“Marat/Sade” – unnerving, voyeuristic and sweatily claustrophobic.
(Good call on “The Haunting,” Nicky. I was 5 when it played in my hometown, and I remember that even the poster – along with that of “Children of the Damned” – caused me to take a detour through the theater lobby.)
I’d have to go with Irreversible, The Island of Dr. Monroe, City of God and zombie films in general.
Nobody seems to have mentioned Claire Denis’ Trouble Every Day.
a clockwork orange, videodrome, dead ringers, crash, naked lunch(have a cronenberg fetish going here). straw dogs.
Irreversible – by Gaspar Noé
A Clockwork Orange
Salo (Pasolini)
At Last Years Toronto Film Festival, I saw this movie titled “Nothing is Private” by Alan Ball( who wrote "American Beauty and also used to write for the Show "Six Feet Under), and I can honestly say that perhaps this was the MOST disturbing film I have seen for many many years. The subject matter of the film was disturbing, but the way the story moves and the event structure was like very slowly being nailed for two hours. Though, it was still a great movie. Very well-acted, nice music score and incredibly political. I heard it will be opening in movie theaters in United States very soon. I highly recommend it to anyone who is very familiar with Ball’s previous work and likes it.
Everything Haneke immediately comes to mind.
Blood of the Beasts by Georges Franju
Begotten
El Topo
Bad Boy Bubby
Happiness
Salo (the most disturbing film of all time)
Irreversible
man bites dog (one of my favorites)
There are other disturbing films i can name but i can’t say i enjoyed many other disturbing films. maybe Sweet movie to some extent.
Irreversible,
can’t stop can’t stop can’t stop watching that guy getting his head smashed with a fire extinguisher.
it does make me sick, but just can’t stop watching.
What’s Noe doing next I wonder? Agree 100% Juan, that movie got disgusting hype because of the rape, but really the gratuitous violence that begins the film I found much more disturbing.
I think just on subject matter alone noe is having a hard time getting his next projected funded.
I heard he has a short film made about AIDS, but I am not sure it has been released yet. At least, not out side of festival circuits…I agree with all the comments about ‘Irreversible.’ I also thought “I Stand Alone” was incredibly disturbing…
Noe has a FANTASTIC project, he is shooting in Japan.
Enter the Void.
Story basically a p.o.v. of the soul of an American drug dealer in Tokyo,
that gets killed in the bathroom of a shady bar.
I’ve recently seen four 30second clips, and it looks terrific.
Very experimental tough.
It’ll be ready for Cannes next year.
Irreversible is one of those films that gets overshadowed by hype and rape-loathing/fetish reaction. Really it’s much more beautiful/ugly than its skin deep controversy, and the violence at the outset is just a prelude to one of the most amazing statements about misogyny ever committed to screen. I’m a big Noe fan. I’m extremely excited by news that he’s working on a new project. Where did you see the clips Juan?
In Cannes. Wild Bunch.
Read the script also, and felt like one of the most original pieces I’ve read in a long time.
Noe takes Kubrick’s 2001 as a strong point of departure for this film.
I think that if he is smart, and manages to balance the experimentalism and commercialness,
this film will be a classic.
Anybody see 13 Tzameti by Géla Babluani? Quite haunting and a great choice to shoot in B & W I thought; really added to the feeling of the inevitable. What did you think of it?
Happiness (I definitely agree with this one).
Night of the Hunter
Persona
Heavenly Creatures
The Snake Pit
I didn’t find 13 Tzameti “disturbing”
I just felt very very anxious while watching it.
Such a nice and simple film.
Too many to name…
Salo
Straw dogs
Come and see
Peeping Tom
Freaks
The Collector
Repulsion
Rosemary’s Baby
Eraserhead
Shivers
Rabid
Videodrome
Naked Lunch
Triumph of the will
I stand alone
What ever happened to baby jane?
Haxan: witchcraft through the ages
Thriller: A cruel picture
Glen or Glenda
Persona
Un chien andalou
The exterminating angel
Possession (1981)
Anything Fulci,
early Peter Jackson…
anything jodorowsky
lost highway and eraserhead
marnie
sisters (or rather, any of de palma’s genre-horror films)
a clockwork orange
anything todd solondz
definitely work up there that i admire and yet scares the pants off of me!
These are some of my personal favs:
Salo-The great Pier Paolo Pasolini
A Clockwork Orange-Kubrick
Ichi The Killer-Takashi Miike
Irreversible-Gaspar Noe
Maniac-William Lustig
Imprint-a short by Takashi Miike for Masters Of Horror
Pi-Darren Aronofsky
Un chien andalou(An Andalusian Dog)-Luis Buñuel
Caligola-Tinto Brass
and anything by Fulci,Argento,Cronenberg and Lynch.
A Clockwork Orange
Oldboy
Requiem for a Dream
Irreversible
Salo
Audition
Ichi The Killer
For me, all the Short Films of “David Lynch” fits very nicely in this category…
As well as Peter Greenaway’s “The Cook the Thief His Wife & Her Lover” and “La Haine”
Tesis
Cannibal Holocaust
Morven Callar
Baise-Moi
Santa Sangre
Audition
The Idiots
Irreversible
Eureka
The Shinning
Salo
+ all of the above
Great additions Valentine…I also LOVE Tesis… Such a fantastic film…
Irreversible and Oldboy
La Grande Bouffe
Holy Mountain
Sweet Movie
The Pillow Book
Blind Beast
Funny Games
The Empire of the Senses
the list could go on and on,many films other reviewers mentioned,Irreversible,Salo,The Beast,The Isle,The Idiots,The Celebration,the Virgin Spring,Oldboy….
I didn’t realize that that anyone had seen Fruit Chan’s Dumplings except me.
But my list starts and ends with Visitor Q.
Nicky Shipton
As mentioned above by Antoine… ‘The War Game’ – disturbing, thought-provoking and way ahead of it’s time.
And also…
‘Spoorloos’ (‘The Vanishing’), 1988 – Great film with one of the creepiest film endings ever…
‘The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’, 1974 – …to a film with one of the scariest opening credits sequences ever. And the rest of the film isn’t exactly ‘Mary Poppins’ either. Hmmmmm… Mary Poppins?
‘The Haunting’, 1963 – still unnerves me as much as the first time I saw it aged 12.
‘Nosferatu’, 1922 – no explanation required… shudders.
‘Elephant’, 2003 – haunting