Horror movies are often inextricably linked with shock – it’s one of the easiest cinematic devices one can use to elicit a reaction from a viewer. Unfortunately, as a consequence, many horror films often devolve into shock-value entertainment, exploiting the effects of disturbing visuals for entertainment value, not always bothering with creating a meaningful narrative. However, as the scariest supernatural horror movies demonstrate, cerebral horror can also employ shock value effectively to pack a stronger punch.

Horror movies with monsters that are nightmare fuel feature some of the most shocking and disturbing horror movie scenes, but a lot of them serve a narrative purpose. An inextricable link of a shocking scene with the plot and the message of a horror movie, makes the shock more impactful. Viewers are left grappling with the realization that not only were the events of the scene inevitable, but they’re also implying and exploring some fundamental truths about humans. For example, the most gruesome deaths in 1980s horror movies reflect people’s anxieties during the ’80s.

10

The Baby Is Teleported Into The Frozen Lake

Thelma (2017)

Joachim Trier’s supernatural sci-fi horror movie is an intriguing cross between a superhero movie and a horror movie. The тιтular character discovers she has telekinetic powers that she can’t control, and the movie follows her on her journey of trying to understand them. The film explores themes of religious oppression and queer liberation primarily by delving deeper into Thelma’s relationship with her parents, and more specifically, her father. The backstory to that is explored in the flashback that Thelma has when she’s back home.

She remembers how her powers initially manifested. Jealous of the attention her infant brother was getting, she had made him magically teleport under the sofa. The next time she did, it was much more detrimental, and that is the reason her father had been so strict on her that she had repressed her memories and her powers – she’d made the baby disappear from the bath and then reappear ᴅᴇᴀᴅ under the surface of the frozen lake. It’s an unforgettably heartbreaking moment that will elicit gasps and expressions of shock from viewers.

9

The Child Becomes Quiet

Climax (2018)

An auteur in extremity, Gaspar Noé, has made a name for himself by depicting some of the most disgusting scenes in movie history. Most infamous among his experiments in extremism is the harrowing 10-minute rape scene in Irréversible (2002). That scene is testament to how much he tests viewers, although it’s a problematic creative choice devoid of empathy that sensationalizes rape for shock value.

Much like all of his filmography, his only A24 movie, Climax, is chock-full of heartbreaking and shocking moments. A dance troupe at an afterparty is unknowingly drugged and slowly becomes violent. The use of hand-held cinematography adds to the sense of terror. The most horrifying moment, which occurs off-screen, is when a mother locks her child in a room with a live wire to keep him safe from the other dancers, and after a few screams to be let out, he goes silent. The nonchalance of the crowd that doesn’t register his death makes it all the more shocking.

8

The Subway Scene

Possession (1981)

Andrzej Żuławski’s cult classic horror movie uses elements of psychological horror to explore the tension between a woman and the man she wants to divorce. Possession was a banned movie in 1981 when it came out, because of its use of extremely disturbing and violent narrative devices to surrealistically explore its themes. The film’s take on the monstrous feminine horror device, embodied mostly by the protagonist played by Isabelle Adjani, earns it the reputation of being a feminist classic today.

Adjani’s performance is characterized by shrieks and screams, with erratic body language, and violent movements. She looks lost in her character, whose possession manifests in the form of peril for people around her. The most shocking scene, however, involves trauma endured by her. She recalls a day when she miscarried while walking along the subway on her way home with her groceries. The experience sounds jarring enough, but Adjani’s performance, which looks disturbingly real, and the equally good but terrifying makeup work, elevate it to unimaginable heights of shock.

7

The Runaway Woman Stabs Herself In The Neck

MadS (2024)

One of the greatest edited horror films of all time, MadS, is a single-sH๏τ zombie movie set in a small French suburb where a combination of bad drugs and infected blood gradually turns everyone into zombies. An apocalyptic film with its fair share of thrills, chases, fights, and jaw-dropping moments, it’s a claustrophobic and catastrophic narrative driven by an air of inevitability.

From the very opening scene, there’s a sinister sense of something unexpected happening, as the main character has inexplicable nosebleeds after snorting new experimental drugs. While that forebodes consequences of wrong drug use, what happens next is absolutely shocking and unpredictable. While he’s driving to meet someone, the man runs into a hysterical woman who gets into his car. She looks wounded, and so the man offers to take her to a hospital, but before he can react, she fishes out something sharp from his glove compartment and stabs herself in the neck multiple times.

6

The Bag Scene

Audition (1999)

Takashi Miike is known for making extremely gory and violent films, which are relentless with their sensationalist displays of brutality. His greatest film ever, Audition, fits snugly into the overarching vibe of his filmography, but unpredictably so. The extreme violence in Audition comes out of nowhere, and the final 15 minutes are so extreme, that it’s one of those horror movies which would never get made today.

