Movies That Torment You (but arent necessarily bloody/violent)

Im on a "Difficult To Watch" kick lately. Actually interested in films that are really hard to stomach but not because of gore or violence or the usual reasons (necessarily) but more because of the emotional/psychological difficulty of dealing with what you are seeing. They could be described as dark, tense, bleak, uncomfortable, anxiety inducing, heartbreaking, etc. Or they could focus on taboos that are difficult to watch or challenging to swallow. They can even be comedies! Sure they can have violence in them but the reason you were disturbed by them should go beyond the violence.

I looked up a bunch of old "disturbing movie" threads but they all seem to focus on movies that are gross because they are bloody or extremely violent (which I also enjoy by the way). So Im wondering what movies folks recommend that would fit into that niche of psychologically disturbing without being a slasher movie or relying strictly on scenes of violence or gore. I realize theres some nuance to this category and theres plenty of really violent films that are disturbing for more than just their violence, but hopefully you get what Im getting at. Films that get in your head. Ideally Id love some suggestions that usually go under the VERY DISTURBING radar.

Some examples:

Apocalypse Now
Happiness (Ive never cringed so much while laughing)
Hard Candy
Kids (and I guess Ken Park even though it sucks)
Our Children
Tideland
Strange Circus (yes, very violent but SO f'd up beyond the violence)
Forbidden Games (for the beginning and the ending)
Sweet Movie
Mysterious Skin

even a film like Grace is Gone which is in no way whatsoever violent or gory but watching a parent not able to tell his kids about the death of their other parent for 90 minutes is exhausting and depressing.

Anyway, you guys get the idea...

The pianist gives me all those feelings, all at the same time where my brain couldn't handle it and just shutdown. I just felt numb by the end of the day. Didn't help that i was a child and it was my first exposure to the holocaust.

Reqiuem for a Dream isthe first that comes to mind

⬆️THESE 2⬆️

But even though 'The Pianist' is emotionally staggering, It's nowhere near as much of an ordeal as Elem Klimov's 'Idi i smotri.'

Not only is it the Greatest War Film Ever Made (IMO), but It's also the most horrifying depiction of War ever put on film. If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend It be at the top of your watchlist mate.

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Lost Highway
This movie has entered my subconscious and is still there.
That scene in the party when the mystery man appears for the first time tormented me like hell.

I concur. That might be the most terrifying character in all of cinema.

"The Human Misery Genre" might just be my favorite.

The Hunt
Hard Candy
All is lost or any man and survival Like Buried, 127 hours, high altitude mountaineering accidents
A Serbian Film but not because of the violence. Really screwed me up emotionally, for days.

Synecdoche, New York is the ultimate example, no?

Edit: Salo. Duh.

I completely agree, this was the most affecting and disturbing film I have ever seen in my life. The evening I went to bed after watching it I lay there unable to get to sleep and then something really strange happened, I fell asleep and replayed one of the scenes from this movie in my dream and woke up shouting, I had literally been asleep about 1 second.Then for a few days I felt depressed and a little strange

I found this Spanish film really disturbing and there is no violence that you see.

Yes theres something addictive about it isnt there. A relative of mine called my taste in movies "fetal position cinema". Thats probably about right.

Lots of great suggestions here. Thanks one and all. Ive had Requiem for a Dream and Synecdoche, New York and Come And See high on my list for a while now. Definitely have to get around to seeing them and adding many more of these to the list.

Salò is probably one of those movies thats both brutally violent but also mentally torturous without doubt. Its tough to categorize it. Whats interesting is that Pasolini doesn’t actually allow you to really see the victims in this movie as real human beings. They are presented like objects or props and the audience is never given an opportunity to relate to any of them or actually feel any true emotional connection to them for more than just brief moments, so the unimaginable inhuman cruelty that is forced upon them is a little easier to take somehow because you don’t see them as anything more than two dimensional creatures. If Pasolini had chosen to take this kind of film down that road where the focus was on the victims as humans worthy of empathy and concern, where we were allowed (forced) to see things from the victim's perspective and wallow in their fully understandable anguish and despair and terrible hopelessness, the movie would probably be almost unwatchable by anyone other than sociopaths. It would just be too much to bear. But Pasolini wasnt interested in making a film like that.

Not necessarily tormenting movies, but it is kinda tormenting to see innocent people suffer.

Uh, this movie, duh!

The Hunt and Requiem For A Dream are also amazing examples.
Children of Men might also be worth mentioning.

Come and See isn't a very good example because it is very bloody and violent.

Happiness looks totally up my alley.

This is a link to my list on this topic:

https://www.movieforums.com/communit...ad.php?t=47526

Good stuff. Some of those I wouldnt consider for my particular variation of 'hard to watch' movies because they are something else to me. Like Taxi Driver which I found to be hard core but not hard to watch at all because it was so riveting. I can see how others might though. But a bunch of others on there are going on my list... Did you ever make a sum up page showing all 50?

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Should also add that Im into shorts as well with this kind of theme (sometimes you dont need more than 25 minutes of it!). Has anyone seen Rose McGowan's Dawn or Andrea Arnold's Dog or Milk? Highly recommended. And speaking of Andrea Arnold, I never know if i should put Red Road on this list or not. Frankly, its one of my favorite films and it is absolutely tough to watch at times because its so tense and you never have a fix on the protagonists motives until the very end but the end is SO redemptive that it sends you out on this wonderful bright euphoric release after SO MUCH tension and ominous heaviness and gloom. You get smacked in the face with the power of forgiveness and the power of letting go. And it feels SO good that I think it erases any ability for the film to be a net 'torment'. But an excellent film nonetheless. It put it in my other favorite genre which is 'movies that succeed in knocking you over in the end in a way you werent expecting'. Or something like that...

Great topic -- I'll keep checking back, as I want to watch something great that fits under this category (and movies I haven't seen before)..

"A Woman Under The Influence"
"The Incident"