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.


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.


Goofellas (1990): Somebody is about to get whacked.


Fargo ( 1996): This movie is definitely a “Cold” one.


Malcolm X ( (1992):Always standing firm, even when facing death.

[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.

[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

[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.


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.


Goofellas (1990): Somebody is about to get whacked.


Fargo ( 1996): This movie is definitely a “Cold” one.


Malcolm X ( (1992):Always standing firm, even when facing death.

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

[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.)

[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....

[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.

[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.

[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.