Hey friends! If you want to do this tier ranking yourself here is the template: tiermaker.com/create/disturbing-horror-films-tier-ranking-1139987 00:00 Welcome to the Disturbing Horror Tier List 00:28 How I picked the films 01:37 The Tiers Explained 03:44 The ranking begins Can't wait to see the comments, keep in mind this is all in good fun and to spark discussion. Also, just a correction Ichi the Killer is categorised as a Horror Action on Wiki but not IMdB

Barbarian is too goofy to be even slightly disturbing for me

I see a thumbnail with Martyrs, I click.

Emma just casually dropping a new catch phrase: "That's just horror, baby". Love it! Also, nice to see some love for the movie Tusk! :)

the disturbing but camp category is sending me with only human centipede and tusk in it. 😭I love the video as always though Emma. Thank you for doing what you do. 💖

I watched the remake of I Spit On Your Grave when I was in middle school. I was always into horror, and my step dad read me an article about how the lead actress was traumatized by making the movie, and he thought that was so cool. I cried while watching it and never looked at my step dad the same again. YUCK.

Tusk disturbed me in ways I was not prepared for and I’m not sorry! Nothing about Justin Long “screaming” after discovering what’s been done to him was funny to me lol. I was EXTREMELY uncomfortable during the walrus scenes. To me, the idea of waking up and finding someone turned you into something completely unnatural is the scariest thing ever!!

When you said Human Centipede is an "acquired taste" I nearly choked on my lunch ! LOL

This is, by far, my favorite tier list I’ve seen on any channel. I also agree with at least a majority of all the rankings. Nicely done! Sincerely. A disturbing movie fanatic

I wouldn't unsubscribe if I was subscribed before. Quite the contrary: this was the first video I watched from your channel and immediately subscribed. Loved this list!

Midsommar is one of the most intensely disturbing movies I’ve ever watched just on a personal level. The intensity of the pain of losing someone close to you. And the lack of any direction or motivation coupled with the extreme effects of the substances used. I feel like I am reliving a moment in my life watching that movie.

I frickin love this list and of the ones I’ve seen (and I’ve seen most of these) I would rank them similarly. With the exception of Midsommar & Hereditary, none of these films would be among my favourites, but man do I remember them. They leave marks. Thank you for mentioning Resurrection, it’s so brilliant. Thank you for this incredible list. Not only am I not unsubscribing, I’m doubling down on my Patreon membership level. Thank you for this gift to the horror community.

i want to see a video where you take all the movies you have rated high for scare score, overall, and originality. broken out by category! think that would be so fun to see a look back

This was such a thoughtful and interesting watch. Keep up the great work 👏👏👏

I adore your videos and channel! The second Human Centipede is something else. The black and white does something extra to my brain and that was definitely a one time watch for me.

Great job putting these disturbing lists together, Emma. Sorry it took me so long to actually watch the video, but I had to find the time to just watch and enjoy it. I had many thoughts about some of your choices, but most of them were in agreement. I did make the observation that when it comes to films I would own and/or recommend compared to films I wouldn't watch again or recommend, the lists would be flipped around. I agree that "Sinister" is just horror, though my own experience in seeing it for the first time had external traumatic elements. All three films from the 1970's (The Exorcist, The Last House On The Left, and I Spit On Your Grave) were all disturbing when I first saw them decades ago, but not so much now, especially when compared to more recent films. "Martyrs" is truly traumatizing, and I have you to thank for the original recommendation years ago. 😉

I heard about Megan is Missing in my sophomore year in high school and watched it by myself at night under the impression that it was a documentary, not a movie 💀

Such a fun video. Great seeing a lot of my favorite films up there, and a couple for me to check out!

I'm so glad this popped up in my recommended videos! Great tier list, and I'm glad someone else feels that Midsommar is cathartic. Looking forward to checking out more of your videos :)

I love how our own experiences inform what we find scary vs traumatizing vs disturbing. Hereditary is way more disturbing and traumatic for me (the toxic family dynamics hit my worst triggers) than my husband. The Exorcist traumatized me horribly because I was eight or nine when I watched it. I grew up in central Kansas, so I have some serious religious trauma. My mom's second husband was a religious nut, so he used it to point out why the occult would lead to possession. Legitimately could not sleep for a month and had nightmares.

