I recently saw “Rampage” from 2009. Its basically a movie where a spree shooter is portrayed as the good guy/anti-hero. Several parts gave me that pit in your stomach, teeth gritting uncomfortable moment. I really hated it. Although I’m not surprised there are sequals I am disappointed and will not be watching them.
Seeing Robin Williams play a creep in 1 Hour Photo was unsettling. Especially the scene where he is imagining being part of the family whose home he has broken into and is just casually doing stuff in.
Also Grave of the Fireflies for being the greatest movie I never want to see again for reasons that will only be clear ig you also watch it.
Falling Down (1993). The main character attacking minorities, saying American conservative shit, and enablement of urban paranoia was pretty unsettling. The black comedy undertones did get me to chuckle once or twice, but overall just an upsetting thinking of some people sympathizing with the MC in a way that led conservatism to what it is today. The fact that he killed a neonazi does not balance it out.
Curiously, when I saw it, I picked up that the guy was crazy and violent, and saw it as a horror film following the monster.
Years later, I’d learn that it was popularly seen as a white-guy underdog movie set (and produced) during the Rodney King crisis and the police war on gangs.
I’ve heard of it but never seen it
It wasn’t horrible at the time but in hindsight it really is some kind of conservative underdog fantasy.
Been a long time since I’ve seen this movie, but I always thought the point of the neonazi was specifically to point out how alike the two were. At the end of the scene where he kills him, the scene is shot in a reflection in a mirror. He kills the nazi, nazi drops out frame in the reflection, leaving just the MC, who then shoots and shatters the mirror itself.
Wasn’t he also watching the neonazi through reflections in a store’s security mirrors earlier? It’s really been a long time.
I always assumed the point of the movie was to show how stupid the idea of the “White Man’s Burden” and white persecution complex was, with some critique of American exceptionslism thrown in.
I shouldn’t be surprised that some people took the exact opposite from the film and empathize with the MC. Kind of reminds me of Fight Club in that sense.
I always wished I had an eye for that kind of thing; no I haven’t noticed that!
I always assumed the point of the movie was to show how stupid the idea of the “White Man’s Burden” and white persecution complex was, with some critique of American exceptionslism thrown
Throughout the movie, I wanted it to be satirical, and wanted to believe that it was exactly this because of how ridiculous and exploitative aspects of this movie are. But there so many moments where the film was intentionally trying to get me to sympathize for the character and made it feel very sincere.
I shouldn’t be surprised that some people took the exact opposite from the film and empathize with the MC. Kind of reminds me of Fight Club in that sense.
Absolutely this, and in more extreme cases with movies like American History X too. But American History X’s message is obvious to me and I really believe you’d have to be pretty moronic, as neonazis usually are, to believe it’s a pro-white supremacy movie and feel empowered by it. Fight Club is more subtle, but I believe it gives more opportunity for people not to identify with the opposite of the message, even for those that don’t know or get it. I just didn’t feel that way about Falling Down.
But I don’t know man, you’ve actually inspired me to want to rewatch it; see if I feel any differently.
Gasland
Lmao it doesn’t matter if I capitalize it or put it in the first few words of the post
Grave of the fireflies.
The Wrestler (2008)
Requiem For a Dream (2000)
Thank you Darren Aronofsky.
The Cell (2000)
Thank you Tarsem Dhandwar Singh
Great answers
The Cell is very pretty, but it’s plot is so wafer thin that it borders on ridiculous.
Threads - UK based movie from 1984 which is a speculative fictional account of what would happen in the event of a nuclear war.
That’s my pick as well
That’s a tough one to get though. Check out “When the Wind Blows” for an animated take on the same topic. It’s equally as bleak for different reasons.
Want some dread from an animated movie? Watership Down, especially the original, was nightmare fuel in my wife’s childhood.
Definitely agreed. Also “The Secret of NIMH” will always remain in my memory from childhood.
One of our cats has the same eyes as Dragon.
That final scene of her face after giving birth.
For me it was The Butterfly Effect.
Spy Kids disturbed me as a kid because of the idea of people being turned into fooglies. The film doesn’t even show them being changed back, I guess we’re supposed to assume it. Why couldn’t they have a scene at the end where the rescued agents videochat with the cortezes and thank them? The movie also has kind of a creepy atmosphere. I revisited it a bunch of times and kept being disturbed. Then I watched it again at age 30, fully prepared to be triggered by certain scenes but weirdly, I wasn’t. It’s just a normal movie to me now, and a pretty good one for what it is
All quiet on the western front
It’s a movie about a German soldier during WWI, really trying to convey the horrors of war.
Pasolini’s Salo/120 Days of Sodom - Nobody ever regrets watching it.
Bad Boy Bubby - One of many grim Aussie films of that era. A classic.
The Warzone - Tim Roth’s directorial feature. Incestuous rape introducing Colin Farrell in his feature debut.
