Film & TV7 min(s) read
Published 17:09 30 Jun 2026 GMT
There are films that push the boundaries of taste, and then there is Men Behind the Sun.
The 1988 Hong Kong horror film has been a fixture on 'most disturbing movie ever made' lists for decades, and for good reason.
It depicts the real-life atrocities committed by Japan's Unit 731 during the Second World War, and it does so using actual human corpses, real body parts, and what the director claims is genuine autopsy footage of a child.
It is not an easy watch, but ultimately it is not supposed to be.
The film, directed by T. F. Mou, tells the story of Unit 731 - a covert biological and chemical weapons research unit operated by the Imperial Japanese Army during the Second Sino-Japanese War.
The unit was based in Pingfang, China, and is estimated to have killed at least 200,000 people through its experiments.
Prisoners were referred to internally as 'logs'.
They were subjected to live vivisections, deliberately infected with bubonic plague, frozen alive, placed in decompression chambers, and used as human targets for weapons testing.
None of it was consensual. None of the victims survived.
The film follows a group of young Japanese soldiers conscripted into the Youth Corps and assigned to the unit.
They befriend a local mute Chinese boy who is later taken by senior medical staff and vivisected.
His organs are harvested for research.
It opens with a caption that reads: "Friendship is friendship; history is history."
The graphic content alone would have been enough to cause outrage.
But the real controversy comes from how that content was created.
Director Mou has confirmed that the film used actual corpses and real human body parts in several scenes.
For a frostbite sequence - in which a woman's arms are frozen and the flesh is then stripped from the bone - Mou's own niece held the arms of a real corpse in sub-zero temperatures to achieve the effect.
The most infamous scene involves the autopsy of the mute boy.
Mou claims that when a local child died in an accident during production, he persuaded the doctors performing the post-mortem to allow him to film it.
The doctors reportedly even dressed in Japanese military uniforms to complete the scene.
The organs shown being removed are said to be from a pig, though given everything else, that distinction offers limited comfort.
Then there is the cat scene.
A cat appears to be thrown into a room full of starving rats and eaten alive.
Mou has given contradictory statements over the years about whether the animal was harmed, initially claiming the cat was merely covered in honey and the rats licked it off, although that has been disputed.
In several countries, yes.
It was banned outright in Australia and required several minutes of mandated cuts before it could be released in the United Kingdom.
It became the first film to receive Hong Kong's equivalent of an NC-17 rating.
In Japan, the reaction was even more severe.
The film caused a public outcry and Mou received death threats.
Japanese critics condemned it as anti-Japanese propaganda, while Hong Kong-based writers argued that its exploitation-film presentation stripped any educational value from the subject matter.
The film has never had an official release in the United States, even after an English dub was produced.
Mou has always maintained that his intention was to make an anti-war film, not an exploitation picture.
He has said that the real experiments carried out at Unit 731 were far worse than anything he depicted on screen, and that his goal was to force audiences to confront what actually happened.
"Friendship is friendship; history is history," the film's opening line reads - and Mou has used that phrase repeatedly to defend his approach.
He wanted to show that historical atrocities should not be softened or sanitised, even when the result is unwatchable.
Not everyone agrees.
Variety dismissed the film as a 'lowbrow exploitationer' that took dramatically potent material and reduced it to 'nauseating sensationalism'.
American horror critics acknowledged the film was horrifying but criticised its writing, narrative structure, and lack of educational merit.
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Men Behind the Sun has never been a mainstream film.
It has not received the kind of lavish Blu-ray or DVD reissue that even the most controversial horror films tend to get after a few decades.
Yet it continues to appear in online discussions about the most disturbing films ever made.
Part of the reason is that the line between fiction and reality is genuinely blurred.
Films like A Serbian Film or Found are extreme, but they are fiction.
Men Behind the Sun is based on documented historical events, uses real human remains, and was made by a director who actively sought out a dead child's body to include in his film.
That puts it in a category of its own.
The other reason is that Unit 731 itself remains relatively unknown in the West.
Japan has never fully acknowledged the extent of what happened at the facility, and unlike Nazi war crimes, the atrocities committed by Unit 731 were largely covered up after the war.
The unit's commander, Shirō Ishii, was granted immunity by the United States in exchange for handing over his research data. He was never prosecuted.
For some viewers, the film - however crude its execution - remains one of the few mainstream depictions of events that deserve to be more widely known.
For others, it is exploitation dressed up as education, a film that uses real death to sell tickets.
Men Behind the Sun spawned three sequels - Unit 731: Laboratory of the Devil (1992), Unit 731: A Narrow Escape (1994), and Black Sun: The Nanking Massacre (1995).
