The Most Disturbing Films Ever Made- Part One

At Left: The classic ultra-lurid and outrageously vile and offensive VHS box art for Cannibal Ferox, a movie of absolutely no redeeming social value and filled with gratuitous nudity, torture and violence of a kind that pushes the limits of free expression. In short, a Radio Anthrocide classic, and the most punishing example of Classic Italian Cannibal cinema that your host, DJ Timothy, knows of.









Radio Anthrocide is branching out into film criticism, as a prelude to an upcoming project I am working on with the great DJ Micah of Public Sensory Radio and the celebrated Cinema Terrorisme. To kick off the festivities, I am preparing a list of the Most Disturbing Films Ever Made- a completely subjective and highly personal list developed from my many years of trying to find the most fucked-up and inhumanly cruel movies ever made. For the purposes of this article (which should take another half-dozen or so installments to be complete- like all lists I start, this one got completely out of hand after a complete inability on your author's part to stop at a "mandatory" Most Disturbing Twenty) it should be noted that what disturbs me may not even bother you a pip; equally, the reasons why I find these films disturbing have a lot to do with the contexts in which they were released. A film made in the 1950's, for instance, has a much different criterion of "disturbingness" than a slasher-type psychodrama from the classic period of sleaze in the 1970's. In short, don't write to me asking why such and such film didn't make the list, while another seemingly "less shocking" film did; I have no real criterion for the list than what I felt like putting on it. If you don't like it, write your own goddamn list. (It won't be as good as mine- I promise you...)

Obviously, any list of this kind will be inordinately represented by Horror films; but there is also a hefty dose of documentary and Giallo films, the latter a peculiarly violent and nihilistic genre of which I never tire- and there are more than a few deeply unsettling works in the famed Giallo cannon. These films are organized in no particular order, just at my own whim of the moment, although especially disturbing works will be so noted in the film's summary. Finally, I would like to note that this list is hardly what I would call "complete"; I have assembled as much material from my brain as I can, and perused a few IMDB pages with filmographies of particularly noted directors famous for their grim and unrelenting vision. If I have forgotten something that is outrageously classic, please do not hesitate to send me a note and I'll attempt to redress all iniquities and injustices- pursuant to the noted vexations, above. And one more thing...some of these movies are beyond merely grim; they are shocking and vile in a near-debilitating way. I have seen it all; but there are still moments when a film just goes way over the line, to the point that I could never in good conscience direct someone to view such a thing unless they were completely desensitized to all violence and taboos. Those films are still on the list, because I have no intention of censoring anything, ever; but their titles are marked in red, and you are hereby warned: DO NOT view these films, and if you do...you do so at your own risk. Cheers and Happy Viewing, - TKR

Men Behind The Sun Hong Kong, 1988 Director: Mou Tun-fei
An unceasingly grim and horrific movie that simply refuses to let up for one moment in its vivid and graphic depiction of the actions of a Japanese chemical warfare unit in Manchuria during World War Two. The real-life Unit 731 engaged in a senseless orgy of killing and torture, vile and cruel medical "experiments" on par with anything Josef Mengele could have dreamed up, and were on the verge of releasing billions of plague-infected insects upon Northern China in specially designed ceramic artillery shells that would have resulted in the worst genocide in human history, had the plan come to fruition. They were stopped only by the end of the war, weeks from what would have been an unconscionable disaster. All of this is rendered without blinking by director Tun-fei, with effects that are no doubt exploitative but also historically accurate and well done. Parts of the film- including the "frozen water torture" of the peasant Chinese woman and her resultant traumatic amputation of her hands, as well as the live vivisection of a young boy who had sought to play ball with the young Japanese recruits sent to this nightmare factory- are virtually unwatchable. One thing is certain: you will never forget Men Behind The Sun if you can possibly bring yourself to watch it. An absolute classic of this genre of "unwatchable" cinema.

Black Sun: The Nanking Massacre Hong Kong, 1994 Dir: Mou Tun-fei
From the same production team responsible for Men Behind The Sun and the equally appalling Lost Souls (see below), this third and last sequel to Men is the only one of any cinematic merit, although once again the viewer is taken to the absolute limit of what cinema can portray, and any sane person withstand. The Nanking Massacre of 1937 was one of the worst atrocities to be committed in that low and cruel epoch of human history known as the Twentieth Century; released upon the large Northern Chinese city by a high command seeking to completely destroy the Chinese as a culture and people, a wave of rapine and Saturnalia rarely equalled in the realm of cruelty destroyed Nanking almost completely and left hundreds of thousands dead. Execution squads, organized gang rapes to humiliate and break all will to resist by the citizens, the slaughter of children and animals and mass fires are just some of the bestial acts director Mou once again captures in enervating completeness, with a cinema verite element that makes it virtually impossible to "suspend disbelief" while witnessing such wanton destruction and murder. The story is almost irrelevant; this movie is a limit-experience of how much blood, how many guts, how much rape and killing of defenseless innocents one movie can present. A truly appalling spectacle, and one that will leave the viewer profoundly disturbed afterwards.

