The 10 most intense movies of all time

If you’re the sort of person who likes to watch lighthearted films for escapism and wholesomeness, then this is not the list for you. However, if you prefer watching a movie that will get the heart pumping, then we think you’ll adore this collection of flicks that will send you so far to the edge of your seat you’ll practically be floating. If you love feeling the adrenaline pump, whether it be thanks to big scares or the horrifying, crushing nature of consequences coming for a character you’ve grown to know and love, then check out our list of the 10 most intense movies of all time!

10. One Hour Photo

Famous funnyman Robin Williams showed off his disturbing side in this unbelievably tense film about a disturbed photo printing worker who becomes obsessed with a family who have their pictures developed at his store. The creep factor is dialled up to eleven throughout, and as Williams interacts with the oblivious victims of his obsession, you’re hooked like a caught fish. The movie devolves alongside his Williams’ character’s mental state, and when reality jars with the picture-perfect vision of the family he’s constructed in his head, we see him unravel in a terrifying way. We’ll be surprised if you have any fingernails left after this one.

9. Get Out

Few films have captured the complex nature of liberal racism as well as Jordan Peele’s phenomenal debut, Get Out. Starring Brit Daniel Kaluuya (with an exceptionally good American accent), the tension starts to build early, with all the classic hallmarks of a horror film, including a dead animal, and a fist-clenching scene involving a Black man being stopped by a cop while a white woman argues with the officer. Though there is comedy sprinkled throughout the film (which makes sense, considering Peele’s history as a sketch show writer and performer), it’s infused with a darkness and uncertainty that perfectly represents what it’s like to be a person of color in an ultra-white world. An explosive ending does leave us on a happy note, although there was an alternative one that Peele chose not to release after the trauma of Trump’s election in 2016, meaning that there is at least some light at the end of the tunnel.

8. Taxi Driver

A film that’s grittier than a building site, Martin Scorsese’s 1976 classic Taxi Driver is a masterclass in keeping you on the edge of your seat. Robert De Niro plays a Vietnam vet who spends his evenings driving around an increasingly depraved New York City as his PTSD and insomnia infuse to destroy his mental state, leading to some truly brutal outcomes. As De Niro’s violent behavior slowly escalates, he starts to become the very things he seems to hate, while also providing us with some of the most iconic shots and lines of all time, including the infamous scene where De Niro’s character talks to himself in a mirror while fantasizing about a scenario in which he’d get to pull his gun on somebody. Smart, violent, and tenser than steel, this film is as enthralling as it is hard to watch.

7. Audition

From Seven Samurai to Rashomon, Japanese film has a long history of making it big in the West, and this dark psychological thriller belongs in that pantheon of great movies from the land of the rising sun. Audition begins with what could be a classic romcom plot: a lonely man pretends to be casting for a film, but is actually on the lookout for a new wife, using the audition process to find a woman who he can spend the rest of his life with. For the first half of the movie, it feels a bit like he’s the villain, lying to these actresses in the hope of finding love, but during one pivotal scene things take a turn for the truly disturbing. From then it’s wall to wall intensity, with fear and panic practically crashing through the screen until a horrific climax. This film will make you never want to talk to a stranger again, because you never know what secrets somebody is hiding.

6. Uncut Gems

The looming threat of violence combines with a stark but realistic portrayal of gambling addiction in this Adam Sandler film that fast became a critical hit. The movie follows a jeweller who is always chasing his next big score, and even as we see him succeed, he can’t seem to help but continue to wager his future on a bigger win. Sandler is genuinely phenomenal in this thriller, and when it came out, the film was a huge reminder that the man has talents beyond the ability to convince Netflix executives to let him and his friends create mediocre films in exotic locations. If you want to feel truly anxious, then Uncut Gems will get you there.

5. No Country for Old Men

Although the Coen Brothers are widely known for the dark comedies, this gripping adaptation of a Cormac McCarthy novel is probably their best movie, and despite its sparse nature, the two hour runtime flies by. Javier Bardem plays one of film’s most iconic and horrifying villains, and alongside his fellow leads (Tommy Lee Jones and Josh Brolin), they turn this story about a man trying to keep a stolen bounty he stumbled across in the desert into an unforgettable piece of cinema. Painfully intense until the last, this epic will both haunt you yet make you wish you could watch it again for the first time.

4. Requiem for a Dream

Depressingly dark doesn’t even begin to cover Requiem for a Dream, a psychological drama that delves into the horrors of addiction in all its forms. Delusion and desperation mark this movie, which veers between beautiful aesthetics and some of the most brutal scenes in all of film history. As our main characters all spiral deeper into their own increasingly disturbed minds, it can feel like there’s no respite to the intensity of it all, and that’s because there really isn’t. If you’re looking for something that will remind you there’s some beauty left in the world, this film is not it.

3. The Thing

Nobody does horror like John Carpenter, and his infamous 1982 classic about a group of isolated researchers deep in the Arctic tundra who come across an ancient alien is one of his best, and probably his most intense. The Thing redefined the horror genre in so many ways it’s almost impossible to truly parse out its legacy, but the way it builds paranoia and suspense is second-to-none. Strangely enough, the film was criticized heavily at the time of its release, but that was likely as a result of the movie’s nihilism and the fact critics simply weren’t ready for something so innovative and intriguing. Thankfully, it’s now earned its place in the pantheon of great thrillers, and that’s why it’s so high on this list.

2. Se7en

There are few scenes as iconic as the dramatic culmination of this thriller about two cops on the hunt for a sadistic serial killer driven by a set of warped morals, so much so that Brad Pitt asking Morgan Freeman “What’s in the box?” is one of the most memorable lines in cinema history. Se7en is so much more than that unforgettable, intense climax though, with tension and intrigue built perfectly throughout. With that all said, there’s no doubt that horrific twist ending is what catapults this briliant film into the sort of territory that earns it a place on this list. A must watch.

1. Alien

Ridely Scott’s 1979 classic is a masterclass in how to make a thriller, and the fantastic premise, script, and production is buoyed by unforgettable performances from a truly talented cast, led by Sigourney Weaver. Following a space crew who come across an abandoned ship, what seems like a simple mission to discover what happened fast turns into one of the most intense hours or so in cinema history. Combining horror, sci-fi, and thrills, Alien still resonates to this day, remaining a timeless masterpiece in how to get an audience gripped.