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

[Epeolatrix]

Exorcist III: Legion. The scene in the hospital with the nurse, the shrouded figure, and the bone shears. This startled me very badly and no matter how many times I've seen it since, this moment remains incredibly tense.

[loriro]

When I was a kid, one scene in a movie that really disturbed me was the scene in Gone with the Wind when Scarlett is in the South's hospital after all the men are being brought in. There is a man who is getting ready to get his leg amputated and  they don't have any anesthesia.  You see them get ready to start the surgery and then you just hear him screaming "No! No! Don't cut! Oh, it hurts!" and Scarlett just turns and runs out, never to return.  The thought, as a young child, of someone getting his leg cut off without anesthesia just scared the bejeezus out of me. 

[canter]

The movies that jump to mind when I think "disturbing" are Kids (especially the final scene where Chloe Sevigny is asleep on the couch, and what comes next) and Last Exit to Brooklyn (especially the scene where Jennifer Jason Leigh's unconscious body is dragged to the mattress, and what comes before and after that).

[BatmanBeatles]

When I was a kid, one scene in a movie that really disturbed me was the scene in Gone with the Wind when Scarlett is in the South's hospital after all the men are being brought in. There is a man who is getting ready to get his leg amputated and  they don't have any anesthesia.  You see them get ready to start the surgery and then you just hear him screaming "No! No! Don't cut! Oh, it hurts!" and Scarlett just turns and runs out, never to return.  The thought, as a young child, of someone getting his leg cut off without anesthesia just scared the bejeezus out of me. 

 

It's so effective because you don't anything. The screams and Scarlett's face said it all.

[Laurie4H]

Anyone seen the movie Gummo? The bathtub scene is beyond disturbing.

[pootlus]

I don't tend to watch horror movies that much as they don't appeal to me at all.  Some things that got to me in various movies:

 

The Wicker Man (the old one, with Christopher Lee and Edward Woodward, not the horrible Cage one).  The denouement is shocking although not graphic (you do hear him screaming though).  That gave me nightmares for weeks.

 

Wild at Heart when Willem Defoe accidentally blows his own brains out.  Yeah, nightmares from that too.

 

The Fly for the reason @xls mentioned, but also the scene in which Goldblum's character puts his genitals (which have fallen off) on a shelf.  I'm not even a guy and that bit freaked me out.

 

Other things like Schindler's List (probably the movie that I cried the most through), Saving Private Ryan and Platoon affect me deeply in the "That's a good movie, but I can never watch it again" sense, but don't actually disturb me to the point of nightmares.

 

Agree with people who can't stand animals being hurt.  Especially cats and dogs. That's a definite no for me.  I have to go into actual denial that they are not dead but happy and bouncy and very much alive to be able to proceed with the movie.

[xls]

When I was a kid, one scene in a movie that really disturbed me was the scene in Gone with the Wind when Scarlett is in the South's hospital after all the men are being brought in. There is a man who is getting ready to get his leg amputated and  they don't have any anesthesia.  You see them get ready to start the surgery and then you just hear him screaming "No! No! Don't cut! Oh, it hurts!" and Scarlett just turns and runs out, never to return.  The thought, as a young child, of someone getting his leg cut off without anesthesia just scared the bejeezus out of me. 

Oh, man GWTW had several shocking scenes. When I saw it as a kid too, back in the 60's, If you saw a little bit of blood in a movie back then it was shocking-not like now. So when she shot that soldier right in the nose....

Or The Birds when Lydia finds the neighbor on his bedroom floor with his eyes poked out...

Edited July 25, 2014 by xls

[ribboninthesky1]

I don't tend to watch horror movies that much as they don't appeal to me at all.  Some things that got to me in various movies:

 

The Wicker Man (the old one, with Christopher Lee and Edward Woodward, not the horrible Cage one).  The denouement is shocking although not graphic (you do hear him screaming though).  That gave me nightmares for weeks.

 

To me, this is a great example of a movie that's terrifying without the need for the horror tropes that's common in most modern genre films.  I didn't see the movie until a few years ago - hearing about the Cage remake/adaptation sparked my interest in the original.  Freaked me the hell out.

[BatmanBeatles]

The Poltergeist  clown doll scene never fails to freak me out. As well as the piece of meat crawling on the counter like an inch worm and the tree eating the boy.

