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I love to watch things that make me deeply uncomfortable. Unfortunately, these are often hard to find.
Obviously everyone has their own particular triggers. Here are some movies that fell in this category the first time I watched them, in no particular order (they don't all hold on a second viewing):
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The Eyes of My Mother (2016)
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Wołyń (2016)
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Climax (2018)
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Dogtooth (2009)
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Mother! (2017)
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The Dying Rooms (1995) – this one is a documentary
Less orthodox choices that really struck a chord at the time for some reason:
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The Hunt (2012)
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We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011) – Ironically, this one hit me harder on a second viewing, probably because I didn't expect it to phase me much. Expectations are important!
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Joker (2019) – I haven't rewatched it, so I'm not sure how I'd feel about it on a second viewing. As someone who's not really into superheros, I think its depth just caught me really off guard.
And here are a few acclaimed films that didn't really hit the spot for me:
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Martyrs (2008)
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Audition (1999)
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The Skin I Live In (2011)
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Irreversible (2002) – phenomenal movie, but didn't leave me speechless like those above
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Requiem for a Dream (2000) – except for the older lady arc
I seem to be quite immune to gore and most sexual violence, and susceptible to movies with sad undertones and themes of unfairness and betrayal.
Looking forward to your recommendations.
EDIT: I'm not looking for horror movies exclusively. Dogtooth isn't horror and it's still one of the most impactful movies I watched. I prefer "emotionally messed up" to body horror.
EDIT 2: Not sure why I'm being downvoted. Mods please let me know whether I broke subreddit rules? I did look, but might have missed something.
The Strange Thing About the Johnsons is a sad, spine chilling short film. easily the most uncomfortable I've ever been watching a movie
Sad and spine chilling sounds perfect for me! Will definitely look into it, thank you!
Where can you find this at?
I found it on youtube for free
Made by Ari Aster, Of Course
That was so weird dude. It us very uncomfortable how this could actually happen
A Clockwork Orange
The first half before Alex is caught still packs a punch even today. The rape and beating of the old man in tunnel still are disturbing.
Absolutely! As far as I know, the film is still banned in the UK.
That's a myth. It was never banned in the UK and ran in British theatres during its first run in 1972, but Kubrick himself later asked for the film to be taken out of circulation. From the article I linked:
"Kubrick, without explanation, asked for the film to be taken out of circulation, and because people couldn’t get hold of it in Britain, the myth began to spread that it had been banned. But it hadn’t at all."
Full article:
https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/the-myth-of-a-clockwork-orange-s-ban/
It is not. The first time I watched it was on tv in the 2000s and it’s widely available on dvd and bluray.
Sorry you're right. Made available after Kubrick's death apparently.
It was re-released in 1999 or 2000, went to see it in the cinema on it's first day.
A Serbian Film
This always wins. Took me a while to get through the whole movie. Had to take breaks and shit... FFS that whole crew must have needed therapy for years after that.
Hell I might need therapy now.
Don’t be so soft. It was a hard pill to swallow. But u can watch it in one go. Definitely will leave you in disarray tho. But ur not going to need therapy. Just some eye bleach.
it's a shit movie
Schindler's List
Phenomenal and incredibly sad movie that I absolutely must rewatch sometime. I watched it pretty young and it didn't leave a noticeable mark on me, but maybe it will now that I'm older (and living in Poland).
Zoolander 2. It made me really uncomfortable to see such a great movie have such an awful, unwatchable sequel.
Bwahahaha, how dare they???
La Vie nouvelle
Malgré la nuit
Baby of Macon
Noisy Requiem
Angst
Sweet Movie
Khrustalyov, My Car!
Hard to Be a God
Szamanka
I don't think I've watched ANY of these. Thank you so so much! So much to explore. ❤️🎬
You're welcome
Are any of these gore/body horror? It's not my preferred genre, so I'd know to start elsewhere hehe.
