# Most disturbing movies ever **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 19, 2005, 12:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-disturbing-movies-ever/290880 "2005-02-19T12:09:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Captain\_Gutgore\_Blooddrink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Captain\_Gutgore\_Blooddrink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Gutgore_Blooddrink)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2005, 12:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-disturbing-movies-ever/290880/1 "2005-02-19T12:09:03Z")
Try to think of the 5 movies that, pound for pound, disturbed you the most. Give a reason too. Was it because of horrible gore & torture, subject matter or something else? Here are my 5 (in no particular order): **Audition - _Takashi Miike_** Man, Miike set this one up perfect. I’d hate to see what this film would do to someone who had no idea what it’s about. Just imagine, thinking it’s a romantic comedy at first, and then… **Butterfly Kiss - _Michael Winterbottom_** This movie is like the evil twin of **Heavenly Creatures**. After watching the end, I couldn’t decide whether I needed to shower or carve out the piece of my brain that would remember it. Obviously I still remember it but smtmymes gramar mine knot sew god /wteh spelyng. **Requiem for a Dream - _Darren Aronofsky_** Yeah, I know it’s on every disturbing movie list on the internet. I think it deserves to be there. In my opinion, much more harsh than **Trainspotting**. However, the latter does have that whole baby scene thingy… **Martin - _George A. Romero_** This film wouldn’t have worked without some good acting. But John Amplas really seemed like such a nice guy…you really do feel bad for him. **I Spit on Your Grave - _Meir Zarchi_** 45min rape scenes are just not fun to watch. This is why I haven’t watched **The Baby of Macon** yet. Even though I’m sure I will one day… Well, there you have it. I’m curious to see your lists. By the way, if any of you out there have seen **August Underground/Mordum** , is it really worth it? I’ve been tempted to shell out the money for them for months now, but other things just keep popping up. -Cap’n GG BB ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2005, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-disturbing-movies-ever/290880/2 "2005-02-19T12:37:40Z")
I nominate the entire Pier Paolo Pasolini filmography. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Gutgore\_Blooddrink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Captain\_Gutgore\_Blooddrink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Gutgore_Blooddrink)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2005, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-disturbing-movies-ever/290880/3 "2005-02-19T12:41:45Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > I nominate the entire Pier Paolo Pasolini filmography. You know, I almost bought **Salo** the other day, but I just couldn’t justify spending that much on it ($35.00) without having seen it or had someones opinion I trusted. Any dopers care to go to bat for this one, while we’re at it? ---
**Author:** ![bienville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@bienville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bienville)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2005, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-disturbing-movies-ever/290880/4 "2005-02-19T12:43:20Z")
I had a really hard time sitting through [The Young Poisoner’s Handbook](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0115033/). It was a dark comedy, usually I like dark comedies, but the physical horrors where too vividly depicted that when it was played for laughs I just wanted to puke- I almost walked out on this film. I was never able to decide if the fact that it had such a profound effect on me meant that it was a good movie, or if I was simply disgusted because it was disgusting. Either way, I’m _never_ goin to watch it again to reevaluate it. ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2005, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-disturbing-movies-ever/290880/5 "2005-02-19T12:50:38Z")
1. Jisatsu Circle (Suicide Club), directed by Shion Sono. One of the few movies that I liked where I was completely unable to picture myself inside the director’s head. Weird experience. [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0312843/](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0312843/) 2. Cannibal Holocaust, directed by Ruggero Deodato. Cocky student filmmakers do a documentary about an old legend, and disappear without a trace. Several years later, their film is found. Sound familiar? Gruesome beyond belief. [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078935/](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078935/) 3. Za Ginipiggu: Chiniku no Hana (Guinea Pig: Flower of Flesh and Blood), by Hideshi Hino. This one is mentioned in Snopes as the film Charlie Sheen reported to the FBI as an actual snuff film (it’s not). By some measures, it’s not a very violent movie, since only one person dies. It just that that person is dying for an entire hour. The same team did later movies that equally bloody, but played more for laughs, George Romero-style. [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0161635/](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0161635/) 4. The Holy Mountain, by Alejandro Jodorowsky. imdb synopsis: A Christlike figure wanders through