[Rick Kitchen]

The Birds freaked me out for weeks after I saw it.  I was afraid to go outside.

[spaceytraci1208]

The Poltergeist  clown doll scene never fails to freak me out. As well as the piece of meat crawling on the counter like an inch worm and the tree eating the boy.

Julian Beck's "Henry Kane" from Poltergeist II is still the scariest horror movie villain to me. The man was perfectly cast

Edited July 26, 2014 by spaceytraci1208

[BatmanBeatles]

When i was a kid, the melting Nazi's in Raiders Of The Lost Ark scared me.

[Ubiquitous]

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

They made a sequel?!?!

[ketchuplover]

The most disturbing thing about Irreversible is the soundtrack imo.  Saw "Under The Skin" yesterday.  As Nathan Fillion said in "Slither" "Now that is some f*cked  up sh*t"  

[Boots]

Jesus Camp- The whole movie. 

Pet Sematary- ZELDA!! 

[Rick Kitchen]

 

SJiles, on 03 Jul 2014 - 11:06 PM, said:

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

They made a sequel?!?!

 

They're working on a third one.

[henripootel]

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

Having recently had a kid, I can no longer watch this scene.  I actually tried about a month ago.  Nope, nada, no fucking way.  

 

I can't unsee the scene in Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem, where the predalien goes into the maternity ward.  Beyond disturbing, and I basically laughed my way through The Human Centipede.  

Edited July 27, 2014 by henripootel

[Starfruit]

Not sure how disturbing it is for others, but the sex scene in Set It Off always makes me cringe. 

[DollEyes]

 

Not sure how disturbing it is for others, but the sex scene in Set It Off always makes me cringe.

 

  Not me. There's nothing cringeworthy about Blair Underwood, IMO.

 

  The shower scene from the original Psycho scared the shit out of me when I first saw it for the right reasons, unlike the remake.

[Starfruit]

 

 Not me. There's nothing cringeworthy about Blair Underwood, IMO.

 

  The shower scene from the original Psycho scared the shit out of me when I first saw it for the right reasons, unlike the remake.

•  
•  

 

Not that sex scene. The one where Jada's character has to have sex with the skeevy guy to pay for her brother's tuition. 

[Wiendish Fitch]

It's fairly mild in comparison to all others mentioned, but it's still pretty disturbing if you think about it too long:

 

In The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, our titular character, a pretentious, inappropriate, dictator-worshipping "zany free spirit", is indoctrinating a new generation of young classmates to her line of thinking. In the beginning of the movie, before we knew more about Brodie, it was kind of charming, but now that we see what kind of monster she really is, hearing those little girls robotically say, one by one, "Yes, Miss Brodie", is rather chilling. I mean, that's not the behavior of a class, it's the behavior of a cult.

[Ceindreadh]

The Towering Inferno freaked me out when I saw it.  Especially the scene where they're all queuing for the elevators and the doors open and a burning man hurtles out into the crowd.  (for ages after that, if I was waiting for an elevator, I wouldn't stand directly in front of the doors just in case it happened for real)

Bigelow's (Robert Wagner) death was also a disturbing scene, in part because he was about the only actor I recognized in the movie and just to see him running and catching fire and falling down was pretty upsetting.

 

(in fairness, I was only 9 at the time and only watching it because it was the Christmas night movie that year, and since my mother loved Steve McQueen and Paul Newman, the whole family had to watch it)

[BatmanBeatles]

Exorcist III: Legion. The scene in the hospital with the nurse, the shrouded figure, and the bone shears. This startled me very badly and no matter how many times I've seen it since, this moment remains incredibly tense.

How did I miss this post? It does scare you no matter how often you see it. The build up is fantastic.

Edited July 27, 2014 by BatmanBeatles

[Epeolatrix]

The flash-of-light moment when a saint statue turned into what looked like The Joker with a butcher knife, and then things went back to normal... The Exorcist III is vastly underrated when it comes to horror movies.  It also gives me this other disturbing moment. "I have dreams... of a rose... and of falling down a long flight of stairs."

[Jeebus Cripes]

Agree with people who can't stand animals being hurt.  Especially cats and dogs. That's a definite no for me.  I have to go into actual denial that they are not dead but happy and bouncy and very much alive to be able to proceed with the movie.

 

OK, for this very reason, I will never again watch Water for Elephants. The abuse scenes were too much, and that elephant was too good an actor.