Not me answering to you every time a movie gets ranked hahaa I literally found myself having a conversation with you lol Love this longer video! I hope there will be more down the line!

i honestly thought the camp but disturbing tier was created specifically for the terrifier films so i was a bit surprised to see neither of them in that tier. 2 especially feels out of place in that top row but thats just my personal read on it. Fun vid overall! Enjoyed hearing your reasoning and found a lot of films i might want to check out

Great video, Emma! This truly highlights how traumatizing, disturbing content is subjective in so many ways - what might be sensitive to one person may not be to another, yet there are universal truths on what is wrong, disturbing just by being human. I agree with Midsommar - the parts that stick with me are actually more about the emotional resonances and how great a movie it is, less about the “disturbing” scenes. “My sleepovers are really fun” 😂

Really good video, loved the way you actually discussed your opinions on each film

Thank you for putting the time to rank all those films, it was fun! I saw deadgirl at a movie festival (not horror weirdly) and I walked out early though I'm not easily disturbed usually... And I only recently saw Tusk, I completely agree with where you put it, it's delightfully camp !

This is so crazy, I just had a nightmare about Eden Lake. That ending really stayed with me. I would love more disturbing tier lists!! Maybe a tier of most disturbing true crime films? Definitely Girl Next Door or American Crime or anything about Sylvia Likens. Edit: Im so sorry Emma I wrote this before finishing the video and did not know Girl Next Door would be on here!!

Just found your channel from this vid - agree with almost all and was so happy to find someone who also found Human Centipede 1 and Tusk camp! My friends thought I was crazy for giggling in them lol. Love from a fellow Aussie ❤

I like trying to find new disturbing horror films and tier lists. This will be awesome!

I watched Found per your recommendation a long time ago, and wow it really stuck with me. It still finds ways to creep into my mind sometimes. So glad to see it in the tier list! Thank you for all of your disturbing recommendations

just found your channel and i love it!

I was wondering, do you have a video of a collection of disturbing TV shows? I could've missed it. Really enjoy watching your content!!:)

Another great video Emma😊 love tier ranking videos!

Thank you for doing a tier list of a different kind! The Exorsist stayed with me, but I saw it when I was young. Also some of the scenes in Sinister flash before my eyes from time to time 😂 Thank you for a fun video!

I love this exercise, well done. You being a fan if the Human Centipede, I would be very curious to know your point of view on The Onania Club... the infamous Tom Six movie that "never found distribution" because it is so extreme. He actually made a documentary about it? Such a weird and mysterious story and wondering if we will ever see it.

was so fun to hear your reasoning! and we agree on a lot: sometimes "that's just horror" lol -- hope y'all are having a great trip! 🌴

Emma wades into the brown bloody mud once again. This is where your courage shines through... Or is it obsession? One reason I will never watch the Human Centipede films, though I have no problems with Martyrs or other truly traumatizing films, is because you have actors forced to be strapped to each other mouth to ass. I know there is some kind of cloth material there. But these are real actors actually being humiliated, so even though I could watch it I can't morally get away with it because it crosses the line between fiction and reality and treats the actors, literally, like shit; same with A Serbian Film. Now having said that, I think Salo should have been here as A Truly Traumatizing. (This film has an extremely dark, but genuine message.) I consider it a total horror film. The sub-genre is Cabal Horror (which I will soon do a video on). Cabal Horror essentially is the larger group version of psycho killers, but often with political overtones and no genuine supernatural elements. Examples: Kill List, Conspiracy Theory (mockumentary), the Menu, etc. I think The Woman is actually a fascinating film with a real message. And Polly Macintosh does an incredible job of acting. Lucky McKee (May) is underrated. The film is asking about what has happened to humanity that often the 'normal people' (by 21st Century standards) are more evil than the brutally savage woman living in a state of total degradation. This is based on several cases like Oksana the Russian dog girl, and Genie the feral girl who was locked in an empty room until she was 12, as well as other feral children and people. I was so impressed by this film that I wrote three essays called The Feral Life about the dream of returning to nature and wildness. The one most specifically dealing with this film is called The Feral Life #3: The Reality of the Feral Child. (Google it.) You wanted someone to defend The Woman here it is. Thanks again for dealing with this grime Emma.

