10 Disturbing Films Rated NC-17

9. Descent (2007)

Descent Maya is a burgeoning artist and in her senior year at college. She goes to a frat party and meets Jared who sweet talks her into a date. They go to a restaurant and then back to his apartment to 'talk'. Jared viciously rapes and racially abuses Maya who undergoes a personality change after the event. She graduates and gets a job in a clothes shop but she struggles with depression and addiction as a result of what happened to her. Out late one night, Maya enlists the help of a DJ called Adrian. She tells him what happened to her and he agrees to wreak revenge upon Jared. Maya seeks out Jared, brings him home with the promise of sex and when she gets him in a prone position, Adrian rapes Jared a couple of times while Maya threatens to publicly expose him. At the end of the act, Maya looks melancholy and has a tear in her eye indicating that she is still not over the ordeal she went through and the revenge hasn't satisfied her. Although it is merely a fairly decent rape-revenge movie, Rosario Dawson is always interesting to watch and she does a pretty good job with the character of Maya - sparkling, ambitious and vivacious prior to her rape ordeal - and then a numb creature, hurtling to self destruction through drugs and alcohol. The sexual violence in the film is strong enough to merit an NC-17 rating with the scenes of Jared being sodomised by Adrian particularly hard to watch. The film is a lot more ambiguous in its avenging of the rapist than most rape-revenge movies. Maya doesn't seem to have found any joy in her revenge against Jared. Contrast that to the determined way Jennifer coolly dispatches of her rapists in I Spit On Your Grave and the feeling of justice she has at the end of the movie. Maya's ending is a lot more ambiguous and thoughtful, and probably more true to life.
Contributor
Contributor

My first film watched was Carrie aged 2 on my dad's knee. Educated at The University of St Andrews and Trinity College Dublin. Fan of Arthouse, Exploitation, Horror, Euro Trash, Giallo, New French Extremism. Weaned at the bosom of a Russ Meyer starlet. The bleaker, artier or sleazier the better!