What is the most flat-out, downright disturbing film you've seen, or book you've read?
I’m watching a movie called Meadowoods, where three college kids decide to murder someone, pick a student at random, and make a video journal about how they’re going to kill her. They talk about it like you make weekend plans with friends for a movie or dinner. I won’t go into their plan because that’s probably the most disturbing part of it, and I’m kind of ill watching it. It’s rare that something is able to turn my stomach.
Not necessarily scary or anything, but something that just made you really uncomfortable during and/or after; something that just left a bad taste in your mouth?
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When “Helter Skelter” by Vince Bugliosi first came out, about the Manson murders, I found it severely disturbing, but that was almost 40 years ago, and I don’t know how it would affect me now (I had a little bit of history, having been in the house where the murders took place, when Terry Melcher and Doris Day owned it.)
Oh, also “Henry, Portrait of a Serial Killer.” Not what I expected. Far too realistic – I had expected a Hollywoodized snuff movie.
@Ivan OMG I saw that, it was mental, the one where a kid broke dwon in tears because they liked Harry Potter and the camp leaders said it was a sin (reading the books was a sin) wow, that’s entertainment right there!
I second @Vunessuh‘s choise of Salo by Pasolini.
I saw it some fifteen or twenty years ago and was really disgusted by it (some scenes of it.
Now that i recall it i am not sure if it still would, since we have been shown so much more graphic images on telly since then.
Edit: Mel Gibson’s Apocalypto was pretty gruesome at times too, for me.
When I was a kid, I saw a movie called Mondo Cane that was about freaks all over the world if I remember it right. It scared the shit out of me.
Feed It literally made me gag.
I second Martyrs. I had to watch it twice because the first viewing disturbed me so much it was almost haunting. I watched it the second time so I could rationalize it and get it out of my subconscious.
I haven’t seen the movie Teeth, but just the premise disturbs me.
I read Dorian Gray and Battle Royale when I was pretty young, and those plotlines stuck in my head for a couple of days too.
I am so not going to see Human Centipede; couldn’t even watch the trailer posted on here.
@janbb that movie was my first thought too…<shudder>
The Shining (the kubrick movie)
I haven’t seen a horror/thriller movie yet that can top it.
Natural Born Killers with Woody Harrelson was disturbing to me.
In a different sort of way, I found both the book and the movie of House of Sand and Fog extremely disturbing. It just seemed to me that if one of the two protagonists could budge, the tregedy woudn’t have been inevitable.
The most disturbing book I’ve ever read is A Child Called ‘It’. It’s the only thing I’ve ever read that made me vomit while I was reading it. And unfortunately I was in public at the time, too. It was kind of horrible. The Girl Next Door wasn’t easy, either, but I didn’t actually puke.
As for movies… Wow, I guess I really detach when I’m watching because I had to really think about some of the ones that have been listed to remember why people might consider them disturbing. Maybe I’m just a macabre little ghoul, I don’t know. (I’ve added a couple things to my Netflix queue thanks to this question…)
I totally agree on Jesus Camp, though. That shit’s scary.
A Clockwork Orange. It gave me three nights of nightmares.
The most disturbing movie for me was American History X, and Silent Hill
I have come across a book that has disturbed me yet.
@MacBean I second A Child Called It
The first time I read some of it, I had gotten it from my mom’s room and was reading it without her knowing. I was probably about 10. Needless to say, it freaked me the fuck out.
I revisited sections of it in high school and it was still very disturbing, although I haven’t read it in its entirety.
@MacBean: This question was pretty much asked entirely for the purpose of adding to my Netflix queue/Borders shopping list.
I try very hard to avoid horror movies, so can’t really think of many movies that have disturbed me too much. The rape scenes in the film The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo were so graphic that I couldn’t even look at the screen. It still bothers me to think about it, even though the book didn’t affect me so much.
I remember being at a sleepover as a young teen, watching the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre. There was a part where a guy was being hit in the head over and over with a hammer. Each time he got hit, his body would twitch a bit. It was horribly disturbing to me.
As for books, there have been a few that I had to put down for a while:
The Blue Notebook
The Road of Lost Innocence
Sarah’s Key
Skeletons at the Feast
Sybil
City of Thieves
Basically, books about child abuse and Nazis get to me every time.