None achieved the same level of notoriety.
Mou continued to defend the original film for the rest of his career.
He has said he does not regret any of the decisions he made during production, including the use of real autopsy footage.
The film remains difficult to find through legitimate channels.
It has no official US release, limited availability in Europe, and is still banned or restricted in several countries.
Yet bootleg copies have circulated online for years, and clips from its most extreme scenes have been shared widely on horror forums and social media.
It is not a film many people will want to watch. But for those who do, it is also not one they are likely to forget.
There are plenty of films that have been banned, censored, or restricted over the years for pushing the limits of what audiences can stomach.
Men Behind the Sun is one of the few where the most disturbing thing about it is that almost all of it actually happened.
3 min(s) read
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1 min(s) read
film & tv4 min(s) read
Published 15:19 03 Jul 2024 GMT
There's a horror movie out there that is so messed up, that you can't legally watch it in a number of countries.
There's something about a movie being banned that makes it even more desirable to watch...
I'll be honest, I am not a horror movie fan because I see no value in spending my down time with sweaty palms and an accelerated heart rate.
That being said, I know that there are millions if not billions of horror movie lovers out there, which is why the genre does so well.
But there's one movie that you probably haven't watched and it's because of how deeply disturbing it is.
The movie in question is Found, which came out in 2012.
When it was initially released, it was banned in places like the UK and Australia and certain scenes that depicted sexual violence had to be cut before it was allowed to be shown to audiences.
The synopsis, as per Letterboxd, reads: "Marty is the ideal fifth grader—he gets good grades, listens to his teachers and doesn’t start trouble in class.
"But a darkness is beginning to fall over Marty’s life, the kids at school won’t stop picking on him, his parents just don’t seem to understand him, and now Marty must grapple with a terrible secret that threatens to destroy life as he knows it - his big brother is a serial killer."
Check out the trailer - Viewer discretion is advised:
One Reddit user took to the forum to express their thoughts on the movie, and when someone on Reddit say's its disturbing, then it probably is.
In their post, the user said: "Found 2012 - Maybe even more disturbing than A Serbian Film. Never thought I'd write those words. And yet, this movie is fantastic. Here's why.
“Unlike A Serbian Film, I think it's actually a good movie. It's shocking, but not merely for the sake of shock. There's nothing wrong with shock for shock's sake, but I've always been a bit miffed at Serbian Film's IMO bulls**t deeper meaning posturing.
"The gore is... intense. I haven't seen this kind of thing outside of the French extreme horror cinema. This film manages to make gore shocking again. As for what makes the film shocking... firstly, there isn't a ton of gore, but the gore that IS shown in the film is gratuitous, graphic, and wonderfully tasteless.
"At the risk of repeating myself, the way the film introduces the gore is ingenious. Amazing. See this movie. I'm blown away. I've seen about forty horror films in the last two or three weeks, and this one beats them all.”
Yikes.
People in the comments echoed these points, as one person said: "I just saw this. Gotta admit, i wasn't ready for it. The last ten minutes that is."
A second added: "Easily one of my favorite horror films this year. Some of the best writing and character development I have seen in the a horror film and the kid actor was just amazing, and normally I do not like kid actors. I can't recommend this enough."
A third person said: "I'm a big fan of this film. I consider it one of the best low budget indie films to be released in the last few years. It truly captures a specific era in my life when I would peruse the horror section of my local video rental place."
For context, A Serbian Film, which the movie was compared to, was the 2010 feature directorial debut of Srđan Spasojević, following a pornstar who is struggling financially and agrees to take part in an 'art film', only to discover that he has been drafted into a snuff film with pedophilic and necrophilic themes.
The film attracted a huge amount of controversy for its depictions of graphic violence and sexual content and was itself banned in many countries, including Australia, Spain, New Zealand, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Norway, and needed compulsory cuts to be released in the UK.
The movie remains known as possibly the most disturbing movie of all time.
Despite the glowing recommendations for Found, I will be giving it a miss.
Will you seeking the movie out?
film & tv3 min(s) read
Published 11:25 09 Sep 2024 GMT
Film fans have reportedly been left 'traumatized' after stumbling across one specific horror film.
Now, for those of us that love coming home after a long day at work and switching on a horror flick, this movie will be sure to leave you satisfied.
Fans who have recently discovered the 2009 horror film, Splice, have been left hiding behind their hands after seeing the story of a young scientific couple, Elsa and Clive, who attempt to introduce human DNA into their work of connecting animal genes.
The brave duo decide to continue on the project, despite the scientific body they work for telling them to end it, which results in the creation of a frightening-looking creature.