The sinister tone of the film, however, isn’t present from the beginning. Miike directs Audition like a romantic drama for the better part of an hour, before one particular scene changes everything. Asami’s demeanor is unsettling right from her introduction, but one wouldn’t expect her to be a torturer yet. When she hears back from the male lead about her audition, she looks devoid of joy, but slowly smiles and looks up, after which, the sack in the background of the sH๏τ moves, suggesting there’s someone inside. The shift from romantic drama to psychological horror blindsides every new viewer.

5

The Father Reveals His Scarred Torso

Raw (2016)

One of the best cannibal movies of all time, Raw follows a vegetarian freshman at a veterinary school. She’s forced to eat meat at the introductory hazing ceremony, where she discovers her sister has stopped being vegetarian since joining the school. Soon enough, she develops cannibalistic tendencies, and her sister has to come to her aid. She’s a cannibal as well, and helps her younger sister hunt, so she doesn’t start feeding on students. This is the focus of the film, instead of the criminal activity side of the story.

The familial bond, and the transformative experience of the freshman as she adjusts to having new cravings she has been taught to shun all her life. The narrative can be interpreted as an allegory for a queer awakening, but the repercussions of cannibalism aren’t forgotten. They catch up to the characters near the end, building up to the most shocking scene of the film. After her sister takes the fall for her actions, the protagonist’s father reveals that cannibalism runs in the women in her line, showing him a scarred torso her mother has clearly eaten from.

4

The Child Falls Out Of The Window

Antichrist (2009)

Lars von Trier, famous for his cynical cinema, also makes movies filled with disturbing moments. His protagonists are often characterized by dysfunction, extremely violent instincts, paranoia, and severe mental illness. While most of his work can be categorized as exploitation cinema, the most disturbing moments in his films aren’t always the most severe, gory, or violent ones. Often, the implication of a particular occurrence, or the prospect of something similar happening in real life adds a layer of discomfort to an otherwise tamer scene in an extreme film.

One such example can be found early on in one of his most famous movies, Antichrist, one of the most disturbing horror movies that one can only watch once. While a couple are having Sєx in the shower, their child crawls out onto the ledge of a window and falls out. The baby’s death isn’t depicted in full, but the couple’s moans overlap with its cries, and they climax as it falls, in a disgusting moment of sensationalism that will make viewers gasp in discomfort.

3

The Couple Gets Stoned to Death

Speak No Evil (2022)

Some of the greatest horror movies work well because they explore real-life traumas and experiences, and often don’t allow an emotional triumph at the end. Bleak endings are a common trope in the horror genre for the simple reason that they are the ultimate expression of paranoia and anxiety. Christian Tafdrup’s controversial horror film, which has an 84% critics rating on Rotten Tomatoes despite its bleak ending, is the perfect example of this. In Tafdrup’s film, a Danish family of three accepts an invitation to visit a couple they met while vacationing, and this has tragic consequences.

The latter couple invades the Danish family’s privacy consistently, but they tolerate it. Eventually, the daughter gets abducted and has her tongue cut off to be paraded by the inviting family for their scams later on, after they kill the mute child they were pretending was their son. To make matters worse, the only two people who know her fate that care, that is, her parents, are stoned to death in one of the most shocking horror movie scenes ever. This depressing ending explores how tolerating repeated transgressions is detrimental to one’s wellbeing.

2

The Girl Is Mauled By The Dog

When Evil Lurks (2023)

One of the bleakest horror movies in recent years, alongside Speak No Evil (2022), is When Evil Lurks (2023). Based on a folklore myth, it tells a horrifying tale of inevitable ruin and havoc being wreaked by an evil spirit. It’s obvious from the start that there’s not enough knowledge about the spirit and how it operates. This is a major disadvantage alongside some characters’ lack of faith in its existence, who dismiss it as supersтιтion.

Gruesome moments make the movie’s handling of the myth memorable, as there are multiple cringe-inducing gory moments that will have viewers gasping. These moments are made even more effective by the presence of the dismissive characters who have the same reactions as the audience. So, for example, when the pet dog brutally mauls the little girl by biting her face, it’s a horrifying moment that shocks viewers and jolts the characters into a moment of realization. This scene does its job of telling viewers to be weary of extremity a little too well.

1

Charlie’s Death

Hereditary (2018)

Director Ari Aster has become a modern-day horror auteur for his highbrow A24 horror movies, of which, his best still remains his directorial debut feature. One of the greatest horror movies about grief is Hereditary, which follows a bereaved mother as she struggles to cope with her daughter’s death. Her wish to communicate with her ᴅᴇᴀᴅ child allows an evil spirit to awaken and haunt her and the rest of her family, resulting in their brutal deaths.

It is, however, later revealed that she didn’t unleash this spirit, and that the very first death in the movie, the one she’s been mourning, was also caused by the spirit. In a shocking turn of events, when Charlie cranes her neck out of the car that her brother is driving, he swerves suddenly, and she gets decapitated by a road sign. It is so sudden and absolute, that the horror scene can scar viewers for life, like the wooden logs in Final Destination 2, which traumatized a whole generation.