10 Most Tasteless Movies of All Time, Ranked

What’s wild is that Peter Jackson’s Bad Taste isn’t even one of the most tasteless movies ever made. It’s pretty damn tasteless, but even he topped it for tastelessness with the likes of Meet the Feebles and Dead Alive… and those don’t push things quite as far as the following movies. How is that possible, you might ask? Well, are you an Arctic Monkey, because do you wanna know?

Seriously, maybe you don’t. This ranking won’t go too far with the graphic detail regarding the truly nasty things that happen (things have to be kept PG/PG-13 here, in article land), but if you check any of these movies out, you will see more graphic detail of certain, uh, things than you might ordinarily want to. These movies are all quite shocking/gross/provocative, and some are those things in good ways, while others are those things in bad ways. Bad taste or tastelessness is complicated, after all, as movies definable as such can be good, or bad, or somewhere in between, or just plain hard to assess quality-wise in general.

10

‘Begotten’ (1989)

Directed by E. Elias Merhige

There’s a sense of not quite knowing where to begin, when it comes to describing certain provocative films, and that’s certainly the case with the infamous Begotten. This is definitely an arthouse horror movie, but it’s also more than just that, and weirder than just that, because Begotten is extreme in content and extra abrasive in presentation.

It’s got some religious thing going on, but there’s also no dialogue, so lots of it’s up to one’s own interpretation. And maybe you can interpret Begotten if you’re not also looking away from the screen because of all the violent and disturbing imagery on offer. It’s challenging to get through in so many ways, and maybe it’s a little like shock for the sake of being shocking, but there is something striking about parts of it, too. It’s not one that easily leaves your memory, once watched.

9

‘Hostel’ (2005)

Directed by Eli Roth

Unlike Begotten, Hostel is quite easy to describe, but it’s also a little harder to work out why it was made. It’s one of those tasteless in a not-good-way kind of movies, because it’s just all about torture and depravity with little else going on that feels insightful or scary beyond the shallow notion of “Wow, isn’t this gnarly and gross?”

And it is gnarly and gross, and it’s painful to watch (the R-rated cut is surprisingly just R-rated), but there’s not much beyond that. It’s like Saw, but less psychologically interesting, and without as much of the wonderfully nonsensical soap opera-like plots of the sequels to that movie. Hostel is, instead, seemingly just designed to leave a bad taste in one’s mouth, and if that doesn’t make it a bad taste kind of movie, then what else could?

8

‘Spetters’ (1980)

Directed by Paul Verhoeven

Since most Paul Verhoeven movies that have shocking content have a clear reason for being shocking or in-your-face, it feels a little difficult to call them tasteless. Maybe they have moments of questionable taste, and perhaps they don’t have to go as far as they do, but often, his movies are, if anything, a little too obvious. So that makes Spetters kind of interesting.

This feels like provocation for reasons that are a bit hard to discern, beyond a simple message regarding young people being angry and alienated. It’s a film that wallows in misery while being very nasty and kind of mean-spirited, and the sense of aggression and desperation is a bit hard to work out. There’s passion to Spetters, at least, and some might find it interesting and daring, but others might well consider it to be a little too much, even by Verhoeven’s standards.

7

‘Gozu’ (2003)

Directed by Takashi Miike

Takashi Miike is no stranger to horror and taboo subject matter, often combining scares with gross-out moments to great effect… and sometimes not-so-great effect. But Miike is prolific and churns through the directing process, it seems, and that makes some of his missteps a little easier to forgive. But when he hits, he hits, and Gozu is mostly a hit, when approached with a little knowledge of what you’re in for.

It feels a bit like an attempt, on Takashi Miike’s part, to make something even weirder and grosser than usual, but he balances the discomfort with absurdism and some very dark humor in Gozu that makes it a bit easier to swallow. It’s still pretty damn tasteless, but the fact it’s also playful at times (again, in a very dark way) helps… or maybe, viewed another way, it makes the more horror-focused stuff even more nauseating. In the end, your mileage may vary.

6

‘Caligula’ (1979)

Directed by Tinto Brass

A film about the titular Roman emperor making a huge mess out of things, Caligula might well have to be a bit depraved to work, or have some kind of historical accuracy, but more lines were crossed here than anticipated. The lengths it goes to depends on the cut of the film you watch, and there are a bunch, so that’s worth noting.