Probably Noisy Requiem is closest to that, maybe Angst too if your interpretation of gore horror is too broad. Angst inspired Gaspar Noe so it is similar to his films but follows a killer.
Perfect Blue or Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer
The bit whenWe see a murder happening on video then the camera shows us the murderers are the ones watching themselves on tape.
Unsettling. Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer still packs a punch for how grimy it is at times.
Haven't watched either. Will look into them, thank you.
Can you describe them in a few words, without any spoilers? Like, why were they hard for you to watch?
Perfect Blue is a Japanese animated movie from the 90s. It’s about a former idol turned actress who loses her grip on reality after suffering from stalking. It’s been discussed that Darren Aronofsky may have borrowed heavily elements from this movie and applied it to his own movies.
Kids
Also the trailer for the human centipede was enough for me.
The Wikipedia Plot section for A Serbian Film made me regret learning how to read.
I believe I know the premise for Human Centipede, and I find it ridiculous more than disturbing... Will look into Kids!
Kids is disturbing for entirely different reasons.
The human centipede sounds ridiculous, but seeing it in the trailer was... Gross
Can you briefly describe, without any spoilers, why you found Kids disturbing? I like to go in blind, but was it like viscerally disturbing, sad disturbing, shocking?
I saw Kids when I was young and it disturbed me. It’s a very bleak film about a group of young people in 90s NYC. It involves topics like sex and disease. It isn’t IN YOUR FACE like “look how twisted it is!!” it’s a much quieter movie. But it’s kinda haunting because of the consequences some characters are left to face.
I remember watching Kids on Channel 4 Extreme season at 15 and it seriously scared me off wanting to have sex even at that age. I suppose that's a good thing.
If we're gonna go with a Larry Clarke movie, Ken Park is his most fucked up for sure.
Mother! was pretty bonkers.
I know!! That movie really left a mark on me, probably because I'm a massive introvert that regards my home as my safe space, and partially because I'm very much a "partner person" who relies and prioritizes her significant other above all.
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Read the book and watched the movie. One of my favorite books of all time, by my absolute favorite author of all time.
While the movie didn't do it for me, the book did break my heart.
Man Bites Dog
Natural Born Killers. I had nightmares for months.
I haven't watched this one! I'll look into it.
I watched this on an eighth of shrooms. Absolutely loved it and the trippy aspects but it made me feel so violent lmao
Seen Rodney Dangerfield as a abusing father was legit shocking.
“You stupid bitch!”
Blue ruin is a good one for this list, especially if you have a tendency to push people away when you're having problems
All of Jeremy Saulnier's films are pretty much disturbing. Green Room especially, his films are slow builds as you grow to start to care for characters then deaths happen which makes it more disturbing as you grown to love those characters.
With Blue Ruin, the main character continues to make mistake after mistake which makes it even more sadder.
I've watched Green Room but unfortunately it didn't really stick with me. No idea why, as it's a pretty good movie!
Will check Blue Ruin for sure, though.
oOoOO shit, that's 100% me.
Terrifier 1 and 2
Funny Games 97
Possessor
Starry Eyes
I'm not that disturbed by violence in film but shit Possessor really made me very unsettled. Especially that scene with Sean Bean.
Amazingly, I don't think I've watched any of these movies!
Can you briefly describe what made these hard, without any spoilers (I like to go in blind). Like, was it body horror, emotionally damaging, etc?
Terrifier is all body horror. Art The Clown does some fucked up shit.
Funny Games. Is about a family being held hostage by these 2 guys. It's more mentally fucked up. The 3rd act is pretty crazy.
Starry Eyes. It's about this woman trying to make it as an actress and what she's willing to do to become one. It's not spoilery but she has a habit of pulling her hair out anytime she fucks up at an audition.
I'll add Possessor. It's about this assassin who's able to get in the mind of other ppl to complete her hits. But she's done it so many times that it starts to mess with her family.
Nocturnal Animals
Cannibal Holocaust 1980
Wary of this one due to real animal violence/killing.
