Most Disturbing Films Ever

bobster · Post by **bobster** » Sun May 08, 2005 8:18 pm

Tim(e) wrote:And there was a Bollywood film based on Reservoir Dogs called "Kaante"... haven't seen it, but it is supposed to be very good.

Been wanting very badly to see that one myself. Can't wait to see what the Bollywood folks do with the dancing torture scene.

double dutchess · Post by **double dutchess** » Mon May 09, 2005 1:30 am

Pink Flamingos

It made me feel dirty...

miss buenos aires · Post by **miss buenos aires** » Mon May 09, 2005 8:34 am

invisible Pole wrote:There's another one I vaguely remember - a creepy thriller about a young man who takes a job of a night security guard at a morgue. I can't recall the title or even who played in it, but some of the scenes at the morgue were spine-chilling.
Not sure but I think it was a re-make of some Scandinavian movie. Anyone ?

Did it have Ewan MacGregor?

stormwarning · Post by **stormwarning** » Mon May 09, 2005 10:30 am

"Nightwatch" ?

invisible Pole · Post by **invisible Pole** » Mon May 09, 2005 10:35 am

Thanks, mba !
Now that you mentioned McGregor I checked his filmography on imdb and I found the title - "Nightwatch", also starring Nick Nolte and Brad Dourif (how could I forget such a cast ?

).

Did you see it, miss buenos aires ?

guidedbyvoices · Post by **guidedbyvoices** » Mon May 09, 2005 11:14 am

I agree with In The Company Of Men. Especially because I culd see it actually happening, the one guy wanting to hang out with his "cooler" co-worker, the frat guy menatlity in a corporate world with a twisted idea, and following it through to it's ugly conclusion. Really bothered me. But the acting is superb, and I really like Aaron Eckhardt.

LittleFoole · Post by **LittleFoole** » Mon May 09, 2005 11:32 am

double dutchess wrote:Pink Flamingos

It made me feel dirty...

LOL....I somehow "forGOT" about THAT one

Yeah, made me feel the same

Tim(e) · Post by **Tim(e)** » Mon May 09, 2005 5:32 pm

LittleFoole wrote:
double dutchess wrote:Pink Flamingos

It made me feel dirty...
LOL....I somehow "forGOT" about THAT one Yeah, made me feel the same

You would probably not realise it, but I absolutely love John Waters' films

... I have everything released thus far on DVD (alas, still no Mondo Trasho) and will finally be able to upgrade my 4:3 format Japanese release of "Cry Baby" with the burned in Japanese subtitles, when the US release hits the streets in July.

bobster · Post by **bobster** » Mon May 09, 2005 5:47 pm

These are another pair I'lll likely never see, but I'm wondering if any of us have ever seen "I Spit on Your Grave" or "Last House on the Left" -- two horror films that famous/infamous for crossing the line between conventional "fun" horror to decidedly not fun horror.

stormwarning · Post by **stormwarning** » Mon May 09, 2005 5:54 pm

Has anybody seen the Japanese movie "The Audition" ? Disturbing stuff, and surely overdue an inferior Hollywood remake.

Tim(e) · Post by **Tim(e)** » Mon May 09, 2005 8:48 pm

stormwarning wrote:Has anybody seen the Japanese movie "The Audition" ? Disturbing stuff, and surely overdue an inferior Hollywood remake.

Haven't seen "Audition" (do know the plot), but Miike, Takashi (the director) is the master of "over-the-top" and very prolific at that, with something like 64 films since 1991!

Among his best are "Ichi the Killer" (crazed) and "Happiness of the Katakuris" which is just plain bizarre (think Sound of Music meets Dawn of the Dead and you are getting close) - both are available in the US on DVD. I don't mind his film about an unlikely superhero named "Zebraman" either.

He has made many many wild Yakuza themed films including "Fudoh: The Next Generation", "Full Metal Yakuza", and the "Dead or Alive" series.

girl out of time · Post by **girl out of time** » Tue May 10, 2005 6:37 pm

audition
the piano teacher
in my skin
three extremes
a hole in my heart

all very disturbing....

