Oscar nominations and Joaquin Phoenix won the Best Actor award at the 2020 ceremony.^[9]

1 One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest—1962

The late Kirk Douglas turned Ken Kesey’s novel, One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest into a Broadway play. Kirk played the main character, RP McMurphy. His son, Michael Douglas, later produced the film along with Saul Zaentz. The movie was shot in an actual mental hospital in Oregon and Douglas roped in some excellent actors including Louise Fletcher, Danny DeVito and Jack Nicholson.

The place is a melting pot of mental disorders, but it soon becomes apparent to the viewer that RP McMurphy is faking his insanity and instigates mayhem in the hospital to avoid being handed a custodial sentence. When he assaults a staff member, however, he receives electroconvulsive therapy as punishment. McMurphy’s arch enemy, Nurse Ratched, is eventually revealed to be conniving and manipulative.

The other ‘inmates’ include ‘Chief’ Bromden who seems to suffer from paranoid schizophrenia and believes that Ratched is a machine and Billy Bibbet who has psychological issues stemming from his relationship with his mother and can’t stop stuttering. George Sorenson has an extreme dirt phobia, while Martini sees hallucinations all the time.

One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest won five Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Actor and Best Actress.^[10]

Top 10 Greatest Movies Never Made

Discover how contemporary film—and the action genre in particular—evolved from behind-the-scenes antics and production quirks in classic action movies. Heck, an entire college course could be taught on Arnold Schwarzenegger alone. But we’ll focus on a variety of performances and stories in certain action films from the late 1970s to the 1990s.

If you’re a film nerd, we think you’ll love these 10 background stories. If you haven’t seen these masterpieces yet, what are you waiting for?

Spoiler Alert: Obviously, we’ll reveal information about the movies on this list. If you haven’t seen a particular film and don’t want to know what happens, then skip that entry and go to the next one. You’ve been warned.

Top 10 Action Movies To Laugh Out Loud To

10 Mad Max (1979)

Mad Max was way ahead of its time and so audacious that the film was banned in its native Australia upon release. Before delving into the fascinating history of the actual production, we need to talk about Mel Gibson. Although most actors can go from 1 to 10, Gibson has always had a knack for going to 1,000.

Born in Peekskill, New York, he moved with his family at a young age to Australia. At age 23, Gibson was a relatively unknown soap opera actor. Apparently, he got into a violent bar fight and his face was badly bruised.

Before his face healed, Gibson drove his friend Steve Bisley to a Mad Max audition. (Costar Bisley wound up playing Jim Goose in the movie.) Meanwhile, Gibson was quickly cast as a “freak” side character.

Time went by, and Gibson’s wounds healed. When production began, his buddy got booted to a supporting role and Gibson snagged the lead. Additionally, the director, George Miller, was an emergency room doctor who based the movie’s violent car crashes on what he had seen in real life.^[1]

The nitty-gritty relatability of the original film’s dystopia is accidental. It feels so close in time—yet so far away—because Miller and his producing partner, Byron Kennedy, opted to set the plot in the future. A modern version would have needed many more extras, buildings, and permits. It was cheaper and easier to film in the Australian outback.

Although plenty of great car chases came from that film era (Bullitt, The French Connection), Mad Max is in a class of its own with its belligerent, human-driven madness that revs as loud as the drag-style stunt cars. For about 20 years, Mad Max was the most profitable film ever made (based on the ratio of its budget to box office receipts).

9 First Blood (1982)

This movie is often mistakenly called Rambo. However, the technically correct title is First Blood. Based on a book by David Morrell, the film script made the rounds in Hollywood for a decade with names like Al Pacino, Clint Eastwood, Steve McQueen, and Robert De Niro almost signing on.

It took a $3.5 million paycheck and permission to do a rewrite for Sylvester Stallone, still riding high from the massive success of Rocky, to officially get on board. With stellar performances from Brian Dennehy, Richard Crenna, and a cantankerous Jack Starrett, the film dives much deeper than just explosions and violence.^[2]

In fact, John Rambo doesn’t actually kill anyone in the first film. It was a new form of storytelling that touched upon what is now known as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). It was called “shell shock” at the start of the 20th century.

First Blood wonderfully weaves together a story of power-abusing cops, the repercussions of coming home from an unpopular war, and the ravages of PTSD, anxiety, paranoia, and outright animalistic self-defense. All the sequels are enjoyable romps with lots of blood and guts, but the original has soul. The veteran just wanted to get some food, cops had to play their games, and the town of Hope, Washington, practically got wiped off the map.

8 Speed (1994)

Before he was Neo or John Wick, Keanu Reeves (the “nicest guy in the world”) started out in 1989 as the goofy Ted Logan from the classic Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure. Then director Kathryn Bigelow cast the young Reeves as the iconic Agent Utah in Point Break. That propelled his career toward the action star that he would eventually become.

Speed, directed by Jan de Bont, was based on a story written by Akira Kurosawa that became the film Runaway Train. As most studio-driven screenplays are constantly changing, the initial versions of Speed have quite an array of differences.

Although the script was originally written by Graham Yost, the dialogue was almost completely redone by a young and uncredited Joss Whedon. Jeff Daniels’s character, Harry, was intended to be the bad guy. But his performance was so endearing that the producers thought he would be unbelievable as a villain.^[3]

During test screenings, audience members were so entranced by the nonstop action that they walked backward if they had to use the bathroom. They didn’t want to miss a moment.

Speed solidified Reeves’s status as an action star, while Sandra Bullock charmed the world in her role as Annie Porter. (She learned how to drive a bus before shooting.) And no one can forget the wily, hypnotizing performance by Dennis Hopper as mad bomber Howard Payne.

7 The Terminator (1984)

James Cameron’s first film (he has disowned his actual directorial debut, Piranha II: The Spawning) was inspired by a vivid nightmare he had. With a budget of only $6 million, The Terminator is an impressive film from a production point of view because it was technically an indie at the time.

According to Arnold Schwarzenegger, O.J. Simpson was supposed to be the Cyberdyne Systems T-800 Model 101. But Cameron, notoriously outspoken and occasionally crass, denied it by stating that he had sacked the idea before it even got to the table. Either way, they both acknowledge that O.J. was mentioned at some point.

The special effects are fascinating. The tanker truck explosions scene was composed of dozens of shots with a miniature model. In the opening sequence, the skulls that were crushed to dust were actually as small as marbles.^[4]

Cameron cast mostly unknowns to keep the budget low. (Arnie really only had Conan under his belt at the time.) The relatively unknown Linda Hamilton, playing the unstoppable Sarah Connor, became Cameron’s fourth wife a decade later.

6 Con Air (1997)

When Nic Cage tells you to put the bunny back in the box, you do it. Directed by Simon West, this eccentric 1990s masterpiece has the most impressive cast of any film on this list. John Cusack’s and Steve Buscemi’s roles were explicitly written for them.

However, John Malkovich’s wonderfully psychotic Cyrus the Virus character was almost played by Gary Oldman. Cage also had some tough competition for his role. But doing most of his own stunts throughout the film solidified him as a blockbuster action star.

In the original script, the plane was supposed to hit the White House. However, the producers opted for Vegas for two reasons. First, it was more plausible geographically. Second, you could buy a “dead” casino and thrash it to pieces back then because the Las Vegas Strip was undergoing rapid reconstruction.^[5]

10 Real-Life Costs Of Action Movies

5 Die Hard (1988)

As the first film in one of the finest action franchises, Die Hard is also the best Christmas movie ever made. To top off the accolades, this masterpiece came from a notable director of the 1980s and ’90s, John McTiernan (Predator, The Hunt for Red October).

Based on Roderick Thorp’s 1979 novel, Nothing Lasts Forever, Die Hard just keeps getting better with age. Bruce Willis kills it as John McClane. How can you not love his wisecracking, misanthropic detective character?

However, the true legend of Die Hard is none other than the late Alan Rickman’s villain, Hans Gruber. Rickman meticulously made the character his own, insisting on business attire for Gruber instead of the mercenary clothing worn by his goons. Rickman approached the role thinking that Gruber wasn’t really all that bad. Gruber knew what he wanted and focused on getting it.^[6]

In the famous scene where Gruber falls from the top of Nakatomi Plaza (which was really 20th Century Fox’s corporate headquarters), the stunt coordinators purposely miscounted the drop per McTiernan’s instructions. That way, Rickman would be caught off guard by the fall. The classic expression on his face is genuine.

