Disturbing Films

[ellis]

Well, I'm sure many of you could probably top any movie I've seen that I would classify as "disturbing"... but I wanted to mention that I finally saw a film that many friends have urged me to see purely for the shock value. And I finally saw it.

The movie is called Old Boy and it's quite possibly one of the top 10 revenge movies of all time. It's a Korean film so the quality isn't the best but it's still quite good.

Any recommendations? (And no mention of shitty movies like the August Underground crap.)

[Essence_Smith]

I HATED A Clockwork Orange when I first saw it, still don't care for it...films with effed up rape type scenes generally I dislike...

[Larry B.]

Cannibal Holocaust.

Cannibal Holocaust achieved notoriety as its graphic violence aroused a great deal of controversy. After its premiere in Italy, it was seized by a local magistrate, and Deodato was arrested on obscenity charges. He was charged with making a snuff film due to rumors that claimed some actors were killed on camera. Although Deodato was later cleared, the film was banned in Italy, Australia, and several other countries due to its disturbing portrayal of graphic brutality, sexual assault, and animal violence. Some nations have since revoked the ban, but the film is still banned in several countries.

(...)

Since its original release, Cannibal Holocaust has been the target of censorship by moral and animal activists. Other than graphic gore, the film contains several scenes of sexual violence and genuine cruelty to animals, issues which find Cannibal Holocaust in the midst of controversy to this day.

Aside from being supposedly disturbing, I thought it was a pretty bad flick.

[Hokahey]

Cannibal Holocaust.

Cannibal Holocaust achieved notoriety as its graphic violence aroused a great deal of controversy. After its premiere in Italy, it was seized by a local magistrate, and Deodato was arrested on obscenity charges. He was charged with making a snuff film due to rumors that claimed some actors were killed on camera. Although Deodato was later cleared, the film was banned in Italy, Australia, and several other countries due to its disturbing portrayal of graphic brutality, sexual assault, and animal violence. Some nations have since revoked the ban, but the film is still banned in several countries.

(...)

Since its original release, Cannibal Holocaust has been the target of censorship by moral and animal activists. Other than graphic gore, the film contains several scenes of sexual violence and genuine cruelty to animals, issues which find Cannibal Holocaust in the midst of controversy to this day.

Aside from being supposedly disturbing, I thought it was a pretty bad flick.

I found it disturbing, especially the scene where they kill a giant tortoise for no reason. Just unpleasant to watch.

[chaos]

I haven't seen it, but many people have told me about the French film Irreversible.

Here is Roger Ebert's review review of it: http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbc ... 40303/1023

[Juana]

http://www.ifcfilms.com/films/the-human-centipede-2

this one is pretty up there for disturbing

[Larry B.]

Just unpleasant to watch.

I thought Irreversible was pointless and Human Centipede plain stupid.

Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom is another film that's supposed to be disturbing, yet I thought it was pretty dumb as well.

Because of its scenes depicting intensely graphic violence, sadism, and sexual depravity, the movie was extremely controversial upon its release, and remains banned in several countries. It was Pasolini's last film; he was murdered shortly before Salò was released.
The film focuses on four wealthy, corrupted fascist libertines after the fall of Benito Mussolini's Italy in 1944 who kidnap a total of eighteen teenage boys and girls and subject them to four months of extreme violence, sadism, sexual and mental torture. The film is noted for exploring the themes of political corruption, abuse of power, sadism, perversion, sexuality, and fascism.

[Matz]

this is a German movie I've watched twice in my life because I once had a teacher who for some odd reason made our class watch it twice in one year. Looking back on it that was pretty irresponsible.
It's about a young girl who starts using heroin and what her life becomes after that, which is not pretty. It's one thing when Dave relapses, it's sad and all, but he can at least afford it. This girl couldn't which results in prostitution and other types of crime if I remember correctly. It's based on a true story and is I think very effective in making people think twice before they inject themselves with a needle full of heroin for the first time.
I'm never watching it again.

[Jasper]

I don't really know any shock/gore type of things. I'm usually not looking to be disturbed. I've seen some really disturbing documentaries - I even took a film class about that very subject - but shit is disturbing enough irl, so I don't seek it out.

