What is the Most Disturbing Film You've Ever Seen?

[Kester Pelagius]

RE: CALIGULA

Having seen trailers for RE-PENETRATOR and DAWNA OF THE DEAD I can say, in all honesty, those who find this movie disturbing for it's "pornographic content" have lived very sheltered lives in relation to exposure to cinema.  Guccione's Caligula, for all it's faults, which are LEGION, is not even as squick worthy as it's Joe D'Amato knock-off, CALIGULA: THE UNTOLD STORY, both of which are tame by comparisson to modern day porn.

The Cook, the Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover (1989)

Definitely one of the more bizarre Helen Mirren flicks I've ever seen.  (And I have the Imperial Edition of Caligula!)

Ichi the Killer (2002)

I thought the CGI blood was just silly.

Pink Flamingos (1972)

It's John Waters "disturbing" goes without saying.   

Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986)

I guess you could rank that right up there with ED GEIN or DEXTER.

The Guinea Pig series (1985-1991)

I've got two of those on DVD and still haven't watched them all the way through.

Caligula (1979)

Disturbing in that "how arrogant egocentric producers can ruin a movie" way.

Ilsa, She Wolf of the SS (1975)

What, Ilsa disturbing?

Don't you think having meal worms stand in for maggots was friggin hilarious.   

SS Hell Camp (1977)

Over the top.  Crazy.  Insane.  Nuts.  Disturbing.  You name it, it's got it.  Probably space herpes too.

Gestapo's Last Orgy (1977)

I've only seen a cut bootleg of this so I'll take your word for it.

Again, what is the most disturbing film you've ever seen?

BLIND BEAST

Very squicky.

WORMS

Or whatever that movie about people eating worms was called.  Very stupid movie.

DEE SNIDER'S STRANGELAND

I find this one more pointless and unnecessary than disturbing, but Snider's character looks freakish in this, so I guess it qualifies.  Barely.

THE DEVIL'S REJECTS

Same as above.  This was a totally irrelevent piece of cliched cinematic garbage that had neither point nor purpose.  What I find disturbing is that producer/director ego trip wastes of celluloid like this and the above got made.

THE NEW BARBARIANS (AKA Warriors of the Wasteland)

Z-grade Italian Mad Max rip-off.  What makes this movie disturbing is 1) The foes, called Templers, are a ravening band of homosexuals who want to see mankind wiped out for all time.  2) The hero, in a WTF scene, gets ritualistically a$$ raped.  It's a very strange PA flick.

[Metropolisforever]

Guccione's Caligula, for all it's faults, which are LEGION, is not even as squick worthy as it's Joe D'Amato knock-off, CALIGULA: THE UNTOLD STORY, both of which are tame by comparisson to modern day porn.

Obviously, you haven't seen the uncut version of Caligula: The Untold Story.

The uncut version features a wealth of hardcore footage, including a graphic scene involving a horse.

[Ryantherebel]

Any movie in which cruel people do not get any comeuppance or, in fact, get rewarded for what they do.

I wouldn't say that would be disturbing (to me at least). Depending on the movie it could be very meaningful and makes a point(The Great Silence) or either senseless predictable stupid shock value(The Sidehackers).

[bladerunnerblues]

I don't know why but for some reason,NATURAL BORN KILLERS stuck in my head for a day or so after I saw it.

Ken Russels THE DEVILS disturbed me because the same thing that movie is about,goes on today.I did not expect Oliver Reeds character to end up being the least evil screwed up person in the film.

The end of THE WICKER MAN(original)is disturbing.

[Andrew]

One that has not been mentioned in this thread, but I am going to be posting the review of within minutes, is "Thriller: A Cruel Picture."

It certainly belongs among these.  It starts out mean, and just gets worse.

[zombie no.one]

Layer Of The White Worm

[Rev. Powell]

Layer Of The White Worm

Was this the porno version of LAIR OF THE WHITE WORM?

Sorry, I coudn't resist. 

[zombie no.one]

Layer Of The White Worm

Was this the porno version of LAIR OF THE WHITE WORM?

