10 Most Disturbing British Movies Ever

The vilest violence and sickest twisted flicks from the home of video nasties...

By Cathal Gunning /

There's no nation whose cinema is entirely free from some truly disturbing filmic content which is likely to stick in the mind of viewers long after the sick flicks finish (shout out to Japan, Greece, and France, who appear to have as many horrifying boundary-pushing films as they do normal releases).

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But whilst A Serbian Film may be the lone Serbian film most viewers have heard of thanks to its relative infamy, the modest isle of Britain has had an impressively disturbing cinematic output ever since the medium began its history.

From the early horror shockers Dead of Night and Peeping Tom through to the infamously banned video nasties of the eighties, Britain has long rivalled France for "gnarliest European cinema producers", thanks to its endless stream of genuinely upsetting films.

Some are deeply flawed and barely even earn a lone watch, whereas others transcend their transgressive content to offer brilliant, beautiful pieces of deeply disturbing filmmaking, but there's one thing these ten films all have in common.

That's the fact that each one deserves a spot on this list of the ten most disturbing British movies ever made.

10. Boy Meets Girl

Just about released in 1994 (after being banned for a minute by the BBFC), Boy Meets Girl is a sort-of-psychological thriller/ horror hybrid which shares its title with a handful of other films that also opted for this generic phrase (including a light rom-com, so apologies to anyone who rented one expecting the other).

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Apparently intended to be darkly comic but instead fairly amateurish in its execution, this flick follows an unlucky bloke who awakens after an ill-fated one night stand to discover he's being held captive in a dingy apartment by his pissed off paramour.

What follows is a string of tortures which succeed in disturbing the audience despite the budgetary limitations, as this little-known indie works its way to a bleak conclusion.

Mostly notable for being briefly banned, this one is… maybe a satire? But definitely upsetting, even if its politics are hard to unpack.

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