Most disturbing movies you ever seen.

[Smokey]

Disturbing mean the kind of movies that stay with you for days because it was so weird or sad, and had evoked strong emotions. Couple of movies from top of my head:

Midnight Express (1978): Make one think twice about smuggling drugs from another country.
http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0767815351.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

Osama (2004): Tale of a girl posing as a boy in Afghanistan to find a job and feed her family. Not a movie for light hearted.
http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B0001KNDUS.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

Goofellas (1990): Somebody is about to get whacked.
http://images.amazon.com/images/P/6302054982.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

Fargo ( 1996): This movie is definitely a “Cold” one.
http://images.amazon.com/images/P/6304140851.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

Malcolm X ( (1992):Always standing firm, even when facing death.
http://images.amazon.com/images/P/6302787556.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

[Geoffcin]

Scarface (chainsaw scene)
Silence of the Lambs ( Anthony Hopkins perfomance)
Jaws ( the crabs eating her head really freaked me)

People are jaded now, but I distictly remember in '75 people running from the theater during Jaws.

The only movie I've seen that I have scars from. My date grabbed me so hard she drew blood! ( eye-missing head popping out of hole in boat scene)

[paul_pci]

I was thinking about doing a thread like this some time ago. The most disturbing movies off the top of my head would be: Kids, Requiem for a Dream, Happiness, and Frailty. I saw Kids when an undergraduate and I just couldn't believe what I saw. Then me and my friends gleefully and liberally quoted from the movie for months: "it's okay Jenny, it's me Casper." Yes, we're sick bastards.

[L.J.]

Disturbing mean the kind of movies that stay with you for days because it was so weird or sad, and had evoked strong emotions.

Seven
Exorcist
Million Dollar Baby

[ForeverAutumn]

Two immediately come to mind.

The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover. - this film was like a bad car wreck. It repulsed me yet I couldn't stop watching. When it was over, I felt violated and wanted to take a shower. The mood it left me with stuck around for days. I've never been able to bring myself to watch it again although I'm curious as to whether it would have the same effect on me the second time around.

Boxing Helena - Left me with a similar feeling as expressed above. At least this one had some good funny/sarcastic moments to ease the tension. Still disturbing to think that this could possibly happen (sort of).

Silence of the Lambs was another one that left me feeling uneasy for days afterwards.

[eisforelectronic]

Happiness, Kids, I know what you did last summer. Rain slickers scare me.

[John D]

One that comes to mind for me right away is American History X (the scene where he catches one of the guys after they try to rob from him) -- It still sends chills down my spine when I watch that!

Another would be The Butterfly Effect that I watched earlier this week (the scene where the kids go into the area where the wrecked cars are and one fella has the fire going) -- I certainly wasn't expecting that one!

[emaidel]

Firmly planted at the top of my list is the 1970, Ken Russell film, "The Devils." Rightly called, "the most scathing indictment of the Catholic Church ever put on film," it portrays (as only Russell can!) the true story of a Roman Catholic priest (Oliver Reed) who is falsely accused by a hunchbacked nun (Vanessa Redgrave) of having possessed her. He is tried, found guilty, has his legs smashed, is dragged through the streets of Loudon, and is burned alive. Sounds pretty horrible doesn't it? It is horrible, but so brilliantly filmed, it remains at the top of my list of all-time favorites too.

[shokhead]

Exorcist hands down. Ever see the specials they show on the making and show the lines at the movies and the people coming out of the middle of the movie? I was there in the middle of it all. It was freaking strange. We came out of the movie{we made it to the end} just like you see those kids on the special.

[noddin0ff]

Requiem for a Dream...brutal.

[Kam]

Bad Lieutenant: UR version

man they really got teh title right on that one... he was one bad lieutenant.

[topspeed]

Exorcist - For obvious reasons

Platoon - My friends and I all felt like we had just been released from active duty after this. Simply exhausting.

Kids - Come again? Who's taking care of me in my old age?!?

