Weird, dark movies

[gmanyo]

Salad Fingers is only good because they used a Boards of Canada song.

 

[crimsonhaze]

The Quiet. This movie has been so unsettling for me. I find it so damned creepy, and dark. Hauntingly so.

 

[Sigil]

I watched Eraserhead for the first time a few days ago. I'm a very big fan of Lynch and it was definitely one of his better movies.

Martyrs is about as close as you can get to a snuff film without any death. The beginning is quite shocking but like any of those movies, the more pain and torture the characters suffer the less you care.

 

[disregard]

Diabolique
Blue Velvet

 

[ZPowers]

remarkably, I remember being very disappointed when I finally watched The Exorcist in the late '90's. I was horribly bored. In fact, my favorite scene in the movie (in terms of being unsettled) never appeared in the orignial movie -- it's the scene where she scrambles down the steps like a human spider.

I guess I missed this response back when you first posted it, but it mirrors my feelings to a T. Right down to the spider scene being probably my favorite moment. I watched The Exorcist at maybe 13 or so and I watched it alone (well, I had friends there but they were tired and fell asleep before much of anything happened) and, as I was already kind of starting up my horror movie phase and had seen my fair share, I just felt like it was widely overrated (and it probably didn't help that even then I felt the Devil was a silly thing to be scared of).

 

[Riva]

Does the 'a Clockwork Orange' qualify? It sure shook me up. Urghhhh!

Malcolm McDowell played a classic psychopath though.

 

[INA]

Tarkovsky's Stalker

 

[Fluffywolf]

Hmm, dark movies are not easy to make, that's for sure. I can't really recall any that stood out for me except Clockwork Orange and One flew over the cuckoo's nest.

And perhaps a little bit Suckerpunch. I found the multi-layered nature of the movie as the various depths of psyche original enough to be positively amused for watching the movie. But at the same time, I sort of do wish the writers would have done an even better job at it, because the idea, the cast, production, it was all pretty top notch. Original and full of potential, but it caters a bit too much to pure sensation and action. They could have made the film much better.

 

[AgentF]

 

[ilikeitlikethat]

The Ninth Configuration (1980)

 

[Fluffywolf]

Oh, I just remembered seeing a movie about a guy and a boy walking across a post-apocalyptic wasteland, doing what must be done to survive in search of hope.

Can't recall the name though. But I quite liked seeing it.

 

[Tiger Owl]

Oh, I just remembered seeing a movie about a guy and a boy walking across a post-apocalyptic wasteland, doing what must be done to survive in search of hope.

Can't recall the name though. But I quite liked seeing it.

'The Road' from the book of the same name by Cormac McCarthy?

 

[Fluffywolf]

'The Road' from the book of the same name by Cormac McCarthy?

Yes, that's the one. Quite enjoyed watching it.

 

[Poindexter Arachnid]

I would recommend anything from David Lynch.
He has an uncanny talent to tap into the primal, subconscious mind.

The works of Stanley Kubrick are affective as well.
He chronicled human folly with an enthusiastic smile.

 

[Totenkindly]

The movies I'm always drawn to are the weird dark ones. I have a need to ritualistically creep myself out.

I just watched Antichrist (2009, Lars von Trier), & it was the most unsettling thing I've seen in a while. I may have nightmares.

Finally saw this last night.

My god, I've never been more simultaneously dazzled (by the beautiful visuals), moved (by the honest and vulnerable acting), creeped out (by the ambiance), turned off (by some of the violence), or have a wtf response (talking foxes, birthing deers, and whatever else). What a mess of a movie, I'm still not sure how I feel about it. Except that with all the slowmo of her in the woods, it left me excruciatingly uneasy ... like evil was lurking there waiting and I didn't know when it would arrive, and everything was in such slow motion that you'd see it coming and wouldn't be able to escape.

I'm finding it a bit easier to talk about and process than Malick's "Tree of Life," but it's leaving me with similar feelings -- like I have just lived within that space and experienced the movie but articulating thoughts about it from the outside eludes me.

