15 Horror Movies That Went Too Far

The adage says, "You are what you eat", and nowhere is this taken more literally than in the 2016 New French Extremity coming-of-age movie "Raw." As part of a bizarre initiation ceremony for veterinary school, student Justine (Garance Marillier) is forced to eat raw meat for the very first time. Following that, she experiences bizarre cravings that push her beyond the boundaries of morality.

Cannibalism was an obsession with Italian filmmakers in the '70s and '80s, and it's still one of the biggest taboos in horror. Apart from the antics of cadaver connoisseur Hannibal Lecter, it's rarely depicted. "Raw" is unflinching in its portrayal of Thyestean activities, causing quite a stir at the 2016 Toronto film festival with viewers fainting at what was unfolding on screen.

However, there's a brilliantly subversive film beneath the controversy and obvious shock factor. Seasoned horror critics who could see past the gruesome imagery to the smart writing and black humor fared better than certain queasy Canadians, and the film met with considerable critical acclaim.

Chosen as the closing movie for the 22nd UK Frightfest horror festival, Rob Jabbaz's feature film debut "The Sadness" was a worthy conclusion to four days of horror.

In this Taiwanese film, a virus sweeps through the population. As COVID affected the global psyche, it was inevitable that the post-pandemic world would produce movies about infection, but "The Sadness" stands out because of its sheer brutality. It'd be too easy to use an already overdone theme and have the film's zombies depicted as the shambling undead, but the infected in the "The Sadness" are all too human — albeit preternaturally angry, unburdened by morality, and unleashed to fulfill their darkest and most monstrous desires.

It's a roller-coaster ride of unbridled gore and sadism — but with a beating black satirical heart. With its strong leads, "The Sadness" is as heartbreaking as it is jaw-dropping. How could the violence in a horror film go too far? If even a jaded Frightfest horror audience is stunned into silence by scenes you could never even imagine being filmed, you can only guess why.

In "Eden Lake," Jenny (Kelly Reilly) and Steve (Michael Fassbender) are young, in love, and trying to have a romantic weekend. However, their tranquility is short-lived, as they find they're not alone. A group of youths is also there, and the couple runs afoul of them. Soon, anger explodes into bloody and cruel violence.

Featuring one of the earliest appearances of Michael Fassbender, "Eden Lake" is a brutal, gritty, visceral, and plausible take on class war from a genre that gave us the similarly themed (albeit geographically separated) "Deliverance" in 1972. Where it could be argued that the nihilistic "Eden Lake" goes too far —  a point raised by many critics at the time — is in the movie's portrayal of the British working class.

Released during a period in which the working class was frequently demonized in the media, with the derogatory term "Chav" at its height of popularity in common vernacular, it's an unforgiving portrayal of blue-collar society in which the working class is depicted as monstrous sub-humans with few morals.

Before Peter Jackson could be found poring over old Beatles footage or gallivanting around Middle Earth in "The Lord of the Rings," he was making low-budget horror movies.

"Braindead" (released as "Dead Alive" in North America, due to a clash of titles) is from that fine body of Jackson's early work. In this over-the-top zombie comedy, momma's boy Lionel (Timothy Balme) visits the zoo with his mother, Vera (Elizabeth Moody), who is bitten by a rare Sumatran Rat Monkey. When she dies and is resurrected as a zombie, Lionel's attempts to keep her condition hidden result in both farce and catastrophic bloodbath.

Its inclusion here isn't down to its extreme content. Indeed, it nearly received a lower certificate in the United Kingdom due to the slapstick nature of the comic-book violence. It's been subsequently out-blooded by the remake of "Evil Dead," but there's no denying that the last act of "Braindead" is utter carnage that resembles an explosion in an abattoir. It's believed that 300 liters of special effects blood were used, with a lawn mower plowing into a gang of shambling undead being a particularly hemoglobin-heavy highlight.

A mainstay of exploitation cinema, "Cannibal Holocaust" is a very early example of a found footage movie. A documentary crew sent to the Amazon to film lost cannibal tribes goes missing, and their footage is retrieved by a rescue mission led by a renowned anthropologist. It's this footage that makes up the majority of the movie, showing sexual violence against women, inhumane treatment of animals, and of course, cannibalism.

This one doesn't make the cut because of its unpleasant subject matter, problematic misogyny, or its blatant racism — but because of its mistreatment of animals. Aside from the controversy of director Ruggero Deodato being falsely accused of murder, it's the shocking animal cruelty that makes "Cannibal Holocaust" such an unpleasant watch. There's brutal graphic documentary-style footage of a menagerie of jungle creatures killed for entertainment purposes. This abhorrent behavior rightly saw the director fined for animal cruelty.

The movie ends with the footage being burned, considered too extreme for viewing. Some may consider "Cannibal Holocaust" a candidate for the same treatment.

Director Tom Six could hardly have been accused of restraint in 2009's "The Human Centipede," an everyday tale of boy meets girls, boy gets surgically affixed to girls, but that movie pales compared to its first sequel. Despite the outlandish concept, the first film is basically the old cinematic trope of mad-scientist-run amok. It's unpleasant and hard to stomach (no pun intended) but is hard to take seriously.

With meta-contextualization rivaling 2000's "Blair Witch 2," this sequel follows Martin (Laurence R. Harvey), an individual so obsessed with the first "Human Centipede" film that he plans to replicate it in real life. Shot in black and white, "The Human Centipede 2 (Full Sequence)" is so gritty and unpleasant that you'll have to shower afterward. That was a view shared by the British Board of Film Classification, which saw fit to reject giving it a certificate. They deemed it so beyond redemption, that no cuts could make it releasable. Of course, the filmmakers exploited this controversial move, using the BBFC's comments in advertising: "Banned in the UK; Poses a real risk that harm is likely to be caused to potential viewers."

Each segment created by a genre expert, "Masters of Horror" was an anthology series that ran from 2005 to 2007. "Imprint," the intended 13th episode of Season 1, was directed by Takashi Miike, a man who is no stranger to filming extreme violence.

Set in 19th century Japan, "Imprint" sees an American journalist (Billy Drago) return to the country to find the sex worker he fell for but learns of the cruel fate and the supernatural shenanigans that befell her in his absence.

Like most anthology series, each episode of "Masters of Horror" varied in plot and theme. However, in "Imprint," the series went a step too far. It was due to air in 2006 but the host network, Showtime, thought it too disturbing due to its depictions of torture. Despite edits from show-runner Mick Garris, the episode was canceled. To this day, it is still the only one of 26 episodes not to have aired in the United States.

Not officially a horror film but terrifying enough to scare an entire generation of British Gen-X children, "Apaches" is a short film made by the Central Office of Information. Following a group of children and their playtime exploits on and around a local farm, it shows the dangers of rural life. All but one of the children meet grisly ends: crushed by a tractor or falling gate, drowning in a slurry pit, or poisoned by ingesting chemicals.

Shown in schools as a public information film, it was directed by John Mackenzie of "The Long Good Friday" fame and was just as harrowing as anything in that adult gangster movie. Like many of the films produced by the COI, it was designed to educate through fear, and it did just that to the extent that any Brit over the age of 50 going anywhere near a farm is likely to suffer post-traumatic stress disorder.