12 Disturbing Sci-Fi Movies You Must Watch (But Only Once)

You already knew Twin Peaks creator/ Hollywood’s resident madman David Lynch had to make this list, and most of the consternation came from deciding which of his many messed up flicks was the most upsetting and unmissable.

It was a tough contest, but eventually we settled on this 1977 feature debut due to its uniquely disturbing production design.

Everything from the film’s dissonant score, to its dark photography, to its sparse sets, to the horrific puppetry used for its monstrous baby, is intensely strange and surreal, and the lack of recognizable stars only adds to the film’s unsettling atmosphere. The plot is paper-thin and there some bizarre laughs hidden in here, but by and large this is cinema as panic attack, and the ambiguous futuristic setting makes this filmic nightmare all the more unforgettably strange and intense.