# 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:** 3
**Author:** ![Alias](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a88e4f/32.png) [@Alias](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alias)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2005, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-disturbing-movies-ever/290880/41 "2005-02-20T00:30:03Z")
I watched Sybil one night thinking it was just a cheesy movie of the week type movie. Oh man. Everything was fine until the part where Sybil’s mom hangs her from her hands in the barn as a punishment. At that point, I had to turn it off and go hug my sleeping daughter. I can watch horrific things like Audition (love that movie), but as soon as children get hurt, I turn into a wreck. I don’t like Mommie Dearest for this reason either, although it’s quite soap-operaish. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2005, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-disturbing-movies-ever/290880/42 "2005-02-20T00:30:04Z")
I’m surprised nobody has nominated [Eraserhead](http://www.rumourmachine.com/Reviews/eraserhead.htm) yet. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2005, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-disturbing-movies-ever/290880/43 "2005-02-20T01:08:46Z")
> [@Airman Doors](#): > > [**Saw**](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0387564/) was absolutely deranged. Kind of a rip-off of “7”, though, which was more disturbing. “American History X” was pretty disturbing. ---
**Author:** ![Lisa-go-Blind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7c8e57/32.png) [@Lisa-go-Blind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lisa-go-Blind)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2005, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-disturbing-movies-ever/290880/44 "2005-02-20T02:23:28Z")
[Man Bites Dog](http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0103905/). I actually really liked the first half of the movie a lot and laughed often. But it starts to get more and more deranged, and then there’s a certain scene about halfway through the movie (you probably know which one I’m talking about if you’ve seen it) and I started hated myself for enjoying the parts of the movie that I did. I wouldn’t be surprised if that were exactly the reaction that the filmmakers were looking for, though. And for something different: [Gaslight](http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0036855/). Yes, the 1944 costume drama with Ingrid Bergman. It got to a point where it was so heavy I kept wanting to turn it off. How someone could just cruelly and callously abuse the trust of someone who loves them … it’s horrible. ---
**Author:** ![look\_hergo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85e7bf/32.png) [@look\_hergo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/look_hergo)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2005, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-disturbing-movies-ever/290880/45 "2005-02-20T02:35:07Z")
**Grave of the Fireflies** is one I’ll probably never watch again, even though it was amazing. Watching the two children keep each other’s spirits up while starving, the eventual death of the little girl, and the final scene of the boy dying alone in a bus station… wow. They just don’t make soul-searing animation like that in the USA. ---
**Author:** ![raz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9f8e36/32.png) [@raz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/raz)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2005, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-disturbing-movies-ever/290880/46 "2005-02-20T02:39:47Z")
Movies where people are blatantly cruel to others for no reason are what disturb me the most. **American History X** is a horrible, horrible movie. I hated it. I wish I never watched it! **Apt Pupil**. First this guy tries to put a cat in the oven, then a little boy smasked a pigeon with a basketball. The only movie I have EVER turned off because it was so disgusting to me. **Passion of the Christ**. First off, I’m an atheist. I don’t believe in Jesus but I went to see this movie with my (ex) boyfriend because he wanted to see it. It was far too brutal for me. Its scary how people can be so cruel because even though I don’t believe in Jesus, they DID crucify people like that as punishment many many years ago and thats what got to me. **Gattaca**. I actually just watched that as a class assignment a couple of days ago. It is disturbing because it makes you wonder if the world ever really could get like that. ---
**Author:** ![BobT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e8cbc/32.png) [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2005, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-disturbing-movies-ever/290880/47 "2005-02-20T02:40:49Z")
**Grave of the Fireflies** is the only film where I started crying about 10 minutes in to the movie and I don’t think I stopped until well after it was over. It was the most emotionally draining event in my life that did not involve an actual human being. ---
**Author:** ![KarlGauss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/karlgauss/32/3713_2.png) [@KarlGauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGauss)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2005, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-disturbing-movies-ever/290880/48 "2005-02-20T03:49:28Z")
You may find [this thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=34201) full of ‘good’ suggestions as well. I noted there: > [@](#): > > You want unsettling. How about [The Devils](http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0066993/) by Ken Russell. Best described as a fever dream. > > You want disturbing. Robert Altman has a couple that fit the bill. Either [Images](http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0068732/) or [3 Women](http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0075612/). Both are disturbing, and brilliant. ---
**Author:** ![ddgryphon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/8c91f0/32.png) [@ddgryphon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ddgryphon)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2005, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-disturbing-movies-ever/290880/49 "2005-02-20T04:48:01Z")
> [@Cynical Optimist](#): > > 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. Grave of the Fireflies is one of the few movies to leave me in tears, but it has the added distinction of leaving me a blubbering quivering mess. I tell people to use it to see if they’re really as jaded as they think they are. ---
