10 Movies Audiences Couldn't Handle

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.