What's a NON-HORROR NON-DOCUMENTARY movie that disturbed you or made you very uncomfortable?
I recently saw "Rampage" from 2009. Its basically a movie where a spree shooter is portrayed as the good guy/anti-hero. Several parts gave me that pit in your stomach, teeth gritting uncomfortable moment. I really hated it. Although I'm not surprised there are sequals I am disappointed and will not be watching them.
130
Comments198
The Wolf of Wall Street. That movie gave me nightmares.
At the risk of sounding prude, seeing so much excess and chaos crossed the line from being morbid to becoming genuinely unpleasant, like seeing drunks and drug addicts in real life. I hated DiCaprio’s character with a passion from start to finish, and that night after watching the movie, I had a nightmare where I was at one of those parties and they were abusing me and my friends.
Knowing that it’s based on real events, that the guy DiCaprio plays is free, and that there are people who admire him even after seeing the movie makes me feel dejected.
And it's relatively tame compared to some billionaire's realities.
Yeah I fucking hate that movie. It feels like it made their horrendous behavior into a joke. None of it is funny in the context of reality. So glad to hear someone feels the same way about the movie.
Falling Down (1993). The main character attacking minorities, saying American conservative shit, and enablement of urban paranoia was pretty unsettling. The black comedy undertones did get me to chuckle once or twice, but overall just an upsetting thinking of some people sympathizing with the MC in a way that led conservatism to what it is today. The fact that he killed a neonazi does not balance it out.
Been a long time since I've seen this movie, but I always thought the point of the neonazi was specifically to point out how alike the two were. At the end of the scene where he kills him, the scene is shot in a reflection in a mirror. He kills the nazi, nazi drops out frame in the reflection, leaving just the MC, who then shoots and shatters the mirror itself.
https://youtu.be/Y6JqwQfli7Y
Wasn't he also watching the neonazi through reflections in a store's security mirrors earlier? It's really been a long time.
I always assumed the point of the movie was to show how stupid the idea of the "White Man's Burden" and white persecution complex was, with some critique of American exceptionslism thrown in.
I shouldn't be surprised that some people took the exact opposite from the film and empathize with the MC. Kind of reminds me of Fight Club in that sense.
I always wished I had an eye for that kind of thing; no I haven't noticed that!
Throughout the movie, I wanted it to be satirical, and wanted to believe that it was exactly this because of how ridiculous and exploitative aspects of this movie are. But there so many moments where the film was intentionally trying to get me to sympathize for the character and made it feel very sincere.
Absolutely this, and in more extreme cases with movies like American History X too. But American History X's message is obvious to me and I really believe you'd have to be pretty moronic, as neonazis usually are, to believe it's a pro-white supremacy movie and feel empowered by it. Fight Club is more subtle, but I believe it gives more opportunity for people not to identify with the opposite of the message, even for those that don't know or get it. I just didn't feel that way about Falling Down.
But I don't know man, you've actually inspired me to want to rewatch it; see if I feel any differently.
Curiously, when I saw it, I picked up that the guy was crazy and violent, and saw it as a horror film following the monster.
Years later, I'd learn that it was popularly seen as a white-guy underdog movie set (and produced) during the Rodney King crisis and the police war on gangs.
I've heard of it but never seen it
It wasn't horrible at the time but in hindsight it really is some kind of conservative underdog fantasy.
The Hunt (2012). Sweet guy gets accused by the child of his best friends to have abused her, thanks to suggestive questioning. Whole town turns against him, even though he's innocent. I couldn't finish watching it, because I was trembling and couldn't watch the hopelessness and unfair treatment. Even worse, it's based on a true story.
Jeez that sounds like a tough watch
This and "The Handmaids Tale" I cannot watch, same reason.
The Testament is the continuation of Handmaid's Tale and is rough as well.
I found it a captivating film to watch. It was powerful and left its impression. I'm glad I saw it, no regrets at all, and I recommend it but I think one viewing suffices.
Great movie. Mads Mikkelsen is fantastic as always. Horrible to watch someone go through that. I didn't know it was based on a true story.