Then there are the glass scenes. Poor McClane’s bare feet are always cringeworthy, and they should be. Including all the destruction with explosions, gunfire, and painful footsteps, Die Hard’s producers shelled out around $130,000 just on glass.

4 The Rock (1996)

The Rock, one of Sir Sean Connery’s favorite films, is everything an action movie should be. Another 1990s film that used practically every actor available in Hollywood, The Rock is bonkers blockbuster. Nic Cage ad-libs most of his dialogue. Ed Harris shouts his way through a great performance as Connery and Cage complement each other amazingly.

Connery even insisted that a cabin be built on Alcatraz Island during the shoot because he simply could not be bothered with the commute. Famed film scribe Aaron Sorkin was also involved, although he was uncredited. According to sources, Sorkin “wrote great dialogue.”^[7] A fun fan theory suggests that Connery’s Mason character is really a geriatric James Bond.

3 Lethal Weapon (1987)

“I’m getting too old for this sh—t.”

Let’s start with some trivia. Roger Murtaugh (played perfectly by Danny Glover) never utters that line in the original Lethal Weapon, though he does say it in the sequels. In the first movie, Murtaugh sighs, “I’m too old for this sh—t.”^[8]

Glover costars as the reluctant action hero while Mel Gibson gives a wild dog, tour-de-force performance that justifies all the sequels (even though none were up to par). Although it’s hard to imagine, Gibson’s role of Martin Riggs almost went to Jeff Goldblum or Patrick Swayze.

While shooting the scene where Riggs puts a pistol to his head and contemplates suicide, Gibson in all his glorious madness had a blank in the chamber to make the performance more intense. (Blanks are dangerous; that’s how Brandon Lee died in The Crow.) Meanwhile, Gary Busey channeled the soulless eyes of a shark to perfectly execute his performance as the mercenary Mr. Joshua.

Surprisingly, Leonard Nimoy was offered the director’s chair that wound up going to Richard Donner. Throughout the franchise, Donner made political references in the films to racism and apartheid, which caused him to receive many death threats.

On a lighter note, let’s not forget Gibson’s homage to The Three Stooges. It made his unhinged character somewhat grounded and lovable.

2 The Matrix (1999)

We didn’t want to genre-blend in this list, but The Matrix has to be mentioned. Action movies, and films in general, have never been the same since this masterpiece. The Wachowskis crafted arguably the greatest action movie of all time.

Starting production on a gamble, they wanted an $80 million budget but only got $10 million. Rolling the dice, they spent the entire $10 million on the opening sequence with Carrie-Anne Moss’s Trinity character obliterating several SWAT officers. It took six months of training and four days to shoot. The studio saw it, loved it, and greenlit the rest of the initial budget.^[9]

The revolutionary “bullet-time” effect was created especially for the film and needed 120 cameras to complete. It also took 10 squib-ridden days to shoot the infamous “lobby scene.” And for anyone wondering, no, The Matrix wasn’t shot in the States but in Sydney, Australia.

1 Die Hard With A Vengeance (1995)

“Yippee-ki-yay!”

Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson make for an outstanding pair in the only sequel ever made by the legendary John McTiernan. Willis personally requested Jackson for the part. It’s pure brilliance. Shamefully, you almost forget Hans Gruber in favor of his equally sociopathic brother, Simon Gruber, perfectly played by Jeremy Irons after Sean Connery turned down the role.^[10]

We love most that the New York City featured throughout the film is a remnant of a bygone era when Rudy Giuliani was still mayor there. During this wild shoot, the stunt team really blasted a sideways subway car traveling over 72 kilometers per hour (45 mph) at stunt extras.

Honestly, Die Hard With A Vengeance goes toe to toe with the original . . . just on steroids.

10 Great Cheesy Action Movies of the ’90s

The samurai of Japan have an almost mythic reputation. The idea of a class of katana-wielding warriors held to a noble code is incredibly romantic, and it’s fueled some of our most fantastic films and legends.

Scattered throughout the history of the real samurai, though, are a few weird little details that we tend not to talk about because if we did, it would ruin the fantasy played out on the silver screen.

10They Wore Inflatable Capes

Samurai would wear massive, 6-foot-long capes called “horo.” They were stuffed full of light materials and designed to catch the wind and blow up. The horo was supposed to stop incoming arrows, to protect a samurai from attacks from behind or the side.

In practice, it was mostly a status symbol. The horo was a big inflated sign that let everyone know you were nobility. It let the enemy know that they weren’t allowed to desecrate your corpse, because the past was a horrible time when everyone did awful things.

“The enemy will understand, as they recognize the horo, that the dead was not a common person,” the samurai were told, “and so your corpse will be well treated.”

9Early Samurai Swords Broke When They Hit Armor

In the 13th century, when Japan was invaded by Mongols, they were forced to face an invading, armored horde for the first time, and their swords didn’t really hold up.

The thin Japanese weapons kept getting stuck in the Mongolian’s leather armor. Sometimes, they would even break in two. Those thin samurai swords snapped so often that they had to give up on them, and they started making bigger, heavier swords like everyone else to fight off the Mongolian invasion.

8Samurai Believed Sleeping With Women Made You Effeminate

In feudal Japan, nothing made a man more of a sissy than spending a whole night sleeping with beautiful women.

Sex with women, the samurai believed, had a feminizing effect that weakened a man’s mind and body. The samurai married because they needed to further the family line, but they didn’t want to get carried away with it. If a samurai was caught kissing his wife in public, he was called a sissy.

That didn’t mean the samurai were celibate. Sex with women was a little fruity, but sex with men was incredibly macho. Homosexual sex, the samurai believed, just made you tougher than ever.

7Apprentices Serviced Their Masters

When a boy was learning the art of the samurai, he would often pair up with an older man. The elder would teach him martial arts, etiquette, the code of honor, and, in exchange, would use him for sex.

This was called shudo, meaning “the way of the adolescent boys.” When a boy turned 13, it was common for him to swear loyalty to an older man and stick with him until for the next six years. This was completely normal. In fact, one Japanese poet wrote, “A young man without a pledged, elder he-lover is likened to a young girl without a fiance.”

It really was treated like a marriage. In the Hakagure, a book written in 1716 on the way of the samurai, boys are instructed to be faithful to their shudo partners. If another man makes a pass at them, they are told, they should threaten them, and, “if pressed further, cut him down by your sword in rage.”

6Samurai Could Kill People For Being Rude

If a samurai was disrespected by someone from a lower class, he could kill that person where he stood. There were a few rules. He had to do it immediately and he had to have a witness, but as long as he had that covered, he could kill anyone who bumped into him.

It wasn’t even really a choice. It was considered embarrassing not to do it. One samurai, after bumping into a peasant, demanded the peasant apologize. When he didn’t, the samurai handed him his short sword and told him to defend himself. It was a mistake. The peasant ran for his life, understandably figuring he had a better chance outrunning a samurai than outfighting him.

The samurai told his family what happened, but they took it as personal humiliation. They disowned him. They told him the only way they’d treat him like family again was if he hunted the peasant down and murdered his whole family.

5Bathroom Trips Were Planned To Be Ready For Assassins

The samurai got paranoid about their bathroom breaks when the 16th-century warrior Uyesugi Kenshin was assassinated on the toilet. His killer, according to rumors, snuck in and stabbed him with a spear, catching off guard and with his pants down.

After, Uyesugi’s rival, Takeda Shingen, became worried that someone would do the same to him. He moved his toilet into a walled outhouse in a corner so that he could make sure nobody snuck up on him.

The details of how this evolved are lost. Lowry claims, though, that by the time he was in Japan, martial artists were trained out of habit to go to the toilet with the right pant leg pulled completely off. That way, if someone snuck in, they’d be ready to fight, as long as they could multi-task.

4Samurai Tried To Leave Sweet-Smelling Corpses

A legendary samurai named Kimura Shigenari made his last stand in 1615, defending the Osaka castle against an invading army. He boldly marched his troops to the fields of war to face their attackers, leaving the safety of the castle walls—but not before dolling up his head like he was getting ready for a first date.

Before battle, Kimura carefully trimmed his hair and burned some incense inside his helmet. He didn’t expect to survive, and, ever considerate to his future killer, he wanted to leave a fragrant corpse. He knew his head would become someone’s trophy, and he wanted it to be a nice one.

