Most disturbing movie?

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What's the most MORALLY REPREHENSIBLE AND/OR DISTURBING MOVIE you've ever seen?

March 12th 2008 22:32

It might sound like a silly question coming from a horrorphile, but let’s face it; there is the odd movie that crosses the line. To be precise, each person has their own boundaries of what they find truly upsetting, or where a director has taken something too far, and crossed into a territory which can only cause outrage in the viewer.

On one hand horror movies are meant to be confronting and disturbing. There are movies which can skillfully scare the pants off of you with the use of suggestion and implication. And there are movies that mortify you by depicting the most heinous images of physical corruption. So there’s the psychological and there’s the visceral.

Some directors - David Cronenberg is a brilliant example – are very clever at combing both elements in a subtle, but sometimes graphic way, and creating an intense combination of body horror and psychological terror.

Other directors, like Dario Argento, excel (for the most part) in creating very abstract or expressionistic visual and aural narratives where plausibility is thrown out the window and a kind of dream logic determines the mise-en-scene. Argento uses ultra-violence (much of it so extreme it becomes almost risible) to illicit a very calculated response in the viewer; repulsion and abject horror.

And then there are filmmakers who push all this aside and go straight for the groin, kicking the viewer in the balls and spitting in their face. There can be intelligence employed, but it may not be immediately apparent because the viewer is so appalled by what they’ve witnessed.

It takes a lot to shock me … but I can still be shocked.

A movie can genuinely disturb me, but I appreciate what the director has done, and how they’ve done it. Gaspar Noe’s Irreversible (2002) was such a movie. The nightclub murder sequence and the protracted rape scene were palpably repulsive and harrowing to watch, but in the context of the movie they worked brilliantly.

More often than not it is about the context in which actions occur which define how shocking they’ll be.

I Spit on Your Grave (1978) is a movie which I think is morally objectionable. A gang rape scene goes on for an inordinate and totally unnecessary length. Wes Craven’s Last House on the Left (1972) is a movie I find deeply unpleasant with its lo-fi production values and grim visual style depicting the torture-murder of teenage girls. Pasolini’s Salo; or 100 Days of Sodom (1975) is a very difficult film to recommend, unless you’re a hardened cinephile, as it features numerous scenes of juvenile degradation, torture and maiming, but is intelligently constructed, being a dark and subversive allegory for Italian fascism.

You see, it’s all in the context, remember … (he says with a hint of sarcasm)

Is it graphic realism that will cause the biggest upset? Is it unnecessary sexual violence that provokes the most intense outrage? Is it lack of intelligence or hamfisted direction in a filmmaker that makes a movie questionable?

What movie(s) have you seen that have not only turned your stomach, but played utter havoc on your sensibilities? What movie(s) have you seen that have made you angry at how a film of such moral mire could ever have been distributed

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Posted By: Bryn - Category: set-pieces

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60 Comments. [ Add A Comment ]

Comment by tlcorbin

March 12th 2008 22:56

That's easy, the horror documentary, 'An Inconvenient Truth,' Bryn. Raven

Comment by Tracy

March 12th 2008 23:24

Movies and Life

Bais-moi..how I regret seeing that film.

The violence was vivid, confronting and felt so real that I was forcibly affected for days. I'm still not sure of the motivation behind the film, therefore I’m not sure the experience warranted my reactions. I search and watch films that induce learning or represent a different part of society I’m not familiar with, if it makes me uncomfortable or sad, that’s fine with me. I want a reaction, a form of learning.

I want to see aspects of humanity that I may not normally see. I like to be involved in the films I see. However, this film was too graphic for me to find a positive from the experience.

I understand and empathise with some of the aspects of the plot, the two girls were brutally attacked by some men, they decided to get revenge. I can understand that, most definitely. But I think it was the style of the film that was the most disturbing. I didn’t need to see a close-up of the penis and vagina to know it was rape. I could work that out even if the camera wasn’t on them. To use the old adage, ‘sometimes less is more.’