Poltergeist - The first PG13 rated movie, and for good reason. Kinda campy now, but the original release scared the beejeezus out of me when I was a kid.

Shindler's List - We'd all heard of it. We'd all read about it. Now we saw it. I literally cried.

[markw]

Deliverance. I still can't look at Ned Beatty wthout thinking about that movie.

[GMichael]

Jaws - couldn't swim in the ocean for months.
Poltergeist - wasn't expecting it. thought it was more of a sci-fi movie till the end.
Deliverance (thanks Markw) I had almost recovered till now.
Face off - yick!

[Smokey]

As it is evident from list of movies, it seem to be a thin line between disturbing, suspence and horror movies. I guess all three elements needed to be present to make it a memorable and emotional movie.

Btw, good call on Delieverance and Jaws :)

[dean_martin]

Two immediately come to mind.

The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover. - this film was like a bad car wreck. It repulsed me yet I couldn't stop watching. When it was over, I felt violated and wanted to take a shower. The mood it left me with stuck around for days. I've never been able to bring myself to watch it again although I'm curious as to whether it would have the same effect on me the second time around.

Boxing Helena - Left me with a similar feeling as expressed above. At least this one had some good funny/sarcastic moments to ease the tension. Still disturbing to think that this could possibly happen (sort of).

Silence of the Lambs was another one that left me feeling uneasy for days afterwards.

Yeah, same here on those first two, especially The Cook, etc. I'd rather see Sherilyn Fenn with all her limbs. Have you seen Gothic? The plot attracted me because I was into the Romantic poets at the time. Unfortunately, the movie wasn't as good as it could have been but it was disturbing. I think the bad car wreck analogy applies.

I've always preferred Manhunter over Silence of the Lambs. I thought the investigating and detecting aspects were developed better in Manhunter.

[caniac]

Anybody seen Hostel?

:0

[Gerald Cooperberg]

I saw Hostel. Pretty extreme gore for an American film. The Japanese films it draws on for inspiration are pretty brutal too; Audition, Ichii the Killer, etc...

Easily the most difficult-to-sit-through film I've ever seen was one by Gaspar Noe called Irreversible. The film opens with a low rumbling tone coming through the speakers that supposedly was supposed to be so low as to physically upset the audience's stomach. I've read that it didn't work because most theaters' sound systems were unable to replicate the frequency properly, but it's about the only attempt at shock in the film that isn't successful. The next 90 or so minutes include the most realistic killing I've ever seen on screen, pulsing strobe lights, extremely unsteady camera work, thumping club music, and the centerpiece, a twenty-minute unbroken-shot rape scene. At the time, Newseek called it "the most walked-out-of movie of the year."

Another one that leaps to mind is Funny Games by Austrian director Michael Haneke. Lots of painfully unbroken shots and sudden unexpected moments of depraved brutality in that one too. I just saw his new film Caché, and it seems like he's mellowed a bit, although that one has its disturbing moments as well.

My stomach always turns at the opening sequence of Saving Private Ryan. I suppose war films have the potential to be the most disturbing of all. Especially WWII... has anyone seen Night & Fog? The warehouse full of hair in that film always sticks in my mind as a vividly distubing image.

-Coop

[dean_martin]

Easily the most difficult-to-sit-through film I've ever seen was one by Gaspar Noe called Irreversible. The film opens with a low rumbling tone coming through the speakers that supposedly was supposed to be so low as to physically upset the audience's stomach. I've read that it didn't work because most theaters' sound systems were unable to replicate the frequency properly, but it's about the only attempt at shock in the film that isn't successful. The next 90 or so minutes include the most realistic killing I've ever seen on screen, pulsing strobe lights, extremely unsteady camera work, thumping club music, and the centerpiece, a twenty-minute unbroken-shot rape scene. At the time, Newseek called it "the most walked-out-of movie of the year."



