Top 10 Most Violent Movies

Things are about to get bloody. Welcome to WatchMojo.com, and today we’re counting down our picks for the top 10 violent movies.

For this list, we’re looking at films that chose to show violence onscreen and put a premium on realism and effect. We will be discussing key scenes in many of these films so here’s your SPOILER ALERT. We’re also excluding horror films.

When it was announced that a new film adaptation of the “Judge Dredd” comic strip was set to be produced, many movie fans that recalled the Sylvester Stallone film were less than excited; but comic fans knew something we didn’t. The potential of the property was huge and when the end product was released, “Dredd”’s visual effects and action, enhanced by the graphic violence, appeased many who’d been disgusted by the previous film. Involving a unique idea of showing the violence through the eyes of drug-addled viewers in slow motion lent the sci-fi flick an otherworldly, cool veneer.

Most war movies are inherently violent, but this medieval war drama’s extended battle scenes stepped things up a notch in glorious fashion. Never cutting away to the men in the rear or focusing on the politics behind the death and destruction, the mayhem of the era’s wars that is typically glorified is instead shown in grisly detail in Mel Gibson’s “Braveheart.” The cherry on the top of it all comes in the extended torture and beheading that comes late in the film.

A man and his hammer sure can do a whole lot of damage. As “Oldboy” tells the story of a man consumed by a desire for vengeance, it makes sense that things are going to get a little gruesome. But the level things reach in this Korean neo-noir is both surprising and enthralling. Whether it was the legendary hammer in the hall fight scene or the torture and tooth removal sequence, this film pulled no punches when it came to showcasing action and violence.

It should go without saying that a film depicting the bloody trail of a couple of serial killers was not going to get a PG rating, but the highly stylized violence “Natural Born Killers” still caused much outrage when it was released. Scenes in which murder is given the sitcom treatment, laugh track included, may have been meant as a satire, but by the time a prison riot is shown, we know what’s going on here is no laughing matter.

When Sylvester Stallone brought one of his trademark characters back to life 20 years after he last played the role, the decision was made to go for a grittier, gorier version of John Rambo. We’d seen the titular badass kill plenty of people, but never had he done it in such throat-ripping, disemboweling fashion as he does in the 2008 indie film. Ultimately coming to a crescendo in a .50 caliber M2 machine gun shootout that begins with its first victim being turned to liquefied goo, “Rambo” definitely earned its credentials for our list.

Much of the “Robocop” franchise in the eighties was child-friendly including toys, animated shows and comic books – EXCEPT for the film that started it all, which was the furthest thing from PG. This movie features a man who finds his way into toxic waste and is horribly mutated, only to be hit by a car and instantly pulverized. Even the protagonist meets a gruesome death before he becomes the title character, in a scene which includes his hand and arm being shot off before his entire body is riddled with bullets, all finished off with a final headshot.

Coming out years before “The Hunger Games,” this Japanese action thriller sees a group of youngsters forced to hunt each other to the death, but instead of drama and melodrama, it focuses on the actual games and horror they’d create. This is a world where disrespect by the youth is so out of control that examples had to be made of them, with the worst behaving class being forced to kill or be killed each year. Upping the action by throwing in a few ringers with superior weaponry, you can rest assured nobody will be climbing and hanging out in trees in “Battle Royale.”

Martin Scorsese’s organized crime masterpiece “GoodFellas” definitely incorporated the violence that enforces that world’s rules, but there was one scene in “Casino” that outdid all of the destruction of its predecessor. When the film literally started with a bang, we thought we knew what we were in for. But when a man is later forced to watch his brother be beaten to death with baseball bats, even we were appalled. When he then suffered similar treatment but was allowed to just barely live so he could be buried alive, it sent a shudder down our spines.

When a group of samurai-obsessed professional killers attempts to take out one of their own but doesn’t finish the job, the table is set for a series of escalating stand-offs. In the first of the two films in the series, that was certainly the case, as “Volume I” ends off with a sword fight so brutal and bloody that Quentin Tarantino had to make the scene black and white to get past American film censors. Though several other of the director’s films, like “Reservoir Dogs,” “Inglourious Basterds,” and “Django Unchained” use violence, it was this film that showed it off in perfect Tarantino style.

Before we reveal our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions.
- “Sin City” (2005)
- “Punisher: War Zone” (2008)
- “A Clockwork Orange” (1971)
- “Drive” (2011)
- “A Better Tomorrow” (1986)

Most movies based on the Bible eschew violence and opt instead to bring a sanitized version of the famous stories to celluloid. When Mel Gibson decided to tell the story leading up to Christ’s death, he bucked that trend in what appeared to be an effort to have viewers marinate in it all. Showing a vicious whipping, Jesus’ head being ripped apart by the crown of thorns and ultimately, his gore-filled crucifixion in all its grandeur, this film has more than earned the top spot on our list.

Do you agree with our list? Which movie do you think is the most violent? For more interesting Top 10s published daily, be sure to subscribe to WatchMojo.com.