Looking for a relaxing comfort movie to wind down with after a long, hard day? You’ve come to the wrong list. This article is reserved for the nail biters, the heart pounders, the movies that are so stressful you’ll wanna tear the hair straight off your scalp. These films are for adrenaline junkies, each one a cinematic rollercoaster so unsettling that you only need to watch it once. After that long, hard day, put one of these movies on and you’ll see just how easy you actually have it compared to the lives of these characters. Here they are, the 10 most stressful movies ever made.
Funny Games
We’re starting this list off strong with what is easily he most frustrating, feel bad film that I’ve ever had the displeasure of seeing. Directed by Michael Haneke, Funny Games is the story of a perfectly lovely family of three who are tortured by two low life drifters. After knocking on the door of a picturesque lakehouse in Austria, the two deplorables begin to subtly threaten and gaslight the innocent Schroder family, before ratcheting up their tactics to include full blown murder. You are forced to watch a kind-hearted, loving couple and their young child get brutalized for an hour and change, and the worst part? The film gives you hope that they’ll escape, and then repeatedly snatches that hope away. It isn’t fair, it isn’t right, and it’s anything but funny. It’s a mean-spirited film that you only need to see once, and once is enough for a lifetime.
Antichrist
Directed by the master of “messed-up” Lars von Trier, Antichrist is the story of an unnamed psychologist who decides to try and treat his wife’s grief after the accidental death of their young child. It’s an unsurprisingly awful decision. After taking his wife to a remote cabin in the middle of the woods to expose her to the outside world she’s has begun to fear, the pair are plagued by hallucinatory visions from Mother Nature herself. Spirits of dark emotions show up in the form of gored and diseased animals, which threaten the couple with prophecies of suffering and woe. It’s all fun and games until you stumble across a disemboweled fox gurgling the words “chaos reigns” while going for a hike. Next time, the psychologist should maybe choose a more traditional approach to help his wife, like taking her to a grief counselor that isn’t him? If there is a next time, that is.
Climax
A pioneer of the deeply disturbing New French Extremity movement, Gasper Noe ups the agonizing ante with his film Climax. A dance company made up of gorgeous twenty-somethings go to a warehouse in the middle of winter in order to rehearse for an upcoming show, and decide to celebrate afterwards with a night of debauchery. Little do they know, one of their number has spiked the sangria with enough hallucinogens to geek out an elephant, and the gang succumb to psychosis and paranoia while trying to figure out who’s responsible. What starts as a sexy dance party soon transforms into a tour of Hell’s ninth circle, as the group collectively loose their minds and turn on each other. There’s a famous shot that’s literally 45 minutes long, and feels like the mother of all bad acid trips. If you’re gonna watch it, do it sober and in the daylight – or else you’ll be drawn into the madness yourself.
Good Time
Directed by the Safdie Brothers, Good Time stars Robert Pattison as Connie Nikas – a small time New York City criminal. After robbing a bank with his cognitively impaired brother Nick, Connie desperately attempts to evade arrest. Nick isn’t so lucky, and the vulnerable man is left to waste away on Rikers Island, unless Connie can come up with enough cash to bail him out. The film is a high octane meditation on the phrase “the ends justify the means” – though the means become more and more morally dubious as the story goes on. What would you do to protect your loved ones? Would you steal $10,000 from your girlfriend’s mother? Would you pour LSD down a security guard’s throat? Would you kidnap a person in critical condition from a hospital? Thorny moral questions abound, and Connie answers each one with a resounding “yes.”
House of The Devil
A master class in mind numbing tension, Ti West’s House of The Devil is the story of Samantha Hughes, a broke college student who shows up to a remote mansion for a babysitting job. After being greeted by the eerie Mr. Ulman, Samantha is told that the job actually involves watching over Ulman’s mother, who is sleeping upstairs. Unsettled by the switch-up, Samantha reluctantly agrees to stay the night – and the horror begins. What’s worse than the things that do happen to poor Samantha? The things that don’t. Half the film is spent focusing on shadowy hallways and darkened doorframes, holding on an unsettling image for an uncomfortably long time before cutting away. You think that something is going to come crawling out of the darkness to grab Samantha, but time and time again, nothing happens. When something finally does, you’re left nearly inconsolable with terror.
The Hurt Locker
A literal ticking time bomb of a film, Kathryn Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker feels like standing next to 3,000 pounds of explosive ordnance while the detonator is in the hands of hyperactive kindergartener. The film follows Sergeant First Class William James, a member of the U.S. Army’s Explosive Ordnance Disposal team in the Iraq War. Instead of using remote control robots to do the job, James feels more comfortable defusing IEDs by hand without protective gear, much to the chagrin of his supervisors (and the terror of everyone watching). Tense bomb diffusion scenes are paired with equally agonizing sniper duels, displaying the zero-to-sixty aspect of combat. Nothing happens for hours, days even, and then it all happens at once. Unlike you and me, James appears to thrive in situations like this – it’s all part of the job.
The Killing of A Sacred Deer
The Killing of A Sacred Deer by Yorgos Lanthimos is just wrong. The nails on a chalkboard soundtrack, the unnaturally stilted dialogue, the hallucinatory horror of the plot – all mixed together into a well shaken cocktail of stress. It’s the story of Steven Murphy, a heart surgeon who lives in a pristine suburban home with his wife and children – but that picturesque existence is threatened by a teenage boy whose father died on Steven’s operating table years before. The boy tells Steven that in order to atone for the death, he must a sacrifice the life of a member of his own family, or else they will all succumb to a horrifying illness. Eerie, unsettling, and altogether absurd, this film both is a must-watch and a once-watch – once is enough.
Martyrs
Directed by Pascal Laugier, Martyrs is a quest for spiritual enlightenment spurred on by the depths of human depravity. After escaping from a slaughterhouse where she was held captive for years, teenager Lucie Jurin befriends an orphan girl named Anna – and the pair attempt to rebuild their broken lives. 15 years later, that peace is shattered again when Lucie murders an innocent suburban family before killing herself, leaving a shell shocked Anna to piece together the motive. As Anna investigates, she discovers the family wasn’t so innocent after all, and are part of a shadowy cult that is attempting get a glimpse into the afterlife through the eyes teenagers they kidnap and torture. This movie is 99 minutes of agony, no breaks.
Whiplash
A film so famously stressful it became an internet meme, Damien Chazelle’s Whiplash is the story of Andrew Neiman, a jazz drummer who dreams of becoming one of the greats. In order to make the cut, he’ll have to earn the approval of Terrence Fletcher, a conductor at Shaffer Conservatory know for his abusive teaching methods. Art school graduates be warned, this film is sure to trigger your deepest scholastic traumas – there are few educators crueler than those that teach creative pursuits. Infamous for its “not my tempo” scene, this film is sure to have your heart beating faster than a jazz ensemble going full blast.
Green Room
Another equally stressful music film, Green Room by Jeremy Saulnier is the story of the Ain’t Rights, a DIY punk band on tour in the Pacific Northwest. After getting booked at a neo-Nazi bar, the band makes the applaudable but ill thought out decision to begin their set with a cover of Dead Kennedy’s “Nazi Punks F*ck Off”. The bar’s skinhead patrons aren’t impressed. The atmosphere turns from hostile to homicidal after the band discovers the body of a woman murdered by one of the patrons, leading the bar’s owner to lock them in the green room to dispose of them later. True to their punk rock ethos, the Ain’t Rights refuse to go down without a fight. And what a nasty, brutal, claustrophobic fight it is.
Have a tip we should know? [email protected]