Hey Coop - I've heard that tone referred to as "the brown note". It was the subject of a South Park episode and an episode of Mythbusters. Some theorize that it makes you lose control of your bowels! I've always thought that if there was any truth to it John Waters would have tried it. Speaking of John Waters and disturbing films, how about Multiple Maniacs, Female Trouble, and Pink Flamingos?

David Lynch's Eraserhead is another disturbing film.

[caniac]

The U.S. military was actually developing a weapon based on the "brown note" a few years ago. If I recall, the theory was actually proven to be sound.

[Geoffcin]

The U.S. military was actually developing a weapon based on the "brown note" a few years ago. If I recall, the theory was actually proven to be sound.

The device is a "sound cannon" and can direct an incapacitating SPL in a focused direction. The intended use for non-lethal crowd control to disperse angry mobs. It turned out to be effective, but was still a failure as it causes permanent damage to hearing.

A more recent weapon is the microwave gun. It causes incapacitation by a burning pain, but it appears to be non-permanent in nature, at least in the testing phase.

Oh, Eraserhead was a very disturbing film too.

[Bernd]

I found "The Pledge" pretty moving,but the one film that occupied my mind for a long time is "The Child I Never Was". Between 1962 and 1966 four schoolboys were tortured and killed in Germany's Ruhr District.This film is about their tormentor, Juergen Bartsch 15 when he started 19 when he was caught, and how his upbringing would contribute to him becoming a serial offender.
In my mind reality also hits much harder then fantasy.

Bernd

[shokhead]

The U.S. military was actually developing a weapon based on the "brown note" a few years ago. If I recall, the theory was actually proven to be sound.

Nope. Mythbusters proved it was a myth but if i remember some felt a tad sick to the stomach but not throwing up sick.

[s dog]

Disturbing mean the kind of movies that stay with you for days because it was so weird or sad, and had evoked strong emotions. Couple of movies from top of my head:

Midnight Express (1978): Make one think twice about smuggling drugs from another country.
http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0767815351.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

Osama (2004): Tale of a girl posing as a boy in Afghanistan to find a job and feed her family. Not a movie for light hearted.
http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B0001KNDUS.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

Goofellas (1990): Somebody is about to get whacked.
http://images.amazon.com/images/P/6302054982.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

Fargo ( 1996): This movie is definitely a “Cold” one.
http://images.amazon.com/images/P/6304140851.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

Malcolm X ( (1992):Always standing firm, even when facing death.
http://images.amazon.com/images/P/6302787556.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg
DEVOUR

[agidol]

My disturbing movies:

1. 9mm (Nicholas Cage) - one very disturbing movie about snafu.

2. Ring - just one scene -- if you've seen it then you know which.

3. Exorcist - scariest movie ever - new additions were just as disturbing (aka spider walk)

4. Most recent one - Million dollar Baby - Depressing is the right word here, not disturbing.

[Mike That Likes Music]

I'm going to have to agree with Kids, Bad Lt., and Requiem For A Dream. I think for me Requiem would win out in the end. More because of Ellen Burstyn's character than the Jared Leto/Jennifer Connoly/Marlon Wayans group. The electro-shock scenes are particularaly brutal. Does it say something about me that I own all of these movies?
Mike

[Smokey]

Does it say something about me that I own all of these movies?

Yes, you are a sick puppy :D

[zapr]

I saw Hostel. Pretty extreme gore for an American film. The Japanese films it draws on for inspiration are pretty brutal too; Audition, Ichii the Killer, etc...

Easily the most difficult-to-sit-through film I've ever seen was one by Gaspar Noe called Irreversible. The film opens with a low rumbling tone coming through the speakers that supposedly was supposed to be so low as to physically upset the audience's stomach. I've read that it didn't work because most theaters' sound systems were unable to replicate the frequency properly, but it's about the only attempt at shock in the film that isn't successful. The next 90 or so minutes include the most realistic killing I've ever seen on screen, pulsing strobe lights, extremely unsteady camera work, thumping club music, and the centerpiece, a twenty-minute unbroken-shot rape scene. At the time, Newseek called it "the most walked-out-of movie of the year."

