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

[bmoore4026]

The beginning of The Ten Commandments, when Pharaoh order the deaths of all new born Hebrew males.  Immediately after the gives this order we dissolve to a scene of an Egyptian soldier wiping blood from his sword on a baby's blankets while the unfortunate baby's mother, stricken numb from horror, stares out into nothing.  Another mother runs past the door, her baby in her arms, wailing as another soldier chases her. 

 

I remember seeing this scene when I was little and it's stayed with me for a long time.

 

It wasn't until much later that I saw a scene, or rather a sequence, that was even worse: The Tenth Egyptian Plague.

 

The cries of anguish from the Egyptians while the Jewish slaves try to have a meal is horrifying.  The continuous screams while everyone with Moses, including the Egyptian princess who raised him, can only sit helplessly while this horror is going on.

 

I feel like crying while writing this.  Just the thought of being in such a situation, that as long as you remain indoors, your house marked to be spared, you will be safe, while the unmarked houses of people you don't even know are targeted by an unstoppable force yet you anguish for them is hard to take in.

[Spartan Girl]

Oh yeah, those scenes in Ten Commandments were just awful to think about.  I can't even watch that first part.

 

I found the scene in Walk the Line when Johnny Cash's drunk dad is screaming at him that he should have died instead of his brother very disturbing.  Even if that's not actually what happened in real life, what kind of asshole says that to his own son?!  And the fact that he never really apologizes for it makes it worse.

 

Another scene that this rather chilling in hindsight is in Continental Divide when John Belushi's character comments to Blair Brown is "All you do is kiss me, and look at me like I'm going to die."  Six months after the movie was released Belushi died.  I know it was probably a coincidence -- there were tons of flippant jokes  on the first five seasons that he wasn't long for this world -- but it's still both sad and creepy. 

[DollEyes]

  The premise of The Purge movies,where, in the not-too-distant future, all crimes-including rape and murder-are legal one night a year, creeps me out.

[Spartan Girl]

Revenge of the Sith: Anakin storms the younglings' room in the Jedi Temple. The kids run up to Anakin: "Master Skywalker, what are we going to do?" Anakin glares at them, and the last thing we see before they cut to another scene is the children's frightened faces as Anakin ignites his lightsaber....

Chilling. And one of the few moments when the prequels capture the essence of Darth Vader.

[AimingforYoko]

Even if that's not actually what happened in real life, what kind of asshole says that to his own son?!  And the fact that he never really apologizes for it makes it worse.

Unfortunately for me, Walk Hard has taken some of the weight out of that scene.

[Spartan Girl]

Don't laugh, but as a kid I found the scene in the live action Inspector Gadget movie when they find him with his parts ripped out in the junkyard really disturbing. Even for a fake out Disney death that image was creepy.

[bilgistic]

For some stupid reason, I decided I needed to broaden my horizons this weekend and watched all six hours of the director's-cut version of Nymphomania: Vol. I and II. I now have mental images I can never erase

--namely, home abortion

. Thanks, Lars von Trier. Why do I keep falling for his hype?? REALLY, REALLY, don't watch these movies.

Edited May 25, 2015 by bilgistic

[raezen]

This is going way back and it is really child's play next to many of the films mentioned but as a child I remember being deeply disturbed by the scene in Pinocchio when the boys are being turned into donkeys. Now looking back at that scene as an allegory for the human trafficking of minors, it isn't less disturbing to me.

[DollEyes]

Deliverance. Four words: "Squeal like a pig."

 

 

Ned Beatty in his not-so-tighty whities.

 

  Those didn't disturb me even half as much as

his character getting raped did

.

Edited June 2, 2015 by DollEyes

[bilgistic]

Ned Beatty in his not-so-tighty whiteys.

[NumberCruncher]

Watching James Franco as Aron Ralston in 127 Hours sawing off his arm with a dull multi-tool about did me in. I will never watch that movie again just because of that.

Edited June 2, 2015 by NumberCruncher

[AimingforYoko]

Ned Beatty in his not-so-tighty whiteys.