bizarre, grotesque scenarios filled with religious and sacrilegious imagery. Bizarre and grotesque, indeed. [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071615/](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071615/) 5. Makusu no Yama (Marks), by Yoichi Sai. Murder mystery with some very disturbed twists. In the end, very, very sad. [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0113745/](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0113745/) Horror movies generally aren’t that disturbing, but here are a few extras that impressed me: Kairo (Pulse), by Kiyoshi Kurosawa (no relation to Akira). Of the Japanese horror genre, this one did the best job of scaring the poo out of me, and did it without a single drop of blood. > **[Pulse (2001) - IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0286751/)** > > Pulse: Directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa. With Haruhiko Katô, Kumiko Asô, Koyuki, Kurume Arisaka. Two groups of people discover evidence that suggests spirits may be trying to invade the human world through the Internet. Some honorable mentions: Uzumaki (Vortex) [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0244870/](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0244870/) Sebunzu Feisu (Seven’s Face) [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0300461/](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0300461/) ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2005, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-disturbing-movies-ever/290880/6 "2005-02-19T13:56:30Z")
[Threads](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090163/) is a very graphic movie which depicts life after a nuclear war. The actual scenes with the bombs aren’t as disturbing as the bleak, hopeless life after the war. A truly disturbing movie. ---
**Author:** ![Poonther](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Poonther](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Poonther)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2005, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-disturbing-movies-ever/290880/7 "2005-02-19T14:29:04Z")
Definitely for me the most disturbing movie is the French movie [Irréversible.](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0290673/) The tunnel rape scene is just too rough and long to watch. I’ve seen the movie once and I don’t think I’ll ever watch it again. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Arky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/87869e/32.png) [@An\_Arky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Arky)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2005, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-disturbing-movies-ever/290880/8 "2005-02-19T14:33:31Z")
My vote goes for [The Cook, The Thief, His Wife, Her Lover](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097108/). About the only redeeming quality in it is Hellen Mirren. ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2005, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-disturbing-movies-ever/290880/9 "2005-02-19T14:42:46Z")
**What Dreams May Come** with Robin WIlliams. Deals with the afterlife, suicide, shows young children dead in their coffins. Gruesome stuff that distracts from the plot. ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2005, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-disturbing-movies-ever/290880/10 "2005-02-19T14:46:14Z")
HENRY-PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER- like watching home movies of Henry & Otis Most disturbing is that the film Henry is partly a decent guy (certainly more than Otis) ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2005, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-disturbing-movies-ever/290880/11 "2005-02-19T14:48:33Z")
> [@Captain Gutgore Blooddrink](#): > > **Butterfly Kiss - _Michael Winterbottom_** > This movie is like the evil twin of **Heavenly Creatures**. After watching the end, I couldn’t decide whether I needed to shower or carve out the piece of my brain that would remember it. Obviously I still remember it but smtmymes gramar mine knot sew god /wteh spelyng. I might go with that; although I didn’t find it ‘disturbing’, so much as I found it ‘bleak’. (Saw it at the Nuart, bought it on VHS.) **Gummo**. _Gummo_ is like staring at a car wreck. Kids shoot cats with BB guns and sell them to a butcher. A girl with Downs syndrome says she breast feeds her doll. Rednecks get drunk and destroy a kitchen. A boy with a skateboard wanders around wearing swim trunks and pink rabbit ears. Two girls practice to be strippers. Like a car wreck, it’s hard not to look. There’s no plot. Still, the images are oddly compelling – and disturbing. **Johnny Got His Gun** Probably more depressing than disturbing. In WWI, a soldier is wounded by an artillery shell. He’s lost both legs, both arms, his lower jaw, and his sight. All he can do is think. **Crash** People who become sexually aroused by being in car wrecks. After its release I was listening to KROQ. A guy called in to say that he liked to crash rental cars with his girlfriend in the trunk. Weird. **Nekromantic** and **Nekromantic 2** ‘Necromania means never having to say goodbye.’ (They don’t use that line in the films.) Yes. I _do_ have all of these films. 😛 **dalej42** : Did you ever see _Special Bulletin_? Came out shortly before _Threads_ (which I agree is a disturbing film, though I’ve only seen that one on the big screen – I’ll have to see if it’s on DVD). I think _Special Bulletin_ captures 1980s newscasting _perfectly_. Not a disturbing film _per se_, but very well done – especially if you remember the news programmes of the early-1980s. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2005, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-disturbing-movies-ever/290880/12 "2005-02-19T14:57:59Z")
