Badmovies.org Forum

What is the most violent movie of all time? I'm not necessarily talking about the bloodiest or the goriest or the one with the highest body count. I'm talking about a movie that is violent right to the core. A movie that has an overall "tone" of violence. Maybe it is "in your face" physical violence. Maybe it is a threat of violence. Maybe it is psychological violence. Maybe it is verbal violence. Who knows?

What is your opinion?

Many people have called THE WILD BUNCH one of the most violent movies of all time. I think they are referring not only to the on-screen killings, but also the overall "feel" of the movie. It is full of violent characters who live in violent surroundings. They all know that they are living lives that will ultimately lead to violent deaths.

Then there is I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE. Certainly not as graphic as many other movies of its type, but the overall tone of gloom and depression give it an extremely violent "feel."

THE WARRIORS was controversial because it caused gang fights and killings in many theaters that screened it. I find the violence in this movie to be more cartoonish than threatening, but the fact remains that it stirred up a lot of attention during its original theatrical run.

LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT is another movie that falls into the "graphic violence plus overall violent tone" category.

Let's compile a list of some others . . .

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Road Warrior
Death Race 2000

This is all depends on how you look at it... Evil Dead, The Thing, and Dead Calm were in your face with violence after the first 20 mins. But those movies are very different.

Natural Born Killers
Pulp Fiction

Cannibal Ferox and Cannibal Holocaust are obviously pretty gritty.  Last House and I Spit are both definitely good examples, too.  I think Last House, although slightly less graphic in its overall depiction, is more effective at times because of the focusing on some of the small things, like the piece of Weasle's dick that Estelle spits into the pond and especially the closeup on Krug's face as he drools on Mari's cheek when he rapes her.  Nasty f**kin' stuff.

Brother R

Some of my favorite movies with a violent "feel", although not an abundance of on screen violence are movies like "Night of the Hunter" and "Crossfire". They just had a kind of ominous-ness(is that a word?) about them throughout. And Night of the Hunter had some violent scenes , though not much gore.

Scarface - I now have  a trigger lock on my chainsaw.

A Clockwork Orange
Tetsuo
Dead Alive (aka Braindead)
Reservoir Dogs

Leave it to the best American, and one crazy Japanese directors to make the most violent movies. Tarantino is pretty much world renowned for his super-violent movies, and Kubrick-- well, Kubrick has the "ultra-violent."

Scottie

CUTTHROATS 9 - an extremely violent spaghetti western.

Any of the LONE WOLF AND CUB series of film, especially the later ones. Not just because of the body counts but the casual attitude toward violence and death. The trio of burrowing assassins, who kill anyone Ogami Itto and his son come in contact with to isolate them so they will be easier to kill, come to mind. SHOGUN ASSASSIN might qualify since it's the first two films edited together, mostly the fight scenes with a bare minimum of plot and characterization.

DEMONS 1 & 2 - Just because everyone is zombie bait, they barely even bother to give them names, and the hopelessness of the victims' situation. Trapped in a building (theater or apartment high-rise) with killer zombies who infect anyone they bite. They have no real way to get out, most of the people have no idea what caused the zombie outbreak, much less how to stop it or save themselves. New characters are only introduced to refresh the zombie bait supply, not to advance the plot any (the punk kids in the first film). The people in the basement gym in the second film don't even get real names; they are established early in the film only to be forgotten until it's time for a massacre in the garage.

I think the most violent movies I've ever seen (using my untrustworthy memory) are
I Spit on Your Grave
Dawn of the Dead
Evil Dead Trilogy
Gangs of New York
Clockwork Orange

I'm sure there are others, but that's all I can remember

American History X. Though not violent through and through, the violence and the vibe of hate in the film gave it that "'tone' of violence" . . . The murder on the curb still pops unwelcome into my head now and then.

A kid near where I went to high school was actually put into critical condition when some local jock morons decided they didn't like him and wanted to try out that curb stomp thing.  Why is such violence never directed at the people who deserve it?

Brother R

Oh my god. 'curb stomping' is insane. I can't think of going through such an ordeal. No one deserves something like that. It boggles the mind that such wanton violence is going on in the world. its crazyness.

I think Riki-Oh: Story of ricky is pretty violent. But kind of over the top like Dead Alive almost. But still insanely gory.

Fantasy Mission Force isn't too bad, but seemed like a pretty violent one to me. Pretty much everyone but Jackie Chan and his girl get massacred at the end. Even the generals are 'left for dead' as it would be at the end.

> Fantasy Mission Force isn't too bad, but seemed like a pretty
> violent one to me. Pretty much everyone but Jackie Chan and
> his girl get massacred at the end. Even the generals are
> 'left for dead' as it would be at the end.

Yes, but it is what I like to call "hyper-action shooting" deaths.  Mostly little fireworks kicking up dust at people's feet, while they do full backflips in the air to reflect being shot.

I would have to say "The Care Bears Movie"....oh my god!!! those little creatures scare the livin' s**t out of me....all the violence they unleashed on the world...oh god!!! the humanity!!!!

violence jack (is this a movie or just a programme?)
Legend of the overfiend.
true romance
the punisher
any film with the word zombie or massacre in the title

Ichi the Killer

I recently got this on DVD and it was amazingly violent throughout. There are some OTT gore scenes which are just funny, but some scenes like where the main guy saws his own tongue off and the torture scenes are just unpleasant. A near perfect movie.

