Film

Caligula: The Untold Story

Name: Caligula: The Untold Story
Genre: Drama, History, Horror
Released: 1982
Cast: David Brandon, Laura Gemser, Luciano Bartoli, Charles Borromel, Fabiola Toledo

Psychological horror
Very dark
Strange

A 1982 Italian exploitation film about Caligula's descent into madness and depravity. Deliberately lurid and transgressive, it trades historical accuracy for shock value and graphic excess. For viewers curious about how far 80s genre cinema would push boundaries, or who want to see what exploitation horror looked like before the internet made everything searchable.

TMDb rating

2.8

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you are drawn to uncompromising, lurid historical excess and want to see how far a film will go, watching it as a provocation rather than a comfort.

Skip it if the sexual cruelty is relentless and central, so if that content is hard going, the film offers little restraint or relief to balance it.

What it asks of you: A little under two hours of sustained, unhurried excess, with scenes that stay on cruelty longer than feels comfortable.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Caligula1979

Tinto Brass's notorious original is vastly more ambitious: a big-budget art-horror hybrid with genuine visual invention, Malick-esque philosophy sequences, and an A-list cast. A masterpiece of transgression.

But Nearly four hours long, deeply pretentious at times, and the explicit content is more graphic and less cartoonish. Genuinely difficult to watch in places.

The Story of O1975

French exploitation that treats its transgressive material with surprising aesthetic seriousness. Perverse but elegant, it proves 70s art-house cinema could go places mainstream films wouldn't dare.

But Extremely slow, almost plotless, and relies on your patience with purely visual storytelling. The sexual content is explicit and not titillating.

Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom1976

Pasolini's final film channels exploitation aesthetics into a devastating political allegory about fascism. Vile and brilliant, it uses extreme provocation to ask serious questions about power and degradation.

But Genuinely repulsive—not entertainingly so. Deliberately difficult viewing designed to upset, not satisfy. Long, slow, and uncompromising.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Caligula: The Untold Story

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

A Clockwork Orange1971

Both use extreme visual brutality and sexual content to explore power and corruption, but Kubrick asks philosophical questions about the cost of both depravity and enforced morality. One is exploration; this one is exhibition.

Kubrick's adaptation channels similar energy—graphic violence, sexual transgression, aristocratic evil—but harnesses it to examine free will and social control. Still transgressive, but in service of something.

But Often feels like provocation for its own sake, which can obscure the actual argument beneath. The style can overwhelm the substance, and the violence is meant to repel as well as fascinate.

Eolomea1972

An obscure Italian sci-fi drama that captures the same 70s aesthetic of ambitious filmmaking without safety rails. Strange, erotic, and genuinely curious about its own perversity.

But Extremely slow and meditative. The plot is deliberately cryptic and the pacing tests patience. Very hard to find.

The Lickerish Quartet1970

An experimental film about desire, cinema, and voyeurism. It plays games with narrative and sexuality that feel startlingly modern, wrapped in gorgeous 70s production design.

But More interested in ideas than plot. Fragmented, obtuse, and the sexual content is disquieting rather than erotic. Some viewers find it pretentious.

Marquis de Sade1996

A stylish biopic that treats Sade's philosophy and obsessions seriously while maintaining a pulpy edge. Intelligent transgression that respects the viewer's intelligence.

But European art-house pacing disguised as a literary drama. Some viewers find it too respectful of its subject. Demands engagement rather than passive watching.

Slave of the Cannibal God1978

Italian exploitation at its most delirious: horror, eroticism, and jungle-adventure schlock colliding in one fever dream. Raw, unashamed, and genuinely weird in ways modern film rarely attempts.

But Incompetent in charming ways, but also genuinely incoherent. Animal cruelty and casual racism throughout. The 'horror' is mostly just bad taste.

The Leopard1963

Both examine the psychology of absolute power and inherited entitlement, but Visconti frames it through nostalgia and loss rather than grotesquerie. One mourns the decline of power; the other celebrates its madness.

Visconti's operatic chronicle of Italian nobility during revolution captures decadence and decline with stunning visual grace. Burt Lancaster's exhausted prince watching his world collapse is cinema at its most humane.

But Nearly three hours, in Italian, and utterly unconcerned with plot momentum. Demands patience with atmosphere and philosophical resignation. Some versions are heavily edited.