Another one that leaps to mind is Funny Games by Austrian director Michael Haneke. Lots of painfully unbroken shots and sudden unexpected moments of depraved brutality in that one too. I just saw his new film Caché, and it seems like he's mellowed a bit, although that one has its disturbing moments as well.

My stomach always turns at the opening sequence of Saving Private Ryan. I suppose war films have the potential to be the most disturbing of all. Especially WWII... has anyone seen Night & Fog? The warehouse full of hair in that film always sticks in my mind as a vividly distubing image.

-Coop
Good call on Irreversible! Hardest movie I ever sat through, right down to the strobe at the ending drilling the whole thing into your brain. Never get that out of my head......Zapr

[dph1965]

Corn Dog Man - a '99 Sundance film directed byAndrew Shea
Crash w/ James Spader & Holly Hunter

Gotta Agree w/ Kids & Requiem - How about Gummo?

[progfan]

Picnic at Hanging Rock
Cannibal Holocaust
Santa Sangre
Goodbye Uncle Tom

[jamison]

I remember Poltergueist got me and my friends pretty bad... it was back in my partying days ... my friends and i dropped acid and were smoking pot before the movie.. really gave us a heavy trip.
saw midnight express on acid at a friends house.... he had a simulated surround effect going and all the middle eastern singing just freaked us out...


im so glad i dont do that sht anymore way too old for it

polterguiest is campy compared to say SAW or SAW 2 ....those were just about gore

[nightflier]

Gore isn't necessarily scary, though. I'm surprised no one has mentioned the Hellraiser series, expecially Hellraiser II although the non-gory depiction of hell is also disturbing. Barker is one sick dude. But I think suspense is more disturbing than gore. Here are some others than haven't been mentioned:

- Marathon Man (Dustin Hoffman getting drilled was pretty intense)
- Down came a Blackbird & Romero (Raul Julia as a torturer seeking redemption and as archbishop Romero - while you don't see anyone being tortured it's the mounting suspense and the screams in the prison that are hard to listen to).
- The Serpent and the Rainbow (the spiders crawling out of the hole in her cheek were pretty creepy)
- Dreamcatcher has some fun little gastro-intestinal scenes.
- Bravo Two Zero (Sean Bean interrogated by Iraqui security police, nuff said)
- Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels (not very gory, but it's one of those overly violent British movies that keeps you disturbingly glued to the screen - the golf-ball scene is a bit worrying)
- Braveheart, Payback, The Passion... (Mel Gibson seems to have a fascination with torture).
- Pulp Fiction (the idea that a man would be living in a box in a basement and peridically pulled out to be raped and that this is the entirety of his life, is not gory or suspenseful, but sick nonetheless).
- The Cell (J-lo may not be an actress, but the imagery in this movie is pretty disturbing)
- National Lampoon's Van Wilder (if you've seen this movie, you know the scene I'm talking about - not gory or scary, but definitely disgusting).

But the most disturbing movie to me was Seven. The way that John Doe (Kevin Spacey) so calmly and methodically tortured a man tied to his own bed for months on end, keeping him barely alive, is positively disturbing. And to think that this could be happening right next door in any big city, is pretty revolting.

[noddin0ff]

Seven...that one still gives me chills.

[AVMASTER]

not so much as a distrubing film but a deleted scene from Gladiator;
it was a scene of a father, on his knees embracing a small boy, the child looks up at the camera just as a lion is about to get him then it cuts off. While this little segment doesn't show a child being mauled by a lion the very thought of it has me sick right now.

[wayner86]

Theres 3 movies that come to mind that left a scar on me.

1 & 2. House of a 1000 Corpses & its sequel The Devils Regects. (a seriously disturbed mind concocted this trash.) I got talked into watching the first one, and i had to get some closure by watching the sequel.

3. im not sure if this one applies but....Faces of Death. (the graphic nature of this documentry will haunt me forever. Avoid this film like the plague.)

