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COry G
27-Aug-2011, 11:34 PM
What does everyone think are the top 3 most disturbing films ever? Personally the only film to bother me was Girl Next Door:D

JDFP
28-Aug-2011, 12:59 AM
My opinion is...

#1 by a LONG SHOT: "A Serbian Film": I absolutely refuse to ever watch it again. Not even for money.

#2 "Salo, or the 120 Days of Sodom" -- extremely disturbing.

#3 "Schindler's List" -- and yes, it's a horror film. It's one of the Top 10 best horror films ever made if you ask me. The horror is ourselves as humans.

j.p.

COry G
28-Aug-2011, 01:45 AM
I've been looking for serbian film but can't find an uncut region 1 disc

JDFP
28-Aug-2011, 02:00 AM
I've been looking for serbian film but can't find an uncut region 1 disc

And hopefully you won't either. You can find, ahem, a copy of it to watch if you know how to look for it. I don't recommend doing so though because it's like the old adage says: "Once you see something, you can never unsee it again." I normally laugh at films like "Hostel" (and during them too) but "Serbian Film" is truly disturbing to me and sick as well. Of course, this makes some people want to see it even more because of all these warnings/cautions about it. It's just a very disturbing film all around and I hope it's never released on DVD/blu-ray for mass consumption for people as it's a film that just shouldn't be seen.

j.p.

Danny
28-Aug-2011, 02:50 AM
i am very desensitised and a lot of films that are shocking i will find more than likely distasteful, pandering or just disgusting. disturbing though? the examples that spring to mind for me are all very similar, if its a dude brutally harming a woman i really have trouble watching it. I suppose that might sound a little sexist of me, but it just ,to be specific, disturbs me in a way i cant quite quantify.
One of i think takeshi miikes films has a man torture a woman in a similar way to a woman torturing a man in audition. but the woman putting needles in a mans eyes didnt bug me, but a man putting needles in a womans gums and under her nails made me look away from the screen. it really bugged me.

Like i said, reading it back that sounds kind of sexist but that kind of sheer brutal violence a man imparts on a woman in those scenes really, really creeps me the fuck out worse than any gore.

Tricky
28-Aug-2011, 01:12 PM
I've heard about that Serbian film and its not something I ever want to see, even reading about the plot turned my stomach. I cant for the life of me think of why anyone would make a film like that, its not even art, its just sick. I'm sure theres probably a market for it though & some freak will be cracking one out over it :barf:

EvilNed
28-Aug-2011, 01:21 PM
Threads.

MikePizzoff
28-Aug-2011, 03:20 PM
A friend gave me 'IRREVERSIBLE' for my birthday a few years ago but I've been to afraid to watch it because, as JP put it, once you see something, you can never unsee it again. Two of my friends pester me to watch it, constantly, so I'm sure I'll give in one drunken night.

Tricky
28-Aug-2011, 03:27 PM
Threads.

I just watched that after you posted and your not wrong (I had to google what it was about first to make sure I wasnt going to find some horrible snuff film or something), I think all world leaders should be forced to watch that when they are elected to make damn sure they know the consequences of their squabbles with other nuclear powers. That film "The road" could almost be a follow on from this. Bleak, depressing, grim & frightening.:eek:

blind2d
28-Aug-2011, 04:06 PM
Um... I don't know... I guess I'm lucky, since the only thing that comes to mind is The Ring.

Danny
28-Aug-2011, 04:22 PM
A friend gave me 'IRREVERSIBLE' for my birthday a few years ago but I've been to afraid to watch it because, as JP put it, once you see something, you can never unsee it again. Two of my friends pester me to watch it, constantly, so I'm sure I'll give in one drunken night.

i believe thats called the "two girls one cup category"

...i wish i could remember the barf emoticon.

shootemindehead
28-Aug-2011, 05:09 PM
When I first saw 'Threads' in 1984 on the BBC, I was very disturbed. It's a very sobering view on nuclear warfare. However, I own it now on DVD and give it a spin every so often. I recommend it wholeheartedly.

The same cannot be said for 'A Serbian Film' though.

For 'Irreversible', the violence can be hard hitting, but there is only one scene in the film that can be really called disturbing and it goes on for quite a long time.

MikePizzoff
28-Aug-2011, 06:50 PM
For 'Irreversible', the violence can be hard hitting, but there is only one scene in the film that can be really called disturbing and it goes on for quite a long time.

That exact scene is why I'm extremely hesitant to ever watch it.

COry G
28-Aug-2011, 07:10 PM
Irreversable is a fantastic piece of cinema. Great acting, pacing stoy and camerwork. The "Sceen" in question is brutal, and clocks in at 9min long. It is still a fantastic film that I would reccomend to anyone.

clanglee
28-Aug-2011, 08:57 PM
Aftermath. . . . .Just disgusting. Even though the corpses look a bit rubbery and fake. . . bloody necrophilia is not my bag.

Purge
29-Aug-2011, 02:57 PM
Threads.

Glad someone else has seen it. Only movie that ever gave me nightmares.

That along with Cannibal Holocaust and especially Men Behind The Sun make my list.

Mike70
29-Aug-2011, 05:12 PM
i'm very old school in my horror choices. i'll go with "the exorcist" which i watched for the first time when i was young and home alone at night for one of the first times.

put me off of green kool-aid for like 6 months or so.

the newer "breed" of horror movies bore the literal shit out of me. the overuse of gore and violence in the modern horror movie is a symptom of a lack of both imagination and storytelling ability.

JDFP
29-Aug-2011, 05:16 PM
the newer "breed" of horror movies bore the literal shit out of me. the overuse of gore and violence in the modern horror movie is a symptom of a lack of both imagination and storytelling ability.

I'd add over use of cheap CGI and T&A and send out an AMEN! to this.

j.p.

COry G
30-Aug-2011, 01:41 AM
Aftermath great film. I saw on Amazon Serbian film is coming out uncut on blu ray October 25 here in the USA. I will be picking it up as curiosity has got the best of me

MinionZombie
30-Aug-2011, 09:58 AM
Clang - nice avatar. :)

Disturbing films eh?

I've only managed I Spit On Your Grave once to date ... Cannibal Holocaust I've seen a couple of times now. That's a disturbing film, and while the shock factor has worn off, it's still very powerful to this day.

That Takashi Miike episode from Masters of Horror was disturbing in a wince-inducing way and a gross-out way too - if you've seen it, you'll understand why.

August Underground - now that's fucking disturbing - I did feel physically sick after watching it, and it was really depressing too. I only made it about 30 minutes into the first sequel and just shut it the hell off and never returned to it.

The description of A Serbian Film depressed me, and haunted me, so I don't think I'll ever watch the movie - I have no desire to see it.

Eraserhead was quite disturbing. I watched it when I was 15, but in several sittings over several months. I could only manage 5 to 10 minutes at a time, and then it'd be a week or two before I'd resume ... but I've been meaning to rewatch it now that I'm much older and much more versed in Lynch's work ... but aged 15 it just freaked me out ... but I kind of dig that it did. :D

Eden Lake is a disturbing film - quite depressing too - very bleak. Speaking of bleak, aye, The Road is very bleak (but it's also very good, even if the book is definitely superior) ... The Road is a tough slog at times (it's like a 'real' apocalypse, rather than a 'movie apocalypse'), but there's a sense of catharsis to the whole experience that makes it decidedly worthwhile and moving.

COry G
30-Aug-2011, 10:16 AM
August Underground didnt phase me in the least. The effects were top notch, but I always wondered why would a killer talk so much. The Convenience Store sceen where he kept shoving the kids face in his girlfriends ass yell"Sniff her ass" while the guy gagged and coughed made me laugh, and took away the whole tone of the film. Canibal Ferox to me was a little harder to take then Canibal Holicaust.

blind2d
30-Aug-2011, 11:42 AM
Eraserhead's not disturbing... It's just fun. I was pumped throughout. Or at least after the first ten minutes.

Tricky
30-Aug-2011, 11:52 AM
I found Jacobs Ladder pretty disturbing too, not in the same way as a lot of those other films mentioned, but it does mess with your head!

COry G
30-Aug-2011, 11:54 AM
Requiem For A Dream did depress the hell out of me

Yojimbo
30-Aug-2011, 07:29 PM
Die Blechtrommel (THE TIN DRUM) was disturbing when I first saw it in High School - but a cool film all the same. Less disturbing now after repeated viewings, but still freaky.

