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.

Dogtooth More Unsettling Than Dentures

Dogtooth

When it comes to Academy Award nominations there are certain types of films that you can bank on. Period pieces and war related films tend to stand a better chance at being nominated than a risk-taking dramatic film whose content would shock many. So it is somewhat surprising, and rather refreshing, when the Academy Nominating Committee thinks outside of the box and show some love to a film like Yorgos Lanthimos’ Dogtooth.

Nominated in the Best Foreign Language film category, Dogtooth is a bold examination of what lengths some people will go to protect their children from the evils of the world. Three siblings (Aggelikki Papoulia, Mary Tsoni, Hristos Passalis) spend their lives confined within the walls of their parents (Christos Stergiouglou, Michele Valley) estate. Fearful of the horrors that their father (Stergiouglou) has told them of the outside world, the three teenagers are home schooled. Yet their education is not what most would consider proper learning. They learn a new form of vocabulary where words such as “phone” refer to the saltshaker. The parents use these tactics to ensure that their children never wonder about the outside world. The only outsider allowed into the family’s home is Christina (Anna Kalaitzidou), a security guard at the father’s factory who is paid to handle the son’s (Passalis) sexual awakening. When Christina steps beyond her bounds, the ramifications threaten to destroy the perfect little world that the parents have worked so hard to create.

Dogtooth’s premise is similar to M. Night Shyamalan’s The Village yet the actual content could not be more different. Dogtooth takes a far more realistic approach and, as a result, more disturbing examination of the issues of isolation and the evils of the world at large. It is fascinating to see the lengths to which the parents go in order to keep their family’s peaceful existence a float. What we would deem as excessive child abuse they would consider a necessary means to ensure their children remain innocent and pure.

The interesting thing is that Lanthimos’ seems to be suggesting that human nature, even in a childlike state, is anything but pure. The fact that the parents hired Christina is proof that they knew that it would be impossible to suppress the urges of a growing male with mere words. The perplexing thing is that they never even consider that women would have the same sexual urges. It is this misstep that leads to cracks in their seamless world.

Dogtooth is the type of film I could see Stanley Kubrick making if he was alive today. Although their situation would be considered strange by most, Lanthimos never treats his characters like freaks. They are merely a loving family who, for the most part, know no other way of life. The performances are outstanding all around. I especially liked Christos Stergiouglou’s work as “Father”. He creates one of the more memorable villains to grace the screen in a long time.

Despite its, at times, shocking content, Dogtooth is far closer to truth than fiction. If you really think about it, how do we know the things we know? Besides school, a large portion of who we are is directly linked to who raised us. The words we know are based on what others have decided on well before we were even born. It is tough to imagine our world any differently yet that is exactly what Lanthimos does. He questions what is worse? Being isolated from the outside world? Or living in a world where you feel the need to isolate your children? Similar to the film’s wonderful ending, this is a question that the viewer will have to answer themselves.