Sorry, I coudn't resist. 

ahahahah....good one

*LAIR

[Metropolisforever]

Many people also consider Emanuelle in America (1977) to be an incredibly disturbing sleaze movie - complete with castrations, rape, bestiality, and graphic combination of sex and violence.

[lester1/2jr]

an incredibly disturbing sleaze movie - complete with castrations, rape, bestiality, and graphic combination of sex and violence.

you could just as easily be describing any very mainstream french movie

[Raffine]

I've never seen it, but I understand LAS VEGAS BLOODBATH (1989) is supposed to be quite disgusting as well as completely inept. I would like to see the scene where somebody gives the hero (?) the finger so he shoots the guy's middle finger off.

Featuring The Ladies of B.L.O.W. (Beautiful Ladies of Wrestling).

Here's the review from Something Awful:
http://www.somethingawful.com/d/movie-reviews/las-vegas-blood.php
At the end of the review there's a link so you can listen to the theme song.

[Neville]

Abel Ferrara's Bad Lieutenant. Enough said.

[inframan]

Oldboy really well made, it really sucks you in and the it gets more and more disturbing as the plot unfolds, highly reccomended.

Visitor Q saw a couple other Miike's on the list, this one is kind of a taboo fest. Its wierd and gross and overall pretty disturbing. I think he made a list of every taboo he could think of and then threw it into the movie, and then made it a comedy.

Meet the Feebles is distrubing to me especially since Jackson is one of my favorite directors, I feel like I should love this movie but I just don't really want to watch it ever again.

[Psycho Circus]

I'd say from a young age it was "Wicker Man", "Hellraiser" and "Texas Chainsaw Massacre", in more recent years it was "Jacob's Ladder" which I thought was really visceral and thought provoking.

When it comes to newer films, my girlfriend showed me "Hard Candy", which was about a young girl setting a trap for a paedophile she meets online - really screwed up and unsettling.

[Trevor]

Jans Rautenbach's Jannie Totsiens [Johnny Farewell] (1970) is the most disturbing film I have ever seen. That said, it is also a very funny film in parts but it deals with the ravages of mental illness so it is very, very disturbing. 

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Allegedly autobiographical in tone, this was South Africa's first film in the avant-garde genre, one of its' very few horror films and also its' first black comedy. It is now known to be an allegory about the South African situation in the 1970's – showing said situation and the country's inhabitants in the mileu of a home for the insane whose inmates' lives are flipped by the arrival of a catatonic, mute mathematics professor, the "angel of discord", as he is referred to by one of the loonies.

Among this merry little band, we find a jilted bride (Hermien Dommisse) whose wedding portrait depicts her holding the hand of a faceless man, a knife wielding nymphomaniac with Bible thumping parents (Katinka Heyns), an ex Ossewabrandwag soldier with an uncanny resemblance to John Vorster (Don Leonard), a judge who went mad after his daughter's killer was let off scot free (Jacques Loots) and a psychotic woman (Jill Kirkland) who continously writes unsent letters to her dead daughter.

The seemingly mad and mother fixated Jannie Pienaar (supposedly based both on director Jans Rautenbach's treatment by the critics, some of the more sensitive sections of the South African community after the release of Katrina and Rautenbach's experiences as a clinical psychologist) finds himself both restored to life because of two major factors: a love triangle which involves him and two of the inmates and the horrific finale when, on the suicide of one of those inmates, Jannie is condemned to death by hanging.

One would have to go very far back or far forward into the future of the South African film industry's history to find a film as horrific, comic (yes, it is very funny in parts) and perfect as this, with brooding photography (courtesy David Dunn~ Yarker and Koos Roets) an eerie credits puppet show in which the spectre of death intrudes and is frightened away, haunting music by Sam Sklair and oppressive, claustrophobic set and art design. Starring Cobus Rossouw, Jill Kirkland, Hermien Dommisse, Phillip Swanepoel, Katinka Heyns, Don Leonard, Lourens Schultz, Patrick Mynhardt, Betty Botha, Sandra Kotze, George Pearce and Jacques Loots.