The 30 Most Unsettling Movie Shooting Rooms of All Time
Sometimes just an idea can haunt your dreams. Of course, there are films that I’ve never even seen that have deeply disturbed me simply because I know the basic idea. Even reading the plot description or catching a few moments from the trailer can cause anxiety.
Production company A24 has built a reputation for strikingly atmospheric films that hit a certain sweet spot – films that tend to be a mixture of art, entertainment, commentary and holy crap, what did I just see?! Think The Lighthouse , The Witch , The Killing of a Sacred Deer and Midsommar . No matter how much you like it, they are all completely unforgettable.
That’s the power of what I call the Screwed Up Movie genre: good or bad, whether you like it or not, these movies will stay with you, perhaps forever. Fucked-Up Films have that kind of power, whether they’re art-house award winners or exploitative trash. Here are 30 of my… favorites?
(Some notable “Fucked-Up Films” were not included here simply because they are not available to stream – such as Spanking the Monkey , Happiness , Lard and other notoriously kinky classics. Feel free to add to this selection titles from your own films. dubious DVD collection.)
Lamb (2021)
Maria (Noomi Rapace) and Ingvar (Hilmir Snær Gudnason) live desperately unhappy lives in rural Iceland, at least until they are blessed by the arrival of Ada, a half-human, half-lamb cutie who is apparently the offspring of a sheep and a sheep . a mysterious entity that’s mostly a metaphor of sorts (we’re in an A24 movie, after all). Ada’s arrival brings some happiness to the couple, but also sparks rivalry between the trio and Ada’s biological mother, as well as Ingvar’s brother Petur, who desperately wants his daughter-in-law and doesn’t know what to do with his new niece.
Where to watch: Prime Video
Mad Love (1935)
A typical meeting between a guy and a girl. But the boy, a surgeon, was played by Peter Lorre, and the girl, a married actress with whom he is obsessed. When her pianist husband’s hands are mangled in a train accident, Lorre’s character gives him the hands of a killer and then tries to drive him crazy by pretending to be the decapitated former owner of those hands. It’s a gloriously insane movie, and it has one of my favorite trailers of all time.
Where to watch: digital rental
Eraserhead (1977)
This is David Lynch’s finest film of all David Lynch films, and an early arthouse masterpiece, so it probably goes without saying that it will be a little (much) flawed. I’m not even sure this idea can be condensed into one or two sentences, but it goes something like: A man reunites with an old lover just in time for her to give birth to their child, a lizard creature, while a woman living in looks at the battery.
Where to watch: Max , The Criterion Channel, digital rental.
Faces of Death (1978)
Hey kids, do you want to see the corpse? How about a few? The mockumentary became something of a rite of passage for curious teenagers who, back in the day, could get a copy of the VHS tape, and many did: the film made millions on a meager budget. Combining recycled news and documentary footage with new footage of corpses, as well as found-footage-style recreations (though it’s all meant to look authentic), Faces purports to be a serious, sober look at human (and animal) death, albeit with mercifully fake sequences and actors. , depicting experts, takes this far out of the documentary realm.
Where to watch: Shudder, AMC+.
Suddenly Last Summer (1959)
It may be surprising to learn that this is one of the most confusing films in Hollywood history, starring Katharine Hepburn, Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift. The highest-level summary is itself alarming: The mysterious death of Taylor’s cousin in Spain last summer is so disturbing that Hepburn’s character will go to great lengths to keep it a secret, including attempting to lobotomize her niece. Tennessee Williams’s bizarre psychodrama leads to some truly shocking revelations, especially for the era.
(Spoiler alert: the revelations include a heady combination of gay stuff and cannibalism.)
Where to watch: digital rental
Eyes Without a Face (1960)
The modern era of body horror begins. In the noir directed by Georges Franju, a doctor tries to restore his daughter’s burned face by transplanting pieces of skin from various women who enter his home. The idea itself isn’t that far off from what the previous films have hinted at, but the film manages to be much more unsettling because it takes that premise completely seriously. Decades later, Pedro Almodóvar was inspired by this when creating The Skin I Live In.
Where to watch: The Criterion Channel, Max , digital rental.
Spider Baby (1967)
The late and sometimes great Lon Chaney Jr. played one of his last roles in this exploitative comedy as the protector of a family of inbred hermits suffering from a disease that causes them to degenerate. Every night they kiss their father’s skeleton goodnight and try to keep their brother, young Sid Haig, from fucking the visitors. No one saw it when it came out, but it became a cult classic; unused, near-exact alternative titles like “Attack of the Liver Eaters” and “Cannibal Orgy” may give you an idea of why.
Where to watch: Prime Video
A Clockwork Orange (1971)
What’s most troubling about Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange is the moral ambiguity inherent in its premise: Malcolm McDowell and his friends roam the streets of a future Britain committing all manner of violence, sexual and otherwise. He eventually trades his violent impulses for freedom, but then becomes a victim himself – and the film asks us to sympathize with a protagonist who is completely reprehensible.
