My Most Disturbing Movie Experiences

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I viewed Ordinary People sometime within the last year. The amazing thing is I remember kind of writing this movie off when I saw it many many years ago (I probably was just at a different place and time in my life where I did not appreciate drama). I had such a different reaction on a re-watch. It's more than likely I never saw it in its entirety originally because I didn't remember 99% of it - which probably contributed to why I took the film for granted. But yeah, MTM stole the show as the most unlikable, yet most interesting character.

I like to hear people's suppositions on what they think happened after the ending.



Two immediately spring to mind.

1) Happiness. I love this movie but wow, it's questionable at times. I don't really know of another film like it. Some very uncomfortable watching and things like murder and pedophilia portrayed in a deadpan, matter of fact way. Bizarre but very good film.

2) The Human Centipede 2. I wish I had never seen this. I'm not a fan of horror movies and generally avoid them. I don't know where it stands for fans of this sort of thing, but for me it was way too disturbing. Totally horrific, I wish I could erase it from my mind. Haven't watched a scary film since.



I'm not going to read that because I haven't seen Ordinary People yet. I've been wanting to for years.

Cricket, promise you'll get back to me after you've actually watched the movie, I would love to know what you think.



41.

In the Cut



This graphic and unsettling drama about a sexually repressed teacher (Meg Ryan) who becomes involved with a sexy and dangerous police detective (Mark Ruffalo) when a woman is murdered in her apartment building. This movie disturbed primarily because the central character played by Ryan seems to put herself in a lot of dangerous and unsettling situations with little thought of her own safety. Despite the kind of woman she is, she frequents bars and the strip club that her sister (Jennifer Jason Leigh) lives above. She witnesses Ruffalo's character having sex with another woman in the back room of a club but becomes involved with him anyway. She is also being stalked by an actor turned medical student (Kevin Bacon) with clear mental health issues. She comes home from work one day and finds the guy standing in her apartment, shirtless, demanding to know where she's been. Director Jane Campion has mounted a messy crime drama/romance rich with unsympathetic characters and gratuitous sex and violence.



40.

The Exorcist



I'm pretty sure this film's appearance on this list shouldn't be a big surprise, but this film was disturbing on so many levels for me and probably not for the reasons you expect. Needless to say, the idea of a demon taking possession of a 12 year old was not exactly a user friendly story, but William Peter Blatty's Oscar winning screenplay added some layers that made the story even more troubling...I was troubled by the fact that Regan's mother, Chris (Ellen Burstyn) was not the least bit religious and fought the final diagnosis of what was happening to her daughter throughout. I was also very troubled not only by this demon getting inside of this little girl, but also the demon's torture of Damian Karras (Jason Miller), a priest already doubting his faith and tortured by the death of his mother and how the demon preyed on Karras' guilt about his mother to drive him over the edge...the moment when the voice of Damian's mother came out of Regan's mouth just made me sick to my stomach.



.I was troubled by the fact that Regan's mother, Chris (Ellen Burstyn) was not the least bit religious and fought the final diagnosis of what was happening to her daughter throughout.
What? You just explained it yourself, she wasn't religious she obviously doesn't believe in demons and thought that her daughter was mentally ill. Despite that she still took steps by bringing the priests in which shows she was a great mother. Truth is this is a movie contrast that with the real life case of Anneliese Michell (fictionalized in The Exorcism of Emily Rose) whose parents couldn't accept it was anything but a possession and through their denying their daughter medical help along with the church led to her death through neglect, when truthfully she was a seriously mentally ill woman not possessed. Chris' actions were spot on throughout the film, i of course don't believe in possession but her mothers skepticism was healthy and the right course of action was to seek professional medical help first whatever way you look at it.

Anyway it's one of my favourite films and is the film that disturbed me the most of any the first time i watched it when i was 7 or 8.



43.

