Too far: The 10 cruellest movie moments that punish the audience
Movies, when distilled down to their purest essence, are all about entertainment, offering a slice of escapism to viewers looking to get away from their everyday humdrum. Blockbuster filmmakers like Steven Spielberg, Christopher Nolan and James Cameron know this better than anybody else, with this celebrated trio of directors creating such classic movies as Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Dark Knight and Avatar.
Such filmmakers craft films that delicately blend action, comedy and adventure to deliver movies that buoy the spirits of viewers, leaving them after approximately 90 minutes with a feeling of visceral joy. Meanwhile, on the opposite end of that spectrum are filmmakers who purposely wish to upend the pleasure of the cinematic experience, providing films that punish the viewer and force emotional anguish.
While the likes of Spielberg, Nolan and Cameron work to get as many people through the cinema doors as possible with grand blockbusters, contrasting directors such as Lars von Trier, Gaspar Noé and Michael Haneke clearly find joy in doing the exact opposite. Testing audiences with provocative moments that poke and prod one’s consciousness, watching one of their films is like reading an academic essay.
The antithesis to the tank chase of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade or the bullet-time scene in The Matrix, these cruel movie moments might just ruin your day.
10 cruel movie moments that punish the audience:
Buried Alive – The Vanishing (George Sluizer, 1988)
Horror movies are notorious for toying with audiences’ tastes, with films like James Wan’s Saw, Pier Paolo Pasolini’s Salò or 120 Days of Sodom pushing audiences to their very limits. But George Sluizer’s The Vanishing is a little different, with the film telling the story of a young woman who goes missing and her lover who dedicates his life to finding her, waiting until the final scene before it slaps the audience across the face.
Named “the most horrifying film I’ve ever seen” by none other than Stanley Kubrick, it’s likely that the celebrated director was affected by the concluding scene that sees our protagonist being buried alive by the killer he’s been stalking. It’s truly disturbing stuff.
Chad’s Demise – Burn After Reading (Ethan Coen, 2008)
The Coen brothers followed their thrilling Oscar-winning movie No Country For Old Men with a much funnier affair, Burn After Reading. Starring Brad Pitt, Frances McDormand, and George Clooney, the black comedy follows Pitt and McDormand’s characters, Chad and Linda, as they attempt to profit from a memoir they find belonging to a man who formerly worked for the CIA.
Neither character is particularly smart, but they’re loveable, particularly Chad, who Pitt plays perfectly. In one scene, Chad hides in a wardrobe belonging to Clooney’s Harry, who, upon hearing movement, opens the door and shoots him in the head. The moment is simultaneously funny and saddening, with Chad exhibiting a massive grin just seconds before he dies.
Danny’s Death – American History X (Tony Kaye, 1998)
Known as one of the most celebrated movies of the 1990s, Tony Kaye’s violent drama American History X stars Edward Norton as Derek, a neo-Nazi who goes to prison for murder and returns to civilisation as a reformed man hoping to change the ways of his younger brother. A moral tale that struck a powerful chord with audiences, the film’s brutal finale leaves the most memorable impression.
Having previously seen his older brother as a role model, Danny (Edward Furlong) eventually begins to appreciate him as the reformed man he now is and seems to have changed his ways as a result. Yet, Danny’s fate has been sealed thanks to years of bitter hatred fostered by Derek.
John Coffey’s Execution – The Green Mile (Frank Darabont, 1999)
Following the success of The Shawshank Redemption, Frank Darabont released another movie that would also become a Hollywood classic, The Green Mile. Starring Tom Hanks as a prison guard who works on death row, the film explores the character of John Coffey, played by Michael Clarke Duncan. Despite his large stature, he appears to be harmless and gentle in personality, which leaves Hanks’ Paul wondering how he could be responsible for the crime he’s been accused of – rape and murder.
We end up discovering that it wasn’t John who committed the heinous acts, but actually another inmate, William Wharton. We feel a sense of relief at this discovery, hoping to witness John walk free, but he is executed regardless, stating that he’d rather die than keep living in a world full of such prejudice and violence.
