I’ve seen most of the movies mentioned here 🫠
IMHO, A Serbian Film and Human Centipede 2 have some of the most disturbing scenes I’ve ever seen. Realizing that they are made for shock value kind of make them laughable though.
SALO is often mentioned in lists of fucked up movies, but it’s really not much. There’s some poop eating, light rape and someone’s tongue is pulled/cut out. It might have been shocking back in the day.
Irreversible made me feel nauseous and had an unsettling feeling from start to end. (Made me vary about Climax, which kind of have a similar feel, but is only fucked up to a much smaller degree). That one for too long scene that just foes on forever makes it the most disturbing film I have ever watched.
Heriditary has some fucked up scenes too and truly scared me. (But Midsommar bearly made an impression on me. Bearly).
Requiem for a Dream made me feel bad about drugs.
Bone Tomahawk kind of seems like an average action/adventurish movie in a western setting until… stuff happens.
Also worth a mention are Martyrs, Ôdishon, The Woman, Inside, The Girl Next Door (not the comedy) and either versions of Funny Games.
May have forgotten some.
(I have no plans to watch any of the Terrifier movies).
Edit: Totally forgot The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things somehow. Man, that is one fucked up movie. “Play with me Daddy”.
Martyrs (assuming you mean the original) I found fascinating. While it may not be particularly deep, at least there was a point to it, even if that point is all encompassing nihilism.
For me, that is the point in horror as a genre, to confront you with philosophy. Zombie movies aren’t really about zombies, etc…
IMHO, A Serbian Film and Human Centipede 2 have some of the most disturbing scenes I’ve ever seen. Realizing that they are made for shock value kind of make them laughable though.
…which is why I agree with you completely here, they are just gore for the sake of gore. The best bit about HC2 is how HC exists as a film within it, which opens the possibility that it’s also a part of St Elsewhere.
Fun story, Salo was required reading (I guess watching?) for a few friends of mine at uni on different courses. I guess the lecturers were having fun messing with freshers. I already had a copy (ahoy) and was known as “the guy that watches weird films” so I ended up being a watch buddy for various people who really, really, didn’t like gore. I ended up dating one of them for a bit, which was always a fun “how did you meet?” story.
I’d love to compare lists of (potentially) disturbing movies. Feel free to message me if you’d like.
Also the first Terrifier (although called something else I think?) was shitty (in my opinion) and I didn’t finish it. Haven’t tried the others.
Edit: Sorry everyone, as someone below pointed out, the above opinion is based on “all hallows eve” not Terrifier 1. My mistake. I’m gonna give both another try though.
It’s great, IF you really love that old, low-budget, late-80s horror. It’s a love-letter to classic slasher films, just like Kill Bill was a tribute to Hong Kong martial arts films and Japanese chanbara. If you don’t like the source material, you’re probably not going to like them.
Good point. It was quite a while ago and didn’t really approach it from that angle. With all the sequels, I should try the first again.
It’s complete schlock. But it’s fun schlock.
I do like that. Also my original comment was based on “all hallows eve” which someone pointed out. My fault. I’m gonna give both another try though.
Apparently Terrifier 2 is much better, still mostly shit, but has some of the best gore in any horror movie.
Definitely gonna watch that and 1. Apparently I was mistaken in my original comment, my opinion was based on “all hallows eve” and not Terrifier 1. I will watch both again. Love that horror movie gore that’s over the top.
I’ve kind of mellowed out for a while. I’m still into horror, but the truly disturbing stuff doesn’t just doesn’t speak to me any longer.
That’s fair. I’ve sort of done the opposite haha.
I’ve watched most of them as well, and Irreversible was the worst for me, somehow, even though its subject matter isn’t really as bad as some of the others.
The way too long and hyper realistic R scene is definitely a big part of it, but the movie also assaults you subconsciously throughout the whole thing. The soundtrack is full of low frequencies that are known to give people nausea and anxiety, and the constant strobe lights also just make it hard to even sit through the quiet scenes.
It is a punishing watch. Wouldn’t want to watch it again.
Grave of the Fireflies. Not the same type of fucked up, but I don’t want to watch it again!
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A Serbian film is tops for me. I watched it on my day off while my 2 year old daughter was taking her mid-day nap and when she woke up I couldn’t bring myself to pick her up out of the crib. I just felt too compromised by what I had just put into my eyes to touch her for a while.
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Old Boy is a movie that constantly has you on edge because you can tell something is going horribly wrong, but you’re not sure what it is. Once you find out, the whole thing is fucked six ways to Sunday.
Yep, this is the one I came to see was posted. I watched it only knowing “something really wrong” was around the core of the movie, but nothing more. When you learn what’s up… god damn. It’s not the goriest or scariest or anything like that, but it is the one that will just make you go “what in the actual fuck” more than any movie I’ve ever seen.
