With this in mind, Taste of Cinema proudly presents a list of the Top Twenty Most Disturbing Films of All Time. Throughout its evolution, a small handful of works have pushed boundaries to such an extent and in so unique a fashion that they occupy a class all their own. Given the context of its history, the world of disturbing film has come a long way. The legacy these iconic films carried with them would set the standard for things to come thereafter. At this point in time, major studios like Paramount Pictures and New Line Cinema were getting behind such gruesome flicks as Friday the 13th and A Nightmare on Elm Street. It wouldn’t be until the 1980s that the slasher movement introduced audiences to gratuitous onscreen violence and gore. Mainstream censorship wasn’t going down without a fight. Kubrick’s 1971 film, A Clockwork Orange, would be withdrawn from release in response to accusations that the picture had inspired real life rape and murder. Fearing the economic threat posed by taboo subject matter, the industry resisted. During this time, the public eye began to shift from disgust to marginal acceptance. The enormous gap between Hollywood studios and underground filmmakers was bridged by the controversial works of directors like Stanley Kubrick. By the early 1970s, the envelope was pushed much further. The market for cinema’s dark underbelly was still finding its feet. In response, the movie-going public turned the other cheek, and Hollywood studios continued to play it safe. Foreign directors like Ruggero Deodato and Hideshi Hino would produce “senseless and depraved” motion pictures, a few of which would go on to become cult hits.
These films defied the conventions and boundaries set by such milestone pictures as Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho and George A.
It wouldn’t be long before underground films began surfacing in video collections. Live theater had taken a backseat to the incredible, booming popularity of the big screen.
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By then, the advent of cinema was in full swing. The Grand Guignol shocked and horrified a generation of Europeans in the heart of Paris, from 1897 until its closing in 1962. One such theater, the Grand Guignol, was among the first of its kind to depict acts of rape, torture and dismemberment before a voyeuristic live audience. So, how is one to satisfy their twisted cravings? What outlets exist? The answer: simulation.Before the rise of disturbing artistry in film, audiences got their fix in the form of live theater. There’s no denying that the survival instincts of our ancestors remain with us to this day. Our methods for pandering to it may have changed, but our repressed, savage desires have not. Mankind’s bloodlust, it would seem, is old as mankind itself. Indeed, during the times of barbarism and cavemen, the law of the land was kill or be killed. The thrill of watching gladiators torn apart in battle was once a popular form of recreation. Blood, violence and depravity are themes that’ve shown up in our artwork for thousands of years.