10 Movies Audiences Couldn't Handle
Watching a movie isn't always an easy experience.
Arguably, the absolute minimum you can ask when watching a film is that you come out the other side of it happy with how you spent the last couple of hours of your life. Regardless of whether you were looking to laugh, to cry, to think, or any combination of the above, you want to be happy with your decision to watch it.
What you may not expect is for sitting in the cinema to feel like something akin to an endurance test.
Boundaries and limits are there to be pushed after all, and certain films actively look to see how far they can take them. Some covet shock value, while others try to give those watching a rush of adrenaline, a bout of fear, or even just to disgust them. Some of these have gone so far as to see physical, visceral reactions (some more serious than others), while others have seen audiences just give up entirely and leave the theatre.
In some instances, this represented success in what the film was trying to achieve, to an extreme degree perhaps, but you can't get more vindicated in trying to shock someone than by seeing people leave the cinema. Other results were more problematic, whether by causing genuine medical emergencies, or offending the masses way past the point a form of entertainment should...
10. The House That Jack Built
Shock value can be a powerful tool in movie-making and storytelling, with plenty of films flying as close to the sun as possible with the likes of violence, gore, and controversial themes. However, there is a line, something that Lars von Trier has crossed on multiple occasions.
The director was banned from the Cannes Film Festival in 2011, when he made comments about being sympathetic toward Hitler while screening his movie, Melancholia. Seven years later, the ban was lifted and he brought The House that Jack Built to the festival, only to offend yet again.
The story revolves around a serial killer, who not only murders women and children graphically and violently, but practices taxidermy on his victims. However, in spite of the tough-to-watch content of the film, it may have been the message that Jack (Matt Dillon) portrayed that audiences had a problem with.
At one point the character speaks about the injustice of men being assumed to be guilty, questioning why it's always the man's fault... as he's mutilating his girlfriend. It could have been this, it could have been the gratuitous violence, or it could have been a mix of both that caused over 100 people to walk out during the Cannes screening in 2018.
The producer tried to convey that the message was about the "psychological side of evilness", but it doesn't seem as though many saw it that way.