What is a film that left you unsettled?

Does it have to be fiction? The doc on R Crumb disturbed me a lot.

Cassavetes’ “A Woman under the Influence” - glad I watched it, but never again!

An absolute gut-punch.

The Vanishing - the original film, not the American remake.

Anything by Gaspar Noe, Lanthimos, and von Trier.

[italic] Private Parts (1972) [/italic]

r3 the ending of that film stayed with me a long, long time

Threads (BBC), after watching it in AP Govt & Politics in 12th grade.

The Larry Clark film KIDS (1995).

Capturing The Friedmans

Apropos of nothing, I find David Thewlis really hot in Naked.

The prison sequence in Todd Haimes’ POISON makes me ill.

Kids.

Tusk with Justin Long. Fucked up!

Elephant (2003). The film serves no purpose other than to make you feel awful.

The Cook, The Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover.

The Donald Trump Story

“Smooth Talk”

Zoo (2007)

Happiness (Todd Solondz) - 1998. Just a bad vibe all around.

Melancholia.

JOKER left me unsettled, but it was magnificent and I would do it again. I watched it twice in the theater and I intend to watch it again at some point.

Little Children, I felt so bad for the Phyllis Somerville character, truly between a rock and a hard place.

House of Sand & Fog the tea drinking scene

Excellent choice, R19.

Not an old or an obscure film per se, but I think we can all agree that MIDSOMMAR leaves the viewer extremely unsettled at the end.

Savageland...a creepy litte indie mockumentary on AP

The crime/documentary Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood (1996) Heartbreaking and frightening. look at injustice. The 3 teens convicted were a mere convenience and satisfied the need for someone to be punished for the murder of 3 eight-year old children. The conviction was overturned some 12 years after this film was made.

Sign of the Cross. Cecile B. deMille seemed to get pleasure from depicting all the ways the Christians were slaughtered. The scene with a woman tied up as alligators are approaching her was particularly gruesome.

We Have To Talk About Kevin (shudder)

Another vote for The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover...but I'm kind of squeamish. There was also a movie called Eden Lake with a then unknown Fassy. The cruelty in it was awful & it's based on a (supposedly) true story

Martyrs

Darren Aronofsky's Requiem for a Dream (2000) owns this thread. I saw it in the theater and I was blown away but could never bring myself to watch it again. It was sad and heartbreaking.

[quote] Not an old or an obscure film per se, but I think we can all agree that MIDSOMMAR leaves the viewer extremely unsettled at the end.

Yes, unsettled in the sense that I cannot believe anyone takes Ari Aster seriously. That is very disturbing.

I’m blanking on “works of fiction” right now, though I know there have been several over the years. But one documentary, There’s Something Wrong With Aunt Diane, and one based-on-a-true-story, An American Crime (Catherine Keener, Ellen Page), both were so profoundly disturbing/depressing, I couldn’t stop thinking about either of them for a week and I think they both actually triggered depressive episodes for me. (Mary!, I know, whatever.)

I never want to see either of them again and if I could scrub the memories of them from my brain, I would.

Yeah, that one was gross, too, R32. Never want to see it again.

"The Strangers" with Liv Tyler; people are tortured & eventually killed after a night out; the killers just targeted them because they were home. The plot has huge holes in it & Tyler just screams like a banshee through the whole movie, but it makes you think about how a lot of crime is just random - someone was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

[35] yeah that film brought to mind the Manson killings

R35 yeah that film brought to mind the Manson killings

Manson (1973) A documentary by Robert Hendrickson It's pretty definitive, informative and a very disturbing portrait of among other things the conformity of non conformity.

Henry Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986) Terrifying in its very mundane approach to murder and the scene of the family home invasion prompted walkouts when this film was shown. The acting is so persuasive that it's hard to belief that it's not a documentary. Tracy Arnold's performance is deeply felt.

CRAZY LOVE. Do not watch this documentary unless you want to completely give up on humanity. OMG, it took me weeks to stop thinking about it.

“Planet of the Apes” (1968 version)

OK, my family and neighborhood wasn’t this ugly but I was only six and I did empathize with the cruelty and hopelessness. Also, the movie and tv series featured one of my mother’s least favorite effeminate actors - Roddy McDowall who I thought was classy.

Good one r39. I could not believe ... well, that she ended up with him at all. But also that he stalked another woman later and she stayed by his side!!

She was quite beautiful in her youth.

So far, this is a very pedestrian list of disturbing cinema. No mention of Michael Haneke’s work or Pasolini’s Salo, or 120 Days of Sodom?

