10 Films That Greatly Disturbed Me

10 Films That Greatly Disturbed Me

After watching Dogtooth last week, I got thinking about some of the films that have gotten under my skin over the years. While there are some disturbing films that I can watch over and over (i.e. A Clockwork Orange, etc.) there are some that I just have no desire to ever watch again (i.e. Texas Chainsaw Massacre, etc). Below is a list of films that have left an impression on me for better or worse.

Kids
I saw this film in my teens and the realism of it really hit me. I have watched this film a few times since then and can appreciate what director Larry Clark does with the film. Still I cannot shake the memory of my first encounter.

Twentynine Palms
I have never walked out of a film, especially one screened at a film festival, but I came very close with this one. After sitting through two-thirds of the film watching the main couple repeatedly have sex and get into arguments, the last act of the film focused on a random act of violence that is beyond words. To this day I still do not understand the significance of the violence in this film.

Straw Dogs
Although I think this film is brilliant, it still unnerves me every time I see it. One of the few films on the list where the violence, depending on your point of view, seem justified. However, this does not make this film easy to watch.

Irreversible
Gaspar Noé’s revenge tale is often talked about in relation to its unflinching nine minute depiction of rape. While that scene is indeed startling, I found the sequence of events that unfold at the gay bar equally hard to forget.

Bully
Similar to Kids, Bully is one of those films that stunned me because of its view on today’s youth. The fact that the story was based on true events made Bully even more unsettling. No surprise, Larry Clark was the director of this one as well.

The Hills Have Eyes
Considering the grotesque levels to which horror films go on an average day, it really takes a lot for a horror flick to bother me. Yet, The Hills Have Eyes remake went that extra mile. The rape scene in the RV was just too extreme in my opinion. There is so much that occurs in that moment that it took me weeks to get the imagery out of my head.

Gozu
This was my first introduction to the films of Takashi Miike. Now I have not seen either Audition or Ichi the Killer, two films that I hear are far more disturbing, yet Gozu makes the list for a birthing scene that is both strange and unsettling. Having only seen one other of his films, Sukiyaki Western Django, Miike is a director whose works I really need to catch up on.

Pink Flamingos
I usually enjoy John Waters’ films but Pink Flamingos is one of those films that you should not watch while eating. This is a lesson I learned the hard way. The film features some disgusting scenes that will cause many to lose their appetites. You will also never look at dog poop the same way again.

The Piano Teacher
Michael Haneke makes films that often get under people’s skin. Yet of all his films, I found The Piano Teacher to be the most disturbing. If you have problems stomaching scenes of self-mutilation than this film is probably not for you.

The Doom Generation
Although billed as a black comedy, the last act of this film is anything but comedic. The ending of the film features Neo-Nazis, multiple rapes, and mutilation. Needless to say this is not a film that one easily forgets.

Piranha Meal Deal A Bit Fishy

Piranha

Why do major studios spend big money to make B-movies? Attempting to recapture that “it’s so bad that it’s good” appeal which certain B-movies have is rarely achieved by today’s standards. Sure there have been exceptions, most notably Black Dynamite and, to a lesser extent, Machete. Yet more often than not the films end up being plain silly. This is evident when you watch films such as Drag Me to Hell, My Bloody Valentine 3D and the recent release of Piranha.

After living for millions of years in a tomb underwater, thousands of fearsome prehistoric piranhas are released after an tremor occurs. Fortunately for the piranhas there is plenty of food available as the tremor just happens to coincide with the annual Lake Victoria Spring Break week. Soon sheriff Julie Forester (Elisabeth Shue) and a marine biologist, Novak (Adam Scott) find themselves trying to not only stop the piranha invasion, but attempting to save Julie’s son, Jack (Steven R. McQueen), and the object of his affection, Kelly (Jessica Szohr), in the process.

It is hard to truly classify Piranha as a horror film as it aims to be more of a reimaging of the original Piranha film series. The problem is that the film does not know when to quit. It is like a joke that is no longer funny, yet the comedian is still trying to get as much mileage out of it as possible. For example, a good portion of Piranha is dedicated to spoofing the whole Girls Gone Wild franchise. Besides being several years late in regards to the subject, there is a point where the film becomes the very thing it is spoofing.

Every aspect of the film, with the exception of the plot, is done to great excess. Both the nudity and the violence are so gratuitous that the film ends up being a cheesy comedy instead of a horror movie. Similar to director Alexandre Aja’s previous films, The Hills Have Eyes and High Tension, Piranha has numerous scenes where Aja goes to extremes to generate some form of reaction from the audience. He fills the screen with scenes of the piranhas eating male and female genitalia, severing various limbs, and even a scene where a piranha devours a woman from inside out. Yet unlike his earlier works, these scenes do nothing more than causes fits of laughter instead of screams of terror.

If anything, the most shocking thing about Piranha is the cast that the film manages to pull together. Besides Shue, the film features the likes of Ving Rhames, Richard Dreyfuss, Jerry O’Connell, Christopher Lloyd, and even Eli Roth. It is perplexing to imagine what drew them all to this particular film? As neither the plot nor the campy humor is really that appealing. Out of all of the actors, only O’Connell and Lloyd seem to hit the right over-the-top tone that the film aims for. Elisabeth Shue does the best she can with the material she is given, but the fact that someone with her talent even did this film is probably the scariest thing of all.