Cronenberg's Videodrome and Naked Lunch were disturbing too.

I had never heard of Serbian Film, but it sounds like a real downer.

rongravy
30-Aug-2011, 07:51 PM
I only read the wiki synopsis of it, and that was disturbing enough. It's sad to me that some sick ass people out there probably jack it to shit like that. I also didn't like the Hills Have Eyes remake, for the rape scene. I never saw the original, but it disturbed me that some audience members seemed to really be into it. WTF is wrong with people today?!?!?

bassman
30-Aug-2011, 07:56 PM
I don't really watch too many disturbing movies, I guess. I remember 'Poltergeist' really got under my skin. More so than 'The Exorcist' did, actually. I didn't forget it for weeks. That also says alot for a PG rating...

'Requiem for a Dream' made me fear needles, 'Kids' made me fear vaginas, and The Devil's Rejects had a certain disturbing scene. I guess that's all I got....

LouCipherr
30-Aug-2011, 08:06 PM
That Takashi Miike episode from Masters of Horror was disturbing in a wince-inducing way and a gross-out way too - if you've seen it, you'll understand why.

YES! That was pretty fucked up (I believe it was called "Imprint") - I think most of his films are like that.

Anyone on here see Ichi The Killer? I mean, WTF?! :lol:

clanglee
30-Aug-2011, 11:56 PM
YES! That was pretty fucked up (I believe it was called "Imprint") - I think most of his films are like that.

Anyone on here see Ichi The Killer? I mean, WTF?! :lol:

ICHI is cool. . . .but Audition is way more fucked up. . .love that movie. Oh. . just watched another Mike movie this weekend. 13 Assassins. . . still has some sick stuff in it. It was more Kurosawa than Mike to me. Great movie.

COry G
31-Aug-2011, 12:19 AM
Audition was great so were Ichi and imprint. I picked up 13 Assasins but haven't watched it yet. Good to know there are other Mike fans out there

MinionZombie
31-Aug-2011, 10:15 AM
I must see 13 Assassins at some point, and yes Lou, I have seen Ichi The Killer - it's pretty mental, alright. :p

AcesandEights
31-Aug-2011, 01:45 PM
I've had Ichi the Killer queued forever and I just don't know if I'll like it. I'm more of a violence/gore as a means, as opposed to a message sort of film-goer, so I don't think I'd enjoy or appreciate a lot of the films discussed herein.

LouCipherr
31-Aug-2011, 03:49 PM
I must see 13 Assassins at some point, and yes Lou, I have seen Ichi The Killer - it's pretty mental, alright. :p

Yes it was... I think "mental" is almost an understatement! :lol:

Oh, and clang - I have 'Audition' at home, and have had it for over a year, but haven't watched it yet. I'm sort of afraid of what's in it, just based on "Imprint" and "Ichi" - I can't IMAGINE wtf this nut case did in Audition 'cause I've heard it's a lot more fucked up so-to-speak and Imprint & Ichi... *shudders*

Andy
31-Aug-2011, 04:08 PM
Id quite like to the serbian film and yeah ive read up on it on wiki.

Its been quite a long time since i was shocked or genuinely disturbed by a movie.

Tricky
31-Aug-2011, 06:32 PM
http://sharetv.org/images/posters/the_war_zone_1999.jpg

That ones pretty disturbing too, I caught it on TV late one night a few years ago & it left me feeling a bit grim

kidgloves
31-Aug-2011, 07:05 PM
A Serbian Film is actually a very well made movie and quite good. Yes the content is sick but its too easy to get sidetracked and offended by certain scenes and ignore the rest of the movie. Its a visual and audio bombardment as well.

COry G
31-Aug-2011, 07:30 PM
The one that dissapointed me the most was August Underground. The effect were good, but it ws laughably bad in parts

shootemindehead
01-Sep-2011, 09:06 AM
Yes it was... I think "mental" is almost an understatement! :lol:

Oh, and clang - I have 'Audition' at home, and have had it for over a year, but haven't watched it yet. I'm sort of afraid of what's in it, just based on "Imprint" and "Ichi" - I can't IMAGINE wtf this nut case did in Audition 'cause I've heard it's a lot more fucked up so-to-speak and Imprint & Ichi... *shudders*

Ah, relax Lou. There's little in 'Audition' that you wouldn't have seen before.

However...and I say this as someone who isn't really a fan of Asian horror...it suffers from the same drawback that most Asian horror films do, bad pacing. I gave up on Asian horror years ago because I'd noticed that, in the one's that I'd watched anyway, nothing was happening for about an hour and then in the last third, there was a few shock moments. It can be a crushingly boring format. 'Ring' was especially guilty of that. Utterly tedious film.

That said, I did enjoy 'Audition' for what it was and it's probably one of the better crop of the original J-Horror films.

MinionZombie
01-Sep-2011, 10:09 AM
Yeah - Audition wasn't the wince-inducing experience I was led to believe it was, and I agree with Shoot - the pacing is loooooooooooooooooooooooong. For the most part it's like a melodrama about a lonely father looking for love, and then at the end it gets creepier until the blow out scene for which the film is most famous. That scene is a good scene, but it is prefaced by a lot of stuff that's as if from a totally different genre ... there's a long old wait for the well known bit to happen.

blind2d
01-Sep-2011, 01:13 PM
Oh hey, I just thought of some! Or one. Um, an animated movie called 'When the Wind Blows' or some such. I mean it's sweet and sad, but... disturbing too if you think about it.
'1984' was a good movie, but the book's more engaging...
Oh, 'A Clockwork Orange', maybe. ...Maybe.

LouCipherr
01-Sep-2011, 02:17 PM
Ah, relax Lou. There's little in 'Audition' that you wouldn't have seen before.

Hmmm, well, in that case perhaps I should dive in and see what it's all about. It was just one of those cases that you "hear things" about it, then after seeing Imprint & Ichi, I thought, "do I really want to watch Audition? Am I that much of a glutton for punishment?" :D


However...and I say this as someone who isn't really a fan of Asian horror...it suffers from the same drawback that most Asian horror films do, bad pacing. I gave up on Asian horror years ago because I'd noticed that, in the one's that I'd watched anyway, nothing was happening for about an hour and then in the last third, there was a few shock moments. It can be a crushingly boring format. 'Ring' was especially guilty of that. Utterly tedious film.

Yay! I'm not alone! I never got that much into Asian horror myself. I've seen a few, but most of them are just "meh" - the Ring was exactly like you stated: tedious to watch.



Yeah - Audition wasn't the wince-inducing experience I was led to believe it was, and I agree with Shoot - the pacing is loooooooooooooooooooooooong.

Hmmm, why do I have the feeling now you guys are setting me up for something I'll be sorry I watched? :lol: :D

AfterMovieDiner
01-Sep-2011, 02:58 PM
I don't like torture porn as it has no real plot, characters you don't care about and generally an absence of talent and point involved so I won't be rushing out to watch any of them any time soon.
The only films that really disturb me are remakes and anything featuring Justin Beiber or any other flash-in-the-pan tweenlette who should be in school and not singing about stuff they haven't experienced yet. Oh and I saw a trailer for that new film New Year's Eve (from the makers of Valentine's Day) and didn't stop throwing up.

MinionZombie
01-Sep-2011, 06:14 PM
hehe, well, I'm mostly glad I watched it ... I'm not fussed either way I guess, but now that I've seen it I can say I've seen it ... it's kind of like "you haven't seen Audition?!", but now I have so you don't have to have that. It's interesting to watch and there are some excellent parts to it, but it is very slow paced and not the big whoop you are led to believe it is by so many critics ... that's not a complaint about slow pacing, but the trailer makes Audition out to be a different film ... slow pacing isn't necessarily a bad thing. Indeed, one of my favourite movies is The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, which has a very stately pace to it, but it's bloody brilliant.

AcesandEights
01-Sep-2011, 08:17 PM
Let it be noted that reading the wikipedia plot summary of "Audition" was enough for me.

Andy
01-Sep-2011, 08:51 PM
Let it be noted that reading the wikipedia plot summary of "Audition" was enough for me.

Im the total opposite, after reading that and looking at a couple of clips on youtube this a movie to add to my to-watch list.