MAME

I bet "The Human Centipede" would, but I'm not about to watch it.

R43 It's spelled MAIM

Eden Lake

Sodom was pretty nasty. Abel Ferrera’s The Addiction with Lili Taylor really freaked the hell out of me.

Mulholland Drive.

I was wondering how long it would be before Salo and Mame would be mentioned.

r48 I watched Mulholland Drive for the first time just after moving to a new apartment

For weeks, I couldn't turn a corner without the fear that something would be waiting just beyond

That film messed me up for some time

Fargo and Raising Arizona

"Old Yeller."

"Breaker Morant."

Dear Zachary

A Simple Plan

House of Sand and Fog

Eraserhead

Fargo and Raising Arizona are just dark comedies. They shouldn’t disturb you that much.

The Class of 1984

I also agree with those who said Kids. I needed a shower after that one.

Sophie’s Choice. The scene where she has to “choose” is quite unsettling.

Agree with the original Vanishing, Elephant & Henry

If I could add one, it'd be Funny Games

Of documentaries, the long film Shoah

R50, it was really rhe first "arthouse" movie that I ever watched and I was blown away--never saw the last 30 minutes happening, ever. It's like its opening your eyes to the real Hollywood. And it was the first movie I ever saw that made LA seem really mysterious and appealing at the same time.

Dig it: NAKED, by Mike Leigh, is available on the Criterion Channel with all the blu ray's supplements available, too. I’ve never seen it, have added it to My List.

Taxi Driver is still really upsetting.

The Master

Blue Valentine. That relationship is harrowing. Michelle William's character is irredeemable. Also another movie Williams was in Manchester by the Sea.

Shame with Fassbender and his big cock!!

R22 & R23 "Little Children" & "House of Sand And Fog" are two of my all-time favorite films. The latter film stayed remarkably close to the novel, which was also good. I've yet to read "Little Children", but it's on my list for 2021.

Blue Velvet

Zodiac. Very well done, super slick and entertaining for the first half at least. Then slowly towards the end you realize there won't be a resolution and it starts to turn even darker and more upsetting.

What made Shame unsettling was Carey Mulligan's attempt at singing New York, New York. That was just pitiful.

Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me. I was so blown away when I saw it. I only saw the tv series years later after watching the film. The movie is one of the most disturbing portrayals of abuse/incest I've ever seen.

The Ballad of Narayama (the remake). Shohei Imamura has a knack for disturbing, savage imagery.

Shame. The brother and sister were clearly incestuous growing up.

"The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover," left me unable to sleep and feeling febrile. It was like having someone open up your backbone and run their fingernail down the spinal cord, and stuck with me for days.

Every few years, I'll watch it again, and it still has a powerful affect.

[quote]Fargo and Raising Arizona are just dark comedies. They shouldn’t disturb you that much.

As I recall, there were at least two highly disturbing scenes in FARGO: (1) when that creepy guy breaks into the house to kidnap William H. Macy's wife, and (2) when that car full of innocent people happens to drive by the car with the criminals in it, then tries to hightail it out of there, and it does not end well for them.

I agree wholeheartedly that DEAR ZACHARY and A SIMPLE PLAN are both highly disturbing films, one a documentary, the other fiction.

The Entity, supposedly based on a true story. That creepy music whenever the entity is assaulting Barbara Hershey.

Another vote for Requiem for a Dream. What shitty, shitty characters. I finished the film convinced we’d all gone to hell in a hand basket.

Earthquake

What Ever Happened to Baby Jane - OK there is a lot to be enjoyed but the insanity it is based on is banal and thus horrifying, and the acting out of the insanity in what could have been boring ordinary lives, over the movie is blood curdling. The ending on the beach for one example. Add in the Hollywood forgotten stars context and it's a home run.

No Man's Land (2001) - film about the Bosnian war. Enough said. Journey of Hope (1990) - film about a Turkish family trying to get to Switzerland. Be prepared to cry buckets. Requiem for a Dream (2000) - what else is there to say about this movie, other than my soul left my body at some point because it needed a break.

^^^I apologize about the formatting.

One False Move (1992)

'Eden Lake' is the most disturbing film I've seen because I actually wouldn't be that surprised if it happened in real life. It's really well made and acted but I haven't been able to watch it all the way through a second time because it's so horrific.

Enjoy, r59! It's full of low-key, pointless cruelty. But at the same time, it's riveting, and you can't look away

Irreversible. I wish I never watched it.

