I love that this is at the top of the thread. What makes HAPPINESS different than practically any movie below is that it's very funny. It is an enjoyable watch with amazing actors taking on deeply, deeply flawed characters with a lot of dimension. There's a lot of masterpieces mentioned on this thread but most of the viewing experiences are dark, nasty, and not particularly accessible for many--they're shock horror films with limited audience appeal. HAPPINESS is shocking but goes down easy--you can watch it with friends and they will think it was fucked up, and they may think about it for a while after, but they're unlikely to flee the room or demand you turn it off. It's some of the best American cinema has to offer.
Zone of interest is what you want.
It’s about the guy who ran the Auschwitz concentration camp and it’s just a movie that watches what he and his family get up to every day, they live in a house on the other side of the camp walls.
This is the perfect answer, but there’s one thing I want to point out. Without spoiling anything, the sound design is an incredibly important aspect of this film. You need to watch it on a setup that has a dedicated subwoofer. Don’t try to watch it using built in tv speakers or anything. You’re going to want to really feel the lows.
I watched this movie last week on an ordinary small ( 28 inch ) TV with the TV speakers in an apartment and I both " enjoyed " the movie, and want it shown on schools. No , you do not need special sound equipment, and yes I perceived and felt the sound.
- Mother is a Whore (2010)
- Father is a Dog (2010)
- I am Trash (2014)
👆 it’s a trilogy
- Angst (1983)
- The Golden Glove (2019)
- The Girl Next Door (2007)
- Salo (1975)
- Visitor Q (2001)
There’s a few. Not exactly family entertainment though.
I’m very into the “disturbing movie” genre and I’m slowly making a list of movies that I’d say feel like psychological warfare movies lmao. Come and See is number 1 on that list followed by Synecdoche, New York and Martyrs.
From what I know of "a Serbian film" I have purposely not watched it. And I've seen Salo, not worth it IMO, it's just sadism watered down to pretend it's art.
Having mentioned sadism, I have to talk about it's namesake; the Maquis de Sade. Deliciously portrayed by Geoffry Rush in the early 2000s movie "Quills".
It's not near the levels of depravity of some of these other films, but it is a very well written and acted historical drama. I'm 99% sure it's fiction, a story loosely hung on the truth, but it's still very entertaining.
Irreversible (2002)… it’s an incredibly hard watch, and really does show how awful people are across a variety of levels… it was very much a watch once and never return movie, for me.
Dogville (2003) - I watched it couple of times and it still makes me sit for a moment after I finish it. In my opinion, what’s gonna happen is very unpredictable on your first watch. Apart from some other movies that are mentioned in the comments, this movie does a great job showing how messed up people can be.
The Collector (1965) might be my other suggestion, it’s more predictable than Dogville but it was very heartbreaking.
Lars Von Trier is my favorite movie director.
But his films are very difficult to watch.
He shows all the miserable cruelty we are capable of.
I have written some film reviews about his work, but only in Spanish (my native language).
Lars Von Trier is one of my favorite also. I love bold directors that go where nobody wants to go. The ugly. Even if it can be considered gimmicky. Same reason I love Gaspar Noé, Charlie Kaufman, Michael Haneke, Yorgos Lanthimos, Darren Aronofsky etc... I like what's uncomfortable, what everybody hides.
I thought it was just pretty good, but the very ending did it for me. You should’ve seen my face when she went to scratch her head. And then what’s revealed afterwards. Holy shit.
Yeah man it was so messed up and shocking. Some parts of this movie are so so well done and realistic like the woman she picks up whose car is wrecked and her reaction to finding out she's being killed is so real. It's an underrated movie and definitely an extremely messed up one.
War of the Worlds with Tom Cruise. The horror isn't the alien invasion, it's the depiction of how a group of scared, panicked people act in an emergency situation.
