IMHO, Salò is one of the best movies ever made, but not exactly something you can invite your friends over for a movie night. It’s not just going for shock value, there’s something more about the way that fascism and power are tied to the exploitation of children.
Cannibal Holocaust is similar in that its reputation is overshadowed by the gore. The tribe isn’t as evil as the people making the “documentary.” It’s a critique of colonialism, underneath the blood and guts. (Wish they didn’t kill real animals for it though.) It’s not nearly as good as Salò, at the end of the day it’s an exploitation film with a bit of thought in it, but it’s more than just a torture fest.
I won’t extend any of the same praise to A Serbian Film - it’s like if a bunch of internet edgemasters stitched together a bunch of random scenes designed to be as offensive as possible.
Funny Games made me deeply uncomfortable. I can’t really say that I “liked” it, it’s probably the most upsetting movie I’ve seen.
What do you think about this type of movie? I haven’t watched any of the more famous Japanese ones - a lot of them seem to be “what if we shot an hour or so of dissecting a woman” which strikes me as boring and pointless. Are there any that are worth watching?
Threads (1984), not super gory but really fucked up when you know it’s basis. It hasn’t aged well, but as a piece of history is worth watching IMO.
I had waking-up-screaming nightmares about the ending for about 6 months, but then it hit close to part of my trauma, and I watched it where it’s set.
Is that the nuclear holocaust one?
How come it hasn’t aged well?
while not extreme horror, to answer ops question, I thought Threads (the umm… second half) was surprising to watch that made an impact.
oh yeah. that film.
i hated Serb’ film not just for it’s content which is completely just a regret, but I was just so angry someone filmed (any of) the scenes and just tried to make it in general. it’s like a shit stain of humanity. but like a willful shit.
like someone really forcing out the turd with full blood veins clinched. like an eye popping, back of toilet shattering paramedics calling shit.
fuck that move and thanks for the reminder.
I watched it with a buddy in college. We had basically a game of showing each other the most fucked up shit we could find - exploitation films like Stalag 69 or a documentary about some danish woman who had a farm were she fucked animals. We both found it ultimately kind of boring compared to the other stuff, even lazy exploitation films which would recycle the same 5 minutes of footage for half of their runtime.
Your comparison to a strained shit is apt. It’s trying it’s damnedest to offend, but it’s the same vibe as a middle schooler in a hentai hoodie telling dead baby jokes.
Threads does sound interesting, I’ve been recommended it multiple times before.
I went through a phase of watching these kinds of films in my early 20’s, but you are correct, the majority just end up being shallow. I thought Barbarian had a good script somewhat recently. Perhaps it doesn’t have the same extreme shock value for all of it, but it has its moments. The original Funny Games was also a winner for the super heavy depressive quality of it.
After a while though, I feel like watching these films, especially when you see several of them in a short time, just leaves you wondering “why am I doing this to myself?”
My friends and I used to watch some of these kinds of films as teens, I guess out of morbid curiosity. As you said, most of them are made to be as shocking as possible without any real substance. Just gore. You might like Audition or Martyrs.
If you want the king of filth, check out John Water’s Pink Flamingos.
I watched that many moons again and nothing, not even Salo has come close to it.
Trust me you will want to mentally delouse and mentally shower after.
Maybe this isn’t what you meant, but Irréversible (2002) was quite controversial when it released and contains an extended rape scene which is very difficult to watch.
Give Strange Circus a try.
I watched The Coffee Table recently and it is extremely messed up!
Taxidermia is pretty shocking, but really well directed and I thought quite a good film
The description reminds me of the Notebook Trilogy of novels. Also a “how the fuck do we cope with what happened in eastern front world war 2” story. Has a couple scenes that are the only times I’ve ever had to put down a book. (The video game Mother 3 takes some inspiration from these novels - the main characters are named Klaus and Lucas)
