10 Most Disturbing British Movies Ever
5. Scum
As always, kitchen sink hero/ eventual Fame director (yes, really) Alan Clarke’s 1979 drama Scum is not brutal without good reason.
Long before pretenders to the throne were using difficult themes like sexual assault, abuse, and poverty to bolster their credentials as pretentious “complex” artistes, the socially conscious Clarke was exploring this heavy territory in order to make an incendiary indictment of the British borstals which remains unflinchingly harsh even today.
Following an inmate in one of these inhumane prisons, the film does dwell on rape, suicide, and horrific scenes of bullying, but they serve an admirable purpose in illustrating the system’s blatant flaws, all anchored around a terrifying but undeniably human performance from Ray Winstone.