Come & See (1985)

Come & See is one of the those films like Requiem for a Dream, They Shoot The Horses, Don't They?, or Grave of the Fireflies, where you can only watch once and that is enough for a lifetime.

I never heard about this film until the extreme horror fad arose about 15 years ago. There's a list of movies that people consume as challenges for bragging rights, like "Hot Ones."

So CAS is a big one, and the aforementioned RFAD and GOTF to a certain extent. So are A Serbian Film, Martyrs (original version), Funny Games (both Austrian original and American remake), Wolf Creek, Irreversible, and the ever popular Cannibal Holocaust. I would challenge the inclusion of TSHDT as that's really more standard Vietnam War era depressing than nightmare inducing.

R2 I think there is a different between flicks like Cannibal Holocaust and films like Come & See.

It is like comparing Saw and Alien, claiming they are both torture horror movies.

Agree with R1. Truly the most relentlessly harrowing movie I’ve seen.

Hard pass. We're living in harrowing times--who needs this?

This movie makes "Saving Private Ryan" seem like a picnic in the park.

r3, my point is that certain people ARE watching CAS as if it was Cannibal Holocaust.

Never seen it but watched the trailer and I am intrigued.

Dark film for dark times.

Streaming on Criterion now. I may give it a go. Thanks OP.

R2 Good callout of Funny Games. Rare case where the remake is a shot by shot copy of the original and they both work equally, though for whatever reason I think the German with subtitles in the original makes it creepier.

Love Michael Haneke. Benny’s Video and The Seventh Continent are two other favs of mine. Barry Keoghan would be amazing in a remake of Benny’s Video.

A good horror film (Rosemary's Baby, Psycho, etc.) is one thing. What satisfaction people get from watching torture movies like Saw or Funny Games is beyond me.

Ebert wrote a great review

Just on a mere technical level, it is an immersive masterpiece. Very artistically done, and horrifying. As a child, my grandmother lived through the type of events depicted in the film (not in Belarus, but in the Odesa Oblast). Her father was murdered in raids like the ones depicted in the film. My great-grandmother fled with the children, made their way through Poland, and eventually to Germany when the war was over, after which they came to the US out of Hamburg. It's a rough watch, but it feels especially personal to me because I have family members who were there.

Watching it now

R14 on?

I watched it for a film class in college. It lingered in my mind for days afterward. I've thought about watching it again, but I don't want to put myself through that experience a second time.

R14 As mentioned in R9, it’s on Criterion.

r15 Prime

Definitely one of the most intense movies I've ever seen. Can't get certain images out of my head. For some reason, the one that sticks out most sharply is when the Germans abandon the burning village and leave the senile old woman outside, alive, in her bed.

The barn scene. Dear God, the barn scene.

R15 it is not on Prime (for free). It is on Criterion.

Is a Criterion subscription worth it?

[Quote] until the extreme horror fad arose about 15 years ago

😂😂😂

I was going to watch this, but then read about the cow scene. No thanks.