Sorry, i misremembered: Vinterberg (director) got handed a bunch of anonymized cases by his psychiatrist:
Requiem for a Dream is likely to come up. maybe Leon as well. Poor Things might be too close to horror to count, The Girl Next Door definitely is. Watership Down is another common one, Plague Dogs is similar and potentially more uncomfortable. for other animations you could count Perfect Blue and Grave of the Fireflies
Gummo is mentioned elsewhere, the only other Korine film i've seen is Kids (1995) and it's fucking grim
Requiem for a Dream is a good one. And the music is great.
never occurred to me tbh but i just looked it up and it's scored by the guy from Pop Will Eat Itself, got a rabbithole to follow now. thanks for mentioning this
Great answers
Gummo is in my top 10, I love it.
top ten miserycore or top ten all time?
All time, I've watched it a bunch. It's fascinating
yeah it is. i'm going to give it another watch, i think i disliked it before because it seemed at the same time staged and also too intrusive into peoples real lives? but probably that was the point, that they were playing up to it, still it's all a bit gooble gobble one of us. i'll have another look, would be interested in the rest of your top ten if you want to post it
It's entirely fictional, but has some real humanity in there which shows through very strongly in some scenes. So not really intrusive, they are all actors.
I couldn't give an accurate top 10, but here's a rough list of 9 others I've watched many times and love:
Old boy
Sunshine
Rec (Spanish original)
The matrix
Cloverfield
Cube
As above so below
Watchmen
Alice (1988, russian)
i'm honestly surprised to hear that but glad i had the wrong impression, i'll get around soon to a rewatch. thanks for the list too, have enjoyed several of those and will be trying Sunshine and Alice
Alice is something else. If you smoke weed, then I would recommend it for that movie.
Just commented Kids and Requiem lol
ha all good man. a lot of good recs in this thread
Oh yeah, just mentioned it to say I agree with your recs lol
oh right got you. you have any others? i like this kind of stuff
Most I can think of have been mentioned elsewhere in this thread, like Trainspotting, Blue Velvet, Old Boy. If you know about Requiem, you probably know about π by the same director, but I'll mention it just in case. Ooh here's a good one I should have put in the main thread, too late now lol: Die Welle (The Wave). It's a German drama that takes place in a high school, that's all I'll say about it, but it's really good.
cheers, the only other of his i saw was Black Swan so Pi and Die Welle both going on the backlog
Brave Little Toaster
Good answer
Gosh, we could add so many 80s/90s animations to go along with this. Watership Down. We're Back (the dino one). Fantasia (again, the dino scene)
Nightcrawler. To think there are real people like that.
Incendies. Messed up revelation. Also had my biggest non-horror/thriller jumpscare.
Nightcrawler was first one that came to my mind. Chilling.
Gyllenhaal is magnificent in that. Such a great film...
Oh I really liked nightcrawler. I'm a sucker for Jake G
Also came here to say Nightcrawler. I was 15 when I saw it, and of course at the time I thought nothing could freak me out, but I wasn't prepared for Jake Gyllenhaal being that creepy
First one that came to mind is Grave of the Fireflies, a Studio Ghibli movie unlike any of the other movies they ever made.
Irreversible.
Don't watch it.Or rather... I recommend looking up first why it is so controversial and see if you think you want to watch it. If you want to watch it... It is a pretty brilliant way to actual convey the thing happening, but it is still stuck in my mind years later and I'm pretty sure I can never watch it again.Yeah, I think I understand where you're coming from on this one. Definitely not for the feint of heart.
*faint
Came here to say this one. I saw it at a film festival in a theatre… ooof that was a lot. My buddy and I got high and watched Super Troopers afterwards as brain bleach. Didn’t work, still rattled.
Gaspar Noe in general. Sometimes (understatement) he's a bit over the top.
Yeah I never need to see that again
This thread deserves Dancer in the Dark. Another film that I love but cannot recommend.
Set up your depression-treatment space beforehand. You're going to be there a while. Beauty and tragedy so tightly bound that it feels monumental.
Also Breaking the Waves, another Lars Von Trier effort. A friend and I watched that and walked home in silence. Grim.
It's a film that requires a lot of emotional and intellectual maturity of its audience, most of the critique came from a very superficial and naive angle from a vocal minority that flips out at any portrayal of violence against women as a matter of ideology.
They've both been mentioned below but mine are 'Grave of the Fireflies,' and 'When the Wind Blows.' They hit harder than 'horror' movies because they are, in a way, the real human horror for which a 'genre:horror' movie would be an abstraction.
Have you seen Threads?
I started it once but got distracted. Been meaning to watch it.
Old Boy. The 2003 Korean one, at least.
Modern one is not much better. Same story.
Yeah but the Korean one is actually a good movie. They're both modern.
