The murder scene in Strangers on a Train — she’s young, foolish, vulnerable, and pregnant.
Also the accidental death of Gregory Peck’s brother in Spellbound.
The “Be Black Baby” scene from De Palma’s Hi, Mom! was pretty out there. Shot very effectively as well.
Both Japanese movies. The “cutting” scene in The Realm of the Senses and The Audition (which became the Saw movies). I was not even able to get halfway through the latter movie.
Definitely the scene in Das Experiment when the main character is locked up in “The Box”, which is about 3′×3′. I almost puked from the anxiety of the entire movie. To say I was traumatized would be an understatement. It’s a really incredible film though.
The opening in Un Chien Andalou. The ball getting burst by the blade and the liquid seeping out of it sure got me.The extreme close-up also seemed to work so I could see it in all its gory detail.
Harriet Anderson’s screaming in Cries and Whispers. Or when the girl eats the bread filled with nails in Salo. And I should definitely mention the rape scene in Irreversible. Oh and the scene where Elena doesn’t have sex in Fat Girl.
Yes, I vote also for DePalma’s “Be Black Baby” sequence.
More recently, I’d say the very brutal spousal beating in Gary Oldman’s Nil By Mouth: it isn’t merely dramatic or stylish, it’s something pulled from Oldman’s childhood, and it was just short of seeing such a thing happen in reality.
Murphy’s execution in ROBOCOP.
Mulholland Drive, when Diane Selwyn meets her end. Though it’s really the cumulative effect of the whole movie.
Testament, any number of scenes; I mean, it’s a film about nuclear fallout. But it’s the subtlety that makes it devastating; when a character is present in one scene and absent in the next, you feel the horror of the implication — as when one of the kids in the school play is referred to as “out sick.” Gulp.
This one’s a bad movie, but the scene in The Strangers when Liv Tyler answers her door and the faceless girl says, so creepily, “Is Tamara home?” It gets to me because it’s so random and unexplained (who the hell is Tamara??), and feels like something that could actually happen. It messed with my head for weeks.
The actual killing of the giant tortoise in Cannibal Holocaust…
Ten minutes in an alley in Irreversible.
A few of the scenes from Mysterious Skin are always the first that come to mind when I think about disturbing or traumatizing images.
A few of the scenes from Mysterious Skin are always the first that come to mind when I think about disturbing or traumatizing images.
I don’t know what the hell just happened
Ah, you were so traumatized, you had to repeat the post thrice. Let’s see. I think watching THAT scene in Spanking the Monkey with my mother was pretty traumatizing! It’s all about context.
murder scene and rape scene in irreversible
murder scene and rape scene in irreversible
“Or when the girl eats the bread filled with nails in Salo”
this,
i don’t usually get squeamish but this scene, as well as the scene with the bamboo sword in Harakiri always get to me.
can’t think of many “traumatizing” moments though.
i agree on the salo bread scene
I wouldn’t say that I’ve seen a lot of films with disturbing images, but the one that most recently got to me was the suicide in “Cache” (“Hidden”). I think it really affected me because the scene was so unlike the conventional death scene from Hollywood films. I was expecting something serious to happen, but not in that way.
Though it’s probably not all that terrifying, the ghost nuns in “High Spirits” terrified me as a child, and through some Freudian flaw in my design, continue to haunt my dreams and waking life. Those eyes…
Wow I’m surprised not just one but two people agree with me on the bread scene. Since the film has rape, and penises being burnt with fire, etc. this small and scarring part is never talked about. It is so sad how she is so happy to finally get some food, and bam she starts throwing up blood. I swear to you I have not eaten bread (like that) without cutting it open since I saw Salo!
Agree on Testament, and also the last scene in Threads, a British treatment of the aftermath of a nuclear conflagration. Of course, there is the Ned Beatty thing in Deliverance – I don’t know what was more traumatizing, that, or the very last shot of the film.
I can’t pick just one-
In a Glass Cage- when Angelo injects the little boy with gas. Dear lord that was difficult to watch. I saw an interview where the director explained how he coached the actor into pretending he was dying, but it still registers onscreen in an eerily realistic way. I suppose the rest of the film after that could also be considered.
Mulholland Dr.- the Man behind Winkies. Still one of the only scenes that makes me cover my eyes. Sometimes I can handle the reveal, sometimes I can’t.
Come and See- when Florya is running away from his village with the girl and she looks back and sees piles of dead bodies hidden behind a house. That and the aural overload as Florya struggles through the mud made me very uncomfortable.
Funny Games- the entire film just brought up too many “what if’s” in my mind.
The whole 29 minutes of Cutting Moments. Nothing has destroyed me more than that film.
I do love it though.
Pasolini’s “Saló” is traumatizing and disgusting. I guess some people would also mention “Bambi” :)
Taxidermia, the futuristic machine cut off the head of the main character…
the 6 minutes of Dante Quartet…one of the many…
The scene in Clean, Shaven where he removes his fingernail with a pocketknife. The whole movie is SO uncomfortable.
Rape scene in Man Bites Dog when Remy finally crosses his moral line and particpates. ughhh….
The “back-rub” scene in Mysterious Skin
D. Voluntaryist
What scene out off all the film’s you have seen made you the most uncomfortable? What about it?
To me it goes to the rape scene in Straw Dogs. I think it was how she started to get into it.