Did You Ever Find a Movie Too Disturbing to Watch?

Paladin1950

Still love 50's & 60's music!
For me it was the 1932 movie Freaks, directed by Tod Browning. Turner Classic Movies showed it yesterday. The original version was even more disturbing. So they edited parts of it. The original version of the movie no longer exists. Maybe that's for the best. By the time I saw this movie, I had already seen little people, but people born with no arms or legs, was new to me. It was both shocking and disgusting to me when I was younger. Especially the man that crawled around like a snake. He was often nicknamed The Human Torso.
Freaks (1932 film) - Wikipedia
 

I have a fairly strong stomach for just about anything produced in Hollywood and I've sat through some very disturbing movies where I even questioned whether watching was in some way harming myself. But the answer is not a definitive yes or no either. I have turned off disturbing movies, not because they were disturbing, but because I wasn't in the mood to watch that crap. Pardon my language, but that is precisely the thought in my head when I decide to turn it off; "I don't want to watch this crap." Sometimes I'm just not willing to be revolted by some director trying to yank my strings.
 

Good question, Paladin. If I think I'll be upset by a particular film, I simply won't watch it, but you can't always tell. One of the Hammer films used to bother me....the scene in Dracula where the sun rises and he disintegrates. Also the scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark, where the thing explodes and everyone melts.
 
There’s two:

Pandorum the 2009 sci-fi horror film where two astronauts awake to their ship inhabited by cannibals.

Schwarzer Kies the 1961 film noir with Ingmar Zeisberg, the German Marylin Monroe. What an ending!
 
Movies that are fictional never bother me regardless of how disturbing they are, whether the movie depicts violence or some other inhumane action or just sad reality of life. I can usually shake off those movies and move on.

It is the movies based on true events that disturb me the most. Once I start a movie, tv show or a book, I will finish it to the end regardless of how much I find it disturbing. Especially movies based on true events. I feel finishing the movie, book or show is a way to "validate" what is being depicted.

I think the last movie that I found too disturbing to watch, but finished watching it was The Sound of Freedom.

I do believe Hollywood needs to stop with all the fictional movies and tv shows about gangs and gang violence. But that is a topic for another time.

These are the reasons why I never watch any movie twice. Only on a rare occasion will I watch a movie a 2nd time.
 
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Yes. It was a European horror film that I've forgotten the name of because I had to stop watching it. I'm not sure if Klaus Kinski appeared in it or not.

Also I found the TV series The Walking Dead too disturbing after they introduced the character Neagan who beat people to death with a baseall bat.
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For me it was the 1932 movie Freaks, directed by Tod Browning. Turner Classic Movies showed it yesterday. The original version was even more disturbing. So they edited parts of it. The original version of the movie no longer exists. Maybe that's for the best. By the time I saw this movie, I had already seen little people, but people born with no arms or legs, was new to me. It was both shocking and disgusting to me when I was younger. Especially the man that crawled around like a snake. He was often nicknamed The Human Torso.
Freaks (1932 film) - Wikipedia
I read that one disabled person said that putting themselves on display was the only way they could earn a living--such as it was ........
 
The movie ‘Mother’ was very disturbing.

  • Darren Aronofsky's film mother! is a divisive, aesthetically aggressive movie that operates along the lines of dream logic and symbolism rather than character and plot.
  • The film is an allegory about God and the Earth, with Javier Bardem's character symbolizing God and Jennifer Lawrence's character representing Mother Earth.
  • The movie explores biblical allegories, including the story of Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, and the birth of the Messiah, while also addressing themes of humanity's downfall and the abuse of Mother Earth.
It had crowds of people literally ripping a baby apart . VERY DISTURBING!

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