That reminds me of a bit on the TV Show Wings where Brian and Joe are at the video store (the what?) and Brian brags he can instantly name any nude scene from a movie. When Joe pulls out Deliverance, "Ned Beatty scrambling up a hill. Boy, you sure know how to kill a mood."

[DollEyes]

So many things in Gone Girl.

Amy hitting herself in the face with a hammer to disguise herself and later violating herself with a wine bottle to pose as a rape victim. The depths that woman went to...but it was the part where she kills Desi that made me cover my eyes. So bloody. Poor, poor NPH.

 

  Same here. Only Amy could make me feel bad for a creepy stalker like Desi, who may have had a few loose screws, but when it comes to crazy, even he didn't hold a candle to her. Then again, what else could be expected from a whack job who framed her ex-boyfriend for rape and her husband for murder, because the former rightfully dumped her and the latter cheated on her? As for Nick, he may have been a shitty husband, but at least he's not a total sociopath.

Edited June 22, 2015 by DollEyes

[Spartan Girl]

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.

There seriously needs to be a ban on having pets in scary movies. Their only purpose is to die horribly and make us animal lovers feel sick. Edited June 24, 2015 by Spartan Girl

[DollEyes]

  The rape scenes in I Spit On Your Grave weren't just disturbing, they were horrifying, to say the least. 

[cpcathy]

Agree so much on the animals in horror movies. It doesn't even have to be a horror movie, just stop! It's a worn out trope, the dog gets it. I even worried for the cat when I saw Gone Girl. It ruins my enjoyment of the movie if I'm grinding my teeth waiting for something awful happen to any animal.

[Ohwell]

In The Kingsman the guy gets split in half.  I totally wasn't expecting that and it just freaked me out.

[yourstruly]

For some stupid reason, I decided I needed to broaden my horizons this weekend and watched all six hours of the director's-cut version of Nymphomania: Vol. I and II. I now have mental images I can never erase

--namely, home abortion

. Thanks, Lars von Trier. Why do I keep falling for his hype?? REALLY, REALLY, don't watch these movies.

The regular cut of that movie is intense enough-I can't imagine watching six hours of it. You could populate this entire thread with scenes from Lars Von Trier movies-he's completely messed up, but God help me, his movies suck you in. I think the only movie of his that does not have some flee-for-the-exits shocking content is Melancholia.

 

Speaking of a graphic abortion scene, Enter The Void by Gaspar Noe. Which is a horrible movie, the only really good part is the opening credits. But there is a scene where the female lead has an abortion and the camera floats around the room and shows the remains of the fetus in a medical pan. I guess just because they could. There is also a scene that I guess is supposed to suggest rebirth which consists of a camera shot of a penis thrusting inside a vagina-but the shot is from inside the vagina so the head of the penis is thrusting into the viewer's face. I saw this movie with my older brother (he said we needed to expand our horizons and try new movies) and when this scene came on, I hit him. While we were in the theater.

[topanga]

Yesterday I started watching Flashdance on Netflix (inspired by Jennifer Beals' interview with Sam Jones and her new TNT show 'Proof'), and I guess I already knew that her character was 18, but Alex's relationship with her boss Nick didn't gross me out until this current watching. I don't know how old her boss was supposed to be, but he owned the steel company where she worked. (The actor, Michael Nouri, was 38 when the film premiered).

 

Maybe it's because I'm a mom of a teenager, but an 18-year-old young woman is still a child, in my opinion. And she'd never had sex. I don't care if the relationship was legal or that Alex was a sexy stripper at night--a 38-year-old man pursuing and seducing an 18 year-old-girl is still pretty creepy.

 

 

In The Kingsman the guy gets split in half.  I totally wasn't expecting that and it just freaked me out.

I can imagine. That reminds me of the horrifying scene in Scarface where someone cuts off the cousin's leg with a chainsaw.

