Disturbing Cinema

[Guest One Bad Apple]

Recently, for whatever reason, I've become interested in seeking out some unsettling pieces of film. Looked around the internet for a few minutes, I found a bunch that're supposed to be. I divided them into groups separating the ones that were described as simply "disturbing" (obscure and well-known), and the ones that're "pretty fucked up, m'lady."

 

 

Now, I'm no filmological scientificist, so some of these I know of ... but that's the extent of it. So I'm just curious as to  thoughts on any of these. Also, especially if you've seen uncut versions, what do you think are the most sick, vile or graphic instances in each of these movies (without giving spoilers)? How staged does it look? Anything implied or happening off-screen doesn't really count.

 

Any dead animals or animal cruelty and slaughter (even implied or off-screen)? Not that that stuff turns me on and cause sexual arousal! In fact, it causes me to be significantly less aroused!

 

 

Also, just to make conversation or something, what are the most disturbing films you yourself have ever seen?

 

 

I haven't included stuff like Deliverance or Schindler's List 'cause I've seen 'em already.

 

Okay ... now here we go!      

 

 

WELL-KNOWN

=====

 

Caligula

Crash

Day of the Woman

Doom Generation

Holy Mountain

Kids

Last House on the Left

Maniac (1980)

Midnight Express

Repulsion

Santa Sangre

 

 

MORE OBSCURE

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Beast Kills in Cold Blood, The

Blood Sucking Freaks

Death King, The

Driller Killer, The

In Cold Blood

Love Me Deadly

Luther the Geek

Marquis de Sade: Justine

Ms. 45

Ox-Bow Incident, The

Pieces

Safe (1995)

Street Trash

Taxi (1996)

Taxi zum Klo

Topo, El

Welcome to the Dollhouse

 

 

REAL FUCKED UP

=====

 

Blue Holocaust

Combat Shock

Happiness

In a Glass Cage

Man Behind the Sun

Man Behind the Sun 2: Laboratory of the Devil

Man Bites Dog

Nekromantik

Nekromantik 2

Salo

Scramm (1993)

Valve

[Guest Red Hot Thumbtack In The Eye]

You should seek out a movie titled "Gummo". c'est fucked up.

[Guest dreamer420]

Here are the ones that disturbed me (or at least had a disturbing scene in it):

 

Gummo (horrible movie and a waste of time and film)

Leaving Las Vegas (the scene where Elisabeth Shue is raped was hard to watch)

 

 

That is all I can think of.  There are a lot of movies that made me go "What The Fuck" after watching them but did really affect me in anyway.  The two above were the two that I can think of.

[Guest Hit Squad]

Watch "The Conformist". It's a foreign film that was disturbing but I appreciate it more after analyzing the film.

[Guest J*ingus]

My take on the ones I've seen from your list:

 

Caligula: basically a really bad historical epic, spiced up with gore and a bit of porn.  Hard to believe that Malcolm McDowell and John Gielgud were in this.  

 

Crash: not really as out-there as everyone implies.  If you can accept the basic premise (people turned on by car crashes), it's a pretty normal movie otherwise.  

 

Doom Generation: I HATED this god-damned piece of shit.  It was so bad that I took it back to the video store after a mere twenty minutes, DESPITE the fact that Rose McGowan had gotten naked.  Twice.  

 

Kids: resembles nothing so much as an NC-17 version of an After School Special.  "Look what happens to kids when they make bad decisions.  Don't let this happen to you!"  Realistic, yes, but it was apparently based on a true story.  

 

Man Bites Dog: now THIS is one hell of a movie.  Funny, shocking, upsetting, informative (now I know how much weight is required to put a corpse in a river!), and completely unforgettable.  Highly recommended to those with strong stomachs.  

 

Welcome to the Dollhouse: a lot of people praised this movie, but I just didn't get it.  The basic theme was: 1.Watch something really horrible happen to this girl, 2.Repeat.  All of the main characters were disgustingly unlikable.  

 

As for disturbing movies, I'd say the king of the fucked-up cinema is Cannibal Holocaust.  Possibly the single goriest film ever made.

[Guest Vyce]

"Ring", "Audtion" and "Versus".  All three very well made Japanese horror films.

 

Depending upon how delicate your sensibilities are, they are either disturbing or fucked up.

[Guest HopeSpot]

Days of a Woman- A woman gets raped and gets revenge on her attackers. The rape scene was sick and snuff film like.

 

Kids fucking rulled it by the way, the director of Kids released a little known movie called Bully a couple months ago in which a group of Florida teens murder a bully that has been tormenting them. A true story and a fantastic movie for those who've got the stomach.

