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.
I’m surprised nobody has nominated Eraserhead yet.
Kind of a rip-off of “7”, though, which was more disturbing.
“American History X” was pretty disturbing.
Man Bites Dog. 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. 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.
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.
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.
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.
You may find this thread full of ‘good’ suggestions as well.
I noted there:
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.
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.
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.
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.
I kinda thought Bevis and Butthead Do America was disturbing…but probably for different reasons.
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.
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.
Almost forgot a really disturbing one: Funny Games. Felt completely hollowed out after this one, and not in a good way.
Kids, and I don’t even have kids.
: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.
And then, somehow, I realize that he’s the OP…
D’oh.
Although, now I do see you did have a namechange recently…