Great list! I love so many of these movies, with Terrifier 2 being my favorite movie of all time (as evidenced by my pfp lol). I was a little shocked to see it go in S tier. I would’ve put it in B personally as I felt like it went really over top to an almost comical level with the gore (punctuated by David’s incredible humor as Art during some scenes). Definitely didn’t disturb me as much as something like Martyrs or I Spit on Your Grave, but that could also be my own desensitization coming in. I’m a big gorehound and like super over the top gore in particular. In something like Martyrs, it was more the oppressively nihilistic tone, couple with the more grounded violence that really disturbed me. That felt like a lot of word vomit, but anyway, this list was a great watch and you have earned yourself a sub :) Edit: I also think you’re 100% right about the missed humor in the 1st and 3rd Human Centipede movies.

Thanks as always. More stuff to add to my watch list.

Excellent (even if disturbing) stuff! Keep up the awesome work on your channel ❤

Thoroughly enjoyed the video and its length, yes, thank you! And "Martyrs" is gonna stay with me forever. And it's worth it. Truly unforgettable, heartbreaking and unpredictable in a way (an in another way completely predictable which doesn't make it any worse).

Great list. I will say that the achilles scene in Hostel has stuck with me to this day. I can't shake it!

Just found your channel and yes finished this video. How do you not have more subscribers!! 💗💗💗🙏🏽

One of my favorite of your vids, this was fun, love your takes

mother has always stuck with me. the anxiety i got from it

The only disturbing movie that I never finished is Salo. There was something about I just couldn’t stomach, and I sat through A Serbian Film. Eden Lake just made me so freaking angry cause I’ve been around people like the horrible ones in that movie. It was too real.

I really appreciate how you made this content without spoilers.

Yes. I would love a second part to this tier list !!

The American film 'Piercing' is from a novel by the same author as 'Audition', & has a similar reversal of roles. Disturbing? Certainly disconcerting. And yes, I would like you to do a similar video on disturbing non-horror dramas.

Emma this is outstanding. Hearing your mind pour out about the efficacy of disturbing horror is insightful and fascinating. So bummed I didn’t participate. I wonder where you would have put my pic of “Little Deaths.” I shudder everyone I think about it. And so cool I’m just gonna go ahead and avoid that S tier forever. Ok thanks!

Awesome list Emma!!!!! Bravo 👏

That was a good watch Emma ! Thanks for the in depth tier listing. Time has certainly mellowed the impact of The Exorcist as it is really scary but not exploitative & it's really well Directed by William Friedkin & the two priests are fascinating characters.

Human centipede is my guilty pleasure. The fact that Tom Six pitched this and made 3 is absolutely hilarious 😂

Great video! Would you be able to make your own horror movie iceberg? I know that’s sort of similar to what you did in this video but I’d be curious to know how you’d rank your most disturbing watches!

Great list! I keep hearing people talk about this new movie The Coffee Table. Wonder where that will fall in your rankings

More tier lists please 😊.

39:33 did we watch the right movie

So glad I found you! Great presentation style & very informative as well! By the by, do you think THE SADNESS has replay value…I’m considering a 4k purchase .

i agree with almost all of your placements (and you are SO RIGHT in saying that "human centipede" 1 & 3 and "tusk" are funny! i always think of them as horror/comedy or at least horror/dark comedy). i think the only placements i would've done differently would be to put "the sadness" and "human centipede 2" in A and "speak no evil" in F. so for me this was a very satisfying list, and i think your reasoning behind your placements made a lot of sense consistently :>

Yes! I think I agreed with pretty much all of them! ‘Climax’ is one of my favourite movies and that often gets brought up in lists of most disturbing horror which I don’t really get. I don’t really see it as a horror movie and I also don’t really find it that disturbing, just trippy, and maybe I’m weird but I kind of see it as having somewhat of a happy ending, despite a few deaths and traumatic injuries! 😂

You have the erm dubious honor of being in a piers Morgan video! Briefly but i still did the leo pointing meme 😂

thanks emma....love this tier list post !

Please do more tier lists! Theyre all the rage now and definitley are my favorite.

