30 of the Most Disturbing Movie Premises Ever

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Credit: Infinity Pool/Elevation Pictures

Sometimes, an idea alone can haunt your dreams. There are certainly movies that I’ve never even seen that I’ve been deeply disturbed by, just because I know the central premise. Even reading a plot description or catching a few moments from a trailer can be unsettling.

Production company A24 has built a reputation for strikingly atmospheric films that hit a particular sweet spot—movies that are generally a blend of art, entertainment, commentary, and holy shit what did I just see?! Think The Lighthouse, The Witch, The Killing of a Sacred Deer, and Midsommar. To whatever extent that’s your thing, they’re all entirely unforgettable.

That’s the power of what I’ll call the Fucked-Up Film genre: Good or bad, whether you want them to or not, these movies stick with you, maybe forever. Fucked-Up Films have this power, whether they're art house award winners or exploitatative trash. Here are 30 of my...favorites?

(Some notable Fucked-Up Films have not been included here, only because they’re not available to stream—think Spanking the Monkey, Happiness, Salo, and other infamously twisted classics. Feel free to supplement these choices with titles from your own disreputable DVD collection.)

Lamb (2021)

Maria (Noomi Rapace) and Ingvar (Hilmir Snær Guðnason) are living desperately unhappy lives in rural Iceland, at least until they're blessed by the arrival of Ada, a half human/half lamb cutie who's apparently the offspring of a ewe and a mysterious entity that's mostly some kind of metaphor (we're in an A24 movie, after all). Ada's arrival brings a bit of happiness to the couple, but also inspires a rivalry among the trio and Ada's biological mother, as well as with Ingvar's brother Pétur, desperately horny for his sister-in-law, and not sure what to make of his new niece.

Where to stream: Prime Video

Mad Love (1935)

Just a typical boy-meets-girl kinda thing. Except that the boy is a surgeon played Peter Lorre, and the girl is a married actress with whom he’s obsessed. When her pianist husband’s hands are mutilated in a train accident, Lorre’s character gives him the hands of a murderer, and then proceeds to attempt to drive him mad by pretending to be the beheaded former owner of said hands. It’s gloriously demented, and has one of my favorite trailers of all time.

Where to stream: digital rental

Eraserhead (1977)

It’s the David Lynch-iest of all David Lynch films, and an early arthouse masterpiece, so it probably goes without saying that it’s going to be a little (a lot) fucked up. I’m not even sure the premise is condensable to a sentence or two, but it’s something like: Man reconnects with an old fling just in time for her to give birth to their child, a lizard creature, while woman who lives in a radiator looks on.

Where to stream: Max, The Criterion Channel, digital rental

Faces of Death (1978)

Hey, kids: you wanna see a dead body? How about several? This pseudo documentary became something of a rite of passage for curious teens who could score a copy of the VHS tape back in the day, and many did: The movie made millions on a paltry budget. Blending recycled news and documentary footage with new footage of corpses alongside found-footage style recreations (though it's all meant to seem authentic), Faces purports to be a serious, sober look at human (and animal) death, though the mercifully fake bits and actors portraying experts push it well out of the documentary realm.

Where to stream: Shudder, AMC+

Suddenly, Last Summer (1959)

It might be surprising to learn that one of the most messed-up movies in the history of Hollywood stars Katherine Hepburn, Elizabeth Taylor, and Montgomery Clift. The top-level synopsis is, by itself disturbing: The mysterious death of Taylor’s cousin in Spain last summer was so disturbing, Hepburn’s character will do just about anything to keep it secret—including trying to get her niece lobotomized. Tennessee Williams’ bizarre psychodrama leads to some truly shocking revelations, especially for the era.

(Spoiler: revelations include a heady combo of gay stuff and cannibalism.)

Where to stream: digital rental

Eyes Without a Face (1960)

The modern body horror era begins. In director Georges Franju’s horror noir, a doctor attempts to reconstruct his daughter’s burned face by grafting on bits and pieces of skin from various women who enter his home. The premise itself isn’t so far beyond what earlier films had hinted at, but the film manages to be far more disturbing, because it takes said premise dead seriously. Pedro Almodóvar would be inspired by it decades later in making The Skin I Live In.

Where to stream: The Criterion Channel, Max, digital rental

Spider Baby (1967)

The late, very occasionally great Lon Chaney Jr. had one of his last go-arounds in this exploitation comedy as the protector of a family of inbred recluses who suffer from a condition that causes them to devolve. Each night, they kiss the skeleton of their father goodnight and try to keep the brother, a young Sid Haig, from humping visitors. No one saw it when it came out, but it became a cult classic; unused, almost-accurate alternate titles like Attack of the Liver Eaters and Cannibal Orgy might give you an idea why.

Where to stream: Prime Video

A Clockwork Orange (1971)

What’s most disturbing about Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange is the moral ambiguity inherent in its premise: Malcolm McDowell and his Droogs prowl the streets of future Britain committing all manner of violence, sexual and otherwise. He eventually trades his violent impulses for freedom, but then himself becomes a victim—and the film asks us to feel for a protagonist who is thoroughly reprehensible.