Where to watch: digital rental
Unknown (1927)
Dracula director Tod Browning was no stranger to unusual material, although this Lon Chaney silent horror predates both his vampire classic and his notorious 1932 cult antique Freaks . Chaney plays “Alonzo Armless”, a circus performer who is also a fugitive; his action is to throw knives with his legs, although he secretly has arms that he attaches tightly to his body. He falls hard for carnival girl Nanon (Joan Crawford, KO 1927), who has a terrible fear of hands. I can’t stand them! Their love is only possible as long as she believes that Alonso is truly armless, as well as his extra thumb, which can identify him as the killer of Kanon’s father. What else could Alonso do but force the surgeon to cut off his hands? An extreme act that certainly will not lead to tragic and ironic consequences in the final act.
Where to watch: Tubi, The Criterion Channel, digital rental.
Swiss Army (2016)
Before winning an Oscar for Everything Everywhere At Once , Daniel Scheinert and Daniel Kwan played with farting corpses in this surreal 2016 comedy-drama. Marooned on an island, a depressed man named Hank (Paul Dano) comes close to taking his own life when he encounters what he first thinks is a fellow shipwreck (Daniel Radcliffe), only to discover it is a corpse. But not just any corpse! “Manny” can propel them both through the water using the power of his gas; it can serve as a vessel for storing water; and as he begins to take on more human qualities, Manny can serve as a sounding board for philosophical ideas. Oh, and his riser can be used as a compass. Surprisingly cute, no matter what.
Where to watch: digital rental
I Spit on Your Grave (1978)
Although The Last House on the Left came first, I Spit on Your Grave is the true nadir of what has almost become its own subgenre of rape-revenge horror films (Wes Craven’s earlier film was based on an Ingmar Bergman film and at least , had a bit of pedigree). This film is all about brutal violence, with a graphic rape scene taking up a significant portion of the film’s running time, followed by bloody retribution.
Where to watch: Digital rental via Apple TV
Titan (2021)
Possibly a spiritual sequel to David Cronenberg’s 1996 erotic thriller Crash (which is not streaming anywhere), Titan stars Agathe Roussel as Alexia, who as a child was involved in a car accident that left her with a titanium plate in her head. and an erotic fixation on cars. As an adult, she strips naked at car shows and obsessively and brutally kills people. A late-night tryst with a Cadillac gets her pregnant, and the image of her long-lost child convinces her to cruelly alter her appearance to assume the identity of the lost child. As strange as it may sound (and is), the film made writer-director Julia Ducournau only the second woman in history to win the Palme d’Or, the top prize at the Cannes Film Festival.
Where to watch: Hulu
Prince of Darkness (1987)
One of my favorite John Carpenter films is also one of his most obscure, which asks the question: what if the literal Satan was actually a vat of sentient green goo hidden by the Catholic Church? And Jesus, the alien who came to Earth in search of slime, was executed for trying to warn us? Starring Carpenter favorite Donald Pleasence, the film plunges zombies into an impressively strange mixture of modern science and ancient religion.
Where to watch: Peacock , digital rental
Cannibal Holocaust (1980)
An example of a genre found long before it was a reality, Cannibal Holocaust follows a documentary film crew exploring a tribe in the Amazon rainforest, not yet corrupted by modernity (you can imagine what happens next). The director was arrested by Italian authorities… first for obscenity and then for murder when people began to believe the grisly deaths in the film were real.
Where to stream: Peacock
Back to the Future (1985)
It’s about a kid who travels back in time and is forced to spend several days dodging the increasingly determined advances of his horny, horny (horny!) mom. – Nuff said.
Where to watch: Netflix, digital rental.
Necromantic (1987)
Exciting social commentary and an attack on bourgeois values? Or Splatter, in which scenes of necrophilia are filmed using all the techniques of soft porn? Maybe it’s both!
(It’s mostly the latter.)
Where to watch: Shudder, AMC+.
Flowers in the Attic (1987)
Is it possible that in this most popular movie, based on the most popular book, incest comes to the fore? Of course, it’s not all about incest, but the entire plot of the film is based on the Dollanger children, the products of a marriage between their mother and uncle, locked in the attic by their cruel, if justifiably ostracized, grandmother (played by the Nurse). Ratched herself, Louise Fletcher). The twists are as relentless as they are juicy, but the initial setup is more than enough to make the list.
Where to watch: Prime Video , Tubi
Man Bites Dog (1992)
A promiscuous serial killer named Ben is followed by a documentary film crew who quickly become complicit in their subject’s crimes. What’s most disgusting about it is the bleak reflection and expectation of our modern culture where everything is for yourself. In fact, these days, that premise doesn’t even seem that far-fetched.
Where to watch: Max , The Criterion Channel, digital rental.
Audition (1999)
The pre-spoiler premise itself is quite disturbing: a man, with the help of his film producer friend, decides to audition women for the role of his next wife… without revealing to them why they are there. However, the woman who stands his test is more than capable of getting back at him for his incredibly shady dating methods.