I get so bored of the same stale routine most movies go through, anything genuinely different or shocking is worth a watch in my opinion.

COry G
01-Sep-2011, 09:51 PM
Audition Is a great film but yes the trailer does make itout to be more exciting than it is. Grotesque is a cool film.

Danny
01-Sep-2011, 10:00 PM
Im the total opposite, after reading that and looking at a couple of clips on youtube this a movie to add to my to-watch list.

I get so bored of the same stale routine most movies go through, anything genuinely different or shocking is worth a watch in my opinion.

audition is a very good film, but not to watch if you want to see gore or something 'fucked up'. dont get me wrong the final is so out fo nowhere you will probably yell "what in the fuck!" when it happens but the film itself is much more subtle and nuanced than the usual thriller.

Andy
01-Sep-2011, 10:17 PM
Im not a total gore hound although i do enjoy seeing somebody get eviscerated, i like movies that are genuinely outside the box, shocking, trying something different (whether it works or not) or that just make you think.. i tend to dislike the mainstream hollywood direction of movies which feels very tame, stale and repetitive to me which i think is what draws me to alot of asian cinema, low budget video nasties and cult movies.

Both audition and a serbian film are on my to-watch list, but for different reasons.

COry G
01-Sep-2011, 10:45 PM
I also love movies that are fresh and different. Which is why I think Insidious is the best horror film in the last 5 or 6 years

Danny
02-Sep-2011, 01:11 AM
Im not a total gore hound although i do enjoy seeing somebody get eviscerated, i like movies that are genuinely outside the box, shocking, trying something different (whether it works or not) or that just make you think.. i tend to dislike the mainstream hollywood direction of movies which feels very tame, stale and repetitive to me which i think is what draws me to alot of asian cinema, low budget video nasties and cult movies.

Both audition and a serbian film are on my to-watch list, but for different reasons.

Shock and gore are two very different things for me. As a filmmaker myself i see gore as a cop out. a cheap alternative to subtlety and nuance any dumbass with a camera can do instead of an actual artist with a camera can back a scene truly disturbing with something as simple as a smash cut to someone sitting still or something- see things like the shining or the original funny games.
Good horror should be either a theme park haunted house ride that aims to shock or something that makes you think and decades later says something about the point in history when it was made. the rest is gore porn made only to repulse and disgust. I know there are people who enjoy that almost to the point of jerking off over it but personally its just padding and filler that makes a film lowbrow life filler to graze on disgusting sights for an hour before going back to watching reality tv or something.

Tricky
02-Sep-2011, 08:13 AM
the rest is gore porn made only to repulse and disgust. I know there are people who enjoy that almost to the point of jerking off over it.

Thats the reason I don't like a lot of films like that, I don't mind gore at all when its used effectively, hell I loved Rambo 4 and thats brutal, but I worry about these people who seem to get off on torture/gore porn and how desensitized they seem to be towards the content in these graphic films. And its not just that, they get off on the real life videos shown on websites like Ogrish or Rotten.com which is actually real people being killed or badly injured

shootemindehead
02-Sep-2011, 09:34 AM
I've never agreed with the statement that "gore isn't shocking". When done correctly, it damn well is. It also isn't a "cop out" either. Again, when it's done correctly, it can be a very painstaking exercise that can backfire terribly and needs a good hand on the tiller to come off well. There's no "cop out" involved.

However, that said, a lot of cheap horror films tend to use gore as titillation, just as they use sex and nudity for the same purposes. But films like that aren't and should be held up as some sort of example. They haven't got a lot of feathers in their cap, so they are forced to use every trick in the book. But, because of budget limitations, their efforts at a shocking gore effect usually comes off as lame, just like the production, acting, directing, etc.

What I dislike more than any attempt at gore, is the awful attempts at "shock" that appear in a lot of horror films. Like the "magic teleporting bad guy" shtick that gets rolled out far too often. The huge axe wielding nutter has managed to creep up on the girl in the knickers and bra in two seconds without making a single sound! Or the "Loud noise when the film goes quiet" malarkey, that anyone who has seen even a few horror films can expect, as it's arrival is usually notified with the silence that precedes it.

"Bloody" and "gore" when done correctly can be shocking. Take Quint's death in 'Jaws'. Bloody and terribly shocking...and the shark shows up in the next scene with bits of Quint stuck in his teeth! Or, Rickles death in 'Day of the Dead'. Very gory, very shocking. Or even Auretta Gay's death in 'Zombie Flesh Eaters', where she gets her throat ripped out by a maggot infested corpse, again very shocking.

So, both "shock" and "gore" can well done and...er...shocking, if there's a steady hand on the wheel.

LouCipherr
02-Sep-2011, 12:53 PM
the rest is gore porn made only to repulse and disgust. I know there are people who enjoy that almost to the point of jerking off over it but personally its just padding and filler that makes a film lowbrow life filler to graze on disgusting sights for an hour before going back to watching reality tv or something.

This is the exact reason i thought the first Saw was good, but the rest of them were completely and utterly worthless. Gore can be shocking, yes, but there's the little thing called "desensitizing" that makes too much of it just look like a bunch of hokey bullshit that is neither shocking nor scary.

Used in the right portions, gore kicks ass and really adds intensity of the film. When the entire movie rests on how much gore they can provie (ala the Saw 2 though 312 or whatever one they're up to now - and that's not to say they're the only film that's fallen victim to this) it becomes nothing more than a boredom piece.

Danny
02-Sep-2011, 01:41 PM
This is the exact reason i thought the first Saw was good, but the rest of them were completely and utterly worthless. Gore can be shocking, yes, but there's the little thing called "desensitizing" that makes too much of it just look like a bunch of hokey bullshit that is neither shocking nor scary.

Used in the right portions, gore kicks ass and really adds intensity of the film. When the entire movie rests on how much gore they can provie (ala the Saw 2 though 312 or whatever one they're up to now - and that's not to say they're the only film that's fallen victim to this) it becomes nothing more than a boredom piece.

and that right there is the point of it. SAW is gory. but its never about the gore. its a mystery about the identity of the killer and how the people got where they are. Gore has its place. but only when its used for connotations of some story progression. If its just pandering "YO BRAH CHECK. THIS. SHIT. OUT how gross is this?" its ,well, literally disgusting. Film is meant to be an artful medium. Gore for the sake of gore is like going into a fine cuisine restaurant and ordering the big mac and fries. If you want lots of flesh and juices go to redtube and save your movie going dollars for someone who worked to tell you a story and had something to say.
Not every random douchebag with a film camera and some strawberry syrup who, like, totally has this gnarly idea for this, like, gorady ass gore flick.

LouCipherr
02-Sep-2011, 02:03 PM
and that right there is the point of it. SAW is gory. but its never about the gore. its a mystery about the identity of the killer and how the people got where they are.

*nods head in agreement*

Yup, that is exactly why the first Saw was good and the rest of them were garbage. At least in the first one, there is a need to find out who the killer is, and a need to figure out why this particular killer is stalking/trapping/kidnapping these people and putting them through hell. That idea, which made the first one interesting and a good watch, was lost once Jigsaw was identified and it was explained why he was doing what he was doing. After that, it became a series of movie about "what cool new torture devices will be in this one?" and "how are they going to torture the people in the next flick??" and "how disgusting can we make this next torture device?"

Boring. *yawns*

I think the Final Destination movies suffered from this exact same issue. The first one I enjoyed, the rest of them went from "meh" to eye-rolling "oh dear jesus, are you kidding me?"

I will say, however, that the highway accident in part 2 was BY FAR the BEST sequence of a highway pile-up I have ever seen put on film, period. Other than that, back to "meh"



:lol:

Ragnarr
02-Sep-2011, 04:15 PM
Tough OP, but I would have to agree that "Threads" was likely the most disturbing to me. Nothing cheery about radioactive fallout.

MinionZombie
02-Sep-2011, 06:12 PM
You know what was good about Final Destination 3 though? Mary Elizabeth Winstead. :kiss:

She made that flick worthwhile seeing, even if the rest of it was pretty ropey. The fourth one was outright pish, mind ... it became really pointless, because there was no chance of the characters escaping with their lives - so what's the point?