Lost Souls Hong Kong, 1980 Dir: Mou Tun-fei
The final entrant in the Mou Tun-fei trilogy of depravity, Lost Souls is one of the bleakest depictions of the truth of mankind's urge to exploit his fellow man- both financially and sexually- that has ever been filmed. A group of boat people attempt to come to Hong Kong, and barely arrive on the coast before they are snatched up by slave traders who proceed to put them thru a Hell that cannot be adequately described: you just have to see what Mou was able to get his actors to submit themselves to, and even then you will hardly believe it. The boat people cast spend the majority of the film completely naked, locked behind wire in a torture barn, covering themselves desperately with newspaper after being assaulted en masse with a fire hose. Quite naturally, Mou treats the viewer to endless scenes of rape and sadism, including a horrifying scene of a young girl being taken to the slave trader's main house and there facing staggeringly vile cruelties. One young woman immolates herself in perhaps the film's one encouraging moment; this film is so bleak that you're left thinking "well, at least her suffering is over". Pure exploitation and trash, yet undeniably effecting. Not for the sensitive, or indeed anyone with any kind of humanistic feeling for their fellow man.

Threads United Kingdom, 1984 Dir. Mick Jackson
A masterful BBC production exploring the consequences of an all-out nuclear war between the West and the Soviet Union, this movie goes so much farther in depicting the truth of the ultimate nightmare than American fare like The Day After that stuff like that seems escapist and light-hearted by comparison. Threads is unbelievable; the characters are going about their daily lives in Sheffield, England and dealing with things like teenage sex and unwanted pregnancies. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, a nuclear exchange occurs that gradually turns into a flat-out Doomsday exchange between Us and Them. The script makes mention several times about some kind of crisis in the Persian Gulf, but the terrible truth about such a crisis metastasizing into the End Of Mankind is what makes Threads so devastating. A particularly compelling subplot centers around a group of government workers desperately trying to keep society functioning in the midst of this complete turmoil; it is terribly obvious how useless all of this reference to official manuals is during a cataclysm of such boundless proportions, but watching these remarkably real human beings try to persevere is heart-breaking. The final scenes of a newly Medieval Britain reduced in population by 90% in the years after the Final War are some of the most astonishing in cinema history; there is no let up, no reprieve, no redemption. A film I would rate as required viewing for anyone wondering what the possibilities of television drama can truly be. A first-rank masterpiece.

The House By The Edge Of The Park Italy, 1980 Dir: Ruggero Deodato
Featuring one of the most notorious sexual assault/torture scenes ever filmed, Deodato's The House By The Edge Of The Park is about as nasty as a film can be. What makes the movie so uniquely disturbing, however, is that the scumbag criminals who invade a bourgeois house party are only a tad more repulsive than the victims whom they take hostage. These people really are assholes, and it is impossible to form any real affection for them after they insult the pair of hooligans, in ways that are as condescending as they are snide. It is only when a young, virginal girl arrives to the party and faces a shocking ordeal of being stripped and slashed at the hands of the Satanicly-vile David Hess and his straight-blade razor that the viewer is snapped back to reality, and forced to confront Deodato's astonishingly cynical assessment of humanity. Not a great film, and the "twist" ending is anything but believable...but certainly disturbing- and the torture scene is every bit as bad as you may have heard.

Daydream Japan, 1964 Dir: Tetsuji Takechi
Often referred to as the first of the Japanese "Pink" films of soft-core pornography with lavish production values and adequate budgets, I have seen this film several times and still do not understand what Daydream has in common with 70's tit-fests like the deliciously named Deep Throat In Tokyo. An erotic film, most assuredly; the plot centers on a woman who goes to a dentist and, after some anaesthesia is administered, either hallucinates or actually experiences a series of graphic sexual assaults, including hard bondage and S&M play that must have been a real shock for the time on screen. Still, there can be no doubt about it- this is a Surrealist film, with strong elements of erotica, but Surrealist all the same. The lead actress- Kanako Michi- is absolutely ravishing, including some very alluring armpit hair that director Takechi obviously relished photographing, and is also pleasingly nude for some minutes in the most nightmarish (and disturbing) of the "daydreams". Her torments are graphic and extreme, though like many things in this grandly ambiguous drama, you're never really sure if she is enjoying the torture or, of course, if its "really" occurring at all. Completely beautiful in cinematography and containing some genuinely chilling color addendum to an otherwise black-and-white film, Daydream is probably the best Surrealist movie ever made. Seriously.

