Does anyone ever watch hard-hitting action movies, where guys take the worst beatings imaginably yet somehow walk away without a scratch? Seems to happen a lot, right? On some level, action can’t be too realistic. If movies were 100% honest, then most would probably be boring. Real life tends to be far less exciting than it is on-screen. That’s why most people love movies: as a way to live out the things they want to see in life.
But perhaps one dials the realism up just a bit to maintain the action movie insanity while adding a dash of practicality. The result: pulse-pounding thrills and buckets upon buckets of blood. So much blood that a movie can easily be confused with a horror flick. The movies on this list are enough to keep one on the edge of their seats, but also make them turn away in disgust because there is no way to miss every bone-crunching, brow-splitting, red mist-spraying head-exploding moment. Here are the top 10 bloodiest action movies ever made to satisfy that bloodlust.
10 The Night Comes for Us
Here’s an Indonesian action flick that painted Netflix in a new shade of red. The Night Comes for Us follows Ito, a Triad enforcer who leaves behind his crew and station to protect an orphaned little girl. To get the both of them out of town, Ito turns to some old friends for help. However, it’s his closest that leads the man-hunt for him and the girl. He isn’t afraid of burning those he once loved to take Ito’s spot, and he will send as many men as he needs to complete his goal.
The Night Comes For Us is an excellent blending of superb fight choreography and gore as Ito and friends carve through wave after wave of goons to protect young Raina and make it out alive. For some, it can be hard to follow the action when there are bodies being sliced open and pulverized at every turn, but the madness is all part of the fun. This movie is what Mortal Kombat 2021 should have been, which is why that movie isn’t on the list.
9 Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky
In the year 2021, Ricky is spending 10 years in prison for murdering the crime lord that killed his girlfriend. It was justice, but it was only the start of Ricky’s bloody journey. In a futuristic prison, the inmates are routinely tortured and murdered by the corrupt guards. However, Ricky refuses to take the abuse lying down and fights back the only way he knows how: blood, guts, and destroyed human bodies.
It’s a wonder that Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky is not talked about more today. Just like many of the films on this list, Riki-Oh leaves realism at the door in the wake of brutal kills and buckets of blood as he fights his way through the prison by literally destroying people with his bare hands. Want to see heads exploding from a punch? How about a climactic final battle with a meat grinder? This film is a must.
8 Rambo (2008)
Remember when the Rambo series was about the mistreatment of Vietnam War veterans? Those were much cleaner times. However, Sylvester Stallone was quick to toss that aside in exchange for John Rambo destroying waves of goons in a bloody fashion. Rambo (2008) was no different as the film sees a retired Rambo called back into action to escort Christian missionaries through Burma to liberate oppressed locals. As expected, said missionaries captured themselves, forcing the retired vet to get his hands dirty once more to save them.
Some have easily dubbed this movie the most violent film produced, and it’s not hard to see why. Not only does it see Rambo tearing through the Burmese army with his bare hands, knives, arrows, and a massive machine gun, but there are also brutal acts against innocent men, women, and children, just to show how evil the enemy is. Rambo isn’t the best in the franchise by a long shot, and for many, it can be pretty tough to sit through. It’s one of the films on this list that borders more so on horror just in terms of violence, with the action almost taking a back seat.
7 Dredd (2012)
Dredd (2012) is one of the few occasions where the remake surpasses the original film. Not only that, but it also looks just like the comic source material. In Mega City, crime is judged by officers who act as judge, jury, and executioner, the best among them being Judge Dredd. Tasked with evaluating a recruit named Anderson, the two infiltrate the 200-story complex of Ma-Ma, a ruthless crime lord marketing a drug that distorts time. The two will stop at nothing to end her run at the top, and she’ll do whatever it takes to make sure the two judges never see the light of day again.
An underappreciated action classic, Dredd features brutal action in slow-motion, detailing every wound as it’s inflicted in gory detail. The producers of this film wanted their audience to feel and see everything, and they delivered in spades. For those who didn’t like the Stallone-led original (and there were many), this film satisfied every bloodthirsty need that was expected. It’s a shame that it never got a sequel. But in the modern film industry, never say never.
6 Upgrade
Here’s a movie that took everyone by surprise, and like The Night Comes For Us, also borders on being a horror movie, only it toes the line a little more closely. Upgrade follows Grey Trace, an auto-mechanic whose wife is killed in a vicious attack that leaves Grey paralyzed. Grey gets a second chance at life with a chip that returns the use of his body, but it also gives him a shot at revenge. STEM is the ultimate tool for justice, but does it come with too much power?
