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Some films are disturbing enough on their own — but knowing who made them makes it so much worse. Join us as we count down the most unsettling movies directed by some of Hollywood's most controversial and morally reprehensible filmmakers. Which of these films crossed the line for you? Let us know in the comments below!
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00:00I'd like you to look presentable.
00:04A genuine Durberville.
00:06Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the most disturbing films made by questionable,
00:12controversial, and or legitimately awful filmmakers.
00:15You got ten seconds to get your ass out of my yard!
00:22Number 10. Sam Peckinpah, Straw Dogs.
00:25David is an old friend of mine, Charlie Venner. My husband, David Sumner.
00:29Mr. Venner?
00:30Please pull me Charlie.
00:32You work around here?
00:34Sometimes.
00:35If you've seen his most famous films, Sam Peckinpah seems to have an obsession with the violence.
00:39He also developed a contentious reputation among his collaborators.
00:43There was once a time, Mrs. Sumner, when you were ready to beg me for it.
00:50Take your hands off me.
00:51His film, Straw Dogs, confronts the concept of bloodshed and revenge in shocking ways.
00:56Dustin Hoffman's character fights back after his wife is assaulted, and the couple are terrorized by a group of men.
01:02Okay, you've had your fun.
01:04I'll give you one more chance.
01:07And if you don't clear out now, there'll be real trouble.
01:10I mean it.
01:11With a closer look at the director and his personal life, you'd think that he likely channeled his own demons
01:16into his work.
01:17His stint in the military, erratic relationships, and struggles with various substances likely added up to a complicated man.
01:23Building to a dark climax, this thriller certainly makes you wonder about the man behind it all.
01:27You know what happens if they get in there?
01:29They'll kill us all.
01:36They've gone too far to back down now.
01:38Number 9. Woody Allen, Manhattan.
01:41I'm older than your father.
01:43After his high-profile fallout with Mia Farrow, Woody Allen and his personal life became the subject of discussion and
01:48controversy.
01:49His relationship with Farrow's adopted daughter, Sunye Previn, drew criticism, along with allegations that he assaulted Dylan Farrow.
01:56This didn't stop the filmmaker's career, or his ongoing reputation as an acclaimed director.
02:00Not that I have anything to hide, because, you know.
02:03But there are a few disgusting little moments that I regret.
02:08Just gossip, you know.
02:09Going back to his work in the 1970s, Allen created a critically celebrated film that's easily seen as problematic today.
02:16His hero in Manhattan dates a teenager without much pushback at all.
02:20What do you do, Tracy?
02:21I go to high school.
02:22Oh, really? Really?
02:24Somewhere in the back of this one.
02:27After re-examining the accusations, movies like Manhattan seem even more unsettling than funny.
02:32Number 8. Lars von Trier, Antichrist.
02:35Grief. It's not a disease. It's a natural, healthy reaction. You can't just remove it. You mustn't.
02:44No stranger to tough subject matter, Lars von Trier is one of the most famous provocateurs in the last 30
02:49years.
02:49In the film, Antichrist, he delves into a toxic relationship torn apart by grief.
02:54You can call it one in a line of shocking films from an artist that doesn't pull punches.
02:58You were supposed to be critical of those texts. That was your thesis. Instead, you're embracing it. Do you know
03:06what you're saying?
03:07He often steers himself into controversy with his seemingly outspoken ways.
03:11Many interpreted a statement by dancer-in-the-dark star Bjork as being directed at von Trier for his alleged
03:16harassment on set.
03:27His odd statements about everything from Nazis to the war in Ukraine don't help his case either.
03:32As he attracts all kinds of negative press, his antagonistic streak seems to have become part of his personality.
03:38Number 7. Alfred Hitchcock.
03:40Oh, men. You say no thanks to one of them, and bingo, you're a candidate for the funny farm. It
03:47would be hilarious if it weren't pathetic.
03:50He might have made iconic movies, but Alfred Hitchcock was known to have a much darker personal life.
03:54His films The Birds and Marnie are more disturbing after knowing the full story.
03:58You wanted the money or you wouldn't have taken my keys, would you? You took the keys, now take the
04:02money. I said take it!
04:04Actress Tippi Hedren starred in both projects, playing women troubled by outside forces.
04:09Hitchcock was said to have harassed his star, and allegedly assaulted her.
04:12The 1964 release also features a plot that parallels the filmmaker's apparent behavior.
04:17I can't let you go, Marnie.
04:19If somebody's got to take care of you and help you, I can't just turn you loose.
04:23If I let you go, I'm criminally and morally responsible.
04:27Hedren plays a woman that's afraid of men, and the color red.
04:30At one point, the title character's husband courses the hero into sex.
04:34But I do want to go to bed, Marnie.
04:37I very much want to go to bed.
04:39No!
04:40It's hard to watch at times, but knowing the actress's claims makes us see everything in a new light.
04:45Number 6. Ruggiero Diodato, Cannibal Holocaust.
04:49Those are the last pictures we have of them.
04:52Two months have passed since they were last heard from them.
04:54Are they still alive? And if so, where are they?
04:57It's fair to say that this movie could be considered controversial for its title alone.
05:01Cannibal Holocaust pushes the audience to the brink,
05:04giving them an experience full of fake documentary footage and real animal cruelty.
05:08What do you mean?
05:09Ah, they were caught, yet they are not really cannibals.
05:12Which means it was probably some religious ceremony meant to chase evil spirits out of the jungle.
05:19Some even believed the film captured actual human deaths,
05:22leading to some legal troubles for Diodato.