It's funny too -- in Naked, Johnny is a truly loathsome character. But for whatever reason, I ended up rooting for him, perhaps because he is juxtaposed with someone even worse

"Irreversible"

R82. I went to look it up on IMBD but there are a few of the same named movies....which one are you talking abut.

Boy in the Striped Pajamas.

Not because it was any good, it was shit. But because it made me so angry. The death of the christian son of a Nazi in a gas chamber was supposed to better illustrate the horror and evil of the Holocaust than the death of millions of others.

Horrible movie with a horrible moral stance. Enraging.

The Exorcist

Monster's Ball

Also, I recently watched Gosford Park and am still legit upset about the dog being kicked

I've said this in other threads, but "Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer". I think it was X rated when it first came out, for the violence. I made the mistake of watching this late one night. It was a little too realistic, so I shut it off.

r87 I just watched the trailer and now I'm intrigued

[quote] So far, this is a very pedestrian list of disturbing cinema.

Mary! Sorry we're all not up to your personal standards.

Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence was so unsettling and the tricks with film speed and (what I think is) Technicolor made it nightmarish.

R84 "Irreversible", 2002 movie. Starring Monica Bellucci and Vincent Cassel. I do not recommend it.

Anne Frank Remembered (1995 Oscar winner for best feature documentary). The interviews with those who saw her at Bergen-Belsen are harrowing.

[quote]with .. Glenn Close

I can see why r92

Magdalene Sisters - just an unsettling and infuriating subject matter - that happened to be true and only recently stopped.

The Big Heat when Gloria Grahame gets her face scolded by hot coffee. That was brutal.

Borat 2. Love the Giuliani sting - but much of it grossed me out. And I loved Borat 1 and Bruno. But hated The Dictator.

I think he's jumped the shark. (haven't given the Grimsby one a chance but I don't think the reviews were good)

The Virgin Suicides

First unsettling scene is Kirsten Dunst's character waking up all alone on the football field after the dance. He just LEFT her there!

Second was finding the girls bodies and hearing the narration.

The Queen of Versailles. So totally trashy and disgusting. Nasty and very real rich people. And how they treated their children, pets and servants was horrible.

R74 - I don't think the characters were shitty at all. They were flawed and it just underlined how vulnerable some people can be and what situations they get into.

Requiem for a Dream - right after, my friend and I hardly spoke for about 15 minutes. We just searched for a bar to have a strong drink and collect ourselves.

I'll never forget the feeling I had after watching that film - it was great, but it really can fuck you up.

I don't know why I didn't think of this until now.

The Bridge (2006) haunted me for many, many months. I thought about it daily. I couldn't get some of the images out of my mind.

I Saw the Devil.

Holy, Fuck.

Soylent Green (1973)

I just started watching Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer ...

Hopefully I have the sense to turn it off at some point

The Day of the Locust

I would say Funny Games (the original one), but I honestly wish I hadn't seen it at all. It was just nastiness for the sake of sheer nastiness--it was not intelligent (though it pretended to be).

R2. Ages ago (eldergay here) one of the art house movie theaters in Chicago had a Cassavetes retrospective. Went to Woman Under... with a guy I was seeing. As we were leaving the theater he turned to me and said “that could have been my mother”. He stopped returning my phone calls. I’m sure it was for the best.

"Sarah, Plain and Tall"

I was wholly unprepared for the scene at the end where Sarah exacts bloody retribution against her new family.

r85 I refuse to watch The Boy In The Striped Pajamas because I read the book when I worked at a children's bookstore and it enraged me. I found it completely appalling and cheap. The (bitch) owner of the store is Jewish and she loved it, which was evidence of her idiocy and lack of taste.

I won't read anything by John Boyne.

r87 crap I'm five minutes in and I see what you mean.

R107. I like Boyne’s books aimed at adults, but have avoided The Boy in the Striped Pajamas—I’ll leave that to Bryan Singer.

OP, I liked that movie.

Fantastic Planet crept me out but at the same time, I loved it.

The Magdalene Sisters left me with a disturbed, disgusted feeling.

The killer inside me. Seemed like someone’s excuse to watch Jessica Alba get roughed up. Plus I hate Casey Affleck as an actor

I watched 'Going Places' at a cinema during a particularly low spot in my alcoholic existence. The carefree nihilism really got under my skin, as a warning to what I was becoming. I tried watching it a few months ago, and it took me back to that empty feeling I remember.

R112 I like Gerard fucking his friend.

"Possum" (2018). I think it's about sexual abuse, but I know it's so creepy and depressing.

[quote]R49 I was wondering how long it would be before Salo and Mame would be mentioned.