It worked. When he died, several enemy soldiers tried to take credit for it, and ended up bickering over who got his head. One of them finally brought his head to their leader, Tokugawa Ieyasu, who was so impressed that he encouraged all of his men to start putting incense in their helmets, too.

3Samurai Had Armor For Their Dogs

We have at least one remaining set of samurai armor custom-fit for a dog.

The armor, built in the early 19th century, comes complete with a doggie helmet, a rawhide skirt, and a handy pouch. We don’t know a lot of the details about how it was used, but it’s believed that it probably wasn’t to send dogs into battle. Instead, the armor was probably just used during parades, or possibly just commissioned for fun.

We’ve only ever found one set of doggie armor, so it wasn’t that common. Still, for one beautiful moment in history, a samurai marched down the streets of Japan with a dog dressed in full military armor.

2Samurai Spies Clubbed People With Flutes

One of the strangest samurai weapons is the shakuhachi, a bamboo flute. Originally, these were nothing but musical instruments, played by Buddhist monks as a substitute for chanting. The flute evolved, though, when a group of Buddhists called the komuso started walking around with baskets on their heads, playing the flute and preaching. The samurai realized that these people walking around with baskets on their heads were wearing the perfect disguise, and they started to copy it.

Samurai spies sent to quell rebellions would pretend to monks in the komuso. They would walk around with flutes in their hands and baskets on their heads, eavesdropping on national threats. There was just one difference: The samurai’s flutes had spikes. If they got caught, they wanted to be ready to bash someone’s head in with their flutes.

1They Regularly Betrayed Their Masters

The samurai code didn’t really exist until the 1600s, and before that, samurais would betray their masters left and right. Even after that, the samurai valued loyalty on paper, but it wasn’t always practical in real life. If a samurai’s master didn’t reward and take care of the warrior who defended him, that samurai usually took the first chance he could to backstab him and team up with someone who would.

When Western missionaries first came to Japan, they were shocked at how much backstabbing they saw. “Treachery was rampant,” a 16th-century missionary wrote about his visit to Japan, “and nobody trusted his neighbor.”

“They rebel whenever they have a chance,” another wrote. “Then they about-turn and declare themselves friends again, only to rebel once more when the opportunity presents itself.”

Can you believe that after twelve years of writing lists we haven’t ever done a list of the best movies of all time? It’s true! So today we correct that terrible oversight.

You may find yourself staying in a lot over the next few weeks, and if you are, what better what to relax, and forget about your problems, than with a movie?

10 Influential Movies With Dark And Surprising Origins

No need to cross the door. There are thousands of films available on streaming services around the world. But which one do you choose? And how do you know it is going to be great?

You could watch hundreds of trailers, read thousands of reviews and make a spreadsheet ranking every film for watchability.

Or you could just read this list, and start watching some really great films.

20 Call Me By Your Name, 2017

If you are looking for a coming of age romance, or you just want something to make think of summer, try Call Me By Your Name. Released in 2017, it stars Timothée Chalamet as 17-year-old Elio, living with his family in an idyllic Italian villa. Armie Hammer is slightly miscast as Oliver, who is supposedly 24, but doesn’t look it.

Once you have got over that, however, the film is a beautiful story of first love. If you had to describe the pace of the movie in one word, it would probably be ‘languid’. It’s as if everyone is too hot to move quickly. The scenery is stunning, Hammer acts better than he ever has before, and Timothée Chalamet is brilliant as a young man who finds everything arousing – women, men, fruit.

It is not a movie about forbidden love. In Call Me By Your Name, all love is allowed, and celebrated.

Notably this is also the most significant film produced by James Ivory since the death of his partner in business and life, Ismail Merchant who, under the Merchant Ivory label, gave us such greats as Remains of the Day and A Room With A View.

19 The Seventh Seal, 1957

The Seventh Seal regularly makes an appearance on the list of the Greatest Movies Ever. Some people who voted for it actually watched it. The rest should.

Written and directed by Ingmar Bergman, and set during the time of the Black Death, the film famously features Death playing chess for the possession of a human soul.

Is he playing to win, or does he have a different motive?

The movie is said to be an Existentialist Masterpiece, but don’t let that put you off.

Come and join the Dance Macabre.

18 Tokyo Story, 1953

Tokyo Story is a 1953 film by Yasujiro Ozu. If you haven’t heard of it, you should have. It is often regarded as one of the best films ever made, but, being in Japanese, has suffered from lack of exposure in the West.

Time to correct that. It is a simple story of an elderly couple who visit their children in Tokyo, only to find themselves largely ignored. Only their daughter-in-law makes an effort to be kind.

Their kids are vile, and far too busy with their own lives to care about their parents, and can’t wait to ship them off again. They give them passes to a health club because they want their room for an office.

Not a feel-good movie, this one, with its themes of loss and loneliness and the decline of family, but it is a simple story, beautifully told.

Bring tissues.

17 Die Hard, 1988

The only thing that makes Die Hard a Christmas movie is the Christmas tree in the lobby of the Nakatomi building, but don’t let that put you off. Alan Rickman plays the baddie, Hans Gruber, who will definitely kill you, but he will do it suavely.

Bruce is having a bad day. But it’s nothing to how bad it’s going to get. Die Hard spawned a million imitations. One lone tough guy, who prevails against overwhelming odds, whilst still finding time for humor. One dead bad-guy is used as a Post-It Note, with the message ‘Now I have a machine gun. Ho Ho Ho’ scrawled across his body.

There is one wince-inducing scene where Bruce has to walk over broken glass in bare feet, but other than that, its high-octane, explosive good times all the way.

Welcome to the party, pal.

16 Some Like It Hot, 1959

Some Like It Hot is the ultimate feel good movie. Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis are fantastic as a couple of musicians on the run from mobsters after witnessing a mob shootout. They join a big band that is heading out on tour, only to discover that it is an all-girl group. Cue Lemmon and Curtis in drag. Unsurprisingly, Tony Curtis made rather a good-looking woman, although Lemmon had his admirers too.

Marilyn Monroe also stars as the band’s singer, Sugar Kane, in which she famously sings ‘I wanna be loved by you’, which is a recommendation on its own.

It’s hard to find anything to criticize in this movie. Which is surprising, since the film-shoot was said to be difficult. Monroe famously needed 47 takes to get the line, ‘It’s me, Sugar’, right. And when she had to say, ‘Where’s the bourbon?’ whilst rummaging through some drawers, the director, (Billy Wilder again) ordered the words to be pasted inside every drawer.

It took 59 takes.

But nobody’s perfect.

Top 10 Best of the Best in Movies

15 The Princess Bride, 1987

Cool guys get their pick of hero films, but if you are a little bit clumsy and a little bit of a chump, there is always The Princess Bride. The plot is, shall we say, complicated, but there are a variety of hero roles to choose from. You could be Westley, the farm hand who loves Buttercup (that’s a girl not a cow) and would do anything to please her. Or a giant named Fezzik, who is, well a reasonably friendly giant. Or Inigo Montoya, a Spanish fencing instructor on a quest for revenge against a 6-fingered man.

Which is enough hero for anyone.

The film, a fantasy/comedy/fairy-tale has become a cult classic, despite the ropey sets, cheesy dialogue and Mandy Patinkin in a truly awful wig. The ‘heroes’ succeed more by luck than judgement, but a win is a win, and a hero is a hero.

And anything else is inconceivable.

14 The Great Dictator, 1940

Charlie Chaplin made a lot of great silent films, of which City Lights is generally considered to his greatest, and he continued to work in the medium of silence long after everyone else was making talkies. But then, in 1940, just to prove that he could do it, Chaplin made his first full-length talking film. And it was a great one.

The Great Dictator was a film about fascism. At a time when the world was at war, Charlie Chaplin made a film lampooning Hitler and Mussolini, and the ridiculousness of their ideology. He starred both as the dictator, Adenoid Hynkel, and as a persecuted Jewish barber, who looks remarkably like a much-loved tramp.

After a complicated series of events, the barber is mistaken for the Adenoid Hynkel, and is pushed on stage to address a great rally. After some reluctance, the barber seizes the opportunity to make a different kind of speech, which leaves his audience feeling at first confused, and then empowered.

You are not machines.