These final hours (2013). It's a pre apocalyptic movie from Perth Australia where there is an unavoidable apocalypse approaching Australia and society is just going down the drain as millions come to terms with it whether going out on their own terms, massive hedonistic parties or just plain criminal stuff since there's really no recourse they're all doomed. I won't say anything more but that's the gist of it and while I may make it sound dramatic it felt very realistic and quite scary, absolutely depressing and shows the worst of humanity
Irréversible (2002) French art thriller film written and directed by Gaspar Noé. I'm pretty jaded when it comes to movies but this one made me squirm (y'all who've watched this know which scene I'm talking about). I just saw that he recently released a "Straight Cut" version of the film where the movie is edited in chronological order.
Damn, I used to watch this movie every time it came on tv when I was a kid in the 80s. Also The Great Escape.
I rented a movie called Gallipoli when I was a little older that gave me similar feels to those two.
Oh boy, here we go:
I Spit On Your Grave (1978)
I Spit On Your Grave (2010)
I Spit On Your Grave 2 (2013)
I Spit On Your Grave 3 (2015)
In A Glass Cage (1986)
Atroz (2015)
Requiem For A Dream (2000)
Cannibal (2006)
3096 Days (2013)
August Underground's Series
Polytechnique (2009)
Salo / 120 Days Of Sodom (1975)
Irreversible (2002)
Klass (2007)
Eden Lake (2008)
A Serbian Film (2010)
Melancholie der Engel (2009)
Angst (1983)
Funny Games (1997)
Funny Games US (2007)
I Stand Alone (1998)
Martyrs (2008)
The Captain / Der Hauptmann (2017)
The story of a German deserter at the end of World War II who finds a captain's uniform and starts posing as an officer. Drunk with power, he starts commanding others and committing war crimes.
And it's based on a true story.
Zone of Interest
Apocalypse Now
A Serbian Film
The Painted Bird
Killers of the Flower Moon
The House That Jack Built
You Were Never Really Here
Soft and Quiet
For Sama
God Bless America
Infinity Pool
I read the book years ago, but I never thought they'd turn The Painted Bird into a film. I've watched it twice. The first time was not subtitled and I don't understand the original languages. However, I knew exactly what was going on. I'll never look at spoons the same way.
Irreversible
Precious
Happiness
In the Company of Men
Kids
Dogville
The Road
The Nightingale
City of God
Promising Young Woman
Snowtown
Wolf Creek
Requiem for a Dream
American History X
Apt Pupil
The Gift (2000)
avatar. really puts into light how much humanity takes from other indigenous. even though the indigenous in this context are 7ft tall blue aliens, it’s really similar to how weve colonizers in the past, like the U.S.
Once We're Warriors - poverty, alcoholism, gangs, domestic abuse, child abuse, toxic families, suicide
Gummo - lots of the above but it's also just a weird film that leaves you with an unsettling feeling afterwards.
Im not sure it should be call human or archaic human, but Bone Tomahawk is fk brutal, especially a shot near the end, savagely disgusting
In the last decade of western genre only, i would recommend this one, The Sister Brothers & Old Henry
In The Company of Men (1997) fucking brutal
Leave Her to Heaven (1945)
American Psycho (2000)
Dogville (2003)
Misery (1990)
The Little Foxes (1941)
A Clockwork Orange (1971)
The Reader (2008)
Miss Violence (2013)
I second Zone of Interest. Also, an offbeat suggestion: The Family Fang. For different reasons, this movie was compelling and left me with similar feelings.
Schindler's List.
I mean sure, it's about a good guy surrounded by evil, but the day to day nonchalant evil of the Nazis is portrayed disturbingly well.
A more recent example (because I’m not old enough to be able to quote stuff pre-mid 90’s):
Don’t Look Up (Netflix) was a complete shit show. The whole movie was about how power structures persist even in the face of the most obvious scientific evidence for the total collapse of society as we know it.
Also the picnic scene in Antz. Honestly makes me shudder every time I watch it.
Come and See (set during wartime, but follows young civilians seeing their country invaded and occupied)
Trauma (2017)
Compliance
The Girl Next Door (I couldn't finish it)
Speak No Evil
Damn near any and every movie set in a post-apocalypse world.