Edited July 16, 2015 by topanga

[cpcathy]

Jennifer Beals came off to me as older, living alone, etc, in Flashdance, so maybe I never realized she was 18. What is creepy to me that I never realized when I was younger is that in Ice Castles (one of my fave guilty pleasure movies) Lexie is 16 and after she becomes a little well known she goes out with Brian, who is a sportscaster doing a story on her. He's at least 30, if not older, and I never put two and two together when I was nine, but now it's like "ewww."

[topanga]

Were those kinds of relationships more acceptable in the '80s?

 

I guess it's no more questionable than Richard Gere hiring a prostitute for a week then declaring his love for her. Romantic, yes. But...still ewww. Not that Vivian is ewww. The ewww is for Edward. It makes me wonder how much he really respects Vivian as a person and if one day he'll yell at her (again!) that she's nothing but a whore.

 

...Okay. I'm reading way too much into Pretty Woman.

[cpcathy]

I just never accepted that a prostitute would look like Julia Roberts!

[DollEyes]

The tsunami scenes in The Impossible were some of the most terrifying film moments I've ever seen.

[Spartan Girl]

Yeah, I just saw that movie for the first time and it was so hard to watch, especially in the scene where Naomi Watts has part of her thigh torn off and how fast her condition deteriorates. Even though the family made it in the end, it was still awful.

I would also like to mention Casualties of War. The war violence scenes were bad enough, but the unspeakable treatment of that poor girl was horrifying. Everything leading up to the actual rape and murder made me stomach hurt: they dress her up in that army helmet for laughs, make her walk barefoot through debris, make her carry their pack...and then there's that sick bastard Clark harassing her with that chilling rendition of "Hello, I love you, won't you tell me your name." I can never hear that song without feeling ill thanks to that scene.

[xls]

The regular cut of that movie is intense enough-I can't imagine watching six hours of it. You could populate this entire thread with scenes from Lars Von Trier movies-he's completely messed up, but God help me, his movies suck you in. I think the only movie of his that does not have some flee-for-the-exits shocking content is Melancholia.

 

Speaking of a graphic abortion scene, Enter The Void by Gaspar Noe. Which is a horrible movie, the only really good part is the opening credits. But there is a scene where the female lead has an abortion and the camera floats around the room and shows the remains of the fetus in a medical pan. I guess just because they could. There is also a scene that I guess is supposed to suggest rebirth which consists of a camera shot of a penis thrusting inside a vagina-but the shot is from inside the vagina so the head of the penis is thrusting into the viewer's face. I saw this movie with my older brother (he said we needed to expand our horizons and try new movies) and when this scene came on, I hit him. While we were in the theater.

I just watched Nymphomaniac l&ll and its full of disturbing moments including a graphic self-abortion scene and extreme close-ups of every sex act imaginable. Real not simulated.  I expected it to be about sex, sure, but straight up porn?

[QueerGirrl]

I just watched Nymphomaniac l&ll and its full of disturbing moments including a graphic self-abortion scene and extreme close-ups of every sex act imaginable. Real not simulated.  I expected it to be about sex, sure, but straight up porn?

 

 

I was thinking about watching these but after seeing such negative reviews from those who have, I'm think I'm gonna pass.  If I want to watch porn, then I'll watch porn.

[xls]

Skip Human Centipede too. Too disgusting for me to make it all the way through.

South Park already parodied it.

Why did I watch Nympho and this crap? I don't know, curiosity I guess.

[Rick Kitchen]

Skip Human Centipede too. Too disgusting for me to make it all the way through.

South Park already parodied it.

Why did I watch Nympho and this crap? I don't know, curiosity I guess.

 

I guess you didn't watch the TWO sequels to Human Centipede, hm?

[xls]

For some stupid reason, I decided I needed to broaden my horizons this weekend and watched all six hours of the director's-cut version of Nymphomania: Vol. I and II. I now have mental images I can never erase

--namely, home abortion

. Thanks, Lars von Trier. Why do I keep falling for his hype?? REALLY, REALLY, don't watch these movies.

I watched the directors cuts too.  The most grotesque part was

the end when  Seligman pulls out his uncircumcised penis and tries to fuck Joe

It's all Uma Thurman's fault. she appeared on a talk show and persuaded me to watch the movies.

