# Sickest (non-porn) movie ever? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 19, 2009, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sickest-non-porn-movie-ever/514297 "2009-10-19T05:51:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2009, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sickest-non-porn-movie-ever/514297/41 "2009-10-19T23:18:15Z")
There is no violence and very little actual goreshock in David Lynch’s _Eraserhead,_ yet I’ve seen it described as the one movie that can do you actual damage. ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2009, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sickest-non-porn-movie-ever/514297/42 "2009-10-19T23:20:15Z")
I don’t understand the people who characterize Eraserhead as being somehow disturbing. I thought it was weird - comically so - a dadaist experiment in filmmaking, but not particularly frightening. It was just weird, for weird’s sake, which is David Lynch’s specialty even though I bet he would deny it, claiming he’s just showing the world “as it is” or something. ---
**Author:** ![Blut\_Aus\_Nord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Blut\_Aus\_Nord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blut_Aus_Nord)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2009, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sickest-non-porn-movie-ever/514297/43 "2009-10-19T23:39:59Z")
Eraserhead is kind of funny with the right mentality. ---
**Author:** ![Hamlet](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hamlet/32/2818_2.png) [@Hamlet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hamlet)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2009, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sickest-non-porn-movie-ever/514297/44 "2009-10-19T23:46:58Z")
> [@Blut\_Aus\_Nord](#): > > Eraserhead is kind of funny with the right mentality. I agree, if by “right mentality” you mean “baked to the gills after suffering head trauma severe enough to kill a really strong headed rhinoceros while a psychotic killer has your entire family held captive and will kill them all if you don’t find Eraserhead kind of funny.” ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2009, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sickest-non-porn-movie-ever/514297/45 "2009-10-19T23:54:21Z")
> [@Argent\_Towers](#): > > I don’t understand the people who characterize Eraserhead as being somehow disturbing. I thought it was weird - comically so - a dadaist experiment in filmmaking, but not particularly frightening. It was just weird, for weird’s sake, which is David Lynch’s specialty even though I bet he would deny it, claiming he’s just showing the world “as it is” or something. I doubt it. My impression of Lynch is that he works purely on instinct, and doesn’t himself understand most of the images he puts up on the screen. So while I don’t he’d cop to as cynical an agenda as “weird for weird’s sake,” I don’t think he’d describe his stuff as “just showing the world as it is” either. He started out as an abstract painter. Very id. More emotional than intellectual. ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2009, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sickest-non-porn-movie-ever/514297/46 "2009-10-20T00:45:30Z")
> [@Hamlet](#): > > I agree, if by “right mentality” you mean “baked to the gills after suffering head trauma severe enough to kill a really strong headed rhinoceros while a psychotic killer has your entire family held captive and will kill them all if you don’t find Eraserhead kind of funny.” Hey, it works for Adult Swim’s original programming. ---
**Author:** ![mr.jp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/48db29/32.png) [@mr.jp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mr.jp)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2009, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sickest-non-porn-movie-ever/514297/47 "2009-10-20T01:01:47Z")
This is a movie I’ve heard about, but don’t dare to watch: [Freaks](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0022913/) ---
**Author:** ![Superhal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Superhal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superhal)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2009, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sickest-non-porn-movie-ever/514297/48 "2009-10-20T01:35:52Z")
How to lose a guy in 10 days is a crime against humanity. ---
**Author:** ![Erdosain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/erdosain/32/7284_2.png) [@Erdosain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Erdosain)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2009, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sickest-non-porn-movie-ever/514297/49 "2009-10-20T01:40:58Z")
> [@lemac](#): > > The Human Centipede (not out yet, though there’s a trailer on youtube) > > > [@](#): > > > > Internationally respected Siamese twin surgeon Dr. Josef Heiter has a demented vision for mankind’s future existence. He wants to remove human beings’ kneecaps so they have to exist on all fours and then surgically graft them mouth-to-anus to form a centipede chain. When two stranded female Americans arrive at his luxury home-cum-hospital looking for help, his long-gestating plan swiftly moves into chilling action with a shocking force. Kidnapping a third Japanese male tourist, he begins the tissue matches, teeth removal, and buttock moulding to create his triplet creature… > > This seriously disturbs me more than any kind of torture/rape film I’ve seen. Well, at least this explains a cryptic fortune cookie I once got. It read: “Unless you are lead segment on human centipede, the view never changes, and the food tastes like shit.” Mystery solved! ---