So, these are disturbing in a relatively subtle sense. Things from the last few years:

*The Machinist (2004) Christian Bale (Also happens to be Larry's favorite film).
*Grizzly Man (2005) Werner Herzog documentary about a guy who spends his summers living around bears in Alaska. Really good.
*Shutter Island (2010) Decaprio, Scorsese. Psychological thriller in a loony bin.
*Never Let Me Go (2010) English flick. Kind of sci-fi in a sense, but in a subtle, intelligent way.
*We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011) Tilda Swinton. A couple has a kid who seems to have no empathy.

Of course old standbys like Eraserhead always work. Fire Walk With Me is pretty disturbing if you've seen all of the Twin Peaks series.

Oh, and there's Prometheus, which was disturbing for how much it sucked.

[Artemis]

One of the mostr disturbing and really funny films I have seen is the Belgian movie Man Bites Dog( C'est arrivé près de chez vous)

http://film.thedigitalfix.com/content/i ... s-dog.html

Essentially, the synopsis of Man Bites Dog is very simple, almost too simple. A group of young Belgian documentary filmmakers lead by Andre (André Bonzel) and Remy (Rémy Belvaux) decide to film as their latest subject a charismatic serial killer named Ben (Benoît Poelvoorde). Recording Ben's every move, the young filmmakers soon become drawn both to their subject and to the life of crime that has immersed Ben. Increasingly worried about the shocking scenes they have captured on film, the young filmmakers question the morality of their actions. Man Bites Dog is the documentary these filmmakers produced, uncut and in stark, harsh black-and-white.

Man Bites Dog exists on two cinematic levels, and it's because the secondary subtext of the film is well hidden that the film often attracts more controversy and criticism than is necessary. On the superficial level, the film is a sick, twisted, deeply hilarious exercise in murderous gratuity, given a cinema-verité gloss to further force the depravity down the audience's throats. The term 'documentary' has often been the most misunderstood terms of modern genre convention, with audiences believing that anything they view in a documentary must therefore be both realistic and truthful. What Man Bites Dog ultimately aims to question in its gory narrative is the roles of the recorder and the subject. Are the filmmakers as much of a subject in their film as their own chosen subject, which in this case is Ben? Does the presence of the recorder affect the 'reality' of their chosen subject, being that the subject is fully aware of the recorder. It's as if documentaries exist in a state in-between reality and fiction, and happily borrows from both ends of the spectrum.

Also The cook, the Thief, his Wife and her Lover(Peter Greenaway films are generally disturbing for most people). This is actually one of my fave films.



http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/cook_th ... her_lover/


A couple of others...

Dead Ringers(The Jeremy Irons flick about the twin gynecologists by David Cronenberg)

Happiness by Todd Solondz

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1084175-happiness/

[perkana]

*Never Let Me Go (2010) English flick. Kind of sci-fi in a sense, but in a subtle, intelligent way.

Is this the one with Keira Knightley, Carey Mulligan and the new Spiderman? If so, I liked it. Saw it already started the first time so I didn't know what the hell it was about, second time finally watched it since the beginning and it is really good. Kinda sad, but good.
The only movie I've found really disturbing (for me) and have no interest in watching it again is Leolo or something like that. I think last time I saw it must have been like 15-16 years and I caught it on tv again but I actually felt nauseous so couldn't even watch the beginning. It's just the subject, it's not even explicit. But a scene involved a cat getting raped so no, I left after that.

[blackula]

I'm looking forward to seing Womb when it comes out. This is the trailer. I guess it's disturbing when you can sympathize with incest.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFLA5aNWvg0

[Artemis]

I
*We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011) Tilda Swinton. A couple has a kid who seems to have no empathy.

Tilda Swinton was a great cast as the mother as was the actor who played Kevin.

If you've not read the book, I highly recommend it. The writing is excellent.

[chaos]

*Never Let Me Go (2010) English flick. Kind of sci-fi in a sense, but in a subtle, intelligent way.

Is this the one with Keira Knightley, Carey Mulligan and the new Spiderman? If so, I liked it. Saw it already started the first time so I didn't know what the hell it was about, second time finally watched it since the beginning and it is really good. Kinda sad, but good.

Yes it is (the same film and a good movie ).

I thought the book was better, but I guess that is the case for most book to movie endeavors.

[Pandemonium]

There's disturbing films that are just outrageously gory and there's movies which aren't necessarily gory but profoundly disturbing on other levels and then there's the rare movie that's both. I still find the hand to hand combat scene where the German guy kills the Private in "Saving Private Ryan" to be intensely disturbing the way it's staged.

