Entertainment
10 Most Disturbing Movies Without Extreme Violence, Ranked
Obviously, one reliable way to make a movie disturbing is by showing violence in a rather unflinching way, and having that violence look realistic. It’s not the only way, by any means; just a reliable one. Look at something like Cannibal Holocaust, or more recently, Bone Tomahawk. And those are just horror movies that feature cannibalism! A small slice of the overall violence-flavored pie, when you think about all the horrible and confronting ways characters have themselves been sliced up (or had other things happen to them) on screen.
Movies that manage to disturb or challenge in some way without much by way of on-screen violence are highlighted below. Some imply violence, and some feature confronting visuals for sure, just not particularly violent things in the traditional sense. And further, some other films below are more intense and anxiety-provoking than outright disturbing, or otherwise function more as thrillers or heavy dramas rather than being disturbing movies that belong within the horror genre.
10
‘Boiling Point’ (2021)
Boiling Point might’ve walked so that The Bear could run, or that might be a fair thing to say if Boiling Point wasn’t much better (and also a good deal more intense) than The Bear. Why compare a movie and a TV show? Well, they’re both about people getting stressed while working in a kitchen. And The Bear had that episode which was filmed in one take, and done in real-time, which is how Boiling Point is presented, but feature-length.
You will feel on edge for 92 minutes, and then maybe a few more minutes (or even hours) after that, since Boiling Point and some of the particularly unpleasant scenes found within linger. You’re left feeling like you’ve watched something violent, since it’s that intense, though Boiling Point isn’t violent, unless shouting and swearing count as forms of violence, as there are a lot of both those things here.
9
‘The Night of the Hunter’ (1955)
To put it bluntly, The Night of the Hunter is a pretty wild film. It was a directorial debut by Charles Laughton, best known for being an actor, and was, in the end, the only feature film he ever directed. It’s also ahead of its time in how offbeat and unsettling it is, with it being simultaneously one of the most over-the-top and unsettling of all the movies that somewhat fit within the confines of the film noir genre (and it’s also a lot more than just a film noir movie).
It’s about a serial killer pursuing a couple of kids, basically, because he’s after some money he thinks they know the location of. It might’ve felt shocking for its time in a Psycho sort of way, violence-wise, but The Night of the Hunter implies more and shows less than that (admittedly infrequently violent) movie. It manages to feel more nightmarish than almost any other film of its era, all the while having to abide by the sorts of restrictions U.S. movies had to at that point in time.
8
‘Inside Llewyn Davis’ (2013)
On the topic of unexpectedly unsettling movies, here’s Inside Llewyn Davis. No, hear this out. Please. It’s an almost darkly funny movie at times, in that Coen Brothers way, but it’s also very depressing and has a bit of a Kafkaesque feel, with things going from bad to worse and then from worse to worst. Gradually. And to someone who isn’t exactly sympathetic, but still feels unluckier than just about anyone actually deserves. It ends up being incredibly sad, in a pretty visceral way.
It’s like a slightly more subdued A Serious Man, which has a similarly odd tone, and a narrative about someone having a generally bad time with life. Inside Llewyn Davis does that in the folk scene, set in the 1960s, and has an ending that makes the whole film feel like some kind of potential purgatory, which adds to the (okay, mostly subdued) horror/unease of the whole thing.
7
‘La Dolce Vita’ (1960)
La Dolce Vita eventually goes to dark and depressing territory, even if it starts out more like a comedy, or at least a work of satire, and all done on a grand scale, too. It’s about a journalist drifting through life and not finding much by way of genuine connections with people or good stories to cover, and things gradually get more desperate in a few different ways as things go on.
On top of that, there’s also a subplot that ends in a more outwardly tragic way, and then as far as the main character’s plight is concerned, the whole movie ends on an uncertain and more or less apathetic note. You’re not left feeling comfortable once La Dolce Vita is over, to put it mildly, even if parts of the movie are engaging, or even somewhat entertaining and (darkly) funny.
6
‘All That Jazz’ (1979)
It’s a musical all about working oneself to death, basically. That’s why All That Jazz is here. It’s heavy stuff, especially because you wouldn’t usually expect musicals to also function as bleak psychological dramas. In an even more twisted way, the musical numbers in All That Jazz increase in theatricality the more hopeless the movie gets (namely, right towards the end).
That might sound like spoiling things a little, but All That Jazz is the kind of thing where the ending feels inevitable in more ways than one. And for what it’s worth, some musicals are violent, and All That Jazz… well, it’s not violent, but there is some stuff involving open-heart surgery that’s surprisingly gruesome, in terms of medical imagery, so if that counts as blood or gore in some kind of way, then sure, All That Jazz is gruesome. Just not traditionally violent.
