Most Disturbing Films Ever

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invisible Pole
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Post by invisible Pole »

I can't recall the title but there was this movie starring Reese Witherspoon, and being a kind of deranged version of Little Red Riding Hood.
That was a truly weird viewing experience.
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Post by King Hoarse »

I felt physically sick for about three days after I first saw Clean, Shaven.

But I still go back to it about once a year with the same results.
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Boy With A Problem
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Post by Boy With A Problem »

Invisible Pole wrote:
I can't recall the title but there was this movie starring Reese Witherspoon, and being a kind of deranged version of Little Red Riding Hood.
That was a truly weird viewing experience.
That was Freeway. I love this film - but too tongue in cheek to be disturbing - Kiefer Sutherland gets really creepy - but the perfomances are all so over the top that I was smiling throughout.
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Post by bobster »

It's amazing how many of these films I've managed to avoid -- I plead gorephobia (particularly re: "The Island" which, from reviews I read in other sources, sounded very graphic. One critic actually fainted at Cannes...and then wrote a favorable review! Same with the Gaspar Noe films.)

"Happiness", on the other hand, is the rare instance where I stopped watching a DVD or tape out of a sheer emotional discomfort. Todd Solodnz is a master of cruelty. I keep saying I'll watch it someday.

Anyhow, my addition would be George Franju's "Eyes Without a Face", possibly the creepiest and most beautiful horror film I've ever seen and the only one I know of about plastic surgery. (And, for those of you who've seen, I had my eyes on the theater floor for the entire surgery scene!)
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Post by so lacklustre »

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Post by bobster »

I can easily top that...there's an Italian film from the seventies that goes under a bunch of titles with a very similar theme to "Village" -- but it's most frequent title tells you exactly how disturbing it is...."Would You Kill a Child?"

At the time, I was just sort of repulsed by the movie which I saw at a screening, but a lot of people at the IMDB seem to think it's actually worthwhile.
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Post by El Vez »

Demons 2..... Probably the only horror movie to completely gross me out as an adult.

The Ice Storm. Something about the miserable lives of those characters unsettled me very deeply. I remember feeling depressed and antisocial (as opposed to antisocial and the life of the party or depressed and throwin' down old school) for days after seeing it.
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Post by laughingcrow »

Don't Look Now is a good call...anything with unexplained strange violence, like a dwarf with a razor, does it for me on the disturbance front.

Anyone seen Threads, a British film about a nuclear bomb hittting Sheffield..that is almost as worrying as those 1970s Protect and Survive films.

I always find the sound of the metal door opening to reveal Leatherface in Texas Chainsaw Massacre pretty grim too.
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Post by bobster »

I THINK I've seen "Threads" -- honestly can't be sure as I get it mixed up with it's glossier, U.S. equivalent, "The Day After"....

It' a bit too much of a tear-jerker to also be ultra-disturbing, but "Testament" came about as close to combining to two as you can get.
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Post by invisible Pole »

Has anyone seen Pasollini's "Salo" ? (I haven't yet)
This is said to be one of the most perverse and disturbing films ever made.

And if I stay up late enough today (or rather tomorrow as it starts at 0:25 a.m.) I will have a chance to watch "Night Porter", a story of twisted relations between a victim and her oppressor, starring Charlotte Rampling and Dirk Bogarde.
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Post by Goody2Shoes »

The Bad Seed. That creepy little girl is a dead ringer for a kid who lived down the street from me when I was a kid. She told me she was a vampire and, no kidding, she ate rocks and sticks. The movie calls up hideous childhood memories!
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Post by LittleFoole »

Mike Boom wrote:Freaks
followed closely by Eraserhead
Haha...."Gabba Gabba, we accept you, we accept you, one of us..." I was kind of fascinated by Eraserhead...several times...dunno why, but didn't find it "disturbing", just "different" :lol:
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Post by LittleFoole »

OK, OK !!! I remembered the name - a most disturbing movie was George Romero's "Martin" about a young man who "thinks" he's a vampire....can't describe it, but worth checking out if you can find it.
Reservoir Dogs (I think it was Reservoir Dogs...) was kinda disturbing, as well, in terms of the over the top violence....good movie, just unbelievably violent and bloody at the end (I hope this is the flick I'm thinkin' of...LOL)
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Post by bobster »

To me, the most disturbing thing about Reservoir Dogs is simply Tim Roth's performance (and the fact that's covered in blood and looking very, very white, even for an Englishman). One of the most convincing portrayals of extreme pain I've ever seen.

Re: Salo. I get disturbed just READING about that one. High on my "never see" list. Legend has it that Pasolini's lover tried to run him over after the premiere. (Insert joke about "bad reviews" here.)