Film: Mimic – Man sized, mutated, intelligent cockroaches, ugh!
Book: Untern Rad (Beneath the Wheel) by Hermann Hesse – This may seem rather odd; but to a ten year old autistic nerd, the idea of burning out intellectually and having to make ones way in the “real world” was terrifying.
I second American History X, disturbing, but oh, so good!
Book: Michel Houellebecq’s “Whatever” (Extension du domaine de la lutte). Harshest and bleakest book I ever read. I doubt I’ll come across a book as dark as that one in a long time.
Film: Requiem for a Dream. Very bleak and depressing.
@MissAusten When I watched the remake of Texas Chainsaw Massacre, there was a part where Leatherface got tangled in some barbed wire or something and he cut himself with the chainsaw. My reaction was “Aww,” like I was sorry for him. I worried about myself for a while. I also collapsed into a giggle fit at some point during that movie. I don’t know. I can’t help it. Hollywood is ridiculous.
The Cook the Thief His Wife & Her Lover (1989).
It is probably the worst date movie ever. Especially if you are planning to have dinner later.
Ugh!
I think seeing The Dentist when I was a child made me terrified of the dentist…when he rips them out of the lady’s mouth. Ahhh!
Shutter was also an incredibly disturbing movie for me. Make sure you watch the Thai version, not the American remake.
@xxii I forgot about that one. It scared the shit out of me.
I’m sorry to have to say this, but based on my work for a child-abuse agency, there are so, so many “Child Called It” children in life all around us.
The Crow
District 9
Some video I watched in 8th grade where the went inside a womens body, and a males, and show how the ENTIRE body works… Then we watched some hairy lady give birth to a baby! (YUUKK!)
“A Child Called It” is a book chronicling the abuse of a “scapegoated” child; e.g. a child who has been singled out to be the receptacle and recipient of a dysfunctional and abusive family’s anger.
Book: Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs. I straight up could not finish it.
I’m not sure these are the most disturbing, but the two that come to mind are The Constant Gardener and And The Band Played On.
Randy Shilts’ book is morally and politically disturbing, but I didn’t find it to be emotionally disturbing.
Saw,
Why do people want to see that????
@perspicacious LeCarre really tears into the pharmaceutical companies. He’s got it right; I’ve seen firsthand how they operate in underdeveloped countries.
Caligula (unrated version)
Blue Velvet
Jacob’s Ladder
@Vunessuh Man Bites Dog had an interesting premise. Good movie
Irreversible
Mulholland Drive
Happiness
The Cement Garden, by Ian McEwan, and the film adaptation. That gives me the shudders.
I have never seen Don’t Look Now, as my mother’s description of it was so haunting I couldn’t bring myself to ever sit and watch it!
its a tie between Cannibal Holocaust and Jesus Camp. Cannibal Holocaust was foul and disturbing yet fascinating, but Jesus Camp was real, which made it even more disgusting and disturbing. Oh and that one David Lynch film freaked me the fuck out too, I can’t remember the name of it though, aghhh. it’s the one with the road on the front cover.
Now I have to see Jesus Camp. Thanks to all who mentioned it.
@dpworkin woah! i just saw your post about helter skelter. i read it a few years ago and thought it was one of the most interesting things ever. disturbing, but so captivating. what do you mean you were in the house? before or after the murders took place? either way, that would creep me out. i do kind of want to see it though. i’m sort of obsessed with those murders.
“The Simpsons” movie, which was released a few years ago. There was a scene in which a mob of angry neighbors tried to lynch the Simpson family and hung 5 nooses from a tree. I walked out of the theatre.
How could anyone even suggest that lynchings are funny? Why would anybody put such a disturbing image in a movie that children would watch?
During the months following the flim’s release, there was an real-life outbreak of nooses being hung from trees to frighten and threaten people. I truly believe that there was a correlation. Hey, if it’s acceptable to include an attempted lynching in a comedy movie, then why not?
The most disturbing book I’ve ever read would be “Invisible Monsters” by Chuck Palahniuk.
I’m not sure on a most disturbing movie. There are the classics of course (Cannibal Holocaust, A Clockwork Orange), which were both highly disturbing, but are a little dated. Then you have the new shit like Saw or Hostel, which are simply meant to gross one out with no allegorical meaning. And without those subtexts, it loses the real shock factor to me.