I remember being pretty freaked out when I saw "Faces Of Death" back in the early 80's. Cannibal Holocaust had such a bad rap, I never had the desire to see it. "Mark Of The Devil," "Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer" and "Last House On The Left" were pretty harrowing for their time. "Begotten" and "Antichrist," both wildly different films and difficult to watch more for the way they play out (Begotten has no dialog) have some hard to watch scenes as well. On the other hand, a movie like "Eraserhead" was more strange and dreamlike than actually disturbing to me.

The last decade or so, I thought "I Saw The Devil" was one of the more lingeringly disturbing horror movies I've seen in several years. I really have no desire to see movies that fall into the "torture porn" label like the Saw and Hostel franchises. I hear recently released... gems ...such as "Martyrs," "Aftermath" and "A Serbian Film" are pretty harrowing fare.

[Pure Method]

*Never Let Me Go (2010) English flick. Kind of sci-fi in a sense, but in a subtle, intelligent way.

Is this the one with Keira Knightley, Carey Mulligan and the new Spiderman? If so, I liked it. Saw it already started the first time so I didn't know what the hell it was about, second time finally watched it since the beginning and it is really good. Kinda sad, but good.

Yes it is (the same film and a good movie ).

I thought the book was better, but I guess that is the case for most book to movie endeavors.

read this for class actually this year could talk a lot about it.

[Bandit72]

I thought Old Boy was pretty good, although I don't think disturbing films exist really. Well not in a 'gore' way anyway. They all have the "this is a film" barrier for me. The best shock flicks were definately made in the 70's and 80's. I don't think they've been done as consistently since then. Cannibal Holocaust is pretty shite and most of the Romero/Fulci films are excellent and more entertaining than shocking. In that category I would say The Exorcist or The Shining are probably the best fit for a disturbing film. However I would personally put films such as Schindler's List or The Elephant Man way higher.

Tobe Hooper's two part series of Salem's Lot freaked me out when I was about 13. That was the only film I can honestly remember having any affect on me.

[Larry B.]

Oh, I think The Omen might qualify as somewhat disturbing too. It has the ability to mess with your head a little...

[Bandit72]

Oh, I think The Omen might qualify as somewhat disturbing too. It has the ability to mess with your head a little...

Yeh, that's another good one. All old school you see!

[ellis]

I've heard about "A Serbian Film" and as I understood it... that film is so fucked up it shouldn't be viewed by anyone.

[lollapaloser]

The Holy Mountain by Alexander Jodorowsky is pretty disturbing. I tried to watch the Begotten in a psychedelic state once, and couldn't get through it.

[Bandit72]

I've heard about "A Serbian Film" and as I understood it... that film is so fucked up it shouldn't be viewed by anyone.

That's just another "gore fest" like SAW or Hostel. It's really not hat bad. It's just so over the top.

[ellis]

I've heard about "A Serbian Film" and as I understood it... that film is so fucked up it shouldn't be viewed by anyone.

That's just another "gore fest" like SAW or Hostel. It's really not hat bad. It's just so over the top.

fucking a baby that just came out of a vagina is over the top.

[perkana]

*Never Let Me Go (2010) English flick. Kind of sci-fi in a sense, but in a subtle, intelligent way.

Is this the one with Keira Knightley, Carey Mulligan and the new Spiderman? If so, I liked it. Saw it already started the first time so I didn't know what the hell it was about, second time finally watched it since the beginning and it is really good. Kinda sad, but good.

Yes it is (the same film and a good movie ).

I thought the book was better, but I guess that is the case for most book to movie endeavors.

read this for class actually this year could talk a lot about it.

I'll definitely read it...It's funny, but I thought the Spider guy was American (maybe because I saw him on The Social Network and just assumed he was). I thought his fake accent was awful Sorry about that Andrew Garfield (I always forget his name, not his face though )

[farrellgirl99]

I also avoid disturbing films so I haven't seen too many but the two that came to mind were We Need to Talk About Kevin and Hard Candy. I watched Hard Candy with my mom. It was not what I thought it was going to be, I guess I didn't read the description.

I also love Teeth, the vagina dentata movie. It might be disturbing to people but I personally thought it was awesome.