Drowning By Numbers/ A Zed and Two Noughts - Peter Greenaway shoots his films like renaissance paintings. Do you like lots and lots of snails on naked bodies? No? Tough. The Michael Nyman scores are terrific though.
You can pretty much take your pic with any of Lars Von Triers films. Breaking the Waves, Antichrist, Dogville etc.
Festen - which is Danish but NOT a Lars Von Trier film is probably the best Dogme 95 films of all. Including that fucking MAGAT Harmony Korine. Don’t know if this is that haunting but a good film anyway.
Come and See - Yes yes come and see! and in the vein of horrible WW2 films…
Salon Kitty - Tinto Brass before he went full porno.
Baise Moi - FUCK ME! No really that’s what its called.
Christiane F : Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo - Not a documentary but based on fact.
Reckon that should be enough. Happy viewing! LOL.
The War Zone is a great pick here. Tim Roth’s contributions in this sphere are notable, that was his directorial debut, and before that his acting debut was playing a teenage skinhead in Made in Britain which fits the criteria too.
someone mentioned Michael Haneke elsewhere, Roth is in the english language remake of Funny Games, another film that meets the requirements and one of the the few remakes worth watching, due to it being a) an exact replica of the original but in english and b) having tim roth in it
Do you know I have had Funny Games on DVD for years and I haven’t watched it. I got so burned out by dark films that I have to ‘fall’ into watching them organically somehow. Like either they are on and I get pulled in or I have to creep up on them without quite realising/admitting they’re going to be a fucking brutal trip, or go see them at the cinema.
You sound like your a bit of a film buff as well. What have you watched recently that you rate or hate?
yeah, you never know what will get to you but for what it’s worth i think Funny Games is less dark than many mentioned here
i’ve been lax at watching and noting down what i’ve watched lately but two newish ones that stood out were MadS (2024) and the Toxic Avenger remake (probably in it’s favour that i saw it after the relatively disappointing Street Trash one). also yet another rewatch of From Dusk Till Dawn which is always a winner for me
MadS looks good. I will dl it tonight. Haven’t seen the Toxic Avenger remake but I have it on the server, but tbh I’d probably rather rewatch Tromeo and Juliet. Some films have a magic to them and that film is a sputtering dark candle in a gutter o’erflowed with filth.
I recently rate The Surrender 2025, Bring Her Back 2024 (not just cos I have a thing for Sally Hawkins) and if you haven’t seen it When Evil Lurks from 2023. All scratched the horror itch.
Agree on the pointless Street Trash remake. Feels like ‘they’ have done that a lot recently, i.e. remake schlock and double down on the shit bits in some kind of ironic crapfest. Like with the new Anaconda film. Why not just remake something good instead of microwaving crap bc they got the IP for pennies.
Troma of course a mixed bag but i have a big soft spot for more or less anything of theirs, agree T&J high up the ranking
cheers for The Surrender, haven’t come across that, i’ll get it to add to Bring Her Back already on the backlog
When Evil Lurks is excellent, very high stakes, noone safe. And even though ST wasn’t much cop the same guy made Fried Barry before that which i think you might like
Thanks for the recommendation for Fried Barry, looks like a lot of fun. Much Appreciated! I haven’t watched anything out of South Africa for years. Not since Oats Studios which feels like a million years ago now.
Ah yes. The ‘Backlog’. I keep seeing films come up on Kodi or Jellfin that I would quite like to watch but there’s always a ‘but’. I don’t know quite when I started obsessively paying attention to exactly how long a film runs but probably somewhere around the same time I started asking myself: “Am I going to fall asleep after an hour?” and “Will I bother picking it up again tomorrow if I do?” Lee Cronin’s The Mummy almost fell by the wayside, saved only by the young woman playing the titular being (I thought) rather good (also is he trying for a Clive Barker thing or is just to avoid confusion with Tom Cruise’s The Mummy?)
Sometimes I even start films I know for a fact I am not going to watch just so I can sit there grumbling for fifteen minutes or so. In much the same way you might speculate over the existence of an especially egregious turd - “The size! the smell! Who would lay such a thing!?” The Bone Keeper is the most recent one I can remember the name of. Though there seems to be a recent glut of Loosely Lovecraft films that seem to be made of old dried up bits of Shoggoth shit.
I am quite enjoying Widow’s Bay though. Thirty five minutes, a monster of the week and it’s funny.
I found some scenes from the movie ‘Amistad’ (1997) deeply disturbing, and they haunt me to this day (as they should any sane human being).
Hostage, it was a mediocre to decent Bruce Willis action flick about teenagers holding a family for ransom. It’s been a long time since I saw it, but I remember one of the villains being incredibly unsettling and disturbing throughout.
Kids, Requiem for a Dream
The smartest guys in the room, Doc about the demise of Enron. Illustrates the deadend street of capitalism.
Lmao ignored all instructions
When I was a 13-year-old girl who didn’t know she was queer I watched The House Bunny at my friend’s sleepover birthday party and ran out of the room crying because it confirmed all my fears about young adulthood.