I’ve seen a few sick films, but most of them are so badly done that they’re easy to forget – they don’t stick in my mind long enough to be disturbing. The exceptions are **Blue Velvet** and **Last House on the Left**. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2005, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-disturbing-movies-ever/290880/13 "2005-02-19T15:11:27Z")
> [@AuntiePam](#): > > The exceptions are **Blue Velvet** and **Last House on the Left**. I have both of those. 😃 > [@Johnny L.A.](#): > > **dalej42** : Did you ever see _Special Bulletin_? Came out shortly before _Threads_… Whoops. I was thinking of _The Day After_, not _Threads_. _Threads_ came out well before _Special Bulletin_. Didn’t care for _The Day After_, but _Threads_ was great. ---
**Author:** ![the4thmooncat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ce7236/32.png) [@the4thmooncat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the4thmooncat)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2005, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-disturbing-movies-ever/290880/14 "2005-02-19T15:12:01Z")
**Perfect Blue** : I don’t get scared too easily by movies, but this one I had to watch with the lights on. Most disturbing was the part where Mima’s reflection starts talking to her… and then it comes out of the mirror… and goes on stage… and the next day there are pictures. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2005, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-disturbing-movies-ever/290880/15 "2005-02-19T15:20:56Z")
> [@the4thmooncat](#): > > **Perfect Blue** : I don’t get scared too easily by movies, but this one I had to watch with the lights on. Most disturbing was the part where Mima’s reflection starts talking to her… and then it comes out of the mirror… and goes on stage… and the next day there are pictures. :eek: Hm. I have that one, but I’ve only watched it once – years ago. I’ll have to watch it again. ---
**Author:** ![wolf\_in\_second\_hand\_clothing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/9d8465/32.png) [@wolf\_in\_second\_hand\_clothing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolf_in_second_hand_clothing)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2005, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-disturbing-movies-ever/290880/16 "2005-02-19T18:50:47Z")
**KIDS** - I just don’t like to watch that movie because the main characters remind me of people I know. ---
**Author:** ![cherry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/da6949/32.png) [@cherry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cherry)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2005, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-disturbing-movies-ever/290880/17 "2005-02-19T19:46:03Z")
> [@Captain Gutgore Blooddrink](#): > > You know, I almost bought **Salo** the other day, but I just couldn’t justify spending that much on it ($35.00) without having seen it or had someones opinion I trusted. Any dopers care to go to bat for this one, while we’re at it? I’ve seen Salo and was going to suggest that it is the worst most disturbing movie I have ever seen. I’ll go to bat for this one. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2005, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-disturbing-movies-ever/290880/18 "2005-02-19T20:11:09Z")
**Johnny L.A.** , I’m not surprised. 😛 Another disturbing (without being vile) movie is **The Company of Wolves** – it connected sex and horror (and fear) better than any of those teens-in-the-woods movies. ---
**Author:** ![kimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f0a364/32.png) [@kimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kimera)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2005, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-disturbing-movies-ever/290880/19 "2005-02-19T20:24:43Z")
**Ichi the Killer**. I’ve seen a bunch of the other movies and they didn’t bother me too much. Ichi the killer is the only movie that has made me so disgusted I had to leave the room. ---
**Author:** ![SPOOFE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c5a1d2/32.png) [@SPOOFE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SPOOFE)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2005, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-disturbing-movies-ever/290880/20 "2005-02-19T20:27:28Z")
> [@](#): > > Gummo. > Gummo is like staring at a car wreck. Kids shoot cats with BB guns and sell them to a butcher. A girl with Downs syndrome says she breast feeds her doll. Rednecks get drunk and destroy a kitchen. A boy with a skateboard wanders around wearing swim trunks and pink rabbit ears. Two girls practice to be strippers. Like a car wreck, it’s hard not to look. There’s no plot. Still, the images are oddly compelling – and disturbing. And mostly real, apparently. The “sets” were actual houses that people lived in, as-is. The town REALLY does look like that. As for _Blue Velvet_… I didn’t find it terribly disturbing. I don’t know why people do. The “disturbing” part was very, VERY underplayed. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-disturbing-movies-ever/290880.md?page=2)