Controversy often serves as a catalyst for discussion, debate, and even dissent. From provocative themes to boundary-pushing visuals, certain films have sparked fervent discourse, challenging societal norms, moral codes, and artistic boundaries. Join us as we embark on a cinematic journey through film history, as we encounter a diverse array of works that have ignited controversy in various forms.
This curated list delves into what we at SAW have determined to be the 100 of the most controversial movies ever made. These films are not merely provocative for the sake of shock value; rather, they offer profound insights into the human condition, societal taboos, and the power of art to challenge, provoke, and inspire. Some have been met with critical acclaim despite their contentious nature, while others have faced censorship, bans, and public outrage.
From groundbreaking classics that pushed the boundaries of cinematic expression to modern masterpieces that continue to polarize audiences, each entry in this list represents a unique chapter in the ongoing evolution of cinema. As we navigate through tales of love, violence, politics, religion, sexuality, and everything in between, we invite you to engage with these films, not only as entertainment but as thought-provoking discussions of art.
80. Nekromantic (1988)
Nekromantik is the kind of film you discover on a bet. Someone hands it to you and says “I dare you to watch this.” And you do because In order to be in the club, you have to. You know going in it’s about corpse fucking but you don’t know how gross that’s going to be going in. Maybe it’s actually hot and you walk away with a new fetish. But no, you don’t. Because it’s gross. The plot revolves around a necrophiliac named Rob who works for a company that cleans up after gruesome deaths. He brings home body parts and corpses to fulfill his disturbing desires, along with his girlfriend Betty, who is also intrigued by the idea of necrophilia. As their relationship progresses, they become increasingly entangled in their obsession with death, leading to a disturbing climax. Jörg Buttgereit is sort of like John Waters’ mirror double. Waters made “good bad trash” that used taboos as social commentary. Buttgereit makes “bad bad trash” that wallows in filth and misery and has nothing to say besides “look upon me if you dare”. Because of its effectiveness as a blunt instrument of pain, it definitely earns its reputation as one of the most notorious underground cult films of its time.
-Sailor Monsoon
79. JFK (1991)
Was there anything about Oliver Stone’s JFK that wasn’t controversial? It focused on an aspect of the event and its aftermath (Jim Garrison’s prosecution of Clay Shaw) that many assassination researchers had felt was discredited. Historians thought it brazenly distorted events. Politicians thought it painted them in a bad light (boo-freakin’-hoo), and it suggested that the mainstream media was derelict in their duties – or maybe even complicit in a coverup. Time magazine even accused Stone of trying to suppress another film about the JFK assassination. Jim Garrison’s estate sued Warner Brothers over “Hollywood accounting” that allowed them to claim the successful film made no money. It was crude, crass, homophobic, confusing, too long and too damn successful.
Concerns over how the film portrayed government involvement lead directly to the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act, which made most official records relating to the assassination public by 2017. (Note: most, but not all.) Oliver Stone made a film that “felt” true, regardless of the facts, and mainstreamed ideas that had once only been discussed by conspiracy theorists. Weird how prescient that turned out to be.
-Bob Cram Jr.
78. Men Behind the Sun (1988)
Men Behind the Sun is the perfect example of a true exploitation film in that it takes a real life crime or historical event and literally exploits it for money. True crime has always been cat nip for exploitation filmmakers. The more extreme the story the film it’s based on is, the more extreme the violence can be. It’s a golden egg for the morally bankrupt gorehound. They can be as hardcore as their budget allows because a smart filmmaker knows, the more upsetting they make the movie, the more true to life they are. Men Behind the Sun is a hard watch. It belongs in the same category as the Faces of Death and Guinea Pig series of films that push the envelope so far, it’s almost too much. But since this really did happen, it’s better than any documentary at capturing just how awful this event was.
You can learn about the atrocities committed by the Japanese Imperial Army’s Unit 731 during World War II in a documentary but until you actually see a graphic recreation of what they actually did, you really can’t wrap your head around how horrific human beings can be sometimes. From vivisection to frostbite experiments, the film graphically depicts the horrors inflicted upon the victims in the name of scientific research and military advancement. The use of real autopsy footage and gruesome special effects adds to the visceral impact of the film, leaving a lasting impression on the audience. Men Behind the Sun forces viewers to confront the darkest aspects of human nature and serves as a testament to the importance of remembering the past in order to prevent similar atrocities from occurring in the future, while also shining a light on a chapter in history far too many have already forgotten.
-Sailor Monsoon
77. Mondo Cane aka A Dog’s Life (1962)
Mondo Cane is a groundbreaking Italian pseudo-documentary that depicts various cultural practices, rituals, and phenomena from around the world, often portraying them in a sensationalistic manner. The film is structured as a series of vignettes, each depicting a different aspect of human behavior or cultural practice. These segments range from the bizarre to the shocking, covering topics such as tribal rituals, religious ceremonies, exotic cuisine, and unusual leisure activities. The filmmakers employ a mix of documentary-style footage and staged scenes, blurring the line between reality and fiction. The film is the wildest travelogue imaginable. Every place on Earth seemingly has at least one bat shit insane practice. You will see ritualistic pig slaughters in New Guinea, exotic animal food markets in Hong Kong, the bloody ritual of the In vattienti di Nocera Terinese, a whole lot of padding and tits to fill in the dull spots. It’s nowhere near as shocking as the later work from the trio of Gualtiero Jacopetti, Paolo Cavara, and Franco E. Prosperi but it does more than enough to earn a spot on the list.