2003 was nearly a quarter century ago
There's more time between the remake and now than between the original and the remake, if the first one's pre-modern, so is the second one.
Hard Candy (2005) - although it edges towards horror...
The Big Short (2015) - although it edges towards horror...
Lmao fantastic answers
Hard Candy is commonly featured on horror lists. If we get a bit technical it's more of a suspense thriller, but then the more technical we get about genres the less they actually make sense as separate categories and the entire phylogeny falls apart.
Trainspotting
Requiem for a Dream
Both movies were good. Both movies were absolutely a one time watch and never again.
The first time I ever watched Trainspotting (like a decade or so ago) I had taken 2 tabs of acid and looked up online "movies that will change your life" or something along those lines.
One of the first ones listed was this one called Trainspotting and I had no idea what it was about I was expecting some drama about a special needs little boy who likes to look at trains or something.
Ohhh boy. That one scene was horrifying I got up and almost turned the TV off but I'm glad I didn't. I love that movie so much.
That one scene on acid must be something.
Requiem for a Dream. You're absolutely correct, a one-time-only must-watch. I always enjoyed re-watching films with friends, but this one is a no go. One thousand years ago, I added the DVD release to my collection on release. Where I grew up, our movie theater only carried ultra-mainstream titles, so when films like Requiem released to theaters, it was either a 2+ hour trek to the nearest metropolitan area or just wait for it to release on DVD. I could be misremembering, but I believe the DVD case was one of those awful cardboard cases with the plastic clip. Anyway, it was mixed in with the rest of the DVD collection I proudly displayed in my living room (we all did this). At least until I had to refuse requested viewing by different guests not once, but twice. Fortunately, somewhere around that same time, I pumped the brakes on tangible media, and started gathering digital rips. Packed all that valueless stuff up, and shoved it up in the attic.
I bought Requiem in a DVD 2-pack, with the second movie being American History X.
That was not a fun weekend.
Changling is another, the A. Jolie kidnapping flick
Threads - UK based movie from 1984 which is a speculative fictional account of what would happen in the event of a nuclear war.
That's a tough one to get though. Check out "When the Wind Blows" for an animated take on the same topic. It's equally as bleak for different reasons.
Want some dread from an animated movie? Watership Down, especially the original, was nightmare fuel in my wife's childhood.
Definitely agreed. Also "The Secret of NIMH" will always remain in my memory from childhood.
One of our cats has the same eyes as Dragon.
Definitely 4spooky 7me.
That final scene of her face after giving birth.
That's my pick as well
Seeing Robin Williams play a creep in 1 Hour Photo was unsettling. Especially the scene where he is imagining being part of the family whose home he has broken into and is just casually doing stuff in.
Also Grave of the Fireflies for being the greatest movie I never want to see again for reasons that will only be clear ig you also watch it.
The Prestige
I absolutely love that movie, but the first time watching, when that one moment hits. Such emotions I've seldomly had when watching a movie.
Maybe honerable mention for Seven?
I recently did a rewatch of all the James Bond movies.
The Moore ones from (especially) the late seventies made me cringe away really hard.
Tried to watch them for completeness sake, but made me physically uncomfortable so in the end I skipped large parts.
Didn't age well at all...
I really like most of the older and newer ones, though.
I've never seen them, what's the rub?
Mainly the pure sexism.
While this is also present in the earlier films, Moore adds a slimey cheeziness I really just can't stand watching.
Especially after having seen Lazenby's Bond just before, which was a move to a much more serious type of thriller, which I totally loved.
Moore agreed with you, he quit playing Bond because he was cast against women young enough to be his daughters.
Oh that definitely makes sense
the dreamers(2003)
blue velvet, been a while though(1986)
Gummo(1997) for sure
these are perfect answers, i love blue velvet. for the sake of contributing i'd say The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things (2004)
Thanks, I've added it to my watchlist.
settle in for a miserable time :)
Great answers
This is the thread that deserves Todd Solondz's films.
Start with Happiness (1998).
great call. hand to up there, todd solondz was on my mind, same with Larry Clark. I'm just trying not to take over the whole thread
Watership Down. It's animated. It's a kid's movie.
Also Plague Dogs.
Watership Down, scarring at least one generation of children because parents of the time saw it was animated and didn't think further!
Related, my mother let me read Maus as a preteen with no one to talk to about after it!
