Extreme and disturbing films

[krakenslayer]

Okay, we're all horror buffs here, we can all deal with a level of blood and grue that would make most mainstream audiences run for the toilets. But no matter how hardened I get to violent and disturbing content, thanks to the wonders of the internet I always seem to be discovering new vistas of obscure and shocking films that make my previous discoveries (which, at the time, seemed like the hardest stuff I could imagine) pale in comparison. I'm not talking about real gore stuff or pornography (although some of these films do cross that line), just movies that really push the boundaries of acceptability, taste and decency.

There are a lot of really sick, morally corrupt films out there, far beyond the furthest horizon of the mainstream. Some of them I have seen, others I have read about but refuse to watch. I know it seems silly, but I do sometimes worry that I will desensitise myself too much, so I do tend to draw the line at a certain point - usually where extreme sexual violence is involved in an erotic context - because I think it's healthy to maintain a certain degree of sensitivity to such images. On the other hand, I am fascinated by just how far some film-makers will go, and I often find myself reading up on some of the most fucked-up films imaginable online.

Here are a few of my discoveries, ones I have seen are marked with an asterisk (*):

* Guinea Pig: Flower of Flesh and Blood - A samurai warrior lacerates, dismembers, and eventually kills a young woman over an agonisingly slow 42 minute running time. There's no overt sexual element to this one (thankfully), but the gradual mutilations are incredibly realistic and anatomically accurate. There really is no story whatsoever, it's purely torture for torture's sake, but I guess it is worth a watch as a special effects film.

* Salo: 120 Days of Sodom - This one was made by a mainstream(ish) European director with a large budget and lavish sets and distributed by United Artists. Nonetheless, it's probably one of the sickest movies I've ever seen. It's also a very, very good anti-fascist allegory. But this list isn't about quality - it's about grossing you out. And the film does the very well too - it's packed with scenes of torture, sexual perversion, violence, dehumanisation, murder, voyeurism, insanity and, of course, the famous forced poop-eating scene. Not a film to watch with the in-laws.

Tumbling Doll of Flesh - I would probably get arrested if I tried to import this film. Very obscure and rare, it started out as a hardcore "roughie", which was then optically censored to remove genital shots and disseminated at conventions as an extreme horror film. It is basically a fake snuff movie, but very very nasty. The first half of the movie is just nasty, demeaning sex scenes with no blood or actual violence. Then, halfway through, the actress is hit with a baseball bat, dismembered, disemboweled, molested (in the intestines...), and eventually killed. Unlike Guinea Pig, the film was obviously made not to shock, but to arouse. This really is a film made by perverts, for perverts, and no one else. Even if I could get a copy, I probably wouldn't watch it.

* Bunman: The Untold Story - This is a very strange film, based on a true life case of murder and cannibalism. Essentially, a guy murders and dismembers the owners of a family-run Chinese restaurant and puts them into meat pies. He then feeds the pies to some bumbling comedy cops who seemingly wandered in from another movie. An employee snitches and he repays the favour by ramming a fistful of chopsticks into her "undercarriage". The cops finally arrest him and put him in a cell with a violent thug who was related to one of the victims. After several beatings, he begins to recount the story of his crimes - involving many slow, lingering, frighteningly realistic murders (including children); sickeningly real special effects; detailed and brutal rape sequences; and lots of intense cannibalism scenes that make Cannibal Holocaust look like Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. The odd thing about this one is that the scenes with the cops are actually quite funny and lighthearted, which you'd think would ease the depressing tone of the film, but actually makes the dark scenes even more distressing by giving us a point of contrast.

There are a lot more but it's getting late and it's taken me a good hour to write this list of four films.

Discuss.

[slickwilly13]

I watched clips of Flower of Flesh. What I saw was very brutal. It was actually based on a true event. Apparently, the director received a real life stuff film and based the movie on what he watched.

Question about the Bunman movie. The rape scenes involved who?

[Purge]

Cannibal Holocaust, Men Behind The Sun, and Threads, which is a British TV flick about nuclear war. It's the only film that ever gave me nightmares.

Scene from Men: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blI1CLco4W4&feature=PlayList&p=F04C721346B106A2&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=33

[Danny]

the worst ive seen is through people in class, always more shocking because its real, the worst of which being mr. hans, where a guy is fucked to death by a horse.
horrifying, but at least i didnt go looking for it.

though earlier i saw a newsreel form the 40's about the russian experiments on bringing separate portions of dead things back to life, that was pretty creepy.

[slickwilly13]

the worst ive seen is through people in class, always more shocking because its real, the worst of which being mr. hans, where a guy is fucked to death by a horse.
horrifying, but at least i didnt go looking for it.

though earlier i saw a newsreel form the 40's about the russian experiments on bringing separate portions of dead things back to life, that was pretty creepy.