[DrSpaceman]

The whole Poltergeist movie freaked me out as a kid. How on EARTH did that get a freaking PG rating when it came out? I still remember seeing it as a kid, and I was hesitant, think I went with my sister. I thought it would be scary, but thought, "Its PG, how scary can it be". OMG, did the ratings people actually WATCH that damn movie? Is there an unedited version that is 75% shorter that they saw. Worse ratings decision in history.

[canter]

This is so dumb, but I had such a sense of dread the whole time watching that movie Open Water, where the couple gets left behind from the scuba trip and ends up just floating and floating in the endless ocean. I think the lack of soundtrack and the camera bobbing at the water's surface added to that feeling.

[BatmanBeatles]

The whole Poltergeist movie freaked me out as a kid. How on EARTH did that get a freaking PG rating when it came out? I still remember seeing it as a kid, and I was hesitant, think I went with my sister. I thought it would be scary, but thought, "Its PG, how scary can it be". OMG, did the ratings people actually WATCH that damn movie? Is there an unedited version that is 75% shorter that they saw. Worse ratings decision in history.

It looks a bit cheesy now, but the part where the guy tears off his face was so disturbing on so many levels to a 9 year old kid. My dad got so mad at me when I woke up crying because he told me not to watch it.

[Epeolatrix]

Once upon a time in the early 90s, there was a British tv movie Ghostwatch. It's often likened to the 1930s War of the Worlds radio broadcast, in that a surprising number of people seemed to believe that an entertaining bit of horror fiction was really real instead of scripted drama. It was alleged to be responsible for one suicide, two diagnosed cases of PTSD in children, and a lot of people scared just enough to be angry and panicky. It didn't air on TV again because of the fuss, and it wasn't released on DVD until 2002 by the British Film Institute. Now it's widely available, so that and time have lessened some of the cult appeal.

 

Ghostwatch was put forth as a reality show special on Halloween 1992, featuring a few BBC presenters and small film crew investigating a haunted house in a modern housing development. A single mother and her two children were experiencing disturbing phenomena, and over the course of the show, things start to go very very wrong. One key element was that well-known BBC people all played themselves, adding to the realism. The second was that although it was staged to look like a live show, it had actually been filmed the previous July, so there was plenty of time to supplement the show with special effects that the actor/characters didn't notice. The horrifying back-story was revealed slowly and with subtlety, so things just got more and more upsetting even though there wasn't much in the way of jump scares.

 

If I had seen it in 1992, I would have been very disturbed by this show. I wouldn't have believed it was true, but it had enough genuinely creepy moments that I would have slept with the lights on for a long time. Seeing it in 2007 just made me nervous for a couple of weeks, in spite of being a rational adult. There are several moments I can't unsee involving dark shadows and darker things within, or a reflection in a window, but the show as a whole has so many of these that I can't really single one out.

[RubyWoo72]

This is so dumb, but I had such a sense of dread the whole time watching that movie Open Water, where the couple gets left behind from the scuba trip and ends up just floating and floating in the endless ocean. I think the lack of soundtrack and the camera bobbing at the water's surface added to that feeling.

It's not dumb at all. I felt like that, too. And I liked that there Wasn't any soundtrack to tell you when you were supposed to be scared.

[DollEyes]

   The first Jaws had many disturbing moments, but the most disturbing ones for me were the first kill, when the shark grabbed that girl and dragged her halfway across the water before pulling her under, the little boy getting killed ( all those gushes of blood creeped me out) and when the shark got in the pond, where Chief Brody's son was. I thought the shark would get him too, but the boy just went into shock, thank goodness. 

 

  From Rush, the scene where Niki Lauda gets the fluid drained from his lungs post-accident is not only disturbing, it gives me a sore throat.

 

  As creepy as "Brundle-Fly"'s keeping his former human body parts in a jar was in The Fly, seeing the balls of Quentin Tarentino's infected character fall off in Grindhouse: Planet Terror was even creepier.

 

 From A Time To Kill, the scene when Matthew McConaghey's defense lawyer character graphically described the rape and attempted murder of his client's daughter in his closing argument gives me chills every time.

Edited August 10, 2014 by DollEyes

[Bruinsfan]

In general, ANY moment when Tarantino is onscreen gracing us with his "acting" rather than behind the camera where he belongs is a disturbing one.

