on the trail of the disturbing, part II
Had to sit up for a couple hours tonight, trying to breathe, to tire myself out so shortness of breath won't bother me. So I'm picking up where we left off...
5. Last House on the Left. In 1972, a florid little film emerged from a new director, Wes Craven--who also wrote the piece. There is a rumor that he was so horrified by our soldiers' actions in Vietnam, he wanted to make a movie that reflected that same abhorrence of savage brutality--only with American faces, so we would not be able to easily turn away.
It worked. To this day, even the remake is hard to watch, and the original, for all it's a product of its time, is still a harrowing viewing, intense and visceral.
Here's the 1972 trailer, and this is the trailer of the 2009 remake.
4. Henry, Portrait of a Serial Killer. Hate the film or love it, and even after a couple of decades to age, Henry still packs a punch. This is another film like Audition in a sense--the camera simply follows along behind Henry and Otis on their killing spree. And, while the actions played out on the screen are sparse, chilling and unnerving in Audition, in Henry the camera observes two men totally divorced from understandable human emotion. They kill nearly as dispassionately as the camera records. The only moments of levity, of anything approaching feelings we might be able to resonate with, are when they are engaged in brutal atrocities against other humans.
It's not an easy film to sit through.
Check out the trailer if you like.
3. Salo, or the 120 Days of Sodom. This 1975 feature was director Pier Paolo Pasolini's last film. A pastiche of de Sade's original work, as if it had been set in a 1940's Italy under fascist rule, it is--as with all films of this era--considerably less polished, but remains terrifying and repugnant. The basic plot: a group of very rich, very bored people choose eighteen teenagers from the serving class, conveying them to a secluded mansion to rape, torture and eventually murder them--for one hundred and twenty days of perversity, suffering, and dementia.
This is a translated (and heavily pixilated) trailer; this is a better quality (but fan-made) trailer with different scenes (and lacking dialogue).
2. Irreversible. Another film I'd never heard of, though I tend not to go out of my way to track down movies with graphic rape scenes. By report, the rape scene in this film lasts nine minutes.
Relating the events in reverse chronological order of one brutal attack and rape, we are suspended in the protagonists' time sense, like the movie Memento. As she, and her accomplices, piece the actions of the night together, we are treated to key, core moments of joy and laughter, fear and pain over the course of her fragmented day. It is, by every report I've found, raw, visceral, but very deeply compelling.
It's won a great number of awards. Watch the trailer and see why.
1. Eraserhead. David Lynch made his reputation on this movie, and then went on to even more disturbing, unnerving adventures in cinema.This particular dark, brooding vision takes place partially in reality and partially in the wildly unsettled mind of Henry Spencer, he of the confused, doughy gaze and the lofty hair. Moment to moment, as Henry advances deeper into his world, we are frequently puzzled by what he sees, but moreover, by how the people interact around him.
There's a very memorable dinner scene, for instance; Henry's freezing at the sight of chicken blood makes sense to our minds--whether we believe the blood is there or not. What doesn't make sense is how the people around the blood react. Do they see it? Are they seeing their own horrific visions? Is it really there? And--my ultimate question--why is the man of the house having Henry slice into the Cornish game-hen sized chickens in the first place? There are more than five on the baking sheet and only four people at table; do they truly expect to eat only a third of a bird each?
I would say with utter sincerity to you--if you've ever wondered what going mad might feel like--and you are not actually on your way yet--then watch this film. It will unhinge, but in a very stylistic way.
This is the scene nearly everyone, including me, remembers; but here's the trailer for a peek into how they pitched the film originally.
Next up: the movies from the comments (barring Se7en, which really didn't need to be mentioned.)
5. Last House on the Left. In 1972, a florid little film emerged from a new director, Wes Craven--who also wrote the piece. There is a rumor that he was so horrified by our soldiers' actions in Vietnam, he wanted to make a movie that reflected that same abhorrence of savage brutality--only with American faces, so we would not be able to easily turn away.
It worked. To this day, even the remake is hard to watch, and the original, for all it's a product of its time, is still a harrowing viewing, intense and visceral.
Here's the 1972 trailer, and this is the trailer of the 2009 remake.
4. Henry, Portrait of a Serial Killer. Hate the film or love it, and even after a couple of decades to age, Henry still packs a punch. This is another film like Audition in a sense--the camera simply follows along behind Henry and Otis on their killing spree. And, while the actions played out on the screen are sparse, chilling and unnerving in Audition, in Henry the camera observes two men totally divorced from understandable human emotion. They kill nearly as dispassionately as the camera records. The only moments of levity, of anything approaching feelings we might be able to resonate with, are when they are engaged in brutal atrocities against other humans.
It's not an easy film to sit through.
Check out the trailer if you like.
3. Salo, or the 120 Days of Sodom. This 1975 feature was director Pier Paolo Pasolini's last film. A pastiche of de Sade's original work, as if it had been set in a 1940's Italy under fascist rule, it is--as with all films of this era--considerably less polished, but remains terrifying and repugnant. The basic plot: a group of very rich, very bored people choose eighteen teenagers from the serving class, conveying them to a secluded mansion to rape, torture and eventually murder them--for one hundred and twenty days of perversity, suffering, and dementia.
This is a translated (and heavily pixilated) trailer; this is a better quality (but fan-made) trailer with different scenes (and lacking dialogue).
2. Irreversible. Another film I'd never heard of, though I tend not to go out of my way to track down movies with graphic rape scenes. By report, the rape scene in this film lasts nine minutes.
Relating the events in reverse chronological order of one brutal attack and rape, we are suspended in the protagonists' time sense, like the movie Memento. As she, and her accomplices, piece the actions of the night together, we are treated to key, core moments of joy and laughter, fear and pain over the course of her fragmented day. It is, by every report I've found, raw, visceral, but very deeply compelling.
It's won a great number of awards. Watch the trailer and see why.
1. Eraserhead. David Lynch made his reputation on this movie, and then went on to even more disturbing, unnerving adventures in cinema.This particular dark, brooding vision takes place partially in reality and partially in the wildly unsettled mind of Henry Spencer, he of the confused, doughy gaze and the lofty hair. Moment to moment, as Henry advances deeper into his world, we are frequently puzzled by what he sees, but moreover, by how the people interact around him.
There's a very memorable dinner scene, for instance; Henry's freezing at the sight of chicken blood makes sense to our minds--whether we believe the blood is there or not. What doesn't make sense is how the people around the blood react. Do they see it? Are they seeing their own horrific visions? Is it really there? And--my ultimate question--why is the man of the house having Henry slice into the Cornish game-hen sized chickens in the first place? There are more than five on the baking sheet and only four people at table; do they truly expect to eat only a third of a bird each?
I would say with utter sincerity to you--if you've ever wondered what going mad might feel like--and you are not actually on your way yet--then watch this film. It will unhinge, but in a very stylistic way.
This is the scene nearly everyone, including me, remembers; but here's the trailer for a peek into how they pitched the film originally.
Next up: the movies from the comments (barring Se7en, which really didn't need to be mentioned.)