Saw was a kick arse horror flick - really chilling and original at the time. Sadly it did become about the violence, and the plots became so ludicrously over-complicated - indeed, like with Final Destination, it become impossible for anyone to survive the traps (or survive all that far beyond 'surviving' Jigsaw's 'lessons') ... so again, there was no point in anything. Redemption was impossible for some characters, while others - who apparently were so clued up on Jigsaw's modus operandi and intentions - blundering through the 'obviously wrong door' (quite literally in Saw 4, IIRC).

SymphonicX
04-Sep-2011, 12:29 PM
Most disturbing films for me aren't at all horror films. Horror is horror...boo...jump...cat in an alleyway...etc...real "horror" for me is caused by the human story, not by the method of death (although we'll get to that later).

Gummo, and Kids are two movies that are quite socially horrific. I think Gummo wins out for just plain fucked up-ness.

Usually we base disturbance in a film on one or two shocking moments or contexts within a film - such as Saw, Grotesque, I spit on your Grave etc etc etc - these are usually acts of extreme violence portrayed in movies and played out to be as visceral as possible...sometimes these scenes betray the rest of the movie.

But for me a real sense of horror comes from the unrelenting coldness of human nature as portrayed in films like Kids- those socially poignant, gritty urban tales based on the reality of poverty and crime....Irreversible is another one - I am truly horrified by what Monica Belucci's character goes through in that film, seeing a guy get his ankles twisted off in Saw just makes me flinch and grit my teeth. The true horror (as I think George Romero realised years ago) isn't the extreme act of torture resulting in gore, but the extreme situations which boil up and ruin lives and result in an extreme act of violence.

Horror movies by and large don't deal with this - they can invent a character or monster to inflict willful pain by any means necessary - but its the realistic nature of events portrayed in urban dramas which are far more horrifying and far more poignant.

Purge
04-Sep-2011, 04:19 PM
You know what was good about Final Destination 3 though?

Yeah--the end credits.

Mike70
04-Sep-2011, 06:20 PM
Gummo, and Kids are two movies that are quite socially horrific.


Kids is a hella fucked up movie. i remember thinking to myself after watching it: "if that is representative of even 25 % of young people today, the future is totally fucked."

MinionZombie
04-Sep-2011, 06:48 PM
Kids is a hella fucked up movie. i remember thinking to myself after watching it: "if that is representative of even 25 % of young people today, the future is totally fucked."

Aye, it is pretty grim. Although I'd reckon it speaks for less people than you fear - it still speaks for some, which is tragic and scary in it's own right ... but it's kind of like here in the UK, we have these two shows ... on the one hand you've got "Skins" about a bunch of 16-18 year olds who seemingly just drink, do drugs, and shag their way through Bristol ... meanwhile there's The Inbetweeners (which is a current UK box office hit with it's movie spin-off), which is about 16-18 year old virgins who talk a lot about sex but are useless at doing anything 'cool'. "Skins" is what a lot of teens want their lives to be, whereas "The Inbetweeners" is what their lives actually are ... that's not a totally hard and fast rule (there are some running utterly wild), but generally speaking my points stands ... but as I also said, even if "Kids" only accounts for a relatively small minority, it's no less disturbing.

I remember in the 1990s where "Kids" was coming out - it was hugely controversial here in the UK.

shootemindehead
04-Sep-2011, 07:17 PM
Yeh, I'd say that most kids are pretty shocked at 'Kids' as well.

blind2d
05-Sep-2011, 01:44 AM
Dude yeah, Gummo! When the Gonz wrestles that chair... classic!
Bunny-boy is awesome too. A real skateboarding movie without skateboarding in it, man. I need to make a list of those... 'Charlie's Angels' might be on it...

Yojimbo
05-Sep-2011, 06:06 PM
Dude yeah, Gummo! When the Gonz wrestles that chair... classic!
Bunny-boy is awesome too. A real skateboarding movie without skateboarding in it, man. I need to make a list of those... 'Charlie's Angels' might be on it...
Forgot about Gummo, which was pretty disturbing too. And Julien the Donkey Boy- not much in terms of story but also pretty disturbing.

Did anyone else find The Tin Drum/ Die Blechtrommel to be freaky like I did?

-- -------- Post added at 11:06 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:05 AM ----------


I worry about these people who seem to get off on torture/gore porn and how desensitized they seem to be towards the content in these graphic films. And its not just that, they get off on the real life videos shown on websites like Ogrish or Rotten.com which is actually real people being killed or badly injured

Scary, isn't it? Isn't it?

I am more disturbed by those that get off on these films than the films themselves.

Tricky
05-Sep-2011, 06:47 PM
Has anyone else seen "The War Zone" which I posted about earlier in the thread? Thats pretty socially horrific, about the secret incest within a family (the father is fucking his daughter) and the fall out which comes with it, the girl being very messed up by it, and then so is her brother when he finds out its happening, its a tough watch

Andy
06-Sep-2011, 08:23 AM
I Tried to watch on youtube last night but after watching parts 1-4, i found that the rest of the movie had been deleted by youtube themselves.

Didnt see anything disturbing but didnt get that far.

shootemindehead
06-Sep-2011, 04:30 PM
Has anyone else seen "The War Zone" which I posted about earlier in the thread? Thats pretty socially horrific, about the secret incest within a family (the father is fucking his daughter) and the fall out which comes with it, the girl being very messed up by it, and then so is her brother when he finds out its happening, its a tough watch

Yes and it's a very good film.

-- -------- Post added at 05:30 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:21 PM ----------


I Tried to watch on youtube last night but after watching parts 1-4, i found that the rest of the movie had been deleted by youtube themselves.

Didnt see anything disturbing but didnt get that far.

Try here Andy

http://stagevu.com/video/zfcqoqhlspiy

Mike70
07-Sep-2011, 05:05 PM
I remember in the 1990s where "Kids" was coming out - it was hugely controversial here in the UK.

Kids was one of the few times in eons that i've broken my rule about watching fictional things set in the present time or in "real life." i usually will not watch flicks set in the present day that deal with the real world. in fact, i usually steer clear of films like that as i would a bum with bleeding sores. i live in the real world and have to deal the issues of life and the present day all the time. i have no desire to watch that play out on the screen. that is the reason i pretty much only watch horror and scifi movies and shows.

Purge
07-Sep-2011, 11:24 PM
I saw Kids in theaters--with my mom! My friend and I were too young to get in by ourselves--we were sixteen at the time, and it was strictly 18+--but she actually respected the film for what it was.

clanglee
08-Sep-2011, 03:27 AM
Kids was one of the few times in eons that i've broken my rule about watching fictional things set in the present time or in "real life." i usually will not watch flicks set in the present day that deal with the real world. in fact, i usually steer clear of films like that as i would a bum with bleeding sores. i live in the real world and have to deal the issues of life and the present day all the time. i have no desire to watch that play out on the screen. that is the reason i pretty much only watch horror and scifi movies and shows.

The exact reason that I read mostly fantasy and scifi. . .I have no desire to invest my time in something that I could easily live through. Meh, boring.

Darksider18
01-Nov-2011, 10:58 AM
I would have to say the japanese horror film The Audition. A creepy japanese schoolgirl butchering and torturing men in a few of the most obscene ways! Like for example, chopping off a guys tongue and arms, clotting the damages so he doesnt bleed to death, wrapping him in plastic and keeping him chained in an empty room in her apartment. And occasionally feeding him, wait for it.... Her own vomit.

wayzim
03-Nov-2011, 11:53 AM
i am very desensitised and a lot of films that are shocking i will find more than likely distasteful, pandering or just disgusting. disturbing though? the examples that spring to mind for me are all very similar, if its a dude brutally harming a woman i really have trouble watching it. I suppose that might sound a little sexist of me, but it just ,to be specific, disturbs me in a way i cant quite quantify.
One of i think takeshi miikes films has a man torture a woman in a similar way to a woman torturing a man in audition. but the woman putting needles in a mans eyes didnt bug me, but a man putting needles in a womans gums and under her nails made me look away from the screen. it really bugged me.

Like i said, reading it back that sounds kind of sexist but that kind of sheer brutal violence a man imparts on a woman in those scenes really, really creeps me the fuck out worse than any gore.

Ya, but it's a good kind of sexist.

The fad of torture porn, by and large, seems to have been that - simply a fad, but I could'nt see the value in it.
The shock element by itself just doesn't make some a Horror film. IMHO.

