As a kid, I was strictly sheltered from violence on TV or in movies, something about “what you look upon, you become”. But I remember seeing the scene from Jason and the Argonauts (I think) where Jason tosses out the teeth of the awful beast he just killed, and a skeleton, complete with sword and shield, pops up out of the ground where each tooth fell. I was terrified of skeletons for years. As an adult, I don’t watch violent films if I can help it, just not into it. Guess Mom did a good job! But I nominate “Jacob’s Ladder” for disturbing. Most of the film is full of confusing, sometimes scary images, which don’t make much sense until the end.
“With enough courage, you can do without a reputation.” - Rhett Butler
One I remember when I was little: THE BLACK HOLE, by Disney of all people. (Spoiler, for what it’s worth)
Saw it when I was little, thinking it was a Star Wars clone. For 9/10 of the movie it was. Then they finally went down the black hole.
They had all this odd imagery of the bad guy and the bad robot merging, then later the bad robot overlooking hell(!). After that, the bad guy goes to heaven. The ship with the good guys fly into this eclipse. Roll credits.
Pretty heady stuff for a kid looking for spaceship/laser shootouts.
Vanillice, did that Trilogy of Terror movie end with her crouched on the floor with the knife in her hand and a smile on her face? Scared me silly.
The most truly disturbing movie I ever saw was Night and Fog. I saw it in American History class as a junior in high school. I wanted to leave or hide my head or something, but I was sitting in the front row of the classroom and I didn’t want to get in trouble. It was the first information I had ever seen about the Holocaust and I saw those images for weeks. There are still some things about it that come back to bother me.
I’m suprised I haven’t seen this one mentioned yet…but I think it’s a direct-to-video thing…I believe it’s called Strangeland
Verrrry creepy…about some wacko that kidnaps kids by luring them over the internet…then tourtures them. (shiver)Still gives me nightmares. Although I think I’ll make my kids watch it when they get into their teenage years and start playing with the computer. As a child I used to sit up late listening to the radio shows. I think it was the Sears Radio Broadcast…very spooky for a 5 year old.
The movie that creeped me out totally as a child was The World, The Flesh, and The Devil. Today it wouldn’t bother me much, but movies about the end of the world tend to bother you when you’re six (I was watching late night TV alone. Good thing infomercials weren’t around then. I’d have been scarred for life!).
The only two movies I can recall disturbing me as an adult were Silence of the Lambs and Twelve Monkeys. Good thing Twelve Monkeys is only a movie. So far. ::shudder::
Mjollnir: The Sentinel! I thought I was the only person who had ever seen this movie! Very disturbing; highly recommended.
A few more that messed me up:
1: Lost Highway ( no comment )
2: Texas Chainsaw Massacre. The part where Gramps moves! OH MY GOD!!!
3: American Werewolf in London. A perfect 50/50 mix of horror/comedy. PERFECT.
4: Death in Venice. This has to be the most depressing movie EVER.
5: Rosemary’s Baby. The scariest/most disturbing of them all, IMO.
6: The Haunting. (original, not the god-awful remake) This movie will make you whimper like a little puppy. I was on edge for days after seeing it.
7: Nosferatu. My parents were into silent movies when I was little. I begged them to let me stay up late and watch it with them. I had nightmares of course. Still creeps me out today.
8: Cabinet of Dr. Calagari. See above.
9: Jaws. Accept no substitutes.
I don’t know why but Children of the Corn scared me to death when I was little. Now, I find it cheesey but it still somewhat unnerves me because I remember the fear.
Also, Bastard Out of Carolina disturbed me-- not in a frightening way, but I just felt weird after seeing it.
Here’s one we just rented the other night and I couldn’t finish it.
The Theory of Flight. with Kenneth Brannaugh and Helena Bonham Carter.
It’s about a guy who has to do community service and is assigned to be a pal to a young woman in the latter stages of Lou Gehrig’s disease. One the the signs of it’s getting worse is slurred speech and sometimes it is really hard to understand Carter. However, she does a spectacular job as someone who has this disease, infact, so good, my husband thought she actually had the disease. But, it gets really disturbing when she has a quest to lose her virginity and wants Brannaugh to help her find some one to help her out. I couldn’t watch it after that. I don’t know how it ends, and part of me wants to know, but I could not endure it.
OK, maybe this one isn’t the scariest, but when I was a kid, the movie “Duel” (one of Speilberg’s early works) really bothered me.
It’s about this guy that passes an 18 wheeler on the highway and the truck chases the guy all over the desert. I think in the end the guy somehow blows up the truck like in “Thelma and Louise”.
Every time we went on a car trip and were being followed by a truck, I was very apprehensive.
Prince of Darkness, by John Carpenter…this one really freaked me out.
The ending to Very Bad Things was disturbing to me…kinda in a good way. I walked out of the theater just saying “Daaamn…”
The first 30 minutes to Saving Private Ryan
A Clockwork Orange
Seven
When I was a kid, Disney’s Something Wicked This Way Comes scared the crap out of me. I had nightmares about carosel horses for a week.
Trainspotting.
I know there are others, but I’m having a blond moment right now.
These are all movies I like. Eyes Wide Shut was disturbing too, but I wouldn’t recommend the movie to anybody.
I can’t believe no one’s mentioned Polanski’s REPULSION (1965) yet. Catherine Deneuve goes crazy, in a most unsettling manner. Polanski’s THE TENANT (1976) was also good.
I was fine with scanners until I saw Modern Legends Online* website where they have the exploding head scene in slow motion. Can’t get that image out of my mind now. The final scene was a killer when I first saw it. Seems kind of silly now.
Someone else has alread mentioned one of my favorites, The Wicker Man. But one I still haven’t seen mentioned is Dead of Night, a British movie made just after WWII by Cavalcanti – does that name ring a bell? The granddad of all is-it-real-or-is-it-a-nightmare romps
Also, anyone remember Race With the Devil, with Peter Fonda, Warren Oates, Laura Devon (IIRC) and Loretta Swit?
You saw “THREADS”??? Hardly anyone has ever heard of that movie. I’ve seen it about 5 times now and creeps me out just as badly every time. YeeeeeeeIPES!
For those of you who have no clue, it’s a British film, probably early 80’s, that is SO MUCH BETTER than “The Day After”, and addresses the same thing. Only this covers up to 14 years after, and it is perfectly horrifying, and utterly believable. It will give you nightmares for days, and I think everyone who has a nuclear weapon, and everyone who wants one, MUST see this film.
I also love “Testament”, which is a quieter, more artistic treatment of the same theme. Jane ALexander gives a wrenching performance, and it has an early kevin Costner sighting.
The only two films that have given me the lasting creeps, both when I was younger, were Salems Lot, I hated walking alone in the dark for months after that, and The Day of the Triffids, a cheesy english movie from the eaarly 80s about this meteor shower that makes all the people who have seen it blind and seeds the planet with these killer plants that can whop out a huge stamen and hit you with it, killing you. And they can walk around too. Hey, it was a long time ago!
I can’t believe only one other person has seen “Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer.” I’ve seen some messed up movies, but I still have nightmares about that one. Especially the home invasion scene with the video camera.