**Author:** ![phreesh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9fc29f/32.png) [@phreesh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phreesh)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2009, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sickest-non-porn-movie-ever/514297/50 "2009-10-20T02:44:53Z")
I haven’t seen the movie and I don’t think its in the league of some of the other movies, but I hear \*\*Django \*\*was a trendsetter for ‘sick’ movies. Apparently it’s got literally dozens of sequels, official and otherwise. ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2009, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sickest-non-porn-movie-ever/514297/51 "2009-10-20T02:47:33Z")
> [@phreesh](#): > > I haven’t seen the movie and I don’t think its in the league of some of the other movies, but I hear \*\*Django \*\*was a trendsetter for ‘sick’ movies. Apparently it’s got literally dozens of sequels, official and otherwise. Huh. Not really. It’s a bit over the top for a spaghetti western, but it’s not even in the same class as most of the movies mentioned here. ---
**Author:** ![Cumberdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8c91f0/32.png) [@Cumberdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cumberdale)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2009, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sickest-non-porn-movie-ever/514297/52 "2009-10-20T03:01:26Z")
> [@lisacurl](#): > > The concept behind I Spit on Your Grave was interesting. It might have been a great film in the hands of a better filmmaker. In the hands of Meir Zarchi, it was pure exploitative insulting crap. He didn’t have the talent to do better. While I don’t believe it is a great film, I don’t find it insulting. Sure some of the effects are awfull (motorboat kill) but after seeing it, it’s difficult to dismiss. I do feel it skirts the edge of exploitation but just misses it. Because of the length of the awful rape scene it takes it out of exploitation and makes it more ‘real’. I personally find the rape scene in _The Accused_ more exploitative than ISOYG. As \*Lissener \* said it rubs your face in the gritty nastyness of the scene rather than showing a tamer, sanitized version of it. In the hands of a better director, it might have been more polished, but it likey would have lost its nerve. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2009, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sickest-non-porn-movie-ever/514297/53 "2009-10-20T03:28:32Z")
> [@lemac](#): > > The Human Centipede (not out yet, though there’s a trailer on youtube) > > This seriously disturbs me more than any kind of torture/rape film I’ve seen. Sounds like a porno to me. Just for people with an excrement consuming fetish. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2009, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sickest-non-porn-movie-ever/514297/54 "2009-10-20T03:54:01Z")
> [@lissener](#): > > Wow. I have had some of my posts misconstrued here before–there’s an entire cult of Dopers who make a point of it, in fact–but this strikes me as quite possibly the 180est interpretation I’ve ever been subject to. Where on earth do you get that out of what I posted? Did you not say that the average person would expect the woman not to do anything about the rape? That they would expect the male in the picture to be the hero? Who are the males in the picture? The rapists. Yeah, it’s a stretch, but not one that is that hard to follow. But I think the real reason for the response is that you basically said that people who like slasher films are misogynists, and that’s why they don’t like the film. I mean, what else do you call people who think “the woman is supposed to be the almost willing victim, dutifully and attractively put in her place by the powerful man”? As for me, the concept (as I will not see the movie) sounds like yet another film where “They did something evil to me, so I get to be even more evil back.” I cannot feel sympathy for someone I regard as doing evil. A good person fights the urge to hurt the people that hurt them. ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2009, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sickest-non-porn-movie-ever/514297/55 "2009-10-20T03:57:50Z")
You should reread my post. You made all that up in your head. None of it is remotely what I said. And you should also not get so het up discussing a movie you haven’t even seen. ---