And what on earth was that ending?

 

[Rasofy]

I remember having watched pretty dark film when I was a kid. There were two guys who I think were being helded hostages by an indian. I remember a scene on which one of these guys wake up and sees the indian is consuming the insides of the the calf of the other guy. I think that guy had tried to escape.

Does anyone know the name of this film??

 

[citizen cane]

I wouldn't say it's particularly weird, but Se7en is rather dark and is one hell of a good movie.

 

[Eileen]

Finally saw this last night.

My god, I've never been more simultaneously dazzled (by the beautiful visuals), moved (by the honest and vulnerable acting), creeped out (by the ambiance), turned off (by some of the violence), or have a wtf response (talking foxes, birthing deers, and whatever else). What a mess of a movie, I'm still not sure how I feel about it. Except that with all the slowmo of her in the woods, it left me excruciatingly uneasy ... like evil was lurking there waiting and I didn't know when it would arrive, and everything was in such slow motion that you'd see it coming and wouldn't be able to escape.

I'm finding it a bit easier to talk about and process than Malick's "Tree of Life," but it's leaving me with similar feelings -- like I have just lived within that space and experienced the movie but articulating thoughts about it from the outside eludes me.

And what on earth was that ending?

I haven't seen The Antichrist, but the end of your post makes me wonder if it felt like you were punched in the stomach--because my experience of Lars Von Trier (which is a handful of films--Breaking the Waves, Dancer in the Dark, The Idiots, The Boss of it All) is that he always leaves you feeling like someone just punched you. In the stomach. Hard. Even his comedy, I felt like shit after I watched it. I like dark films and stories. But ugh! Lars Von Trier! He is a bad person who wants people to suffer!



McCarthy's The Road, on the other hand--I haven't seen the film and the book has a totally unnecessary ending (not dark enough!), but damn--it's a work of art. Dark art. Gloomy art.

 

[Totenkindly]

I haven't seen The Antichrist, but the end of your post makes me wonder if it felt like you were punched in the stomach--because my experience of Lars Von Trier (which is a handful of films--Breaking the Waves, Dancer in the Dark, The Idiots, The Boss of it All) is that he always leaves you feeling like someone just punched you. In the stomach. Hard. Even his comedy, I felt like shit after I watched it. I like dark films and stories. But ugh! Lars Von Trier! He is a bad person who wants people to suffer!

yes, so far, I've seen Breaking the Waves, Dogville, Melancholia, and now Antichrist. left kind of speechless after the end of each... but it's also that there is just nothing I can say about the movie. I don't know how to explain it. I think my T sensibilities are looking for a thread or structure by which to hang the movie on, and his movies just kind of defy any kind of natural skeleton, they're constructed differently, and any rational attempt to explain them just comes out as gibberish or is some kind of simplistic criticism or pabulum. I can't accurately articulate what I felt and experienced when watching the movie, or what it was doing to me. You can only understand by watching it and experiencing it yourself.

A lot has been said about the act of self-mutilation that occurs in this movie, that left Von Trier branded a misogynist (although people have been accusing him of that for awhile). Actually, I felt like there was actually a through-line there -- the kind of guilt the character experiences for the tragedy occurring at the movie's beginning leads directly to what she does, later; it made sense to me and follows logically, but as a woman who has walked my particular road in life, I was completely mortified by what happened. Just waaay too close to home for me, I'm wincing agonizingly now just thinking about it again.

McCarthy's The Road, on the other hand--I haven't seen the film and the book has a totally unnecessary ending (not dark enough!), but damn--it's a work of art. Dark art. Gloomy art.

I'll have to look for that one. I seem to be into dark movies lately. gives me something to feel.

I wouldn't say it's particularly weird, but Se7en is rather dark and is one hell of a good movie.

Especially that scene with Sloth, with the little trees hanging from the ceiling and, well, you know...

The cinematography and art direction was excellent; I think the look of the movie (and how it affects ambiance) sticks with me more than the movie itself (plot, acting, etc.)

 

[Within]

I come with the rain.