Thirteen Taboo Movies
For all of my taboo movie loving friends this list of thirteen movies has been curated just for you!
This is a follow up to my most popular article here on Medium, which is 13 Erotic and or Kinky Movies. This time, I decided to put together a list of movies that are a bit edgier and deal with taboo topics. I have seen most of the movies on this list however, there are a few that I have not seen yet. So, here you go…enjoy!
1. Lolita — This1997 film (there is also one from 1962 as well) is about a middle-aged male professor, Humbert, who rents a room in the house of the widow Charlotte Haze and becomes sexually attracted to her adolescent daughter Dolores, also called “Lo” or “Lolita”.
2. Harold & Maude — is a 1971 American coming-of-age dark comedy. It incorporates elements of dark humor and existentialist drama. The plot revolves around the exploits of a young man in his early 20’s named Harold Chasen who is intrigued with death. Harold drifts away from the life that his detached mother prescribes for him, and slowly develops a strong friendship, and eventually a romantic relationship, with a 79-year-old woman named Maude. Maude is a Nazi concentration camp survivor, who teaches Harold about the importance of living life to its fullest and that life is the most precious gift of all.
3. Flowers in the Attic — is a 1987 American psychological horror film (there is also a 2014 remake of this movie) Its plot follows four children who, after the death of their father, are held captive in the attic of their abusive grandmother’s sprawling Massachusetts estate by their cruel and manipulative mother. It is based on V.C. Andrews 1979 novel of the same name. Also, just a heads up, the story deals with an underlying theme of incest.
4. Angel Heart — is a 1987 American neo-noir psychological horror film and an adaptation of William Hjortsberg’s 1978 novel Falling Angel. Harry Angel, New York City private investigator, is hired to solve the disappearance of a man known as Johnny Favorite. His investigation takes him to New Orleans, where he becomes embroiled in a series of brutal murders. This movie also deals with an incestuous situation as well.
5. The Graduate — is a 1967 American romantic comedy-drama based on the 1963 novel of the same name by Charles Webb, who wrote it shortly after graduating from Williams College. The film tells the story of 21-year-old Benjamin Braddock, a recent college graduate with no well-defined aim in life. Benjamin begins an affair with an older married woman, Mrs. Robinson, and then becomes obsessed with her daughter Elaine.
6. Brokeback Mountain — is a 2005 American Neo-Western romantic drama, in this heart-wrenching cowboy romance is quite simply one of the most astonishing tales of forbidden love. Jack and Ennis spend their time together in the Wyoming mountains during the summer and develop a very passionate sexual and emotional relationship with each other. They are portrayed as outcasts, and they live in a cruel, judgmental world where feelings and desires are repressed. The film beautifully captures the angst, the verve, the passion and pain of love.
7. Pretty Baby — is a 1978 American historical drama film. The plot focuses on Violet a 12-year-old prostitute in the red-light district of New Orleans soon after the turn of the 20th century.
8. Perfume: Story of a Murderer — is a 2006 period psychological thriller film which is based on Patrick Susskind’s 1985 novel Perfume. Set in 18th Century France, the film tells the story of Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, an olfactory genius, and his homicidal quest for the perfect scent.
9. The Lover — is a 1992 romantic drama film based on the semi-autobiographical 1984 novel by Marguerite Duras, the film details the illicit affair between a teenage French girl and a wealthy Chinese man in 1929 French Indochina.
10. Voyeur — in this 2017 American documentary film, journalism icon Gay Talese reports on Gerald Foos, the owner of a motel in Aurora, Colorado who allegedly secretly watched his guests with the aid of specially designed ceiling vents, peering from an “observation platform” he built in the motel’s attic.
11. The Reader — is a 2008 romantic drama film which is based the 1995 German novel of the same name by Bernard Schlink. The film tells the story of Michael Berg, a German lawyer who, as a 15-year-old in 1958, who has a sexual relationship with an older woman, Hanna Schmitz. She disappears only to resurface years later as one of the defendants in a war crimes trial stemming from her actions as a guard at a Nazi concentration camp. Michael realizes that Hanna is keeping a personal secret she believes is worse than her Nazi past — a secret which, if revealed, could help her at the trial.
12. Crash — NC-17 Drama 1996 — not to be confused with 2004 movie with the same name (which has nothing to do with the 1996 movie). Crash is a Canadian erotic psychological thriller based on J.G. Ballard’s 1973 novel of the same name. It follows a film producer that becomes involved with a group of symphorophiliacs who are sexually aroused by car crashes.
13. A Clockwork Orange — is a 1971 dystopian, crime film based on Anthony Burgess’s 1962 novel by the same name. It employs disturbing, violent images to comment on psychiatry, juvenile delinquency, youth gangs, and other social, political, and economic subjects in a dystopian near-future Britain. Alex, the central character, is a charismatic, antisocial delinquent whose interests include classical music (especially Beethoven), committing rape, theft and what is termed “ultra-violence”. He leads a small gang of thugs, Pete, Georgie, and Dim, whom he calls his droogs (from the Russian word друг, “friend”, “buddy”).
Now, whip up a huge bowl of hot buttered popcorn, then get a beverage and go watch a movie!
