Yes — I’m talking about Those Movies. The ones where people get a gleam in the eye when they say: “Have you seen this?” Which isn’t to say that they’ve seen it, either, necessarily; you’ve simply heard them mentioned, or discussed briefly, in hushed tones, with a feeling similar to but not quite the same as awe. The sense of the whispering is to ask, have you seen it, and can you take it? Maybe it’s extreme violence, maybe it’s extreme sex, maybe it’s just a general tone of fucked-up-ness.
And occasionally, you get a chance to check one out. You see it on the shelf of the video store, or at a friend’s house; you pick it up; your imagination swirls with the second-hand stories you’ve heard, and the possibilities of the film; and when you bring it to the counter, or ask your friend, you get The Look. The expression that says: are you sure you want to try this? Really?
And then you actually watch it, and usually, it sucks. It doesn’t measure up. Your expectations are too high, you want to have your ass kicked, and the movie falls short. And while you really wanted to be assaulted by the movie, it just kind of takes a few half-hearted pokes, and you’re disappointed.
Sometimes, though: holy crap.
This is the thread for people who have actually seen these movies to tell the rest of us whether or not they’re worth it.
I’ll start off with a couple of the big ones.
Faces of Death. Anthologies of compiled clips. Occasionally shocking and real moments, like Budd Dwyer’s on-camera suicide (which of course is now available on youtube); some generic documentary stuff, like autopsies and slaughterhouses; and some badly staged fake scenes, like the monkey-brains thing. Amateurish, though occasionally hallucinatory when the library music on the soundtrack becomes ridiculously inappropriate. Mostly significant for its historical value, as it identified a demand and set a trend that allowed caught-on-camera clip shows to proliferate on TV (car crashes, animal attacks, and such), though the 1978 original is definitely showing its age. Verdict: Weak; skip it unless you’re a completist or a history buff.
Cannibal Holocaust. An expedition into cannibal country seeks clues about the disappearance of a previous group of student filmmakers; their lost film canisters are recovered and their fate is revealed. There’s a whole seething subgenre of these jungle-trek gutmuchers, and this one is generally regarded as the top of the heap — with good reason. While the gore and violent misogyny is pretty much the same as others of its ilk, and while one kill-and-disembowel-an-animal-on-camera scene is more or less the same as any other, there’s a unique feeling of bleakness in virtually every frame of this film that sets it apart. Other movies of this type revel joyously in the gore and sleaze, but Cannibal Holocaust is grim, determined in its purpose, with a sense of existential dread that really gets under your skin in a way the other movies don’t. Plus, for the kind of movie it is, it’s technically really well made, adding to the atmosphere. Verdict: Twenty years old, Cannibal Holocaust still packs a serious punch.
Caligula. Malcolm McDowell! John Gielgud! Peter O’Toole! Hardcore porn! Decapitations! Sleaze galore! And yet… so incredibly, incredibly boring. One of the most notorious movies ever, in terms of the whispered reputation, and one of the biggest disappointments when you finally get around to seeing it. Given everything that happens in the film, and given the caliber of actor (usually) involved in the material onscreen, it’s mystifying why the actual experience of watching the film should be so dull. And yet, the movie sits almost inert, rousing occasionally to drag itself into another set piece, and you look at your watch and are shocked to see that only ten minutes have passed since the last time you looked. Probably the single worst movie in terms of a yawning chasm between expectations based on thrilling reputation and actual viewing experience. Verdict: Tedious beyond belief. I keep telling people not to bother, but they just have to see for themselves. You will too, probably.
I Spit On Your Grave. Woman goes into the country to do some writing and meets the locals. One of them misinterprets her behavior as flirting, so he brings his friends and they rape her for a solid half-hour of screentime. After she recovers, she takes brutal revenge on them, one by one. Roll credits. Ineptly made, with clumsy writing, photography, and (except for Camille Keaton in the central role) performed. The fact that the gang-rape goes on, and on, and on, though, gives it a certain dubious distinction, and yes, it’s as horrifying as it sounds. (A similar scene in the French film Baise-Moi is weak by comparison.) Not sleazy, exactly, but definitely unafraid of covering itself in moral grime. Verdict: A mixed bag. Hard to stomach, certainly, but ultimately, sort of pointless. Skip it unless you’re working through a revenge-movie checklist.
Meet the Feebles. Dude. Muppets having sex and shooting each other in the head. And from the Oscar-winning director of Lord of the Rings no less. Verdict: A-Plus, a must-see. Will scar you, in a good way. 