Can you imagine the wacky antics Lucy’d get up to if she were one of the imprisoned in SALO??

r110 I liked it too. I think Johnny is a great character, and Thewlis is brilliant in the film. Johnny's really an awful human being, but you can't help liking him.

However, the sexual violence and pointless cruelty left me unsettled

I had a friend who kept a list of great films he never wanted to see again. Some of the movies mentioned above were on his list.

R100 - funny you mention that. I stumbled across The Bridge one evening years ago and had no idea it was a documentary until about 30 minutes into it. I couldn't believe they were actually showing people jumping to their deaths. I thought it was a re-enactment or something.

Nope. Close-ups of the suicidal people walking back and forth before they jump. VERY disturbing watching the last moments of people's lives.

R111 Is Kate Hudson beat as well?

"Midnight Cowboy" and "A Clockwork Orange."

A Serbian Film

Inside (French version)

The list is long; the films, at best mediocre.

Call Me by Your Name. I'm not usually very affected by films at all, so never had a film hit me SO hard.

[quote] 120 Days of Sodom

I think I had to turn it off when they started eating shit at the banquet.

Far From Heaven, for sure.

A French film called Ma Vie en Rose. It hit very close to home - so many of the things adults said in that movie to the child who is at the center of the film were things adults said to me.....

And I concur with R123.

"I refuse to watch The Boy In The Striped Pajamas because I read the book when I worked at a children's bookstore and it enraged me. I found it completely appalling and cheap."

Why is that? I read it, and that was not my impression of it. I saw the movie; it was depressing, as all Holocaust dramas are.

Flight 93 would also be on my list of great movies I’ll never watch again R117

[quote] The Bridge

Exploitive and just wrong to passively watch people kill themselves.

I like movies with endings that are like a punch to the gut. The original "The Vanishing" was like that. So was "Planet of the Apes."

Surprised no one’s mentioned Ken Russell’s THE DEVILS. Extremely disturbing.

"The conviction was overturned some 12 years after this film was made."

The convictions were not overturned. The three convicted negotiated a plea bargain with prosecutors. On August 19, 2011, they entered Alford pleas, which allowed them to assert their innocence while acknowledging that prosecutors have enough evidence to convict them. Judge David Laser accepted the pleas and sentenced the three to time served. They were released with 10-year suspended sentences, having served 18 years.

IT's easy to understand why Damien Echols was accused of the crime. He tortured animals and threatened to kill his parents and EAT them; he was stone cold crazy. I don't know what he's up to these days, but for a while he was fawned over and feted by sympathetic supporters. One of them was Johnny Depp; he and Echols even got matching tattoos. Gag.

The House of Sand and Fog. It was just emotionally exhausting, wrenching, painful; and even today years after, I still can't think about it without feeling just sick. I hated Jennifer Connolly for a long time after that.

Neil LaBute's In the Company of Men and Your Friends & Neighbors were both unsettling, thought they were ostensibly comedies.

We stumbled across this movie one night. My partner likes found footage movies and, my God, there are a ton on Amazon that are mostly home made and horrible, but this one is truly horrifying and almost believable. The actor playing the lead completely committed in such a way that he totally transformed himself by the end. I never want to see this thing again but if you like unsettling films, I'd be interested to see how far you'd get.

I loved the John Waters movies in college, but was usually chemically altered in some way when I saw them.

When I watched Female Trouble recently, it kinda freaked me out at the end!

BLAIR WITCH PROJECT. Certain images in that film stick with me to this day.

[quote] Surprised no one’s mentioned Ken Russell’s THE DEVILS. Extremely disturbing.

I was much more disturbed by Sandy Wilson's THE DEVILS.

The Purge- because I sensed something as savage and brutal even in a more diluted form was always more possible and likely than one would like to admit to themselves .

'Wonderland,' about porn star John Holmes' involvement in a grisly quadruple murder. Didn't watch it again for many, many years.

"Boy in the Striped Pajamas.

Not because it was any good, it was shit. But because it made me so angry. The death of the christian son of a Nazi in a gas chamber was supposed to better illustrate the horror and evil of the Holocaust than the death of millions of others."

I didn't see it that way at all. I saw it as the Christian boy wanting to be with his Jewish friend...and so he is, to the very end. I saw it as proof of their bond, their friendship. I have no idea why you would think it was otherwise.

R116/OP, I didn't think there was much SV or cruelty at all, just a touch of sleaze and sexual innuendo.

That movie reminds me of myself.

- r110

(R99) I agree. Requiem For A Dream freaked me out!