[Mystery]

Excorcist III also had the old woman crawling on the ceiling. That always freaks me out in movies. 

 

I feel kind of silly putting this one down, after all the rape/torture/death scenes described, but I still shudder at the scene in Pinocchio where his friend turns into a donkey. His hands clawing at Pinocchio turn into hooves, and he's calling "Mama...." and it turns into a donkey's bray. The transformation is shown as a shadow on the wall and it's still utterly horrifying to me. And this was a kids' movie! 

[GreekGeek]

Disney has become synonymous with wholesome family entertainment where all the disturbing parts of a tale are excised, but he could go to some pretty dark places. Check out the "Pink Elephants on Parade" sequence in Dumbo. Or "Night on Bald Mountain" in Fantasia. Or The Three Lives of Thomasina, where the title cat has a fever dream or an out of body experience of a cat afterlife where she encounters Bast, the Egyptian cat goddess. Very confusing for a kid watching a movie where everything has been pretty realistic (apart from the cat narrator) up to that point.

[Wiendish Fitch]

I feel kind of silly putting this one down, after all the rape/torture/death scenes described, but I still shudder at the scene in Pinocchio where his friend turns into a donkey. His hands clawing at Pinocchio turn into hooves, and he's calling "Mama...." and it turns into a donkey's bray. The transformation is shown as a shadow on the wall and it's still utterly horrifying to me. And this was a kids' movie!

 

 

Hey, I won't judge you, I'm on the wrong side of 30, and I still think that scene is disturbing! The Coachman is one of the most terrifying villains Disney ever created (remember his red, demonic face when he was explaining his plan?), and scariest of all?

He gets away with it! He basically wins!

Still love Pinocchio, though.

[BatmanBeatles]

Oh yeah! I still think that's pee your pants scary.

 

"They don't come back as...boys!"

 

Here's a quote from Who Framed Rodger Rabbit my heart stop:

 

"Remember me Eddie? When I killed your brother I talked JUST! LIKE! THIS!"

[sally-can-wait]

Mine would be Mysterious Skin with Joseph Gordon-Levitt. I actually saw it with MY FATHER!! Somehow we were under the impression it was a sci-fi movie about aliens (I still to this day have no idea how we thought that) and were QUITE surprised when there was a very violent male on male rape scene and then an excruciating scene with the sexual assault of a child. I was shaking during that scene and actually thought I might pass out. That movie haunted me for days after.

[Bruinsfan]

Adding to the Disney and other children's movies trauma pile: the scene from Peter Pan where the alligator is repeatedly swallowing Captain Hook, and the scene where the Skeksis drain the podling's life energy in The Dark Crystal.

[beatrixkiddoe]

 

Somehow we were under the impression it was a sci-fi movie about aliens (I still to this day have no idea how we thought that)

I'm sorry, mables-child but that really made me laugh.

 

I watched it on dvd and made it through almost the entire movie, until JLG starts describing what the coach made him do. By that point I just couldn't take anymore, I had to fast forward through the rest of the scene. It would be scarring with any actor in that role, but I'm sure the fact that I grew up with him as Tommy in "Third Rock from the Sun" didn't help.

[ribboninthesky1]

Mine would be Mysterious Skin with Joseph Gordon-Levitt. I actually saw it with MY FATHER!! Somehow we were under the impression it was a sci-fi movie about aliens (I still to this day have no idea how we thought that) and were QUITE surprised when there was a very violent male on male rape scene and then an excruciating scene with the sexual assault of a child. I was shaking during that scene and actually thought I might pass out. That movie haunted me for days after.

 

I had a sense of what the movie was about before watching, and it was still disturbing.  But then, I'll never understand how an adult is "sexually attracted" to a child. 

[dougfir]

I feel kind of silly putting this one down, after all the rape/torture/death scenes described, but I still shudder at the scene in Pinocchio where his friend turns into a donkey. His hands clawing at Pinocchio turn into hooves, and he's calling "Mama...." and it turns into a donkey's bray. The transformation is shown as a shadow on the wall and it's still utterly horrifying to me. And this was a kids' movie! 

 

Huh?  Not silly at all.  As much as I dug that film as a kid, and I still think it's the single best feature film from Disney's Golden Age of Animation, it has some genuinely messed-up stuff ("dead" Pinocchio floating face-down in the water, anyone?)

