Warning: This post contains some of the most upsetting films available and may be considered offensive and NSFW.

Earlier this year, IGN published its list of what it claimed to be the fifteen most disturbing movies. Here’s how they introduced the list:

What’s the difference between scary and disturbing. Can a film be one and not the other? Which movies really make you go home from the theater in fear or cower into your couch considering some awful truth, squirming uncomfortably at some hideous sight or sound? We here at IGN Movies have put together a list of the 15 Most Disturbing Movies, looking back over the last few decades of cinema to find the films that made us feel dirty or voyeuristic or ashamed to be human, offered to you here in no particular order.

Its a mediocre collection of films, but quite frankly either the author has no clue about ‘disturbing’ or he’s lived a rather sheltered life. Yes, some are gory and touch on uncomfortable situation (i.e. rape), but the ‘most disturbing?’ — we beg to differ. Here is their list with summaries by IMBD. Afterwards we take it up a few notches and introduce you to the really vile experiences.
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Popularity: 45%

As one of the holiest times in Christendom approaches, families like ours often struggle with balancing the commercialization and secularism in popular culture with the true reason for the season. To help others, we have assembled our list of Christian Christmas movies.

Our list focuses on those movie with strong Christian values. For that reason, perennial Christmas favorites like It’s a Wonderful Life (1946), A Christmas Story (1983), or Miracle on 34th Street (1947) are not included.

A Christmas to Remember (1978) – A city-bred grandson moves to his grandparents’ farm during the Great Depression and grows up enough under their tough care to help his grandfather deliver a surprise gift on Christmas Eve to their community church with the help of a phantom stranger.

Bethlehem Year Zero (2004) – A novel approach to the Nativity presenting Jesus’ birth as television reporters and analysts might have covered it, had the medium existed in King Herod’s time. The field correspondents and studio pundits discuss the economic and political ramifications on society and speculate about the meaning of the Messiah’s appearance in their milieu.

Christmas Child: A Max Lucado Story (2004) – An updating of Max Lucado’s book “A Christmas Cross”, this film is about a successful Chicago journalist, whose marriage is at a breaking point as he is about to celebrate both his 40th birthday and Christmas; he is sent away during the Holidays to Texas for a story, and there reflects on his life and its meaning.
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Popularity: 4%

Climbing Mount Everest is challenge that most of us can not even begin to fathom. Yet there are many people who are obsessed with the thought of this life-threatening challenge. In a single day of the 1996 climbing season (May 11, 1996) eight people died on Mount Everest during summit attempts. In the entire season, fifteen people died trying to reach the summit, making it the deadliest single year in Everest history. The disaster gained wide publicity and raised questions about the commercialization of Everest.

One weekend, we watched Into Thin Air (1997) on Netflix’ streaming service. During the movie, we sat shaking our head wondering why anyone would attempt the climb. Yet afterwards, I found myself drawn back to the events of the 1996 season, fascinated at the audacity of the climbers. As a topic, Everest has been the subject of numerous films and documentaries:

Into Thin Air: Death on Everest (1997) – An adaptation of Jon Krakauer’s best selling book, “Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster“. This movie attempts to re-create the disastrous events that took place during the Mount Everest climb on May 10, 1996. It also follows Jon Krakauer throughout the movie, and portrays what he was going through while climbing this mountain.

Everest: IMAX (1998) – An international team of climbers ascends Mt. Everest in the spring of 1996. The film depicts their lengthy preparations for the climb, their trek to the summit, and their successful return to Base Camp. It also shows many of the challenges the group faced, including avalanches, lack of oxygen, treacherous ice walls, and a deadly blizzard.

FRONTLINE: Storm over Everest (2008) – As darkness fell on May 10, 1996, a fast-moving storm of unimaginable ferocity trapped three climbing teams high on the slopes of Mount Everest. The exhausted climbers were soon lost far from the safety of High Camp at 26,000 feet. World-renowned climber and filmmaker David Breashears, who aided the rescue efforts back in 1996, now returns to Everest to shed new light on the worst climbing tragedy in Everest’s history.

