Disturbing movies

[Adina Loki]

I don't know what it is , but i seem to have this obsession over incredibly dark creepy movies, not horror films i mean stuff like Irreversable and Eraserhead.Feel bad cinema i guess you could call it.I need more ideas on grim viewing so i can freak myself out. bring it on

[questosporto]

Jacob's Ladder - darkly odd yet superb.

I too want to see a really nightmarish disturbing film, again not like a cliched horror. Would love to even make a film that looks like a bad dream, I would probably make it in 'grainy' vision, a bit like the video tape in the Ring but less obvious, if that makes sense.

[Capuchin]

Japanese film called Marebito.
Austrian film called Funny Games.
French film called Seul Contre Tous.
Audition is actually quite disturbing.

[gmoney]

Requiem for a Dream has a unsettling quality to it.

[Adina Loki]

French film called Seul Contre Tous

Same director as Irreversable?

[Capuchin]

Come to think of it, Sexy Beast ticks the right boxes for creepy I think.
Ben Kingsley's performance and the Ian Mcshane appearance...

Tetsuo:The Iron Man has that fevered paranoiac perspective, and the low budget grainy visuals to boot.

And to some extent Oldboy.

You must have seen Blue Velvet.

[trotsky assortment]

Austrian film called Funny Games.

Easily one of the most disturbing films I've ever seen.

[Adina Loki]

You must have seen Blue Velvet

Eeeek! yes, although i got a bit impatient with it in places

I'm a bit of a Lynch novice unfortunately.I've only seen that and Eraserhead and bit's of Mullholland Drive.must do better

[Lt Plonker]

Michael Haneke's Funny Games.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119167/

It's about a family on holiday, who are taken hostage by two rather polite and verbose young men.

It starts off rather slowly but builds into a very unsettling film that leaves a bit of an odd feeling in your stomach. I can't really say much without spoiling the plot.

[Adina Loki]

So the general consensus is Funny Games then? Never heard of it meself.I've heard Portrait of a serial killer is another good one

[splattermac]

I'm sure there's a thread called 'Genuinely frightening films' but I can't find it at the moment but I did find the other two.

http://www.cookdandbombd.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=8718&highlight=frightening
http://www.cookdandbombd.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=3885&highlight=frightening

[Capuchin]

French film called Seul Contre Tous

Same director as Irreversable?

Yes, that's the one.

[questosporto]

Fucking hell I have to see Funny Games now!

Is Blockbuster's internet rental system any cop by the way? Funny Games is available on there to rent...

[Adina Loki]

I'm sure there's a thread called 'Genuinely frightening films' but I can't find it at the moment but I did find the other two.

http://www.cookdandbombd.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=8718&highlight=frightening
http://www.cookdandbombd.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=3885&highlight=frightening

Oh bloody hell! in my defence the search always takes aaaaaaaaages when i try it and often times itself out.

ps-those seem more concerned with straight horror films tho

[Blumf]

I'm a bit of a Lynch novice unfortunately.I've only seen that and Eraserhead and bit's of Mullholland Drive.must do better

Try the Elephant Man then, has a subtly unnerving atmosphere to it throughout but remains more accessible than most Lynch films.

[Munday's Chylde]

Don't Look Now.

Whistle and I'll Come To You.

technically they both are horror (or ghost) films but I still think they'd meet your requirements.

[Captain Crunch]

The missus brought round Vulgar the other day:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120467/

I'll need a bit of gearing up for that one though.

Don't Look Now if you haven't seen it already, Lynch's Wild at Heart is probably my least favourite but does have an unsettling quality and those Asia Extreme films like The Eye and Dark Water are probably worth a shot.

I'm tempted to say Salad Fingers but I'm sure that's just my problem.

[slim]

A couple of people I know really like films like this too. I generally avoid them as my head is a pretty morose and vivid place at times and I like to escape to somewhere happy la-la, not an extension of my own imagination. Hence why I love comedy I suppose.

[Pseudopath]

Oh,  and don't forget Takashi Miike's classic 'Audition', available in the foreign language section of most Blockbusters.

Kiri kiri kiri!

Brrr...

EDIT: Whoops! Sorry capuchin, I didn't notice it at the end of your post.

[Captain Crunch]

'Audition'

I (and the other couple of people I know who saw it) thought the chilling element of this film was totally negated by the annoyingness of the female lead.  It's hard to be freaked out when you're distracted by thoughts of 'I wish this film would end, that bird is so irritating'.

Adina, you'll have to make your own mind up and then report back.  A proper review mind, with subheadings and everything.  Chop chop.

[SetToStun]

Angel Heart was pretty disturbing, as I recall.

[Musicoutoftrousers]

Funny Games gets another vote from me. It's not the 'big' scenes that are the worst necessarily. Moments like the woman standing on the quay talking to the neigbours and the start, where the family visits with their 'cousin'. Very chilling in retrospect. The ending (the drowning particularly) isn't too gorgeous either.

Harmony Kormine's ("Kids") Gummo is horrbily bleak, at times bordering on the disturbing / nausious. It works sort of like a series of sketches (some related, some not) and its merit as a film is questionable, but it's an interesting experience nevertheless.

Another one to check out would be the Belgian Man Bites Dog. It's a black-and-white mockumentary in which a young filmcrew follow around a serial killer, as he commits random acts of murder. Like Henry: Portrait...ON ACID!!!

[kjkinky]

Am currently in the process of watching "A Tale of Two Sisters" another Japanese movie from Tartan Asia Extreme about 2 sisters recently out of a mental institution after loss of mum...Its good thus far but will confirm when I have finished watching...