Prisoners



Disturbing is a masterpiece of understatement regarding my feelings about this movie that literally had me pulling my hair out and yelling at the screen. Hugh Jackman and Terrence Howard play friends whose families get together for a rainy Thanksgiving and while waiting for dinner, both of their youngest daughters disappear. This movie made me so nuts, I don't even know where to begin...the primary thing that bothered me about this movie was the meticulous care for the alleged criminal's rights, often at the expense of the victim. The police arrest the alleged kidnapper (Paul Dano), never search his house, and upon his release, he has the nerve to actually say something to Jackman that implies he knows where the girls are, but no one else hears it, so the police can't act on it. We watch as Jackman goes rogue to find the girls, being dogged every step of the way by a detective (Jake Gyllenhaal) who just seems to be looking out for the kidnapper's rights. The final straw for me was the fate of Jackman's character by the time the credits rolled...I can't even talk about this anymore, it's making me angry all over again.
Just to put your mind at ease regarding the ending
WARNING: spoilers below
Jakes character does hear the whistle, and does free Jackmans character. They shot the scene then decided to edit it out for the final cut


Dude Im right with you on this movie. I made myself finish watching this and it was almost 5 in the morning when it finished. I came onto the site immediately and started grilling people asking what they would do.



I watched Ordinary People and pretty much loved it. If I was doing a top 100 powerful
list, it'd have a good chance of making it. Not my disturbing list though.

In the Cut shocked me more than disturbed me, mostly due to the unexpected graphic sex. Still, I can understand it's placement on your list.

The Exorcist will be a contender for my disturbing films list, a brilliant film.



Just to put your mind at ease regarding the ending
WARNING: spoilers below
Jakes character does hear the whistle, and does free Jackmans character. They shot the scene then decided to edit it out for the final cut


Dude Im right with you on this movie. I made myself finish watching this and it was almost 5 in the morning when it finished. I came onto the site immediately and started grilling people asking what they would do.
Thanks for the clarification regarding Jackman because it made me nuts, but that was just one of several things about the movie that disturbed me. I do think it's odd that they chose to take that scene out though...they had to know how it would look to the audience.



Actually the assassinations in Star Trek VI come to mind as quite disturbing. Very well thought out, that sequence, with the zero gravity conceit; the purple blood of the Klingons; and, the general nastiness of the burning phasers.



WARNING: "Prisoners" spoilers below
I hate the fact that the stupid psycho bitch at the end shot Jake, but at least he killed her. I kinda wish he had shot her a few more times, though.



39.

The Woodsman



This extremely troubling drama starred Kevin Bacon as a convicted pedophile trying to start his life over again after 12 years in jail. This story was troubling because Walter, Bacon's character, was doing everything he was supposed to be doing but kept finding roadblocks and temptations everywhere he turned...his apartment is facing a grade school where he watches little girls coming and going all day. There's a police detective (Mos Def) shadowing him in the hopes that he will screw up and there's an 11-year old girl who sits across from him on the bus he rides home from work. The scene where he confronts this little girl in the park literally had me holding my breath.



I've never even heard of that but yeah that sounds very unsettling, think that film would stay with me for weeks whether it was done well or not. I remember watching a Louis Theroux Documentary about basically a prison/hospital for pedos and this guy who was about to be released got voluntarily chemically castrated because he didn't think he'd be able to fight his urges when he got out . That subject will always be disturbing to me.



Actually the assassinations in Star Trek VI come to mind as quite disturbing. Very well thought out, that sequence, with the zero gravity conceit; the purple blood of the Klingons; and, the general nastiness of the burning phasers.
Just a little nit-pick... I hate to use a word like "runined" but what really hurt that scene was having the Klingon blood colored to look like a delicious bubble-gum flavored good-&-plenty candy! Blood in 0-g, forming into little balls, and all the color of pink cotton candy gave me more the feeling of a circus than a murder!



Just a little nit-pick... I hate to use a word like "runined" but what really hurt that scene was having the Klingon blood colored to look like a delicious bubble-gum flavored good-&-plenty candy! Blood in 0-g, forming into little balls, and all the color of pink cotton candy gave me more the feeling of a circus than a murder!
Yeah, I suppose that would have been offputting. Luckily I didn't make the same connection .

It reminds me of my assumption that Spock's blood, being famously green, when shown would be bright green (think Slimer in Ghostbusters), but in that episode where he's involved in a blood transfusion, you see it's a dark, emerald green. Much more believable as blood.



ive seen the woodsman but i dont really remember it,i do however remember i was a bit shocked,and impressed,that a known face like Kevin Bacon took on that part.
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