Comment by Nathan 1

March 12th 2008 23:30

Hey,
Good topic. Irreversible I thought was a great film, and whilst the club scene was disgusting and the rape scene was pretty vile, the structure and the and the themes made it an emotional experience. 100 days of sodom just made me want to throw up. I mean making kids eat s**t is a bit too much for me.
The most violent and just about unwatchable film I've seen is Guinea Pig: Flower of Flesh and Blood. This film would test even the most fanatical of gore films. The man carrying out the torture in the film is also the most frightening character I have seen as well. If you want to see something sick then check that out
Nathan

Comment by Damo

March 12th 2008 23:52

Almost anything by Ken Russel but most importantly.
The Devils - Even to this day the financial backers don't want to release an uncut version. It stars Oliver Reed and Vannesa Redgrave (ZZZZZZ times 2) so I should have known what to expect. Torture scenes that seem to wallow obsessively like porn and whose purpose seems to incite hatred. Though any film that spends time (5 minutes I estimated) crushing Oliver Reed's legs with a hammer can't be all bad.

Listomania - A pointless melodrama about Franz List verses Wagna featuring multiple raping of women to death as comedy. And a dance with a giant penis and guillotine. Classy Ken Russell went on to make Tommy.

Greenaway's - A Zed and 2 naughts. So the point of the story was to ensure that people who upset the balance of the universe accidentally should kill themselves? (Not really horrific but I threw it in because I hate this depressing film) The timelapsed decaying animal film were fascinating but little else was. Never want to see another Greenaway film ever again.

Britannia Hospital - Too dark cynical and and in the end becomes gratuitous for no reason. Ripping the head off someone slowly with blood spraying all around. Brain in the blender then offered as a drink. Mmmm nutritious.

Comment by Cibbuano

March 13th 2008 00:53

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Disturbing? Hmmm.. perhaps Audition for me... I still can't stand the noise that girl makes when she uses the needles!

But morally reprehensible? "I Am Legend" 2007 - it destroyed everything intellectual about the original novel, reducing it to an action movie with particularly unspectacular action. That's reprehensible.

Comment by The wonderful Peter Yang

March 13th 2008 02:30

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I never really like "the ring", it is probably one of the scariest horror movie ever made.

It gave me the creeps form days.

Comment by Neems

March 13th 2008 05:07

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I recently watched Pan's Labyrinth....I wasn't prepared for how violent the movie was, or how disturbing some of the scenes were- to think much of it was the little girl's imagination makes me wonder what drugs kids these days are on.

The cinematogrophy was amazing, the make-up on the characters was brilliant....but all in all, there were scenes that still trouble me now. The creature with eyes in his palms who ate babies- good grief.

I love a good slasher flick but probably because it's mindless and more often than not aren't based on real life- (think Texas Chainsaw Massacre)...but the torture scenes in this are very very real....*shudder* Didn't help I was home alone and it was about 1 in the morning.

Am loving this blog- great site and great posts!

Neems x

Comment by Kim Lock

March 13th 2008 08:23

Diving About

Thanks for writing this blog - I love good horror. I spit on your grave was indeed rather disturbing, especially given that I first saw it when I was about 14!! House of 1000 corpses was a bit offputting as well - the shed full of naked captive women dying or dead. For me, a horror movie becomes 'disturbing' when it's story seems plausible - Wolf Creek is another good example of this.

Comment by rosey3223

March 13th 2008 09:55

My Dailies

I've never seen the movies you mentioned, just out of curiosity I will check them out.

There are two movies that stick with me to this day...The Hills Have Eyes, because of what they did to the poor young mother with the baby, and then how they were going to kill the baby as well.

The other movie is "The Grudge". I've caught a lot of flack for this, but oh well. My reason for this is that it just creeps me out at how she "crawls" down the steps and then "crawls" up to them when they were on the floor. And the noise...*shudder*. I sometimes have to look up at the ceiling to make sure that the reason there is a black shadow there is because the shower curtain moved...and not some looming ghost that is about to kill me, LoL.