I haven’t seen anyone mention Come and See yet, so that one.
Came here to write this.
Another one would be Jacob’s ladder, but compared to Come and See it’s fairytale.
I actually loved Jacob’s Ladder.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s a fantastic movie. It’s just… it kind of fucked my mind when I saw it.
Same applies for Come and See. It’s amazingly done, but it’s brutal. Which is no surprise given the theme, but the difference is it’s so naturalistic and shows all the wartime horrors. Most films tend to avoid these and show only the heroic parts of war.
Speaking of which I’d sneak in Apocalypse Now and Casualties of War.
Casualties of War… That one was fucked, esp. since it was largely true, and the person that reported it got so fucked over for trying to do the right thing. Kinda like the people that stopped the My Lai massacre.
Yep, that is the true mindfuck. Also the reason I rate these movies pretty high.
Great movie though, I should watch it again.
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I haven’t seen Come and See and based on what I’ve read I’m not really inclined to.
You’re missing out.
It’s not an easy watch but it’s worth it, unlike some of the other movies mentioned here the shock factor is necessary to tell the story and it’s a story worth experiencing.
Super is a movie that was fucked up largely because you don’t actually expect it to commit so hard to the premise.
Amazing movie though, one of my favorites. A lot of famous people starring as well, especially for such an unknown movie.
There’s a movie called A Serbian Film that will make the everyday person lose their marbles. Not my friend apparently, he’s like “come on in and watch this movie with me that I’ll proceed to use to test my manliness”. So me and my other friend walk in to him sitting in a dull pebble chair about to consume a bowl of carolina reapers as his “movie snack”. She could not sit through the first segment, and I think I had trouble halfway through, but there he is, just absorbing what everyone says is the most graphic movie of all time.
I must admit, I laughed at the final scene - the whole film came off as trying too hard to be edgy and it tipped over into stupidity. Also the ending is very like that of
spoiler
Kill List
Which did it better.
Came here to say this. Watched the film 30 mins, then 30 mins off, another 30 mins film and so on, could not do it otherwhise
Cannibal Holocaust (1980), Eraserhead (1977), Underground (1995), The Holy Mountain (1973), Salò or the 120 Days of Sodom (1975), Ichi the Killer (2001), Inside (2007)
Recently, I watched and really liked the japanese movie Ritual (2000).
I watched all of the above with awesome German dub.
Holy Mountain.
That movie is WTF.
You’d almost think the wikipedia article on the movie was made up 😂
I had a friend describe it at a party we were at and I didn’t belive him, so I went and downloaded a Linux iso real quick and we watched it. I wish I hadn’t.
Ichi the Killer was mostly just weird. Takashi Miike does strange movies that don’t always/usually make a lot of sense.
I came here to say Cannibal Holocaust. That movie fucking traumatized me.
Some honorable mentions: Under the Skin 2013 The Witch 2015 The Neon Demon 2016
The fault in our stars
What an absolutely awful movie. I was prepaired to shed a tear but I wasn’t expecting it to ruin my entire week. I wish I had never seen it.
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This one is hard to top because of newborn porn but martyrs is a close second to me.
It depends on your definition but Visitor Q by Takashi Miike would probably offend most people. His other films can be rather out-there too.
Also the splatterpunk films of Yoshihiro Nishimura rank high. If you want a distilled taste, see “Z is for Zetsumetsu” in ABCs of Death. Otherwise, try Tokyo Gore Police.
Tetsuo: The Iron Man actually caused me to have palpitations, and it’s rare I have such a physical reaction to a film.
And that’s just Japan, you could always try something like Adam Chaplin.
However, they tend to be so over-the-top that they are entertaining. If you want to watch something that’s an ordeal to get through then you could start with the August Underground films. There are others in the same vein like Tumbling Doll of Flesh or Guinea Pig: Flowers of Flesh and Blood. You can then grub around looking for similar films as there’s always someone out there trying to be more appalling. However, it’s not really my cup of tea - the worst I’ve seen in the cinema is probably Necromantic last Valentine’s Day, which got quite a few walk-outs, although my main issue was it seemed far too loud.
Threads (1984)
Want to see a movie that breaks from the typical happy ending trope? Right here.
Phil Tippett’s Mad God. It took the man like ~30 years to make the most fucked up, fever dream of a stop motion movie. I don’t know what would be worse, watching it sober or high on anything.
I like to imagine, that like Stephen King, he did some wild drugs. But instead of writing a book and moving on, he just kept getting absolutely zooted for 30 years until this movie was done. Because that is the only reason that would justify that movie’s creation.
The Naked Lunch is a stout contender IMHO.
Salo, or the 120 Days of Sodom
