And let’s add Lord of Illusions, which has an awful lot of blood and gore. The scene with the dying guy who has knives and such stuck in him–all over him–is bad enough, but it has lots of competition within the same movie.
Um, well, actually for me it’s those nature shows on the Discovery Channel. You know, one bug jumps on another and bites its head off, then implants some larvae in it. One nice furry animal in Africa jumps on another nice furry animal and gradually kills it. A raptor lands on a bunny and lifts it away. No snappy dialogue. No plot twists. No digital effects.
Agree with the assessment of “Full Metal Jacket”. I couldn’t even finish watching the movie after that.
I found the entire first “Nightmare on Elm Street” terrifying (though I WAs a lot younger then). That was when it was more creepy/evil/scary and not nearly as many gratuitous “gross” special f/x as later versions.
The opening scene in “Cube” is pretty gruesome
It’s odd so many people mentioned American History X, considering that the audience doesn’t see the actually bloody result. They just show a scene of the guy biting the curb, and Edward Norton making a kicking movement and the rest is assumed. I guess it’s because a situation that’s not too far fetched, and we’re not used to (with today’s media, simply getting shot or stabbed is a cliche). Or we all have an issue with teeth.
Posted by ElwoodCuse
He didn’t.
For those people who are listing the “curbing” scene from American History X, I have a question. I see this frequently listed among horrifically violent scenes. In the version I saw, we don’t actually see the violence–Norton has the kid put his jaw on the curb, then the camera shows the Norton character roughly from the waist up and we hear, but don’t see what happens. Did I see an edited for Blockbuster version, or is this the standard one? It’s just that I’m always a bit surprised at this scene being listed as horrifically violent when the violence actually occurs offscreen.
And on that note:
posted by Wearia:
Go back and watch it again. Surprisingly, there is actually very little violence on screen. The shot almost always cuts away just before the “money shot”. The filmmakers were actually trying to get a PG rating. But people remember there being more violence than there actually was. I vividly remember the scene in which Leatherface catches one of the girls, carries her struggling into his butcher shop, and hangs her, alive and kicking, on a meathook. I remember the shot itself. But it isn’t actually in the movie; the shot cuts away just before she’s hung up–my mind retroactivly supplied the payoff that I remember. This is true of nearly every bit of violence in that movie–camera trickery is used to make us think we saw more than we actually did (like the shower scene in Psycho).
I can’t believe someone actually mentioned Salo. It took years for me to almost forget the entire movie and just last night a friend mentioned it to me and now I read it here. It is barnone the most horrific movie I’ve ever seen. I managed to sit through it all but barely.
As for American History X, I think that because we don’t see it, makes it worse in some sense. It might’ve looked phony had we seen E. Norton crush the guy’s head. For me, just hearing the the teeth brushing on the curb, and seeing the foot go up was plenty for me to turn around. I actually bought the movie and I still can’t look at that scene even though I know we don’t see anything!!
I gotta second the cornfield scene in “Casino”
I have a very strong tolerance for this sorta thing, but that scene made me queasy.
The version I’ve seen has EN from a distance raising his foot and bringing it down on the kid’s head. It either cuts away right before the boot hits or right as it happens.
As I recall, there is a fraction of a second where you can see the head being pushed down farther than is natural, as you hear the sound effects. Nothing graphic, but I do think they showed a glimpse. I only saw the film once, though.
For me. the most horrifically violent scenes are suggested, not shown.
The worst ever? From BROKEN ARROW. We see nothing but silhouettes, but hear Jimmy Stewart’s narration:
“The Apaches buried them in the earth up to their necks, and then smeared their faces with the sweet juice of the mescal plant. Then we watched the ants come.”
Everyone here seems to keep mentioning the same movies-but what about 8MM with nicholas cage? plenty of gruesome, disturbing stuff.
There is a very old movie made by Salvador Dali and Luis Bunuel in the 1920’s i believe, called Un Chien Andalou. it opens with a man cutting a woman’s eyeball open with a shaving razor. Creepy stuff!!
u guys keep mentioning Casino, but what about Goodfellas?
And you missed “Castaway”? It has the worst tooth removal scene (with the ice-skate). Ughhh.
My vote is, again, with the ‘curbing’ in American History X. Still sends shivers down my spine just thinking about it.
The scariest violence without any violence is the scene in Goodfellas (“You think I’m funny. What do you mean I’m funny? Funny how?”)
That level of “I could so fuck you up if I wanted, and you could do nothing about it” power is truly frightening.
Number Six: You saw the uncut version. The curbing isn’t shown on screen. But some of the most disturbing scenes cut away from the actual physical violence. Consider the ear-slicing scene from Reservoir Dogs: The camera shows Mr. Blond brandishing his straightrazor, pouncing on the guy, and then pans up and to the left. What Mr. Blond is doing is hidden behind his own body or is offscreen entirely.
The torture scene in Gangster No. 1 is incredibly harsh, as is the chicken wire bit in Audition.
For implied violence, look no further than Ben Kingsley’s terrifying turn in Sexy Beast.
I have one to add. The scene in Misery where Kathy Bates breaks James Caans foot.:eek:
woohoo. 1st post.
They show it in the unrated version, don’t they?
the wife beating scene in Once Were Warriors. well, the one where she is put through the glass table.
On the recently-released DVD, they cut away. They do have some deleted scenes including a much more graphic ear-slicing.
Forgot about the tooth scene in Castaway.
Martin Scorcese is the master of depicting actual violence (not over the top violence like Starship Troopers or cartoon violence like Arnold movies).
Speaking of Leonardo de Caprio movies…
How about that scene in The Beach where the dude gets bitten by the shark and half of his ass is missing and there’s blood everywhere?