-Sailor Monsoon
76. Rosemary’s Baby (1968)
Rated “C” by the Catholic Church for “Condemned!” That’s gotta be a selling point, right? Roman Polansky’s adaptation of the novel by Ira Levin, about a New York City housewife who becomes impregnated by the devil, seemed almost designed to court controversy, and yet somehow the only cuts made to the film were in England and involved two lines about tying Rosemary’s legs down. Too kinky for the straights, I guess. Despite the subject matter, it’s probably the Rosemary’s Baby “curse” that caused the most controversy. Starting with composer Kryzsztof Komeda’s death in 1969 it seemed that everyone involved with the film had some run of bad luck. Producer William Castle got severe kidney stones and never produced another hit film. Levin’s marriage crumbled. And then there’s Polanski’s wife, Sharon Tate, and her death at the hands of the Manson family. For me, there’s also the added issue of Polanski being charged with drugging and raping a 13 year old, which adds yet another dark layer to the film.
-Bob Cram Jr.
75. Night of the Living Dead (1968)
By 1968 horror films had become so staid and safe that Night of the Living Dead was shown at afternoon matinees in theaters, leading Roger Ebert to pen a warning to parents in the pages of Reader’s Digest – because a ton of kids went to those shows. This was a film that showed cannibalism, a daughter killing her mother, and a black man in a (Shock! Horror!) position of moral authority. It was also fairly nihilistic, with none of the characters making it out alive. One reviewer called the film an “unrelieved orgy of sadism.” Despite this, or maybe a little bit because of it, Night was a huge success. Unfortunately, the filmmaker saw little of that success. A failure to present the copyright notice (mistakenly left off during a title change) meant the film was released into the public domain, meaning Romero et. al. didn’t get to enjoy the proceeds from one of the greatest horror films of all time.
-Bob Cram Jr.
74. Funny Games (1997)
Funny Games is a movie I watched at a young age. Too young if I’m being honest. It left me in a state of numbness after watching it, and I wasn’t exactly sure as to why. Yes, it features some incredibly distressing scenes. You just have to look at the plot synopsis to see why. Two violent young men take a mother, father, and son hostage in their vacation cabin and force them to play sadistic games with one another for their own amusement.
It’s been done before, but what really takes Funny Games to the next level for me is one scene in particular. A brutal struggle has reached its climax, and you begin to think the protagonists might have finally gotten the upper hand, after some desperate struggles. Then, one of the killers uses a remote control to rewind Funny Games itself. Effectively reversing the events that just happened, and ultimately preventing the death from happening. To actually take control of the movie like this was jarring at first, but also chilling. It became apparent that everyone, including the viewer, was at the complete mercy of the sadistic killers. In a movie full of awful scenes, this was what affected me the most.
-Lee McCutcheon
73. Antichrist (2009)
Lars von Trier simply does not care about your delicate sensibilities while he continuously makes films his way. Antichrist is no different. It immediately polarized audiences with its shocking and graphic depiction of violence, sexuality, and psychological horror. The film follows a grieving couple, played by Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg, as they retreat to a remote cabin in the woods to cope with the death of their child. What unfolds is a harrowing exploration of grief, guilt, and the depths of human depravity. Von Trier’s uncompromising direction and the raw performances of the lead actors created an atmosphere of visceral intensity that left viewers stunned and disturbed. However, it was the film’s unflinching portrayal of graphic sexual violence and its exploration of taboo subjects that catapulted Antichrist into controversy.
The film’s disturbing imagery and themes provoked outrage and divided critics, with some condemning it as exploitative and misogynistic, while others claimed it as a bold and provocative work of art. Von Trier’s confrontational approach to storytelling, coupled with his exploration of themes such as nature, gender, and the human psyche, pushed the boundaries of what audiences were willing to endure. Antichrist faced censorship and bans in several countries due to its explicit content, with its infamous scenes of genital mutilation sparking particular controversy. Despite (or perhaps because of) its divisive reception, Antichrist remains a challenging and unforgettable experience that continues to provoke discussion and debate about the limits of artistic expression and the nature of human suffering.
-Vincent Kane
72. Friday the 13th (1980)
If you haven’t heard about this particular controversy, you can be forgiven for thinking it has something to do with the violence, the nudity or maybe the fact that Jason isn’t even the killer in this movie. (Sorry if that’s a spoiler.) No, this has something to do with a harmless snake and its on screen demise – hacked to death by one of the counselors (Bill, if I remember correctly). Rather than an excellent example of special-effects maestro Tom Savini’s work, this turns out to have been a real snake. (Confirmed by actress Jeannine Taylor, who played Marcie, in the 2012 documentary Crystal Lake Memories.) It was disturbing enough in the film when I thought it was fake, and it’s doubly so now. Sadly, this won’t be the last film on the list where real animal deaths are at least part of the controversy.
-Bob Cram Jr.
71. Batman Returns (1992)
It’s dark. It’s twisted. It’s violent. It’s suggestive. And it’s really kind of gross at times (we’re looking at you, black-goo-spewing Penguin). There, I summed up the controversy about Batman Returns in 22 words. Now I will use the rest of this write-up to explain why I think that’s ridiculous. Let’s start with the fact that it was a Tim Burton movie. Maybe I’m jaded by nearly four decades of Tim Burton-ing, but even in 1992, there was enough of his work out there in the world to give people a hint at what kind of film he’d be making. Didn’t anyone watch the first Batman movie? Jack Nicholson’s Joker roasts a man to death with a joke buzzer ring. Roasts him. And of course, it’s violent. It’s about a man who dresses up as a bat to play vigilante and protect the citizens of a gothic hellscape of a city! What can we expect that kind of person to do when Catwoman and Penguin team up to frame him for murder? Violence, that’s what. These aren’t kids movies, and that’s OK.
-R.J. Mathews
90-81 | 70-61
How many of these controversial movies have you seen? Did you find any of them controversial?