OldBoy I totally agree with its definately a wrong film and definately won't cheer you up...

Irreversable is a fantastic movie and everyone should watch it at least once just so that most of us can realise what we have in the world is not that bad...

I have been trying to find Tetsuo I and II on dvd but can't find them cheap enough...

MistressKinky has also been trying to get hold of eraserhead for cheap but she having no luck...

You could also try film version of "Brimstone and Treacle" with Sting (one of his only decent acting roles...

[Dirty Boy]

Don't mean to poop on your parade Adina, but this is a topic that pops up every few months or so, not that i'm complaining as it's a subject that interests me greatly.Now then, this is the usual list that gets churned out by me...Lynch malarky, Cronenberg malarky, Mike Leigh's Naked, Bad Boy Bubby, Dead Ringers, Tetsuo: The Iron Man, Scum, Man Bites Dog,  Henry: Portrait Of A Serial Killer (which is top btw and very chilling in places) and Salo (although i don't think you'll be wanting to put yourself through that too many times, like)...there's a fair splattering there anyway...

I've got one i don't think has been mentioned before as well.A film called Der Todesking (The Death King) by  Jorg Buttgereit who also directed to Nekromantic films (that i've yet to see).Could possibly be described by some as arty wank, but although it's obviously a peice of experimental filmmaking i don't think it goes too far out.Although it's hardly conventional, there's hardly any dialouge or whatever and no real plot to spaek of.It revolves around seven days of the week, each ending with a different 'character' commiting suicide, the final of which is almost unbearably grim and utterly without hope.It's worth seeing in any case (although maybe not if your suicidal arf!)

Der Todesking on IMDB


A lot of people would no doubt mention Threads as well, i've only just seen it and it's one of perhaps only a few films that's worthy of the hype and general hoo-ha that gets made over it.It's also about as downbeat and depressing as you could ask for really

When The Wind Blows too, although it's probably close to a decade since i last saw it, i remember it being highly bleak and affecting.

Don't have nightmares ;-)

[Pseudopath]

Another one to check out would be the Belgian Man Bites Dog. It's a black-and-white mockumentary in which a young filmcrew follow around a serial killer, as he commits random acts of murder. Like Henry: Portrait...ON ACID!!!

If you like your malcontents Gallic, I'd also recommend catching La Haine or Astérix et Obélix contre César. Bleak as fuck.

[clareQuilty]

'dog days' by  Ulrich Seidl is pretty bleakly, darkly funny in places but it's one of those films that makes you despair a bit for humanity. 'in the company of men' by Neil la Bute has similar soul destroying effect and I also found 'safe' by Todd Haynes extremely bleak.
If you like David Lynch you might want to watch some of David Cronenburg's films, 'dead ringers' and 'videodrome' were pretty unsettling.
Michael Haneke's  'time of the wolf' is worth checking out too, less disturbing than
'funny games' but perhaps more believable and I found it disturbed me more in the long run after the initial shock wore off of 'funny games'.

Generally I like films that are a bit more campy/surreal and gory than bleak  so i'm probably better off  recommending some Larry Cohen., Guy Maddin or Alejandro Jodorowsky.

[Ambient Sheep]

Here comes my obligatory mention for "La Cabina" a.k.a. "The Telephone Box".  iMDB entry here.  Good luck on tracking it down though.  Try not to read the user comments as some of them are spoilericious and it has to be seen without knowing the plot, really.

Also, in a similar vein to Eraserhead, is another wonderful little short film I saw on Channel 4 back in the days when it were good: Kitchen Sink.  Since even the iMDB summary is too spoilerish (it's only 14 minutes long), take this edited version as a taster:

This film caught my eye because it reminded me of Eraserhead, being in Black & White and having eerie sound. A woman pulls a hair out of a sink plughole. It continues to grow longer and wider, until...

Was very surprised to discover it was from New Zealand.

I have both of the above on VHS somewhere.  Don't ask where.

Oooh!  From an otherwise very spoilerish iMDB User Comment on "Kitchen Sink":

You can find this short film on the newly released DVD "Crush," also directed by Alison Maclean.

[Mr. Analytical]

Ken Park - By the director of kids.  Possibly not sold in the UK due to numerous sex scenes.  Worth getting uncut though.

Dead or Alive - coke snorting, buggery, murder, bestial porn, people spitting semen into dirty ashtrays.  Another family film by Takashi Miike.

Sitcom - Father brings home a pet rat and the whole family goes to pieces.

The Idiots - Over praised at the time it came out, thinks it's cleverer than it is but still has some wonderfully twisted moments.



I'll also second Bad Boy Bubby, Seul Contre Tous, Irreversible, Jakob's Ladder, Old Boy (if only in order to see a man eat a live octopus).

Man bites dog though isn't so much disturbing as it is brilliant.  At the end of the film when the mafia are killing off his friends and family he finds a girlfriend with her flute stuck up her arse.  He then goes to see his parents and sobs "My mother wasn't a musician... all she had was her broom!".  Genius.

[Dirty Boy]

Man bites dog though isn't so much disturbing as it is brilliant. At the end of the film when the mafia are killing off his friends and family he finds a girlfriend with her flute stuck up her arse. He then goes to see his parents and sobs "My mother wasn't a musician... all she had was her broom!". Genius.

Indeed, i've always found bits of it extremely comical.I nearly pissed myself laughing when they meet the other film crew in the basement and then there's the bit where he's in hospital with the old man who "sings and shits"

"Cinema.....CINEMAAAAAARRRRGGHHHHH!!!"

[Mr. Analytical]

Once were Warriors is a pretty twisted look at modern day Maoris.