Mine is "Frances" starring Jessica Lange as actress Frances Farmer. Farmer was an A-list actress who, due to a combination of a drinking habit and (unlike other actresses of the time) a "nobody tells me what to do" attitude ended up having a nervous breakdown and was tossed into a horrible asylum. There's a scene of her lying on the ground in this dark dungeon-like room, surrounded by other drugged-up residents. A staff member climbs off of her and, as he zips up his pants, says to another employee (I'm paraphrasing because it's been a long time) "five bucks to f--- a movie star? You can't beat that". I've watched almost all of the movies mentioned in this thread and this is the one scene that really disturbs me every time I think about it.
I laughed my butt off during that movie, even during scenes when I knew I shouldn't be laughing. I'm a pretty sick individual, though.
One of the most disturbing things I've ever seen has to be the infamous ear scene from Reservoir Dogs. "Stuck in the Middle with You" just hasn't been the same for me since then.
And yet revisited it was, as Solondz made a sequel to it! ('Life During Wartime') It's even available as a Criterion BluRay. Which is annoying as 'Happiness' itself is still only available as a terrible-looking non-anamorphic DVD. Now that's disturbing.
I'd heard a lot about Last House of the Left, but I didn't find it scary at all. It was definitive sexploitation/grindhouse stuff, but nothing really memorable for me. One of the few things that got me was the wine bottle into the face in Pan's Labyrith. Nasty. And it wasnt so much that graphic image of the violence as it was the poor father pleading for his son. Emotionally, I found that very painful, very nasty.
River's Edge : The thing that sticks in my mind about it , was the older guy, screaming how the younger guy(s) used or misused his blow up sex doll. Something ...quite a bit different, in a movie.
Something completely off beat in disturbing movies...gluttony. As seen throughout the French film Le Grande Bouffe from the 80's . The expected sickening reactions and human consequences from it , are all on display.
Audition has that notable extremely cruel 8 minute protracted scene towards the finish. It may surprise..to think, this film was also shown totally uncut in Australia on public free to air TV.
Much better made? Yeah, I guess it's "slicker", but Hooper's original is a master class in creating tension and delivering scares through editing.
Bertolucci's 1900 : I have seen 2 different 'cuts' of the over 5 hour version. That scene of Sutherland as a Fascist blackshirt with his mistress and their treatment of that young boy.... And in a retribution scene towards the film's end, where someone actually graphically 'gets pitchforks from a mob of village women' changes positions in the 2 versions.
That is the only movie discussed so far in this thread that I've seen. I wish to hell I could unsee it.
"Campy" and "cheesy" are not words usually associated with Massacre. Just out of curiosity, what are some horror movies you enjoy?
You don't think the acting in the original "Chainsaw" is mediocre to awful? I can't buy into scary situations if the acting makes them utterly unrealistic. Favorite horror movies? I like many of the Universal monster flicks, and also more "modern" ones like "Psycho", "Alien", "Exorcist", "Halloween" and plenty of others I can't think of right now. I like the genre but think there are a lot of poor horror movies. The original "Chainsaw" isn't an awful movie, but the terrible acting really hurts it, IMO...
David Lynch's "Inland Empire" horrified me. It got totally sucked into it's weird, dark and disturbing world.
Infamous - the film: with the implied taunting psychological triggers and then possible recriminations between the 2 culprits ( besides robbery ) that seem to fully finally set off the actual murders of the Cutter family - . You are then looking at other darker deeper places about human existence and identity.. It is a far far better film than Capote - the other film on that real life subject
I liked Human Centipede and Hostel and Hostel 2. I disliked Anti-Christ and Saw. I avoid all movies with alcoholism and dramas about real medical issues. Real medical issues are much more disturbing than the Human Centipede.
By the time ,Megan had her somewhat 'devil-green' lime milk thick -shake purges in The Exorcist , I was uncontrollably laughing. Perhaps it could have been a fore runner of some of that "molecular acid" , they talk about in the later Alien series. Scalding holy water? bouncing water beds? A cross gender Chucky with swivel head? After that, what else could the the film be than a proposterous riotous hoot to the finish.