After ANOTHER one this weekend I thought I’d make a post. I define a good bad film as one that has a high level of artistic value but are really disturbing. It’s as if all this artistic genius is used…not necessary for a bad cause but at the very least in a highly overwhelming fashion. It’s like, if you have that powerful an artistic voice, do you really need to scream at your audience? Tarantino is such an obvious example of this I’m going to leave him out of this post. And I’m not talking gore or horror films either; that sort of cheesy violence and startling “jumpers” doesn’t even approach the moral horror of abuse (especially towards children) that these films evoke. The psychology of the people who make them and enjoy is quite interesting indeed.
- Doom Generation (1995)
The first Gregg Araki film I saw this year and it is disturbing on many levels. The over the top violence, the sexual violence and predation, and enough imagery to perpetuate any fears of homelessness or the random violence of strangers that you may have. The acting, scenery, and costuming is very well done, and the direction is very engaging. There is no doubt that Araki is a brilliant story teller who also gets off on the gross outs. - Mysterious Skin (2004)
My theory on seeing this second Araki film is that 10 years after Doom Generation he realized that reality is much more disturbing than over the top violence. This is a hyper realistic film about the long term affects of extreme sexual abuse of two children. It is a truly powerful and disturbing film that I will never forget. Definitely no holds barred and I still feel like i need to take a shower just thinking about it. - The Wall (1982)
A film that I know a lot of people here will be familiar with. On the one hand I think it is an artistic masterpiece and on the other I found it to be highly disturbing and uncomfortable to watch. If you aren’t familiar with the film, it, again, deals with long term effects of child abuse in adulthood. There is also connections between childhood and the state, childhood and religion, and childhood and war although those loops are never cinched in a way that was cathartic for me. Very disturbing scenes are fired at the view in a shotgun fashion that left me emotionally exhausted by the end of it. - Pans Labyrinth (2006)
I know there are at least two long posts in this forum about this film so I don’t want to start anything new here about it. That being said, I found this film to be highly beautiful and highly disturbing. Maybe I’m crazy, but my expectations going into it was that it was going to be a children’s film. Did I totally misunderstand the marketing for this? The film is basically about the hallucinating dissociation of a little girl caught in a war living with her dying mother and psychopathic father. There are graphic scenes of torture, execution, disturbing monsters, and other disgusting scenes as well (ranging from an enormous toad puking all over the little girl, to the father (graphically) sewing his own cheek back together). - Children of Men (2006)
Now to the one I saw this weekend. I think i got this because I love all the actors in it; I was not disappointed by the acting: great performances by Clive Owen, Michael Caine, and Jullianne Moore. However, what started as an apocalyptic sci-fi set 20 years in the future with fascinating imagery, technology, and direction quickly turned into an all out war film with horrifying scenes of war, execution, and torture. Add to the mix high levels of stress surrounding a new born baby being brought into the hottest levels of war hell and this was an incredibly powerful, disturbing, and artistically genius film.
I hate these movies cause they are so good, but also so bad. I mourn the fact that I will never be able to go to the beautiful places they introduced me to ever again because of the horror that lives there.
These films I don’t feel like I can in all honestly actually recommend to anyone. I guess the point is that the fact that I can’t, is a real shame. The connections made in these films are very disturbing because they are so empty. There is no resolution or even growth within them, and the film inevitably ends with the viewer feeling vulnerable and hopeless. These movies are highly rated because they are engaging and beautiful but are definitely soul suckers.
Needless to say that is way over the number of films of this variety that I was interested in watching this year. I think i’m going to turn our Netflix queue over to my fiance for a complete makeover. :-)
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