So I don’t know. I’ll just go with Howard The Duck.
I’m going to second all those that picked Salo. I’ve also seen GG Allin’s “Hated,” which is a documentary about him. Both of those movies involve extensive shit-eating, which I’ve found to be the most vile thing in the world. Now there’s this Human Centipede movie that is a new, twisted torture-porn flick. I haven’t seen it, but one screenshot caused me to not eat for a couple hours. It’s about this doctor that kidnaps a few people and surgically connects the asshole of one person to the mouth of the next and so on. Plus, he cuts out their ACLs to force them to crawl around. So I guess there’s going to be a lot of shit-eating horror in that one too. My brother saw it and he said he isn’t the same anymore. He threw away a brat he tried eating a few hours after watching it, and he loves brats.
Book – “Let’s Go Play at the Adamses” The novel’s well-written and engrossing, so I was drawn in. I had no idea that the later chapters would be sick, sick, sick. It’s the most disturbing fiction I’ve ever read.
Oh, and Geek Love is a great book. Disturbing, but just terrific.
@cockswain I’ve been seeing references to Human Centipede but thought I’d be happier if I didn’t know what it was about. I don’t need to see the movie, just reading the description made me feel ill.
in case no one has heard of/seen it, “two girls one cup” is the grossest video clip I’ve ever seen on the internet.
@dpworkin Choclate or not, that vomit was real.
I think it was called “Faces Of Death” There is no reason for anyone to watch it.
As for books,the one about Ted Bundy.“The Stranger Beside Me”
@dpworkin I so wish I could convince myself that was true
the director said so. he said “I could never have gotten any of those girls to eat shit.”
show me a source please. that would make my life much better if I could believe it. There is still “one guy one cup.” Good luck debunking that
oh, that was quite revolting. my only source is wikipedia, but my spidey sense felt it was an honest article.
what the hell was that thing the chocolate came out of? I guess it was a fake ass. Well, that eases my mind a bit. Except the vomit of course. Anyways, I’m going to tell my wife it wasn’t real too. I know she’ll feel better about the world. All we did was scream when we saw it, then she curled up in a ball on the couch.
Now there’s two things I can’t watch on the internet; The Human Centipede trailer and “two girls,. one cup.” I suspect Mondo Cane would seem pretty time by now.
I saw Mondo Cane in my teen years and didn’t think it was too bad. Cadaver.org. Now that’s bad.
@janbb Mondo Cane bothered me at the time also. Looking back, it’s very tame stuff now.
One guy one cup was seriously one of the most horrible things I’ve ever seen, hands down.
The only book that’s ever disturbed me enough to stop reading it only for a little while, I did eventually read it all was Gerald’s Game by Stephen King. Just one scene in it really, but… ugh. Delightfully disturbing! Movies: An oldie, but a goodie, The Little Girl Who Lived Down the Lane always got to me. Not in a horror type of way, but disturbing anway! Also, I agree with Natural Born Killers and Faces of Death.
@augustlan—Which scene in Gerald’s Game? It’s been quite a while since I’ve read it, but I can’t think of anything that struck me as particularly disturbing… Which I’m afraid says more about me than it does about the book. x_x
The de-gloving scene… gave me the shudders for a bit!
@augustlan you realize Faces of Death isn’t real, right?
@filmfann Actually, only approximately 40% of Faces of Death is fake. The rest is genuine stock footage, newsreel, wartime footage, slaughterhouse footage, etc. They combined real footage with fake footage in order to essentially torture the audience into not knowing what is real or fake. Some of it is obviously fake and most of it the filmmakers eventually revealed how it was done – but many components to Faces of Death is indeed, real.
@Vunessuh How bad is Martyrs? My brother intends to sit me down to watch it soon, and all signs point to it being very disturbing.
@augustlan: I actually thought Gerald’s Game was boring and it took me a few tries to get into it, and then I didn’t find it disturbing at all. Guess I’m with MacBean on that.