I guess you didn't watch the TWO sequels to Human Centipede, hm?

That'd be a no.

[DollEyes]

Given the subject matter, that Schindler's List had disturbing scenes didn't surprise me, but among the most disturbing were Nazi Amon Goeth's casually shooting terrified prisoners, Goeth's slapping his maid because he couldn't handle being attracted to her and the little girl's yelling "Goodbye, Jews!" to the line of victims who were being taken to the concentration camp. That adults were capable of that kind of hatred was bad enough, but hearing it from a child was positively heartbreaking.

Edited August 9, 2015 by DollEyes

[Spartan Girl]

Given the subject matter, that Schindler's List had disturbing scenes didn't surprise me, but among the most disturbing were Nazi Amon Goeth's casually shooting terrified prisoners, Goeth's slapping his maid because he couldn't handle being attracted to her and the little girl's yelling "Goodbye, Jews!" to the line of victims who were being taken to the concentration camp. That adults were capable of that kind of hatred was bad enough, but hearing it from a child was positively heartbreaking.

The scene when they're all lined up go to the showers and they're screaming in terror, thinking they're about to be gassed made me physically ill. The relief when the showers spouted actual water was overwhelming.

[raezen]

There were so many disturbing scenes in Schindler 's List that stayed with me. Most of them involved Amon Goeth, and I was particularly disturbed by his reasoning for not wanting Helen to go with Schindler. He argues with Schindler that he would never let her get sent to Auschwitz, he'd take her to Vienna to serve him there and they would "grow old together", and if he couldn't do that for her, he'd just shoot her in the woods. It was really disturbing to see someone so narcissistic and so removed from humanity that he felt this was a kind gesture.

[DollEyes]

  Other disturbing scenes from Schindler's List include the scene when Schindler saw what looked like snow on his car, which turned out to be the ashes from the victims who were burned in the nearby concentration camp, the scenes where the children found hiding places in the camp to save themselves including the sewer and after the women took their showers and were going back to the trains, they passed another group of people who, unlike them, were going there to die. I also wanted to make a correction. The people in the "Goodbye, Jews!" scene weren't going to a concentration camp; it was to the local ghetto, which wasn't much of an improvement.

 

  Other disturbing scenes from Spielberg films include the scene in Munich, the story about the terrorist attack at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich and the group of men involved in the aftermath, when one of them was so traumatized by what had happened he almost raped his wife and the other is from Amistad, the story about a revolt on a slave ship, where one of the female slaves killed herself and her baby because she wanted her and her child to die free instead of living as slaves.

[Bastet]

the scenes where the children found hiding places in the camp to save themselves including the sewer

 

I don't gag easily at visuals (it usually requires smell), but the kid hiding in the toilet did it.

[BatmanBeatles]

 

Given the subject matter, that Schindler's List had disturbing scenes didn't surprise me, but among the most disturbing were Nazi Amon Goeth's casually shooting terrified prisoners, Goeth's slapping his maid because he couldn't handle being attracted to her and the little girl's yelling "Goodbye, Jews!" to the line of victims who were being taken to the concentration camp. That adults were capable of that kind of hatred was bad enough, but hearing it from a child was positively heartbreaking.

There's also the little boy who makes a throat slitting gesture.

[Danny Franks]

Given the subject matter, that Schindler's List had disturbing scenes didn't surprise me, but among the most disturbing were Nazi Amon Goeth's casually shooting terrified prisoners, Goeth's slapping his maid because he couldn't handle being attracted to her and the little girl's yelling "Goodbye, Jews!" to the line of victims who were being taken to the concentration camp. That adults were capable of that kind of hatred was bad enough, but hearing it from a child was positively heartbreaking.

 

I don't know, I kind of thing that it's less shocking from a child. Because children will ape their parents and other adults, as well as older children. They won't know the full import of what they're saying, or the truth of what they're witnessing. It's the adults who truly sicken me, because they know that those people are being forcibly removed and can surely imagine the life that awaits them.