The Great Dictator has everything that you know and love about Charlie Chaplin movies. Plus anti-Nazi propaganda.

It’s da banana.

13 Sunset Boulevard, 1950

Sunset Boulevard is a film about a washed-up movie star. Possibly Billy Wilder’s greatest movie, it starred Gloria Swanson as Norma Desmond, the aging silent movie star who lives alone, except for her butler.

The film isn’t just about the movie industry. It’s also about the arrogance of youth, the fragility of age, and dreams we can’t let go of. Mostly, it is a movie about obsession. Norma Desmond’s obsession with recapturing her stardom, her butler’s obsession with her (he wasn’t always her butler), and a playwright’s ruthless ambition to Make It in Hollywood.

Gloria Swanson took a huge risk in playing a washed-up has-been obsessed with her fading beauty, unable to come to terms with no longer being adored. After all, she was herself a former silent movie actress whose career stalled with the advent of the talkies, and she could have done lasting damage to her reputation. In the end, however, Sunset Boulevard became the outstanding film of her career, and ensured that she has a place in the top 10 of everyone’s greatest movie list.

12 Reservoir Dogs, 1992

A list about great movies wouldn’t be complete without at least 1 Tarantino film.

And there are plenty (well 9) to choose from. But we only have 20 films in this list, and so we are restricting ourselves to 1 QT film. And the most Tarantino-esque movie of all, is Reservoir Dogs.

His first feature film (according to his count), Reservoir Dogs has everything. It has pretty much every motif that he is famous for, from the shot looking out from the trunk of the car, to the Mexican standoff. It has more blood than could possibly fit inside one human body, and a disturbingly musical psychopath who sings while he works. It has sharp-suited criminals and long tracking shots.

It doesn’t have any women with bare feet, but only because, apart from a couple of background artists, there aren’t any.

11 One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, 1975

Jack Nicholson plays crazy rather well. There’s The Shining, of course, where he is psychotic, or As Good as it Gets, where he has OCD, and, of course, he’s the Joker, which is madness personified.

Tell me, did you ever dance with the devil in the pale moonlight?

But his best film about insanity, was the one where he is the only sane man in the lunatic asylum. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is a celebration of individualism, and a cautionary tale about pretending to be mad, when you’re not.

Based on Ken Kesey’s novel of the same name, the film won 9 Oscars, including Best Director, Film, Actor and Actress. Brad Dourif was also nominated for his supporting role as Billy Bibbit, a young man who discovers his manhood in a night of glory, and loses it again the morning after.

Louise Fletcher is terrifying as Nurse Ratched, for whom orderliness is next to godliness and sanity cannot be allowed if it makes the place look untidy.

The film’s end is truly horrifying, but compulsive viewing, nonetheless.

10 The Usual Suspects, 1995

Some films are easy to follow. Others make you pay close attention. For The Usual Suspects, you might need to take notes.

Described as a ‘neo-noir’ movie (like Noir, but newer), The Usual Suspects makes heavy use of flashback to tell the story of a group of con men, a jewel heist, a mysterious crime lord with a ridiculous name, who may, or may not, exist, a shit ton of cocaine and an explosion on a ship.

Kevin Spacey plays Verbal Kint, a weasel-like con man that no one likes, who is scared to death that Keyser Soze or his henchman, the equally implausibly named Kobayashi will wreak revenge on him and his family, if he tells what he knows.

Gradually, Verbal is persuaded, cajoled and threatened into telling his, frankly incredible, story, and the police, let him go.

And like that, he’s gone.

9 Apocalypse Now, 1979

Apocalypse Now is Francis Ford Coppola’s startling retelling of Joseph Conrad’s novel, Heart of Darkness. It stars Martin Sheen as Captain Willard, who is sent up-river in Vietnam to find Colonel Kurtz, as played by Marlon Brando, who is leading a team of Special Forces and who is believed to have gone mad.

The movie beautifully captures the true nature of war. Long periods of being shit-scared, while absolutely nothing happens, followed by brief bursts of action that achieves nothing.

Brando does not appear until late in the movie, but his appearance is worth the wait. Is Kurtz insane, or is being insane the only sane thing to be when you are living on your last nerve in the jungle, waiting for an unseen enemy to kill you in unspeakable ways?

Brando’s appearance is surreal and disturbing. As is the end of the movie. Will the horror of his actions have the same effect on Willard as it does on Kurtz? Is the horror contagious?

Although the shooting was beset by problems, not least Martin Sheen’s heart attack and Brando’s lack of preparation, the final cut of Apocalypse Now, edited, it is rumored, from over a million feet of film, is consistently voted one of the best films ever made about war.

8 Toy Story, 1995

Toy Story is a film of firsts. It was the first entirely computer-animated feature length film. It was the first feature by a new company called Pixar. And it was the first film to have the marketing built right in. Because the characters were all toys.

You make a kids film with toys in it, and then you sell the toys.

Genius.

What was also genius, was the script. The idea of toys that come to life when no one is watching wasn’t exactly new. But that didn’t matter, because the script was not about toys. It was about friendship. Toy Story is a buddy movie. It’s a movie about acceptance. Accepting ourselves, even when we don’t live up to our expectations, and accepting our friends, even when they are really irritating and give themselves stupid catchphrases that make no sense.

The script was so good, in fact, that it was nominated for an Oscar for best original screenplay. Watch this film with your kids, or better yet, without them, and let it take you to infinity. And beyond. (See? No sense at all.)

7 The Matrix, 1999

The Matrix was a 1999 sci-fi movie from the Wachowskis that was unlike any other sci-fi ever. Sure, it had the same dystopian future, we’ve-all-been-taken-over-by-aliens shtick going on, but apart from that, totally new.

For a start, Keanu Reeves, Carrie-Anne Moss, and even Laurence Fishburne, looked cool. All black clothes, slicked-back hair and great sunglasses. They also had awesome Kung Fu moves. And then there were the special effects. Ground-breaking doesn’t begin to describe it. They may not have invented ‘bullet time’, but no one had ever used it as well.

The Matrix showed us that anything was possible. The trick was not to try and bend the spoon, but to realize that you can make $460 million by persuading people that the spoon is not there.

Both Matrix sequels were appalling, but nothing can take away the memory of seeing the first one.

Unless you take the blue pill.

6 Fight Club, 1999

The first rule of soap club is… It’s not about the soap. It’s about the fighting.

Fight Club, based on the novel of the same name by Chuck Palahniuk, is a film about men’s loss of identity in a civilized world. Or about the increasing dissatisfaction with capitalist society.

Or it maybe it was about the fighting.

Edward Norton, an insomniac who travels the world to look at car wrecks, literally, meets Tyler Durden (played by Brad Pitt). Tyler is everything that he is not. He is smart, he is tough, and he is without fear.

One of them is crazy.

They start a fight club because they don’t want to die without any scars. And soon half the city has a black eye or a busted lip.

While it barely made a splash when it was first released, Fight Club has become one of the most quotable films in history.

And the second rule of Fight Club is…

5 The Dark Knight, 2008

Not all superheroes movies are the same. They can be fun, sure, but they’re not usually good, and they are rarely great.

Last year’s Joker, with Joaquin Phoenix, was certainly great, but can hardly be called a superhero movie. It merely inhabited some of the same spaces. But The Dark Knight, which also features, a Joker, does qualify. Directed by Christopher Nolan, and starring Christian Bale as Batman, this is a much more sinister film than most superhero movies.

Gotham is a very dark place, both literally and metaphorically. And Christian Bale is great, but Heath Ledger is better. He brings a dangerous level of insanity to the Joker, his last great role.

The movie broke box office records, not just as tribute to Ledger but because the film made being a superhero sexy. Out went the spandex costumes, and in came black leather, moody lighting, and a bad guy so exuberant that you can’t help loving him a bit too.

4 Terminator 2: Judgement Day, 1991

Terminator 2 was better than The Terminator. Unfortunately, while the laws of time continued to be suspended throughout the rest of the Terminator series, the law of diminishing returns reasserted itself after Judgement Day, and by the time we reached Terminator 6, Dark Fate, it was considerably less good.

But still with Terminator Action.

Which is pretty cool.

But Terminator 2 was the one. It still had Arnold Schwarzenegger. But this time he had lines. He still said ‘Sarah Connor’ a lot, but he said other cool stuff too. Like, ‘hasta lavista, baby’.