I read Watership Down as a 10 year old. I loved to read but couldn't go out much, so id often pick up the fattest books at the library so they would last me a while. Book messed me up. I didn't know there was an animated movie. Seems like a bad choice.
Plague dogs is the most depressing work of art I've ever read. Go ask Alice is second and it's about a girls journey of being destroyed by drugs from innocence.
The Wrestler (2008)
Requiem For a Dream (2000)
Thank you Darren Aronofsky.
The Cell (2000)
Thank you Tarsem Dhandwar Singh
Great answers
The Cell is very pretty, but it's plot is so wafer thin that it borders on ridiculous.
Yeah, true.
But it's VERY pretty. Like, extraordinarily pretty. Zack Snyder pretty.
Vapid, sure. But, so nice to look at.
Sometimes, you go for eye candy.
Hiro Murai, Tom Ford, Denis Villeneuve, and Jordan Peele do smart and pretty. At least, their directors of photography support the smart with pretty.
Second for Requiem. Such a good movie but it does not leave you the same as before you watched it.
Melancholia fucked me up for a minute. I hadn't seen any of his other movies and I still dont intend to.
for bleak films von trier depression trilogy is worth a go. i love Antichrist but found Melancholia and Nymphomania kind of boring
Yeah pass thanks ive got enough depression on my own
I'll look into it
My college roommate insisted we watch Happiness. It's a profoundly disturbing comedy.
Thats a tough watch too
Trainspotting maybe?
Fantastic answer
So much horror and comedy wrapped up together. There's the baby scene, and the other baby scene juxtaposed with great bits like:
Requiem for a Dream
Happiness
happiness is unreal. fantastic film.
I added Gummo and Kids in another post.
Schizopolis is really good and weird but doesn't leave you as hollowed out as those others.
It's been a while but I remember Visioneers giving me a similar feeling of bleakness.
1 hour photo.
the scene where Robin Williams has broken into their house and is shitting on their toilet was just too fucked up for me and I turned it off. never finished it.
Bro what
at the time I worked at a similarly blue vested retail space and there was a gentleman who worked in the photo department who looked and acted like the MC from the movie, unironically. he had been that way before the movie even came out, so it was just his personality.
the movie was just...too real for me and I couldn't ever finish it.
Replied previously but adding:
Kids Gummo
Pasolini's Salo/120 Days of Sodom - Nobody ever regrets watching it.
Bad Boy Bubby - One of many grim Aussie films of that era. A classic.
The Warzone - Tim Roth's directorial feature. Incestuous rape introducing Colin Farrell in his feature debut.
Drowning By Numbers/ A Zed and Two Noughts - Peter Greenaway shoots his films like renaissance paintings. Do you like lots and lots of snails on naked bodies? No? Tough. The Michael Nyman scores are terrific though.
You can pretty much take your pic with any of Lars Von Triers films. Breaking the Waves, Antichrist, Dogville etc.
Festen - which is Danish but NOT a Lars Von Trier film is probably the best Dogme 95 films of all. Including that fucking MAGAT Harmony Korine. Don't know if this is that haunting but a good film anyway.
Come and See - Yes yes come and see! and in the vein of horrible WW2 films...
Salon Kitty - Tinto Brass before he went full porno.
Baise Moi - FUCK ME! No really that's what its called.
Christiane F : Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo - Not a documentary but based on fact.
Reckon that should be enough. Happy viewing! LOL.
The War Zone is a great pick here. Tim Roth's contributions in this sphere are notable, that was his directorial debut, and before that his acting debut was playing a teenage skinhead in Made in Britain which fits the criteria too.
someone mentioned Michael Haneke elsewhere, Roth is in the english language remake of Funny Games, another film that meets the requirements and one of the the few remakes worth watching, due to it being a) an exact replica of the original but in english and b) having tim roth in it
Do you know I have had Funny Games on DVD for years and I haven't watched it. I got so burned out by dark films that I have to 'fall' into watching them organically somehow. Like either they are on and I get pulled in or I have to creep up on them without quite realising/admitting they're going to be a fucking brutal trip, or go see them at the cinema.
You sound like your a bit of a film buff as well. What have you watched recently that you rate or hate?
yeah, you never know what will get to you but for what it's worth i think Funny Games is less dark than many mentioned here
i've been lax at watching and noting down what i've watched lately but two newish ones that stood out were MadS (2024) and the Toxic Avenger remake (probably in it's favour that i saw it after the relatively disappointing Street Trash one). also yet another rewatch of From Dusk Till Dawn which is always a winner for me
MadS looks good. I will dl it tonight. Haven't seen the Toxic Avenger remake but I have it on the server, but tbh I'd probably rather rewatch Tromeo and Juliet. Some films have a magic to them and that film is a sputtering dark candle in a gutter o'erflowed with filth.
