I mean, like, why?
Why does such crap and drivel like The Human Centipede exist. Well? It's probably like porn. Where everyone tires their best to stare at the screen the longest in some kind of double-dare situation. The images become paramount, only merely bolstered by something resembling a plot just to get to this scene or that.
Sorta like reverse porn, I suppose.
But I see no purpose in it, myself. Sometimes, buried deep within such films is a moment of solace, a message that must be conveyed and this is the only way.
Rarely, however, does a message get conveyed with completely revolting an audience from watching the title in the first place, but, hey, you win more friends with honey then vinegar.
But I suppose some film makers are very, very unhappy, and, well, if there's punk music?
There's disturbing cinema.
Usually the stuff of film festivals, they rarely make a market beyond the dark web, late night DVD rentals when those still existed, and someone who wants to illustrate their emotional stamina.
I'm not any of these things.
But I get it. There are movies out there that cross the line and, given my movie watching habits, I've stumbled across a title here and there.
Many of them, truly, aren't even worth the effort. if you don't like riding roller coasters, why wait in line at all? So I took this request for another movie listing and went with titles I did see and was disturbed in some manner. But I have found it is more related to where I was in life than maybe, perhaps what was portrayed onscreen.
For the first time, here's a list I do not recommend, as it were, outside of the stout of heart and the stupid.
In no real order, because they are all sick-sick-sick.
Okay, maybe not Pink Flamingos. That one? The darkest of comedies. Seriously. Take a look at it. That one IS a statement about how flipping stupid people are, and how we glorify trash. Metaphoric trash, but trash, nonetheless.
I've mentioned it here before on this blog and it, believe it or not, there's some merit to auteur John Waters' magnum opus, really. It's a tale of disgusting people doing disgusting things. And they're laughing.
And yes, there's that one scene, that ONE scene that literally will send you running to the bathroom, if not outright gagging.
It involves a dog doing its business. And my research has informed that scene was truly improved by the goddess that is Divine, the gap toothed drag performer that leads the picture.
In fact, it has been a badge of honor for many to watch this film all the way through for many a young critic.
But the rest?
Take a look at We Need To Talk About Kevin/American Psycho. I started off reading these titles, and, yes, the disturbing matter was truly baked into the thematic elements that arrived on the screen. Hence, I lump them together. Somewhere inside of me, I figured once I watched the film counterparts of these titles something might become more cohesive for me, making the plot and main ideas gel. The first takes a parent's guilt of raising a child that becomes a school shooter.
See? Joyful content.
And it isn't even horror.
But it is about the role of a mother and how an entire system is set up for failure, how we lean into what we want to be good and ignore those outside in need of help.
At least, that's what I think it was communicating. There are also profound statements about why people have children (I still, I admit, after so many years of teaching, why so many do), the parent-child relationship, marriage and the outdated images of the nuclear family, and the limits of love and loyalty. It also shows a parent, more than the killer, who is incapable to love her own child-and the impact that following societies strange requirements ("you're married now, have kids!") even when you don't want to.
And while I may not agree with the author or the filmmakers messages on such images, I walked away from both the book and the movie with a profound sadness. It bothered me, because I saw similar things. People having kids without thought, without the ability to provide, or not participating in the process of raising those kids--which is profoundly evident with the presence of phones.
Having the echo bothered me, making this film pop up on my list of movies I found personally bothersome. Along with the second title, American Psycho. The randomness of the protagonist, a strangely clean serial killer and yuppie, was almost a comedy, a dark comedy, of absurdist parody. In in, a Patrick Bateman just kills as he wishes too, but because he is so wealthy, no one really stops him.
And his victims? Also wealthy people, has no one to care for them, too, so they die, meaningless, slowly and horribly, and that's it.
I get the themes here.
But by having not one redeeming character in the entire story means, well, we can't even feel remorse. I suppose, in the end, that's the point. They don't care, neither should we.
So why make the tale at all?
Cannibal Holocaust
Title says it all, doesn't it? In fact, this mockumentary surfaced long before there was a Blair Witch Project. It deals with a modern film crew heading to film a cannibalistic tribe, and slowly becomes their next group of victims. The films is showed in a series of found footage montages and, yes, it's absolutely disgusting. The theme is simple, about how modern living lauds itself over native thought and the result?
Violence.
In fact, the film was so awful, it was taken to court to prove that it wasn't a snuff film and that, in the end, everyone was fine and were merely performers.