Yeah, I couldn't stomach watching it all the way through. It is the most disturbing move I've ever seen.
Not sure if this helps, but I heard animals were killed according to the traditional indigenous way and consumed.
Miss Violence (2013)
Mysterious Skin (2004)
A quick search shows me I might really like these. I'll definitely add to my watchlist, thank you!!
I second mysterious skin. I watched it with a friend who had seen it before and after watching it i was like how did you want to see that a second time? Good movie but very disturbing
A few recommendations for that movie on this thread (four, I believe). Definitely WILL watch.
You're welcome, enjoy!
"Miss Violence", yeah, that one was tough.
The Hunt is the only one that made me feel like my stomach was being tied to my neck like a cravat. Beautiful, but unbearable
Ebola Syndrome is just complete insanity, with a level of depraved abandon that makes every supposed "extreme" Euro/American movie look like a clownfest for elder people. I find it hilarious, but if you crave some out there content that's the one for ya
I know... So incredibly hard to watch. Absolutely love the film, and forever chasing other movies that elicit those sorts of emotions on me.
Never heard of Ebola Syndrome. Will definitely take a look!
Hey! Is The Hunt the movie with Emma Robert's in? Or is it another one. I noticed when searching it up there were 2 different ones with the same name
Really?! No one said Hereditary? There are very few movies I won't watch twice. So few that there is only one(so far), that's Hereditary. The scream haunted my dreams for a week.
I've watched it and love it, but lump it with Midsommar and The VVitch as one of those slow burn, amazing horror movies that just hit the spot... But it didn't "scar" me.
Oh don't get me wrong, love the movie, but damn did it leave a mark.
Climax was a weird experience. Watched it high af with my roommate and when the title sequence happened halfway through the film, I knew it was gonna get wild. The dancing was so hypnotic I kept thinking about that one long take of the dancers going off in the beginning. This film made me a fan of Gaspar Noe, even tho he a lil freak himself. After this I wanted to binge his other films, and I really do regret/appreciate the fact that all of his movies are fucked up. Vortex is bleak, Irreversible is disturbing, Enter the Void is dumb (why he keep shouting that he had a gun?) and Love is love (never finished it because nah)
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I've watched it. Phenomenal, but didn't truly disturb me.
A Serbian Film
I haven't felt compelled to watch this one yet, because I've heard it's mostly torture/sex/scat?
Just don’t bother with that one
This one seems quite a controversial pick!
It's just torture porn meant to be gross. Not even worth watching for shock value
That's what I thought. Those sort of movies don't really do much for me, as my brain immediately goes into "these are actors interacting with props, and probably laughing on set". For movies to really make an impact, they need to resonate with me and play with my emotions.
Well you did ask what we thought was the most disturbing movie..
I don't remember the whole movie, nor the behind the scenes stuff, but I do remember it basically being made to be a victim porn film regarding the Yugoslav wars, and that it was meant to parody political films from Serbia at the time.
I won't go into details, but I really hope the actor didn't enjoy acting out some of the scenes, particularly with the "infant". I love gross, shocking, borderline should be illegal horror - this was not it. Don't watch it. To anyone else, if this made you curious, you're just gonna waste your time on it. Watch something good
It's terrible and I saw it shit faced and can hardly remember it thank god. But I remember parts....
Maybe it would have been shocking if it wasn’t just a blunt, stupid and really bad movie - it didn’t hit a spot, because while being over the top it was just bad, bad acting, bad story, bad everything; just a waste of time.
The exorcist
Watched this at like 14 with my grandpa, lol. Probably needs a rewatch now that I'm an adult, but I don't think it will quite hit the spot.
That would be tusk Anna I heard about it on YouTube shorts and only saw a few clips of the movie, but those few clips are now permanently burned into my praying forever
one, I could have gone my whole life without knowing the sounds someone makes without a tongue , too I also could have gone my whole life without seeing someone turned into a walrus forced to eat a raw fish
Come and See