16 Creepy Incest Movies We Can't Help but Be Fascinated By

Admit it, you just can't look away from these taboo onscreen relationships. Incest — be it between siblings, cousins, step-family members, or parents with sons and daughters — is one of those icky subject matters we just can't help but be fascinated by. And it's been portrayed in films more than a few times. If you're curious, here are some of the most memorable examples of incestuous relationships in movies.

01
Flowers in the Attic
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Flowers in the Attic

Siblings Chris and Cathy, the product of incest themselves, begin an incestuous relationship due in large part to being locked in an attic together (as they went through puberty) by their evil grandmother in the 1987 film based on the 1979 novel by V. C. Andrews.

02
Cruel Intentions
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Cruel Intentions

Hyper-sexualized step-siblings Kathryn and Sebastian make a wager that involves sleeping together in this high school-set 1999 adaption of the 1782 novel Les Liaisons Dangereuses by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos.

03
Tadpole
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Tadpole

Fifteen-year-old Oscar falls in love with his stepmother, Eve, played by Sigourney Weaver, in this 2002 film.

04
The Dreamers
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The Dreamers

In this steamy Paris-set 2003 film, twins Théo and Isabelle sleep naked together, and it's insinuated that their relationship is sexual, especially as American exchange student Matthew enters the mix.

05
Savage Grace
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Savage Grace

Julianne Moore stars as Barbara Baekeland, a mother who attempts to cure her gay son, Antony, played by Eddie Redmayne, by seducing him in this 2007 drama based on real events. (There's even a super creepy threesome scene.)

06
The Ballad of Jack and Rose
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The Ballad of Jack and Rose

Daniel Day-Lewis stars as a single dad who doesn't realize his isolated existence with his daughter has resulted in her becoming infatuated with him in this 2005 drama.

07
My Mother (Ma Mère)
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My Mother (Ma Mère)

A promiscuous widow and her 17-year-old son begin an incestuous relationship in this 2004 French-Austrian-Portuguese-Spanish film.

08
Clueless
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Clueless

In the very loose '90s adaption of Emma, Cher ends up with Josh, her ex-stepbrother, which is only sort of weird.

09
The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones
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The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones

In the 2013 Canadian-German sci-fi film based on the first book of Cassandra Clare's The Mortal Instruments series, demon fighters Clary and Jace fall in love over a series of life-and-death encounters, only to discover too late that they are actually siblings. Despite lots of kissing and other un-sibling like behavior, they have to figure out how to be together without actually . . . being together. (Spoiler alert: they later find out they aren't actually related . . . not that this fact stopped them from majorly making out).

10
August: Osage County
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August: Osage County

In the 2013 drama based on a Pulitzer Prize-winning play, cousins Little Charles and Ivy are secretly in love with each other before it comes out that they are actually brother and sister.

11
Star Wars: Episode IV — A New Hope
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Star Wars: Episode IV — A New Hope

Princess Leia and Luke Skywalker share a kiss before discovering they are twins in the first Star Wars movie.

12
The Royal Tenenbaums
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The Royal Tenenbaums

Eli (Owen Wilson) said it best: "I did find it odd when you said you were in love with her. She's married you know . . . and she's your sister." To be fair, Margot (Gwyneth Paltrow) is Richie's (Luke Wilson) adopted sister in the 2001 Wes Anderson movie.

13
Crimson Peak
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Crimson Peak

In Guillermo del Toro's 2015 gothic horror film Crimson Peak, Tom Hiddleston and Jessica Chastain play brother and sister Thomas and Lucille, who have an eerily close relationship — to the point that Thomas's wife Edith (Mia Wasikowska) has to fear for her life due to Lucille's jealousy.

14
The Blue Lagoon
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The Blue Lagoon

A very young Brooke Shields and Christopher Atkins play cousins who survive a shipwreck and then fall in love in this 1980 romantic adventure drama film.

15
Womb
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Womb

Eva Green plays a woman who gives birth to a clone of her late lover (played by Matt Smith) and then has sex with him when he's an adult in this 2010 film.

16
Lolita
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Lolita

In the onscreen adaptions of the novel of the same title by Vladimir Nabokov (there are two film versions, one 1962 and one in 1997), a 30-something man named Humbert Humbert marries the mother of a 12-year-old girl he hopes to become sexually involved with.