Certain types of film fans love a bit of depravity with their popcorn, and for that very reason, I have scoured the rancid bowels of my mind to bring you these cinematic catastrophes to delight in, be repulsed with, or be morally incensed by – whatever tickles your fancy. Needless to say, if Mary Whitehouse was alive, she would probably spontaneously combust reading this.
Quite frankly, I am bored of perusing lists of controversial films with Salo, Cannibal Holocaust and Last House on the Left on them. They are highly commendable films but they have been discussed to death. The films on this list go deeper in their degree of sleaziness, depravity and nastiness and they are lesser known which makes the list that little bit more spicy. And we can all do with a little spice in our lives – even if it leaves a bitter, pungent taste…. Just like these movies do.
So remember to have your barf bags handy and enjoy!
10. The Gore Gore Girls (1972)
This piece of ultra violent trash was made by the Godfather of Gore – Herschell Gordon Lewis, a former English Professor, who regurgitated onto the screen such cult classics as Blood Feast, Two Thousand Maniacs! and The Gruesome Twosome.
This 1970 schlocker follows the adventures of a rather suave (for an HG Lewis movie) detective on the trail of a serial killer who is bumping off strippers in a most egregious fashion. Gory highlights include a stripper having her rear end pounded to shreds with a meat tenderiser – and the killer throws spices all over her mangled booty after he has finished his handy work!, a stripper having her nipples cut off and one nipple spurting vanilla milk, the other chocolate milk and a particularly gruesome scene where a stripper gets her face deep fat fried in a pan of oil.
This may sound humorous, and to a certain extent I agree it is, but what troubles me is the brutality of the murder scenes and the way that the camera unflinchingly focuses on the action with no relief. There are comic moments to break the depravity up – such as a women’s rights protest at the strip club – and I’m pretty sure HG Lewis meant the film to be funny but at its core, it is a grimy, seedy little film indeed.
I once managed to convince my motherthat The Gore Gore Girls was a snuff movie. How she laughed!
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49 Comments
no a serbian film?
I was trying to be a bit more obscure and look for films that maybe some people have never seen. But yes, A Serbian Film sure is depraved.
I have not seen any of the films in the depraved top 10. I have seen the movie “Cannibal Holocaust” which was very depraved. Since it was not in your top 10 I wonder if you have seen it.
Hi Mike, do not worry, i will be talking heavily about Cannibal Holocaust in an upcoming feature and giving readers much to contemplate!
Necromantik. Now that’s a depraved film.
Have you ever seen Zulawski’s Possession?
I am a huge Zulawski fan. I love loads of his films. Possession really required Isabella to act her socks off. I have never seen such a charged performance on screen ever! I couldn’t keep up that level of hysteria! Not my favourite Zulawski but definitely didnt deserve to end up in the nasy list
I have had a hard time getting access to Nekromantik. Is it up on you tube?
Nope, but it is avaiable on an extremely rare and out of print DVD by Barrel Ent.
You can sometimes torrent it. I own them, but I have tried to torrent them before. I found the second one easier than the first one. The first one didn’t seem to be available with the subtitles I needed.
I was given a bootleg copy to view by a friend who thought I’d enjoy it. It’s hard to find for a reason. If you’ve not seen it I cannot in good conscience reccomend you do so. I more threw it into the ring as a film to avoid at all costs rather than to be sought out. That said, if you do find it and watch it consider yourself warned :)
Thanks for the info Lenny. I listed a film in the list by the director of Nekromantik – the film is Der Todesking. It is very hard to watch too but it has artistic merit. I get the feeling Nekromantik is more of a ‘shocker’. I’m in nohurry to review it! I have enough controversial puppies in my hand!
NEKRomantik (to give it its correct, onscreen title) is actually a really tender film. Probably the most perverse thing I’ve ever seen, mind, but kinda beautiful…
Nekromantik isn’t so bad. No worse than say New York Ripper. A Serbian Film and the Autumn Underground movies are truely depraved. I hate them and can’t or even want to watch them ever again…. Beyond entertainment…
I have always been curious about the Autumn films… But then they just seem to be a big torture fest so why bother?
