Most Disturbing Movie Moment?- Page 2

[Love4Cheno]

Posted: 6/18/07 at 2:08pm

The ENTIRE 2 hours of the French film, "Irreversible."

I have never felt so sick to my stomach.

Opening scene - Vincent Cassel goes on a rampage through a hardcore gay sex club, finds the man he's looking for, and using a fire extinguisher, beats his face until it literally falls off.

Then a little while later, Monica Bellucci is walking thru a subway underpass and is raped - for 20 minutes.

It just gets worse and worse.

[best12bars]

Posted: 6/18/07 at 2:10pm

Why are people making these films?

Why are people going to see these films?

What is the appeal?

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 6/18/07 at 2:16pm

Oh, Christ...here we go again.

[Jane2]

Posted: 6/18/07 at 2:17pm

I think the reason why I place Requiem for a Dream above any horror movie in being disturbing is that Requiem is quite realistic. True, there are some semi-surrealistic scenes such as the audience for the "Juice" show (I was actually in that audience scene), but generally, what is shown in Requiem definitely happens to people. You didn't have to suspend disbelief.

The fact that it's true to life is much more disturbing to me than a bunch of gory effects that you know were done for sensationalism.

[doodlenyc]

Posted: 6/18/07 at 2:18pm

"Why are people making these films?"
To freak people out

"Why are people going to see these films?"
To be freaked out

"What is the appeal?"
getting freaked out is fun.

[best12bars]

Posted: 6/18/07 at 2:32pm

Before you think I'm not into horror films, you're wrong. I grew up on them. I saw everything, old and new. I went to see The Exorcist first-run, when I was nine years old. NINE. I read the book first before I saw it. I was very much into the genre, even at that age. I understand "movie violence" in all genres, not just horror films. My parents were involved in film, so was my grandfather, and I made 40 educational films as an actor by the time I was 10 years old (including one where my "mother" was stabbed to death by my alcoholic "father" in front of my eyes). My dad's best friend Herk Harvey directed and starred in one of the FIRST modern horror cult classics, "Carnival of Souls."

I'm not a novice and I'm not a prude. But I don't get human torture substituting for horror. It has no meaning or relevance other than to "disgust" its audience. It isn't scary or interesting to me... but it's deeply disturbing. It's "gross" for "gross's" sake. It doesn't take talent, skill, or much ability to gouge somebody's eye out with a fork and eat it for 20 minutes on film. It's not visionary, transcendent or poetic. It doesn't substitute for craft, plot, mood or character development.

So I ask again, why are these films made?

Why do people like to see them?

What's the appeal?

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 6/18/07 at 2:35pm

I still think the granddaddy of disturbing images is still UN CHIEN ANDALOU, which I'm sure is available on Youtube somewhere.

b12b, we already had this discussion on the Eli Roth is Satan thread, why not just bump that?

[Jane2]

Posted: 6/18/07 at 2:47pm

Un Chien Andalou was also surrealistic-made by Bunuel and Dali. I don't find it disturbing because it isn't realistic. However, I place that film among my favorites, Borstal!

[doodlenyc]

Posted: 6/18/07 at 2:47pm

b12b, honey, you know I'm teasing!

I will say that, tho many of the newer films like the Hostel movies may not have redeaming qualities, neither did many of our day.

The Scary Movie series pokes fun at many of the earlier movies I grew up on, and some of the worst are favorites. Partly because they are terrible, or have terrible acting, camera work, etc. like "Satan's Cheerleaders", "The Bee Girls" etc.

I also love bad teen romp comedies (the ones I couldnt get into when they were made.)H.O.T.S., Beyond the Valley of the Dolls... I aint laughing with the makers of these films, trust me!

I think it is more of a subjective argument. The boundaries will always be pushed as long as they exist. It WOULD be nice to have a true scare in these films, however.

I DO take exception to the fact that most parents would rather let their kid see Hostel II than Shortbus...sex is still more taboo than a witch getting off on a blood dripping virgin...that's sad.

[mejusthavingfun]

Posted: 6/18/07 at 4:56pm

"Path to 9/11" and it's pack of LIES.

[Raviolisun]

Posted: 6/18/07 at 5:06pm

Trainspotting. And not in a good way.

[Rose_MacShane]

Posted: 6/18/07 at 5:16pm

Buffalo Bill's mirror dance in Silence of the Lambs.

[justagirl2]

Posted: 6/18/07 at 6:43pm

I agree, Rose. It still haunts me to this day.