While the movie may have originally hit our screens over a decade ago, it seems as though a bunch of people have only just discovered it, which has made it become a hot talking point online.
"Yo have yall ever seen that nasty a** f**ked up movie 'splice' or was it just me traumatized by it," wrote one user while another added: "So they put Splice on Canadian Netflix and idk why they decided to let that traumatic ass movie available for all."
A third also had a similar reaction writing: "Splice is the weirdest f****** movie I’ve ever seen."
A fourth spilled some more details about the movie writing: "SPLICE 2009 brings up a lot of interesting topics about the dangers of DNA altering, and the stupid horniness of humans!"
And this person said that they were "disturbed for life" after watching the movie saying: "Just watched Splice, I am disturbed for life.
Fans might be loving the movie, but what did critics at the time have to say?
Well, it seems as as though the storyline couldn't completely convince critics, but Peter Bradshaw from The Guardian gave it an average three stars.
"Vincenzo Natali, director of the cult 1997 mystery Cube, has confected a bizarre black-comic horror, a cross-breed mutant Frankenfilm with bits of Ridley Scott's Alien, David Cronenberg's The Fly and David Lynch's Eraserhead," Bradshaw wrote.
"It's also an entertaining and cheerfully subversive satire on corporate ambition, and on the consequences of suppressing one's sex drive in favour of one's work drive."
Hilariously, Bradshaw also described the appearances of the mutant creatures as "enormous leathery, yet slimy, scrotum, with a mouth that looks like the aperture of a penis. Euuw."
Roger Ebert also had a similar opinion to that of Bradshaw, also giving it a three-star review.
Though Ebert said he wished that some of the character's persona's were more "developed", he did write: "The film, alas, stays resolutely concerned with human problems. The relationship. The corporation. The preordained climax... All the same, it's well done, and intriguing."
film & tv4 min(s) read
Published 09:39 19 Sep 2025 GMT
A horror film that's been described as so "disturbing" that a renowned filmmaker reportedly hurled the DVD out the window is now available to stream.
Audition, a Japanese psychological horror from director Takashi Miike, has long held a reputation as one of the most unsettling films ever made.
First released in 1999, it tells the story of Shigeharu, a lonely widower who, with help from a friend in the movie industry, stages a fake casting call to secretly search for a new wife.
But when he becomes enamored with the mysterious and soft-spoken Asami, he sets in motion a chain of events far more horrific than he could ever imagine.
Played by Ryo Ishibashi and Eihi Shiina respectively, Shigeharu and Asami’s disturbing relationship takes a brutal turn after it’s revealed that Asami’s backstory doesn’t quite add up. Though she claims to be a former ballerina sidelined by injury, every reference she provides turns out to be either untraceable or dead.
Legendary critic Mark Kermode recalled the film’s impact, telling Express: “By the end of the screening I was hiding behind the seat in front of me cowering in terror.”
Kermode even recounted the extreme reaction of director Ken Russell, who “watched half of the movie before throwing the disc out of the window and demanding to know what the hell I was doing bringing something so frightful into his home".
Still, Kermode named it his top pick of the year, and its award-winning debut at the Rotterdam Film Festival sparked intense debate.
As he described, critics were “divided between those who viewed it as a misogynist nightmare and those who embraced it as a feminist revenge allegory with teeth".
The movie scored an 83% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a 7.1/10 score on IMDB.
The Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw called the film a “stomach-turning masterpiece,” describing its protagonist as a woman “bent on punishing typically Japanese male arrogance, but also self-pity and incipient masochism.”
Stephanie Archer of Film Inquiry described Audition as “a slow burner of a horror, an almost perfect example of a frog in boiling water," while Carolyn Hands of JoySauce.com admitted: "A film I’ve seen once and I’m not sure I’ll ever see again because it’s so effectively disturbing, which is exactly what you want with a horror film. I’ve never looked at piano wire the same way again."
Anna-Maria Ninnas, writing for Medium, penned in her review that "Audition has been critiqued as both misogynistic due to [Shigeharu's] motivations, as well as feminist due to Asami’s inevitable revenge on the man who wronged her".
"In actuality, it’s neither: there’s a much deeper underlying commentary addressing Japanese women’s evolution from their ‘traditional’ selves," she continued. "The book, in fact, punishes men for the unreal standards set to Japanese women, romanticising an oppressive, patriarchal past.
"Meanwhile, the film is about the source of that ‘longing’ for the ‘traditional’ woman, which is the underlying belief that Japanese culture dies with the empowerment of women, thus the trend of demonizing women in J-horror,” she concluded.
Viewers have also chimed in on social media to share their stunned opinions after watching the horror flick.