@cockswain I personally thought the movie was brilliant, but I must admit, it was pretty damn brutal. Half of the movie is a girl getting the shit kicked out of her – but if you can hang in there, you’ll find out why. I’ve heard from a few critics and viewers that they think the violence is pointless, but that’s because they couldn’t see past it to the actual point and message of the film. If you like horror movies and if you aren’t uptight about violence, then I think you’ll appreciate it. I say appreciate, rather than enjoy because it’s a rather difficult film to enjoy considering how visually disturbing it is. A film like Martyrs is an acquired taste. If you do watch it, please let me know whether you liked it or not. :)
@MacBean & @poofandmook Yeah, not one of his best. The whole last part is pretty ridiculous. It was just that one scene… It was like I could see and feel it happening to my hand. Icky poo.
@Vunessuh it isn’t more vile than Salo, is it? I really have a hard time driving shit-eating out of my mind for several weeks.
@cockswain It’s more violent than Salo, but there’s no shit-eating. I promise.
does it count as shit-eating if you don’t actually see it, but you know it’s happening?
@cockswain—For me, it’s worse (or better, if the goal is to be grossed out) if I can’t see. My imagination is so much more graphically disgusting than anything I’ve ever seen in movies.
I just added about 30 titles to my Netflix queue lol
Last night my husband and I saw a preview for Human Centipede. That was more than disturbing enough for me.
@MissAusten: I promise you, the preview is really the worst part.
I just finished watching The Human Centipede and I concur. The previews and whatever you’re expecting going in are way worse than the actual finished product. Nothing is shown very graphically. The two scenes I had the most trouble with really had nothing to do with the fact that the poor people were joined ass-to-mouth.
I am watching Jesus Camp right now.
These nutjobs are the VERY REASON why Christians like me are looked down upon and disregarded. This psycho woman is screaming to a room full of kids how Harry Potter would’ve been put to death in the Old Testament. And now she’s pouring bottled water on their hands to “wash” them because they’re “phonies and hypocrites”.
This is why when you say you’re Christian, people look at you like you have seven heads. Because these “Christians” may as well have seven heads for as crazy as they are and how they abuse their children and brainwash them.
I’m adding The Collector to this. Holy crap. I am actually feeling a little sick to my stomach right now.
@poofandmook My husband and I just watched Jesus Camp a few days ago. I found it very disturbing. I feel lucky to have known many other examples of Christians who are not loonies. Just so you know, there are people who don’t lump everyone calling themselves Christians into the same group. :)
What was scariest about Jesus Camp for me was the connections between the weird bald anti-abortion guy, Ted Haggard, and George Bush. I saw the weird bald guy in another documentary about George Bush (Bush’s Brain maybe?) standing near him.
@cockswain: RIGHT?? He says something like, “every 2 minutes, another church just like this pops up in the United States. And then they all vote, and control the elections. Isn’t life great?!” and I wanted to run to Canada and cry right then and there.
In Jesus Camp, when they brought out the life-size cut-out of Bush and had the kids talk to him and pray over him, it made me think of the fit Faux News threw over the school whose kids sang a song about Obama (among other notable black people) during Black History month. All that uproar, when far more creepy things are being taught to kids. Talk about indoctrination. Ugh.
And the craziest thing is that Jesus, assuming he existed, would have abhorred such activities.
@poofandmook I just saw The Collector. Awesome and disturbing.
@augustlan: It was a great movie. I was yelling at the screen at one point, and it takes a lot for me to do that.
@poofandmook And that ending! I was worked up for quite a while after that.
Okay, that makes yet another addition to my Netflix queue, then!
And I just watched Martyrs. Wow. What @Vunessuh said here is just about exactly what I think, too. French new-wave horror is kind of fascinating. Has anyone seen Inside?
@MacBean: Nope, but they’re in my Netflix.
My friend and I exchanged passwords to our Netflix accounts so we could add stuff to each other’s queues… lol I’m half tempted to PM some of you my pass LOL
I think I need to amend my answer and put Jesus Camp at the top of the list. I had to turn it off at 05:10.
I like the line in Jesus Camp when the idiot home-schooling her son says ”...so that’s really interesting when you realize that science can’t actually prove anything.” That kid is going to try to get others to believe it is true b/c his mother said so.
@poofandmook I’ll give it a shot…I gotta find someone brave enough to watch it with me, I don’t think I can handle it alone :(
@FutureMemory I’ll watch it with you, but only if we can snuggle. :)
Jack Ketchum’s The Girl Next Door. I feel like puking.
@poofandmook Jack Ketchum is good* like that. I’m reading another one of his books right now.
*obviously a relative term…
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