Warning: The following article contains references to self-harm and sexual assault. Reader discretion is advised.
Horroris supposed to scare us and make us feel uncomfortable in certain ways. Yes, we still fully appreciate the other elements that horror movies have to offer – special effects, whodunit storylines, and timeless antagonists – but lots of audiences ultimately simply seek out horror movies to be scared. Throughout horror history, some scenes havestuck out more negativelyfrom often surface-level scary plots than others.
Update August 03, 2025: This article has been updated with even more controversial horror scenes in honor of Halloween.
Others appear in the middle of movies that are genuinely excellent, making one’s viewing experience more shocking. These instances often become the hushed topics of conversation after the movie is over, made some audience members consider leaving the theater. To some, these 15 good horror movies have been ruined by a controversial scene.
15The Hallucination Scene - Rosemary’s Baby (1968)
Every aspect ofRosemary’s Babyhas been surrounded by controversy, from the book’s publication to the film’s release. The book written by Ira Levin was turned into a major motion picture just one year after its release, written and directed bythe ever-controversial Roman Polanski. Mia Farrow plays the lead, Rosemary Woodhouse, a housewife to stage actor Guy Woodhouse, as they plan to build a family in a charming yet strange apartment building.
After planning a “baby night” with her husband, she falls into a stupor after eating a poisoned dessert. Rosemary hallucinates about being raped by a hairy, horned demon which we get to see from her POV on camera, something most people could without, to be honest.
14Freddy’s Identity - A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010)
It’s needless to say that Freddy Kruger is an integral part of the horror genre, especially his original portrayal in the very firstElm Streetfilm, where he’s known as the party to blame for the murders of local children. The 2010 reboot ofA Nightmare on Elm Streettook his characterization in a separate direction. It’s been reported by numerous sources,including TVOverMind, that Wes Craven’s original intention for the character was to have him portrayed as a child predator, but was cut, yet the subtext is there.
The new film opted to shift the perspective at first. It originally seemed like they were going to make Freddy an innocent man who was wrongfully attacked and shifted the narrative on its head. The remake then decides to reveal that Freddy was a child predator, which makes the remake a retread of the original film and truly offers nothing new except stating outright what was always implied.
13The Brick Scene - Antichrist (2009)
Lars Von Trier’s mindis a scary place, and we don’t want to know what dwells in there. We are glad he’s allowed to explore his creative venues in film, but he sure can offer some disturbing sights. InAntichrist, Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg play a couple who have lost a child, so they seek refuge in a cabin to grieve their loss by inflicting pain and torturing each other. One of the most poignant scenes in the film happens when the distraught woman smashes his partner’s genitals with a brick to make him pass out. She would later masturbate him on the floor to make him ejaculate blood. Now, that’s nasty.
12The Impaled Woman - Cannibal Holocaust (1980)
The impaled woman looks tame by today’s standards (as most ofCannibal Holocaustdoes, to be honest).This film landed its own director in jail; however, it still manages to be pretty disturbing, not for the blood and gore, but for the human reaction to the events unfolding around them. When the documentarist crew finds the impaled woman on the river’s shore, they gleefully run toward the body like a YouTuber looking for a corpse in the Aokigahara Forest. They film the corpse while their eyes shine in awe, which is pretty disturbing and says more about their state of mind than anything else.
11The Eye Scene - Hostel (2005)
Hostelis such a visually nasty film that many critics didn’t flinch when it came to labeling ittorture porn. The story about a group of travelers being sold into a torture ring for the bored and rich helped Eli Roth make a name for himself in Hollywood. The eye scene, however,is just plain gross in every regard. An unnamed torturer is desecrating a girl’s face using a blowtorch until the main characters come along and take him out. Instead of releasing the girl immediately and taking off with her, he proceeds to finish popping her eye out of her socket so they can run off. We are still wondering what was the point of that gorefest.
10Jennifer’s Assault - I Spit On Your Grave (2010)
The premise of I Spit on your grave is pretty straightforward: a girl who only wanted to write a book in peace is raped by a pack of rednecks in the woods. She makes a run for it after being beaten to an inch of her life, only to return a few weeks later and kill every single one of her abusers. The original film premiered in 1978, but we got a remake in 2010, and director Steven R. Monroe made sure to go one step ahead of its predecessor by making the rape scene as graphic and brutal as possible. Quite frankly, that stuff works best when it’s implied by the story, not outright told graphically.
Related:20 Horror Movies That Will Make Seasoned Fans Sick to Their Stomachs
9Gwen and Finney’s Abuse - The Black Phone (2022)
The Black Phonewas one of the greatest summer horror movies to come out of 2022, and it gave some more recognition to Joe Hill’s original short story that inspired it. The Blake siblings, Gwen and Finney (Mason Thames) find themselves terrorized at home and at school before the Grabber even finds Finney. The physical abuse that their father perpetrates makes segments ofThe Black Phonehard to stomach, especially a tearfully realistic performance by Madeleine McGraw as Gwen.
8Cathy and Chris - Flowers in the Attic (2014)
The story behindFlowers in the Atticwould have been creepy and dismal enough had it stuck to the trapped feeling they experienced in the house and the familial abuse that was already occurring. However, the story results in the beginning of anincestuous relationshipbetween the two oldest siblings, Cathy and Chris. This just unfortunately, takes the material of the film to another lower level, making it extremely uncomfortable to watch. Something worth noting: this aspect of the story was much better handled in the 1987 version of the movie written and directed by Jeffrey Bloom.
7Pearl’s Crime - X (2022)
XandPearlgo hand in hand as the first two films in Ti West’s soon-to-be-trilogywhenMaXXXineis released.Xintroduces Pearl (surprisingly played by Mia Goth) as an old woman living on her farm with her husband Howard. But if you know her character, you know her innocent exterior was short-lived. Pearl creeps up to where the film crew is staying and visits a sleeping Maxine, touching her torso in a sexualized manner that wouldn’t be consensual. The action is just another addition to her long list of crimes, but the nature of it furthers Pearl’s character as a villain.
6Kara’s Growth - Old (2021)
M. Night Shyamalan has a filmography filled with certain moments of controversy and questionable plot lines, and one of his newest movies,Old, fits right in. When she arrived at the island, Kara was a little girl, but under the spell of the age-accelerating beach, she grows into a young adult. After running off with the similarly aged Trent, the two come back to everyone else, with Kara obviously pregnant. The rushed reality of her labor is off-putting on its own, but the fact that she’s technically still a young child during the process is still pretty twisted.