I recently rate The Surrender 2025, Bring Her Back 2024 (not just cos I have a thing for Sally Hawkins) and if you haven't seen it When Evil Lurks from 2023. All scratched the horror itch.
Agree on the pointless Street Trash remake. Feels like 'they' have done that a lot recently, i.e. remake schlock and double down on the shit bits in some kind of ironic crapfest. Like with the new Anaconda film. Why not just remake something good instead of microwaving crap bc they got the IP for pennies.
Troma of course a mixed bag but i have a big soft spot for more or less anything of theirs, agree T&J high up the ranking
cheers for The Surrender, haven't come across that, i'll get it to add to Bring Her Back already on the backlog
When Evil Lurks is excellent, very high stakes, noone safe. And even though ST wasn't much cop the same guy made Fried Barry before that which i think you might like
Thanks for the recommendation for Fried Barry, looks like a lot of fun. Much Appreciated! I haven't watched anything out of South Africa for years. Not since Oats Studios which feels like a million years ago now.
Ah yes. The 'Backlog'. I keep seeing films come up on Kodi or Jellfin that I would quite like to watch but there's always a 'but'. I don't know quite when I started obsessively paying attention to exactly how long a film runs but probably somewhere around the same time I started asking myself: "Am I going to fall asleep after an hour?" and "Will I bother picking it up again tomorrow if I do?" Lee Cronin's The Mummy almost fell by the wayside, saved only by the young woman playing the titular being (I thought) rather good (also is he trying for a Clive Barker thing or is just to avoid confusion with Tom Cruise's The Mummy?)
Sometimes I even start films I know for a fact I am not going to watch just so I can sit there grumbling for fifteen minutes or so. In much the same way you might speculate over the existence of an especially egregious turd - "The size! the smell! Who would lay such a thing!?" The Bone Keeper is the most recent one I can remember the name of. Though there seems to be a recent glut of Loosely Lovecraft films that seem to be made of old dried up bits of Shoggoth shit.
I am quite enjoying Widow's Bay though. Thirty five minutes, a monster of the week and it's funny.
cool, i know nothing else from seff effriceh except District 9 (good) and Chappie (shit) so will check Oats, they've got stuff on youtube it looks like
film length opinion is 90 minutes is ideal, i read John Waters saying that about comedy before but it applies just as well to horror as far as i'm concerned and i watch little else (with extra broad definition of horror). if i watch something at home after dinner there's a decent chance i'll fall asleep regardless of quality - in fact if i'm enjoying it the probability increases and i'll happily restart after. home setups have their insurmountable limits but there's no such luxury in the cinema
loosely lovecraft is a neat way to put it but i think i've avoided the brunt of that - what i can think of off the top is mainly tv series, brand new cherry flavour (good), lovecraft county (didn't get far), that one with newspaper delivery kids? the shorthand for films i would guess is that the poster is in a pinky purply colour (out of space)
will dl Widow's Bay, i don't have much patience for long series tv but always interested in horror comedy and if individual episodes are fun by themselves it suits me fine, i liked Welcome to Derry well enough on this basis
Blue Velvet is one
KIDS is another
Absolutely
One of the most disturbing things about Blue Velvet is that Dennis Hopper got the part by telling David Lynch he had to play Frank Booth because he was Frank Booth.
Ain't you ever seen that one movie KIDS?
Kids, Requiem for a Dream
For me it was The Butterfly Effect.
All quiet on the western front
It's a movie about a German soldier during WWI, really trying to convey the horrors of war.
I read the book when I was 11. I still have dreams about being in the gas attack.
I thought sunshine was going to be a cool science fiction movie... i had no idea it was also classified as a psychological thriller....
Sometimes i just rewatch the first half.
When I was a 13-year-old girl who didn't know she was queer I watched The House Bunny at my friend's sleepover birthday party and ran out of the room crying because it confirmed all my fears about young adulthood.
Uncut gems. Could not even finish it, just too stressful. One Battle After Another was similar in some ways, but actually an enjoyable watch for me.
If you didn't finish Uncut Gems you missed the best part. Sandlers only good movie imo ( I just could never stand his form of comedy ).
