# 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:** 2
**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, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-disturbing-movies-ever/290880/21 "2005-02-19T20:29:26Z")
Oh, goddamn me with a saucepan, I forgot to mention my favorite disturbing movie: _Quills_. Hardly autobiographical or accurate, it does portray a very horrific look into a madhouse and the influence of the Marquis de Sade… and Geoffrey Rush’s performance is fuckin’ DEDICATED to the role. A lot of disturbing imagery, like Joaquin Pheonix’s descent into madness, the big fat dude that attacks Kate Winslet, Michael Caine’s “wife” and his treatment of her… gah. ---
**Author:** ![Dancer\_Flight](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dancer_flight/32/7601_2.png) [@Dancer\_Flight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dancer_Flight)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2005, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-disturbing-movies-ever/290880/22 "2005-02-19T20:42:08Z")
**The Passion of the Christ** : That human beings can be that cruel and blase about it disturbs me know end. **8mm** : A movie about a snuff film. The only movie I ever deeply regretted not walking out on. **Very Bad Things** : I had to take 3 brain-bleach breaks through tthis movie (obviously a rental). The plot is (barely) plausible and that, in itself, is disturbing. No-one in this movie even shows a speck of common human decency **Schindler’s List** : More of the Man’s inhumanity towards Man type of disturbing. **Death and the Maiden** : A rape survivor gets her hands on the perpetrator. Very intense, torture and revenge, ultimately mercy but a disturbing journey to get there. Honourable Mentions: Swimming with Sharks, 12 Monkeys, Se7en (likable though), Battle Royale (Concept is a little creepy, but very much in line with several of Richard Bachman’s (Steven King’s) novels), Saving Private Ryan (Gore), GATTACA (seen only once, in the theater, and I’m still ambivalent about it) -DF ---
**Author:** ![Brutus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@Brutus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brutus)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2005, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-disturbing-movies-ever/290880/23 "2005-02-19T20:51:15Z")
> [@Dancer\_Flight](#): > > **Very Bad Things** : I had to take 3 brain-bleach breaks through tthis movie (obviously a rental). The plot is (barely) plausible and that, in itself, is disturbing. No-one in this movie even shows a speck of common human decency… The movie with Christian Slater and Whatshername and others? I thought it was hilarious. Dark comedy, to be sure, but funny. ---
**Author:** ![Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e36b37/32.png) [@Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airman_Doors_USAF)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2005, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-disturbing-movies-ever/290880/24 "2005-02-19T20:57:50Z")
[**Saw**](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0387564/) was absolutely deranged. ---
**Author:** ![Sandlegs](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@Sandlegs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sandlegs)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2005, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-disturbing-movies-ever/290880/25 "2005-02-19T20:57:50Z")
I’ll go to bat about Salo as well. It’s starts out intersting, but the rest of the movie is a little too silly for me. If it was a documentary, it would have been disturbing, but it’s just a movie, so it turns out just silly. But I have found myself talking about it a lot though. Talk about a shit eating grin, literally. ---
**Author:** ![Dancer\_Flight](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dancer_flight/32/7601_2.png) [@Dancer\_Flight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dancer_Flight)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2005, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-disturbing-movies-ever/290880/26 "2005-02-19T21:04:44Z")
> [@Brutus](#): > > The movie with Christian Slater and Whatshername and others? I thought it was hilarious. Dark comedy, to be sure, but funny. Cameron Diaz. Yes that’s the one. Hey, if you think it’s funny I won’t argue. _I_ found it disturbing (even though, yes, I did laugh at parts). -DF ---
**Author:** ![Zero\_Gravitas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7ab992/32.png) [@Zero\_Gravitas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zero_Gravitas)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2005, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-disturbing-movies-ever/290880/27 "2005-02-19T21:18:32Z")
> [@SPOOFE](#): > > And mostly real, apparently. The “sets” were actual houses that people lived in, as-is. The town REALLY does look like that. Wrong. Gummo was filmed in Nashville, TN. Gummo is hated by many inhabitants of Xenia, OH, because of the way it portrays their community. Xenia did suffer a lot of damage in the infamous 1974 tornado, but it was quickly rebuilt and the town is much larger now than before. The median income in Xenia is over $36,000 a year and less than 9% of families live below the poverty line - these statistics are available for most cities in the USA, so you can compare where you live to Xenia and see how they compare. There’s more poverty in Nashville, where Gummo was filmed, than in Xenia. ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2005, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-disturbing-movies-ever/290880/28 "2005-02-19T21:43:35Z")
**Angelheart** with Mickey Rourke. I don’t know if it’s because I watched it by myself on a rainy night, but that movie scared the bejesus out of me. The odd images of people tap dancing and a woman in black, how he kept sidling up to mirrors, and Lisa Bonet and what happened to her…then the whole reveal with Robert de Niro…I sat screaming into a pillow during the final scenes. Holy crap, but I did not see that one coming. ---
**Author:** ![Eutychus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Eutychus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eutychus)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2005, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-disturbing-movies-ever/290880/29 "2005-02-19T21:55:14Z")
> [@ivylass](#): > > **Angelheart** with Mickey Rourke. I don’t know if it’s because I watched it by myself on a rainy night, but that movie scared the bejesus out of me. The odd images of people tap dancing and a woman in black, how he kept sidling up to mirrors, and Lisa Bonet and what happened to her…then the whole reveal with Robert de Niro…I sat screaming into a pillow during the final scenes. > > Holy crap, but I did not see that one coming. And when you realize that you’ve known his name all along it makes you slap your head and realize that you really SHOULD have seen it coming. All the clues are there. “Would you like an egg, Mr. Angel?” That part was disturbing. And Robert DeNiro played it perfectly. ---