Where to stream: digital rental

The Unknown (1927)

Dracula director Tod Browning was no stranger to outré material, though this silent Lon Chaney horror predates both his vampire classic as well as his notorious 1932 cult curio Freaks. Chaney plays "Alonzo the Armless," a circus performer who's also a fugitive; his act is throwing knives with his feet, even though he secretly has arms that he keeps tightly strapped to his body. He falls hard for carnival girl Nanon (Joan Crawford, a knockout in 1927), who has a tremendous fear of hands. Can's stand 'em! Their love is possible only as long as she believes that Alonzo is truly armless—and there's also the matter of his extra thumb, which could identify him as the killer of Canon's father. What else is Alonzo to do but force a surgeon to actually cut off his arms? An extreme action that will certainly not lead to tragic and ironic consequences in the final act.

Where to stream: Tubi, The Criterion Channel, digital rental

Swiss Army Man (2016)

Before they earned Oscars with Everything Everywhere All at Once, Daniel Scheinert and Daniel Kwan were playing with farty corpses in this surreal 2016 comedy-drama. Marooned on an island, a depressed man named Hank (Paul Dano) is close to ending his life when he comes across what he first thinks is a fellow shipwreck survivor (Daniel Radcliffe)—only to discover that it's a dead body. But not just any dead body! "Manny" can propel them both through the water using the power of his gas; he can serve as a storage vessel for water; and, as he starts to take on more human-like qualities, Manny can serve as a sounding board for philosophical ideas. Oh, and his boner can be used as a compass. Surprisingly sweet, in spite of all that.

Where to stream: digital rental

I Spit on Your Grave (1978)

Though Last House on the Left got there first, I Spit on Your Grave is the true nadir of what nearly became its own genre of rape/revenge horror movies (the earlier Wes Craven film was based on an Ingmar Bergman film and so at least had a bit of a pedigree). This one is entirely about the brutal violence, with a graphic rape sequence that takes up a significant chunk of the film’s runtime, followed by the bloody retribution.

Where to stream: digital rental via Apple TV

Titane (2021)

A spiritual follow-up, perhaps, to David Cronenberg's 1996 erotic thriller Crash (which is never streaming anywhere), Titane stars Agathe Rousselle as Alexia who, as a child, was in a car accident that left her with a titanium plate in her head and an erotic fixation on automobiles. As an adult, she strips at car shows, but also compulsively and gruesomely murders people. A late-night assignation with a Cadillac leaves her pregnant, and an image of a long-missing child convinces her to violently alter her own appearance in order to take on the lost kid's identity. As bizarre as it all sounds (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 Cannes.

Where to stream: Hulu

Prince of Darkness (1987)

One of my favorite John Carpenter movies is also one of his more obscure, asking the question: What if the literal Satan was actually a vat of sentient green goo kept hidden by the Catholic Church? And Jesus, an alien who came to Earth hunting said goo, was executed for trying to warn us? Starring Carpenter fave Donald Pleasence, the movie throws zombies into its impressively weird mix of modern science and ancient religion.

Where to stream: Peacock, digital rental

Cannibal Holocaust (1980)

An example of the found footage genre long before that was a thing, Cannibal Holocaust follows a documentary crew examining a tribe in the Amazon rainforest as-yet unspoiled by modernity (you can imagine what happens next). The director was arrested by Italian authorities... first for obscenity, and later for murder, when people came to believe that the film’s gruesome deaths were real.

Where to stream: Peacock

Back to the Future (1985)

This is a movie about a kid who travels back in time and has to spend several days dodging the increasingly determined advances of his horny, horny (horny!) mom. 'Nuff said.

Where to stream: Netflix, digital rental

Nekromantik (1987)

A stirring social commentary and an attack on bourgeoisie values? Or a splatter film in which necrophilia scenes are shot using all the techniques of soft-core porn? Maybe it’s both!

(Mostly it’s the second thing.)

Where to stream: Shudder, AMC+

Flowers in the Attic (1987)

Is this the most popular movie, based on the most popular book, to foreground incest? Sure, it’s not entirely about incest, but the film’s entire premise is based around the Dollanganger children, products of a marriage between their mother and uncle, locked away in the titular attic by their cruel, if justifiably skeeved out, grandmother (played by Nurse Ratched herself, Louise Fletcher). The twists and turns are as relentless as they are juicy, but the initial set-up is more than enough to land it on the list.

Where to stream: Prime Video, Tubi

Man Bites Dog (1992)

An indiscriminate serial killer named Ben is followed by a documentary crew who quickly become complicit in the crimes of their subject. What’s most fucked up about it is its dark reflection of and anticipation for our anything-for-the-likes modern culture. Actually, the premise doesn’t even seem terribly farfetched these days.

Where to stream: Max, The Criterion Channel, digital rental

Audition (1999)

The pre-spoiler premise here is fairly disturbing by itself: a man, with the help of his film producer friend, decides to audition women to be his next wife... without revealing to them why they’re there. The woman who passes his test, though, is more than capable of getting back at him for his incredibly shady dating practices.