Just looked up the runtime and I probably only made halfway at best. I might try to rewatch it sometime. Sometimes if I don't care enough about a movie to finish it I'll just look up the plot synopsis, this wasn't one of those movies. It just genuinely stressed me out too much.
the skin i live in(2011) is extremely upsetting, and i'm not sure I would call it horror, although it would be pretty easy to make the argument for horrifying.
I'll look into it
It's an experience, it's kinda horror but not really. Stars Antonio Banderas.
The Perfect Storm (2000)
True story and just so much anxiety.
Somewhat true, but fictionalized.
Rough one
I thought Johnny Got His Gun was disturbing when I watched it in school. May have been because I was a kid though.
Dogville, and most of everything else by Lars von Trier (as others have mentioned).
Grave of the fireflies.
Some of the Black Mirror episodes give that existential dread. The one where a conciousness is imprisoned in a teddybear comes to mind.
AI: Artificial intelligence
Messed me up a little because I watched it so young. I was old enough to understand the themes and moral dilemmas, but some scenes were just so heartbreaking. What matters? What's real? What does it mean to be alive or to be human?
Kids (1995)
Similar to Requiem, a one-time-only must-watch.
The Wall
Should not have been tripping acid first time I watched it
The pink Floyd movie?
Yes
Grave of the Fireflies. You don't see any fighting and most people the protagonists meet are good, AND YET it's so depressing. Seeing how bad the horrors of war are, even in the best case scenario, was eye-opening for me.
Even worse when you realize it’s based on an semi-autobiography that was written by the older brother. After the story was published, the author admitted that he was much more selfish than the older brother in the story. Basically, the older brother in the story was who the author wished he had been. He admitted that the older brother in the story was extremely selfless and always tried to make sure his sister ate first. But in reality, he frequently ate while his little sister went hungry. And in retrospect, he believes that was a large contributor to her death by starvation. He originally published the story as an apology to his dead sister.
That movie gave me PTSD
Dancer in the dark. Sad story of a woman who does everything to be happy ans still cant.
All great recommendations here
For a recent one I thought The Drama was quite tense and uncomfortable, worth a watch for sure.
Threads
Everyone that welcomes the fall of society or post war survivalist fantasies should watch this for a reality check.
Came to say Requiem for a Dream but I see that's well represented.
I'll go with Legends of the Fall - a story told across multiple generations of a family, and damn near nothing but tragedy for any of them. It left me feeling so bleak towards the world. (Decades ago that I watched it, but that's my recollection.)
Pink Floyd The Wall - also just left me feeling like humanity is just endlessly fucked up and mostly terrible to each other.
Spy Kids disturbed me as a kid because of the idea of people being turned into fooglies. The film doesn't even show them being changed back, I guess we're supposed to assume it. Why couldn't they have a scene at the end where the rescued agents videochat with the cortezes and thank them? The movie also has kind of a creepy atmosphere. I revisited it a bunch of times and kept being disturbed. Then I watched it again at age 30, fully prepared to be triggered by certain scenes but weirdly, I wasn't. It's just a normal movie to me now, and a pretty good one for what it is
Compliance might be cheating because it's based on a true story, but it's not s documentary despite being an almost exact retelling of the original events. Which just makes it more fucked up.
A Serbian Film.
I guess it could qualify as horror so maybe not but... Only movie Ive ever regretted watching.
That movie is so badly fucked up.
Seven Pounds
Watched soon after untimely death of a loved one.
Spent like a week in bed after watching.
Detachment. It's a story about a substitute school teacher. It's fucking glum. Good movie but ugh.
Using Adrian Brody as a segue, the Pianist, and Schindler's List. WWII stuff gets under the skin, especially as of late.
For an entirely different direction - Velocipastor. It's funny and absurd, but golly B movies make me cringe. I think there were a few parts that made me cringe myself inside out.
Happiness.
There is no on screen violent or sexual acts but it still got a NC-17 rating. It's the darkest of dark comedies, if you're after disturbing for the sake of disturbing, you won't be able to top this.
I couldn't finish it. It was fucking awful
Testament.
The slow death of living in a post-nuclear world. Terrifying in its hopelessness. You don’t actually see the destruction from the nuclear detonation, only people slowly dying. I know there are other films like Day After or Threads, but in those they depict the epicenters of the bombs destruction, not the slow death outside of the worst hit area. I found it crushing in a way that the other movies didn’t match.