**Author:** ![Spree](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/919ad9/32.png) [@Spree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spree)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2005, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-disturbing-movies-ever/290880/30 "2005-02-19T22:27:52Z")
> [@Dancer\_Flight](#): > > **Very Bad Things** : I had to take 3 brain-bleach breaks through tthis movie (obviously a rental). The plot is (barely) plausible and that, in itself, is disturbing. No-one in this movie even shows a speck of common human decency I nominated this movie over in the “Movies You Absolutely Despise” thread. My pick - **1984**. Specifically the torture/brainwashing/reconditioning/Room 101 sequence. I mean, the whole movie itself was rather bleak and depressing, but that was the point of the story so I was expecting that. However, I almost had to turn the movie offduring the torture sequence because I was way too disturbed…the scenes with him on the rack seemed to go on forever… That stuck with me for days. ---
**Author:** ![artemis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/91b2a8/32.png) [@artemis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/artemis)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2005, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-disturbing-movies-ever/290880/31 "2005-02-19T22:55:23Z")
**Hotel Rwanda**. So much for “Never Again!” (And probably the sickest part of the movie is watching it while yet **another** genocide is in progress - about which we are again doing nothing.) ---
**Author:** ![Fuji\_Kitakyusho](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f0a364/32.png) [@Fuji\_Kitakyusho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fuji_Kitakyusho)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2005, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-disturbing-movies-ever/290880/32 "2005-02-19T23:03:51Z")
Man bites dog. ---
**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, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-disturbing-movies-ever/290880/33 "2005-02-19T23:18:39Z")
> [@An Arky](#): > > 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. I don’t know about most disturbing, but Michael Gambon gets my nomination for biggest dick EVER in any movie. Period. Even worse than Tim Roth in **Rob Roy**. Did I just hijack my own thread? ---
**Author:** ![Revedge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ecae2f/32.png) [@Revedge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revedge)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2005, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-disturbing-movies-ever/290880/34 "2005-02-19T23:22:50Z")
Schindler’s List The horror that an entire nation stooped to this. Saving Private Ryan The D-day scene is probably one of the most powerful anti war statements I’ve ever witnessed. (Don’t get me wrong, I think that Speilberg (And I) believes that sometimes war is nessesary but there is nothing glamourous about it. It is brutal and violent.) 8mm Found this very tough to watch. KIDS Because it is so much like watching the real kids in my neighborhood. Seven The “lust” scene was so powerful. Even though we really didn’t see the results, the actor telling the police about what happened was so good I picked up on his disgust and hysteria. ---
**Author:** ![Indygrrl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/58f4c7/32.png) [@Indygrrl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indygrrl)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2005, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-disturbing-movies-ever/290880/35 "2005-02-19T23:31:24Z")
_Sybil_–that just disturbed me to my core _Misery_–I had nightmares for weeks, and I had even read the book, which also gave me nightmares for weeks. _Audition_–Wow. I liked it, but I did not know what I was getting into with that movie. ---
**Author:** ![eponymous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e0b2c6/32.png) [@eponymous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eponymous)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2005, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-disturbing-movies-ever/290880/36 "2005-02-19T23:43:23Z")
**The Vanishing** (the Dutch original - not the crappy American remake). **Henry - Portrait of a Serial Killer**. **The Last Seduction** - Linda Fiorentino’s portrayal of an amoral and manipulative seductress totally creeped me out. ---
**Author:** ![Cynical\_Optimist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Cynical\_Optimist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cynical_Optimist)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2005, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-disturbing-movies-ever/290880/37 "2005-02-19T23:50:35Z")
We’ve already covered _Requiem for a Dream, Crash, & Irreversable_ which I like to call the Skincrawl Trilogy. But there’s another: _Baise Moi_. Basically its an NC-17 version of _Thelma & Louise_. Sex or violence it has plenty to shock you. Another one that people laugh at when I mention it is _Grave of the Fireflies_. Sure, compared to _Schindler’s List & Hotel Rwanda_ the thought of anime stirring emotions seems laughable, but give the film a chance. I couldn’t keep a dry eye after watching it. ---
**Author:** ![TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tellmei_mnotcrazy/32/3419_2.png) [@TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TellMeI_mNotCrazy)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2005, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-disturbing-movies-ever/290880/38 "2005-02-20T00:01:26Z")
I’m no wimp when it comes to violence/gore in movies, but I honestly couldn’t look at the screen through much of Passion of the Christ. And, non-wimpiness notwithstanding, I simply could not watch Natural Born Killers beyond the first 20 minutes or so. Just far too disturbing for me. ---
**Author:** ![Honesty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/f04885/32.png) [@Honesty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Honesty)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2005, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-disturbing-movies-ever/290880/39 "2005-02-20T00:15:35Z")
> [@Airman Doors](#): > > [**Saw**](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0387564/) was absolutely deranged. I concur. - Honesty ---
**Author:** ![CMG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a9a28c/32.png) [@CMG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CMG)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2005, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-disturbing-movies-ever/290880/40 "2005-02-20T00:17:02Z")
I’d say The Grey Zone from 2002 is pretty disturbing maybe even more so then Schindler’s List. I guess its similar to Saw in that people have to make horrible decisions that no one should ever have to make but this really happened. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-disturbing-movies-ever/290880.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-disturbing-movies-ever/290880.md?page=3)