**Author:** ![vivalostwages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d07c76/32.png) [@vivalostwages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vivalostwages)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2005, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-disturbing-movies-ever/290880/50 "2005-02-20T05:31:33Z")
> [@TellMeI'mNotCrazy](#): > > 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. Good thing **The Passion** was a free rental, because I fast forwarded most of it (the really bad stuff) and wound up only seeing about 15-20 minutes of it. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2005, 6:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-disturbing-movies-ever/290880/51 "2005-02-20T06:58:43Z")
> [@ddgryphon](#): > > Grave of the Fireflies is one of the few movies to leave me in tears, but it has the added distinction of leaving me a blubbering quivering mess. I tell people to use it to see if they’re really as jaded as they think they are. I just saw it for the first time today and had a good sob. I think that in some ways it’s even better than _Barefoot Gen_. ---
**Author:** ![Uzi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/91b2a8/32.png) [@Uzi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uzi)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2005, 7:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-disturbing-movies-ever/290880/52 "2005-02-20T07:22:16Z")
**The Wicker Man**. I get a picture of Christopher Lee and friends dancing in front of the Wicker Man as Edward Woodward is burnt alive inside it whenever I have a discussion with really devout people. I can easily picture them out there dancing and grinning like idiots, too. It started me on the road to skepticism. > **[The Wicker Man (1973) - IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070917/)** > > The Wicker Man: Directed by Robin Hardy. With Edward Woodward, Christopher Lee, Diane Cilento, Britt Ekland. A puritan Police Sergeant arrives in a Scottish island village in search of a missing girl whom the locals claim never existed. ---
**Author:** ![DWToml815](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a8b319/32.png) [@DWToml815](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DWToml815)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2005, 7:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-disturbing-movies-ever/290880/53 "2005-02-20T07:24:39Z")
I kinda thought **Bevis and Butthead Do America** was disturbing…but probably for different reasons. ---
**Author:** ![Pigs\_in\_Space](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9d8465/32.png) [@Pigs\_in\_Space](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pigs_in_Space)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2005, 7:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-disturbing-movies-ever/290880/54 "2005-02-20T07:42:19Z")
There’s a movie from the 1920’s called **Freaks**. It is based, not surprisingly, at a circus. This being the 20’s, there are a number of people in it with actual deformities, including one guy who is missing all his extremities yet still manages to roll his own cigarettes. The movie itself is quite disturbing, especially that it pretends to be on the side of the “freaks”, but it really, really isn’t. Then there’s the real-life creepiness of making the movie in the first place. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2005, 10:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-disturbing-movies-ever/290880/55 "2005-02-20T10:22:32Z")
The “freaks” in _Freaks_ were certainly the protagonists, **Pigs**. If you’re thinking of the ending when you say it wasn’t “really” “on their side”, that’s just a carny thing. (Okay, it’s not really a carny thing. It’s a _revenge movie_ thing.) A lot of those people were (and are) fairly well-known outside of their participation in the film. Johnny Eck, Rardian (the cigarette-rolling fellow), and the (original) Hilton sisters were all fascinating folk – and not just because they were “not as others.” (Browning did _Freaks_ in the ‘30s, by the way.) I love that movie. It’s frickin’ uplifting. ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2005, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-disturbing-movies-ever/290880/56 "2005-02-20T14:16:15Z")
Almost forgot a really disturbing one: **Funny Games**. Felt completely hollowed out after this one, and not in a good way. ---
**Author:** ![Rucksinator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/898d66/32.png) [@Rucksinator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rucksinator)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2005, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-disturbing-movies-ever/290880/57 "2005-02-20T14:31:59Z")
**Kids** , and I don’t even have kids. ---
**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 20, 2005, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-disturbing-movies-ever/290880/58 "2005-02-20T15:04:58Z")
> [@DWToml815](#): > > I kinda thought **Bevis and Butthead Do America** was disturbing…but probably for different reasons. :rolleyes: I was waiting for someone to pop in and say **Showgirls** or something of the sort. There’s one in every crowd. ---
**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, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-disturbing-movies-ever/290880/59 "2005-02-20T15:07:03Z")
> [@Captain Gutgore Blooddrink](#): > > :rolleyes: > I was waiting for someone to pop in and say **Showgirls** or something of the sort. > > There’s one in every crowd. I’m so disappointed. I was really eager to see what a user with a name like \*\* Captain Gutgore Blooddrink\*\* would find disturbing. ---
**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, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-disturbing-movies-ever/290880/60 "2005-02-20T15:09:10Z")
And then, somehow, I realize that he’s the OP… D’oh. Although, now I do see you did have a namechange recently… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-disturbing-movies-ever/290880.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-disturbing-movies-ever/290880.md?page=4)