This film is unsettling as it deals with life before the UK (and USA) had much government welfare. Ursula Jeans plays a refined middle-class woman forced to rely on her wits and who slips into amoral behaviour to support her children.

It could be seen as an English version of 'Mildred Pierce'

I wasn't "unsettled" by "Monster's Ball." I just thought it was a piece of shit. The only thing good about it was the performances of Heath Ledger and Peter Boyle. Maybe some people were "unsettled" by the sex scenes between Halle Berry and Billy Bob Thornton, which were nauseating and probably induced unintentional laughter in movie audiences. Halle Berry groaning over and over "Make me feeeel ghuuuuud" as she flings herself at the repulsive Thornton was pretty damn gross and funny as hell.

Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles.

Saw this on the Criterion channel. Many people today with their short attention spans would turn it off after about 10 minutes, but the way the film is structured is precisely what makes it so unsettling.

r141 did we watch the same movie?

r141 also, I recently rewatched the film. I'd forgotten it contained not one but two rapes (not counting the "rough sex" scenes). I didn't find any depictions of sex, consensual or not, particularly sleazy though. We're introduced to one of the men with his line, "Do you think women enjoy being raped?"

It's interesting that both male characters use women throughout the film, but in different ways and to different ends. They're both cruel, but Johnny's cruelty is particularly pointed, especially with the middle-aged woman. As she tries to look sexy, he looks bored and says, "I can't, love. You look like me mother." And then in the morning, before he leaves, he steals her books.

That part of the film -- the theft of her books -- stayed with me more than the rape scenes. It's more devastating, in my opinion.

r118 one other reason the film was controversial: the family and friends of the jumpers did not know, at the time of their interviews, that footage of actual suicides would be shown in the film. They only found out upon its release and many said they wouldn't have taken part had they known.

I lived in SF when I saw it and thought it was absolutely immoral. (Posted previously in this thread)

^The Bridge

Thx to above, another rec for Eden Lake. Usually not fan of torture porn but was surprisingly good, esp w/young Fassy. Probably too incendiary but could see US adaptation w/deplorables

Dear Mr. Gacy about a teenager who begins correspondence with John Wayne Gacy for a term paper. Gacy gets in his head. It's really gross and disturbing.

r152 I wasn't aware of Jason Moss. Just reading about his story on Wiki is unsettling

Yes r153, seems he got caught up in the serial killer research and it affected his mental health. If you can find the movie it is worth a watch. It might have been on hbo at one time.

The Nightingale, made by the director who made The Babadook; just watching it feels like an ordeal

Paradise Lost: you can understand why Echols was accused, but he obviously suffered from some sort of mental illness and loved the attention of the trial until they found him guilty & it finally - and very belatedly- dawned on him that this was no joke.

Not as if we need any reminders, but the whole episode was yet another sad reminder about the poor, the hapless and the dull witted get totally railroaded by the justice system in this country. It's also incredibly ironic that one of the fathers of the murdered kid who just seems *crazy as fuck* during the documentary ultimately ended up being one of their fiercest defenders. The real victim was poor Jason Baldwin, who could've saved himself by throwing Echols under the bus (even though Echols behavior doomed them), but wouldn't do it.

This thread, again?

Irreversible.

A Serbian Film.

Audition.

In MY Skin.

I'm trying to ask a different question, r156.

For example, the film Wendy and Lucy left me rather unsettled. It's one of those movies that got into my head. And it contains no graphic violence, or any violence on-screen, for that matter. It's not a horror movie. But its depiction of loneliness felt very real and uncomfortable.

R157 Oh, i get ya now. In that case...

The Sweet Hereafter - just haunted me for months. Who would be a parent?

In My Fathers' Den - could not stop crying.

Naked OP - saw it tripping and David just reminded me of my Father....very much. I was devestated.

We Live In Public.

Heavenly Creatures -- especially this scene

R160 I forgot about that one. Gruesome!!

Also Picnic at Hanging Rock left me in a strange mood after I first saw it. It’s so eerie.

The Honeymoon Killers. So much like a documentary. Hard to believe they were all actors. And the cavalier way they killed the deluded old ladies. I actually saw it in a big, mostly empty theater.

For A Lost Soldier- Unsettling not because of the subject matter, but the romantic, soft look of the film caresses the relationship and makes you care for them. A smaller, but just dangerous a couple, as Bonnie and Clyde .

The House of Yes

I found it very entertaining and interesting, but the incestuous relationship between the brother and sister was creepy and unnerving.

Also, as strange as this is... Deep Throat.

