10 Horror Movies More Disturbing Than 'Hereditary'

Hereditary upended expectations when it arrived, staking a claim as one of the decade’s most unsettling films and helping define the so‑called “elevated” horror trend that followed The Witch and other A24‑adjacent pictures. Its reputation for relentless grief and shock is well earned, but several other horror films push into equal or darker territory.

Michael Haneke’s Funny Games exists in two versions—the original German 1997 film and his later English remake—and both refuse to let viewers feel comfortable as they methodically torment a family and deconstruct genre tropes. I Saw the Devil, a film a few minutes shy of two and a half hours, sustains a grim intensity throughout as a serial killer is pursued by an agent who responds with escalating cruelty; its visceral violence and realistic depiction of suffering can make it feel even more disturbing than Hereditary.

The Philippou brothers’ Bring Her Back continues their streak of intensely traumatic work, following Talk to Me with an even darker, grimmer entry.

Germany

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