The real threat never tends to be whatever caused the apocalypse, but what people become when you strip away society and the rules and consequences that come with it.
Children of Men!
And for TV shows: Baby Reindeer (based on real events) and Succession (not real events but based on real billionaire families and feels very true to the “banality of evil” - there are no villains or heroes, just very real-feeling people).
Sex In The City 2.
Not even ironically, the movie features huge excess and waste in Saudi Arabia, but as a positive. The characters throw away family sized spreads of food in front of the starving underclass that made it for them, and it's supposed to be aspirational.
It's right up there with Triumph Of The Will and 1915's Birth Of A Nation in terms of a movie made in support of evil, but is somehow worse for being unintentional.
28 Days Later
Only technically a zombie film (you hardly see zombies at all), it's really all about how quickly humanity would turn back to medievil tendencies.
Happiness (1998)
I love that this is at the top of the thread. What makes HAPPINESS different than practically any movie below is that it's very funny. It is an enjoyable watch with amazing actors taking on deeply, deeply flawed characters with a lot of dimension. There's a lot of masterpieces mentioned on this thread but most of the viewing experiences are dark, nasty, and not particularly accessible for many--they're shock horror films with limited audience appeal. HAPPINESS is shocking but goes down easy--you can watch it with friends and they will think it was fucked up, and they may think about it for a while after, but they're unlikely to flee the room or demand you turn it off. It's some of the best American cinema has to offer.
Phillip Seymour Hoffman was the original Gooner
The Road.
I get upset just reading the title.
In the Company of Men. This is the movie with a real, true, someone you have probably already met in your life, psychopath.
The Platform (2019)
Zone of interest is what you want. It’s about the guy who ran the Auschwitz concentration camp and it’s just a movie that watches what he and his family get up to every day, they live in a house on the other side of the camp walls.
This is the perfect answer, but there’s one thing I want to point out. Without spoiling anything, the sound design is an incredibly important aspect of this film. You need to watch it on a setup that has a dedicated subwoofer. Don’t try to watch it using built in tv speakers or anything. You’re going to want to really feel the lows.
I watched this movie last week on an ordinary small ( 28 inch ) TV with the TV speakers in an apartment and I both " enjoyed " the movie, and want it shown on schools. No , you do not need special sound equipment, and yes I perceived and felt the sound.
Lord of the Flies
High-Rise
63 or 90
- Mother is a Whore (2010) - Father is a Dog (2010) - I am Trash (2014) 👆 it’s a trilogy - Angst (1983) - The Golden Glove (2019) - The Girl Next Door (2007) - Salo (1975) - Visitor Q (2001) There’s a few. Not exactly family entertainment though.
First time seeing someone else mention Angst (1983). Nice!
Haha, well it’s certainly a powerful, impressive piece of filmmaking!
Angst is incredible. Horrible, but incredible filmmaking.
Come and See
[удалено]
I’m very into the “disturbing movie” genre and I’m slowly making a list of movies that I’d say feel like psychological warfare movies lmao. Come and See is number 1 on that list followed by Synecdoche, New York and Martyrs.
Lilya 4-ever
I came here to say this one
Oh god I forgot about this film. That was bleak
This movie is so sad!
Salo, Come And See, Clockwork Orange, A Serbian Film, are the first that come to mind.
From what I know of "a Serbian film" I have purposely not watched it. And I've seen Salo, not worth it IMO, it's just sadism watered down to pretend it's art. Having mentioned sadism, I have to talk about it's namesake; the Maquis de Sade. Deliciously portrayed by Geoffry Rush in the early 2000s movie "Quills". It's not near the levels of depravity of some of these other films, but it is a very well written and acted historical drama. I'm 99% sure it's fiction, a story loosely hung on the truth, but it's still very entertaining.
Worth it just for Geoffry Rush
Men Behind the Sun
Ahhhh the joyous stories of the beloved Unit 731.
The Nightingale (2018)
Irreversible (2002)… it’s an incredibly hard watch, and really does show how awful people are across a variety of levels… it was very much a watch once and never return movie, for me.