There are two films which, no matter how much time has passed since I first saw them, I am as yet unwilling to ever watch again:

𝐎𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐁𝐞𝐚𝐜𝐡 (1959)

𝐋𝐨𝐫𝐝 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐅𝐥𝐢𝐞𝐬 (1963)

Granted, I was passing through an extremely bad patch in my life (7th grade) when I saw them, but I'm nonetheless uninterested in finding out if it was the films, or if it was just me.

Speaking of films from childhood, The Electric Grandmother scared the shit out of me as a kid. I didn't even watch it until the end. The scene where the girl "unplugs" the grandmother haunted me for years

[quote]Speaking of films from childhood, The Electric Grandmother scared the shit out of me as a kid. I didn't even watch it until the end. The scene where the girl "unplugs" the grandmother haunted me for years

R167, that isn't even close to how that story ends.

I know, r168. Note how I wrote, "I didn't even watch it to the end."

I turned it off after the "unplugging" scene because it freaked me out so much.

Adrian Lyne's "Jacob's Ladder". That one still freaks me out when I think about it.

R170 a very unsettling movie...I have the movie and will rewatch it occasionally. It never fails to upset me no matter how many tiems Ive seen it

You should watch it to the end, R169. It's worth it.

It's a far more sentimental retelling of Twilight Zone's 'I Sing the Body Electric,' from the Bradbury short story of the same name.

ON THE BEACH

THREADS

LOOKING FOR MR. GOODBAR

REQUIEM FOR A DREAM

Actually, r172, I did recently. I might have felt differently had I never seen it as a child, but it stayed with me -- not in a good way -- and I still can't warm up to it.

R134. I watched DID on amazon the other night and found it one of the most horrifying movies I've seen in a long time...gotta love the Europeans and Australians. They dont coddle children in their movies at all.

This one is extremely disturbing. Killing Ground 2016 Australia

The documentary "Three Identical Strangers." It was an incredible story that left me sad and infuriated and disillusioned over how cruel and soulless people can be. I couldn't stop thinking about it for weeks.

[quote]Actually, R172, I did recently. I might have felt differently had I never seen it as a child, but it stayed with me -- not in a good way -- and I still can't warm up to it.

I would argue that childhood is the best time to see it. Once one becomes old and cynical, it just comes across as maudlin.

r176 don't two of the triplets commit suicide?

R178 I won't give anything away for those who haven't seen it, but there's a lot of truly tragic and horrifying stuff in this film.

There was a TV movie with Tiffani Amber Thiessen that left me unsettled. It’s the one where her best friends are actually jealous of her and murder her. I was a kid at the time but I couldn’t imagine having friends who secretly envy you and want you dead

"Murder of Innocence," a 90s TV movie with Valerie Bertinelli as a young wife suffering from psychosis. She's excellent in it, and watching her descent into madness and the tragic outcome really shook me as a kid.

I hope it's on YouTube r181. Sounds intriguing.

That reminds me: I saw Sybil as a teen and it deeply unsettled me. (Then I read Debbie Nathan's book about the real Sybil, and the film felt less disturbing. Or rather, disturbing in a different way. The real story of what happened is almost as messed up.)

R182 It's available on YouTube, yes. It's based on a true story.

R181 I remember seeing that movie, too, and it freaked me the hell out. I remember a scene where she comes home and opens the refrigerator, and it's full of nothing but raw meat, and she takes one of the slabs of meat out and just sits there, squeezing it in her hands.

Cries and Whispers -- which I shouldn't have watched for the first time at the start of the pandemic

"Leaving Las Vegas." Hopeless and tragic from beginning to end. I thought it was excellent with fantastic performances by everyone, but I never want to see it again.

r3 I was just thinking about The Vanishing for some reason. Remembering the ending almost gives me a panic attack.

Midsommar was a ridiculously inept film, but it was also unrelentingly violent, disgusting, grisly, and just plain sick.

I hate the movie, but to this day, just thinking about it disturbs me.

And I agree that Ari Aster is just some mentally disturbed fuck masquerading as an "auteur."

I only watched the first five minutes. But the very existence of the film Blood Sucking Freaks -- and the fact there is an audience for it -- unsettles me.

I have never seen LEAVING LAS VEGAS. I try to see most Oscar nominated films, but the thought of two hours of drunk Nic Cage has always held me back. Maybe I'll try it one day.

My ex and I both had read about SALO, so we finally decided to see it was as insane as we had heard. This was early 2000s. The guy at the indie video rental place was like, "are you SURE you want to watch this?"

Yeah, we didn't last long. We had to turn it off.