This neo-noir mystery thriller goes from zero to 100 once STEM gets introduced. Upgrade isn’t a heavily action-packed movie, focusing more on the story than the fist fights, but when things turn up, they get bloody. STEM aids Grey in finding the truth of his wife’s murder while also using any means necessary to keep him alive. The gory violence that ensues should come as no surprise, though. The film is written and directed by one of the minds behind Saw, which may also explain the film’s ending.
5 RoboCop
One of the most iconic action films of the 1980s also happens to be one of the most brutal. Peter Weller stars as police officer Alex Murphy, a dedicated cop who finds his life torn to shreds one day when he is literally and quite graphically blown to smithereens by a band of ruthless criminals. He should have died, but he’s unexpectedly given a new lease on life when transformed into a cybernetic law enforcement machine. The corporation that turned him into RoboCop thought they could control him. Instead, they created their worst nightmare.
RoboCopboasts some amazing gore and action. Weller’s character is horrendously destroyed in the movie’s first half, only to return and do some good damage himself. The film has no shortage of bloodshed. One of the most famous scenes involves a would-be rapist getting shot in the groin. Oddly enough, this movie came with a toy line marketed to children. It’s safe to say that the 80s were wild.
4 The Raid: Redemption
Heavily regarded as one of the best action movies ever made, The Raid: Redemption is relentless. Rama leaves behind his pregnant wife on a fateful morning to take part in a covert raid on an apartment complex run by the gang leader crime lord Tama Riyadi. With over 30 officers, the operation has every reason to succeed. Unfortunately, their enemy was waiting for them, and it was not long before bodies start to drop on every floor. Rama probably could leave, but too much is at stake for him personally, and at least 100 goons after his head.
In terms of engaging fight choreography and lengthy fights, no movie beats The Raid. Each fight includes graphic violence and deaths, and the entire movie plays out like a video game, taking the viewers from floor to floor. Neither the action nor the bloodshed ever lets up. It’s almost a horror movie with a dark aesthetic and sheer level of carnage. The sequel is equally good, but it doesn’t go quite as hard as the one that set it up for success.
3 Battle Royale
Here’s the movie that at one time was said to have inspired The Hunger Games. Battle Royale sees 42 schoolchildren forced by a totalitarian government to face one another to death in a bloody free-for-all, where only one can remain. The cast of well-developed characters is given weapons at random to use against one another, and there is no backing out. Failure to participate will see them die via the explosive collars around their necks. Horrific in all the ways one would expect, Battle Royale is a Japanese classic that still holds up.
With sheer violence and bloodshed against children, this film may come closer than any other on this list to be a full-on horror movie. With 42 bodies to spare, victims die in all manner of ways. From blades, blunt objects, poison, and even guns, blood flows in waves. And just like RoboCop, there is even a guy who gets shot in the genitals. Imagine Hunger Games, but for adults. This movie has all the violence one could hope for in such a barbaric competition and a lot less mercy.
2 Logan
Emotional, action-packed, and surprisingly brutal, the final chapter of Wolverine was an instant classic from the moment it hit theaters. In Logan, everyone’s favorite clawed mutant hero is staring down the end of the line. The X-Men are gone, as are most of the world’s mutants, and Logan isn’t as strong as he used to be. He spends the remainder of his existence caring for an aged and withered Charles Xavier and dying slowly himself. All that changes when a girl with similar abilities to his own is thrust into his care to protect from mercenaries. It’s the last ride of one of the most famous superheroes in the modern generation, and he isn’t going down without a fight.
With this movie, fans were elated to know they were going to get the carnage they always wanted, and it delivered violence in spades, along with a tear-jerking goodbye to The X-Man. Who would have thought that a bloody superhero movie would also be so moving? Anyone who hasn’t seen this masterpiece from James Mangold is missing out. It doesn’t get nearly the credit it deserves.
1 Kill Bill Vol. 1
Everyone knows this famous Quentin Tarantino movie. When an Assassin only known as The Bride is betrayed by her would-be husband and seemingly killed. She returns from beyond the grave and sets forth on a journey for revenge against those who tried to end her. Number one on her kill list is the man who initiated her bloody quest. The Bride will cut through anyone who gets in her way, whether it be ninjas, gunmen, or even her old friends.
Tarantino has always featured perverse extreme violence in all his films, but Kill Bill Vol. 1 is by far his goriest movie. If one is looking for graphic realism, one will not find it here. Blood shoots every which way like lawn sprinklers, painting entire rooms. The movie is good fun, though. The scene where the Bride faces off against the Crazy 88 at the clubhouse of O-Ren Ishii is considered thegoriest non-horror sceneever put to the screen as Uma Thurman cuts down 88 goons to get to Ishii. This movie doesn’t border too close to horror, but the bloodshed alone may be enough to turn away the squeamish.
This story originally appeared on Movieweb