[audiomadness]

1. "SuperSize Me" - My cholesterol has dropped significantly since I've seen that documentary.

2. Saving Private Ryan - Who could ever forget that carnage at Omaha beach.

3. Nightmare on Elm Street - Didn't get much sleep when I was kid when this came out.

4. Even as an adult I had trouble with this one......The Grudge.

[MomurdA]

Oldboy. Korean movie a couple of years old. The first half of the movie is just classic revenge tale, ala Count of Monte Cristo. Then some wierd !@#$ starts going on. Then the climax just makes you want to puke. Seriously. Not very gory or anything, but what happens to this guy is just so sad; truly if you see this movie you wont soon forget it. You should all watch it.

[nightflier]

This one just came to mind:

- Misery. The movie is pretty mundane for the most part until Annie (Kathy Bates), decides to hobble Paul Sheldon (James Caan) to keep him from running away. Reading about the histroy of this practice even makes me think twice about using the term "hobble" figuratively.

[Kam]

Oldboy. Korean movie a couple of years old. The first half of the movie is just classic revenge tale, ala Count of Monte Cristo. Then some wierd !@#$ starts going on. Then the climax just makes you want to puke. Seriously. Not very gory or anything, but what happens to this guy is just so sad; truly if you see this movie you wont soon forget it. You should all watch it.

good call!
i reviewed this a while ago, and wow does it ever stick with you! so disturbing. have you seen the rest of the vengeance trilogy? (sympathy for mr. vengeance and lady vengeance)

[MomurdA]

nope, havent seen those other two, though i have almost picked up sympathy a couple times at hollywood video. Will check it out asap.

[Buffalo Bill]

Requiem for a Dream (lots of folks agree on this one)
American History X (curb scene is hard to shake)
Original Texas Chainsaw Massacre (saw it in a drive-in and wished I hadn't)
Alien (literally jumped when the critter snatched his face)
Trainspotting :crazy: :crazy:

[wsiler]

Without a doubt. Happiness (1998).
That movie was so disturbing and uncomfortable to watch.

[Geoffcin]

I nominate Tool's "Sober".

I remember sitting there with my jaw hanging open the first time I saw it.

[RoyY51]

Definitely "Alien". I know that it's been copied and parodied so much that by today's standards it is commonplace, but seeing the alien burst out of John Hurt's chest back in '79 really freaked me out. My wife-to be and I watched it in a small, darkened theater, and I'm pretty sure that she still has the imprints from the fingers of my right hand on her left knee.

[superpanavision70mm]

Disturbing Movies on some level:

FAT GIRL (unrated)
LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT
I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE
SCHINDLERS LIST
MAN BITES DOG
SALO
EYES WITHOUT A FACE
STRAW DOGS
A CLOCKWORK ORANGE
THE EXORCIST
HEARTS AND MINDS (documentary)
NIGHT AND FOG (documentary)
TAXI DRIVER
THE DEER HUNTER
MIDNIGHT COWBOY
DELIVERANCE
WICKER MAN
DON'T LOOK NOW
MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH

[luvs2jam60]

Requiem - Definitely one of the top
"Can ya hear me, can ya see me? OK for work." ;)

Memento - The whole movie is out of order, and there are some scenes which are a little weird.

Seven - The package at the end.....

Better Luck Tomorrow - For those of you who haven't seen this one, its about a group of asian highscool students (American film, tho) who, at the beginning of the movie, are trying desperately to get into colleges, and later on end up selling drugs and becoming alcoholics, with the occaisional decapitation thrown in there.

The Ninth Gate - Devilish movie, consisting of weird acting and Johhny Depp having sex with the devil.

And last, but not least, who could forget Pulp Fiction, when John Travolta blows the guy's head off. I don't care how immune people say they are to violence in movies, the first time you see that, its definitely a "What the #%*&" kinda scene.

