Disturbing Movie Moments: Can't Unsee *That*!

[DollEyes]

I saw The Counselor on HBO last night and I saw one of the most repulsive things I've ever seen in my life: Makela, Cameron Diaz's character, having sex with a car. She just took her panties off, climbed on the hood, climbed on the windshield and went to town. In a movie where Makela is surrounded by guys who look like Michael Fassbender, Javier Bardem and Brad Pitt, she chose to fuck a car instead?!? That's too wrong on too many levels.

 

 Anyway, post your picks for the most grotesque, violent, disturbing and downright terrifying movie moments ever-if you dare.

[spaceytraci1208]

Who Framed Roger Rabbit? ...that poor shoe going into the dip messed me all up as a kid. Still can't watch that scene to this day.

It's far from the most violent scene in the movie, but in Full Metal Jacket when the cadets all beat on Leonard (Private Pyle) with the bars of soap in their socks makes me want to cry.

Edited June 29, 2014 by spaceytraci1208

[AimingforYoko]

I saw The Counselor on HBO last night and I saw one of the most repulsive things I've ever seen in my life: Makela, Cameron Diaz's character, having sex with a car. She just took her panties off, climbed on the hood, climbed on the windshield and went to town. In a movie where Makela is surrounded by guys who look like Michael Fassbender, Javier Bardem and Brad Pitt, she chose to fuck a car instead?!? That's too wrong on too many levels.

 

 Anyway, post your picks for the most grotesque, violent, disturbing and downright terrifying movie moments ever-if you dare.

They kind of lampshaded it in the movie by having Reiner as taken aback as the audience.

[Shannon L.]

Sleepers:  I didn't dislike the movie, because I was fascinated by their plan and how they managed to make it work, but to this day, the first half of the movie haunts me--especially when they show the boys reacting to being violently raped. Same thing with The Prince of Tides.  I didn't need to see the children getting raped and, of course, Jodi Foster in The Accused.  I have a hard enough time watching any kind of realistic violence (even war scenes--especially when the Vietnam war is the setting) and when rape (especially with children) is involved, it's even worse. 

 

I thought Kinsey was a good movie, but there again--the interviewee telling them about his experience with an 8 year old.  Thank God the interviewers had the decency to be disgusted. Too bad they didn't turn the bastard over to the police. I also didn't need to see video footage of Chris O'Donnell's character having sex with a woman old enough to be his grandmother. 

Edited June 29, 2014 by Shannon L.

[Athena]

Most of Harry Brown. Michael Caine was fantastic; he was basically old Batman in that. Emily Mortimer was good too.  There were just too many disturbing and violent scenes, notably when he meets the drug dealers who sell him a gun.

[Bastet]

Hostel II.  I was a big horror movie fan in the '70s and '80s, but other than the Scream franchise and some scattered films here and there, I don't watch much of the newer stuff.  And I had no interest in the "torture porn" genre.  But this was on IFC one night and for some reason I decided to give it a try.  I made it through the man-eating dogs and assorted scenes that were gross for the sake of being gross, but when it came time for some roving gang of street kids to gleefully play soccer with a severed head, I was really ready for the movie to end. 

 

and, of course, Jodi Foster in The Accused.

 

It's always worse for me when it's based on a true story, so The Accused and Boys Don't Cry are difficult films to watch for their rape (and murder) scenes, even though they're to be commended for being among the least-exploitative out there.

[GreekGeek]

Do ads and trailers count? The one for The Strain with the worm crawling out of the eyeball is one of the most repulsive things I've ever seen. Normally it's possible to avoid being grossed out by not seeing the movie, covering your eyes, going out for popcorn, etc., but I hate being taken by surprise when I'm flipping through a magazine or driving somewhere and seeing it on the side of a bus.

 

The "Mr. Creosote" sketch in Monty Python's The Meaning of Life wasn't funny-horrible to me, just horrible.

 

The notorious "chest burster" scene in Alien put me off horror movies for good. 

[wallflower75]

As good as Saving Private Ryan is, I have seen it only once because I was so disturbed by the scene at the end where the German soldier slowly stabs Adam Goldberg in the heart while saying "Shhh" over and over.  *shudders in horror all these years later*  Just can't do it.

[DollEyes]

From Aliens, the scene when the Marines were searching for survivors of an alien attack and they found a presumed-dead survivor whose eyes suddenly opened and said "Please kill me" just before an alien burst from her chest freaks me out as much as it did Ripley every single time.

 

Greek Geek: The Strain is a TV show, not a movie.