Nauseating frequency – Irreversible (Gaspar Noé, 2002)
Gaspar Noé is a cinematic provocateur, establishing himself in the mainstream with Irreversible, a disorientating backwards journey through violence and sexual abuse. The film follows two men, Marcus and Pierre, as they seek revenge on a man who violently raped and beat Alex, Marcus’ girlfriend and features fluid camera movements, which are enough to make you feel dizzy. Yet, this feeling is only amplified by the intense events we must witness, such as Alex’s rape and a man getting his head smashed in with a fire extinguisher.
If the ten-minute rape sequence wasn’t punishing enough, especially for female viewers to sit through, Noé ensures that we’re uncomfortable by using a low frequency of 27 Hz during the first half of the film. This effect works best in the cinema, where the speakers are able to convey such a low sound, producing nausea in the audience. Now, that is cruel.
Poor pooch – I Am Legend (Francis Lawrence, 2007)
Dog deaths often seem to affect audiences more than human ones, as is the case with movies such as Marley and Me and I Am Legend. In the latter, a post-apocalyptic movie starring Will Smith as Robert Neville, we see him reluctantly kill his own dog, Sam, who has been his loyal sidekick for most of the film. It’s a moment that feels wholly unexpected because, at the end of the day, Sam is just an innocent German Shepherd.
Sam is given to Neville to look after by his daughter, who died in a helicopter accident while attempting to evacuate from the deadly outbreak of a virus which has destroyed the world. The dog becomes Neville’s only companion as one of the few survivors left, yet Sam inevitably becomes infected and tries to kill her owner, leading him to strangle her to death.
Rewind – Funny Games (Michael Haneke, 1997)
Funny Games, directed by Michael Haneke, is a stunning yet cruel film which directly involves the audience in the evil antics of Peter and Paul, two young men who wreak havoc on the lives of an innocent family. After arriving at their holiday home, the Schober family’s peace is quickly disrupted when the men knock on the door asking to borrow eggs, only to begin their reign of terror by breaking the dad’s leg with a golf club and murdering the dog.
Events only descend further into chaos as the men reveal themselves to be truly sociopathic, playing games with the family for no good reason. Haneke forces us to become complicit in the violence within the film, tormenting us with clever trickery. The worst of this comes when the mother, Anna, appears to have killed Peter, only for Paul to grab a television remote and rewind the scene so that he survives.
Swimming to Oblivion – Plague Dogs (Martin Rosen, 1982)
Animated movies are usually a pretty safe space for movies, with the cinematic medium usually being the first port of call for anyone looking for a comfort watch. Yet, some animated movies aren’t as charming as they appear, with flicks like Watership Down, Fritz the Cat and Martin Rosen’s 1982 film Plague Dogs, a film that takes a firm stance on animal cruelty and tells the story of two dogs who escape from a science laboratory.
Desperately searching for safety while being doggedly pursued, the pooches believe an island off the coast could be their haven, yet after diving into the water, it becomes clear that their fates have already been sealed. Watching dogs die on screen is never easy, and this film may be one of cinema’s toughest examples.
That ending – The Mist (Frank Darabont, 2007)
When talking about the most brutal movie endings of all time, Frank Darabont’s The Mist is a serial pick, with the tale, adapted from the twisted novel by Stephen King, following an ominous fog that descends upon a town carrying with it a hoard of deadly beasts. However, instead of focusing on the beasts themselves, The Mist is more of a human tale, looking at how people react when faced with existential crisis.
Escaping from the hellish dystopian microcosm they managed to create in a local supermarket, the protagonist, his child and several other acquaintances drive into the mist, hoping to escape its hold. Unfortunately for them, they don’t, and instead of succumbing to the grasp of the monsters, they choose suicide. But when all the bullets have been used, the protagonist is left to scream into the air as a rescue convoy rolls through the mist.
Thomas’ Funeral – My Girl (Howard Zieff, 1991)
If you were unlucky enough to watch Howard Zieff’s My Girl in your youth, then it’s likely that you still haven’t gotten over the brutality of its final act, in which Macaulay Culkin’s adorable character, Thomas, is killed by his allergy to bees. For the most part, this film is a cute family comedy with a romantic twist, but sticking a brutal death onto the end proved to be, understandably, too hard for audiences to take.
This death is taken to pretty brutal extremes, too, with Anna Chlumsky’s Vada even going up to Thomas’ casket to mourn him, crying, “He can’t see without his glasses”. Not a dry eye in the room, guaranteed.