10 Disturbing Movies You'll Struggle To Finish

Three weeks after the release of Salò, Or 120 Days Of Sodom, director Pier Paulo Pasolini was murdered. While the circumstances of his death remain hotly debated (evidence points to a possible Mafia hit; other evidence suggest it was motivated by politics), there's no doubt that he was a filmmaker who explored themes likely to upset a lot of people, and none more so than his 1975 movie Salò.

Pasolini relocated the Marquis de Sade's 120 Days Of Sodom to fascist Italy during the Second World War, transforming the debauchery of the libertines into the gross excesses of the political class. They kidnap teenagers from the local area, torturing them over a period of months before finally being raped, tortured again and murdered.

Salò, Or 120 Days Of Sodom isn't shy of depicting outright depravity (try watching the feces eating scene without gagging), and beneath the cruelty lies a layer of subtexts concerning political power and authoritarianism inviting academic debate over the decades since. To others, it's little more than "the sickest film of all time" which did little more than pave the way for generations of torture porn.

Decide for yourself (if you can make it through to the end).