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Popularity: 14%

“Wait a minute. You aren’t seriously suggesting that if I get through the wire… and case everything out there… and don’t get picked up… to turn myself in and get thrown back in the cooler for a couple of months so you can get the information you need?”
– Steve McQueen, The Great Escape

Most guys enjoy a good prison break film. The stories capture the notions of freedom and the indomitable human spirit. One of my favorites is The Great Escape starring the uber-cool Steve McQueen. That said, few movies are set entirely in prisons, so I, like others, are kind of curious what the criteria were when Gunaxin assembled their list of The 15 Best Prison Movies. Was The Rock not included simply because it takes place at a decommissioned prison? And does not enough of Malcolm X take place in a prison? And what about Assault on Precinct 13, is it because it has more to do with holding cells than prisons?
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Popularity: 99%

“He looks determined… without being ruthless. There’s something heroic
about him. He doesn’t look like a killer. He comes across so calm…
acts like he has a dream… eyes full of passion.” – The Killer (1989)

Assassin movies are a guaranteed hit with moviegoers. And for some reason, we too often cheer on this ‘bad guy.’ Why?

Hitmen are the inevitable descendants of our Western gunslingers like Gregory Peck in The Gunfighter (1950) or Alan Ladd in Shane(1953). Even when those films were made, there was acknowledgement that such killers had already outlived their usefulness and had no place in civilized society. But modern cinema isn’t so “civilized,” because professional killers are thriving in it. The reason is most likely that hitmen are ‘cool’ because, like rebels, vampires, psychopaths, and Lords of the Sith, they operate totally outside of societal norms and do whatever they want. Such freedom is enviable, but naturally not the sort of behavior most people would think of emulating. That’s sort of the basic pleasure of cinema: escapism.

In the vein of celebrating these anti-heroes, Movie Trailer Talk has compiled the “Top 10 Badass Hitmen Movies” (summaries added from IMDb):

1. Léon aka The Professional (1994) – Leon is a first-class hit man, but is also a sensitive guy who loves his potted plants. He is moral: “No women, no children” is his professional motto. He is sympathetic to his neighbor, Mathilda, a typically rebellious twelve-year-old who has trouble with her family. But when her father runs afoul of drug kingpin Norman Stansfield, Mathilda turns to Leon for assistance.
2. Pulp Fiction (1994) – Jules and Vincent work as hitmen for crime boss Marcellus Wallace. Wallace is currently dealing with Butch Collidge, a boxer who failed to throw a fight after taking Wallace’s money and is now planning to flee the city, but can’t leave his father’s watch behind. Vincent faces some problems of his own when Wallace asks him to show his wife Mia a good time while he’s away. Some of these people redeem themselves and some don’t, and all meet an end appropriate to their choices.
3. El Mariachi (1992), Desperado (1995), Once Upon a Time in Mexico (2003) – El Mariachi just wants to play his guitar and carry on the family tradition. Unfortunately, the town he tries to find work in has another visitor…a killer who carries his guns in a guitar case. The drug lord and his henchmen mistake El Mariachi for the killer, Azul, and chase him around town trying to kill him and get his guitar case.
4. Dip huet seung hung aka The Killer (1989) – A violent Hong Kong action film, this is the story of an assassin,
   Jeffrey Chow (aka Mickey Mouse) who takes one last job so he can retire
   and care for his girlfriend Jenny. When his employers betray him, he
   reluctantly joins forces with Inspector Lee (aka Dumbo), the cop who is
   pursuing him. Together, the new friends face the final confrontation of
   the gangsters out to kill them.
5. Kill Bill Vol. I, II (2003, 2004) – The lead character, called ‘The Bride,’ was a member of the Deadly
   Viper Assassination Squad, lead by her lover ‘Bill.’ Upon realizing she
   was pregnant with Bill’s child, ‘The Bride’ decided to escape her life
   as a killer. She fled to Texas, met a young man, and on the day of
   their wedding was gunned down by an angry and jealous Bill (with the
   assistance of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad). Four years later,
   ‘The Bride’ wakes from a coma, and discovers her baby is gone. She,
   then, decides to seek revenge upon the five people who destroyed her
   life and killed her baby. (more…)

Popularity: 20%