Wayne Z
"This ain't no Midnight Horror Flick or Creature Double Feature, babe. "
DeadFall;Foreshadow

Sammich
05-Nov-2011, 08:49 AM
I saw Kids in theaters--with my mom! My friend and I were too young to get in by ourselves--we were sixteen at the time, and it was strictly 18+--but she actually respected the film for what it was.

The 3 Larry Clark movies I recommend are Kids, Bully, and Ken Park. Bully is actually based on a real incident of high school kids plotting and then carrying out a murder of one of their classmates.

Danny
06-Nov-2011, 01:08 PM
Has anyone else seen "The War Zone" which I posted about earlier in the thread? Thats pretty socially horrific, about the secret incest within a family (the father is fucking his daughter) and the fall out which comes with it, the girl being very messed up by it, and then so is her brother when he finds out its happening, its a tough watch

kinda reminds me of a swedish film we watched either early in uni or late in college film studies class called 'festen'. was a wedding i think and either shot like a wedding video- or just shot very poorely- as the father of the bride turned out to be a child molester who abused her many times. if thats the right flick im thinking off. i dont think i saw anything disturbing but the way it was shot made it seem so much more creepy as the you see the new husband just slowly turn to his wife and he looks at her with this expression like a blend of 'you're damaged goods' and 'i cant believe you never told me' its so unnerving as a film.

MinionZombie
06-Nov-2011, 04:09 PM
kinda reminds me of a swedish film we watched either early in uni or late in college film studies class called 'festen'. was a wedding i think and either shot like a wedding video- or just shot very poorely- as the father of the bride turned out to be a child molester who abused her many times. if thats the right flick im thinking off. i dont think i saw anything disturbing but the way it was shot made it seem so much more creepy as the you see the new husband just slowly turn to his wife and he looks at her with this expression like a blend of 'you're damaged goods' and 'i cant believe you never told me' its so unnerving as a film.

We watched Festen during my time at uni ... it was part of a week we did on the Dogme 95 Manifesto - a list of rules drawn up by some Danish filmmakers on how to produce a new kind of film, and part of it was all about shooting naturalistically.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dogme_95

The 10 Rules:

1) Filming must be done on location. Props and sets must not be brought in. If a particular prop is necessary for the story, a location must be chosen where this prop is to be found.
2) The sound must never be produced apart from the images or vice versa. Music must not be used unless it occurs within the scene being filmed, i.e., diegetic.
3) The camera must be a hand-held camera. Any movement or immobility attainable in the hand is permitted. The film must not take place where the camera is standing; filming must take place where the action takes place.
4) The film must be in colour. Special lighting is not acceptable (if there is too little light for exposure the scene must be cut or a single lamp be attached to the camera).
5) Optical work and filters are forbidden.
6) The film must not contain superficial action (murders, weapons, etc. must not occur.)
7) Temporal and geographical alienation are forbidden (that is to say that the film takes place here and now).
8) Genre movies are not acceptable.
9) The film format must be Academy 35 mm.
10) The director must not be credited.


It was a good plot, but I personally found the Dogme 95 Manifesto itself to be a bit pretentious.

Danny
06-Nov-2011, 05:05 PM
i remember that, the natural lighting thing stuck with me, the natural sound however not so much.

krisvds
06-Nov-2011, 06:09 PM
Lars Von Trier made some very disturbing films. Antichrist, Dogville and Dancer in the dark are brilliant and utterly disturbing.
Anyone seen 'Pusher' by Nicholas Winding Refn? It's a documentary style film that follows a drug pusher in Copenhagen... Relentless.

EvilNed
06-Nov-2011, 06:40 PM
Dogma 95 is bullshit. As Lloyd Kaufman said "We've been making shitty movies for 20 years before Dogma came around."

http://www.dogpile95.com/content/bow-wow-vow

krisvds
07-Nov-2011, 04:12 PM
Hahaha. Lloyd Kaufman rocks.
But so does Von Trier. Different planets really.
DOgme 95 bullshit? Go watch 'The Idiots' or 'Festen.'

Danny
07-Nov-2011, 04:17 PM
Dogma 95 is bullshit. As Lloyd Kaufman said "We've been making shitty movies for 20 years before Dogma came around."

http://www.dogpile95.com/content/bow-wow-vow

well he would certainly know about shitty movies.

EvilNed
07-Nov-2011, 06:08 PM
Hahaha. Lloyd Kaufman rocks.
But so does Von Trier. Different planets really.
DOgme 95 bullshit? Go watch 'The Idiots' or 'Festen.'

I live in Sweden and probably more familiar with Dogma films than you realize.

krisvds
08-Nov-2011, 06:08 AM
Sure. Wasn't implying that you werent either Ned. It's just that I admire most of Von Triers work and find it strange how anyone can dismiss stuff like The Idiots as 'shit.' Or Vinterberg's Festen for that matter.
That said, Von Trier himself quickly dismissed his own Dogme rules when he made his later films and stated multiple times in interviews that he found the rules too restrictive. He was probably the first to dismiss his own manifest. The weirdo.
Didn't know you lived in Sweden either. Perhaps you'll find this funny. ;-)


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBcJZ3-cJKc

krakenslayer
08-Nov-2011, 10:07 PM
Oh God, where do I start? I don't lose sleep over films like A Serbian Film and The Human Centipede, because they are trying to freak me out, the atrocities depicted on screen are presented as terrible things to scare and disturb the viewer. The most disturbing films for me are those that present sexual violence and brutal exploitation in such a way as to promote it as a positive end in itself. They are worse because they reflect more negatively upon they world in which I live: it reminds me there is a market people out there who actually get off on this shit.

One example would be Emanuelle in America (1977), Joe D'Amato's unofficial rip-off/spin-off series from the French Emmanuelle softcore sex dramas (note the two "M"s vs. just one). D'Amato took a very different approach to the originals, throwing in a lot of Italian-style violence and 70s hardcore insert material to spice up the product. Most of it was sleazy but harmless fun, but this entry in the series took things way, way, way too far. Emanuelle goes to a swingers retreat and stumbles upon a couple "enjoying" themselves in front of an cine projector playing a real snuff film. Now this isn't your shakycam 8mm-style footage with tasteful cutaways to Nick Cage flinching at the nasty parts, this is full on brutal porno with forced fellatio, brandings, boiling oil poured down a syphon into a bound woman's throat, etc. It's intercut with the couple making out and shots of Emanuelle getting turned on by the experience, and it's shot like porno with lingering, leering close-ups, clearly designed as a sadistic turn-on as opposed to a shock scene. Other scenes include a REAL Animal Farm-style bestiality sequence and Emanuelle learning to enjoy being raped by the producer of the snuff films while watching a woman being murdered in the next room through a one-way mirror. Ultimately, no one really seems to care about the victims and at the end Emanuelle just sort of shrugs her shoulders and chalks it all up to experience. Bear in mind, this wasn't some seedy shot-on-video August Underground-type dealy that no one ever saw, but a shot-on-film movie with a good budget, globe-trotting locations and a theatrical release. Man, the 70s were fucked up.

EDIT: It turns out the woman used in the "snuff" scene had no idea how brutal the sequence was going to be. D'Amato kept it hush-hush until she was actually tied up and couldn't fight back so he would get a more "genuine" reaction, then set a bunch of heavies on her with a loose set of directions and an instruction to refrain from actually killing her (very nice of him, huh?). She suffered so much physical and emotional trauma that she successfully sued the producers and D'Amato narrowly avoided prison.