A Serbian Film man, that is probably the only film I’ve ever seen that I would absolutely never watch again! Not for anything or anyone 🤢 Love this kinda video, it’s interesting to see what you think of films like Eden Lake or Martyrs which I honestly find a pretty fun watch lol

The only film I'd put on S tier is Requiem for a Dream.

Sup y'all. Love the channel by the way. You sure do have a ton of videos. I dont see how you have the time to watch horror films all day and this too. Plus all the other everyday things in life we gotta do. Anyways, I don't know if you got it on here or not cause I haven't seen all your videos but there is a horror film I do recommend you try. It is however an older film. Was probably made in the 80s but I could be wrong. If not the 80s definitely in the 90s. But it's a film that definitely gets my teeth grinding every time I've watched it. I mean that literally. Before I say what it is, anyone that is going through the painful process of having a cavity, please don't watch this. You will not be able to get through it. I promise, if you do more power to ya but anyway here it is....It's called "The Dentist" 1 and 2 Very good horror movie. I promise it's definitely worth watching. Hope y'all like it. You too Red. Your very pretty by the way! ❤

Great list! Maybe you could do an updated version of a tier list like this for scare factor as well! - unless it hasnt changed since 2022

I remember in my youth how much Texas Chainsaw, Last House on the Left and Evil Dead just terrified me. Now in my 60’s it seems nothing scares me being a massive horror fan and watching for years. I wish could get that kind of scared again

A tier list is really smart for your channel. Watch as over time the viewership pile on.

Great video! This was different from other tier lists. I imagine it was hard to place them because it’s not your standard ranking based on preference or quality. I have watched the majority of these films and agree with your placements and rationale. In reference of the cheesy music in Last. Fun fact, The Road Leads to Nowhere song is also in the original Cabin Fever! I would also add The Eyes of My Mother to this list. I thought that movie was pretty disturbing. Fun video!!

Fun list! It looks like I am mostly in the C, D, F range of movies of movies I have seen and enjoyed. And I've added some to my list, thanks.

I'm surprized Salo didn't make your list.

My friend and I cut off Terrifier during 'that' scene with the woman. That's one horror series I don't think I care to go back to.

your Midsommar rating was spot on to me! I feel like I need to revisit Speak No Evil because it didn't stick with me at all and I hardly remember it 😅 The Woman is an absolutely harrowing watch... i found it to be sort of new french extremity adjacent but of course not as smart (american... after all). I loved this idea for a video!~ Stay safe and stay spooky, Emma!

I love how you describe your reasoning for these - you absolutely justify all your choices, and honestly I agreed with most of them. I loved Excision so I smiled when that came up.

I'm gonna be real with you, I would have put Terrifier 1 higher on the list. I feel like "that scene" stuck with me so bad that I won't even ask my wife to watch it with me, despite it being one of my favorite "horror for the sake of horror" films. It's just incredibly mean spirited, and if you look at all of the other "incidents" in the movie, they're all honestly quite brutal as well, despite having a weird sort of dark camp to them. Terrifier 2... well... I felt like it read like it was "trying" a lot harder to be shocking. The first had this self aware B movie quality to it that made you feel like it was kind of feeding into the sort of weird dark perversions that make those schlocky horror movies sell, where the sequel just felt way too performative, if that makes sense. There was no real shock there, it was sort of just like "ooh wow, here's Art and we know he's going to try to one-up the first film because of what this is", when the first one was just like "oh holy sh*t, stop" when that scene hits. I think putting 2 where you did makes sense, because it's sort of just shock for the sake of shock, but I think 1 was a little worse than you might have given it credit for, and that's as a dude with every movie on this list marked as watched, and a couple thousand others. It gave me the ick so damn bad compared to the others you've got on the E tier. 'Course that's just one opinion. Great list!

I feel like saying a serbian film has an actual message is an excuse to talk about slop. Anyone can just say "i made this movie to fight censorship" about any movie and a ton of edgelords will be on board automatically. Its literally the epitome of shock value trash

Once you got to the Human Centipede films I immediately thought of the song "Red Flags" lol. That song is just hilarious.

I would definitely watch if you continue these !

Where is Salo, Or 120 Days of Sodom ? How do you leave it out of your list ? You also left out August Underground and The Poughkeepsie Tapes.