And, ‘I’ll be back’.

It has lots of shooting, machines, chases, and blowing stuff up. If you are looking for great action, explosions and unnecessary muscle (and who isn’t), this is the film for you.

3 The Empire Strikes Back, 1980

There are lots of great movies about space. 2001: Space Odyssey, Alien, Guardians of the Galaxy (kidding). But Star Wars is in a galaxy of its own. Not those horrible later Disney versions, of course, but certainly the first 3 films. And if we could only pick 1, The Empire Strikes Back is it.

It has everything. Not only Luke, Hans, Leia and Darth Vader to provide the drama, but also some robots and a tiny Jedi master called Yoda, who talks kind of funny.

There are plenty of light-saber battles, explosions and a mind-blowing plot twist involving parental lineage, which make this film a must.

But, for best results, you should always watch The Empire Strikes Back after watching A New Hope. And if you’ve watched the first 2 films, you might as well keep going and watch The Return of the Jedi, too.

But stop there. For the love of God, stop there.

2 Harold and Maude, 1971

Can’t decide between a black comedy or a love story? Why not have both?

Released in 1971, Harold and Maude is the story of a teenage boy obsessed with death and suicide. He meets Maude at a funeral, and falls in love. Maude loves life, perhaps because, at the age of 79, she knows that she doesn’t have much of it left.

Maude teaches Harold a lot. While he drives around in a hearse, and continually plans his own demise, Maude makes every second count. She teaches him how to appreciate life. She teaches him to play the banjo.

And she teaches him how to love.

Harold and Maude is touching, funny, and yes, OK, it’s a little bit strange. But it has a whole lot of joie de vivre and a soundtrack by Cat Stephens

So, watch the film, and if you want to sing out, sing out.

1 12 Angry Men, 1957

The best courtroom drama ever, wasn’t filmed in a court room. There were no impassioned speeches for the defense, no expert witnesses, no damning testimony. There were just 12 Angry Men. Made in 1957, it starred Henry Fonda as Juror #8, and Lee J Cobb as Juror #3. As well as 10 other guys, obviously.

The film is a fascinating study of Crowd Behavior, and how people will abdicate responsibility to anyone with a stronger personality than their own. It was also ground-breaking, in that it was filmed almost entirely in one setting – the jury room, filled with 12 people who don’t know anything about each other. Not even their names.

After a cursory discussion, 11 jurors vote guilty. Only 1 man stands out against them. Yes, you’ve guessed it, Henry Fonda is not satisfied. He insists that they discuss the evidence, questions the reliability of the witnesses, and the rarity of the supposedly rare murder weapon, found in the defendant’s pocket. Henry Fonda, in fact, does the job that the defending barrister should have done, but presumably didn’t.

Fonda is not a man to be swayed by peer pressure, the cramped confines of the room, the heat, or the raging thunderstorm outside. He is prepared to sit there, calmly, and discuss the case all night, if need be.

12 Angry Men is tense, and genuinely suspenseful. It shows us how much we are swayed by the opinions of others and how far our own prejudices inform our thinking.

Most of all, it shows how one person, standing up for what is right, can make a difference. And who doesn’t want to watch that?

10 Ridiculous Myths We Believe Because Of Movies

Real life Viruses and Hollywood Viruses are different. Real life Viruses have unpleasant symptoms. Hollywood Viruses have mutant-zombie-vampires with anger issues. Real life viruses can be controlled with handwashing and staying indoors. Hollywood viruses are controlled by running around with guns, controlled explosions and occasionally nuclear weapons. Real Life Viruses are a bit boring. Hollywood Viruses can be awesome. So, after you’ve washed your hands, why not sit down, relax and see how the experts do it.

10 The Omega Man, 1971

Charlton Heston is the last man on earth, pretty much. One of the few survivors of a global pandemic, caused by biological warfare. A lone research scientist (Heston) injects himself with a vaccine of his own design, which seems to work.

However, the solitude of being the only survivor starts to drive Heston a bit mad, and he spends most of his time barricaded inside his apartment, which is stacked high with guns.
So far, so realistic.

However, when he is captured by these virus infected mutants, who he calls The Family, instead of attacking him they put him on trial, or at least a mock trial.
Now it is getting a little surreal.

The Family is run by the head mutant, a former TV anchor-man, played by Anthony Zerbe, who has a disturbing Manson vibe about him.

There’s a lot of other weird stuff too, including a lot of spear-throwing (unnecessary it would seem, given the abundance of weaponry in Heston’s apartment) and a crucifixion.

Most disturbing, however is the amount of time that Charlton Heston spends shirtless, for no good reason.

9 Blindness, 2008

Mark Ruffalo is a doctor who treats a man that has gone suddenly blind. The following day, Ruffalo, too, goes blind, and he realises that the blindness must have been caused by some kind of contagion.

The virus spreads, causing a whole city to become sightless overnight.

Except for Ruffalo’s wife, played by Julianne Moore, who retains her sight. In order to be able to stay with her husband, however, she pretends to be blind too.

Blindness is a film about what happens when we become completely dependent upon the kindness of strangers, and about how thin the veneer of decency can be when it’s every man for himself.

8 Outbreak, 1995

Outbreak, released in 1995, concerned an outbreak of an Ebola-like virus in Zaire, and it was an immediate success. Partly this was due to the performance of its all-star cast, and partly because, at the time of its release, Ebola was breaking out in, of all places, Zaire.

The virus is spread through a series of unfortunate, not to say unlikely, events, which include a military cover-up, a smuggled monkey, and its release into the wild, and a broken vial of blood which releases the virus as effectively as Pandora and her box.

Starring Dustin Hoffman, Rene Russo and Morgan Freeman, with star turns by Kevin Spacey, Donald Sutherland and Cuba Gooding Jr, the film’s premise was a little bit ridiculous but the levels of denial among those who should know better is spot on.

7 I Am Legend

How do you cure cancer? Easy. Give it the measles.

Barmy? Possibly. For some reason, not adequately explored, someone must have skipped the usual drug trial protocols, because, next thing you know, the measles has wiped out most of the world’s population. Oops.

Not to worry. Will Smith, is a former soldier turned virologist. Which means that when the measles turns his neighbours into mutant-zombie-vampires, he is trained to both fight them and cure them, all while trying to make contact with other virus-free survivors.

Living alone, with only his dog and some shop mannequins for company, Smith starts to go a little bit mad. He is plagued by the question of whether he is the only person to survive the virus. Could there be other people out there too? I am Legend was well received both critically and popularly, with everyone praising the performance of Will Smith. And his dog.

The mannequins were a bit wooden.

6 The Andromeda Strain

The Andromeda Strain was based on a novel by Michael Crichton, who was a doctor before he was a writer, so presumably knew a thing or two about viruses. When a satellite returns to earth, it brings with it a micro-organism that causes blood to clot in the veins. Those people who don’t die instantly, are driven to kill themselves.

Obviously, NASA has a protocol for dealing with alien micro-organisms. This protocol, codenamed Wildfire, requires sending a crack team of scientists to investigate, while the military prefer their own solution – let’s nuke it. Isn’t that always their solution?

The movie focusses on the disconnect between science and the military, and the dangers of devising rigid protocols to deal with unknown situations.

5 Contagion, 2011

This one is a little bit scary. Directed by Steven Soderbergh, Contagion is a movie about how viruses spread. It is about how difficult they are to contain, and how devastating the consequences can be when they’re not contained.

The film has been praised by scientists for its accurate portrayal of the difficulties of dealing with pandemics. Its all-star cast may help distract you from the impending breakdown of society. The film has everything, from politicians trying to downplay the seriousness of the epidemic, to charlatans trying to make a quick buck selling homeopathic cures, and heroic scientists who work round the clock to try to develop a vaccine.

Soderbergh said that he was trying to make an ‘ultra-realistic’ film about pandemics, and their affect on social order. Job Done.

4 28 Days Later, 2003

When Cillian Murphy awakes from a coma after 4 weeks, the world is a different place. He walks the streets of a deserted London, wondering what on earth happened has happened, and looking for signs of life.

It turns out that an animal rights group has accidentally released a chimpanzee with a highly contagious virus which causes extreme rage and loss of control. During the 28 days he has been asleep, society has collapsed, and the world has all but ended.