Where to watch: Tubi
Fang (2009)
Just a typical family: parents and teenage children living together in a gated compound where the children are given no knowledge or understanding of the outside world, and may or may not have a secret brother just outside the fence. Luckily, one of Dad’s co-workers comes over and provides the family with paid sexual favors… so I guess it’s not so bad?
Where to watch: Digital rental via AppleTV
Lobster (2015)
Speaking of Dogtooth, director Yorgos Lanthimos (who went on to direct Oscar favorites Loved Things and Poor Things ), his 2015 film The Lobster places us in a bizarre dystopian future in which copulation is mandatory. After his wife leaves him, David (Colin Farrell) is escorted to a hotel where all single people are taken – in this future you either pair up with someone or turn into an animal (but hey, at least it’s an animal according to your choice). You can buy yourself a little extra time by hunting for “loners” in the nearby forest, bringing back singles for mating. It’s a smart and stylish satire of dating and love rituals, but the quirky premise requires you to just go with it.
Where to watch: digital rental
The Human Centipede (2009)
This is a movie (actually the beginning of a trilogy) about people who sew mouths onto other people’s asses. Whether this sells you or gets you going in a different direction, I’m not sure there’s anything else you need to know.
Where to watch: AMC+, digital rental.
Funny Games (1997)
As counterintuitive as it may sound, a bad idea doesn’t necessarily guarantee a flop movie, and some of the films listed here have outlandish set pieces but end up being funny, or cute, or a little less weird in execution than their centerpiece. ideas suggest. Not so with the Austrian psychodrama by writer and director Michael Haneke, remade in America to less effect by Haneke himself in 2007. Two men take a family hostage, each inciting the other to increasingly brutal psychological and physical torture. The added twist here is that these two have a direct connection to us, the audience, winking and nodding through the fourth wall to blame us for watching it all.
Where to watch: Max , The Criterion Channel, digital rental.
Infinity Pool (2023)
Slightly lame director Brandon Cronenberg has found great success following in the footsteps of his father David, even taking the family business (fucking movies) in impressive new directions. Here, married couple James (Alexander Skarsgård) and Em (Cleopatra Coleman) go on vacation to a luxury resort on Lee Tolka Island. Sounds good, right? Fool! Drunken James accidentally hits a local with his car, thereby exposing himself to the death penalty… or the island’s other option for foreign citizens: he can buy a clone of himself and watch as that double is executed. Which is what he does. And finds it strangely exciting. Like many other foreign visitors to the island who come there for the sole purpose of committing heinous crimes.
Where to watch: Hulu , digital rental.
The Skin I Live In (2011)
A critically acclaimed riff on Pedro Almodovar’s aforementioned Eyes Without a Face, The Skin I Live In follows a doctor working to create a skin substitute for burn victims following his wife’s tragic car accident. His methods… are not exactly ambitious, involving not only illegal experiments, but also locking a young woman in a basement.
Where to watch: Max , digital rental
Tusk (2014)
A podcaster travels to the Canadian desert to meet the man behind the walrus; Said podcaster then turns into a walrus in the most graphic way possible. The idea is as stupid as it is disturbing, but you have to give Kevin Smith credit for taking it to its bloody, disfiguring extreme.
Where to watch: digital rental
Raw (2016)
A vegetarian veterinary student develops a taste for meat. Lots of meat. All the time. In many ways it is human. Human cannibalism is alarming, but it’s hardly unheard of. Raw takes a few more graphical steps forward, leaving even the most jaded viewers feeling queasy. Its director, Julia Ducournau, who won the Palme d’Or at Cannes for The Titan , seems destined to make the Fucked-Up Films film a classic.
Where to watch: Digital rental via AppleTV
Jojo Rabbit (2019)
The movie with the craziest idea that still got a ton of Oscar nominations? It’s this one. Taika Waititi’s comedy-drama is about a German boy who discovers his mother is hiding a young Jewish girl in her attic. This is a difficult revelation for both the proudly patriotic boy and his imaginary friend Adolf Hitler.
Where to watch: Paramount+ , digital rental.
Platform (2019)
Every day and only once, a platform full of food descends through various levels of “The Hole”, a futuristic prison hundreds of stories high. Those at the topmost levels get their pick, while those below are forced to collect the remaining scraps. If everyone took their fair share, there would be more than enough, but alas, those at the top collect more than they need – a situation that has absolutely no metaphorical parallels with our capitalism today. Survival for those at the bottom is brutal and bloody, and while people change floors at random, we quickly learn that those who were once at the bottom don’t retain much empathy as they approach the top.
Where to watch: Netflix
Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1953)
Would the woman of your dreams do some free work for you in your remote shack? No problem, this classic musical claims: just forcefully snatch her from under her boyfriend and she’ll eventually come to her senses. To increase efficiency, you can do this with up to seven women at a time, so the whole family is accounted for. The film’s main production number, “Weeping Women” (a whimsical play on words referencing the mythological rape of the Sabine women), makes clear that while women may cry a lot, it’s worth it in the end.
Where to watch: Tubi, digital rental.