Most Disturbing Films Ever

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invisible Pole
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Most Disturbing Films Ever

Post by invisible Pole »

The thread on "The Vanishing" encouraged me to make a list of films that not only sent shivers down my spine, but also were deeply unsettling and made me feel very uncomfortable.

(I know that for some people and in some ways a film like "Gigli" can be quite unsettling, but it's not what I mean here :D ).

OK, here's my list of most disturbing films (random ranking) :
- Don't Look Now (never been to Venice, but the crumbling and menacing city shown here is hardly encouraging)
- Funny Games (truly discomforting depiction of sadistic violence with no motif behind it)
- Repulsion (one of Polanski's best)
- Abre los ojos / Open Your Eyes ("original Vanilla Sky")
- Blue Velvet
- The Vanishing

I do hope to get some "disturbing viewing" suggestions from you.
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Post by martinfoyle »

Man Bites Dog was a truly disturbing, unpleasant experience. Then again I found DeNiro fake bra scenes in Meet The Fockers unsettling as well. In the Company of Men was horrible to watch as well. More and more these days I want to be primarily entertained at the cinema, with being educated a lesser consideration.
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Post by Who Shot Sam? »

Un chien andalou? Well, that one scene at least.
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Post by scielle »

Seom (2002)
English title: The Isle.
Beautifylly shot, and most of the horror is left up to the imagination, but people have been known to vomit in the aisles.... Let's just say you will never. Fish. Again.
http://www.bfi.org.uk/sightandsound/2001_08/isle.html
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0255589/externalreviews


And Repulsion.
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Post by ice nine »

Eraserhead - I left the college auditorum wondering, 'What the hell did I just see?'
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Post by Boy With A Problem »

Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer
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Post by lostdog »

That Cronenburg one with Jeremy Irons playing twins: Deadringer? (is that right?)....
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Post by Tim(e) »

Hands down "Eraserhead" wins by a country mile. Beyond that, I would agree with Polanski's "Repulsion" and Bunuel's "Un Chien Andalou" and would add Altman's "Images", the stop motion animation "Secret Adventures of Tom Thumb", "Bad Boy Bubby", and the Japanese film "Tetsuo the Iron Man".
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Post by pophead2k »

Baxter, about a murderous dog. Made me nervous. As noted above, Henry, Portrait of a Serial Killer. Skin crawling. New York Minute, starring the Olsen twins. AAHAHHAAAHAHAAAHHHHHHHHHHH.
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Post by mood swung »

lostdog wrote
That Cronenburg one with Jeremy Irons playing twins: Deadringer? (is that right?)....
oh, hell yes! that was one creepy movie. those instruments! and the only use I can remember (outside the Future Farmers of America films) of the word bifurcate.
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Post by alexv »

I don't watch horror films, so my list is mostly filled with psychologically jarring movies, some of them good, but still sickening:

BULLY (by the director of Kids, and one sicko movie about the young)

BAD LIEUTENANT (Keitel's unrelenting badness and angst makes this movie unbearable)

REQUIEM FOR A DREAM (the writer of this movie needs help)

THE COOK, THE THIEF, THE WIFE AND THE LOVER (I think that was the title) (not only pretentious to the extreme but also gross; another example of a class actress allowing a director to abuse her)

THE SERVANT (I think that was the name, with James Fox and Dirk Bogarde (whose every movie for me was made creepy by his presence))
(Brutal psychological pummeling of an upper class English twit; would have been fun but for Bogarde)

PEEPING TOM (destroyed the career of one of my favorite directors)

STRAW DOGS (not just for the rape at the end, but for what Hoffman had to go through at the hands of Peckingpah)

HAPPINESS (I despise this movie and happily also find it gross)

CALIGULA (nuff said, well, maybe not, even the porn was gross)

MIDNIGHT something (the one about the american trapped in a Turkish prison)

PANIC (or was it Picnic) AT NEEDLE PARK (hyperkinetic Pacino, needles, and a hapless girlfriend make for nightmares)

TRAINSPOTTING (needles again (I don't like watching people inject themselves with heroin) plus a very disturbing Scotsman whom I was actually happy to have trouble understanding)

AMORES PERROS (even though I speak spanish I was glad not to be able to understand most of the dialogue of this fine but troubling movie)

Now, there's also a list of movies that are not disturbing but have maybe one scene that makes your skin crawl. In that category, I offer MARATHON MAN, RESERVOIR DOGS, PULP FICTION, and THE BEGUILED.
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Post by Who Shot Sam? »

alexv wrote:MIDNIGHT something (the one about the american trapped in a Turkish prison)
Midnight Express, with Brad Davis.
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Post by strangerinthehouse »

I just watched VIDEODROME, by David Cronengberg, that was pretty disturbing and yet i'm looking forward to seeing more of his films.