Otis Westinghouse · Post by **Otis Westinghouse** » Sat Aug 06, 2005 8:22 pm

Just watched Todd Solodz' Happiness on BBC2, and reckoned I'd seen stuff about it on here, but only found refs in this thread, and very negative. Bobster couldn't watch it, Alex V and Shatterproof were disgusted and couldn't watch it. It does seem to have the audience-dividing qualities of things like Blue Velvet and The Cook, The Thief, etc. I thought it was amazingly good. Incredibly well written and acted, horribly funny, funnily horrible, and an interesting exploration of to what degree a film can deal with very nasty things and still be a (very black) comedy. The bleakness of most of it is tempered with absurdity and humour, but everytime you return to the paedophile story you feel your stomach churning, and yet it still manages to handle that in a blackly comic way. The scene at the end between father and son where they discuss his deeds is incredible - deeply sad and wretched, and yet powerful and moving with it. And then the comic gag with the sperm and the dog. I was laughing so much when the dog licked the mum's face that I missed the last line of the film. Does the boy say 'I came!' or words to that effect? I can see why people would just dismiss this film as repellent, though I would have expected reactions closer to mine on this board. Tell me what you think! I have to confess I haven't even heard of any of the other films he's made. Any comments on those?

Good on BBC2. Last week it was Badlands, another one I hadn't seen and really enjoyed. Let's hope there's more to come.

Who Shot Sam? · Post by **Who Shot Sam?** » Sat Aug 06, 2005 8:48 pm

Otis Westinghouse wrote:Just watched Todd Solodz' Happiness on BBC2, and reckoned I'd seen stuff about it on here, but only found refs in this thread, and very negative. Bobster couldn't watch it, Alex V and Shatterproof were disgusted and couldn't watch it. It does seem to have the audience-dividing qualities of things like Blue Velvet and The Cook, The Thief, etc. I thought it was amazingly good. Incredibly well written and acted, horribly funny, funnily horrible, and an interesting exploration of to what degree a film can deal with very nasty things and still be a (very black) comedy. The bleakness of most of it is tempered with absurdity and humour, but everytime you return to the paedophile story you feel your stomach churning, and yet it still manages to handle that in a blackly comic way. The scene at the end between father and son where they discuss his deeds is incredible - deeply sad and wretched, and yet powerful and moving with it. And then the comic gag with the sperm and the dog. I was laughing so much when the dog licked the mum's face that I missed the last line of the film. Does the boy say 'I came!' or words to that effect? I can see why people would just dismiss this film as repellent, though I would have expected reactions closer to mine on this board. Tell me what you think! I have to confess I haven't even heard of any of the other films he's made. Any comments on those?

It made me squirm, to be honest, but I also found myself sort of mesmerized by the sheer depravity of the whole thing. It's about as black as black comedy gets. I think I saw Happiness prior to becoming a parent and have to admit that there were a few moments when I had a laugh at the audacity of the film, but I wonder if I'd have the same reaction now. The sad fact is that there are plenty of sickos out there living the kind of wretched lives depicted by the character of the father in the film - not to mention Philip Seymour Hoffmann's troubled loner. It seems that each day on the news there's a new story about sexual molestation, and it's so depressing.

I liked Solondz's "Welcome To The Dollhouse" much more, because he seemed to have some affection for the central character.

double dutchess · Post by **double dutchess** » Sun Aug 07, 2005 12:22 am

Yes, Otis, that is exactly what the boy said at the end of the film.

Umm, I like that film, even though it's disgusting and disturbing. It's also very funny; when the psychiatrist is telling his therapist about his recurring dream, I always laugh harder than I probably should. I agree with what you said, and I'm so glad you said it, because there is no way I could ever articulate myself that well. The part where the father and son are talking about the dads crimes always makes me cringe, though. I have a hard time getting through that part. I don't know, it's like a window into depravity. It can serve to make a normal person feel relieved that he/she is not like those people. Or maybe I'm reading far too much into it.

martinfoyle · Post by **martinfoyle** » Sun Aug 07, 2005 8:58 am

Happiness is Solondz best film so far, imo. I agree with most of the previous views on it. Its real strength is its consistent tone. It's one of those films that either appalls or that you can accept for what it is, innapropriate as it may be, a comedy about incest. His 2 films since have good bits in them, just dont add up.

alexv · Post by **alexv** » Mon Aug 08, 2005 1:35 pm

I am as open minded about comedies about incest as anyone else, and in that vein I recommend the absolute best comedy about incest that I have ever seen: Louis Malle's "Murmur of the Heart" which shows, at least to me, that the French know how to handle perversions.

bobster · Post by **bobster** » Mon Aug 08, 2005 3:35 pm

The really disturbing thing about "Murmer" is that it's not one bit disturbing. My reaction was sort of..."well, if my mom was Léa Massari..."

If you want a more realistic film about how a more mother-son incest scenario might play out, I reccommend David O. Russell's "Spanking the Monkey." Very disturbing, indeed, in a good way. Sort of "Virginia Woolf" for moms and sons, plus major, believiable creepiness.

