10 Disgusting Horror Movies You Watch And Then NEVER Forget

Miike was asked to direct an episode of Masters of Horror due to his horror credentials and this film, Audition, is probably the centerpiece of his reputation.

Audition is the story of a man who gets involved with a woman hiding dark secrets. Those secrets emerge in a flurry of disgusting imagery and innovatively painful violence. That’s about all that can be said without ruining the twists and turns of the narrative, though, if you’ve heard about this film before, you probably have a good idea of what’s coming.

Its last act is horrible, but what that finale is preceded by is fairly tame. It’s almost sickly comedic as the film gets started with the main character basically auditioning women to be his new girlfriend. The main character’s actions are uncomfortable and misogynistic, but might leave the viewer wondering “where are the piano wire, acupuncture, and unconventional eating habits (if you’ve seen the film, you know what unfortunate, regurgitation-related gastronomic practices I’m referring to) that have made the film famous?”

And then it hits.

The film goes mad and the already uncomfortable set up and misogyny of the first half of the film gets wrapped up in a flurry of severed limbs and vomit-based horror. It’s truly unnerving in its suddenness, resulting in either a shock if you don’t know what’s coming, or an experience of anxiety as you wait for that disgusting end. It’s unsurprising then that Miike was such an influence on the torture films to come in the 21st century. His knack for cruelly playing with his audience and subjecting them to sudden, grotesque acts of violence put his prints on much of the mainstream horror that found its way to screens in the past 20 years.