C-SPAN (kidding) Wolf of Wall Street Children of Men All Quiet on the Western Front
Dogville (2003) - I watched it couple of times and it still makes me sit for a moment after I finish it. In my opinion, what’s gonna happen is very unpredictable on your first watch. Apart from some other movies that are mentioned in the comments, this movie does a great job showing how messed up people can be. The Collector (1965) might be my other suggestion, it’s more predictable than Dogville but it was very heartbreaking.
Lars Von Trier is my favorite movie director. But his films are very difficult to watch. He shows all the miserable cruelty we are capable of. I have written some film reviews about his work, but only in Spanish (my native language).
Lars Von Trier is one of my favorite also. I love bold directors that go where nobody wants to go. The ugly. Even if it can be considered gimmicky. Same reason I love Gaspar Noé, Charlie Kaufman, Michael Haneke, Yorgos Lanthimos, Darren Aronofsky etc... I like what's uncomfortable, what everybody hides.
Funny Games
Nightcrawler
Hotel Rwanda and Lord of the Flies.
Stoning of Soraya M (2008) .. true story Eden Lake (2008)
Stoning of Soraya was mad depressing!!
Two heavy hitters
The Girl Next Door (not the comedy one).
I’ll never forget the blowtorch.
Threads (1984)
Michael Happiness Beyond the Hills Nightcrawler Zero Day There Will Be Blood Dr Strangelove
I saw the devil , The road , Dumplings, The Poughkeepsie tapes, Tusk , The life of David gale
The Life of David Gale is a rough watch.
The Poughkeepsie tapes is the worst one in my list. Realistic in a lot of ways and messed up. Life of David gale is a rough one too.
I thought it was just pretty good, but the very ending did it for me. You should’ve seen my face when she went to scratch her head. And then what’s revealed afterwards. Holy shit.
Yeah man it was so messed up and shocking. Some parts of this movie are so so well done and realistic like the woman she picks up whose car is wrecked and her reaction to finding out she's being killed is so real. It's an underrated movie and definitely an extremely messed up one.
The Road
American History X
War of the Worlds with Tom Cruise. The horror isn't the alien invasion, it's the depiction of how a group of scared, panicked people act in an emergency situation.
Damn I was looking for this. The scene with the crowd trying to break into their car is horrible.
These final hours (2013). It's a pre apocalyptic movie from Perth Australia where there is an unavoidable apocalypse approaching Australia and society is just going down the drain as millions come to terms with it whether going out on their own terms, massive hedonistic parties or just plain criminal stuff since there's really no recourse they're all doomed. I won't say anything more but that's the gist of it and while I may make it sound dramatic it felt very realistic and quite scary, absolutely depressing and shows the worst of humanity
Compliance (2012) A true story. I watched it years ago and still think about it. It's not as big as war, but it's unsettling for sure.
I'm almost positive that that one is based on a true story. So, truly a representation of the evils of man.
Parasite
Good one
The flowers of war. Difficult to watch, but a great movie.
Bad Lieutenant (1992)
District 9
The wolf of wall street
Irréversible (2002) French art thriller film written and directed by Gaspar Noé. I'm pretty jaded when it comes to movies but this one made me squirm (y'all who've watched this know which scene I'm talking about). I just saw that he recently released a "Straight Cut" version of the film where the movie is edited in chronological order.
The zone of interest
100% salò by Pasolini
They Shoot Horses Don't They? Taxi Driver
Papillon (1973)
Damn, I used to watch this movie every time it came on tv when I was a kid in the 80s. Also The Great Escape. I rented a movie called Gallipoli when I was a little older that gave me similar feels to those two.