MinionZombie
10-Nov-2011, 05:27 PM
Kraken - coincidentally, Emanuelle in America has just been passed through the BBFC - with 4:31 of cuts.

http://www.bbfc.co.uk/website/Classified.nsf/ClassifiedWorks/b84f67b2e4b37ab980257943005d9d2b?OpenDocument&ExpandSection=2#_Section2


Company chose to make cuts to four sequences to remove sight of unsimulated sexual detail (fellatio, vaginal penetration, masturbation, ejaculation) in order to obtain an '18' classification. Cuts made in accordance with BBFC Guidelines and policy. An 'R18' classification without these cuts would have been available. In addition, company was required to make compulsory cuts to a scene of bestiality (unsimulated sight of a naked woman masturbating a horse), in accordance with BBFC Guidelines, policy and current interpretation of the Obscene Publications Act 1959. Company was also required to make compulsory cuts to four sequences of sadistic and sexual violence (naked women being humiliated, tortured, raped, branded, strangled, mutilated, and being violently penetrated with spiked objects, poles and metal hooks). Cuts required in accordance with BBFC Guidelines, policy and the Video Recordings Act 1984.

krakenslayer
10-Nov-2011, 11:45 PM
Kraken - coincidentally, Emanuelle in America has just been passed through the BBFC - with 4:31 of cuts.

http://www.bbfc.co.uk/website/Classified.nsf/ClassifiedWorks/b84f67b2e4b37ab980257943005d9d2b?OpenDocument&ExpandSection=2#_Section2

That's interesting and I'm not surprised about those cuts. When it was originally submitted in the 1970s it was cut so badly that the final version retained not a single reference to snuff films (the movie's main MacGuffin). Since the movie no longer made any sense, the distributor was forced to do some hasty creative re-editing to change it from a movie about Emanuelle (a reporter) doing an expose on snuff films to Emanuelle trying to get the scoop on the main antagonist's sexual prowess :lol:

MissJacksonCA
17-Nov-2011, 02:33 PM
For me...

Lake Eden... the way the film ended seemed relatively and horrifically realistic...

They ... the French film... the closeness of this film to the 'real story' it was based upon I can only speculate to but the facts of the real story and how entirely plausible that it happened is awful...

The Last House on the Left... the remake... I took my mom to see this (despite knowing what would happen) and I kind of thank God a bit that she fell asleep during what was one of the most nail biting horror scenes of all time because its horrific on so many levels... for me that like what... 10 minutes? Was such that irregardless of the rest of the movie was entirely disturbing...

I know you said three but I found Deadgirl to be so beyond fuct up and disturbing that I literally couldn't watch the entire thing in one viewing. I'm not someone who will walk out or quit halfway through a movie but man this one tested my ability to not vomit. Wow... yeah that movie... wow... for me harder than maybe for someone else to take as I'm a female but on top of that its hard because that may have been a zombie chick but the isht people do, that's whats disgusting

MinionZombie
17-Nov-2011, 04:59 PM
I'd agree on DeadGirl - I wasn't creeped out by it to the extent of feeling sick, but it is a very disturbing film ... perhaps one of the most disturbing things about it is that you don't expect it to be so disturbing, and it's not obvious about it up front either (i.e. you know that The Human Centipede II is going to deliberately be offensive and gross etc, but DeadGirl almost has this freaky 'coming of age' vibe to it ... but in a really grim context :shifty:).

AcesandEights
17-Nov-2011, 05:03 PM
Been trying to get up the gumption to watch Dead Girl, knowing what I know about the plot. Just sounds frickin' icky.

Andy
17-Nov-2011, 05:14 PM
When you guys are talking about DeadGirl, are you on about the 1996, 2006 or 2008 movie?

Im trying to find out abit more about it :)

MissJacksonCA
17-Nov-2011, 05:22 PM
Deadgirl 2008...

Ooo good point it does have a 'coming of age' sense to it... good call man

Danny
17-Nov-2011, 05:33 PM
this didnt bug me too much but fucking shat my mates right up when we watch it projected on a sheet in the woods on halloween: The Strangers. Never before has home invasion been so thoroughly disturbing.

'cept maybe home alone 7 :lol:

nCU0k_jbCUo

MinionZombie
17-Nov-2011, 05:49 PM
Andy - DeadGirl (2008) - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0896534/

Here's what I thought of the movie when I watched it last December:

http://deadshed.blogspot.com/2010/12/hextuple-bill-mini-musings-december.html

DeadGirl:
A fellow Homepage of the Dead poster mentioned this undead indie flick, so I took a punt and checked it out on DVD. A couple of high school outcasts ditch school and go to the local abandoned mental hospital to drink, smoke and cause havoc. During their exploration of the basement they discover a naked girl bound to a metal gurney - but as it turns out, she's undead.

I'm sure from that sentence you can surmise what happens afterwards, and it is indeed bizarre at least, and rather gross at most. Turns out this is from the Trent Haaga's back catalogue of banked screenplays - Haaga being one of those who has had a lot of experience at long-running exploitation merchants Troma. Indeed at times it feels like a Troma movie - but only after an entirely different, more serious coming-of-age tone has been established - and this is where the movie feels uneasy, but not in terms of the content (as disturbingly weird as it is). When these 'Troma moments' strike (albeit rarely) you feel wrong-footed, so ultimately the film feels a little confused as to what kind of horror flick it wants to be - but nevertheless by the final act it's gotten itself back on track and figured itself out to a solid conclusion.

It's got Shiloh Fernandez (from Skateland) and Noah Segan (from Cabin Fever 2, and Brick) in it.

Andy
17-Nov-2011, 05:55 PM
Has anyone seen the 2009 japanese film "Grotesque"? I hear its supposed to be very disturbing, i also beleive its one of the few movies still banned in the UK.

MinionZombie
17-Nov-2011, 06:49 PM
Has anyone seen the 2009 japanese film "Grotesque"? I hear its supposed to be very disturbing, i also beleive its one of the few movies still banned in the UK.

Haven't seen it, and I don't have much interest in it either - and yes, it was banned by the BBFC.

http://www.bbfc.co.uk/AVV261504/ - be warned there are 'plot' spoilers on the page, but here are some non-spoilery comments from the BBFC:


The chief pleasure on offer in viewing GROTESQUE appears to be the spectacle of sadism (including sexual sadism) for its own sake. The work has minimal narrative or character development and presents the viewer with little more than an unrelenting and escalating scenario of humiliation, brutality and sadism.


After careful consideration, it was judged that to issue a certificate to GROTESQUE, even if statutorily confined to adults, would involve risk of harm within the terms of the VRA, would be inconsistent with our Guidelines and would be unacceptable to the public. The BBFC considered whether cutting the work might address the issues but concluded that as the unacceptable material featured throughout, cutting was not a viable option and the work was therefore refused a classification.

You can find the trailer on YouTube (looks like it's all about gore and violence) - colour me uninterested.

fulci fan
19-Nov-2011, 02:38 AM
Men Behind the Sun
Nanking Massacre
the baby burning scene in Daemonia
the dick cutting scene in I Spit on Your Grave (the og)
I haven't seen Siberian film or Salo

Danny
19-Nov-2011, 02:57 AM
remembered this, this apparently bugged the shit out of my uncle when he was little

Vb00H6mCTM8

jded
19-Nov-2011, 09:08 AM
I've seen films with disturbing scenes, yet as a whole they are not.
Two come to mind that in my opinion are disturbing throughout.

Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer and High Tension

I know for sure there's more but I'm having trouble remembering them at the moment.

Have any of you heard of or browsed at www.tlavideo.com/cult
If you dig this stuff they got it there and a whole lot more. And just to let you know they have A Serbian Film.
I don't think I'll be checking this one out, but be my guest, they got it.


Indeed, one of my favourite movies is The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, which has a very stately pace to it, but it's bloody brilliant.
You knows it! Got that right! One of my favorites also. It's a long one too but you could care less. It grabs hold of your attention.

Andy
21-Nov-2011, 09:02 AM
Ive caught quite a few of the films mentioned here, probably the sadist psychopath inside me but whenever i hear about a banned or disturbing movie, im compelled to see it :lol:

To be honest i think the infamy of these movies far outstretches the actual movie itself. Grotesque, audition and the guinea pig movies especially have reputations which far exceed what you actually see, i would say none of these films are any worse than hostel or classics like i spit on your grave and last house on the left.

And yes im aware the 3 examples i gave are all japanese horror, i like japanese horror :p

Mike70
23-Nov-2011, 04:49 PM
one film that i've not seen mentioned in this thread is "Hotel Rwanda." if you are not disturbed/moved by that movie, you should probably check your pulse.

being a father, the end of "the mist" is absolutely and totally unsettling.

EvilNed
23-Nov-2011, 06:34 PM
To be honest, I thought Shooting Dogs was more disturbing than Hotel Rwanda. I thought they played it down a bit in that one.

Mike70
23-Nov-2011, 07:20 PM
To be honest, I thought Shooting Dogs was more disturbing than Hotel Rwanda. I thought they played it down a bit in that one.

i've not seen Shooting Dogs and to be honest, one film about rwanda plus all the documentaries i've seen is enough.

daz of the dead
07-Jan-2012, 09:10 PM
for me
1.the exorcism of emily rose
2.the last house on the left original

cant really think of anymore lol

Arco
07-Mar-2012, 10:37 PM
Spoilers ahead...