5
‘The Wages of Fear’ (1953)
Roy Scheider was in All That Jazz, and he also starred in Sorcerer. What’s Sorcerer got to do with this ranking? It doesn’t earn a place here, that’s for sure, because it’s kind of violent in parts. But it was a remake of a movie called The Wages of Fear, and that movie was less graphic overall, even if both told the same sort of story: there are some men assigned to drive explosive material through incredibly rough terrain.
The Wages of Fear has to be given credit for feeling disturbing and unbelievably intense without much by way of actually depicted violence.
The Wages of Fear has some death, or at least the constant threat of it, just more implied or with violent things happening off-screen, for the most part, instead of being shown in more graphic detail like in Sorcerer. The remake is arguably bleaker and more intense because it doesn’t limit itself in terms of what it’s willing to show, but The Wages of Fear does still have to be given credit for feeling disturbing and unbelievably intense without much by way of actually depicted violence.
4
‘Oppenheimer’ (2023)
An epic movie largely set during World War II, or at least consistently concerning the events of said conflict, Oppenheimer doesn’t show any combat scenes, since it’s more focused on the story surrounding the construction of the atomic bomb. It also notably did this without showing the effects of either of the bombs dropped on Hiroshima or Nagasaki toward the war’s conclusion, keeping things more internal/psychological and overall focused on J. Robert Oppenheimer.
You still feel the weight of what happened, and Oppenheimer does explore the aftermath of the weapons being used, including by way of grappling with the fear of further nuclear weapons being used in war that’s naturally continued to be pervasive worldwide since 1945. It’s not a very fun epic movie, that’s for sure, though it is easy to admire how intense it manages to be without showing any truly graphic images (outside some brief and kind of surreal visions Oppenheimer sees during one particularly tense sequence that occurs after he gives a speech).
3
‘Vortex’ (2021)
Vortex is particularly interesting to look at within the context of Gaspar Noé’s filmography, since the director is no stranger to making confronting movies, but most of those confronting movies of his have infamously violent imagery. Also, Vortex stars Dario Argento, and he’s pretty well-known for his violent movies, as he’s specialized in directing within the horror genre, and, more specifically, giallo movies.
But Vortex is upsetting and confronting without violence. It’s about an elderly couple whose lives are spiraling downward because one of them is experiencing the effects of dementia, and then the other’s got different health concerns. It’s got that slow crawl toward inevitable tragedy that you also find in the aforementioned All That Jazz. Also, it’s nearly 2.5 hours long, and it manages to feel some kind of disorientating and/or distressing for pretty much every second of its runtime.
2
‘Christiane F.’ (1981)
Since it’s an unflinching look at drug use and addiction, there’s some upsetting imagery in Christiane F., though it’s not violent imagery in the traditional sense. It’s not for the faint of heart in any event, though it’s just a stretch to say violence is a primary reason why it’s up there among the most confronting movies of all time.
There are other movies about similar subject matter that are also confronting, but the ones equally hard-hitting to Christiane F. have at least some genuinely violent imagery (there’s more by way of violent crime shown in the likes of Requiem for a Dream and Trainspotting, for example). Christiane F. isn’t lacking in other things, though, when it comes to being upsetting. It’s one of the most difficult movies out there to watch and actually finish, but for good reason.
1
‘The Zone of Interest’ (2023)
Movie ratings are strange, because The Zone of Interest is PG-13, and PG-13 movies tend to be teen-friendly, or sometimes even okay for even younger viewers (like, the vast majority of superhero movies are PG-13). Yet The Zone of Interest is one of the bleakest and most challenging movies of the decade so far, at least out of all those that got a relatively wide release and a good deal of attention.
It’s about the Holocaust, and the family of the commandant of Auschwitz living right outside said concentration camp, all the while trying to ignore the atrocities happening there. And the movie conveys this by also not showing anything on screen. Terrible things are heard (and some other adult content is suggested, rather than outright shown), but it’s technically not a violent movie. It’s about violence, or the ignorance of it. Or the way people can drown it out, if they so desire, and maybe that’s even more troubling than any other approach this film could’ve taken.
The Zone of Interest
- Release Date
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December 15, 2023
- Runtime
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105 minutes
- Director
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Jonathan Glazer
- Writers
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Jonathan Glazer
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Christian Friedel
Rudolf Höss
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Sandra Hüller
Hedwig Höss