I am confused here. You saw clips in school? And who was fucked by a horse? Hans?:confused:

[Danny]

I am confused here. You saw clips in school? And who was fucked by a horse? Hans?:confused:

its like this, in every college and university course theres the kid that shows other classmates fucked up shit, you dont ask, they just do, such examples being, meatspin, two girls 1 cup and the always charming goatse.
The guy waits till the proff leaves and puts on a video called mr. hans, which is just a guy bent over something whilst a man-horse rails him up the ass, afte which he dies in hospital.
I had no desire to see it, no desire to remember it, but like i said, if you know it or not, theres one guy in every class that looks this shit up.


two girls one cup is still the worst of them.:barf:

[clanglee]

two girls one cup is still the worst of them.:barf:

I have not, as of yet, seen this. Nor do I ever plan to.
:barf:

[blind2d]

I am, however, intrigued... any links for me?
Hey, so what if I'm that kid?

[Danny]

I have not, as of yet, seen this. Nor do I ever plan to.
:barf:

i attended high school in the digital age, so ive seen damn near the most fucked up junk you will ever see, but this is the only thing to have me run from the monitor gagging and almost barfing at.

seriously, even thinking about it makes me nauseous.

...bet'cha mo's seen it.

[krakenslayer]

I watched clips of Flower of Flesh. What I saw was very brutal. It was actually based on a true event. Apparently, the director received a real life stuff film and based the movie on what he watched.

Question about the Bunman movie. The rape scenes involved who?

In Bunman, the rape scene that sticks out is the previously mentioned one involving the chopsticks. The might have been one or two more, but none that such an impact as that.

The scene from that movie that REALLY disturbed me was the murder scenes involving children - the Bunman character kills a whole series of six-to-eight year old children with a meat cleaver in a very slow and protracted scene. The camera does NOT shy away as you keep expecting it to, and the children are either amazing actors or they were genuinely frightened during the filming of the scenes. That part left a nasty taste in my mouth for quite a while after I saw it.

As for the Flower of Flesh and blood, the director did say that it was based on a real snuff film he received and submitted to the authorities, but that's just hype. He said the same thing about the first Guinea Pig film - The Devil's Experiment - too. He claimed that in both cases he handed the tape to police who started a murder investigation, but no such case exists. Thank god...

[Mike70]

In Bunman, the rape scene that sticks out is the previously mentioned one involving the chopsticks. The might have been one or two more, but none that such an impact as that.

The scene from that movie that REALLY disturbed me was the murder scenes involving children - the Bunman character kills a whole series of six-to-eight year old children with a meat cleaver in a very slow and protracted scene. .

bunman. that is one seriously fucked up movie. if you think i'm think i'm kidding, re-read kraken's description of the child murders. they are brutal, graphic, and completely disturbing. bunman makes henry: portrait of a serial killer look like sesame street.


i don't favor censorship of movies like bunman, even though i have serious doubts about their value as art.

[major jay]

Men Behind The Sun

I only made it half way thru this one. They try to sell what's on screen as depictions of actual war atrocities, but this flick is nothing but despicable exploitation.

[krakenslayer]

bunman. that is one seriously fucked up movie. if you think i'm think i'm kidding, re-read kraken's description of the child murders. they are brutal, graphic, and completely disturbing. bunman makes henry: portrait of a serial killer look like sesame street.


i don't favor censorship of movies like bunman, even though i have serious doubts about their value as art.

Yeah, like I said before, what made it even worse for me was the lightheartedness of some of the scenes. Honestly, there are part of the film that are actually genuinely amusing, with wisecracking cops reminiscent of something from a Bad Boys-style crime movie. There's something about it, like it lulls you into a false sense of security, thinking this is just a gross out black comedy, you can handle it... then BAM! It turns into the darkest film you've ever seen. It's like the movie sweet-talks you then punches you in the face. Did you find the same thing with this movie, Mike?

[Purge]

I only made it half way thru this one. They try to sell what's on screen as depictions of actual war atrocities, but this flick is nothing but despicable exploitation.

I disagree. It's a film that's as important as it is hard to watch. My government gave them immunity in exchange for the test results, too. :(

[krakenslayer]

I disagree. It's a film that's as important as it is hard to watch. My government gave them immunity in exchange for the test results, too. :(

That's a movie I've wanted to see for a while. Although the fact that it's a true story will probably disturb me if I do see it.

Amazingly, the film was actually passed with an 18 rating by the UK's BBFC back in the dark days of the early 1990s when they used to slash and ban much softer films than that on a regular basis. The only thing that was cut in Men Behind the Sun was the animal cruelty (cats being eaten alive by rats). Everything else, including the prolonged human experiments and the REAL CORPSE decompression disembowelment were left intact! No idea why, I guess they felt compelled to pass it because of its historical accuracy, otherwise it would be a bit like banning Schindler's List. Unfortunately, the film is still very rare in the UK because it was actually only released in an unsubtitled Chinese language VHS intended for specialist Asian retailers. I guess they didn't think Westerners would be interested?

