10 most disturbing horror movies from the past decade
By Mads Lennon
The last decade has been chockful of some particularly disturbing horror films like Raw and Hereditary. But what were the top ten most chilling films?
Did you know that only two of the Saw films came out this past decade? I felt very old when I realized that. It’s hard to not think about the Saw franchise when you’re trying to figure out what horror movies disturb you the most.
The natural choice is to pick the torture films. However, this last decade has been full of some genuinely inventive movies that disturb in uniquely horrifying ways. Saw might be gory, but it’s not necessarily the as haunting as it was when the franchise first began. So what ranks as the most disturbing films from the last ten years?
Beware: We’ll be talking about some specific scenes, so you may want to skip reading the blurb on any films you haven’t watched yet to avoid spoilers!
Films are in alphabetical order and no particular ranking!
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10. Hereditary (2018)
Ari Aster arrived on the horror scene in a cloud of polarizing reviews, and that’s where he’s thriving. Critics loved Hereditary; general audiences hated it.
That said, since the year it came out, many people have turned a corner when it comes to Hereditary and genuinely began appreciating the film. Charlie’s head flying off after hitting a telephone pole has to be one of the most shocking moments I’ve seen on the big screen in years.
It might not have been super gory, but it was thoroughly unexpected. The movie had a lot of other intensely disturbing imagery too, such as everything involving Paimon, scissors being used to behead a bird, creepy bodies in the attack, Toni Collette on the ceiling, the list goes on.
9. Midsommar (2019)
This year, Aster returned to horrify us all once again. Except for this time, he traded in his dark, haunted house and family drama for a relationship drama set in the eye-popping colors of pastoral Sweden.
We learned all about the tradition of the Hargas cult and their devotion to the Midsommar celebrations. Again, Aster included some disgustingly head injuries and some twists that will be sure to make your stomach turn. Midsommar included a sex scene that made me and my whole theater exquisitely uncomfortable. Plus, who can ever look at bears the same way again?