Violence in a film can be a good thing and it can equally be a bad thing. Violence can be gratuitous - put in the film solely to shock and titilate. Violence can be used to draw out the gorehounds by going excessively over the top. Violence can be used to sicken and repel the viewer. Violence can be used in such a way as to make an anti-violent statement. Violence can be all of these things and if carried to the extreme, violence can become controversial. The films in my list have all distinguished themselves by the controversy their violent content has raised. Some of the films are well known Hollywood classics and some are relatively little known Euro Horror pieces but they all share in common an ability to shock through their violent content. Everybody loves a bit of controversy. It's what keeps us curious people ticking over, discovering new films and generating healthy debate. So welcome to the world of the 20 Most Controversially Violent Films Ever Made. Please add your own additions in the comment box below, I enjoy feedback and debate very much!
20. Switchblade Romance/Haute Tension (2003)
Marie and her best friend Alex are students on their way to stay with Marie's parents. In the middle of the night there is a knock on the door. Alex's family are killed by a mass murderer in all sorts of gruesome ways. Marie and Alex end up hiding in the killer's truck and he drives off with them in the back. Marie has a butcher's knife. The killer stops for gas. He murders the store clerk and Marie spies on him. They get into a chase situation, and Marie manages to bludgeon him to death. She returns to the truck to see Alice. But why is Alice looking so terrified? And why does the garage CCTV show Marie killing the store clerk? This is a film people tend to either love or hate depending on their ability to swallow the twist ending. I personally hate it and I think it is all preposterous nonsense but it is in this list, irrespective of my taste as it is a controversially violent film. The film is explicitly, ridiculously violent and genuinely terrifying up to the denouement. The kill sequences are extremely graphic and we get the queasiness in the bottom of our stomach feeling that films with haute tension (high tension) such as The Texas Chainsaw Massacre engender in us. Too bad the artistically bereft and deeply mendacious ending ruined an awesome movie.