I’ve seen a lot of the films in this list but I have to fully agree with Africa Addio. I saw it when I was 15 years old since I found the collection on a bookstore for a small price without knowing much of the film so I came unprepared for the 2 hours of pure anarchy and depravity that I was about to see. I think it’s the best film from Prosperi and Jacopetti but it’s also the hardest one to watch.
I have to ask this but have you seen Schramm or Philosophy Of A Knife? Schramm is from Jorg Buttgereit (Der Todesking and Nekromantik) and it’s a very bleak and fascinating film about a killer while Philosophy Of A Knife is a documentary about Unit 731 that it’s much more insightful (After all, it’s 4 hours long) than Men Behind The Sun (I saw it and I was equally parts shocked and angry, mostly because of the horrendous dubbing).
I am so glad Juan that you agree with me on the Africa Addio front! I have never seen Schramm due to the unavailability of it and I have nrver seen Philosophy of a knife but it sounds like a more measured approach to Men Behind the Sun. Is it Chinese or Japanese?
It’s actually Russian (And one of the few films that portrays it without the major sleaze factor), but with that said there’s a 50/50 chance that you’ll either like the film or despise it. It’s not that graphic but the problem is that it feels WAY too long at times. I saw 2 hours one day and 2 hours the next day (I was also tired beyond belief XD ).
As for Schramm, it shouldn’t be hard to find online and it’s not as rare as the director’s other films. One thing I have to warn you about is that it haves a scene that will give you flashbacks of SICK: The Life and Death Of Bob Flanagan.
I have seen and own New York Ripper (blah) and In a Glass Cage – a true four Prozac classic that’s so depressing… I can’t even begin start.
What no S.S. Experiment AKA Lagen Camp 555 or S.S. Experiment 2 AKA Beast in Heat?
Salo is pretty bad. There is also a part documentary part mocumentary called S&Man (pronounced Sandman) that explores the underground horror scene. It focuses on the extreme stuff that could be accused of being snuff films. There is a story about one director (which is the fictional part of the movie) that the film follows that gets creepier and more depraved by the end. When the end happens, I just felt sick. It’s not as graphic as Traces of Death by any means, but it just disturbed me a lot.
Black Sun: The Nanking Massacre by Mou Tun-Fei (T.F. Mou) is possibly the most depressingly depraved movie I have yet to see. I own a signed copy of the DVD through Unearthed Films, but can only claim to have watched it twice in all the time I have owned it. Like MBTS, historically accurate trumps sick imagination :(
SS Experiment is tame in comparison to Gestapos Last Orgy which is on the List as is Beast in Heat. They don’t have the horrible ideology Last Orgy has behind it
Not sure why “Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom” didn’t make the grade either.
Maybe because it’s a famous movie? I would argue that most of the movies on this list are well-known at least among horror film buffs. I’ve seen all but three (and plan on watching those soon).
Precisely. You hit the nail on the head. Salo turns up in these lists all the time. I wanted to do something differentish!
Very disappointed in myself for only having seen less than half of these (New York Ripper, men Behind the Sun and Beyond the Darkness) so a handy shopping list of depravity to seek out.
Was surprised ‘Sinful Dwarf’ didn’t make the list. One of the few films to make me feel ill watching it. Not because it was particularly gory, but it was just so grubby and distasteful. It’s only just been passed for UK consumption uncut, even though it’s been shown on TV and is available on Lovefilm.
Is sinful dwarf the one with Joan Collins in it?
Nope. It’s this ultra sleazy danish dwarf romp: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070696/
Naw, the Joan Collins you may be thinking of is, I Don’t Want To be Born. US title: The Devil Within Her. Joan is cursed by a dwarf after she rebuffs his advances at a strip club they both work at. Tacky with a Capital “T”
Oh yes! That is one bloody awful film! I caught it late one night on BBC. Much mirth was derived from it.