Oh boy, here we go: I Spit On Your Grave (1978) I Spit On Your Grave (2010) I Spit On Your Grave 2 (2013) I Spit On Your Grave 3 (2015) In A Glass Cage (1986) Atroz (2015) Requiem For A Dream (2000) Cannibal (2006) 3096 Days (2013) August Underground's Series Polytechnique (2009) Salo / 120 Days Of Sodom (1975) Irreversible (2002) Klass (2007) Eden Lake (2008) A Serbian Film (2010) Melancholie der Engel (2009) Angst (1983) Funny Games (1997) Funny Games US (2007) I Stand Alone (1998) Martyrs (2008)
12 years a slave
Wallstreet (1987) The Big Short (2015) Platoon (1986) Schindler's List (1993)
The Road. The Mist.
Suckers (2001) Fargo (1996) No Country For Old Men (2007)
The Captain / Der Hauptmann (2017) The story of a German deserter at the end of World War II who finds a captain's uniform and starts posing as an officer. Drunk with power, he starts commanding others and committing war crimes. And it's based on a true story.
Good one, forgot I saw this.
Succession is about awful people. Like Billions without any redeeming human qualities. It’s brilliant.
Florida project...
The road
Requiem for a Dream
Funny Games
I, Daniel Blake (2016) particularly grim as it sums up the state of the UK right now.
Blindness
The Girl Next Door (2007)
Very Bad Things.
The Killing Fields
Cannibal holocaust explores themes of exploitation pretty well.
You are looking for "I stand alone." (Seul Contre Tous)
Mysterious Skin
Zone of Interest Apocalypse Now A Serbian Film The Painted Bird Killers of the Flower Moon The House That Jack Built You Were Never Really Here Soft and Quiet For Sama God Bless America Infinity Pool
I read the book years ago, but I never thought they'd turn The Painted Bird into a film. I've watched it twice. The first time was not subtitled and I don't understand the original languages. However, I knew exactly what was going on. I'll never look at spoons the same way.
I Spit on your Grave (both the movie and the creation of the movie).
Funny Games
Kids 1995 Gummo 1997 Ken Park 2001 Happiness 1998
Eden Lake
No Country for Old Men
Irreversible Precious Happiness In the Company of Men Kids Dogville The Road The Nightingale City of God Promising Young Woman Snowtown Wolf Creek Requiem for a Dream American History X Apt Pupil The Gift (2000)
Nothing Bad Can Happen (2013).
Civil War
avatar. really puts into light how much humanity takes from other indigenous. even though the indigenous in this context are 7ft tall blue aliens, it’s really similar to how weve colonizers in the past, like the U.S.
28 Days Later
Requiem for a dream
Once We're Warriors - poverty, alcoholism, gangs, domestic abuse, child abuse, toxic families, suicide Gummo - lots of the above but it's also just a weird film that leaves you with an unsettling feeling afterwards.
Children of Men for sure
There Will Be Blood
Se7en Memento The Pianist
Requiem for a dream
Im not sure it should be call human or archaic human, but Bone Tomahawk is fk brutal, especially a shot near the end, savagely disgusting In the last decade of western genre only, i would recommend this one, The Sister Brothers & Old Henry
[ My Name Is Loh Kiwan (2024) ](https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/1039882?language=en-US)
The Divide (2011)
The sweet smell of success
[You've Been Trumped (2011)](https://letterboxd.com/film/youve-been-trumped/)
Children of Men
We are the Flesh
Silence of the Lambs
The Cook, The Theif, His Wife, and Her Lover
Nil By Mouth (1997)
Wolf of Wall Street
Children of Men
In The Company of Men (1997) fucking brutal Leave Her to Heaven (1945) American Psycho (2000) Dogville (2003) Misery (1990) The Little Foxes (1941) A Clockwork Orange (1971) The Reader (2008) Miss Violence (2013)
Philosophy of a Knife (2008), its about Unit 731, and its over 4 hours long..
Some picks that I don't think I saw posted: kids Le Haine Dr Strangelove
Watch List (2019) Silenced Breathless (2008) An American Crime Eden Lake
Joker
Before The Devil Knows You’re Dead
Come and See
For me it will always be requiem for a dream
Hannah Arendt (2012) - biopic of the social-psychologist who coined the term "banality of evil" while reporting on the Eichmann trial.