Imagine watching all three when you're just nine years old.
And you'll have my childhood.
Yeah, I saw those in middle school. Definitely scarring.
You could understand his frustration if you have lots of experience with humans and the evil things they do to you or others.
It is not okay to kill nor am I justifying his actions, only justifying his feelings.
I hear ya
I found some scenes from the movie 'Amistad' (1997) deeply disturbing, and they haunt me to this day (as they should any sane human being).
Hostage, it was a mediocre to decent Bruce Willis action flick about teenagers holding a family for ransom. It's been a long time since I saw it, but I remember one of the villains being incredibly unsettling and disturbing throughout.
A Serbian Film. It's messed up.
"War of the Roses" was difficult to watch.
Black Mirror's Striking Vipers episode. Initially made me uncomfortable, but then prompts questions about virtual/online interactions and where to draw the line. Building (virtual) things in an online game together with a (adult) friend is OK. (Virtually) harming or killing your (adult) friend in online game is OK. Is having (virtual) sex with your (adult) friend in online game OK?
Also is it gay? I mean if your friend is indistinguishable from a lady but you know its your friend in there.
Rosemead. Watched it recently and went in completely blind. On one hand I recommend doing that, on the other hand I feel its irresponsible to tell someone to do that.
Second this one. I watched it months ago and still think about it. Be careful when you look it up. Tons of spoilers everywhere. At most just watch the official trailer (don't read the comments) and decide if you want to watch it. It's about a son with schizophrenia and his mother
Also the movie Aniara
What happens when you’re trapped in space and everything goes wrong.
The 9th Gate.
I mean, other than it being kinda a crappy movie the whole "I ascend to power by literally banging the devil" just seemed ... wow.
Capernaum.
Children living in poverty is so fucked.
Thank you for changing from a documentary. Movie looks rough good share.
I don't remember what it was called, but there was one I watched in theaters in 1st grade for a class field trip that would absolutely freak me out today. It was a documentary on bugs.
Edit:
I misread it as non-horror documentary.
I cannot think of any films right now that really scared me, but I might come back if any come to mind. Closest I can think of would be things from cartoons, like the moon spirit thing from Courage The Cowardly Dog or a Goosebumps commercial where they show a scene of a mummy rising and the kid banging on a door because they couldn't get out.
Not a movie but an episode of Fringe I watched last night (s2e11, "Unearthed"), that started with a teenage girl being taken off life support at the hospital. It hit a little too close to home, and the presentation was so effective, watching it was very traumatic. I mean Fringe can be horror-ish but it's generally more in the sci-fi realm.
Amour
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1602620/
If you've never seen Michael Hanake movies then it's hard to describe. It's not like horror like any of the others just getting us to confront things were uncomfortable with.
I remember when they filmed that movie near me.
Badlands
On The Beach
Fail-Safe
Idk if I'd classify it as non-Horror, but Threads is the scariest movie I've ever seen.
Its a movie from 1984 about a nuclear war scenario in the UK. The movie kept close to the science of the time, and made significant choices in casting and presentation that makes it all feel so much more real.
And it's free to watch on YouTube.
Apparently, they're making a modern version of it too.
I was going to say OpenWater but apparently that is horror film
and I was horrified. lol
but no, a not at all related to marine life movie, Swimming with the Sharks was really impactful. Kevin Spacey yelling at you "What is it you really really want?!“ was good. but yeah fuck him.
anyway, lots of good films to check out - thanks for the thread!
Adam Curtis's Hypernormalisation. It is a documentary and does a painful job of examining reality. I was vaguely unsettled before seeing it and after seeing it I have a specific vocabulary and lens through which I perceive current events. I feel helpless to this day. Free on YouTube:
https://youtu.be/Gr7T07WfIhM
I remembered you want non documentaries, so I will add Basketball Diaries. DiCaprio film about a talented young basketball player ruining his life through drug addiction.
Watch the Louis Theroix, Jimmy saville documentary, then Google the guy, that's if you are not from the UK and aren't already familiar.. or don't.
non-documentary is all caps in the question :)
It never ends up working lmao
Ah, whoops
My first instinct was to quietly downvote this because you didn't read the question, but I'm not having a downvote on a mention of how evil Jimmy Savile was on my permanent record.
The smartest guys in the room, Doc about the demise of Enron. Illustrates the deadend street of capitalism.
Lmao ignored all instructions