[Tricky]

I wont watch films that are purposefully extremely disturbing, back in my teens I might have done out of morbid curiousity, but now I just think its sick & would question the mental state of both the directors & the people who buy/download this shit because they get kicks out of watching people being tortured,raped & murdered. These are the same kind of people who would have got jobs as concentration camp guards in Hitlers Germany so they could gleefully watch all that went on there, most of them wouldnt partake in the killings but they sure as hell would get a kick out of watching them :dead:

[MinionZombie]

I've got one to add to the pile...

August Underground ... saw that flick once, took me about three viewing sessions to get through the whole thing, felt actually nauseus afterwards, and have never watched it since.

Only got about 25 minutes into August Underground Mordum (the sequel - there's even a third one) before switching off with a dizzy head and queasiness, and not just because of the videocamera aesthetic.

It does surprise me how rabid the (albeit small) fanbase of the AU movies are for them, and the DVDs are packed with extras, so it seems from the website anyway ... watching that stuff just felt like being assaulted.

This said, I wouldn't be pro-banning it at all, I don't believe it should be banned, but I'm not unhappy with it being a little-viewed niche movie left lying in the grotty, damp corner of indie horror cinema.

[major jay]

I disagree. It's a film that's as important as it is hard to watch. My government gave them immunity in exchange for the test results, too. :(

Don't get me wrong Purge I'm not doubting that these things happened, but did the director have to go to these lengths for realism?

Having a live cat killed by a horde of rats, real rats being burned to death, an actual human corpse disemboweled by decompression, and maybe worse of all a real childs corpse used for an autopsy.

[shootemindehead]

'Men behind the Sun' isn't based on any reality, for god's sake. It's a pure exploitation movie.

[krakenslayer]

'Men behind the Sun' isn't based on any reality, for god's sake. It's a pure exploitation movie.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit_731

Sure they hammed it up a lot, but it was besed on real events, many of them just as atrocious (and moreso) as what you see in the film.

[shootemindehead]

I know about Unit 731 already Kraken.

'Men behind the Sun' is about as much a document of that, as 'Ilsa: She wolf of the SS' is on German concentration camps.

[Doc]

I've heard about these kinda films and just reading about the content they contain gets me nervous and disgusted.:barf: I don't think I can handle watching these type of films and probably never will. This why I don't like viewing any kind of explortation at all and basically, ignore that part of film.

[krakenslayer]

I wont watch films that are purposefully extremely disturbing, back in my teens I might have done out of morbid curiousity, but now I just think its sick & would question the mental state of both the directors & the people who buy/download this shit because they get kicks out of watching people being tortured,raped & murdered. These are the same kind of people who would have got jobs as concentration camp guards in Hitlers Germany so they could gleefully watch all that went on there, most of them wouldnt partake in the killings but they sure as hell would get a kick out of watching them :dead:

Dang, I had a whole 1000-word, well-thought out response detailing my ponderings on this, until I accidentally closed my browser and lost it all! :eek:

Basically - the jist was that I agree with you to an extent: anyone that enjoys that sort of thing at face value is dangerously close to psycopathy.

However, not everyone watches these films for the same reasons. In fact, I'd say that the majority of people watch this sort of thing because it gives them a brief and relatively safe jolt out of their cosy little modern, comfortable lives, reminds them what it's like to be frightened and disturbed, and reminds them how horrible and undesirable TRUE brutality is (unlike "safe" Hollywood films, that actually make violence seem more appealing and "cool"). That's certainly the case for me. My sympathy always lies with the victim. For example, watching films like Last House on the Left and Salo actually makes me feel MORE sympathy for the victims of rape and brutality, because after watching the atrocities acted out so convincingly on film I feel like part of me has been through the ordeal with them. In a nutshell, coming face to face with evil strengthens my urge to resist it, not the other way around.

It's not "entertainment", but I think it can be good for the psyche (although not for everyone). For millions of years our ancestors lived in a world where fear of stark violent death was a constant presence, but that sense of sickening horror at the world has been somewhat quelled in the West by modern civilisation. But it's still there, ingrained deep within us, and sometimes I think it likes to stretch its legs.

[capncnut]

Salo: 120 Days of Sodom - This one was made by a mainstream(ish) European director with a large budget and lavish sets and distributed by United Artists. Nonetheless, it's probably one of the sickest movies I've ever seen. It's also a very, very good anti-fascist allegory. But this list isn't about quality - it's about grossing you out. And the film does the very well too - it's packed with scenes of torture, sexual perversion, violence, dehumanisation, murder, voyeurism, insanity and, of course, the famous forced poop-eating scene. Not a film to watch with the in-laws.
I thought Salo was wonderful too. Proud to have it in my collection.