The Devils United Kingdom, 1971 Dir: Ken Russell
Where to begin on what I truly believe to be one of the greatest movies ever made? The Devils is pure insanity; all of the foibles and hubris that Russell would later indulge in to the detriment of his entire later body of work are on display here, yet somehow, magically, they all coalesce into a deliriously sublime meditation on injustice, hysteria and cruelty. While Vanessa Redgrave gives the performance of her career as a hunchbacked nun obsessed with the gloriously handsome Oliver Reed, it is Reed himself- as the bravado and libido fueled Father Grandier- who carries this film to epic heights. His torture and immolation are shockingly real; the madness of the crowds- in front of Derek Jarman's deliberately anachronistic set design of a Medieval fortified French town- is palpable, as well as a delirious sequence where a gaggle of nuns run wild and strip nude, perform every conceivable sex act upon each other and go so far as to mount crucifixes in orgiastic glee. In short: fucking FANTASTIC stuff. A serious film that also happens to be incredibly entertaining and thought-provoking, if you are not disturbed by this movie then I really don't know what could ever trip your fancy. A genuine limit experience of a film made by a wildly talented director who simply couldn't control his worst impulses in later excrement like Tommy and the appalling Whore.

Cannibal Ferox Italy, 1981 Dir. Umberto Lenzi
Dr. Micah Moses- of Public Sensory Radio, noted trash film snob and raconteur- and myself have had a serious ongoing dispute about what is the greatest of the great and shocking Classic Italian Cannibal films for several years. Dr. Moses takes the conventional (and I must say, pedantic and scholarly-tendentious) view that Ruggero Deodato's Cannibal Holocaust (q.v.) is clearly the most extreme. While I greatly respect Dr. Moses and his genius for the unusual, bizarre and truly inhuman, I still think that for pure gut-churning violence nothing has ever topped Umberto Lenzi's excruciatingly graphic Cannibal Ferox. In what amounted to an arms race of Italian Cannibal films throughout the late 70's and early 80's, the bar was constantly being raised (or lowered, depending on your level of film-school asshat snobbery) on the amount of nudity, evisceration, impalement and castration that one film could contain. It all reached a crescendo, in my view, with the absolutely vile Ferox, a movie so repugnant that I cannot stress how strongly you must NOT see this film. To be blunt: the woman being impaled on hooks by her breasts scene is incredibly realistic, as is the castration of the male lead by the Stone Age tribe who has taken them captive after a particularly outlandish plot places these attractive white Westerners in the midst of a jungle hell surrounded by primitive savages. Plot is really kind of superfluous in a film like this; Ferox is simply an endurance test, the kind of film that one feels part of a special club for having survived. One of the most vile movies ever made, and deeply, deeply disturbing for the voyeuristic onus it places upon the viewer to get through all of the perversity and nastiness.

J'Accuse! France, 1938 Dir. Abel Gance
While not as highly regarded as the same director's 1919 version of the same film, your author much prefers Gance's later, more vitriolic and pacifistic harangue of a film to the earlier, more sentimental offering. A scientist played by Victor Francen devotes his entire life to developing a machine to stop the plague of war; not surprisingly, the government gets hold of the device and plans on using it for distinctly alternative ends. In scenes of enthralling dramatic power, the scientist then raises thousands of dead French soldiers who fell during the former holocaust, World War One. These images of shattered poilus still in their greatcoats- their faces mashed, caked in filth, shuffling and enraged at the wanton waste of their sacrifice- are made even more disturbing by the fact that so many of these men were real soldiers, who had been hideously mauled by the combat of the trenches of the late, "Great War". Mandatory viewing for all of the French-bashing smartasses who are so in love with war and cannot help themselves but from mocking that great nation for not being more warlike in standing up to Adolph Hitler in the years before the Second World War. Given that 25% of all military-aged men in France died in the former "War To End All Wars", viewing this film might give the militarist some much-needed context on the national mood and why once again murdering an entire generation for the profits of blood-sucking plutocrats was a road many Frenchmen were not willing to trod again without protest.

The Conqueror Worm (AKA, Matthew Hopkins: Witchfinder General) United Kingdom, 1968 Dir: Michael Reeves
Vincent Price is surely one of the great Horror actors of them all. He was, however, never so remorseless, never so malevolent than in this incredibly grim story of abuse of power, sexual license and general hysteria, The Conqueror Worm (the title I prefer to use, since it is from Poe and very, very chilling and portentous). Price is pure Satanic evil; not succumbing to his oft-indulged penchant for hamming it up, the great actor is restrained by the masterful Reeves, playing with stolid and organic evil his role as Witchfinder, which position he uses to gain favors both financial and carnal. Price is utterly despicable in this role; he's so perfectly evil that at the film's remarkably nihilistic climax, you can't help but root for him to die, and to die as slowly as possible. The final shot- and, more to the point, the final sounds- of the film are as disturbing and enduring as any in the Horror canon. This is one of my favorite movies, and don't settle for anything less than the full, completely uncut version. You're in for a real shock as Worm slithers to its deeply unsettling climax.