10 Intense Horror Movie Scenes You Couldn’t Watch

When it comes to Japanese cult cinema, you don’t get any bigger than madman auteur Takashi Miike and his fever-dream nightmare Audition, one of the films responsible for sparking the rise of J-horror in the west.

Adapted from Ryu Murakami’s novel of the same name, the film centres around mild-mannered widower Aoyama (Ryo Ishibashi) as he holds fake auditions to find a new potential partner. His search leads him to meet the quiet-spoken and mysterious Asami (Eihi Shiina). The pair immediately strike-up a romance, but when Asami suddenly disappears, Aoyama’s ensuing investigation into her whereabouts leads him to uncovering frightening secrets about who this woman really is.

It's during the film’s climax when Asami’s true nature is revealed in a scene that has since gone down in horror history infamy.

After drugging the unsuspecting Aoyama’s drink, Asami emerges to torture the now paralysed man with acupuncture needles by carefully placing them in precise locations to induce the most pain (including under his eyeballs) before amputating his foot with piano wire.

With expert sound design accentuating the sounds of metal piercing flesh, the scene plays out at an uncomfortably slow pace, ensuring viewers soak in every ounce of Aoyama's terror and pain.