But the animals were actually killed, on screen, so there was that.
Why, on Earth did I subject myself to this?
I worked at a video store and figured, well, lemme see if I hack this. It can't be that bad, right? it's probably just a drive in movie kinda thing.
Nope.
It is vile.
As it blares on, the audience is so tired of being appalled, that you become numb and walk away. There's an overarching tale that takes on a television wanting to present said found cannibal footage, and the theme changes, about sensationalism and voyeurism.
A mess of a film.
DRAMATIC PAUSE: I noticed something. There's two kinds of sicko films. Ones that mess you up on the outside. These are the torture porn titles that do their best to get you to gag. The gross-outs, the Human Centipedes. These titles really aren't about the narrative, only in as much to bring you to the next thing. However, there are some films that are just disturbing on the inside. Ones that linger in your mind like a bad taste in your mouth; things you can't shake three days later. Not that they made you sick, but made you very concerned for humanity as a whole.
I'm that here as I read and write. Cannibal Holocaust? Yeah, outer vileness that leads to that inner reflection. But American Psycho? Talking about Kevin? Those hit notes in your head.
I get it now.
Natural Born Killers is excellent movie and probably one of the more approachable titles on this list. Written with blistering speed, it makes fun of itself, a telling exposition about our own willingness to watch violence and nightmare images. It is an interesting take on the Starkweather mass murderer from 1958. Since the title is made with such a big director, Oliver Stone, the movie was able to pull into its circle a series of incredible performers who take the shock and turn it into a profound dark comedy.
So why is it disturbing, if it is so approachable?
Like at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark, where everyone who looked at the opening of the eponymous ark died, yet we, the audience keep looking AT THE SAME EXACT THING; this film is about watching people murder others for their amusement. Repeatedly. In fact, they kidnap a newsman and a camera and just keep going and going through the motions, talking about their incoming fame for being spree killers.
And we keep watching.
Worse? It is done with such hyperbole and strange camera angles, as to almost be comical. There's even one flashback that is given as a sitcom presentation, with canned laughter and audiences applauding.
At first? I thought it was just the director making lite of the contents of the story. Alas, it is to keep our heads spinning with thoughts.
Don't Fuck with Cats
Whoa.
This one is a documentary. It has long been known that serial killers start by killing animals. At least that's what the data shows.
And, on the web, people will watch anything. In a world like ours, where we can edit on our home computers and do sound dubbing on our laptops, we have become numb to photography evidence. It takes more than visual input to figure out if something is real or not. So someone stumbling across a very skinny man brutalizing a kitten (no, they don't show it or run the audio, you're good, but, even the SUGGESTION is disturbing), sets into motion something very interesting.
That there are still good people in the world. The video starts a dialogue. Then some amateur sleuthing. Then another video is spotted, and more sleuthing.
And...they set about finding the person. Either this is real, and he should be nabbed before he escalates, or it isn't, and he should be taken to task for disturbing the emotional peace of so many.
I won't tell you end, but it is disturbing...very much so. But on the inside.
However, this is one of the few that I don't regret watching. Thanks Netflix.
Seven
Tim Burton has an amazing ability to match the setting to the tale. It's his true strong point. His stories and presentations can only live in those four corners of the screen. However, due to that, there's something to be said about such profound fictional (even real places are made over to his liking, making the real...fake) locales and how they keep the audience at arms length. It's using the art form to the fullest. I'm using Tim's skills, because you've probably seen his titles, and get the gist of what I'm saying. Setting communicates a ton of the tone of a tale. The movie, Seven, does the same by the incredible filmmaker, David Finchner. He, too, gives us a world that, even in the broad spectrum of the light of the day, the seedy underbelly of existence cannot escape the characters or the audience. In this title, he tells the story of a serial killer that bases his murders on the seven deadly sins. Strangely, he does it because he sees the growing tide of angst in every day life, and wants to communicate their eventual end. The movie defines a modern day film noir, with the two detectives find and fishing for every clue in every tenement, sewer, charnel house and brothel that a modern city can have in today's digital age. The horrors mount and even though, we, as a populace are cruel to each other on a daily basis, we are still shocked by the killer's creative staging and murders.
This movie?
This one will disturb you on the inside. There are some gory scenes, for relevance, but the thoughts this film generates linger.
There.
Now? Watch none of these.
Not even on a dare. Find something lighter.