I've seen bits of "Martin" -- even as a gorephobe, I've been wanting to see that one for years. I may not have seen all that much of his work, but George Romero is a major talent.
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Post by LittleFoole »

bobster wrote:To me, the most disturbing thing about Reservoir Dogs is simply Tim Roth's performance (and the fact that's covered in blood and looking very, very white, even for an Englishman).
.
LOL
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Post by Mr. Average »

It's difficult to forget Reservoir Dogs. The Tarantino stroke of genius was turning Mr. Blonde (Michael Madsen) loose on the cop, dancing a macabre dance to "Stuck in the Middle (With You)" by Stealers Wheel. That was an incredible scene that, somehow, Quentin knew would be amplified by the 'poppy' tune as the soundtrack to mutilation.

Great stuff.

Although (and this is likely a softball for Bobster) I understand that the Reservoir Dogs script is close to a direct knock-off of a Japanese or Chinese film that was never released here but carried the identical storyline.
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Post by bobster »

You're right's it a softball for me...In fact, it's more of a fluffy and delicious matzoh ball...or perhaps a pork bau would be more appropriate.

The film in question is "City on Fire" directed by Hong Kong's Ringo Lam, starring Chow Yun Fat (wearing a demin jacket and bow-tie!). Quentin borrowed the plot, and a few shots, but it's structured completely differently (more traditionally) -- very entertaining, almost as brutal as "Dogs."
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Post by whar »

View Askew's Vulgar.
I had the privelage of attending Vulgarthon in New Jersey, a full day's worth of movies (along with the first showing of Vulgar), and the filled theatre sat in shock.

It's bad enough to see a clown get raped by a group of men, but it's worse when the actor who played the clown is doing a Q&A after the film.
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Post by johnfoyle »

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119167/

Funny Games .

I stumbled on a early evening screening of this in the Irish Film Centre in , I guess , the summer of 1998. I had gone there not knowing what was on , just wanting to see something to pass the time. I can usually watch movies at a remove , as it were , dealing with gross stuff by thinking about the technical elements etc.

Not with this one. I found myself sinking lower and lower in my seat , seeing more and more of it between the fingers I was holding over my eyes. I truly forgot it was a film. Awful things would happen . Then , maybe , something would happen to disrupt the plans of the two central characters - then a 'pause' symbol would appear on the screen , then a 'rewind' and things would be altered to make things 'correct' for the vicious twosome. That kind of head wrecking stuff.

What was accentuating the horror was an announcement beforehand that the film's director was going to be there after the one-off screening to take questions. At first I felt sorry for him because there had been a poor turnout , roughly 20-30 people. It had been a hot day and the auditorium was stuffy. Come the films end I found myself not even wanting to see a person who's mind could concoct such horror. I literally ran from the place, peripherally aware that a beardy , glasses wearing dude was shambling towards the front of the seats. I remember standing, taking deep breaths , out on the quiet street - a cobble stoned , semi-pedestrianised place - as the sun set.

It's a circumstance and a film I'll never forget.
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Post by Otis Westinghouse »

invisible Pole wrote:Has anyone seen Pasollini's "Salo" ? (I haven't yet)
This is said to be one of the most perverse and disturbing films ever made.

And if I stay up late enough today (or rather tomorrow as it starts at 0:25 a.m.) I will have a chance to watch "Night Porter", a story of twisted relations between a victim and her oppressor, starring Charlotte Rampling and Dirk Bogarde.
That's a very sad and powerful film. I love Dirk Bogarde in it. Did you stay awake for it? Saw Salo years ago, yes, it's very extreme, though it didn't shock me as I expected it to. I've always found Passolini to be very interesting, though he seems to have dropped off the radar recently.
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Post by Mike Boom »

Ive seen Salo, at least most of it - I turned it off after the turd eating scene - it made me feel rather queasy, all those turds on the nice white china - ewww.
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Post by Otis Westinghouse »

You should have seen it in the cinema! It makes its point.
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invisible Pole
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Post by invisible Pole »

Otis Westinghouse wrote:
That's a very sad and powerful film. I love Dirk Bogarde in it. Did you stay awake for it?
Nope, I dosed off on the sofa 30 minutes into the film. Not that I didn't like it but I was just too damn tired.
It makes me mad that if you want to watch a really depressing or weird or disturbing film on television you can only do it late at night. :lol:

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 ?
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Post by Tim(e) »

bobster wrote:You're right's it a softball for me...In fact, it's more of a fluffy and delicious matzoh ball...or perhaps a pork bau would be more appropriate.

The film in question is "City on Fire" directed by Hong Kong's Ringo Lam, starring Chow Yun Fat (wearing a demin jacket and bow-tie!). Quentin borrowed the plot, and a few shots, but it's structured completely differently (more traditionally) -- very entertaining, almost as brutal as "Dogs."
And there was a Bollywood film based on Reservoir Dogs called "Kaante"... haven't seen it, but it is supposed to be very good.
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Post by ice nine »

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