A Scanner Darkly

Redditors described A Scanner Darkly as being "unsettling" and "utterly bizarre." The 2006 mystery takes place in the near future and follows an undercover Orange County narcotics cop (Keanu Reeves [3]) whose assignment takes a turn when he forms his own drug addiction.

Picnic at Hanging Rock

This 1975 period piece is actually being remade as a TV series starring Natalie Dormer, so there's no better time to check it out. The chilling original is set in the 1900s and focuses on a girls' boarding school in Australia and the mysterious disappearance of one of the students and a teacher that happens after an ill-fated Valentine's Day picnic.

Nightcrawler

Although this 2014 thriller has its fair share of violence and gross images, that's not what makes it so disturbing. Jake Gyllenhaal [4] stars as LA thief Louis Bloom, who discovers a lucrative new career as a cameraman covering the city's grisliest crimes. His nonstop hunt to get the "money shot" gets more and more ruthless, which is why one Redditor said the film is "seared into my brain."

Pi

Darren Aronofsky's 1998 thriller about a math genius plagued by debilitating headaches and delusions of paranoia might hit close to home if you're a fan of numbers. "I get cluster headaches and am a mathematician, so my buddy thought it was a top-notch plan to show me this movie," user in_paris_and_london wrote. "That scene in the subway was so accurate, I almost passed out just watching it."

Shame

Never seen Michael Fassbender's sexual exploits in 2011's Shame? Well, if a film that "manages to make copious sex and threesomes with beautiful people deeply unsettling and unsexy" sounds like something you'd be interested in, it's time for you to check it out.

Whiplash

J.K. Simmons earned an Oscar for his performance as a brutal, conniving conductor, and it's easy to see why when you watch it. The relationship between his character and Miles Teller's aspiring musician is tense and twisted.

Remains of the Day

In the 1930s, James (Anthony Hopkins [5]) works as a butler for a British lord (James Fox) with Nazi sympathies and deeply rooted anti-Semitic views. His service is so dedicated that he even misses his own father's funeral to aid his master, something he comes to regret when he reflects on his life 20 years later.

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas

This 2008 drama about a friendship that blossoms between two young boys in the midst of the Holocaust is tragic, so much so that one Redditor wrote, "I felt sick to my stomach during that final shot."

Little Shop of Horrors

Little Shop of Horrors might seem like pure camp when you watch the 1986 sci-fi flick now, but the bloodthirsty plant at the heart of the film is enough to make anyone uneasy (someone wrote that it "kind of f*cked me up the first time I saw it. Of course, I was only 8 at the time, but still").

The Truman Show

King_Allant had an excellent point [6] about why the 1998 comedy starring Jim Carrey [7] is so disturbing. "The Truman Show is nightmares upon nightmares with a PG rating," they wrote. "It capitalises on the irrational underlying anxiety most people have on some level that their relationships might not be real because, after all, you can never truly know what another person is thinking, and expands this dread to Truman's entire reality as the secret everyone but him is in on slowly unravels. It's an existential horror movie wrapped in self-aware comedy."

Never Let Me Go

Never Let Me Go is absolutely beautiful but also gut-wrenching. The 2010 film stars Carey Mulligan [8], Keira Knightley [9], and Andrew Garfield as a trio who meet at a boarding school when they're just children and eventually come to discover something horrifying about their once-peaceful existence. It's also based on Kazuo Ishiguro's novel of the same name, in case you want to read it (and freak yourself out further). The author's work appears twice in this list: he wrote The Remains of the Day too.

The Big Short

When thinking about The Big Short, "disturbing" might not be the first adjective that comes to mind. The film about opportunistic Wall Street gurus and the housing crisis of 2008 is a dry comedy-drama, after all. Redditor GucciJesus [10], however, makes a salient point about why it's so uncomfortable to watch: "It highlights a level of human greed married with idiocy that is just astounding."

Phantom Thread

Phantom Thread might seem like a prestigious drama about a maniacal fashion designer (Daniel Day-Lewis) at first glance, but when you dig a little deeper, some uneasy cracks begin to show (that ending, for instance).

A Serious Man

Call Me by Your Name's Michael Stuhlbarg plays a physics professor at a university in the 1960s in this drama, and it soon becomes clear he's barely keeping it together: his wife wants a divorce, his brother is invading his home, and his tenure position at work is in jeopardy. A Redditor called watching it "one of the most disturbing cinematic experiences" they've ever had, noting that it "sucks the hope out of you one scene at a time." Damn.

Requiem For a Dream

Darren Aronofsky's drug-fuelled drama ratchets up the anxiety scene after scene, making the viewer endure watching each character (all of whom are addicts) end up in the worst possible situation over and over again. The paths they go down are gruesome, to say the least.

Dogtooth

An immensely controlling father (Christos Stergioglou) imprisons his three adult children in a massive compound in Dogtooth, which explores what happens when one of them decides they've finally had enough. Familial drama and chaos ensue.

A Ghost Story

If you've heard about A Ghost Story — Rooney Mara stars as a woman coping with the death of her partner, who's placidly haunting their new home — then you've likely also heard about its pie scene [11]. It's a simple moment, but also makes it no surprise why the film ended up on this list.

One Hour Photo

In what might be Robin Williams [12]'s scariest role, One Hour Photo sees him playing a disturbed photo technician who becomes obsessed with a local family after processing their film. It's both chilling and sad.

Creep

Creep is certainly more of a traditional horror film than a few others on this list (and it does feature one scene with gore), and it's also one of the most disturbing. The dread that builds as you watch a cat-and-mouse game unfold between an unsuspecting videographer and a man who hires him to make a movie for his unborn child is almost unbearable.

Dancer in the Dark

One Redditor wrote that this film was the only that's ever truly disturbed them. Lars von Trier's 2000 film stars Bjork as a Czech immigrant and single mother working in an American factory who ends up embroiled in a dramatic situation with her neighbour that threatens everything she's ever worked for.

It Follows

This 2014 horror film puts an entirely new spin on hookup culture: what if a curse could be transferred from person to person like an STD? That's exactly what happens after carefree teenager Jay (Maika Monroe) sleeps with her new boyfriend and soon discovers that death will creep nearer and nearer until she sleeps with someone else and passes it on.

Ghost World

Ghost World, which features one of Scarlett Johansson [13]'s first performances, is a depressing (but realistic) look at the way a friendship changes between two young women and also what it means to grow up. For one Redditor, the ending of the film is "the most depressing metaphor" they've ever seen.

The Gift

The Gift's twist ending is just as inventive as it is absolutely terrifying (and pretty gross, let's be honest). In the film, a married couple (Jason Bateman [14] and Rebecca Hall [15]) find themselves unable to shake an acquaintance from their past (Joel Edgerton), whose behaviour goes from socially awkward to straight-up terrifying.

There are even more movies on the list, if you can believe it, so head over to Reddit [16] to see them all!