28 Days Later is not a film about viruses, as such, but about what happens to society when the normal rules of life are suspended.
It’s not pretty.

3 Train to Busan, 2016

If you want a virus outbreak film that doesn’t take itself too seriously, you could go for Train to Busan. A South Korean action/horror film, it broke records in Korea for audience size.
Imagine you are on a busy train. A woman boards at the last minute, looking pretty ill. The train has barely pulled out of the station before the woman mutates into a zombie-figure, who then attacks the guard, who then also mutates.

Not only that, but, whilst trying to quarantine the infected passengers in one railway car, your train passes burning buildings, and other mutant-zombies, so there’s no point trying to get off. What do you do next?

Train to Busan has been described as ‘the best zombie film ever’, and did wonders for the popularity of South Korean cinema, although probably not quite so much for its train companies.

2 12 Monkeys

What do you do if a deadly virus has wiped out most of humanity? Obviously, you build a time-machine and send Bruce Willis back from a dystopian future to sort it out. 12 Monkeys is directed by Terry Gilliam, so you know it’s also going to be a little bit strange.

Brad Pitt is certainly strange. As are the other inmates of the lunatic asylum to which Bruce is very quickly confined. Pitt’s performance won him a well-deserved Oscar nomination for his performance as an anarchist eco-terrorist with daddy issues and a side serving of psychosis.

In truth the movie isn’t really about a virus. It’s Bruce Willis saving the world. Again.

And that is always fun to watch. But it is Terry Gilliam’s direction, with his trademark black humour and twisted endings and Brad Pitt’s crazy man performance that takes this film from fun to fantastic.

1 Death in Venice, 1971

Death In Venice stands apart from the others on this list as being not just entertainment, but art. Scene after scene we are met with some of the most beautifully filmed images of one of the world’s most beautiful places: Venice. The film follows Gustav von Aschenbach who is taking time to recuperate from a nervous breakdown in Venice, which—ironically—is beginning to feel the effects of a cholera epidemic.

In between lusting after an adolescent polish boy staying at the same hotel and dealing with a mid-life crisis, Aschenbach has flashbacks to the death of his daughter and his career as a composer. The unravelling of the of the protagonist’s life through the film leads us to one of the most poignant and macabre endings ever. Director Luchino Visconti (featured on Top 10 Films About Economic Disaster You Really Need To Watch for The Damned) proved himself a true visionary in the production of this film.

The soundtrack by Gustav Mahler is eerie, beautiful, serene, and breathtaking.

Watch this film before any other on this list.

“Funny like how? How am I funny… like I’m a clown to you?”

10 Hilarious Realities Behind Your Favorite Movie Scenes

Like Joe Pesci and Ray Liotta^[1] before us, we could all use a good laugh lately – a welcome escape from our current housebound humdrums. There may never be a better time to curl up on the couch and revisit some legendary comedy films. And whether or not you agree with every entry, I hope you’ll have as many chuckles reading it as I did putting it together.

Here are ten of the funniest films in movie history, presented in chronological order with a so-bad-it’s-good wildcard at the end.

10 Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)

No, it’s not just a flesh wound.^[2] It’s comedic genius and a no-brainer addition to this list.

No comedy group does “morons on a mission” better than Monty Python. Half a dozen knights crouching dutifully behind a boulder, cautiously peering out at “the beast” that ends up being a bunny (“That’s the most foul, cruel and bad-tempered rodent you ever set eyes on!”). Efforts to vanquish the rascally rabbit include the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch.

When the gang comes across the Bridge of Death, they must answer three questions from a troll to gain crossing privileges. The troll goes easy on the first knight before asking the second two easy questions followed by “What’s the capital of Assyria?” The questions get more ridiculous from there (“What is the air speed velocity of a laden swallow?”). And of course, an attempt to lay siege to a castle is viciously repelled via catapulted livestock.^[3]

One of the reasons Holy Grail is widely considered its funniest film, I believe, is that comedy often doesn’t age well. This gives an advantage to something set in the Middle Ages, eliminating decade-specific references that grow stale with time.

9 Airplane! (1980)

Surely you didn’t think^[4] I’d leave Airplane! off this list. Produced for what even 40 years ago was the astoundingly low budget of $3.5 million, the ensemble-cast laugh-fest gets my vote for funniest film ever.

If comedy were boxing, Airplane! is a lightning-fast bantamweight that peppers rapid-fire jabs. Airplane! is spaghetti at a wall shot with a machine gun: the comedy comes so fast that the audience isn’t done laughing before the next joke lands.

Of course, that recipe can only work if enough of the jokes are good. And from the main character’s drinking problem^[5] to an old lady who helps the stewardess translate jive,^[6] Airplane! is so fast and laugh-out-loud funny that it’s hard to catch your breath.

Of note, Airplane! excels at comedy welded with wordplay. When a flight attendant tells passenger and disgraced fighter pilot Ted Striker that “there’s a problem in the cockpit,” he replies “The cockpit? What is it?”, prompting her to explain that “It’s a little room in the front of the plane, where the pilot sits.”

This device, in addition to recurring jokes like “I picked the wrong week to stop…”^[7], allows Airplane! to fill 90 minutes with a plot that could have been told in 15. “Plane in danger, hijinks ensue” is a simple way to put the plot on (a sexually satisfied) autopilot^[8] and clear the path for undistracted comedy brilliance.

8 Caddyshack (1980)

Any movie that ridicules golf – per George Carlin,^[9] an “arrogant, elitist game which takes up entirely too much room in this country” – is OK in my book. Riding Rodney Dangerfield’s boorish irreverence, 1980’s Caddyshack does so with a style that smacks the smarm right off a country club member’s face.

As brash, obnoxious nouveau riche protagonist Al Czervik, Dangerfield is both fish out of water and bull in a china shop. After yelling “Fore!” and hitting one of his antagonist’s square in the nuts with a tee shot, a self-satisfied Dangerfield declares “I shoulda yelled two!”.^[10] Later, at a posh party chock full of snooty septuagenarians, Dangerfield deems the shindig “The dance of the living dead.”

The movie also showcased two early Saturday Night Live cast members. Chevy Chase showcases his unsurpassed ability to deliver deadpan lines as an offbeat straight man. “Do you take drugs, Danny?” he asked the caddy. When Danny answers in the affirmative, Chase replies “Good.. so what’s the problem?” Meanwhile, Bill Murray takes a break from his groundskeeping duties for a horticulture hole in one, teeing off on flowers^[11] while mimicking a subdued TV announcer (“He got all of that one!”)

As a bonus, 1988’s Caddyshack 2 was one of the rare sequels worth making. Not as funny as the original, but in the same ballp… I mean, on the same fairway.

7 The Naked Gun (1988)

No, that’s not Enrico Palazzo.^[12] It’s Leslie Nielsen again, deservedly making his second appearance on this list.

A side-splitting big screen follow-up to the comedy series Police Squad!, The Naked Gun is the funniest TV-to-movie adaptation ever. The highly unorthodox foursome of Nielsen, Ed Williams, Priscilla Presley and a pre-alleged-double-homicide OJ Simpson^[13] left audiences laughing—and wondering why Police Squad! was canceled after just six episodes.

Like Airplane!, The Naked Gun has a spaghetti-at-the-wall, rapid-fire style where deadpan one liners, silly slapstick and general stupidity fly full-speed at the audience. Nielsen plays the perfect idiot protagonist—a bumbling investigator drawing parallels to Maxwell Smart.^[14]

Notably, while many comedies struggle to close a film, because the need to sew up the plot tends to pump the comedy brakes, The Naked Gun’s saves its best for last. Punctuated by a mangled Star-Spangled Banner^[15] (“And the rockets’ red glare/buncha bombs in the air”), a pregame bloopers reel featuring a decapitated outfielder (“How about that?”), and Nielsen as a breakdancing umpire, the baseball game at the film’s finale is among the funniest fifteen minutes in cinema history.

6 National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (1989)

The question wasn’t whether National Lampoon’s would make the cut, it was which movie. I went with Christmas Vacation, which holds the distinction of funniest holiday movie ever (honorable mention to Will Ferrell’s deranged classic, Elf).

