Movies you find hard to watch on account of the violence

[annika08]

Originally Posted by cyclone8570

Man Bites Dog (1992)
This is a mockumentary dark comedy. In the film a team of camera men follow a "serial killer" and film his crimes. However, they soon find themselves participating in the crimes to a greater and greater extent. I didn't find it very funny, but I found some scenes quite disturbing and violent because they seemed realistic.

Martyrs (2008)
I didn't watch it. Couldn't stomach this movie. I love the Saw series so that should tell you something about the film. Some people claim that this is the greatest horror movie of all time. I hope to one day be able to watch it, but I'm not sure I want that kind of psychological damage... some films are just too disturbing to be seen. This is one of those new horror genres more extreme then the "torture" movies-- "new French extremity horror." I recommend you watch at your own risk.

The violence in Martyrs was terrible and brutal, but the ideal behind it was even more psychologically disturbing IMO.

I've heard rumors an American remake is in the works...by the producers of those teenage Twilight movies.

[Nast]

Originally Posted by blkgiraffe

Yeah; I don't watch those type of movies. What draws me into a film is the story and development of it; not the gore or how much you can gross me out. Those horror films overseas are too much for me.

Man Bites Dog doesn't really qualify as a horror movie, but it was very violent and disturbing. It was made even more disturbing by the fact that it was done in a documentary style, that although now is quite prevalent (think The Office), was quite unique to me at the time and gave it a lot more realism. Although very difficult to watch at times, it was fascinating in it's prescience of the rise of reality television and film, and how far film makers might be willing to go to blur the line between reality and fantasy in order to make their point.

Not a recommendation for the movie for those with an aversion to violence, but it is worth watching if you have the stomach for it.

As an aside, I've seen it twice - once when it came out and then several years later when it was on VHS (yeah, I'm dating myself). The VHS version, which we rented from Blockbuster, had been somewhat "sanitized" for US consumption, and had omitted a couple of the most difficult to watch scenes. Of course, it was these scenes that were the most potent ones of the film, as they show how the filmmakers eventually crossed the line from being, in their minds, impartial documentarians of violence to actual participants in it. Without them, the film can easily come across as a celebration of gratuitous cinema violence rather than a thoughtful condemnation of it. I don't know if current versions you would get from Netflix (or wherever) would still be missing these scenes, because two viewings was really enough for me.

[pth]

Martyrs was defintely it for me. The torture and the psychological trauma...its a movie ill only watch once

[Malice27]

the hostel movies...just thinking about it makes my stomach turn.

[Trimac20]

Some of the horror films from the 70s and 80s could be incredibly gorey even for today's standards. Saw and Hostel are nothing new. There was this horror film from the 80s that was pretty violent I saw recently. The name escapes me for now. Scenes included the killer sticking a hook inside a girls vagina and tearing her open, slicing a guy into pieces with a chainsaw while he was still alive (it looked fairly realistic too). Hanging people on hooks etc. That's pretty typical for those sort of films. I used to find the chainsaw scene in Scarface disturbing (in the uncut version) but now after seeing this it's not all that bad.

I find alot of Tarantino films try to revel in sadism and morbid violence. Reservoir Dogs and Inglorious Basterds were a bit disturbing at times.

I actually found Gladiator pretty darn gory for a film that as only rated as 'MA.' I've seen many films rated 'R18+' for violence that were far tamer. Gladiator is far from the worst I've seen, but I find found it pretty gorey.

For me alot of the time it's about the type of violence; like others have mentioned the malice behind the violence in films like A Clockwork Orange or American History X is more horrifying than the more graphic but cartoonish violence of films like Death Race 2000 or those zombie flicks.

For all those who say watching violent films makes you more violent. I find watching those surgery shows far more disturbing than violent films because I know it's real. I'm pretty squeamish when it comes to blood and guts.