According to Daily Star, one person summed it up best: “Might just hold the crown as the most disturbing film I’ve ever seen… as it takes you for a loop by presenting what looks to be this very by-the-numbers romantic dramedy only to pull the rug from underneath and deliver a deeply terrifying and sadistic tale of how someone is not who they seem to be.”
More than two decades later, Audition still lingers in the minds of those who’ve seen it - and now it’s easier than ever to experience the terror firsthand.
The film is available to stream on Amazon Prime (with a premium add-on), YouTube, Google Play, and Apple TV.
film & tv3 min(s) read
Published 12:40 14 Nov 2025 GMT
One of the ‘most depressing and scary films ever made’ which has only been shown on mainstream TV a handful of times, is now available for all to watch.
Doesn’t that fill you with joy?
Seriously though, if watching grim tales of post-apocalyptic hellscapes is your thing, we can only recommend this classic to you.
Picture the scene - a world beset by the threat of another horrific and life-consuming world war, constantly peering towards the skies in fear of the threat of nuclear conflict.
Sounds a world away from where we are currently, doesn’t it?
No, we’re not talking about World War Three, saber-rattling between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, the ongoing and potentially escalating conflict in Ukraine, or even ‘rocket man’ Kim Jong-Un’s North Korean nuclear ambitions.
We’re talking about a film set in the British city of Sheffield in the 1980s.
Rather aptly, a film that came out in 1984.
Threads is a seriously grim tale. Credit: BBC
It’s called Threads, and it’s been nightmare fuel to many since it was released.
Sure, it’s an important watch, but it’s one that you're probably only going to want to watch once.
It stars Reece Dinsdale and Karen Meagher as a couple who are expecting a baby, but end up having their plans somewhat altered after a global thermonuclear war breaks out between the USA and the Soviet Union.
Don’t you just hate when that happens?
The film shows the full aftermath of the nuclear attack in grim detail, from the initial blast that kills most people in the country, to the fallout that leaves many wishing they had been killed.
It was first broadcast on the BBC in 1984, and again a year later, but then it wasn’t shown for another 18 years.
After that, it was 21 further years until it was shown again, this time for the 40th anniversary of the film itself.
If you’re in the UK, you can stream the film on BBC iPlayer, or - if you're outside the UK - it’s available in full on YouTube.
It tells the sad story of a nuclear war. Credit: BBC
It’s grim, it’s altogether too close to a world that could exist for us soon, but it’s ultimately a classic for a reason, and an important watch.
So, if you’re stuck for something to watch this weekend, why not sit yourself down in front of Threads and count your lucky stars we don’t live in that terrible timeline.
Yet, anyway.
film & tv1 min(s) read
Published 17:34 19 Dec 2019 GMT
If you're looking for a Netflix flick that will keep you at the edge of your seat in the most disturbing sense of the phrase, then you might want to watch the new true-crime documentary Don't F*** With Cats.
It's a three-part docuseries that reveals in all their horrifying detail the crimes of Canadian killer Luka Magnotta, who filmed himself torturing and killing animals before posting the footage online in 2010.
Watch the trailer for the true-crime documentary below:
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As the good people of the internet tried to bring him to justice, little did they know that he was planning even more heinous acts. After the brutal torture and killing of animals, he found a human victim on a dating website, Chinese student Jun Lin, who he murdered and dismembered.
He was eventually brought to justice by authorities in an internet café in Berlin where he had been looking at pictures of himself on Interpol.
Reactions to the series on social media have been mixed, to say the least.
One viewer wrote on Twitter: "If you need a f***ed up Netflix documentary to watch then Don't F*** With Cats is the one for you."
Another said: "BE WARNED before watching. I had to close my eyes & I almost threw up & I can handle watching a lot."
A third wrote: "Don't F*** With Cats is one of the most disturbing yet brilliant murder documentaries on Netflix right now!!! I was hooked from start to finish!"
A fourth warned: "Holy s*** Don't F*** With Cats on Netflix is literally the scariest s*** I've ever seen. Actual nightmare fuel."
According to social media, some viewers actually found the documentary so disturbing that the had to switch it off a few minutes after watching, so it's almost certainly not for the faint-hearted.
Director Mark Lewis - the man behind Silk Road: Drugs, Death And The Dark Web - said of the series: "What is so mind-blowing for me about this documentary series is that it plays out like a real thriller."
He continued saying that the series has "twists and turns that no-one will see coming, a cast of internet heroes whose resourcefulness will have you cheering from the sidelines, and a murderer whose true identity will have you gasping when he is finally unmasked."
The series is available to watch on Netflix now.
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