Where to stream: Tubi

Dogtooth (2009)

Just a typical family: parents and teenaged children, living together in a fenced-in compound in which the children are given no knowledge and understanding of the outside world and may or may not have a secret brother just over the fence. Fortunately one of dad’s co-workers comes by to provide paid sexual services to the family... so it’s not all bad, I guess?

Where to stream: digital rental via AppleTV

The Lobster (2015)

Speaking of Dogtooth, director Yorgos Lanthimos (who'd go on to make Oscar faves The Favourite and Poor Things), his 2015 film The Lobster places us in a bizarre dystopian future in which coupling is mandatory. After he's left by his wife, David (Colin Farrell) is escorted to the hotel where all single people are taken—in this future, you either pair up with someone, or you're turned into an animal (but hey, at least it's an animal of your choice). You can buy yourself some extra time by hunting for "loners" in the nearby woods, bringing in singles for pairing. It's a clever and stylish satire of dating and love rituals, but the offbeat premise demands that you just kinda run with it.

Where to stream: digital rental

The Human Centipede (2009)

This is a movie (the beginning of a trilogy, actually) about people who get their mouths stitched to other people’s butts. Whether that sells you on it or encourages you to run the other direction, I’m not sure that there’s anything else you need to know.

Where to stream: AMC+, digital rental

Funny Games (1997)

Paradoxical as it sounds, a fucked-up premise doesn't necessarily guarantee a fucked-up movie, and some of the films listed here have outlandish setups but wind up being funny, or sweet, or a little less weird in execution than their central ideas suggest. Not so with writer/director Michael Haneke's Austrian psychodrama, remade in America to lesser effect by Haneke himself in 2007. Two men take a family hostage, each encouraging the other to greater and greater acts of psychological and physical torture. The extra twist here is that the two have a direct line to us, the audience, winking and nodding through the fourth wall by way of implicating us for watching all of this.

Where to stream: Max, The Criterion Channel, digital rental

Infinity Pool (2023)

A chip off the ol' block, director Brandon Cronenberg has had great success in following in his father David's footsteps, even as he steers the family business (fucked up movies) in impressive new directions. Here, married couple James (Alexander Skarsgård) and Em (Cleopatra Coleman) go on vacation to a luxurious resort in the island of Li Tolqa. Sounds nice, right? Fool! Drunk James accidentally kills a local with his car, thereby subjecting himself to the death penalty...or the island's other option for foreign nationals: he can buy a clone of himself and watch that double be executed. Which he does. And finds strangely titillating. As do many of the island's other foreign visitors, who come there with the sole purpose of committing heinous crimes.

Where to stream: Hulu, digital rental

The Skin I Live In (2011)

A critically acclaimed riff on the aforementioned Eyes Without a Face from Pedro Almodóvar, The Skin I Live In follows a doctor working to develop a substitute skin for burn victims following his wife’s tragic car accident. His methods are... not entirely on the up-and-up, including not just illegal experiments, but locking a young woman in the basement.

Where to stream: Max, digital rental

Tusk (2014)

A podcaster sets off into the Canadian wilderness to meet a man about a Walrus; said podcaster is then transformed into a walrus himself in the most graphic way possible. The premise is as dumb as it is disturbing, but give Kevin Smith credit for following it to its bloody, mutilating extreme.

Where to stream: digital rental

Raw (2016)

A vegetarian veterinary student develops a taste for meat. A lot of meat. All the time. Much of it human. Human cannibalism is disturbing, but hardly unheard of. Raw takes it several graphic steps further, leaving even the most jaded audiences feeling rather queasy. Its director, Julia Ducournau, who won that Palm D’Or at Cannes for Titane, seems destined to make Fucked-Up Films classics.

Where to stream: digital rental via AppleTV

Jojo Rabbit (2019)

The movie with the most demented premise to still pick up a ton of Oscar nominations? It’s this one. Taika Waititi’s comedy-drama is about a German boy who discovers that his mother is hiding a young Jewish girl in the attic. Which is a tough revelation for both the proudly patriotic boy and his imaginary friend, Adolph Hitler.

Where to stream: Paramount+, digital rental

The Platform (2019)

Each day and just once, a platform full of food descends through the various levels of “The Hole,” a futuristic prison that’s hundreds of floors tall. Those at the uppermost levels get their pick, while those below are forced to collect the scraps that remain. If everyone took their fair share, there’d be more than enough, but alas, those at the top gather more than they need—a situation with absolutely no metaphorical parallels to our present day capitalism whatsoever. Survival for those on the bottom is brutal and bloody, and, though people do change floors arbitrarily, we quickly learn that those who were once on the bottom don't retain much in the way of sympathy once they’re closer to the top.

Where to stream: Netflix

Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1953)

Woman of your dream won't agree to serve as free labor for you at your backwoods hovel? No problem, posits this classic musical: just forcibly kidnap her out from under her boyfriend and she'll come around eventually. For efficiency, you can do this with up to seven women at once, so the entire family is accounted for. The movie's central production number, "Sobbin' Women," (a whimsical wordplay referencing the mythological rape of the Sabine women), makes clear that, though the women may cry an awful lot, it'll be worth it in the end.

Where to stream: Tubi, digital rental