**Author:** ![MadTheSwine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MadTheSwine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MadTheSwine)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2009, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sickest-non-porn-movie-ever/514297/56 "2009-10-20T04:38:39Z")
> [@Lakai](#): > > [Man Bites Dog](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0103905/) is pretty out there. It’s a very raw look at violence and the people who enjoy watching movies about it. This is one of my all-time favorites.Wasn’t gonna post it cus I don’t find it all that sick, but I’m not disturbed by much.Also really like [_The Devils Rejects_.](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0395584/) ---
**Author:** ![Lakai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9de0a6/32.png) [@Lakai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lakai)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2009, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sickest-non-porn-movie-ever/514297/57 "2009-10-20T04:46:48Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > Did you not say that the average person would expect the woman not to do anything about the rape? That they would expect the male in the picture to be the hero? Who are the males in the picture? The rapists. Movies usually have males in the picture who aren’t rapists and who are willing to help the female fight her attacker. > [@](#): > > Yeah, it’s a stretch, but not one that is that hard to follow. But I think the real reason for the response is that you basically said that people who like slasher films are misogynists, and that’s why they don’t like the film. I mean, what else do you call people who think “the woman is supposed to be the almost willing victim, dutifully and attractively put in her place by the powerful man”? I would call them people who have seen conventional movies that show rape. In turn they get a distorted picture of rape and get put off when they see a movie depicting rape more violently. It’s not necessarily misogynistic to expect a movie to show a cleaned up rape scene and then to get upset when the film shows a realistic rape scene. That’s different from thinking that an actual rape is similar to the cleaned up rape scenes in most movies. I can see how that view can come across as misogynistic. ---
**Author:** ![Gesturing\_Mildly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/65b543/32.png) [@Gesturing\_Mildly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gesturing_Mildly)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2009, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sickest-non-porn-movie-ever/514297/58 "2009-10-20T13:40:43Z")
> [@mr.jp](#): > > This is a movie I’ve heard about, but don’t dare to watch: > [Freaks](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0022913/) It’s not that bad, really. I mean, it’s pretty weird in that it shows real sideshow freaks - midgets, people with limbs missing, pinheads, etc. But it’s not terribly graphic, and has a somewhat redeeming message. It’s not sick for sickness’ sake, like some of the films mentioned here. I’d recommend it. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2009, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sickest-non-porn-movie-ever/514297/59 "2009-10-20T15:47:06Z")
As a horror/gore aficionado, I can say that thus far, **August Underground’s Mordum** is the sickest movie I’ve ever seen. It’s barely even a movie, more of an endurance test for the staunchest gore fans. Smart folks will not click the following spoiler box, which contains just some of the stuff shown quite graphically in **Mordum** : [ul] [li]A masked man, kidnapped and kept in a trunk, being forced to cut off his own penis with scissors[/li][li]Stabbing a woman in the abdomen and raping the bleeding hole.[/li][li]The headless body of a dead baby with maggots infesting the neck. A psychopath picks off one of the maggots and eats it.[/li][li]The rape of the battered corpse of a ten-year-old girl in a bathtub.[/li][/ul] A few weeks ago, I picked up a movie called **Philosophy of a Knife** , which is supposedly even harsher than **Mordum** ; it’s about the Japanese occupation of Nanking, and is about four hours long, so I haven’t had time to watch it yet. I’ll report back. ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2009, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sickest-non-porn-movie-ever/514297/60 "2009-10-20T22:09:43Z")
> [@Max\_Torque](#): > > A few weeks ago, I picked up a movie called **Philosophy of a Knife** , which is supposedly even harsher than **Mordum** ; it’s about the Japanese occupation of Nanking, and is about four hours long, so I haven’t had time to watch it yet. I’ll report back. Ach! Speaking of Nanking—how could I forget? [_The Men Behind the Sun_](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Men_Behind_the_Sun). As the link says, it’s a Hong Kong made part exploitation film, part historical tell-all, part propaganda screed. It’s hard to tell which parts are more horrifying—the bits that actually _happened_, or the stuff the felt they needed to make up for the gory shock value. Some of the grosser clips are on YouTube, and the movie is available on Netflix, so you can see for yourself. Joy! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sickest-non-porn-movie-ever/514297.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sickest-non-porn-movie-ever/514297.md?page=4)