 

Don't get me wrong, it's still shocking, but I find the collective hatred that the girl is voicing the most shocking thing.

 

I would also like to mention Casualties of War. The war violence scenes were bad enough, but the unspeakable treatment of that poor girl was horrifying. Everything leading up to the actual rape and murder made me stomach hurt: they dress her up in that army helmet for laughs, make her walk barefoot through debris, make her carry their pack...and then there's that sick bastard Clark harassing her with that chilling rendition of "Hello, I love you, won't you tell me your name." I can never hear that song without feeling ill thanks to that scene.

 

 

That movie is so tough to watch, and I think it's more than partly responsible for my enduring dislike of Sean Penn. The scene on the railway bridge is unbearable. But the one saving grace is when Michael J Fox's character tells that chaplin everything that happened, and you finally see someone appropriately disgusted and horrified and committed to doing something about it.

[Epeolatrix]

As we are on war movies, I can't unsee a scene from Stalingrad. A German soldier is blown in half by a Russian tank shell, but as his upper body is frozen upright to the ice (preventing him from bleeding out), he stays fully conscious and screaming for long enough to be really disturbing. The battle scene has been posted to YouTube, with the relevant bit being about 3 minutes into the clip.

[DollEyes]

 

 I don't know, I kind of thing that it's less shocking coming from a child. Because children will ape their parents and other adults, as well as older children. They won't know the full import of what they're saying, or the truth of what they are witnessing. It's the adults who truly sicken me, because they know that those people are being forcibly removed and can surely imagine the life that awaits them. 

 

Don't get me wrong, it's still shocking, but I find the collective hatred that the girl is voicing the most shocking thing. 

 

  I somewhat disagree. Youth and ignorance aren't mutually exclusive.I'm reminded of the song about prejudice, "Carefully Taught," from the musical South Pacific: "You have to be carefully taught to hate/By the time you're six, or seven, or eight." Since so much evil has been done by adults, it's to be expected, but when children do it, it's even worse, as shown in The Exorcist, The Omen, Village Of the Damned  &  Children Of the Corn, to name a few. Just because a child doesn't seem to understand that they're saying/doing wrong that doesn't make them less wrong, especially not to whom they hurt. 

[Danny Franks]

  I somewhat disagree. Youth and ignorance aren't mutually exclusive.I'm reminded of the song about prejudice, "Carefully Taught," from the musical South Pacific: "You have to be carefully taught to hate/By the time you're six, or seven, or eight." Since so much evil has been done by adults, it's to be expected, but when children do it, it's even worse, as shown in The Exorcist, The Omen, Village Of the Damned  &  Children Of the Corn, to name a few. Just because a child doesn't seem to understand that they're saying/doing wrong that doesn't make them less wrong, especially not to whom they hurt. 

 

I'm not saying it doesn't make them wrong, I'm saying it makes it less shocking to me. Because children will ape the attitudes of their elders without understanding what it means. I'd be more surprised if it had just been adults, with the children not present or looking on in confusion and/or disgust. They're doing what their parents have shown them is the right thing to do.

Edited August 21, 2015 by Danny Franks

[Spartan Girl]

That movie is so tough to watch, and I think it's more than partly responsible for my enduring dislike of Sean Penn. The scene on the railway bridge is unbearable. But the one saving grace is when Michael J Fox's character tells that chaplin everything that happened, and you finally see someone appropriately disgusted and horrified and committed to doing something about it.

Yeah but even then, the army goes out of their way to intimidate his character, or even make him seem more guilty than the actual rapists. When he's being cross-examined during the trial, he's asked why he didn't just shoot all of them and get away with the girl when he had the chance. Seriously?!

And maybe that's the most disturbing thing about this movie: that there really wasn't anything he could have done to save the girl. Even if he helped the girl escape, there was no guarantee that he would have gotten her back to the village safely. This was Vietnam, where people got shot or blown up at any second...

But none of that matters to his character. He'll never know for sure, and the guilt and uncertainty will haunt him for the rest of his life.