[ribboninthesky1]

As good as Saving Private Ryan is, I have seen it only once because I was so disturbed by the scene at the end where the German soldier slowly stabs Adam Goldberg in the heart while saying "Shhh" over and over.  *shudders in horror all these years later*  Just can't do it.

 

Many years ago, I saw the opening sequence of this movie, and knew that I could never watch the rest of it.  I never have.

[GreekGeek]

The Strain is a TV show, not a movie.

 

OK, sorry about the error. But they did show some horrifying scenes in a preview at the movies.

[Spartan Girl]

Any movie scene of a poor defenseless animal getting brutally murdered is something I wish I could erase permanently from my memory.  The first one that automatically comes to mind is the dog's severed head getting pushed through the doggy door in Fear.  I can't think about that scene without wanting to gag.

[spaceytraci1208]

Many years ago, I saw the opening sequence of this movie, and knew that I could never watch the rest of it. I never have.

Ditto...me and my dad rented it and I had to leave the room 10 minutes in

[Ohwell]

The thing about Cameron Diaz's car sex antics is that I couldn't understand why she could have possibly thought that was a sexy turn-on.   There's freaky sexy, and then there's just flat-out disgusting.  Average guy would have picked her off his car, taken her home, and then hightailed it to the car wash. 

[Shannon L.]

I put this in another thread, but in Zach and Miri Make a Porno, the anal sex scene blew it for me.  I was actually enjoying the movie, but that scene went way beyond gross out humor and kind of killed my enjoyment of the rest of it (not the act because, hey, whatever floats your boat, ya know, but the consequences of the act in that scene).

[loriro]

American History X.  Curbing.  That's all. 

[Princess Sparkle]

I can't say it was one moment per se, but after having to watch Schindler's List in school when I was 11, I couldn't stomach to watch it again. But if I had to boil down one moment, for whatever reason, it's when the prisoners first arrive at the concentration camps and have their heads shaved and lye thrown at them. It's actually seeing the dehumanization that just disturbed me. Being so young just compounded it.

[Bastet]

I was an adult - and how - upon first viewing, but Schindler's List remains a terrific yet difficult film for me to rewatch due to many scenes.  If I had to pick a random "I don't know why this is the one that really gets to me, but it does" scene, it would be the one of the little kid hiding in the latrine.

Edited July 2, 2014 by Bastet

[Ohwell]

The Last King of Scotland.  I still have visions of Idi Amin's wife's body parts carefully laid out for display, for people to walk by and see.  I will never watch that movie again.  Although the wife (played by Kerry Washington) was just so, so incredibly stupid for having an affair with the white doctor, and knowing how brutal her husband was.   

 

I forgot Marathon Man, where Laurence Olivier is going medieval on Dustin Hoffman's teeth.  *shudder*

Edited July 2, 2014 by Ohwell

[Danny Franks]

The last half hour or so of Requiem For A Dream was so spirit crushing that it's the only movie I've watched where we were openly saying, 'oh just let it end before anything else awful happens to these people!' I will never, ever watch that movie again. And I will openly admit that it is a good movie.

 

Apart from that, I'm generally not good with graphic violence in movies. I have no idea what sort of person it appeals to, but it concerns me that there's a large market for it. Slasher movies, in particular, just repulse me. I do not want to see someone being tortured and killed. Why would I want to see that?

 

Oh, that reminds me of one other movie that just disturbed me in its entirety. 8mm. Seriously. Just a horrible, seedy, nasty movie about a horrible, filthy, seedy industry.

[Jeebus Cripes]

The last half hour or so of Requiem For A Dream was so spirit crushing that it's the only movie I've watched where we were openly saying, 'oh just let it end before anything else awful happens to these people!' I will never, ever watch that movie again. And I will openly admit that it is a good movie.

 

Apart from that, I'm generally not good with graphic violence in movies. I have no idea what sort of person it appeals to, but it concerns me that there's a large market for it. Slasher movies, in particular, just repulse me. I do not want to see someone being tortured and killed. Why would I want to see that?

 

ITA about Requiem For A Dream. I have seen it more than once, but I can't really handle the horrible shit going down at the end. 

 

I was an adult - and how - upon first viewing, but Schindler's List remains a terrific yet difficult film for me to rewatch due to many scenes.  If I had to pick a random "I don't know why this is the one that really gets to me, but it does" scene, it would be the one of the little kid hiding in the latrine.

 

I have never seen Schindler's List because I know how badly it will fuck me up. I'm super sensitive when I see holocaust footage, and I just know better than to watch that film.