This movie has so many quotable lines it’s impossible to know where to start, but how about Randy Quaid, playing Ellen’s white trash cousin-in-law, emptying an RV sewage tank into the street grate while waving to Clark’s uptight neighbor: “Merry Christmas! Shitter was full!”^[16]

Christmas Vacation might be the most hilarious cascading-disaster movie ever made. Clark’s elderly uncle burns down his tree with a “stogie”, a last straw that causes Clark to go berserk with a chainsaw and cut down the evergreen on his front lawn, which smashes his neighbors window as it falls. He drags it in… and a squirrel jumps out, prompting Eddie’s dog, the aptly named Snot, to chase the rodent and wreck the rest of the house. The solution? Clark opens the door and both squirrel and dog leap out… into the arms of Julia Louis-Dreyfus,^[17] who’d come over to confront Clark over the tree that has smashed through her window.

Christmas Vacation is one of those movies that, more than 30 years later, can and never will feel dated. It will be there year after year, comforting us amid a sea of annoying in-laws. Be thankful for it – and say grace. (“Grace? She passed away 30 years ago!”)^[18]

10 Great Overlooked Comedies

5 Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997)

Yeah baby. Mike Myers’ James Bond parody was the funniest live-action movie of the 1990s (an honorable mention to Tommy Boy, starring the late great Chris Farley).

The film works on so many levels – the bad spy movie-mocking fight scenes (“Judo CHOP!”) and Myers’ impeccable comedic character development, to name just two. But perhaps the most successful element is the “double fish out of water” element. Myers plays both the protagonist Austin Powers and his archnemesis, Dr. Evil, each of whom have been reanimated after having been frozen for 30 years.

The result is an extra layer of cluelessness that allows Myers’ knack for awkward-moment hilarity to really pop; for example, Dr. Evil attempts to hold the world ransom for… “one MILLION dollars!”^[19] – a paltry price to prevent a lunatic from incinerating civilization with liquid hot magma.

Practically nothing Myers tries in this film falls flat. From pairing Dr. Evil with a clone 1/8 his size (“I shall call him… Mini-Me”) to his right-hand woman, Frau Farbissina (“head of the militant wing of the Salvation Army”) to Austin punching an old woman in the face^[20] out of suspicion she was really a “man, baby!,” the movie swings wildly and lands every punchline it throws. Its funniest scene might be Dr. Evil’s maniacal rant^[21] during a father-son therapy session, where he describes his childhood (“Summers in Rangoon, luge lessons… quite standard really.”)

4 South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (1999)

By far, the funniest animated movie ever is Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s adaptation of their envelope-pushing cartoon series, South Park. At a time when musical acts like Eminem and Marilyn Manson were causing parental uproar, Parker and Stone decided to troll the audience and society at large with one of the most subversive comedies ever.

I was in college when the movie came out. Sitting in the theater, I was surprised to see parents there with little kids; after all, the movie was rated R. Then it hit me: Parker and Stone had done this on purpose,^[22] luring unsuspecting parents to take their kids. After all, how raunchy could a cartoon really be?

At about ten minutes in, “Uncle F*cker,” the movie’s second musical number (yes, it’s a musical—a brilliant, foul-mouthed musical), answers this question with authority. (“Shut your f*cking face unclef*cker, you’re a c*cksucking asslicking unclef*cker…”) From there, a full album’s worth of uproarious songs, including the Grammy-nominated “Blame Canada,”^[23] amount to the funniest soundtrack in film history.

The movie’s plot – the South Park kids must rescue a pair of scapegoated comedians from being executed for telling fart jokes – ingeniously mirrors the reception Parker and Stone knew the movie would receive. The movie, then, both causes controversy and responds to it. And if you don’t like it, well, Cartman has a message for you.^[24]

3 Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004)

“I’m Ron Burgundy?”^[25]

His 2004 portrayal of a cluelessly misogynistic 1970s newscaster is the highlight of Will Ferrell’s comedic career – and that’s saying a lot. Like Austin Powers before it, you get the feeling ten minutes in that Anchorman is going to be a really stupid movie. And it is – it’s just stupidly terrific, a feat only pulled off with a fearsomely funny front man. From cheery-faced vulgar banter over the newscast’s closing credits^[26] (“You’re a real hooker, and I’m gonna slap you in public”) to wistfully musing that the name of his hometown San Diego translates to “whale’s vagina,” Ferrell’s delivery is sheer genius.

It’s the famous newscaster royal rumble,^[27] however, that puts Anchorman into the all-time top ten. Including Tim Robbins as a public access newsman (“No commercials… no mercy!”), the weapons-laden street brawl features Luke Wilson getting his arm chopped off with a machete while Brick Tamland (Steve Carell), a mentally-challenged weatherman, kills a horse-riding combatant with a trident. “Boy,” Burgundy says the next day to his team, “that escalated quickly.”

Still don’t think Anchorman belongs on this list? Then go f*ck yourself, San Diego.^[28]

2 Borat (2006)

Officially titled “Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan,” Sacha Baron Cohen’s brilliantly offensive depiction of a foreigner exploring American society is the most side-splitting mockumentary ever (honorable mention to 2000’s Best in Show). Like his groundbreaking TV series Da Ali G Show, the movie’s greatest asset is that its subjects aren’t in on the joke.

As Kazakhstan native Borat Sagdiyev, Cohen uses America’s faux-inclusion and racism against it in a way that is revealing and revolting, yet hysterical. At a dinner party, Borat pleads ignorance of not only American customs but American indoor plumbing, graciously handing the host a bag with his feces after using the restroom. At a rodeo, he declares his support for America’s controversial Iraq War by declaring – to a ravenously applauding crowd of rednecks – “we support your war of terror” and hoping “George W. Bush drinks the blood of every man, woman and child of Iraq!”

At a honky tonk, Borat performs a song called “In My Country There is Problem,” eventually getting the crowd of cowboy hat-wearing dimwits to clap and sing along to the refrain “Throw the Jew Down the Well,^[29] so my country can be free!” When he meets an actual Jewish couple – a kindly old man and wife renting a room in their home to overnight guests – Cohen flips his mockery to the Middle East’s rampant hatred of Jews by throwing money at cockroaches, whom Borat believes are his shape-shifted hosts^[30] (“You could barely see their horns”).

1 Superbad (2007)

Moving into the most recent set of big-screen comedians, we’d be remiss not to include Seth Rogan somewhere on this list. And while The 40-Year-Old Virgin gets due consideration (and has Paul Rudd – whom everyone loves),^[31] 2007’s Superbad beats it out by the tip of an obsessively-drawn penis^[32] from a grade-school Jonah Hill.

Superbad is one of the rare comedies that manages to incorporate and resolve a variety of plot twists without sacrificing the humor. Difficulty getting alcohol for a high school graduation party, tension between the two main characters as each goes to different colleges, teen get-the-girl ambitions and insecure police dickishness are A, B, C and even D stories that combine to make the film both heartwarming and side-splitting – a rarity for R-rated comedies.

Superbad’s physical humor is particularly outstanding. Fogel’s nervousness as an obviously underage liquor store customer, including his ridiculous attempt to small-talk the cashier^[33] (“Been drinking the stuff for years… I hear they’ve recently added more -twitch- hops”) is interrupted by one of the best movie face-punches ever.

When the cops show up to interview the witnesses, his single-named fake ID draws suspicion and then pity, and the legend of McLovin’ is born.

+ The Room (2003)

“It’s ‘The Room’ bad.”

That was a film industry friend of mine reacting to the 2019 movie Cats, roundly mocked as among the worst movies ever made.^[34]

2003’s The Room – written, directed by and starring the eccentric, marble-mouthed Tommy Wiseau, who invested millions of his own money to produce and release it – was so bad (and so ridiculously weird) that it sparked a cult following (including a talking bobblehead)^[35] and even a hit movie about its making, 2017’s The Disaster Artist.

It’s awesomely awful. The dialogue, whose foibles include a prominent character announcing she has cancer, then never referencing it again, seems written by a bot that studied human behavior, albeit poorly. Two awkward, waaaaay too long love scenes leave the audience wondering whether Wiseau is familiar with basic human anatomy, and for some odd reason there are pictures of spoons in the background^[36] – prompting cult followers to fling silverware during indie theater screenings.

“So what?,” you may be thinking. “Lots of movies are awful.” True, but The Room wasn’t just parodied by mainstream Hollywood: it was torn a new one by the cast of Mystery Science Theater 3000. Now called RiffTrax, the trio makes a killing from killing bad movies. Watching RiffTrax roast The Room^[37] is the funniest cinematic experience I’ve ever had. I highly recommend it.

