Kids
Diabel
Martyrs
Irreversible
Enter the Void
The Seventh Continent
All great films. What disturbs us and why?
I’ve seen Kids, Enter the Void, Irreversible and The Seventh Continent, but I’m very much interested in checking out the others, particularly Diabel. This is exactly the sort of film I was referring to (although I don’t mean to pigeonhole the actual films in this murky pseudo-genre), thanks for the recommendations!
Inside is pretty good, though not quite on par with those others, as is Carne.
What is your favorite film in this vein?
La Cabina
The Tenant
The Night of the Hunter
La Religieuse
The Sandman (1991)
Jacob’s Ladder
Carnival of Souls
Eraserhead
The Hitcher (1986)
Cache
^Have you seen all of those, Drew?
How could I forget: The Vanishing (Dutch version)
Aside from Noe and Haneke, I have enjoyed Death by Hanging, Fat Girl, Santa Sangre, Dogtooth, Naked, Don’t Look Now, Man Bites Dog, Clean, Shaven, The Tenant and the work of Alan Clarke.
i.e. The essentials and obvious choices
I’ve heard Arrabel works somewhat within the perimeters mentioned above, would you agree?
Kate, I’ve seen Cache, Carnival of Souls, Eraserhead, The Night of the Hunter and Jacob’s Ladder.
Third Part of the Night
How could I forget Von Trier:
Antichrist
Breaking the Waves
Dogville
Manderlay
Dancer in the Dark
La Cabina, La Religieuse and The Sandman look terrific.
I’ve seen the first three Von Trier films.
We should mention that real life is much more disturbing than fiction, and to that end I’ll add:
Juvenile Detention
Missile
Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son about His Father
Warrendale
The Act of Seeing with One’s Own Eyes
Tie Xi Qu: West of the Tracks
The Cove
You’ve probably seen it but Picnic at Hanging Rock
Wake in Fright
Peeping Tom (1960)
Deliverance (1972)
They Came Back (Robin Campillo)
Spider (David Cronenberg)
Habit (Larry Fessender)
River’s Edge (Tim Hunter)
Afterschool (Antonio Campos)
Bug (William Friedkin)
Birth (Jonathan Glazer)
Dead Ringers (David Cronenberg)
Cure (Kiyoshi Kurosawa)
Frownland (Ronald Bronstein)
Lunacy (Jan Svankmajer)
The Machinist (Brad Anderson)
Love Object (Robert Parigi)
Pulse (Kiyoshi Kurosawa)
Palindromes (Todd Solondz)
Possession! <3
Maybe you’d like some of Zulawski’s other stuff, like
L’amour braque
The Third Part of the Night
Szamanka
They are all pretty weird. (Still need to see some more of his films.)
Mmmmmh… There are so many classics of “disturbing” cinema. It’s hard to tell what disturbs a person. But for strange, perverse, tonally dark… somewhat obscure films… disquieting, taboo-busting cinema some suggestions from what I have seen so far:
Montana Sacra – Jodorowsky
El Topo – Jodorowsky
Fando y Lis – Jodorowsky
Viva la muerte – Arrabal
Salò – Pasolini
Sweet Movie – Makavejev
A Hole in my Heart – Moodysson
Trouble Every Day – Denis
Strange Circus – Sono
Funny Games – Haneke
Visitor Q – Miike
Audition – Miike
Gozu – Miike
The Free Will – Glasner
Natural Born Killers – Stone
La grande bouffe – Ferreri
In a Glass Cage – Villaronga
Vase de Noces – Zéno
Suspiria – Argento
Crash – Cronenberg
La bête – Borowczyk
… and some more I don’t remember at the moment. Though some nice classics of uncomfortable cinema, I think.
Another one that comes to mind is Dirty Dancing. The scene where Patrick Swayze jumps off the stage and twitches in some strange ways reminds me of Adjani’s remarkable breakdown in Possession. It’s pretty disturbing.
I’ve been getting more and more into Wakamatsu and Robbe-Grillet, that’s what I’m talking about.
Many, many great mentions above.
I’ll throw in Rob Zombie’s Director’s Cut of Halloween II. The most despairing film I’ve seen in quite some time. I don’t know what was going through Zombie’s mind then, but I cant imagine somebody happy making the film.
@JACK Felt the same way watching Rob Zombie’s Halloween II. Seriously disturbed and downright depraved shit at times. Wife couldn’t finish it. In fact she couldn’t finish most of these films…hey maybe that’s why I’m divorced now?!
Most have already been mentioned but a few I’ve seen that left a mental scar that lasted atleast a few days were:
Salo
Antichrist
Audition
El Topo
Hard Candy
Funny Games
Deliverance
Halloween II
Martyrs
Irreversible
The Exorcist
Pink Flamingos
I Spit on your Grave (78)
Last House on the Left (72)
The Butcher
Good call on Dear Zachary too above. Heart wrenching that one.
A lot of great stuff in this thread, and a lot of films being mentioned I have not seen, but are now on my radar. I’ll throw Bruno Dumont’s TWENTYNINE PALMS into the mix. It would make a pretty good triple bill with POSSESSION and ANTICHRIST.
Drew Boggemes
This may be a bit esoteric, but I’m looking for films that are strange, perverse, tonally dark etc. in the vain of Andrzej Zulawski’s Possession. This is not a plea for the greatest horror films, although horror is certainly welcome, I’m merely searching for somewhat obscure films that I may have overlooked that have the ability to shock and disturb whilst retaining a sense of cinematic competence. Other examples would include Repulsion, That Obscure Object of Desire and Scum. Again, I apologize if this is too vague a request, but I am simply tired of sifting through endless trash horror compilations in pursuit of some disquieting, taboo-busting cinema. Thanks in advance.