Comment by Morgan Bell

March 13th 2008 12:32

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rape scenes that made me sick but were in superb films include Jodie Foster in"The Accused", Charlize Theron in "Monster", Hillary Swank in "Boys Dont Cry" (actually that movie gave me a vile feeling nearly all the way through)

unnecessary perverse torture/violence was "Hannibal" (esp making a man eat his own brain and making a man skin himself), and also found the graphic nature of "Pans Labyrinth" was revoltingly explicit when it couldve been implied (cutting a chunk out of a mans hand, beating a mans skull in with a blunt instrument)

those are the ones that spring to mind . . . thanks for the interesting post!

Comment by Eva W.

March 13th 2008 13:34

Life in Germany

"Dancer in the Dark", even though it's not actually a horror movie. I was deeply upset and depressed for the rest of the day after watching it.

I just couldn't handle that awful execution scene at the end, where this poor, innocent woman is terrified and struggling under the gallow. And then she gets hanged while she's in the middle of her song. It was just emotionally gut-wrenching.

Blood and gore don't have that much of an effect on me in comparison to more "realistic" torture or mistreatment of people. Most horror films don't have any lasting effects on me.

Comment by Maryam DiMauro

March 13th 2008 20:59

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the most disturbing film has to be hellraiser
that scene where they rob people's skin ew.
And saw is pretty disgusting too.
But the grudge and the ring are seriously movies I cannot watch more than once.
There is one japanese film I watched on cinemax but I forget the name where a woman is being fed soup everyday and it turns out to be her unborn fetus so she goes all psychotic...eww.

Comment by Cibbuano

March 13th 2008 22:32

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Also, though I enjoyed most of Cannibal Holocaust, the animal dissection part was hard to watch, even though I read that it's how the natives insisted they do it..

Comment by Maryam DiMauro

March 13th 2008 22:51

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yeah the whole brain thing in hannibal was horrible

Comment by KylieW

March 14th 2008 01:16

Celebrity Obsession

I haven't ever gotten around to seeing Irreversible thouhg have heard lots about it.

I can't say I've ever found a move reprehensible. Though I did find Requiem for a Dream a little disturbing in places - it definitely didn't glamourise drug use.

Probably the most disturbing thing that I can think of recently is actually a book called Damage Done about an Australian guy who spent 12 yrs in prison in Bangkok for trafficking heroin. Dear god, what they do to people in prisons there. Nobody should be treated like that.

Comment by saul

March 14th 2008 10:37

For shocking/scarey, it's got to be Scum. It's about a borstal (young offenders prison) in Britain in the 70's/80's, it's very violent, which is okay in itself (everything was violent in 1980!), and then half way through the movie there is a rape scene where 3 older boys anally rape a younger boy in a conservatory during gardening duty, with blood too......no way was I going to get sent to borstal after that....no way was I ever going out into a conservatory again either!

Also, Judge dredd the movie, for making a mockery of a comic book legend....

Comment by Camzors

March 14th 2008 13:48

I think I am yet to see any film that i find moraly reprehensible, let alone disturbing. I guess I have always seen film purely as a form of artistic expression and therefore have always been able to at least partly understand the point of highly graphic scenes within an artistic context. Either that or I am deeply disturbed myself. I really respect filmmakers that push the envelope when it comes to handling scenes of a graphic nature and don't censor things because, although it can be at times quite distressing, many people forget that art reflects life in the first place. People do get murdered, tortured and raped. It's sad but true. Shit happens to everyone and I think that it is important to remind people that every once in a while. The ironic thing however is that, the better a filmmaker is able to fake explicitly violent or graphic scenes, the more real or true to life it becomes. In the end it is all just artistic expression, they are just films, the characters are all actors. I'm not saying that people have to watch films of this nature if they don't want to, because sometimes people don't need reminding that humanity is sometimes very very ugly. But the beauty of that is they can simply not watch it. I think the whole point of art is that it is able to provoke feelings in the people responding to it. I guess that's why I am more drawn to films of a darker nature. If I am watching a horror film and it scares the shit out of me, if I watch a film that is so moving it actually makes me cry, and I KNOW these are films and none of it is real, then I believe that the filmmakers have done a damn good job.