[Spartan Girl]

Ah Schindler's List.  It was finally on TV this last year, and I never had seen it before and figured it was important to watch at least once.  I will never make that mistake again.  I mean it was a great movie, but some of those images will scar me for life.

Edited July 3, 2014 by Spartan Girl

[Kel Varnsen]

ITA about Requiem For A Dream. I have seen it more than once, but I can't really handle the horrible shit going down at the end. 

 

The only think that makes the shit at the end of Requiem for a Dream less horrible for me is when I thought about it and realized that it didn't make a lot of sense. I mean seriously, New York City runs out of heroin?

[VCRTracking]

The end of Isadora about the life of dancer Isadora Duncan played by Vanessa Redgrave. A very effective reminder to NEVER wear a long scarf when riding in a convertible! It's not just the image but Redgrave's scream, which is horrific (shudder).

Edited July 3, 2014 by VCRTracking

[jah1986]

Once Upon A Time in America when Robert DeNiro's character rapes Elizabeth McGovern's character in the back of the car. It was just so graphic and horrible and the look of utter contempt on the chauffeur's face when DeNiro leaves.

[Mindymoo]

David Lynch is my favorite director of all time. (You can probably tell from my icon.) However, his movies often have scenes that disturb the hell out of me.

 

Eraserhead disturbs me and I can't pinpoint exactly why. The entire thing is just so unsettling. The worst part is when the mutant baby starts vomiting up that cottage cheese-like substance. I think that Eraserhead should be shown to teenagers as a form of birth control, to frighten them that if they have sex without protection, their child might turn out like that.

 

Blue Velvet has the rape scene between Dennis Hopper and Isabella Rosselini with the robe, after he's inhaled the amyl nitrate. I adore that movie, but that part has me cringing every time I see it. The degredation of Dorothy in that scene and throughout the whole film is so awful.

 

Inland Empire has the scene with Laura Dern where she shoots the guy and his face, well... I can't even describe it. If you've seen it, you know exactly what I am talking about. Plus there's the whole bizarre thing going on with the rabbit sitcom full of non-sequitor dialogue that is bizarre and disturbing in its own right.

 

Mulholland Drive has the most dark and horrifying masturbation scene ever that it could make you sick to even watch it.

 

Why do I torture myself with his movies? I love them, but they are so dark and fucked up. And since this is the movies thread, I can't even touch the weirdness that was Twin Peaks!

[Wiendish Fitch]

The opening scene of The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover (spoiler marked for the faint of heart):

Michael Gambon's repugnant, psychotic gangster forces a man to eat dog shit. Yup. My husband told me it was from a distance… but his memory was incorrect, because it's up close and personal. 

 

Blackfish (again, spoiler marked for the faint of heart): 

Sea World employees jerking off a whale. Let me repeat that… Sea World employees. Jerking off. A whale.

 To the folks at Sea World, all I can say is: You people are sick!!!

 

Alan Rickman's naked ass in Gambit. Don't get me wrong, I adore Alan Rickman, but not like that! 

 

The iconic eye-slicing scene in Un Chien Andalou. Makes me shudder just thinking about it.

[tinaw]

I was an adult - and how - upon first viewing, but Schindler's List remains a terrific yet difficult film for me to rewatch due to many scenes. If I had to pick a random "I don't know why this is the one that really gets to me, but it does" scene, it would be the one of the little kid hiding in the latrine.

Mine is the little girl in the red coat is walking alone and hides and then later in the movie you see her being thrown on the pile

[SJiles]

Human Centipede 2 : The whole movie is so messed up especially when he assembles the centipede.

[funandfitpt]

I was going to say 8mm. It was a disturbing movie.

[Jeebus Cripes]

The baby scene in Trainspotting. That haunted me for a long time.

[Athena]

@Jeebus Cripes you've reminded me of a whole new disturbing movie with a baby scene too The Butterfly Effect which I watched bored on TV once not knowing how twisted it was. A few uncomfortable moments.

 

Trainspotting wasn't as disturbing to me because I had read the book in advanced and it really prepared. Reading in preparation something similar before seeing the movie helps since I knew what I was getting into.

[ybrik]

The Hangover 2 is so disturbingly bad. The whole movie disturbed me. I am ashamed I bought a ticket for it.

 

Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan with the whole larva in the ear part. That still unnerves me.

 

As silly as it seems now, one of the most disturbing movie moments from my childhood was in the Transformer movie where they killed all the original transformers especially Optimus.

