Ok...I know this topic has been done like a million times on here, but I haven't seen it in a while, so I'm gonna refresh it.

Name some effed up films...

I'll start...


Salo - No explanation for anyone who has seen this. I brought it to film class one day & served fudge. True story.

I Stand Alone & Irreversible - Gaspar Noe must have some issues.

The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things - Asia Argento directs

Bad Boy Bubby - Hadn't seen it in a while, but I remember thinking wtf?

Ex Drummer - Kinda caught me by surprise. Pretty sick.

Jack Ketchum's The Girl Next Door & An American Crime (basically the same film both equally disturbing).

Visitor Q - Pretty much touches on every taboo imaginable.

Haven't seen it yet, but I heard Serbian Film tops them all. I am dying to see it, but I can't find a copy anywhere.

I have more, but I wanna read some other people's posts first.

Antichrist - One of the most horrific and disturbing films I have ever seen.

Ah...yes. Lars Von Trier. His films seem to have some sort of unease to them.

First time I watched Antichrist was on my laptop (with my ex), we were just getting through the opening credits (shower scene) and it froze right on Defoe's nutsack. Haha. I'll never forget that.

And lemonade?

In my early 20's I used to seek out all these films trying to find the most disturbing film. Not so much now unless something really peaks my curiosity.


Cannibal Holocaust- Even without the real animal killings it's probably the bleakest and depressing of all of the Italian Jungle Cannibal flicks.

Angst '83- Probably the most disturbing serial killer film I've seen.

Henry: Portrait Of A Serial Killer- The second most disturbing.


Tenderness of the Wolves- Another disturbing serial killer film. Loosely based on German pedophile/serial killer Fritz Haarmann aka The Vampire of Hanover.


Combat Shock- Downbeat and depressing story about a Vietnam vet trying to survive.

I love Troma, but they were the wrong company to distribute this film, it was obvious they had no idea what to do with it, which led to very misleading poster/VHS art which made the film look like a cheesy war-action movie, and Combat Shock is anything but.


In A Glass Cage- A paralyzed former Nazi doctor/pedophile has the tables turned on him as one of his victims performs his own Nazi experiments on him.


Last Cannibal World- Another disturbing Italian cannibal flick, also from Ruggero Deodato(Cannibal Holocaust)


Island Of Deadth aka Devils in Mykonos- British couple go on a raping/killing spree while vacationing on a Greek island, and humans aren't the only victims.


Titicut Follies- a 1967 documentary about a Massachusetts institution for the criminally insane.


Clean, Shaven- A schizophrenic man is desperate to get his daughter back. Very downbeat.


Jörg Buttgereit's Der Todesking- 7 days in a week, and on each day a horrible death.

Jörg Buttgereit's Schramm: Into the Mind of a Serial Killer- A dying serial killer flashes back over his grim disturbing life.


Forced Entry '73- A Vietnam vet hunts down and kills women. Remade a couple of years later as watered-down R rated version with Tanya Roberts.


Last House On Dead End Street- An ex-con kidnaps women to star in his snuff films.

Because all of the people involved used pseudonyms rumors started going around that actual deaths were on film. I'd love to find a copy of the infamous 175 minute cut.



Night Train Murders- Two men and a woman torment two teen girls on a train.

A 70's Italian Last House On The Left rip-off, but in my opinion, a far superior, and more disturbing film than Craven's film.


Goodbye Uncle Tom '71 aka Addio zio Tom. Italian faux-documentary about 2 film makers who travel back in time to the 1800's American South during the slave trade.

The subject matter alone is disturbing, but what's even more disturbing was how it was filmed, cruel doesn't even begin to describe it.


Men Behind The Sun- Chinese film about Japan's torturing/experimenting on war prisoners during WWII.


Water Power- The Enema Bandit goes on an enema spree. Inspired by real life Michael H Kenyon who went on a robbery/enema spree for a decade.(Michael also became the basis of the Frank Zappa song- The Illinois Enema Bandit.)


I Spit On Your Grave The original. I still think it packs a punch, and the absence of music that many consider a negative, I actually think adds to its realism.

Thriller: A Cruel Picture The grandaddy of rape/revenge flicks.


And probably one of the weirdest of them all- Wedding Trough
A farmer falls in love with one of his pigs, and they have mutant piglets together....

Nice list. I've seen a few mentioned. That scene with the animal in Cannibal Holocaust got to me. Just the whole realism of it & the poor thing was squealing. Ughhh. The turtle scene didn't bother me as much.

I found Combat Shock more absurdly amusing than depressing. Musta been the Troma label. Haha.

Don't remember much of In A Glass Cage. Must not have had that great of an impact on me.

I've been searching for a copy of Der Todesking for years. Finally had to settle on Nekromantik 1 & 2. Both very dark & depressing.

Men Behind The Sun was pretty brutal. Also (along the same lines) Philosophy of a Knife.

I actually own both versions of Goodbye Uncle Tom. Talk about some hardcore exploitation there huh? Wow...

Mondo Cane was kinda weird, but too fake.

I was jaded by my first viewing of the original I Spit On Your Grave. I must have got a bum copy because there was barely any audio. I do remember thinking that it must have been extremely brutal for it's time though.

I also own a copy of Thriller : A Cruel Picture. The only part that stands out for me was the slow motion fight scene that lasted like 20 minutes.

I must seek out the others you mentioned. I still can't find an "unwatchable" film. Hard to watch...yes. Especially anything involving animal cruelty (particularly dogs). Amores Perros was extremely hard for me, but such a great film.

I think people are disturbed by different things, also some of these if I was seeing for the first time now they probably would have a different effect on me. I saw the original I Spit On Your Grave in my teens before I really knew about all of the controversy and hype.

There's also the August Underground movies, but I found Mordum dull, so I didn't bother with their others.

A lot of people found The Human Centipede movies disturbing, but I thought they were funny.

Another film I found disturbing was Nathan Schiff's Vermillion Eyes. Supposedly the company that released his previous films (They Don't Cut The Grass Anymore, The Long Island Cannibal Massacre) on DVD backed out at the last minute on releasing VE because of some of the content. I didn't know much about the film going in, I think I was expecting it to be humorous like his early movies. But it wasn't, it was a bleak surreal film about a man who starts losing the ability to distinguish between reality and fantasy, and he goes out with a video camera and films accidents, and pretty soon starts killing. Part of why it worked for me was the quality of the film, shot on Super 8, it really looked like you were watching something real.

Speaking of being jaded- Faces Of Death, after finding out most of it was staged, though I give them credit for the realism. Also the 70's flick Snuff...which had the whole big mystery of being real- this was before Internet, and all the access we have to films. So when I finally did watch it and saw how fake it was...sigh.

Italy was bad about animal cruelty, though American films were bad before the ASPCA got involved, especially westerns.

One of the worst for animal cruelty I saw was the '84 Italian killer animal flick Wild beasts - Belve feroci. I didn't know at the time, but then read about it later. Haven't watched it again.