I was watching American History X last night and the curbstomp scene might be the worst scene in cinematic history. The specific part where you hear his teeth touching the concrete is unnerving, and makes you sick, which I guess is the pont of the scene. FOCUS: What are the most traumatizing scenes in mainstream cinema? Was the scene an integral part of the movie? Obviously, snuff films, porn, youtube, etc don't count.
While I've never been legitimately traumatized by anything in a film I can think of a couple of scenes that are memorable for all the wrong reasons. 1. The rape scene in A Clockwork Orange. Impossible to hear "Singin' in the Rain" without thinking about it. Definitely integral to the story because it shows just how evil Alex really is. 2. The "ear" scene from Reservoir Dogs. Similar reason as Clockwork, can you listen to "Stuck in the Middle" without thinking about someone getting their ear sliced off with a straight-edge razor?
There's a scene in Hard Candy where Ellen Page "performs" a castration. I can't see that scene without squirming. I've only seen the movie once, and parts of it another time, and every time I think about it I get uneasy
The first two that come to mind: Pretty much all of Se7en. The scene in The Green Mile where the french dude is executed and he's being tortured to death because of the dick prison guard.
Lots from Schindlers List. The worst is when the kid jumps into the latrine to hide and finds kids already down there who then try to shoo him off. Kids chest deep in piss and shit and this was his last resort from being gassed by the Nazis.
1976, Marathon Man. Dustin Hoffman receives some dental torture by Sir Laurence Olivier's character Christian Szell, an ex-Nazi. It's absolutely pivotal in the movie, as Hoffman's character has a realization of just who he's dealing with, and their lack of boundaries.
I only saw this movie once when it first came out but: The scenes in Red Dragon where people's eyes are replaced with broken shards of mirrors. That was plain fucking creepy. And it kinda goes with the title of the thread.
Any torture scene from Ichi the Killer. Also, the "goo" splatter during the opening credits is actual semen collected from all the male staffers on the set.
Funny that the only films I could think of were either Japanese, Hong Kong, or Italian. Guess they have the market cornered on this. And I'm only including films that I consider really good, if not masterpieces. Cheap gore/sexploitation makes me yawn, especially if the rest of the movie is crap; 1. Several parts in Takeshi Miike's "Imprint", including the needle torture scene. Ugh, and I thought I was completely desensitized to everything when I saw it. It's by far Miike's most extreme and brutal picture, and maybe the most disturbing, quality film ever made. 2. Piano wire torture in Miike's "Audition". Yeah, he would make many far more extreme movies, including "Ichi the Killer" mentioned above, but that was incredibly unsettling because of the first half of the film. 3. The double penetration rape scene at the beginning of "Lonewolf and Cub: Baby Cart to Hades". For an epic film series with countless hundreds of insane kills and endless gallons of blood, and typically restrained rape scenes (I can't believe I just typed that...), this was a bit extreme. The mother's cries for mercy were quite heart-rending. 4. The family massacre scene in "The Untold Story". I would say the child killing was probably more concerning than the creative and brutal rape. 5. Several of the tortures in the "Five Deadly Venoms". For being possibly the most influential and famous kung fu film ever, I was surprised at how many torture scenes there were. The suffocation and meat hook deep inside the mouth were probably the worst. 6. Continual stabbing of an exposed, beating heart in "Suspiria". While a great horror movie, it was quite tame in terms of content...but that part did make me feel uncomfortable. 7. Another Argento film, "Tenebrae", had some insane kills. The arm being hacked off and spurting blood everywhere, while it sounds like nothing much, was shot and presented so well, it actually became unsettling. 8. The most disturbing and horrific moment I can remember seeing in a film. At the very end of "Seven Beauties", once the protagonist has returned to his hometown. Wow. Affects me more than everything listed above combined.
The boo box from Hook This video doesn't do it justice. I was TERRIFIED of this part when I was a kid. Also: Sybil's mother still freaks me out as a 24 year old.
I sat through 2 girls 1 cup, mr hands, the video of a chick shooting eels out of her vag, i've seen tubgirl/goatse/lemon party et all, but I absolutely can't stand watching sports injuries where some dudes knee explodes or his leg breaks. The scene in Hostel where the guy gets his Achilles tendon sliced made me cringe like a baby, and in one of the Saw movies where the guys joints are slowly rotated and snapped, could not watch that part.
The scene in Scarface where his first big drug deal goes wrong and the chainsaw comes out. You don't even see anything that violent, but the way the scene builds tension with the long, single shot with slow panning and the contrast of the women in bikinis outside made me squirm the first time I saw it. It is integral because this whole movie is about how Scarface is hard as fuck, this is the scene that firmly establishes that fact.
The scene in Dread (2009) where the chick with the fucked up birthmarks that cover a shitload of her body(don't remember the name of the condition) is scrubbing herself with bleach and steel wool is permanently etched into my mind forever. Good god.
I later intro-ed a college paper with how watching that was basically one of the defining moments of my childhood. It's fucked up.
Really? I watched the film around that same age (think I was about 11), and thought it was completely awesome. It had a lot of blood, like every good action film should, and some rape, but I never really considered it "disturbing", since it was just presented as the result of fighting, not torture. The one unsettling image in that film was later on, where that same samurai captain has both arms missing, his eyes gouged out, and mouth sewn shut. Yuck! Speaking of which, that particular director has made some other even more amazing, dark, and mature anime films. (With marginally less blood and rape, though)
I've jerked off to the rape scene in Irreversible and the Ass to Ass scene in Requiem for a Dream. The Injection into an infection and amputation scene in Requiem for actually grossed me out though. The 'Face Mask' in 'The Devil's Rejects' is probably the worst eye bleach moment from a big movie though - no idea why, it's not really that bad compared to other stuff I've seen - but ych.
Haven't watched it. I was thinking of "Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust" and "Highlander: Vengeance". Focus- Watched a film yesterday that had pretty good tension; Witchfinder General (1968), where Vincent Price plays Matthew Hopkins, who is appointed by the Cromwell government to investigate charges of witchcraft during the English Civil War. With his loyal underling, he tortures and kills his victims. While far below my usual standards for graphic death, violence, and rape, I feel it deserves credit because of the chilling performance by Price, the demented, horrifying screams of the women being killed, and the completely placid, satisfied faces of the villagers gladly assisting in the executions, watching their neighbors die. The fact that similar events really happened is just a bonus. And of course, it's a really good film, with a lot more plot and complexity than the mere torture summary I provided above.