[Pickles Aplenty]

The "moider" scene from Heavenly Creatures.  Horrifying.

[spaceytraci1208]

Do TV movies count here? Because A Cry For Help: The Tracy Thurman Story is one of the most disturbing movies I've ever seen. The abuse the movie showed throughout the relationship was bad enough but the scene when Buck finally tries to kill her is burned into my brain forever.

[xls]

I can't say it was one moment per se, but after having to watch Schindler's List in school when I was 11, I couldn't stomach to watch it again. But if I had to boil down one moment, for whatever reason, it's when the prisoners first arrive at the concentration camps and have their heads shaved and lye thrown at them. It's actually seeing the dehumanization that just disturbed me. Being so young just compounded it.

They made you watch it in school?! At 11? God Almighty, that is a hard movie to watch even as an adult. Even though the pay-off at the end is very moving, the executions are so realistic, not movie-like killings but like watching real murders of Jewish people.

 

Django Unchained, boy that had some sickening scenes, even though I've watched every Dexter, Walking Dead ect and am not usually the squeamish type.  I love Tarantino movies and I know what he was trying to say,  but the atrocities in that movie... 

Any movie scene of a poor defenseless animal getting brutally murdered is something I wish I could erase permanently from my memory.   

Me too, I hate that there's one in The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, where they find the stray cat outside the door in pieces. Even though I know its faked (hopefully) every time I see a cat in a movie I dread something will happen to it.

[wallflower75]

Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan with the whole larva in the ear part. That still unnerves me.

 

This!  Ugh, ugh, ugh.  I'm in that boat with you--still have to turn away when it comes to the ear larva.  Ick.

[mad_typist]

I have a weird attraction to extreme films, ones that make you incredibly uncomfortable but you can't look away because there's.... something.... there you can't put your finger on. In other words, it's not gore for gore's sake, there's something that the filmmaker is trying to say (often in the most horrific ways ever).

 

Among the things I can never unsee (I'm going to spoiler tag the descriptions, because I don't want to accidentally put out any triggers that might upset folks):

 

Irreversible - I had heard about the infamous

rape

scene which is just one long take of Monica Bellucci

being brutally assaulted. It's 9 minutes long and done as a single, terribly upsetting take.

It's famous for upsetting the crowd at Cannes so much that they walked out. I was mostly ready for that, though I found it unsettling. What I wasn't ready for was the opening sequence, where

a man's head is crushed repeatedly by a fire extinguisher until it's unrecognizable.

I still have no idea how they did that effect, because it looked so real. Compounding the horror of the film is the fact that the scenes play out in reverse order - so that by the time you reach the "happy" last scene, you realize it's a glimpse at a happiness that's about to be irrevocably shattered forever. Chilling stuff. Still, I thought the themes were really interesting and it really made me think.

 

Martyrs - Hands down the most horrible film I've ever seen. And yet, I'd also call parts of it brilliant, so I end up totally conflicted about the whole thing. One of the few films that I've found value in, and yet can't recommend to almost anyone. Flirts with being a "torture porn" film, though I personally distinguish between trash like Hostel, and this film, which again... there's something to this, even in the middle of the gore.

The movie is a three act meditation on torture and the limits of a person's ability to endure even the most horrible things. There are some extremely gory portions, but honestly the parts that affected me the most were the mundane tortures inflicted on the protagonist in the last third.

 

Dancer in the Dark - I loved this movie. I will never watch this movie again. The last scene where

Bjork spontaneously bursts into song at her execution - after 100+ minutes of suffering every possible indignity that a character can suffer - only to have her song cut short as she falls through the gallows and is hung... oomph.

I will think about that last scene for the rest of my life, but I don't think I can endure that story again (at least in one sitting).

 

Antichrist - The kind of movie that makes you both admire Lars von Trier as a director/artist, and yet also want to punch him in the face as a pretentious cinema troll. Where to begin? The

graphic image of actual sex (focused exclusively on the gentials) as a child plummets to his death, ignored by his parents who are having sex in the shower?

Or maybe

Charlotte Rampling nailing her husband's junk to a heavy weight? Or her infamous self-mutilation scene (which I couldn't bear to watch - I had to watch my boyfriend instead, and his reactions were very much in the "watching 2 girls, 1 cup for the first time" mode).

Insane.

 

A Clockwork Orange - The "Singing in the Rain" scene - you know the one. Beyond upsetting.