IRREVERSIBLE Directed by Gaspar Noe, this is one messed up french flick, the narrative is backwards like Memento so the intense ending to the consequences of a very disturbing rape is the first thing that happens in the film.

in the subject of HAPPINES, i also though Solondz fist feature WELCOME TO THE DOLLHOUSE has mildly disturbing.

REQUIEM FOR A DREAM was just depressing.

Any David lynch movie is disturbing, if not they are just confusing. Mulholland DR, for those creepy old people.

ANY political film, like the candidate, bob roberts and altman's series Tanner 88, i find are to be a bit disturbing simply because they mirror actual politics.
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Post by BlueChair »

Does Ken Russell's version of Tommy count?
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Post by oily slick »

BlueChair wrote:Does Ken Russell's version of Tommy count?
yes.

here's 2nd's to "the cook, the thief, his wife, and her lover. in the honorable mention catagory would be "the sheltering sky". if you want to have no dialogue, you gotta give me something better than 30 minutes of debra winger contemplating her navel.
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Post by Copenhagen Fan »

AFRO AMERICAN ANAL PART III :lol:
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Post by Mike Boom »

Freaks

followed closely by Eraserhead
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with endurance like the liberty bell
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Post by bobster »

BlueChair wrote:Does Ken Russell's version of Tommy count?
It does for me! I've never been able to make it past the Acid Queen sequence. Saw it once at a Science Fiction convention in my teens...got woozy and when Tina Turner plugs R. Daltrey into that Iron Maiden/Blood changing thingy decided I'd really rather troll the convention floor for used books or watch an anime or something. Then, last year, went to see it a festival of seventies/eighties musicals. Again, felt near physically ill and suddenly decided I really needed to sleep it off.

"Oliver" is also a deeply disturbing musical.
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Post by strangerinthehouse »

American History X, just for the sick idea of curbing somebody.
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Post by Mr. Average »

Natural Born Killers, written by Quentin Tarantino and directed by Oliver Stone. I used to refer to it as Oliver Stones Big Joke.

I actually like the movie, but find it very disturbing. When Mickey kills the Indian, and Mallory slaps at him repeatedly screaming "Bad, Bad, Bad, Bad, Bad, Bad, BAD!" it is like she is punishing a puppy for crapping on the carpet...not reprimanding a man for killing an innocent human being. A fascinating sequence, but very disturbing.

And if Tommy Lee Jones doesn't give you the creeps as the warden then nothing will. What a great, disturbing performance. Picking his nose and playing pocket polo while Rome burns.

A very disturbing film that has an odd captivating quality.
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Post by pophead2k »

I have to agree with the above posted Bad Lieutenant. That movie made me never, ever want to go near a drug again!
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Post by Who Shot Sam? »

In the category of creepy documentaries about dysfunctional families, Brother's Keeper and Crumb have to get a mention. Haven't seen Henry Portrait of a Serial Killer. Just have the sense it's not the kind of thing the wife would enjoy.
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Post by Goody2Shoes »

bobster wrote:
"Oliver" is also a deeply disturbing musical.
So true. And is there something very disturbing about "South Pacific", or is it just me? Makes my skin crawl.
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Post by bobster »

You have to be carefully taught...to sit through it...
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Post by Tim(e) »

Who Shot Sam? wrote:In the category of creepy documentaries about dysfunctional families, Brother's Keeper and Crumb have to get a mention.
The creepiest thing about Crumb is that the subject of the documentary, Robert Crumb, is probably the sanest member of the family... his mother in particular was way out there! :shock:

In the genre that includes American History X, I consider the Australian film Romper Stomper to be far more disturbing as is another film by the same director, Metal Skin.
Last edited by Tim(e) on Mon May 02, 2005 7:07 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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