I'd say for out-and-out bang-bang violence, you can't beat "Hard Boiled" (tho' "The Killer" and "A Bullet in the Head" run it close).  It starts with a gun battle, finishes with a gun battle and most of the in-between consists of gun battles.  Plus "The Wild Bunch", which begins with the kind of shoot-out  most Westerns ended with, and finishes with a bloodbath reminiscent of WW1.

For the culture of violence, I nominate "Goodfellas" and "Casino", both because of the Joe Pesci characters - you never know what will set him off, or when, or why.

I've read in The Guinness Book Of World Records that the most violent film of all time was "Red Dawn".  

Keep in mind that I read that several years ago (early 1990's) and it's more than likely been topped by another newer film.

Do any of you also remember reading that in the Guinness Book Of World Records?


As for my opinion.....without a doubt.....

"DEAD ALIVE"!!!!!!!!!!!!

(A.K.A. BRAINDEAD)

Although I like Red Dawn I don't see how it could be anywhere near the tops for violence

half of the movie they just sit around crying

And how can we forget about FUNNY GAMES, which is not tremendously graphic, but is one of the most psychologically violent movies I have seen.

I also purchased BATTLE ROYALE recently, which is violent as well as being surprisingly good (two BIG thumbs up from me).

And how can we forget the MEN BEHIND THE SUN movies from Korea? Talk about some disturbing torture scenes. These movies contain particularly nasty scenes of disembowelment, skin removal and other things that will make the hair on the back of your neck stand on end.

Some of the movies mentioned in this forum are extremely violent, but the violence is too cartoonish to be disturbing. DEAD ALIVE and EVIL DEAD are certainly non-stop splatter-fests, but the movies are more comical than they are disturbing.

The combination of psychologically disturbing violence and physical violence is what really gets to you.

I've read in The Guinness Book Of World Records that the most violent film of all time was "Red Dawn".

Keep in mind that I read that several years ago (early 1990's) and it's more than likely been topped by another newer film.

Do any of you also remember reading that in the Guinness Book Of World Records?

By what record??? Because Godfather, Taxi Driver, Dawn of the Dead, Evil Dead, Hollween, Bonnie and Clyde, The Wild Bunch to name a few are far more violent then "Red Dawn"... Also Red Dawn was one of the first PG-13 movies...

As for RED DAWN, are you sure they are talikng about the one with Patrick Swayze? There may be another movie (possibly, a foreign film) with the same titles.

My film class thinks that Amores Perros  is one of the most violent movies we've watched.  I guess the dog fights were tooo much.

Saw "Red Dawn" ages ago, and didn't found it really violent. My personal vote would be for "The wild bunch", not only for the body count, but because many of the deaths are also psicologically violent, such as the people at the demonstration that are caught in middle fire at the beginning or the children soldiers that take part in the final battle. Not to mention one of the main characters having its throat cut. Ew!

As for Red Dawn I think it got that distinction for the number of violent acts in the movie or something like that. Yeah it's PG-13 but it also set a body count record when it was released(but was blown to smithereens by Hard Boiled).

As for most violent movie:
Just about anything with Beat Takeshi
Bullet In The Head
American History X
Eastern Condors
Pedicab Driver has some brutal scenes in it

I consider DEAD ALIVE and the EVIL DEAD flicks to be more gory than violent.  I  agree with Burgomaster.

The all-time champ will probably always be THE WILD BUNCH for me,   BONNIE AND CLYDE and NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD were also important in their portrayals of violence.  

The opening sequence of SAVING PRIVATE RYAN deserves a mention as well.  

In terms of pure nihilism, CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST wins the title, though SALO is a close second.

I found Indian Jones & the Temple of Doom to be more violent than Red Dawn, I think it was the reason PG-13 was invented, because, um, shoot, what's the director's name, couldn't have an "R" movie, so the MPAA gave it a PG.

From Dusk to Dawn was also pretty violent, especially after they crossed the border.

Unforgiven, while not out of the ordinary violent, did strip away any glamor or humor in violence.  A Bridge to Far has a lot of violence in it, as befitting a movie about a WWII battle.

Nobody here mentioned "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly" . . .
For sheer body-count, I don't see anyone else's posting here matching this film . . .
In any case, I walked out of "The Valachi Papers" (1975?), with Charles Bronson, as the single most pointlessly violent film I'd ever seen.
Yikes!
peter johnson

A year ago my answer would be Bad Taste and perhaps Braindead (Dead Alive). Now I have seen Chinese Torture Chamber (thanks goodness some parts were funny) and especially I Spit On Your Grave, and I have to reevaluate the Peter Jackson's masterpieces - they seem almost peaceful and humanistic in comparison...

Papk wrote: "Now I have seen Chinese Torture Chamber"

Whoa, I thought I was the only one stupid enough to sit through that piece of crap. But more than the torture scene, what has carved a confortable lair in my brain is the scene where those two warriors f**k in mid-air. That was a thousand times funnier than "Hidden tiger, crouching Dragon", even without the silly dialogue and sound effects.