Yes, you gotta love the scene where Joan is alone in her house, the baby makes a demonic noise in his bedroom. Joan walks into room and sees the entire room ransacked, and trashed beyond belief. She goes back into the living room, has a drink, and pretends as if nothing happened. Caroline Munro comes to visit, and Joan tells her the story of how the child came to be with the dwarf and all.
Oh, and apologies for the double reply, but I just remembered CHAOS too (not the Statham one) https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=3&cad=rja&ved=0CFIQFjAC&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.imdb.com%2Ftitle%2Ftt0405977%2F&ei=xYECUc7WL8iYtQaH_oDIBw&usg=AFQjCNGTFMTx9vNFHvEo7Ewum2X4NSOwmw&bvm=bv.41524429,d.Yms
An utterly pointless remake of Last House on the Left, which is also utterly vile and disgusting for no good reason other than to be more disgusting than Craven’s film (or the remake of that remake… I’ve gone cross eyed…)
Good article, one minor correction though, the cat scene in Man Behind the Sun is staged, not real.
Thank you for the correction
Some nasty films that are not yet mentioned and in my opinion are more depraved than some mentioned in the list: Vase De Noces, Aftermath, Forced Entry, Waterpower, Last house on dead end street, Guinea Pig: flowers of flesh and blood, All night long 2, Naked blood and Breaking Point.
Seen six of the ten. The corpse in Der Todesking is not real. And Nekromantik is genius, as is Der Todesking.
Thank you for correcting me. It looks bloody realistic!
Thanks for the correction. It looks bloody realistic!
Thanks for the correction. It looks bloody realistic! Genius special effects!
“Instead we see him fraternising with the USA army during the Korean War.
Is this some sort of slur against the United States?”
It has been documented that Ishii worked with the U.S. during the Korean war; improved versions of the bacteriological bomb invented during the film were found unexploded in North Korea (according to Hal Gold’s Unit 731: Testimony, at least one resides in the Unit 731 Museum in Japan).
So the Chinese weren’t just angry. Thank you for the piece of history!
A few more: Singapore Sling, Island of death, Addio ultimo uomo, Shocking Africa, Emanuelle in America, Visitor Q, Libidomania.
Yeah a lot of those Mondo films are extremely unpleasant to watch and Emanuele in America boasts an unpleasant (simulated) snuff scene
I wwould love for someone to put a decent reconstruction of the Me Lai massacre on to film. There is a film, but it’s very soapy and very lame. I guess Cannibal
Holocaust is the closest thing we have. Anyone know of any other movies?
Nekromantic 1 and 2, also… what about pink flamingos?
Impressive list. Usually I’m left disappointed with these kinds of lists because the same movies always get mentioned. I’ve seen about half the movies on the list. I’m not really into Mondo flicks, but ill definitely check out the other ones on the lost that I haven’t seen. Thank you for the entertaining read.
I found Peter Greenaway’s, “A Zed and Two Naughts” intriguing but unpleasant to watch, particularly the time lapse experiment with decomposing animal corpses.
Hey I’m trying to see if you can help me by looking at this list I can see you know a bit about horror and gore films I have be trying to find a movie that I’ve seen one time when I was about 3yrs old I’m 30 now it looked like it could have been made in the 70′s or early to mid 80′s I can only remember a few things from the movies like in one scene a woman was cooking somthing in a frying pan and the killer came from behind her and killed her can’t remeber how then cut her nipple into the frying pan and it cooked and I’ve ask my little brother about this movie to and he say he know what I’m talking about but don’t know the name of the film either he’s a year behind me he say he remebers a scene where a woman nipple was cut into a wine glass don’t know if that will help but added just in case now at the end of the film the killer who I think is a woman could be worng was dressed in all black wearing a black mask or ski mask got caught and jumped out a window and got her or his head ran over by a car passing by now I don’t know if this will help you id the movie but I just wanted to know if you may have an idea what movie it may be our send me a list of movies you might have in mind hit me back ay whogotit2@gmail.com really hope you can help me wanna see this movie again thanks