05:24This made the director a questionable figure for his decisions and filming tactics.
05:28This convinced them that I was the only one capable of breaking the evil spell
05:32that had been cast over the tribe by their murder of the whites.
05:36One scene involving a turtle is downright disgusting,
05:39blurring the line between authenticity and bad taste.
05:42There's also the debatable look at a South American tribe that paints them in a disturbing light.
05:47While some people might be attracted to its over-the-top content,
05:49this movie and this filmmaker deserve to be judged for the final product.
05:53John, I want this material burned.
05:56All of it.
05:58Yeah.
05:58Number 5.
05:59Asia Argento
06:00The heart is deceitful above all things.
06:03Look what mama got you.
06:06Look at the bunny.
06:07Look at the bunny.
06:11Right here, honey.
06:12Coming from a cinematic family,
06:14Asia Argento starred in a number of films before directing her own projects.
06:18This particular movie remains controversial,
06:20given the director's alleged connection to her younger star.
06:22Get over the phone.
06:24Dad?
06:25No, well, he hasn't been very bad.
06:27Oh, so you don't want to speak to him.
06:29Give me the phone!
06:32Hello?
06:33Jimmy Bennett played her son in
06:34The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things in 2004.
06:37Years later, Argento allegedly assaulted Bennett at a hotel.
06:40The plot about absent and toxic parental figures
06:43is hard enough to watch without the allegations.
06:45It's bad to smoke.
06:47My mama always says so.
06:50Is that what she said?
06:54The hashtag MeToo movement involved the actress and her stand against Harvey Weinstein,
06:58but her apparent actions led to sharp criticism from concerned parties.
07:02Number 4.
07:03Lenny Riefenstahl
07:04Triumph of the Will
07:05It goes without saying,
07:06but you're a bad person if you're making a movie for the Nazis.
07:18Lenny Riefenstahl is no different with her most notorious work being Triumph of the Will.
07:23The 1935 film covers the 1934 Nuremberg rallies
07:27and delivers a haunting glimpse at the rise of fascism in Germany.
07:30We stand here.
07:33We are ready.
07:35And we are going to the world in the world.
07:40Germany!
07:41With some awful people on board, Riefenstahl tried to make the contemptible political movement
07:46into a cinematic experience.
07:48The filmmaker tried to glorify her subjects,
07:50but her objective was reprehensible.
08:06Her reputation is forever tarnished for collaborating with such terrible patrons.
08:11If anything, her name only lives on as a cautionary tale.
08:14Number 3.
08:15Bernardo Bertolucci
08:16Last Tango in Paris
08:26In this erotic drama,
08:28Bernardo Bertolucci asked a lot of his two main stars.
08:31Maria Schneider later complained about her treatment while on set.
08:34Now, let's just look at each other.
08:38The plot focuses on strangers that have an affair,
08:41but some more graphic scenes were especially controversial.
08:44Schneider felt exploited by the experience,
08:46and one disturbing sequence involving butter.
08:48There's some butter in the kitchen.
08:50So you're here.
08:52What did you answer?
08:53Go get the butter.
08:55I have to hurry.
08:56I have a cap dancer waiting.
08:57Go get the butter.
08:59Bertolucci didn't seem to agree,
09:00sidestepping the allegations for the remainder of his life.
09:03The actresses' accounts complicate the overall film
09:05and reignite the importance of consent.
09:08In the days before intimacy coordinators,
09:10it's easy to imagine filmmakers taking advantage of their performers.
09:13Number 2.
09:14Roman Polanski
09:15Tess
09:16Tell me,
09:17do you like strawberries?
09:21Yes,
09:21they're in season.
09:23Yeah, they already are.
09:24By this point,
09:25most people know this director for his infamous past.
09:28His illegal encounter with an underage victim
09:30prompted his escape to Europe.
09:31Despite the nefarious nature of his situation,
09:34Polanski followed his legal battles with the movie,
09:36Tess.
09:37But listen, Tess,
09:38no more of this Durberville nonsense.
09:41Plain Durberfield.
09:42Understand?
09:43Nastassia Kinski starred in this Thomas Hardy adaptation
09:46about a poor girl confronting her family legacy.
09:49To make matters more upsetting,
09:50the plot deals with the hero being assaulted.
09:52It's strange to see the director make female-centric stories
09:55about predatory men such as this and repulsion.
09:58There's somebody there.
09:58I can see your shadow.
10:01What's the matter?
10:01I just want to talk to you,
10:03that's all.
10:03The film was critically lauded
10:04and later made it onto the Criterion collection.
10:07Polanski's work is still studied with serious reservations,
10:09but it's hard to separate the art and the artist in this story.
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10:40Horror fans should remember the Jeepers Creepers series from the 2000s,
10:44but not everyone knows the terrifying truth behind the director.
10:47Victor Salva had been behind bars before he directed this project.
10:50Back in the 1980s,
10:52he went to prison after performing inappropriate relations
10:54with the star of his film, Clown House.
10:56Randy!
10:58Not money!
11:00Randy!
11:02Wait!
11:02He later got the support of people like Francis Ford Coppola
11:05to make this creepy movie.
11:06This slasher plot seems even harder to take
11:09considering Salva's criminal history,
11:10with the villain preying on travelers and eating them.
11:13Take me!
11:17You don't want him.
11:18You don't want him.
11:20Whatever you want,
11:22you can take it from me.
11:23It's even worse knowing that the filmmaker got to make two sequels
11:26that expand the lore.
11:27Did we forget another disturbing movie made by a debatable director?
11:30Let us know in the comments below.
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