Released in 1994, there's a reason why Natural Born Killers is considered one of the most controversial films of all time, as it delves into the public's fascination with serial killers and Gorn.
- The deaths of Mallory's parents early in the film. Whereas Mickey drowns her father in the fish tank, which (understandably) she is thrilled by, the two of them then tie her mother to the bed and set her on fire. Her brutal screams don't help and neither does her daughter's embittered last words to her of "you never did anything!"
- The infamous sitcom scene, I Love Mallory, complete with visuals/allusions to molestation and abuse and the horrifying implication that Mallory is her kid brother Kevin's real mother through her own father. This is further supported by after Mickey kills her parents and he was going to kill him, too only for her to stop him and tell Kevin, with genuine sincerity, that he was free.
- Anytime the screen turned green, as the violence would be turned up.
- The prison riot at the end of the film. Made even worse by the fact that it was filmed at an actual prison with real life prisoners.
- One poor sap was caught by a mob of prisoners, and was forced into a washing machine while prisoners laugh in glee as he is tumbled and possibly scalded and drowned to death in the machine drum.
- Another was drenched in cafeteria food, and forced into a large microwave while the prisoner chefs laugh at his predicament. If looked closely you could see his skin being smoked and cooked.
- Another guard is seen being forced into an industrial oven and the hatch being shut on him.
- Both the guards and other prisoners get it rough in this riot. A guard's face is blistered and burned with a press machine while he's being held down, another guard is being strangled with a rope, and another is hanged from a high balcony. As for the prisoners, one is being chased after being identified as a snitch, one is about to be put in a burning barrel, and many are getting their throats slit or faces cut up while forced to sit in barber chairs. That's not even counting many other scenes where both guards and prisoners are being beat to death by pairs of men.
- The cell tower block being held by officers, with one prisoner managing to break through and strangling an officer to death with his own shotgun.
- Just the sheer size of the riot itself. Overcrowding, which was mentioned earlier in the film, plays a big part in this brutal riot, as gargantuan numbers of prisoners break out and raise hell. The design of the prison too, with massive caged off cells and a panopticon area makes it all the more chaotic. One can only imagine the nightmare of SWAT or the National Guard having to bring order inside the prison and get the prisoners under control.
- Wayne Gale's TV crew being taken hostage (and protected) by Mickey as he tries to find Mallory while she's being relentlessly pepper sprayed by Scagnetti in her cell, going through several hallways filled with prisoners attacking both the group and the guards amidst the chaos. It is evidently shown that Wayne Gale is enjoying this, even as his crew is being killed one by one by either the guards or Mickey himself, and by the end he's fully on the couple's side.
- Dwight McCluskey is literally sliced and ripped apart by the baying mob and his severed head impaled on a broom handle. It all happens extremely quickly.
- Many of the random imagery throughout the film is haunting, including a positively creepy shot of talk show host Wayne Gale dressed as the devil, complete with horns, while being drenched in blood (as seen above), another of Ed Wilson's decapitated body still moving around and the infamous image of a rapidly decaying fox's corpse.
- The ending cutscene is no slouch either, which contains a Jump Scare featuring Mickey Knox himself completely covered in blood while the whole disturbing imagery flashes rapidly. Not to mention that the usage of "Burn" by Nine Inch Nails in the original/theatrical cut doesn't make anything better.Note
- Jack Scagnetti brutally strangling a young prostitute without rhyme or reason. It's easily one of the most disturbing scenes in an already highly unsettling film.
- When Mickey and Mallory get married and cut themselves for the ritual of joining their blood to drip into the river below them, we are treated to a horrifyingly bizarre but quick sequence where the blood transforms into two vicious, growling demons just beneath the surface.
- The warden's death. After being trapped behind a cell hall during Mickey and Mallory's escape, him and his guards come face to face with a massive charging army of prisoners. The guards kill many of them, but they eventually catch up and grab hold of the guards, likely raping, beating, or hacking them to death. The warden climbs up the cell bars, and desperately uses his can of mace on the mob, before being grabbed and crowd surfed by them. They use their improvised weapons to hack him to pieces, parading around his limbs and decapitated head.
- Jack visiting Mallory in her cell is already disturbing with her intentionally ramming her face against the barbed wire door when he comes by to the point of drawing blood and knocking herself out (and McClusky blithely saying that she's done that before). After gaining access to her cell, lighting a cigarette for her and talking with her in the hopes of her having a deep down sweet side, she proves that he is very, very wrong. In addition to the slow-no shot of her putting it out with her bare foot,note she beats him up, breaking his nose onscreen in the process and kills him in a bloody shootout, complete with the screen turning red as she does. Also, keep in mind that this is not the last time that Tom Sizemore would be killed in a shootout.
- Wayne at the climax of the film: not only did he have to be a witness (and eventual willing participant) in the deaths of several guards and his filming crew, but his ear is partially ripped off and he is then killed on camera by the couple due to them leaving behind the trademark lone witness: the camera.
- When Scagnetti initially captured the murderous couple. Already sick and delusional from being bitten by several poisonous snakes and engaging in a shootout at the pharmacy where they tried in vain to look for an antidote, it's pretty obvious both of their sanities (and possibly Scagnetti's) was vastly draining. While Mickey ends up being tased multiple times by cops then savagely beaten, Mallory (who was apprehended first and begins to bark like a dog) is flung around by the cop like a wild animal as he threatens repeatedly to cut her breasts off and even uses a knife to slash underneath one of them.note
- The Deleted Scene where Mickey sadistically taunts a traumatized young survivor of the couple's killing spree when she testifies against him and then repeatedly stabs her with a pencil before being restrained.
