Sometimes, things are better left to the imagination. Better yet, left to the imagination of the writers conjuring up those on-screen horrors that leave an indelible mark on our psyches; terrible things we didn’t know we’d witness, things we’d maybe not even considered before.
Imagine a world where you’d never watched The Godfather. You’d not have seen that guy wake up to find a horse’s head in his bed. Did you know that was a real head used in that scene? Knowing this fact made me want to unsee that moment. Or what about the eye-gouging in 28 Days Later (reprised to even more sickening effect in the sequel, 28 Weeks Later)? Yuck. It’s those kind of images – the ones that give cause to sit up, or wince in your seat, or avert your eyes suddenly (inevitably freezing that last vision in your brain forever).
The following list represents my top examples. I’ve applied some rules, though – no torture porn (the sub-genre is built around the whole premise you’ll see some things you wish you hadn’t, so that’s too easy); for the same reason, no extreme Asian cinema. I also ruled out shorts or experimental films (sorry, no Brunel eye-slicing). Oh, and no cannibal or serial killer movies.
Before you begin: those of you who are squeamish be warned – some of these entries will contain graphic descriptions of unpleasant/disturbing scenes!
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3 Comments
I’ve never seen Irreversible – on the list of ‘Movies So Reputedly Goddamn Awful I Have the Sick, Compulsive Need to See How Awful They Are’. Ditto Audition.
However, kudos for including the ‘curb stomp’ scene of American History X (still physically revolts me to this day) and the end scene in The Mist. I remember reading a few years back that Frank Darabont came out and said to Stephen King that he wanted to change the ending to The Mist, which is ambiguous in the source material. Well, apparently Stephen threw a bit of a hissy fit – he’s the TITAN of horror fiction, b*tch!
Until Frank revealed his re-worked ending. And King loved it. (As he would, the magnificently morbid bastard).
Oh, and for me, this list isn’t complete until you add the burnt, rotting hobo at the back of Winkie’s in Mulholland Drive. Once is enough – every other time I’ve watched that scene I’ve had to cover my eyes like a sissy.
I absolutely loved The Mist and the ending is a huge reason why. Brave and emotionally devastating, even Stephen King said publicly “It is the ending i wish i had written”.
Great list, though for me I wish I could unsee the whole of inglorious bastards, okay retain the opening scene and the fassbinder bar scene.
There are two movies I wished I could unsee for the effect they had on me, Tim Roths the War Zone starring Ray Winstone & Tilda Swinton that realisation of what was truly happening in that film took me to a place I did not want to go.
The other film is Requiem for a Dream the most powerful anti drug film that I’ve ever scene that had the opposite effect of making me what to take drugs to excise this from my mind