[Guest Annoyed Grunt]

Here are a few suggestions of disturbing movies that I'd tell you to rent.  (If you can find them)

 

I can't believe that nobody has mentioned 'Henry; Portrait of a Serial Killer" yet.  As distrubing as that film is, It's even worse when you watch "Man Bites Dog" right before it.

 

"I Spit on Your Grave" is another disturbing rape and revenge movie.  It's not very well made, but it is sick.

 

"Bad Lieutenant" is a disturbing Harvey Keitel movie, but almost seems tame in comparision to some of the other movies already listed in this thread.  

 

Almost anything by Lucio Fulci is disturbing, but I'd say "The New York Ripper" is probably the most disturbing.

 

Oh yeah, Peter Jackson's "Meet the Feebles" has made several of my friends ill.

[Guest CoreyLazarus416]

Care Bears gave me nightmares for a month...

[Guest Ghast]

I saw Bully. That was a piece of shit movie. What is with that asshole Larry Clarke and teenagers? Especially the way he does his films about them. Always gratuitous crap. There was one scene where they show that brunette girl getting out of her bed and taking a crap and wiping herself. She was naked. What the fuck was with that?

 

If you've never seen this movie...don't. It's sick. It was disturbing in the way that people actually gave it good writeups. The moral at the end was so cliche and bland. He could've did it without all the garbage he put in, but no, he has to be Larry Clarke and shock everyone. Fucking idiot. He alwas calls the bullshit movies he makes based on a true story. So people won't call him out on his sick, twisted bullshit.

[Guest Army Eye]

Has anyone seen any of the Guinea Pig movies from Japan?  I guess they are made to look like snuff films.

[Guest ArkhamGlobe]

Of the films on your list, I've only seen "Midnight Express", "Crash" and "Repulsion". All three are excellent films in my opinion, but, regarding the second two, neither is particularly gory or features any explicit violence, they're meant to be disturbing on a more psychological level (especially "Repulsion"). I would definitly recommend seeing them though (especially "Repulsion", it's one of Polanski's best films, which is saying a lot).

 

As for most disturbing film, even though I haven't seen it, from what I've heard it has to be Pasolini's "Salo: 120 Days of Sodom". 105 minutes of people being tortured and raped by fascist soldiers during the last days of Italy's involvement in WWII.

 

As for films I have seen myself, I'm having a hard time thinking of one, films rarely get to me on that level, but one of the few is the above mentioned "Repulsion".

[Guest Choken One]

Anyone think Requiem for a Dream was Disturbing?

[Guest areacode212]

I don't know if this fits your criteria for "disturbing", but there was a really, really depressing movie made in the early 80s called Testament. It's about a woman and her children who, one morning, are living out their lives in a small California town, when a nuclear missile attacks nearby San Francisco. Throughout the movie, nearly everyone in the movie dies, one by one, of radiation poisoning.

 

It's not gory or anything, but it's just really, really bleak and depressing. It's actually a really good movie, but chances are it will ruin the rest of your day. So watch it at night.

[Guest MaskedDanger]

Crash was fucking stupid. Simplistic shock value with absolutely none of the redeeming dissection of modern life that it was supposedly such an excellent example of. Worthless schlock.

 

Same with Kids. Worthless shock. Don't you DARE tell me that's an accurate portrayal of today's teenagers. If there are some kids like that (and I'm sure there are) then they're not the norm as the movie would have you believe. Faultly premise = shitty movie.

 

However, Gummo (I know, by Harmony Korine, the guy that wrote Kids) and Man Bites Dog were awesome. Neither of them were incredibly disturbing (or at least that wasn't the main mood they conveyed to me...they were both disturbing in parts) but they were both great movies, especially Man Bites Dog.

 

Haven't seen Requiem For a Dream, but a friend of mine tells me it's truly fucked up.

[Guest J*ingus]

Personally, I think Gummo was one of the worst movies I've ever seen, but to each his own.

[Guest El Hijo Del Lunatic]

I don't know if this fits your criteria for "disturbing", but there was a really, really depressing movie made in the early 80s called Testament. It's about a woman and her children who, one morning, are living out their lives in a small California town, when a nuclear missile attacks nearby San Francisco. Throughout the movie, nearly everyone in the movie dies, one by one, of radiation poisoning.

