These Lesser Known Notorious Movies Got BANNED For Horrifying Sex Scenes And Disturbing Imagery, You Can Watch Them On…
Films banned for graphic or disturbing content include Last Tango in Paris, which a Bologna court prohibited for its “obscene material offensive to public morals” and its appeal to base sexual urges.
The 1998 movie Happiness was criticized for depicting pedophilia and received an NC-17 rating. Other films, such as Romance, featured unsimulated sex scenes, while the horror movie Cannibal Ferox was banned in the UK due to its extreme gore and unsettling visuals.
Here are the top 7 movies that got banned for horrifying sex scenes and disturbing imagery:
Last Tango in Paris (1972)
A dark comedy criticized for its explicit scenes, resulting in bans in multiple countries. The film includes a controversial sequence where Paul simulates anally raping Jeanne with butter as a lubricant. Although the scene was staged, Schneider revealed it deeply affected her. In a 2006 interview, she explained that the butter wasn’t originally scripted and that she reacted with intense anger when she learned about it.
Happiness (1998)
The film sparked controversy for its exploration of dark and disturbing themes, especially its depiction of pedophilia, and was assigned an NC-17 rating. Sundance Film Festival declined to screen it, citing its offensive content. October Films, the original distributor and financier, faced pressure from its parent company Seagram, which opposed the film’s storyline and pulled it from distribution. According to Lynn Hirschberg of *The New York Times Magazine*, Universal Pictures CEO Ronald Meyer personally intervened to prevent the film’s release, with Solondz later saying Meyer viewed it as “morally objectionable.”
Romance (1999)
A schoolteacher, dissatisfied with the lack of intimacy in her relationship, engages in a series of casual sexual encounters to fulfill her desires. In 2024, Ducey released her autobiographical book *La Prédation (nom féminin)*, or *The Predation (Feminine Noun)*, where she details the traumatic sexual assault she experienced during filming particularly the staircase assault scene for which she holds director Breillat accountable.
Cannibal Ferox (1981)
Anthropologist Professor Harold Monroe leads his team into a remote Colombian jungle to search for missing documentary filmmakers. Upon its release, the film’s US distributor promoted it as “the most violent film ever made.” It was also reportedly banned in 31 countries, though this claim is questionable.
Pink Flamingos (1972)
A grotesque, overweight woman (Divine) and her eccentric family compete against a Baltimore couple (David Lochary, Mink Stole) to earn the title of the filthiest people alive. *Pink Flamingos* is infamous for its outrageous content, explicit nudity, profanity, and its embrace of absurdity, scatology, and distorted perspectives. The film includes a series of increasingly shocking scenes featuring exhibitionism, voyeurism, sodomy, masturbation, gluttony, vomiting, rape, incest, murder, animal cruelty, cannibalism, zoophilia, castration, and foot fetishism.
Cannibal Holocaust (1980)
Cannibal Holocaust gained infamy for its extreme violence, which sparked widespread controversy. Following its Italian premiere, a local magistrate ordered the film to be confiscated. Created during the era of Italian exploitation films centered on cannibalism, the movie was inspired by media reports on Red Brigades terrorism.
A Serbian Film (2010)
A Serbian Film is a 2010 Serbian exploitation horror thriller, marking Srđan Spasojević’s directorial debut, with co-writing by Aleksandar Radivojević. The story follows a financially desperate porn actor who agrees to star in an “art film,” only to find himself trapped in a snuff film involving pedophilia and necrophilia. The film has been banned in multiple countries, including the Philippines, Ireland, China, New Zealand, Australia, Malaysia, and Norway, and was temporarily prohibited from screening in Brazil and Spain.
