Horror movies can be brutal in different ways.

These movies vary wildly in tone but are united by their sensibility: they all hold nothing back.

Some are steeped in trauma, others in transgression, and a few are just pure, unhinged chaos.

Willem Dafoe as He in Antichrist

Image Via IFC Films

“This arthouse horror movietakes ideas from theMarquis de Sades writings and relocates them to Fascist Italy.

Divided likeDante’sInferno, the filmexplores degradation with a clinical, almost detached eye.

Its slow, unrelenting, and incredibly hard to sit through.

Boys standing around looking serious in Salò

Image via United Artists

The movie uses shock value as a weapon.

The cruelty is ritualistic, the camera unblinking.

This approach madeSalodeeply controversial.

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The fact that it still inspires such visceral debate decades later affirms its harrowing power.

It’s just that some of us have lost the need to hide it.

Think28 Days Laterby way ofClive Barkerand a fever dream.

An infected woman smiling viciously in The Sadness (2021)

Image via Shudder

The Sadnessgleefully pushes boundariesand shatters conventions.

What sets it apart from most grindhouse films it echoes is its craftsmanship.

Jabbaz directs with precision, delivering gore and chaos with a sheen.

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“Lars von Trieris one of cinema’s most creativeprovocateurs, andAntichristis him at his most uncompromising.

Once again, this movie polarized audiences.

Insideis one of the major works inthe New French Extremity movement.

Willem Dafoe in the forest in Antichrist

Image Via IFC Films

Yet the violence in this film is intimate rather than pulpy.

You feel every stab, flinch at every scream.

Led by the now-iconic Pinhead (Doug Bradley), the Cenobites arent monsters in the traditional sense.

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Theyre explorers, messengers from a plane where there is no distinction between pain and pleasure.

Barker gives them an intriguing mythology,placing the torture and violence within a deep thematic framework.

It’s an impressive directorial debut.

The Woman, played by actor Béatrice Dalle, grimaces while leaning against a wall in Inside.

Image via La Fabrique de Films

Barker’s direction is baroque and blood-soaked, with practical effects that feel tactile and suitably unsettling.

The bloody visuals are creative, prefiguring the elaborate, memorable kills found in films likeSaw.

She and Alaoui rise to the occasion, turning in committed, believable performances.

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Hes drawn to the quiet, elegant Asami (Eihi Shiina).

As a result, thematically,Audition’s sexual politics remain provocative and open to interpretation.

The film’s admirers includeQuentin Tarantino, whocalled ita “true masterpiece if there ever was one”.

Pinhead in Hellraiser

Image via Entertainment Film Distributors

She’s assisted by solid work fromGabriel Byrne,Alex Wolff, and the youngMilly Shapiro.

Things initially unfold at a slow burn until a shock decapitation and the ensuing emotional fallout.

He channelsThe ExorcistandRosemary’s Babywhile making the story fully refreshing in what is an astonishing debut.

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Few horrors are as raw and dirty asThe Texas Chain Saw Massacre.

The movie isslapstick and cartoonish but radiates an oddball charmthat earned it a cult following.

The makeup and effects are killer, and the humor is uniquely absurd.

Morjana Alaoui with a bloodied face crying in ‘Martyrs’

Image via Wild Bunch

NEXT:The 10 Longest Stephen King Books, Ranked by Whether They’re Worth a Read

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A girl sits hunched on the ground in a room with a phone and a bag on the ground in front of her.

Image via Omega Project

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Milly Shapiro as Charlie Graham staring into the camera in “Hereditary”

Image via A24

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Gunnar Hansen as Leatherface in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre

Image Via Bryanston Distributing Company

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A skull coming out of a woman’s mouth in the poster for Dead Alive

Image via WingNut Films

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