This identification itself is perverse, as it suggests the same ugliness that prompted the villagers to abuse Grace - and the anger that causes her to retaliate tenfold - exists within the audience too. Critics Adela Abella and Nathalie Zilka, in their breakdown of Lars Von Trier’s Dogville, examine how the unbearable violence committed against the protagonist, Grace (Nicole Kidman), is so upsetting and disturbing that by the end of the film, the audience is emotionally participating in Grace’s brutal revenge. It’s not hard to understand why -– violence as a subject makes many people uncomfortable, and it is usually this specific discomfort filmmakers want to explore. This violence can be visceral ( Martyrs, Antichrist), subtle ( Gummo, Tideland), or even metaphorical ( The Idiots, Dogtooth), but it is always at the center of the plot. Most - if not all - disturbing films feature a kind of assault as their main subject. Yet, one would hardly categorize it as a horror film on par with Friday the 13 thor Texas Chainsaw Massacre.įocus on Assault Funny Games (1997). Pier Paolo Pasolini’s Salò and the 120 Days of Sodom (1975) - one of the more infamous disturbing films of the 20 th century - is horrifying in its content, as it details the torture, sexual assault, and…er, unique diets of its antagonists’ victims. Rather than scare the viewer, these films seek to make the spectator uncomfortable, usually through unconventional editing and the transgression of both social norms and film technique. Sometimes they overlap - as is the case with 2008’s Martyrs - but for the most part, films in this weird subcategory do not seek to shock the audience in the same way a conventional horror film does. However, we often forget that horror as a genre is just part of the larger categories of drama and tragedy, and many of these films sit somewhere between the three. Image courtesy of Curzon Artificial EyeĪt first, these criteria may make you think that disturbing films are simply a subcategory of the horror genre, as they utilize many of the same techniques in order to upset or unsettle their audience. Not Necessarily Horror The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017).
#The disturbing movie iceberg skin
How do these films get under our skin so effectively? Why would anyone watch - let alone make - a film that seeks to make you actively uncomfortable? In my research (and thanks to 15+ years of searching for “most messed up movies”), I have compiled a list of this weird little genre’s hallmarks. And I, personally, am fascinated by the projects that manage to do this. Not only does it focus on an unpleasant narrative subject, but it also plays with the audiovisual techniques used to convey these stories, attacking the viewer through both content and form. Film has the unique ability to achieve this goal. The intent of these films, it seems, is not to simply frighten you - although many do - but rather to fundamentally disturb you. The easiest explanation would be that humans crave the rush of adrenaline that comes from being shocked or scared, but films in this genre often go beyond the conventions of horror.
Why do we watch and make films that make us feel bad? The concept itself seems antagonistic to the goal of entertainment.
Or, if you’ve always been a bit Like This, maybe you picked and chose a few features as dares before you finally discovered your hard limit upon trying to watch A Serbian Film. Maybe it was during a movie date, where in your haste to pick something on Netflix and get down to the ‘chill’ part of the evening, you thoughtlessly threw on Melancholia.
Everyone, it seems, has one they remember - maybe it was in middle school, when you were dared to watch an old VHS copy of Faces of Death. While the list quickly descends into snuff territory, it got me thinking about the strange, specific genre of the disturbing narrative film that many cinema nerds have sought out over the years. If you’re a fan of horror films, art house cinema, and/or online film criticism, you have probably seen this image of “The Disturbing Movie Iceberg,” and have perhaps watched Wendigoon or Nyx Fears’s recent breakdowns of the films on said list.
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