Movies like the Dead Trilogy, Friday the 13th movies, Halloween movies, even giallo or slasher flicks are all kind of monster movies to me. Even stuff like the Prowler, or My Bloody Valentine are monster movies to me. There's usually a clear enemy, an [I]other[I], something or someone to defeat, and perhaps even survive. Even if it's another living human doing the killing, not a vampire or a swamp creature or something, that human is crazy. A simple enemy with a simple objective.

Henry, Portrait of a Serial Killer, was one of the first films I saw that kind of bothered me. I wanted some final girl to kill him, or at least beat him, like he was Jason Vorhees, but nobody did. It was annoying. I love horror like nothing else, but I like some kind of return to normalcy at the end. The killer should usually be stopped or killed or escaped from, except in rare cases. But now everything has to be such a fucking downer.

And it sucks, because I'm one of those people who, if I hear about how disturbing something is, I'm genetically hardwired to check it out. But I'm almost always annoyed and disappointed.

I recently saw Martyrs and A Serbian Film. They were both well-executed films. The production values were good, the acting good, the gore good, the tension level high, all that stuff. They were good movies. But fuck both of them.

In A Serbian Film, the protagonist and his family are put through some of the most awful shit imaginable. Then they die.

In Martyrs, the protagonist is put through some of the most horrific shit imaginable. Then she's skinned alive and presumably dies. What's the point?

In Human Centipede (In my estimation, a black comedy anyway), the victims are put through suffering beyond the pale. Then they die.

Even those stupid Final Destination movies. Everybody always dies. There's no real way to survive. In those Japanese ghost movies, the ghosts are almost always invincible. Everybody dies.


What's the point of such horror, if there's no resolution or redemption or triumph? Maybe I'm old fashioned. But I don't need my movies that realistic. I already know that there are incredibly awful things happening to people right this very minute all over the world with no justice, redemption, or triumph. I, personally, don't feel that my entertainment needs to reflect the horrors people inflict on each other in such a true light. If I want truth, I'll read the news.


I guess movies like this don't disturb me as much as piss me off for reminding me what kind of world I live in when I just want to be entertained.

I like when Fran and Peter fly off in the helicopter. I like when Sarah and the boys are chillin' on the island at the end. I like when Dr. Loomis blows himself and Michael Myers straight to hell, and Laurie survives. After all the killing, all the horror, what's so wrong with a happy (or Happyish) ending every once in a while?

Like I said, I'm old.

MinionZombie
08-Mar-2012, 09:58 AM
I've never seen A Serbian Film, and I don't want to either. Just a description of it depressed me so much it took me hours to shake the funk.

Martyrs on the other hand I found to be a haunting slice of French horror. It's an incredibly tough film at times, but I guess the whole "point" of the film is...
...attempting to reach a place of such total, abject pain and torture, that the victim crosses over the line between life and death, and can report back to the vicious upper class society types who run this heinous experiment ... no doubt seeking immortality ... there's also parts of a revenge film in there, with elements of obsession getting the better of you and so on.

I've only seen it once mind you, but found it to be quite effective ... it was grim, and it did linger in the mind uncomfortably for a little while, but ultimately I thought it was something a bit more clever in the 'torture porn' genre (ugh, hate the descriptor).

The Human Centipede was full of style, but the film itself was shite. Dieter Lazer was great as Dr Heiter, and it looked really good, but the plot (as minimal as it was), was boring and you didn't care one shit about the victims who just seemed to be wretched arseholes, aside from the Japanese guy at the head of the sequence ... ...although when that guy shoots himself, I shouted out "you selfish bastard, you had the easiest place in the sequence, now you've condemned two other people to a slow and torturous death!" ... no interest in seeing the second movie, which appears to be shock over substance, and good god there's going to be a third friggin' movie. :rolleyes:

I know what you mean about getting some sort of redemption ... I don't mind a bleak ending to a horror movie, but I do feel you as a viewer, sat there for 90 minutes or so, deserves some sort of 'achievement' for the victim ... I recently watched "F" and...
...not only do you not find out who the parkour hoody hoodlums are, only one of the gang gets killed (presumably at least, he is stabbed repeatedly in the stomach) ... meanwhile the rest just get away with it. That said, the ending had a nice sting in the tail. The protagonist has finally saved his daughter from the besieged school and is now having to get her to hospital before she dies, but then they see her mother's car outside the school ... the father chooses to leave the mother and save the girl - so it was a nice, bleak (ever-so British in that way) ending, but it was too little too late as the rest of the flick relied far too much on sparse plotting, a lack of tension, and cliched, idiotic characters and plot contrivances.

Arco
08-Mar-2012, 10:19 AM
I understood what Martyrs was about, but I guess what annoyed me was that I would have liked to at least get an inkling of what the martyr whispered. It was very important. Especially after hearing the rhetoric of the nuts and watching their methods and seeing the effect of whatever was whispered. It seems to me that the writers couldn't come up with anything and decided to 'let' us come up with our own conclusions. Weak.

Anyone seen 'The Woman?' It was a disturbing little flick. It also had a somewhat more decent resolution than most new horror movies.

shootemindehead
08-Mar-2012, 12:01 PM
I've never seen A Serbian Film, and I don't want to either. Just a description of it depressed me so much it took me hours to shake the funk.

Martyrs on the other hand I found to be a haunting slice of French horror. It's an incredibly tough film at times, but I guess the whole "point" of the film is...
...attempting to reach a place of such total, abject pain and torture, that the victim crosses over the line between life and death, and can report back to the vicious upper class society types who run this heinous experiment ... no doubt seeking immortality ... there's also parts of a revenge film in there, with elements of obsession getting the better of you and so on.

I've only seen it once mind you, but found it to be quite effective ... it was grim, and it did linger in the mind uncomfortably for a little while, but ultimately I thought it was something a bit more clever in the 'torture porn' genre (ugh, hate the descriptor).

The Human Centipede was full of style, but the film itself was shite. Dieter Lazer was great as Dr Heiter, and it looked really good, but the plot (as minimal as it was), was boring and you didn't care one shit about the victims who just seemed to be wretched arseholes, aside from the Japanese guy at the head of the sequence ... ...although when that guy shoots himself, I shouted out "you selfish bastard, you had the easiest place in the sequence, now you've condemned two other people to a slow and torturous death!" ... no interest in seeing the second movie, which appears to be shock over substance, and good god there's going to be a third friggin' movie. :rolleyes:

I liked 'Martyrs' too and I think it has suffered badly at the hands of its "Guerrilla" type classification. I thought it was a very interesting approach to the usual shocker type film. It is rough at times alright and it does stay in the mind for a while...but in a world where one sits through so many instantly forgettable dross, that alone is a good thing.

I still think the 'The Human Centipede' was a good film, which has also been let down by the hideous attention it received, which was lapped up by its director. The despair of the ending was quite powerful, I felt and I really did feel horrible for the person left alive in the sequence.

Like yourself, though, one was enough.

Loved the South Park pisstake.

MinionZombie
08-Mar-2012, 06:14 PM
Shoot - yeah I did enjoy the South Park piss-take ... as a matter of fact, there's a documentary called "6 Days To Air: The Making Of South Park" out there that was shot during the making of that very episode. The doc is a great watch for any South Park fan.

shootemindehead
09-Mar-2012, 01:07 AM
Just finished watching that doc.

I would not like to work in that office. Christ, I thought my dealines were bad!

MinionZombie
09-Mar-2012, 09:46 AM
Just finished watching that doc.

I would not like to work in that office. Christ, I thought my dealines were bad!

As crazy as it looks, I'd quite like to be a writer on that show. The atmosphere in the office seems pretty cool, despite the hectic schedule, and the 'strike hard and fast' approach seems kinda fun ... challenging, but rewarding. :)

shootemindehead
09-Mar-2012, 03:48 PM
Maybe being a writer would be ok, but an animator? No bloody way.

MinionZombie
09-Mar-2012, 04:31 PM
Maybe being a writer would be ok, but an animator? No bloody way.

