8. Natural Born Killers (1994)
A tale of two star crossed lovers with traumatic childhoods - Mallory and Mickey - who come together to form a mass murdering tag team who are irresponsibly glorified by the media. A mainstay in the top 10 of the most controversial films of all time lists, Natural Born Killers generated a hella fuss when it was released in 1994. Stone has always maintained that it was a satire on the media's fixation with serial killers. Ireland banned it outright. Britain delayed the video release due to the Dunblane Massacre. About 4 minutes of cuts were required to get an R Rating in the USA. So what makes it controversial? Liberal killing by Mickey and Mallory without a shred of repentance, taking people hostage, inciting prison riots, rape, the journalist Wayne Gale (Robert Downey Jnr) elevating Mickey and Mallory to cult status. It is all very unwholesome and pretty hard to swallow. I find it to be quite like Man Bites Dog with its self aggrandising serial killer murdering people unrepentantly and sharing his vile philosophy with the world. However, with the glut of extreme films that has been produced since Natural Born Killers, it's probably not as controversial as it used to be.