 

Henry, Portrait of a Serial Killer - I'm not sure why this film upset me so much. Maybe it's the 1970's grindhouse film style. Maybe it's that Michael Rooker is just a scary dude. All I know is the scene where

he and his depraved partner break into a family's house, and then murder them, while we watch the act unfold via video tape.... yikes. There's something so creepy about how the whole scene is shot. It feels like you're actually a real crime being committed, and therefore you can't just wave it away as pure fiction

. I also felt upset at the ending, where

you realize that Henry murders the gentle abused woman he's been staying with, because he can't control who he is. But you only realize it when you see him dump the heavy suitcase by the side of the road and drive off alone.... a brutally undignified ending for a character who spends the whole film as a fragile abused victim

.

[Shannon L.]

 

A Clockwork Orange - The "Singing in the Rain" scene - you know the one. Beyond upsetting.

It was because of seeing that clip and seeing a glimpse of some guy (girl?) with his/her eyes being held open with some contraption that I refuse to watch the whole movie. 

[Rick Kitchen]

The Singing in the Rain scene was ad libbed by Malcolm McDowell.  The director did the scene as a straight rape scene and it played as just too, too dark so they asked McDowell to put in some sort of business, and that's what he came up with.

[annzeepark914]

A movie that is rarely ever mentioned, Dead Man, has an awful scene that I found very disturbing: a man eating the cooked flesh from a human spine.  I had to leave after that scene. I believe Johnny Depp was in this movie, along with Robert Mitchum.  It came out at the same time as Dead Man Walking. The opening scenes (travelers on a train moving across the country) are fascinating as the passengers keep changing.

[DollEyes]

  From Se7en, all the crime scenes were disturbing, but the one when the presumed-dead murder victim came back to life scared the shit out of me the first time I saw it.

 

 

American History X. Curbing. That is all.

 

  As bad as that scene was, the prison rape scene was even worse.

Edited July 8, 2014 by DollEyes

[bosawks]

Dead Again, Andy Garcia and a cigarette, 'nuff said.

[xls]

Oh, The Fly with Jeff Goldblum as the fly, dissolves this guys hand with stuff he spits out of his mouth-I felt like  I was going to faint.

 

Don't ever watch Cannibal Holocaust. Trust me, just don't. 

[spaceytraci1208]

  From Se7en, all the crime scenes were disturbing, but the one when the presumed-dead murder victim came back to life scared the shit out of me the first time I saw it.

I defintely screamed out loud in the theater lol. It's kind of fun watching that movie with someone who hasn't seen it when that part comes up, though :-)

[Screenkicker Mikey]

 

Martyrs - Hands down the most horrible film I've ever seen. And yet, I'd also call parts of it brilliant, so I end up totally conflicted about the whole thing. One of the few films that I've found value in, and yet can't recommend to almost anyone. Flirts with being a "torture porn" film, though I personally distinguish between trash like Hostel, and this film, which again... there's something to this, even in the middle of the gore.

The movie is a three act meditation on torture and the limits of a person's ability to endure even the most horrible things. There are some extremely gory portions, but honestly the parts that affected me the most were the mundane tortures inflicted on the protagonist in the last third.

 

Agree completely. The whole second half of Martyrs is devastating. But its for a reason and its just horrible!

Oh, The Fly with Jeff Goldblum as the fly, dissolves this guys hand with stuff he spits out of his mouth-I felt like  I was going to faint.

 

Don't ever watch Cannibal Holocaust. Trust me, just don't. 

 

Speaking of Cannibal Holocaust, I was at a screening of The Green Inferno from Eli Roth. There is some extremely sick stuff in it

[GreekGeek]

This isn't the usual "horror movie" type of thing, but I was very much disturbed by seeing Roger Ebert at the end of his life in Life Itself, with his tongue and jaw removed, when he couldn't speak, eat, or drink and he had to be suctioned regularly. 

[DollEyes]

  From the 1983 remake of Scarface, the scenes with the chainsaw,Tony Montana with his sister (especially near the end) and all that coke.

[Rick Kitchen]

The scene in Mad Max where Max handcuffs a guy's leg to a burning car and gives him a hacksaw, telling him he can either cut through his leg or try to cut through the steel of the handcuff before the car blows up.  They leave the results to your imagination, but ...

[RubyWoo72]

As a kid, the scene in Scanners in which the guy's head explodes terrified me. And as a lifelong sufferer of migraines, I was always afraid my head would explode like that.

Also, the head - spinning scene in The Exorcist made me scream something like "No, no, no!" as a kid (I snuck and watched it on tv). Something about how damned unnatural that was just scared the shit out of me.