It’s a film about extremes, depravity, and excess, and the film does succeed in being those things to perhaps too great an extent. Caligula is overwhelming and aggressively shocking, at least in some iterations, which can make it difficult to talk about and also quite hard to recommend. It’s something, alright. Of all the epics out there, this is undoubtedly one of the strangest, and perhaps the most extreme, too.

5

‘Baise-moi’ (2000)

Directed by Virginie Despentes, Coralie Trinh Thi

Baise-moi really wants to shock you, and it probably will, but whether it’s shocking in a good way or a bad way… eh. That’s more complicated. You can look at the whole thing as trying to say something in an aggressive and punk sort of way, and tackling difficult subject matter without pulling any punches, and maybe admire it for that, or you could see Baise-moi as emptier and maybe even kind of exploitative.

The plot here is simple and extreme, enough so that summarizing it would go out of that aforementioned PG/PG-13 territory, but it deals with in-your-face sex and violence, and sexual violence, too. It’s uncompromising, and that’s something both the film’s defenders and detractors could probably agree upon, but whether it’s bad taste for the sake of bad taste? That’s up to you, if you feel like subjecting yourself to something very upsetting.

4

‘Cannibal Holocaust’ (1980)

Directed by Ruggero Deodato

Functioning as a forward-thinking satire of the media, if you’re a fan, or just crass exploitation, if you’re not, Cannibal Holocaust has a reputation that precedes it. It’s one of the most gruesome movies ever made, and it felt that way 40+ years ago while also feeling that way now, with so many of the more shocking scenes here still having the power to disturb and nauseate.

It’s critical of certain things that deserve to be criticized, but then Cannibal Holocaust does also cross other boundaries it perhaps didn’t need to in order to make the points it (probably) wanted to make. That makes it feel at least a little tasteless, but some of the content here can be defended or at least understood as something more than just pure shock value. Anyway, everything you’ve heard about it is true, and there’s good reason why it’s one of the most frequently banned horror movies out there.

3

‘Pink Flamingos’ (1972)

Directed by John Waters

You can’t talk about movies that indulge in bad taste without a mention of John Waters, with his early films being especially shocking and provocative. Tastelessness is sometimes the reason for certain movies of his existing in the first place, demonstrated best of all by Pink Flamingos, which has a central character (played by Divine) who wants to be the grossest and most crass person in the world, essentially.

And so grossness and crassness ensue, with the film more than earning its NC-17 rating, even by today’s standards. The tagline to Pink Flamingos – “An exercise in poor taste” – says it all, really. It’s about as shocking as a movie made in the 1970s could possibly be without moving away from what was understood as a proper “film,” and that Pink Flamingos is still effective with its gross-out comedy by today’s standards is quite impressive.

2

‘Sweet Movie’ (1974)

Directed by Dušan Makavejev

Sweet Movie is a lot to take in; possibly too much. It’s the kind of thing where what it’s trying to say might go over your head, while what it shows you on a visual front might well embed itself in your head and never leave, even if you would like it to. It’s a very sexually explicit movie, and in a way that’s truly uncomfortable and willing to be especially taboo.

And that’s about all that can be said. Even by sicko movie standards, this is really sick, and not really sickly sweet, either, despite the name; just sick. Sweet Movie is brazen, in-your-face, and more than willing to stir up controversy, and it would probably be more controversial if it weren’t also relatively obscure. Maybe it’s best for it to stay kind of hidden, since it’s probably just a bit much for most.

1

‘Taxidermia’ (2006)

Directed by György Pálfi

There are three stories told across three generations found in Taxidermia, and all are uncomfortable and gross in differing ways. There are things in this movie that, once seen, cannot be unseen. There are all sorts of bodily fluids, weird sexual behaviors, and gruesome images found throughout, all with some kind of purpose (be it satirical or reflecting something from history), but even then, it’s a lot to take in.

It’s a maximalist kind of gross-out movie, and it might well be as gross as a movie has ever gotten while still feeling – for the most part – like it’s probably a good movie. It’s hard to praise something like Taxidermia wholeheartedly, or say it’s great from top to bottom, but it’s daring and does feel like it’s a little more than just tastelessness… though, yeah, it’s still very tasteless. It’s overwhelming, in other words, but the sort of thing those with strong stomachs should probably check out at some point.

NEXT: Perfect War Movies With Complex Storytelling, Ranked