My Top 5 Non-Horror Horror Movies

Horror-Titus-Courtesy of 20th Century Fox

4. Titus

Titus stars Anthony Hopkins as the title character. It’s directed by Julie Taymor and is based on the play Titus Andronicus by William Shakespeare.

This movie is very close to the source material. Yet, it would easily fit in with movies like I Spit on Your Grave or The Last House on the Left. That’s right. Shakespeare could be hard core, bro. This is a hard R-rated movie. You may not have heard of it because it was released on Christmas Day of 1999 and was a massive box office bomb.

Titus presents Tamora (Jessica Lange) with her eldest son’s freshly removed bowels on a platter. It’s a war thing. This kicks off a back and forth battle of revenge between the two characters. As you’d expect, their kids suffer the most.

Tamora has Titus’ daughter Lavinia (Better Call Saul’s Laura Fraser) kidnapped and mutilated. She’s left alive to suffer and taunt her father. The reveal of these horrors presents Lavinia in a traumatized, but angelic state. The clash of contexts in the shot makeup is truly frightening. At first the shot is beautiful and pristine. Lavinia is floating like a ballerina on a pedestal with snowflakes floating around her. When I realized what had happened to her, I felt sick. I’m sure Tamora also feels sick later on in the movie when she realizes that Titus has made her eat her own sons. Sometimes revenge is a dish best served as a pot pie.

There’s even a Matrix inspired death scene in the climax that involves a ladle. Like I said: hard core.