The new Belgian/French horror film Raw, set for a limited release on the 10th of March, is arriving amidst a hail of accolades/accusations that it may be one of the gorier and more disturbing films in many years. How disturbing it is may depend on your mileage with “rough” cinematic material. If you’ve never seen a film that somewhat explicitly depicts acts of extreme cannibalism, then Raw will likely leave your stomach churning. If, however, you’re an old pro who had hunkered down with any one of the infamous Italian cannibal films from the ’70s and ’80s, then Raw may seem like a mere bantamweight.
Also: The 100 Best Horror Movies of the 1990s!
There is a certain class of people – should your cinematic explorations lead this daringly far afield – who have made it a personal goal to find the grossest, goriest, most extreme movies that have been committed to celluloid. And many of these extreme movies, the brave seekers have discovered, are so unbelievably scary, gross, or bloody, that they seem to exist only as a means to fulfill dares. “You think that was sick? Try one of THESE!”
As it turns out, we here at Crave are pretty adventurous when it comes to our cosumption of sick, weird horror movies, and we have, at the ready, a list of ten of the most vile, disturbing, extreme horror films out there. Gird your loins and plow ahead. If you dare…
Can You Withstand These 10 Extreme Films?
Top Image: Focus World
Witney Seibold is a longtime contributor to the CraveOnline Film Channel, and the co-host of The B-Movies Podcast and Canceled Too Soon. He also contributes to Legion of Leia and to Blumhouse. You can follow him on “The Twitter” at @WitneySeibold, where he is slowly losing his mind.
10 Extreme Films
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Audition
Takashi Miike's 1999 horror classic remain perhaps one of his most notorious. The horror is all the more shocking because nothing weird happens in Audition until about halfway through. That finale, though, will leave you wincing.
Image: Lionsgate
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The Burning Moon
A distribution company named Intervision dug up Olaf Ittenbach's 1992 German oddity a few years ago, and it instantly made its way into the cult rotation. It's a set of stories told by a mentally ill German kid, involving some pretty extreme damn gore.
Image: IMAS Filmproduktion
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Cannibal Holocaust
Perhaps the granddaddy of all extreme cinema, Roggero Deodato's 1980 cheapie is just as shocking as you've heard, complete with actual animal death on camera, and gore so gritty and realistic, the filmmakers were arrested. They had to produce actors in court to prove they hadn't made a snuff film.
Image: United Artists Europa
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The Guinea Pig Series
There have been six Guinea Pig films, each one as notorious as the last. The premise of the series is essentially an extended medical experiment to see how much pain the human body can tolerate. The films are also an experiment to see how much terror an audience can tolerate.
Image: Unearthed Films
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The Human Centipede Series
Filmmaker Tom Six had a weird idea for a horror movie: Is it medically possible to surgically connect two people mouth-to-anus? This idea was explored in a trio of films, each more disgusting than the last.
Image: IFC Midnight
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Nekromantik
Extreme films are usually more troubling if the filmmaking itself is cheap. That's certainly the case with Jörg Buttgereit's 1987 necrophilia flick, one of the most notorious cult movies of the 1980s.
Image: Leisure Time Features
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Pink Flamingos
John Waters' 1972 cult giant has been widely seen by now, but many still don't have the stomach to tuck into the NC-17-rated vomitorium. Divine stars as a woman competing to claim the title of Filthiest Person Alive. Filth ensues.
Image: New Line Cinema
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Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom
Pier Paolo Pasolini's 1976 update of a tale by The Marquis de Sade is every bit as sick as the source material. It;s about a group of post-war adults who sexually enslave a group of teen orphans and... do things to them. It's ostensibly a criticism of fascism, but it's also difficult to swallow.
Image: United Artists
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A Serbian Film
This 2010 shocker involves the life of an aging porn superstar and his inability to make ends meet in post-Milošević Serbia. He ends up agreeing (and not agreeing) to do some awful, awful things. It's an economic statement, but more than anything, it's a really, really rough ride.
Image: Jinga Films
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The Wizard of Gore
And what list of extreme films would be complete without the inclusion of a film by the Godfather of Gore himself Herschell Gordon Lewis? His sickest is probably 1970's The Wizard of Gore, about a stage magician that mutilates - and restores - young women on stage.
Image: Mayflower Pictures