 

I don't think I've ever seen that movie, but was it as disturbing as "Threads"?  'Cause that belongs here somewhere, too.  I'm sure most of us have seen that movie (I saw it in my social studies class about ... shit, about eight years ago - I'm getting old), but it's one of those that sticks with you, especially when you watch it around age 12 or 13.  It's not exactly a character study (which is what "Testament" sounds like) but a societal study under the same conditions.  It's not gross (except for a couple of BIG places) or always violent (though it brings it when it wants to) but it's a dismal, depressing, disturbing piece of cinema.

 

Maybe it's not as disturbing in premise as something like "Kids" or "Crash" or "Man Bites Dog" or the freakin' "Nekromantik" movies, but it's disturbing enough in execution.  

 

No one's mentioned "Battle Royale" yet, either.  Weird, considering it's available on DVD and floating around in DivX format on Kazaa/Morpheus and a bunch of other file-sharing proggies.

[Guest DragonflyKid]

I pimped Gummo on the old board and although it's not for everyone I thought it was hilarious even though I doubt that was the intention. Of course if you want disturbing you can always get the Faces Of Death movies which are documentations of death and cruelty.

[Guest spliffstar]

Requeim for A Dream was truly disturbing.  I don't think I can recall another cinematic experience that left me so profoundly depressed.  Great movie, but don't expect to be in a great mood after watching it.

[Guest netslob]

for the record, I Spit on your Grave and Day of the Woman are the same movie.

 

in addititon, i'd like to add the  Tod Browning movie Freaks to the list.  not so much gory or sexual (at all) but disturbing because the movie stars actual sideshow freaks.  really creeped me out, lemme tell you.

[Guest HANSgerman]

Add that piece of crap CROSSROADS to that list...

 

But in all seriousness check this movie out for lame, cheesey scenes like hook to the hand and exploding head: Riki-Oh The Story of Ricky.

 

I spit on Your Grave is absolutely terrible. I can't even give the movie away.

 

Thank you for mentioning Repulsion it sounds and looks boss now all I have to do is see it.

 

You missed a few movies like the VIOLENT SHIT TRILOGY (I kid you not.... unfortunately) these are pretty awful as well.

 

Mulholland Dr. was a very suspenseful movie (not scary just suspenseful) Give that a shot if you have an open mind.  :/

 

Anthropophagous 2000 is fairly new and is very much so filled with GORE.  Gore fans pick it up.

 

Predatori di Atlantide, I is total crap that involves the lost city of Atlantis but I must admit it is violent.

 

Well that's all I'll add for now, any thoughts on these beauties.

[Guest J*ingus]

Anything that Peter Jackson made prior to arriving in Hollywood is worth consideration.  Dead-Alive, Meet the Feebles, and Heavenly Creatures are all sick movies, but in very different ways.  

 

Also, most of David Lynch's stuff would go on the list for sheer strangeness, except Dune (not really A David Lynch Movie per say) and The Straight Story (too ordinary).  Personally, I think that he's often just throwing randon shit onto the screen without regard for story, logic, or whatever, but it's certainly memorable.

[Guest The Winslow]

Blood Sucking Freaks was some serious fucked up shit.  I still get little mental images from that flick. Jesus.

 

I Spit on Your Grave. Another screwed up mess. Just goes on and on with some sick crap.

 

Mother's Day is another slasher flick. I was expecting something along the lines of Friday 13th or something but it was a hell of a lot more brutal and sick.

 

Yeesh. I can't believe I read this thread right before I needed to go to bed. Fuck.

[Guest Crazy Dan]

Requiem for a Dream is very fucked up, but all that aside, it is still a very good movie.  It just shows you the demons of addiction,, and how it can affect us in more ways than one.  The part where he shoots up into his "hurt arm" is just plain nasty.  The movie just takes you on a spiral journey, one that is unflinching.

[Guest BuddahStalin]

The  closing  scenes  of  Requiem  for  a  Dream  left  me  a  disturbed, depressed

wreck.

[Guest BuddahStalin]

The  closing  scenes  of  Requiem  for  a  Dream  left  me  a  disturbed, depressed  wreck.

[Guest ArkhamGlobe]

I have to agree that "Requiem for a Dream" was very depressing and excellent film.

[Guest teke184]

Requiem for a Dream has to be the most messed-up movie I've seen in years.  I'm so glad that the director or Requiem and Pi (Darren Arfornorsky <SP>) will be doing the new Batman movie, as he'll make Tim Burton's Batman movies look like kiddie stuff.

[Guest upchuck]

Requiem for a Dream has got to be my favorite movie.  After the movie i found out about the funny easter egg that is Tappy Tibbons third rule.

[Guest Mark4steamboat]

I caught the first hour of Welcome to the Dollhouse. That is the most disturbing movie i have ever seen.