But I digress. As I mentioned before, I still havent seen any film that has actually disgusted me. I have 'Flower of flesh and blood' on dvd and just the other day I watched 'Salo' for the first time. Still nothing. I was quite impressed with Flower of flesh and blood's effects actually. I thought it was absolutely fantastic and would really like to know how they did it. Maybe i'm desensitized from being raised by horror films (a genre that has sadly let me down of late). Probably the closest I have come to being disturbed by a film is "The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed Up Zombies", but simply because it was so fucking bad, it surpassed laughable and just became tragic. Sure it sounds funny, but don't even watch it as a joke. There is nothing worse than an interpretive dance sequence in the middle of a horror movie, trust me.

Comment by Holly Go Lightly

March 15th 2008 06:07

Movie Mage

A little Romance, it made me feel physically ill, I was disgusted with the friend who took me, he took 1 and 1/2 weeks to aplogise, I thought I was seeing a love story, his idea of a joke. Men...hhhmmpphhh.

You may be a hoororphile but me I'm truly a hoorophobe.

I like the HIgh Art of Psycho.

Comment by Brenton

March 15th 2008 08:08

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Films being outragous for the sake of it don't worry me - it's like being offended when your friend try to piss you off. I can't be upset by it.

Saw Two got to me a bit, purely because it was violence for violence sake.

Comment by Miswanderlust

March 15th 2008 18:35

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I vote for "Gummo" and "Last House on the Left" yikes on both. Great post and comments btw.
Mis

Comment by Nomad

March 16th 2008 14:25

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The Lion King... I threw up when i saw that movie.

Nomad (awesome dude)

www.awesomefood.com.au

Comment by Pollyanna

March 23rd 2008 06:13

The most sickening movies for me were Salo, which you have already mentioned, and Scrapbook, which is about a serial killer who holds his victim captive while he tortures/sexually abuses her. This is sick from start to finish, and very graphic.

Comment by Jason King

March 25th 2008 07:40

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Yep - Salo did it for me - I had a friend watch it with me at the movies and he kept leaving to throw up and ended up waiting in the foyer. I can't stand seeing children in distress - it flips me out. Another one that made me cringe was Sleepers - kids being abused makes me furious!!! Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer also scared the bejesus out of me. Ooh - Jacob's Ladder was a mind F&^k, loved it I bought it on Laserdisc a few years back. Great blog!!!!

Comment by Anonymous

March 31st 2008 03:44

i also found Requiem for a Dream completely disturbing & didnt really see the point, other than to haunt me for the rest of my life... likewise with train-spotting - the scene where they discovered their dead baby was just horrific.

Celebrity Obsession, i just finished reading that book Damage Done by Warren Fellows and more recently another called Please daddy no, by Stuart Howarth - i find books to even more horrific that movies, leaving your imagine to run a visual gauntlet with true accounts that seem to stick with me for a long time, especially when the book is written in a language, time or location that i have real life experiences with & relate easily to

Comment by Jason King

March 31st 2008 06:06

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I just remembered one from years ago starring Jeremy Irons. Dead Ringers - about the twisted twin brother gynos.

Comment by JohnDoe

April 8th 2008 08:55

Film & TV on DVD

You know me I don't mind excessive if it makes a point or challenges my reality...films like Salo, Cannibal Holocaust and Henry portrait of a serial killer are favorites....its stuff like Forrest Gump that scars me irreparably.

Scrapbook was one that was hard to watch, but teh violence was totally necessary to destroy the glamorising of serial killer in modern cinema.

I admit that takishi Miike's Audition and Imprint were a handful, I loved them though...

Comment by Bryn

April 9th 2008 04:25

Horrorphile

Aesome comments everyone, nice to get such varying perspectives on such an integral element of cinema: the corruptive potential of audio/visual confrontation.