[The Isolationist]

Deliverance
This movie has stuck in a lot of people minds and it still amazes me how many references you still see in everyday life from TV movies and everyday people. Every time I hear a banjo I think of this movie. You got a real pretty mouth boy

Event Horizon
This was a great pairing of suspense, horror and science fiction. It really weirds me out to this day and the sound track kicks hard on my system.

Gallipoli
Mel Gibsons early movie about war. The scenes of the men used as cannon fodder were very brutal.

Basket Case
I only mention this because I was pretty young when I saw this and it freaked me out! Some guy id born with a freakish miniature siamese twin attached to him, has it surgically removed when he is an adult and then carries it around in a basket from which he realeases it to do his evil bidding. NICE!

[DPM]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned Exorcist III. Though not nearly as good a film as the original--it falls apart in the final third--it is far scarier. One scene in particular made me jump out of my seat, and, for many days afterward, I was looking over my shoulder. Anyone who's seen this movie knows which scene I'm talking about.

Also, I found Seven quite disturbing--particularly the scene with the woman who was done to death with the deadly dildo. Yikes!

The Ring was a good horror movie. The dead girl in the closet stayed in my head far too long.

[wannameasure?]

i have also seen i spit on you grave, another film to avoid like the plague, i believe it is from the late 70's or early 80's and its revolves around the repeated graphic rape and abuse resulting of a robbery gone wrong, sick stuff :cryin:

[westcott]

No one mentioned Pulp Fiction

[digitalmind]

I can't believe The Shining hasn't been mentioned. Those little girls stayed in my mind for a long time.
The Reservoir Dogs -- you just don't cut someones ear off, especially not when singing.

[nightflier]

I can't believe The Shining hasn't been mentioned. Those little girls stayed in my mind for a long time.
The Reservoir Dogs -- you just don't cut someones ear off, especially not when singing.

Actually, I read in an Amnesty Int'l report that US interrogators like to play classic rock while they "work." Something about this insulting the sensibilities of people from different religions.

Of course, Tarentino had an entirely different effect in mind when asking Madsen to sing "Stuck in the Middle," in that scene. And yes it was disturbing to watch. Tarentino is right up there with Clive Barker. Maybe they play poker together (oh to be a fly on the wall in that room when the stakes get high...). Has anyone seen Hostel? I read that was pretty extreme too.

Speaking of torture in movies, I've noticed a lot more of this in recent films (I'ichi comes to mind, but the recent crop of horror movies like Saw are just as graphic). Even on regular tv shows like Alias, The Unit, & 24, torture is just a means to an end and no one ever questions the perpetrators about the moral issues. It's almost as if our minds are being dulled and borred to it's objectionability, sort of being asked to accept this as routine and permissible.

To me it still gives me the willies and there's this uncomfortable feeling that it's getting way to close to home. I can't shake the idea that criminals who may be living right down the street from me, get their sick ideas from watching Silence of the Lambs one time too many. I'm sure Jeffrey Dammer was taking copious notes in the theater when that came out...

[tdamocles]

Theres 3 movies that come to mind that left a scar on me.

1 & 2. House of a 1000 Corpses & its sequel The Devils Regects. (a seriously disturbed mind concocted this trash.) I got talked into watching the first one, and i had to get some closure by watching the sequel.


The only really disturbing movie was The Devils Rejects....It fills you with tension throughout the movie....

[AlaskanGuy]

The War Zone

Boys Don't Cry

Memento -- kept going around in my head.

[WILLIAM C WALDECKER 3RD]

A few other films that i find to be disturbing are Henry portrait of a Serial killer. Blue Velvet. 52 Pickup. American Beauty and the Island of Dr Moreau. thanks....WCW III

[DamonG]

I am surprised no one has mentioned the original Omen. :confused5:

[Troy]

Henry, Portrait of a Serial Killer
Blue Velvet
Sexy Beast
Snatch (the Pigs)
Hannibal

. . . haven't been mantioned yet, but the most disturbing all around by far has already been mentioned: Eraserhead.