 

Anyway, I can handle a fair amount of gore in movies, but I can't handle people being scalped for some reason (actually left the room during **that** scene in Nurse Betty... which was more or less a **comedy**, fer cryin' out loud).

 

 

[purplemouth]

I recently watched A Serbian Film and every scene in that movie was more disturbing than the last.

 

The titular scene from The Stoning of Soraya M. is forever burned in my brain.

 

And finally: You're Next. Blender.

[Mystery]

For some reason this afternoon I was thinking of the Kathleen Turner movie "Serial Mom." Murders galore and yet the audience in the theater was most grossed out by Turner telling her dog to "Lick Mommy's feet!" 

 

I do not wear white after Labor Day!

[RubyWoo72]

For some reason this afternoon I was thinking of the Kathleen Turner movie "Serial Mom." Murders galore and yet the audience in the theater was most grossed out by Turner telling her dog to "Lick Mommy's feet!"

I do not wear white after Labor Day!

How about her doing the sideways PacMan with her legs, in the courtroom? I haven't thought about that movie in ages but yes, several scenes were unseeable.

[suomi]

For the purpose of this post disturbing = sad, heartbreaking. Dumbo's mother went off on some bratty kids who made fun of him and the trainers decided she was crazy and locked her up. Timothy the mouse took Dumbo to visit his mother at night and it was all quiet and she put her trunk through the bars on the window and rocked him with her trunk, and she cried and he cried. That was the end for me. I was about 8/9 and I ran screaming up the aisle to the theater lobby, and I have never watched that movie again. (I think I have issues, LOL)

[Athena]

This is more due to the fact I watched this as a kid accidentally, but the scene from Excalibur where Uther has Merlin change his appearance to Igraine's husband the Duke of Cornwall and proceeds to his home to have sex with her. While this is happening, the Duke is being killed in battle and it's disturbing on many levels how it's shot. I had to turn it off after Arthur was born. I still haven't ever managed to watch any of it since.

[Princess Sparkle]

Mine would be Mysterious Skin with Joseph Gordon-Levitt. I actually saw it with MY FATHER!! Somehow we were under the impression it was a sci-fi movie about aliens (I still to this day have no idea how we thought that)

Well, in the book, there is a significant subplot where Brian believes he was abducted by aliens (what his brain uses to block out the rape) and goes and seeks out other people who also believe they were abducted by aliens - maybe somehow that got stuck into your head? I've never seen the movie, (I could barely finish reading the book because of the subject matter), so I don't know if they cut that part out, but at least the alien part didn't come out of nowhere.

[iRarelyWatchTV36]

Jesus Camp- The whole movie. 

Pet Sematary- ZELDA!! 

 

This movie was the devil for me, in my pre-teen/early teens years.  Pretty much all the whole movie just completely wrecked me for many days afterwards.  But as if that scene you mentioned wasn't bad enough on its own, I learned after watching it that I was thought to have had spinal meningitis as a toddler.  So as if I didn't have enough to be freaked out about as it was, there was a personal element added in - which of course lead to mental angst of how I could have been the monster hidden in the attic.

 

But for me, the most absolute soul-destroying scene in that movie has to be when

Louis kills the evil undead Gage.

  Just the scare/shock/heartbreak all wrapped tightly into it.  I can't ever unremember that whole moment, and I have a bad memory in general. 

"No fair.  No fair."

 

PS2 had its moments as well.

Edited August 15, 2014 by iRarelyWatchTV36

[Blergh]

Matrix- seeing that  metal spine thing get pulled out of Keanu's stomach. If I hadn't been pestered by a friend that I had to see the whole movie on the big screen, I would have been OUT of there - just nasty. And I after I queezily endured the remainder of it to the bitter end, I didn't bother with the sequels.

[DollEyes]

 Given the subject matter, there were many disturbing moments in 12 Years A Slave, but some of the most disturbing involved 

the Epps' abuse of Patsey, whether it was Epps' raping/beating her because he couldn't even admit to himself that he was in love with her, his wife's own abuse of Patsey because of her jealousy or Epps' forcing Solomon to beat Patsey because he accused Solomon of being her lover.

 

  That being said, I love the film because it's a powerful story that treats slavery with the brutality it deserves. I watch films like 12 Years A Slave and Schindler's List because it's my way of honoring those who were victimized by tragedies like slavery and the Holocaust. To quote the old saying, "Those who forget the past are condemned to repeat it."