Oh yeah, no way would I want to animate on the show or any of that ... not in my area of creative interests anyway, but yeah, watching that documentary I was really digging the vibe of the writing process ... challenging, but fun. :)

zombi3skater
09-Apr-2012, 02:53 PM
Twilight New moon and Breaking dawn ;) all disturbingly shite. Seriously though I was kinda freaked out by the end of the Ring.

Sammich
14-Apr-2012, 09:25 PM
Another movie is Jack Ketchum's The Girl Next Door (2007) and what makes it very disturbing is that it is based upon the actual incidents surrounding the Sylvia Likens case. Kids under peer pressure nonchalantly and even showing enjoyment in committing acts of brutality and torture.

Core
15-Apr-2012, 07:35 AM
Here is my unusual disturbing movie list with trailer links.
I can make this list longer but these are the basic ones for me.

ICHI THE KILLER -------- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=coiVr5Pl4-s
DEADGIRL ------------- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2SSL6Ipnvw
KILL LIST -------------- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqkqF--v1tg
THE HOUSE OF DEVIL -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SOur3WwZvM
ANGEL'S HEART -------- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vp0LXxkx7yA
JACOB'S LADDER ------- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJztRnDxdM8
REC 1 ----------------- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xks0qWq7CQI

THE BIG DOLL HOUSE (okey i was joking with this one) -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHo0k4SG5cs

krakenslayer
17-Dec-2012, 08:12 PM
Snowtown. Seriously. Snowtown. Watch it. It's not a complete gorefest, but it shows-up the likes of Human Centipede and August Underground for the juvenalia that they are, and gets deep into the true horror of murder, from the perspective of an unwilling participant. It is probably the most disturbing film I have ever seen, and I've seen Cannibal Holocaust, Salo, Serbian Film, and all the rest. It's a true story, too.

fvu_tBQgZyI

MinionZombie
18-Dec-2012, 10:07 AM
I've been meaning to see Snowtown sometime. Will make sure I get around to it.

I agree with you on Human Centipede and August Underground - the former was all style and nothing more (although Dieter Lazer was really cool in the flick as the mad doctor, but that was the only genuinely good and interesting thing about the movie) ... the latter was just repulsive and aggressively immature in its sheer mean spiritedness. It actually made me feel physically sick too, but all it was was just a bunch of exceedingly nasty nastiness with zero plot. Some might say that's the point, but is it a point that needed making? Some might say it's "like real life", but, well... :rockbrow:

There does seem to be a vein of low budget/indie horror that just goes for sheer mean spirit and trying to be as repulsive as possible ... it reminds me of a theory I had as a teenager (and as well all know, we're all numpties when we're teenagers) - my plan for getting into the film industry then was 'make the most repulsive movie ever - get press' ... I grew out of that moronic idea quite quickly (an idea that was based on a lack of deeper appreciation and understanding of films like The Evil Dead - I've always loved that film, but initially it was more about the controversial past of the film as being "the number one video nasty" etc - but again, very quickly, I broke through those lazy teenage misinterpretations and saw it for the wonderful piece of horror filmmaking that it truly is).

Too many low budget horrors out there just illustrate how their creators never outgrew their immaturity, and furthermore, it shows they have nothing more in their filmmaking arsenal than gross-out shocks. It's like they're the Geordie Shore, no, The Valleys, of the filmmaking world. Pish, basically. :elol:

MissJacksonCA
24-Apr-2013, 04:05 AM
Deadgirl... it was literally hard to watch... which is weird because the Last House on the Left and I Spit on Your Grave never bothered me...

MinionZombie
24-Apr-2013, 10:28 AM
Yeah, "Deadgirl" was a good flick ... but well grotty. *shudders*

I've only seen "I Spit On Your Grave" once - it's pretty relentless and wears you down. I'll get around to a second viewing one day probably...

"The Last House on the Left" is an easier watch. It's actually pretty silly/funny in places (those bumbling cops), but it's a great film. The remake was utterly pointless and had no teeth.

MissJacksonCA
25-Apr-2013, 02:47 AM
I spit on your grave is totally work a second watch but much like last house... the remake was something awful... I think Deadgirl is just disturbing because its basically the defenseless being violated ...

Teeth was disturbing but in kind of a hilarious way...

Automaton Transfusion was disturbing as well... the scene with the baby... imho I think 'shock value' is over rated and oft inappropriately used

shootemindehead
25-Apr-2013, 09:44 AM
'Deadgirl' was pretty unenjoyable for me. I just didn't like the basic premise. But 'I Spit on Your Grave' still has the power it originally had, even if some of the performances are pretty bad.

'Last House on the Left' is, in it's original form a very overrated picture. That slapstick nonsense was an awful idea. It's not funny, it's just stupid and terribly out of place. It's so bad that I actually made a cut of the film myself and excised all of that crap, and it's a much better picture.

Wes, I'm available any time you need me.

MinionZombie
25-Apr-2013, 10:01 AM
I would agree that the comedic stuff is very out of place in LHOTL - it's the least part of the movie - but it's never really bothered me. If anything it makes the violent stuff all-the-more disturbing and unsettling.

"Teeth" - yeah, a bit wince-inducing - although I can barely remember a single thing about it. There was a similar sort of scene in Piranha 3DD (which is an awful movie, a total wasted opportunity) where a Piranha latches onto a dude's business from inside Katrina Bowden.

I know what you mean about shock value though MissJackson, some folks think it's just a grotty image and that's enough, but really that's just completely immature. Now, you can have grotty images work well when they make sense or are necessary to illustrate the results of the scenario presented to the audience.

I've not seen A Serbian Film, and I never-ever want to either, but reading about it I can't fathom how the stuff in that movie relates in any way to social commentary about the plight of the Serbian people, as the Director claims. :rockbrow: Even if that is intended, such ideas and images will completely get in the way of the message you're trying to convey.

shootemindehead
25-Apr-2013, 11:48 AM
I've not seen A Serbian Film, and I never-ever want to either, but reading about it I can't fathom how the stuff in that movie relates in any way to social commentary about the plight of the Serbian people, as the Director claims. :rockbrow: Even if that is intended, such ideas and images will completely get in the way of the message you're trying to convey.

I'd say that the director of 'A Serbian Film' took his cue from Passolini, who tried to pass of the same nonsense with 'Salo: 120 Days of Sodom', which puports to be about fascism in Italy, but is really just a set of deliberately disturbing imagery and scenaros, designed to shock.

Either way, I have no desire to look at 'A Serbian Film' too.

krakenslayer
25-Apr-2013, 09:27 PM
Melancholie der Engel, AKA. The Angels' Melancholy. Supposedly makes Serbian Film, Salo and Human Centipede 2 looks like episodes of Goosebumps. Features torture scenes in which actors are physically wounded (presumably they knew what they were getting into), genuine coprophagia and urophilia ("matter" is shown in close-up leaving the correct orifice and entering incorrect ones with no cutaway), unsimulated sex (including some involving a colostomy bag), a cat apparently being killed for real (no one seems to be able to confirm whether or not it was fake), and so forth. And it's a real narrative film (not a shock video or porno) that goes on for three and a half hours, with lots and lots of talking between the horrors.

Can't say I'll be ordering a copy.

Morto Vivente
29-Apr-2013, 03:34 PM
I hadn't seen Deadgirl before so I gave it a look. It was challenging to watch and a potent/extreme commentary, for me it didn't pull any punches. Needless to say it didn't find it's way onto my re-watch movie list.

Mike70
04-May-2013, 11:48 PM
Hotel Rwanda. incredibly powerful, moving film. all the more disturbing because that actually happened in real life.

i don't know that i can find something "disturbing" that is based entirely in fiction. I think that a lot of movies that use excessive gore in an attempt to freak people out border on obscenity. that is what i consider obscene: depictions of human torment, torture and mutilation used as "entertainment." it's disgusting, perverse, and totally shameful.

krisvds
17-May-2013, 07:53 AM
i don't know that i can find something "disturbing" that is based entirely in fiction. I think that a lot of movies that use excessive gore in an attempt to freak people out border on obscenity. that is what i consider obscene: depictions of human torment, torture and mutilation used as "entertainment." it's disgusting, perverse, and totally shameful.

Agreed.
Saw 'Hunger' the other day, the Steve McQueen film where Fassbender plays Bobby Sands. Seriously disturbing. Very good film.

Geordie9
18-Oct-2013, 11:37 PM
probabaly Serbian Film