R190 It's probably Nic Cage's best performance, but it is unrelenting in its hopelessness and sadness.

I found Mike Nichols' Closer very unsettling. Nasty people doing nasty things to each other (and themselves).

Does anyone know what movie this clip is from because it looks like it fits the topic?

Breaking the Waves

Cocoon.

I was horrified and disturbed for weeks by the scene in "Slumdog Millionaire" where they are blinding the kids with acid.

Compliance.

As I was watching it I thought the premise was stupid, but looking up the story it was based on afterwards, it’s amazing how much they depicted is what actually happened in real life. The sit down TV interview with the character played by Ann Dowd at the end of the film is almost identical to the 20/20 interview with the real life woman she played.

Dancer in the Dark fucked me up for days

Dead Ringers. Specifically the end when Beverly wakes up and keeps calling his brother’s name and ignores the reality of the situation.

I only watched the movie once about 15 years ago, so maybe it’s not as bad as I remember, but it definitely left me unsettled. I couldn’t stop thinking about it for a while.

R200 Geez, I forgot about that film. What I can never unsee are the doctor's "instruments for operating on mutant women."

Chained, directed by Jennifer Lynch.

It was on Tubi a few weeks ago. i don't know if it's still on there.

So I finally watched "Henry, Portrait of..." for the first time since college. And, as in college, I fell asleep half way through. Will never understand the hype.

I watched one last night that was part of an anthology in which a mother who is having an affair with her 16 year old son convinces him to kill his father and 9 year old brother so they can be together. It doesn't end like you would think and I'm still trying to get the stink off me.

I think there's something wrong with me-I saw Salo and my only reaction was "meh".

Wuthering Heights is never a walk in the park, but the 1992 version with Ralph Fiennes was particularly dark and the 2009 British TV version with Tom Hardy was positively brutal.

Salo.

I went to see 'Blue Velvet' with my BF, and we barely spoke in the car afterwards: too overwhelming and gruesome. 'Angel Heart' was touted for its erotic scenes, but the plot is overwhelmingly bleak.

Speaking of Mickey Rourke films there is also Johnny Handsome where Ellen Barkin plays this evil woman who slashes Johnny's face after he gets plastic surgery to fix his disfigured face.

The original Funny Games was tough enough. I don't want to see the American remake.

La mujer sin cabeza by Lucrecia Martel.

I found myself rooting for the main character while feeling sad about the ways her loved ones worked to protect her. That particular event at the beginning became an afterthought even though it manifests throughout the film... all this gave me a strange feeling of guilt.

I know, MARY!

Midsommar

Incident in a Ghostland

I have two that will always haunt me, both about ww2 and both brilliant: Come and See and Army of Shadows. The latter is quite possibly my favorite film ever, but I cannot watch it often.

I made the mistake of watching one of the films mentioned here and now I need brain bleach.

This scene from Blue Velvet stayed with me

"Baby wants to fuck!!!!"

The Last King of Scotland

*Spoilers*

*Spoilers*

After the wife is killed and they show her dismembered body on a table, her legs are sewn onto her arm stumps, and her arms are sewn onto her leg stumps- that fucked with my head and disturbed me. I wasn’t sure I was seeing what I thought I was at first. I’m pretty sure they were sewn on, but maybe they were just placed there to look sewn on. Either way- creepy.

R213 which one? Please share.

The Housemaid. Korea

The White Ribbon. Michael Haneke, director of the much-féted original Funny Games

Eve's Bayou

It is not technically a horror movie but has more of a creepy, disturbing atmosphere than most of them do towards the end. What makes it more unsettling is the fact we never get any sort of closure. Was the father's death caused by voodoo or was it only a coincidence? Did he molest Cicely or didn't he? I have read compelling arguments on both sides and I just can't make up my mind. But the movie really lingered in my mind long after it was over.

Caché

What movie is the clip at R194 from the guy doing the pounding looks kind of familiar but you can't see the guy getting pounded face clearly enough?

Martyrs messed me up for days afterwards. It really got me thinking. It's not just some run of the mill torture porn movie. It really does have something to say and I've discovered those are the kinds of movies that really stay with me.

Inside was another one that did the same thing. It seems like your average home invasion slasher flick, but that one has a lot to say as well.

Avoid the American remakes at all costs. They don't just cut the gore down to next to nothing, but they dumb everything down along with it. It breaks me heart to think that some people's first exposure to these stories will be those lousy remakes.