[DollEyes]

Another disturbing moment comes from Top Five, the Chris Rock comedy about Andre Allen, a famous comic who goes back to his hometown of NYC to promote his dramatic film debut, prepare for his TV wedding to a reality star and is interviewed by a New York Times reporter played by Rosario Dawson. In one scene, Andre, who's also a recovering alcoholic/addict, tells the reporter about his hitting rock bottom early in his career, when he booked a gig in a Houston comedy club with promoter J. Dizzle, aka "The motherfuckin' man in Houston." One night at the club,  a drunk/stoned Andre met these two chicks and they wound up going back to his room for a threesome which became a foursome when J. Dizzle showed up, to Andre's surprise and horror. That Andre was butt naked at the time, couldn't escape and was forced to watch J, Dizzle doing them only made matters worse.

 

  But the worst of all was what happened the morning after, when Andre woke, J. Dizzle was long gone and the girls- who, not surprisingly, turned out to be hookers- showed up demanding that Andre either pay them $1,000 or they would cry "rape," which he didn't-and they did, which lead to his getting busted. To Dizzle's credit, he did bail Andre out, but IMO, that was the least Dizzle could have done.

 

  In honor of the late, great director Wes Craven, who made, among other things, the Nightmare On Elm Street and Scream movies, one of the scariest scenes of all time was the phone scene in the first original NOES, where Freddy Krueger told Karen, "I'm your boyfriend now" and stuck his tongue out of the phone, just before he kills Karen's boyfriend Glenn.

Edited August 31, 2015 by DollEyes

[QueerGirrl]

In honor of the late, great director Wes Craven, who made, among other things, the Nightmare On Elm Street and Scream movies, one of the scariest scenes of all time was the phone scene in the first original NOES, where Freddy Krueger told Karen, "I'm your boyfriend now" and stuck his tongue out of the phone, just before he kills Karen's boyfriend Glenn.

 

That's the perfect Wes Craven shout-out for this thread.  Even Johnny Depp's bloody death wasn't as disturbing as Freddie's tongue!  Shudders......

[Spartan Girl]

I found the moment in Les Miserables when Fantine has her first customer to be very disturbing. The look on her face when that guy was on top of her...she looked like she was going to puke. It's even more horrible when you think people would write it off as consensual, but everything in her body language screamed rape.

[BatmanBeatles]

"Don't they know they're making love to one already dead!"

[DollEyes]

From Marathon Man, the scene where Laurence Olivier's Nazi character asks Dustin Hoffmann's character "Is it safe?" is not only one of the scariest of all time, it set the dental profession back decades, if not centuries.

[DollEyes]

  Bumping it up with the scene from World War Z, the horror movie about a worldwide zombie apocalypse, when Gerry had to cut off the female soldier's hand to keep her from getting infected.

[xls]

In the Cowboy Way The scene with the calf. Even though it didn't really happen, just the thought of it was too disgusting.

[Shannon L.]

 

Bumping it up with the scene from World War Z, the horror movie about a worldwide zombie apocalypse, when Gerry had to cut off the female soldier's hand to keep her from getting infected.

I had a harder time watching him clean it off and re-wrap it! 

[BizBuzz]

We are in the middle of flooding, to biblical proportions, yes, I am building an ark ...

 

::giggle::

 

But seriously ... I was looking for something to watch yesterday cause going out was not an option, so I landed on Ridley Scott's A Day in the Life ... a documentary put together from videos from all sorts of people all over the world, on one day.

 

I was actually enjoying the hang out of it ... until there was a scene of them slaughtering a cow.

 

I couldn't find the remote fast enough to turn it off and I didn't watch the rest of it.

 

Yeah, I know this stuff goes on, but I didn't need to see it on my TV.  It's been a vision I can't un-see as of yet.

[Bruinsfan]

I just never accepted that a prostitute would look like Julia Roberts!

I suppose a high class call girl could, but I have seen streetwalkers plying their wares and they did not look like Julia Roberts. More like Charlize Theron in Monster. Or Wesley Snipes in To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar.