10 Horror Movies That Pissed You Off Straight Away

3. Antichrist (2009)

Lars von Trier has never made exactly what you’d call a regular film, and yet Antichrist stands out from his filmography as being especially hard to digest.

We are brought into the lives of a married couple (Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg) who struggle with grief following the death of their infant son and abscond to a cabin in the woods for what turns out to be less of a wellness retreat and more a gruelling trial of physical and sexual violence, underpinned by graphic imagery and increasing hallucinogenic visuals. So not exactly a popcorn muncher.

But even this already extreme premise to the extreme, by having the child die in a scene at the beginning of the film. Shot in a grand, operatic black and white, we are shown full-penetration images of the couple having graphic sex, juxtaposed against the progress of their child who, having been left alone, climbs out of the apartment window and falls to his death on the ground below.

Yes, killing an infant in the opening scene is very Lars von Trier, but it doesn't sit well with pretty much anybody.