The Evil Dead used to really freak me out as a kid. The first girl who turns into a demon and gets raped by the tree and all that stuff really disturbed me. I watched it at a slumber party and we all got so scared once she turned into a demon that we had to turn it off. I thought it was scarier than The Exorcist. It's weird that the sequels have all been comedies, but that first one has some kind of strange power.

Speaking of Sam Raimi, I thought the ending of Drag Me To Hell was incredibly disturbing. The look on Justin Long's face when he realizes what's happening and how helpless he is to stop it has haunted me ever since.

Midsommar was a bloated bore and a real step down after Hereditary.

Audition

I Heart Huckabees.

It left me fille with questions, such as:

"What the fuck did I just sit through?"

"Why did I pay to see that?"

That awful scene in "Hannibal" where Ray Liotta is oblivious that he's being fed his own brain for dinner.

I found Pasolini's Salò very unsettling and arousing.

"Kids" is utterly revolting. Among other things, it shows twelve year old girls having sex. And the repugnant teenagers/children (none of whom look over 16) kiss each other with wide open mouths and seem to be swallowing each other's tongues.

I've never seen the movie "Gummo" but I heard it was vomit-inducing. The Chicago Tribune called it "Unwatchable...a pointless gross-out" It sounds like it would be; it features "a pair of nogoodniks who pump BBs into kitties and shut off a grandmother's respirator, a man who pimps his fat retarded daughter to teenage boys, a freakish boy gobbling spaghetti while bathing in disgustingly brown water, a tubby buck-toothed cheerleader who shaves her eyebrows, a pair of pint-sized cowboys who use language that would make the "South Park" kids blush, teenage girls who wear duct tape over their nipples supposedly to enlarge them, skinhead parent-killing brothers who can't keep from glancing at the camera as they scuffle in a kitchen, and a deaf couple that squawks and squeals at each other in a bowling alley." Wait, there's more; there's also "a drunk teen trying to seduce a black male dwarf. And Bunny Boy, a delicate soul in undershorts and big pink ears who urinates on cars from a highway overpass, plays an accordion on the toilet and thrusts a dead cat into the camera." This movie was actually praised in some circles, which shows you how crazy film criticism can be.

I’ve seen Gummo but can’t remember anything of what you’ve written except for the kid eating spaghetti in the bath. I think I’ll give it a rewatch...

James Franco's Palo Alto. The fact that this is an accurate reflection of some teens is very scary.

Womb

Ohh and Bad Boy Bubby, i think its called

The Talented Mr. Ripply. Because I have known guys like that.

Hyper manipulative and evil to the core while playing innocent boy of the moment. I am absolutely sure I knew one that knocked off a rich daddy trick for his cash. Police came looking for him and he told everyone to pretend they didnt know him. Whatever he did, suddenly was flush with money for a while. Karma came and killed him with AIDS.

But Karma is a bitch and he tried to outsmart Karma by killing himself first with some pills. Only Karma had the last laugh, he didnt take enough of the dolls while he was in the hospital so they brought him back and he had to kill himself a second time a few weeks later.

Pixote, which felt rather exploitative -- but a good film

Ugh Jacob’s Ladder gives one such a gross, dirty feeling

In "Seven" where the killer makes the guy fuck the hooker with a razor-studded strap-on.

Mondo Cani. I watched it on television when I was a kid and it probably destroyed my childhood. I could never watch it again.

I see a couple of people mentioned The Magdalene Sisters, it is good but there's a couple of scenes that I found unintentionally hilarious.

One is where a girl is sent to the office of the elderly head nun (Geraldine McEwan, who played Mrs Marple and the crazy witch mother of Alan Rickman's Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood) and the nun suddenly leaps over her desk and beats the living crap of the girl with a stick. Like, really swinging into it.

The other is when a priest has itching powder put into his clothes and the itching drives him to strip naked during an outdoor ceremony, then he runs off, while a girl who he molested earlier shouts "YOU'RE NOT A MAN OF GOD! YOU'RE NOT A MAN OF GOD!" over and over again.

The priest has a rather flabby body as well.

R207 The ending of Blue Velvet is rather heartwarming though. The Julee Cruise song Mysteries of Love is lovely.

"Spoorloos" ("The Vanishing") has really gained a reputation over the years but I remember seeing it when it was a recent U.S. import and thinking, what a dumb, contrived ending. One of the reasons I was so impressed by the original "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" and watched it a second time, even though I had nightmares about it for six months after the first time, was that the people in it behaved like people with realistic survival instincts. Much more exciting and satisfying.

Saw Saint Maud over wknd - quite disturbing

Manchester By The Sea...sad and left me depressed.