Most Disturbing Movies

[callipygias]

I think the most disturbing movies I've seen have been Repulsion (1965), where Catherine Deneuve loses her mind, and Eraserhead, where... I'm not really sure what happens.



BUT! then looking around Amazon for '70s sci-fi I somehow came across something from 1975 called Salo, or the 120 Days of Sodom, that sounds... uh... not good. Really, really not good.

So, what films have genuinely, lastingly disturbed you?

[Jack Burton]

Salo has it's flaws but it is still the best poop-eating movie of all time (yes, better than Pink Flamingos). Other highly recommended Disturb-O-Thons: Last House on the Left (the original, not the diluted remake), I Spit On Your Grave, Ms. 45, Deliverance, and the first hour of Saving Private Ryan.

[joike]

Bits and pieces of most Cronenberg movies! Also Dogville because it was hell to sit through and I'll never forget that. Wouldn't watch it again for any sum under $1,000.
I love Last House on the Left (original). My friend had it shown on the big screen around here not too long ago. A few of our friends opted not to see it because it bothers them. I'm not a fan of I Spit on Your Grave though. It doesn't bother me it just didn't live up to the expectations I had for it. I guess that says something about me .

[pablo]

I haven't seen it but from what I'd read Terry Gilliams' Tideland sounds pretty disturbing. The Panic in Needle Park is not a very pleasant movie either.

[spackle]

I once had a housemate who made a study of disturbing films, so I have seen a few, and actually got to like being disturbed by some of them. They have to be visually disturbing to be genuinely, lastingly disturbing to me. Peter Greenaway is good at making visually disturbing films; A Zed and Two Noughts, and The Cook, The Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover have stuck with me. There's also The Cell, which has very disturbing imagery. The only film I found so disturbing that I couldn't finish it was The Isle, a South Korean film. I'm still disturbed by the scene that made me hit the stop button. Maybe I'm being a weenie, but Salo is one film I think I'll skip.

[Ratso]

[tokiyoke]

Pretty Baby - I felt like taking a shower after watching this one. There was no reason to show such a young Brooke Shields naked so much.

[Torgo]

The original original Ju-On. The television movie that was dubbed "The Curse" in order to avoid confusion with it's theatrical sequel (which is actually Ju-On 3, and now dubbed "The Grudge").

The "Kayako" segment is probably the most disturbing thing ever committed to film. The point where Kayako's murderous husband, who has just killed Kayako and Toshio, calls up the teacher Kobayashi to tell him he has just killed his wife and unborn child because Kayako fell in love with him while craddling the fetus in his arms is a moment that puts every other horror movie ever made to shame. The point afterwards where Kayako's corpse climbs down the stairs and kills Kobayashi is about as intense as movies get, let alone television movies.

I don't like the other Ju-On movies nearly as much as this one (the only one coming close is the afore mentioned first Ju-On film that went theatrical), and the imagery of this movie will probably haunt me for the rest of my life.

[Crowfan]

As a horror movie freak, there isn't a whole lot I find disturbing, with one notable exception. It's something called "The Manson Family" I thought it was a documentary when I first got it, but found out that was not the case. The plot is that some current kids think Manson is cool and they worship him. Manson's story is told in flashbacks. There is also a TV reporter involved, and he criticizes Manson so the kids decide to kill him, which they do at the end. But right in the middle of the movie, as the film shows Manson and his family getting high on the beach, they sacrifice a dog, which looks a lot like a Labrador Retriever. Comes out of nowhere and even though I saw this some years back, I still remember it.

[RafaelH]

Salo 120 days of Sodom is the most disturbing movie I've seen but it is a good movie and it definitely captures how horrible humanity and fascism can be. I wouldn't see it again but I'm glad I saw it even if made me feel so down.

Cannibal Holocaust, Jungle Holocaust and Cannibal Ferox were garbage movies and totally reprehesnible because all of them showed animlas getting butchered for entertainment. I thought they were the most reprehensible but later I got thinking that they also were very effective in doing what they set out to do.

Visitor Q has a scene that I hated ( a rape and murder not necesarily in that order) and I hate the movie but it may be my bias against it.

Africa Addio is reprehensible and racist too boot. And supposedly faked with that intent of making Africans look terrible, that could possibly be the worse. I also read horrible things about I Spit on Your Grave.

[Crowfan]

I saw this a few years ago, and had actually forgotten it until I heard something about it recently. It's a bizarre movie called "Island Of Death" and it's about this couple, who go around killing people who sin. It turns out, however that and this would be a huge


SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!!!!


















But the couple is actually brother and sister and she kills him at the end to run off with a farmer. After I saw it, I needed a shower.

[Chuck]

I Spit On Your Grave is the only movie I ever walked out of in my life, asked for my money back, and had it cheerfully refunded with an apology from the manager.

Salo is passe for me. It's all political. I saw it ages ago, and, like Pink Flamingos, has become just ho-hum to me. (Yes, I'm jaded beyond belief.)

Repulsion is wonderful. Polanski is brilliant.

Eraserhead is the closest thing to a filmed nightmare I've ever seen. (And if you've never seen it projected with an audience: you haven't seen Eraserhead.)

Blue Velvet is pretty disturbing.

But, if you really want disturbing . . . I've been reading about this for awhile now:

io9.com/5509362/first-trailer-from-horrific-human-centipede-makes-us-queasy

I think I'll pass.

[afriendlychicken]

I have two that come to mind. The first is Michael Haneke's The Piano Teacher, starring Isabelle Huppert, There's something about an obsessed, insane, teacher forcing, a type of sex, from a student over and over again that's really disturbing. The ending will put a wonderful bad taste in your mouth. All I can say is he gets what he wants and she gets what she was looking, and heading for, in the first place.

The second one is a great film, probably the best war movie I've ever seen. It's Elem Klimov's Come And See, a movie about the things he witnessed of the German atrocities in Belarussia during WWII. A lot of the events he shows are frightening, and you want to avert your eyes, but you can't. It's filmed like a waking nightmare, and Spielberg would borrow some of that feel for his Saving Private Ryan movie. It's an experience, not just a movie, and I think everyone should see it, at least once. But, be prepared when you do.

[spackle]

Apr 5, 2010 18:15:45 GMT -5 Chuck said:

But, if you really want disturbing . . . I've been reading about this for awhile now:

io9.com/5509362/first-trailer-from-horrific-human-centipede-makes-us-queasy

I think I'll pass.

100% medically accurate... a human centipede? I wonder where they learned medicine.

[Mighty Jack]

Lars Von Trier films often make me feel like complete crap. Especially "Breaking the Waves"