Post by **BlueChair** » Mon Aug 08, 2005 3:47 pm

I found Be Cool to be very disturbing

alexv · Post by **alexv** » Mon Aug 08, 2005 4:43 pm

Bobster, my point was not that Murmur was disturbing. Martin had pointed out that Happiness was a comedy about incest, and I was just saying that in my view the best comedy about incest was Murmur. A good comedy about incest should not be "disturbing". I don't want to see realistic films about incest, thank-you. But I did see Spanking many years ago, and as I recall I wasn't put off by it.

Otis Westinghouse · Post by **Otis Westinghouse** » Mon Aug 08, 2005 7:04 pm

alexv wrote:A good comedy about incest should not be "disturbing".

Happiness is about paedohilia more than incest (apart from the terrible concession to family values where dad tells son he'd jerk off over him rather than rape him), it's more broadly about sex, or more broadly still about our need to pursue happiness by 'having' other people, wouldn't ya say? And why shouldn't a good comedy about incest be disturbing? Isn't it worrying to go near that topic and not disturb the audience?

alexv · Post by **alexv** » Tue Aug 09, 2005 12:27 am

Otis, I really could not watch this movie in its entirety so I have to admit I don't know what the movie is really "about". The parts I saw made me sick to my stomach, and I am not a prudish person, and have been watching movies of all kinds since I was about 5.

What did I find disturbing about the parts I saw? I am all for an artist's right to free expression and for the exploration of the "dark side" of life. So I don't begrudge an artist's attempt to deal with an uncomfortable subject in an artistic way. But in my middle age, and with half a lifetime of experience interacting with art that transgresses as well as glorifies, I don't need to have a writer show me how some of us need to "possess" people, and how in some cases that need to possess is expressed by fathers having sex with their sons. Can't the same message, if it needs to be expressed artistically yet again, be expressed without introducing us into a deadpan, black-comedy world of pedophilia? It's the perverseness of the artistic intent that bothers me. I just got the feeling that this young kid (Soloz that is) was trying to push the uncomfortable subject in my face to try to show me and the audience how really cool peple can laugh, in an ironic, black comedy kind of way, at really sick people, and better yet do it using little boys as the victims. How late 20th century!!

In Crumb cartoons (which have addressed the same subject) its absurdly comical and deliberately exaggerated presentation makes it ok for me. It's just outsized cartoon drawings acting out depraved fantasies (with really good drawings and funny lines). But in a movie acted by real human beings I just say no. I am not being enlightened; I am not learning anything I didn't know after my first year Psych course in college; I am not being entertained; I am being pummelled by an artistic temperament I find repulsive. The sick people in this movie are just that, sick. In Murmur of the Heart, the artistic temperament was humanist enough, and subtle enough, to address a disturbing topic in a way that surprised, enlightened and yes even entertained. Soloz, in my humble opinion, is not great enough of an artist to do that, and so I passed. Unfortunately, the end result is that I am criticising a movie I never saw the whole way through. Sorry about that.

Gillibeanz · Post by **Gillibeanz** » Tue Aug 09, 2005 4:31 pm

Dumbo and Bambi - saw them as a kid and cried all the way through them!!

bobster · Post by **bobster** » Tue Aug 09, 2005 5:31 pm

Actually the movies I find most upsetting are the really successful, really bad movies. (Unsuccessful bad movies confirm that there is some justice in the world; successful bad ones are proof that there is no God).

For me, the two most depressing films of all time are probably still "Top Gun" and "Flashdance."

Otis Westinghouse · Post by **Otis Westinghouse** » Tue Aug 09, 2005 5:32 pm

Alexv, I would recommend watching the whole thing in this case, but it doesn't sound like you'd alter your view if you did. No point in disagreeing further, just to say for me it is very late 20th century or early 21st if you prefer in that it reminded of two other great recent films, Magnolia (Philip Seymour Hoffman again) and The Magnificent Tennenbaums in that it was strikingly original, very accomplished and watchable in its own right, and also explored the relationship between parents and children and the damage inflicted from one generation to the next, and used the powerful medium of cinema to full effect in presenting something engaging and moving on this front. It would be different if he was just doing it for black laughs, but of course he isn't. The deep tragedy and wretched pathos of the scene between father and son at the end of the film (and again the film does not deal with having sex with one's own children, but their peers) showed this in film. Hard to judge it without watching this. And it gets people talking and disagreeing, always a good thing.