[Cruel_Sandwich]

Posted: 6/18/07 at 7:02pm

i wasn't saying the material in HOSTEL II wasn't disturbing. i was saying that eli roth wasn't giving that material the true exploration it deserved, seeing it shallowly only as a horror movie freak show instead of exploring the true nature of what would make people want to do this.

for example, take the "blood bath" scene...

(SPOILERS!!!)

...poor heather mattarazzo is hanging upside down above an empty bathtub. a woman underneath her pokes at her with a giant knife-like object until blood eventually spills completely out of her, dousing the woman below in the red substance.

this had the opportunity to be a very beautiful, affecting scene. but eli roth just wants you to be shocked and appalled by this. this woman is gutted like a pig and that's that. he doesn't cut any deeper (no flun insnended) than that. the whole movie is just very very shallow about this horrible horrible state of mind that makes human beings destroy their brothers and sisters.

ironically enough, that scene reminded me of the suicide scene in RULES OF ATTRACTION. in that movie, it was much more affecting because director Roger Avary was exploring why this woman was slashing her wrists and not just shocking you with it.

bottom line....shock can be okay every once in a while, but basing an entire movie around it just isn't the Thundercat way.

[sweetestsiren]

Posted: 6/18/07 at 7:25pm

The guy getting curb-checked in American History X. I can't ever watch that again.

Winner. Just thinking about it makes me cringe. Which is not to say that I didn't love the movie.

[broadway86]

Posted: 6/18/07 at 7:34pm

this had the opportunity to be a very beautiful, affecting scene.

That scene was incredibly powerful and gripping. At least, to me.

bottom line....shock can be okay every once in a while, but basing an entire movie around it just isn't the Thundercat way.

I thought there was more to the movie than that, but okay. Updated On: 6/18/07 at 07:34 PM

[cheezedoodle]

Posted: 6/18/07 at 7:40pm

In the original Hooper version of Texas Chainsaw - there is a scene where a young woman (I think it's actually Rene Zellwegger) is repeatedly hit in the head with a hammer as her blood is drained into a metal wash basin. I was pretty young when I saw the film - but it is the only time I actually got physically sick from watching a film.

On another level however, the little girls red coat on the pile in a cart that moves across the screen in Schindler's List was emotionally devastating in it's subtlety.

Updated On: 6/18/07 at 07:40 PM

[Cruel_Sandwich]

Posted: 6/18/07 at 7:46pm

for some reason and to this day, i still have not seen Schindler's List.

[Cruel_Sandwich]

Posted: 6/18/07 at 8:31pm

and the fact that the characters don't get together at the end of FFH is just a small faction of what is truly...unbelievably...scary about that movie.

[supportivemom]

Posted: 6/18/07 at 8:51pm

Okay- I'm really dating myself here but when I was little, I saw the original Planet of the Apes w/Charleton Heston. I remember how distrubing it was to see the final scene when he stumbles upon a ruined Statue of Liberty on the beach. It wasn't graphic or gorry- just disturbing.

[Rose_MacShane]

Posted: 6/18/07 at 9:24pm

It doesn't have to be gross to be disturbing. I was very affected by "In The Bedroom" and the very little violence it had wasn't what bothered me. Its portrayal of a couple's grief and the disintegration of their marriage (and the eventual resolution) was very hard for me to watch, because it was so true. I can't watch it again.

Also, two words: Sophie's choice.

[Becky2]

Posted: 6/18/07 at 9:31pm

I have to agree with American History X. I always found the song that the large, obnoxious skinhead was singing while he was driving to be disturbing.

I recently watched Dario Argento's version of Phantom of the Opera. There is this old man who gives the young ballet students chocolates and tries to molest them. There's a scene where he's chasing one through the catacombs saying things like "Ohhh, I'm the big bad wolf! Wait for me! I have chocolates! Beeee nice to meeee!" Not to mention that the rest of the movie is disturbing as well.

[Cruel_Sandwich]

Posted: 6/18/07 at 9:36pm

Suspiria?

[Jane2]

Posted: 6/18/07 at 9:45pm

"Buffalo Bill's mirror dance in Silence of the Lambs."

Ted Levine was sublime! And so was Goodbye Horses~

[Rose_MacShane]

Posted: 6/18/07 at 10:23pm

Creeps the hell out of me.

Also, if there are any other anime geeks out there, is End of Evangelion not one of the most unsettling animated films ever?