10 Films That Want You To HATE Them

This is Gaspar Noé's second appearance in this article, and with good reason.

Two friends go on a reverse journey through the streets of Paris, enacting bloody vengeance in lieu of a comatose and sexually assaulted female friend. The film's reverse chronology builds layer on layer of deep emotional pain and physical violence, giving ever more reasons to question and despise the protagonists, and complicating events with further bleak nuggets of plot each time the audience is allowed a second to breathe.

From the seizure inducing opening credits, Irréversible treats the viewer with the same contempt as its protagonists. Shoving it in your face and keeping it there for a gruelling 99 minutes, the film takes a blow-by-blow journey through a series of events that neither the viewer nor the film can ultimately reverse.

Noé's experimental psychological nightmare is as self-aware as they come, going so far as to have one protagonist warn the other off 'B-movie revenge s**t', whilst rampantly indulging in something far worse.

But it doesn't stop there. Every element of the film is designed to disorient: the roller coaster camera ducks, rolls and dives ever deeper into its grim subject matter; and it even employs a sub-audible low-frequency drone throughout two-thirds of its runtime to inspire anxiety and discomfort in viewers.

It is nonetheless compelling and fascinating viewing, informing us from the off that we have never had a cinematic experience like this. Irréversible is undeniably a dreadful masterpiece whose mission it is to make you loathe it.