10 Hilariously Horrifying Foreign Marketing Fails

I was inspired to create this list by all those disturbing movie fans who are sick of being recommended A Clockwork Orange, Midsommar, and a Serbian Film. We’ve been there. We’ve done that. It’s time for some original content.

Top 10 Harrowing Depictions of Insanity In Movies

If you’re looking for violence, gore, or just over-all creepy then you’ve come to the right place. We’ve searched high and low for the most out-there movies that will make you squirm and cringe to your heart’s content.

WARNING: The selected trailers contain disturbing footage. We advise discretion when viewing if there is a risk that a child will see or hear the content.

10Slaughtered Vomit Dolls, 2006, Lucifer Valentine

This is definitely a bold start to our list. Prepare yourself for a surreal, vile, exploitation horror. Slaughtered Vomit Dolls is the story of a teenage stripper-turned-prostitute, Angela Aberdeen, with severe bulimia. As her bulimia gets worse she starts to suffer from hellish hallucinations and satanic nightmare. She begins to experience visions of the deaths of her friends, other strippers, and others around her.

If you have a weak stomach I would suggest skipping this film, but who am I kidding? You’re here for that exact reason! If you’ve yet to be properly grossed out by a movie, then this is the perfect start.^[1]

9Sick: The Life & Death of Bob Flanagan, Supermasochist, 1997, Kirby Dick

If you want a real life story that will make you laugh, squirm, and maybe even cry, then Sick: The Life & Death of Bob Flanagan, Supermasochist is the film for you. Sick is a documentary about Bob, an artist and performer with cystic fibrosis. He is also a sadomasochist. To him, BDSM is a type of therapy used to regain control over his body that he feels he has lost his handle over. This film is a nice break from the gore and violence that this genre is usually known for. Flanagan’s agreement to participate in this project under the condition that his death would also be included in the final product just adds to the oddness of the production. It is an intense and weirdly human experience that will leave you shocked as the credits roll.^[2]

8 The 120 Days of Sodom, 1975, Pier Paolo Pasolini

This World War II horror drama is not for the faint-of-heart. When eighteen teenagers are rounded up by fascist libertines, they are forced to endure one hundred and twenty days of mental, physical, and sexual torture. This film contains intense scenes of degradation and torture, sexual violence, and high impact violence.

This is consuming piece of media that has been the subject of much discussion. Not only is it a shocking film, but it is also deep set political themes. So if you like a little politics in your horror then this movie is right for you.^[3]

7Guinea Pig: Flower of Flesh and Blood, 1985, Hideshi Hino

This film is the second installment of the Guinea Pig series, and it is arguably the most disturbing. It’s most notable for the several controversies surrounding the film. It is said to have inspired real life serial killer, Tsutomu Miyazaki, who abducted and murdered four girls in Japan. It also sparked controversy in the U.S. when actor and lunatic Charlie Sheen became convinced that it was an actual snuff film and reported it to the FBI. It is worth watching just for the conspiracies that surround it. This short film revolves around an unknown assailant dressed as a samurai. He kidnaps a woman and takes her back to his home where he proceeds to dismember her. She is arranged into a flower of flesh and blood (Hey! That’s the title!). It is a vile masterpiece that will have even the most avid disturbing movie fans flinching at the sight of it.^[4]

6The Snowtown Murders, 2011, Justin Kurzel

Nothing fills movie goers with anticipation more than seeing ‘based on true events’ before the film begins to roll. This is part of what makes The Snowtown Murders such an alarming movie to watch. This retelling of the most notorious serial murders in Australia is filled with incest, pedophilia, murder, and more. All of which make it hard to watch. Jamie, a 16-year-old boy, is taken in by his mother’s boyfriend. They form a self-appointed ‘neighborhood watch’ going after pedophiles and homosexuals. Violence under the guise of vigilantism eventually leads to a spree of violent physical abuse and murder. This is a tale of manipulation and family corruption. Crikey . . .^[5]

10 Shocking Documentaries That Ruined Reputations And Careers

5I Spit on Your Grave, 1978, Meir Zarchi

If revenge is your cup of tea, then you are going to love I Spit on Your Grave. This movie garnered controversy for its graphic depiction of gang-rape which takes up 30 minutes of the movie’s run time. The aspiring writer who is left for dead by her four rapists systematically hunts each of them down. The writer got his inspiration from an actual rape that occurred in New York City. It is all out revenge porn. Propellor disembowelment included!^[6]

4Visitor Q, 2001, Takashi Miike

Released in the same year as the much better known Ichi the Killer (see bonus item), Visitor Q is just as focused on sexual deviance and violence. At the center of this film is the story of a perverted family whose lives intertwine with a mysterious stranger.

This movie contain explicit sexual scenes, incest, and intense violence. The fact that it is filmed in a ‘home movie’ style just adds to the creepiness and uncomfortable nature of this film.^[7]

3Michael, 2011, Markus Schleinzer and Kathrin Resetarits

Michael is a slice of life film . . . If you consider slice of life to be five months following the life of a pedophile keeping a 10-year-old, Wolfgang, in his basement. It is a deeply distressing piece of work that leaves viewers in utter suspense and horror. The relationship between Michael and Wolfgang is depicted almost like a father and son, which makes knowing the truth all the more horrifying. The cliffhanger ending leaves viewers shocked and deeply distressed.^[8]

2Murder-Set-Pieces, 2004, Nick Palumbo

Fashion photographer by day, rapist and murderer by night, Murder-Set-Pieces follows a German serial killer in America. The Photographer’s demented childhood plagues him into adulthood, leading him to commit unspeakable acts of violence. He lures girls under the guise of them modeling for him. Instead he proceedes to rape, torture, and kill them. All while photographing the whole graphic experience. The utter brutality of this movie is what makes it notorious, It is also why it has been censored in several countries as well as banned in the UK (which is always a promising sign for a disturbing film fan).^[9]

1Vase de Notes (Wedding Trough), 1974, Thierry Zéno

Saving the most disturbing for last . . . This is the oldest film on this list but it is certainly not the tamest in any way. Wedding Trough is a film that has been given many other (very accurate) names. A mentally handicapped farmer falls in love with his pig. He rapes and impregnates the sow, and when the mutant piglets are born he hangs them. This film relies heavily on shock value and grotesque imagery to disturb the audience.

This movie contains real and simulated animal killings, zoophilia, and coprophagia. It is a volatile creation that might even make the most seasoned disturbing film viewer gag.^[10]

+8MM, 1999, Joel Schemacher

This, and the following bonus item, are added simply because they are too disturbing to ignore on a list like this. They are the close-contenders that missed out on appearing in the top 10 due to the fact that they are too well known in the disturbing genre.

It is rare to see household names in a disturbing films list, but we find both Nicholas Cage and Joaquin Phoenix in this next flick. 8MM is the story of a private investigator, Tom Welles, hired by a widow who discovers a ‘snuff film’ amongst her late husband’s possessions. Welles is tasked with discovering whether or not the film is authentic. It is a mystery thriller that plays heavily on the emotional disturbance and inner conflicts of the characters. While this film is more tame than some of the other picks on this list, the subject matter is still extremely eerie. This is a high quality film that is often overlooked by beginners to the disturbing film genre. It is a definite “must-see” – even for those with weaker temperaments who will manage it better than other films on this list.^[11]

++ Ichi the Killer, 2001, Takashi Miike

This is probably the most well known film featured here, which it should be because it is a truly excellent film. It also makes for the second mention of Takashi Miike (see item 4). Unfortunately, it is still often missing from other disturbing movie lists. Ichi the Killer follows Kakihara, a sadomasochistic enforcer for the yakuza. He comes into contact with Ichi while searching for his missing boss. Ichi, being the psychotic killer that he is, inflicts pain on Kakihara that he could only dream of. If you are looking for a movie about sexual deviance, anarchy, and graphic violence, Ichi the Killer is my best recommendation—in fact, if it weren’t so famous it would be the first item on this list.

This film is particularly notorious for being outright banned in several countries. Besides just the graphic content, the neon retro visuals are also what make this film particularly enjoyable to watch. It is a fluorescent spatter of adrenaline and violence.^[12]

10 Creepiest Photos Of Victims Taken By Serial Killers [DISTURBING]