I was surprised Irreversible didn't make the cut ! Would've loved to see where it would've landed. I'd put Hereditary, Midsommar and mother! in the "Extremely Disturbing But Camp" tier 😭 For Midsommar i found the relational aspects extremely disturbing - especially the main group.. especially the main relationship. For mother! it was the overall unnervingness as you put it - and the callousness of some scenes but mostly the unnervingness - and the over the top nature of the film's progression and the alleged allegories/metaphors kinda makes it camp to me. I think Sinister could be promoted to D-tier bc of the lawnmower scene but otherwise it makes sense in F-tier.

I have serious disagreements with a lot of these but I still enjoy this. Keep 'em coming!

im so glad i came across your channel, fellow aussie

I recommend you to watch Grotesque (2009), Funny games (1997 or 2007)

Little surprised we don't see Trauma (2017 - Chile) mentioned more on these lists. It's as taboo and messed up as A Serbian Film, it's just not anywhere near as good. It's more mean spirited and tonally confused which makes it a hard watch (like how you mentioned the last house on the left soundtrack being completely the wrong mood, and more than that with last house on the left you have the goofy cop duo side story that's meant to be comedic... eurgh!!! Not the time Wes!)

Enjoyed this video Emma! Sorry for running on so much.

Love the video. Agree with a lot of your rankings (though I haven't seen most of the movies in your S tier, they're just not what I tend to look for in my horror watching). Biggest places where we diverge are Inside (I would say I was Truly Traumatized by this film, just because I found the bleakness of it unrelenting), and the Terrifier movies. I think I'd put T1 as disturbing but campy, and put T2 where you had the first one. The scene with the girl in the house is mean spirited and vile, but the introduction of Sienna and her story provide a balance I think the first film was missing, making it clearer that Art is the villain and not someone the movie is glorifying in the way it seemed like the first one and the shorts all did, and if you turned that one scene into a more conventional kill it'd be in that Hostel range of the more brutal end of "Just a Horror Movie." Great content, though...liked & subscribed, and (far more importantly) followed on Letterboxd.

A Serbian Film falls in disturbing but camp for me. Yeah it's horrific but it's so over the top it that it winds up becoming a bit of a rollercoaster ride. Similar to the Sadness

Love martyrs to

Great video... there's a few on here I haven't seen (*gulp*). BTW, I love your accent and the way you pronounce "Hosst-el" 🤭🤗

Interesting ranking. You've seen a lot more than I have. I might have included Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (for that one scene, basically) and Kill List.

the queen of recommendations FR

Love this format, feels like a reflection of the channel’s “greatest hits”-a disturbing tier list video would be dope! 🤘

I really agree with your ratings. You’ve put a lot of thought into it . ❤

Okay, I'm gonna start Heartbreak High cause I love teen angst shows. Always love these videos. I wait for them each month. Thanks again!

I love it, thanks Emma! :)

Iirc Ichi the killer was a manga and it’s so cool to see a manga adaptation make a list like this. As a fan of horror and anime/manga it’s really hard finding good horror from that medium that hits everything I want from it. Also hereditary legitimately keeps me up at night. I always find myself making that tongue click when I’m in that sweet spot of being just about to fall asleep but can totally be abruptly forced to stay up for another couple of hours.

Here I am seeing where Martyrs, Requiem for A Dream and A Serbian Film rank. Awesome video!

Great video! I really like your rankings. I would love to know what you think of 'Starry Eyes', 'Teeth', 'American Mary', and 'Undocumented' You may have talked about these in another video and I missed it

Excellent video - let's me know what films to avoid. I have seen some, but only one made me angry and that was, 'Eden Lake.' I was so invested in the woman's struggle to survive, and I found her becoming an admirable and sympathetic character. The last scene totally destroyed it for me. I have a vivid imagination and could imagine what would happen to her. Unfortunately, I can't forget that scene and will never watch the movie again. Well made films have, I think, the ability to disturb us much more because of their quality than some bargain basement slasher with a ridiculous plot and cardboard characters. Anyway, a fun and interesting forty minutes. Your tier videos are wonderful.

Quite well thought out, articulate & valid points all around...well done💯 My only difference in opinion leans towards Eden Lake being just a good horror movie, and not disturbing to the point it stays with someone & Terrifier 2 not being ranked tierS but overall a great video🙂