7 edgy R-rated movies for adults only

Humans are strange creatures caught on a never-ending spectrum between love and fear. Pleasure or pain, there’s something intoxicatingly exciting about going beyond the point of safety, venturing where boys (and girls) fear to tread. Entertaining this dark fascination of ours with tales of the morbid, sexual or violent, film enables us to live vicariously through someone else’s pain, pleasure or misfortune.

Being the equivalent of a horror funhouse, these dark dreams and cinematic illusions have an allure, beckoning audiences to come along for the ride only to draw us into titillating and terrifying situations. In this spirit of misadventure, here’s a selection of 7 edgy, provocative and topical movies strictly for adults and mature audiences – now streaming on Showmax.

Habit

Whether it’s Sister Act, Nuns on the Run or The Sound of Music, there’s something so curious about nuns and their secret lives. Habit is the least nun-friendly of the bunch, delivering an edgy, psychedelic misadventure caper set in Los Angeles. When a suburban harem is robbed, it becomes incumbent upon the sex workers to recover the money for their dealer, spawning the idea to “cosplay” nuns with bells and donation buckets.

Starring Bella Thorne as the freakiest of Jesus freaks with a rare supporting performance from Bush’s Gavin Rossdale, Habit looks and behaves like an MTV rock music video from the late 90s. Ranging from surreal high-contrast colour exteriors to dim rooms with enough sacrilegious satire and coarse language to make Marilyn Manson blush, this walk on the wild side is likely to offend with its debauched, whatever-goes thrill ride into oblivion.

Run Hide Fight

Gus van Sant’s controversial yet critically acclaimed film Elephant portrayed a school shooting based on the tragedy at Columbine High School. Almost 20 years later, the United States is still reeling from school shootings, making Run Hide Fight an equally contentious crime drama thriller about an invasion of live-streaming school shooters.

The title “Run Hide Fight” is also the recommended course of action in the event of an active shooting. Following a similar plot line to Die Hard with Hunger Games vibrations, this taut thriller walks a fine line as entertainment and hot topic reality collide. A gritty and gutsy Run Hide Fight outplays itself with solid performances from its young cast, led by Isabel May, Radha Mitchell and Thomas Jane. While not for sensitive viewers, the film attempts to remain respectable without dulling the true terror of a school hostage situation.

No Man of God

Elijah Wood’s piercing blue eyes and career-defining performance as Frodo make him instantly recognisable and give him license to do whatever he pleases. Having played a serial killer in Maniac, his casting as an FBI profiler in the confessional crime drama, No Man of God, is a master stroke.

This two-hander crime drama is based on actual interview transcripts and chronicles the strange, complicated relationship between infamous American serial killer Ted Bundy and interviewer Bill Hagmaier. Recounting his grisly murders whilst detailing Bundy’s creepy celebrity and twisted media sensation, No Man of God builds to Bundy’s fateful last hours before death by electrocution. Blurring the lines, this intimate dramatic portrait features excellent performances from Elijah Wood and Luke Kirby as Ted Bundy in a more grounded take after Zac Efron’s devilishly charming turn in Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile.

Love, Lies and Hybrids

South Africa is a fairly conservative society, which makes it progressive to see nudity and sex in local productions without their becoming a full-fledged sex romp comedy affair in the spirit of Lipstiek Dipstiek. Much like Meisies Wat Fluit, the romance drama Love, Lies and Hybrids shows how things are changing. This SAFTA-nominated film follows the complications arising from a surprise visit from Jessica’s fiance, Daniel, on a mountain cabin retreat with her secret lover, Sophia.

Starring Alexander Maniatis, Shamilla Miller and Meghan Oberholzer (Cut-Out Girls), this handsome and bold cast find themselves in all sorts of trouble as a pesky lover’s triangle crystallises. Steamy sex scenes, crystal pool skinny-dipping and mad streaking, maybe it’s just the fresh mountain air that makes the sensual and unorthodox Love, Lies and Hybrids so preoccupied with nature, human nature and saving the planet? Or maybe the French are really onto something.

Mother!

Darren Aronofsky’s Mother is an unsettling film experience, which, like many of his films, grapples with deep issues. Emboldened by Jennifer Lawrence, Javier Bardem and Ed Harris, this wild horror drama mystery thriller spins a story of intense themes around cannibalism and child sacrifice. While there are several truly disturbing and ultra-violent scenes, Mother isn’t simply an adults-only title for graphic depictions but also in terms of artistic appreciation.

After a wife’s famous poet of a husband welcomes a stranger into their countryside home, things spiral out of control. Aronofsky’s swirling cinematic artwork is difficult to follow and requires audiences to abandon understanding as the parable’s meaning rises from the ashes. It’s not a horror in the traditional sense of the genre but creates a deeply unsettling, possibly even infuriating atmosphere, as the swirling cinematography, dark themes and poetic storytelling challenge and provoke audiences.

The Devil’s Advocate

Before Keanu Reeves played Constantine, he was already battling demons in The Devil’s Advocate. This provocative fantasy horror and  legal drama thriller centres on Kevin Lomax, a promising lawyer who’s headhunted and seduced by the name partner of an international New York law firm. Instead of Wall Street’s Michael Douglas as Gordon Gecko, it’s a devilish Al Pacino (Scarface) as John Milton who takes the young protege under his wing.

As Kevin becomes more enchanted by John’s twisted promises, he starts to put his career ahead of his marriage with catastrophic consequences. A breakout performance from Charlize Theron underscores a quintessential Keanu Reeves performance as well as an entertainingly wicked Al Pacino as the Devil himself. Sex, mistaken identity, psychological torment, voodoo and hellfire, this dark and unsettling gem builds to a Fight Club epic crescendo and ends with a flourish.

By the Gun

Gangster movies have a reputation for being uncompromisingly violent. Whether by discovering a horse’s head in bed or receiving mini coffins of blood via FedEx, their victims know that gangsters have a flair for the grisly and flamboyant. When Harvey Keitel’s involved, it seems even more likely that stuff’s about to go down. This is the case with By the Gun, a crime drama thriller starring Ben Barnes as ambitious Boston guy who struggles to find his purpose once he’s inducted into the mafia.

A slow-burning mob movie about the last days of the Sicilian mob, By the Gun plays it by the book with brutal violence, plenty of profanity, drug use and typical scenes involving a strip club, the boss man and some goon beatdowns. Checking many of the boxes associated with the mafia genre, By the Gun is even more cold-hearted and tougher than most films of its ilk.

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