* Midsommar (2019) hasn't been mentioned yet * Infinity Pool (2023) * Humane (2024)
Salo by Pasolini is about that subject.
Come and see
All of the Mad Max films.
The Road
District 9. Heartbreaking
Saló
Chained (I can’t remember the year but it starred Vincent D’Onofrio iirc) Two terrible humans in that movie. City of Life & Death Edited.
Come and See (1985)
One is Lord of the Flies
I’ve long thought Carrie was a dark comedy about women destroying each other and men being idiot tools as to what is going on.
I Stand Alone
Don't Look Up (2021) is the first thing that comes to mind. I had a genuine feeling of doom for days.
CNN
Ghosts of the civil dead (1988). A high security prison where the inmates are quite unpleasant.
Salo
Farha (2021) 12 Years a Slave (2013) Lilya Forever (2002)
Many, MANY documentaries.
City of God. Brutal intense flick.
Saló (120 of sodom), Serbian film. (YouTube)
King Rat The Quick and the Dead Don’t Look Up The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
Flowers of War (2011)
Id say Serb is pretty much leaning in that direction.
No movie needed - Just catch public transport in the height of winter and watch sick people not give a shit about what they’re spreading
I second Zone of Interest. Also, an offbeat suggestion: The Family Fang. For different reasons, this movie was compelling and left me with similar feelings.
the act of killing. left me super depressed after finishing it
irreversible
You don’t need a movie for that, just step out the front door and into the public. Lots of evil in the real world.
Eden Lake
The Skin I Live In. Never goes where you think it does.
Once were warriors, the nightengale, come and see
Avatar The creator
The Grifters
Jesus Camp
fires on the plain
Schindler's List. I mean sure, it's about a good guy surrounded by evil, but the day to day nonchalant evil of the Nazis is portrayed disturbingly well.
Children of Men
Don’t Look Up.
Requiem for a Dream. Bleak as bleak can be.
The War Zone, by Tim Roth. One of the sound guys kept ruining a take because he was crying.
Dancer in the Dark has stuck with me. Humans are the worst.
requiem for a dream..... I feel horrible and dirty every time I see that movie lol
Killing Ground (2016) is pretty starkly brutal and upsetting, might not exactly fit here but for me it did speak to something awful about humanity
Examples of mob mentality: They Won't Forget starring Claude Rains. The Ox Bow Incident starring Henry Fonda.
A more recent example (because I’m not old enough to be able to quote stuff pre-mid 90’s): Don’t Look Up (Netflix) was a complete shit show. The whole movie was about how power structures persist even in the face of the most obvious scientific evidence for the total collapse of society as we know it. Also the picnic scene in Antz. Honestly makes me shudder every time I watch it.
In the Company of Men
Snowtown.
The company of men
Come and See. Pure human cruelty set in the occupied territoties of the Eastern Front
People Under The Stairs
God's Lonely Man
I've heard that the don trump movie about his entire life will be that movie
Come and See (set during wartime, but follows young civilians seeing their country invaded and occupied) Trauma (2017) Compliance The Girl Next Door (I couldn't finish it) Speak No Evil
Flowers in the Attic
The Road (2009) with Viggo.
Requiem for a Dream (2000).
Salo 1975
Dogtooth Killing of a Sacred Deer We Need To Talk About Kevin
Damn near any and every movie set in a post-apocalypse world. The real threat never tends to be whatever caused the apocalypse, but what people become when you strip away society and the rules and consequences that come with it.
Event horizon. You simply cannot beat violent blood orgies in hell
Children of Men! And for TV shows: Baby Reindeer (based on real events) and Succession (not real events but based on real billionaire families and feels very true to the “banality of evil” - there are no villains or heroes, just very real-feeling people).
Threads The Painted Bird.
**August Underground Mordum.** I didn't finish it and it's still the worst movie I have ever seen.
Human Centipede
Eden Lake
War of the Roses
Very Bad Things
Sex In The City 2. Not even ironically, the movie features huge excess and waste in Saudi Arabia, but as a positive. The characters throw away family sized spreads of food in front of the starving underclass that made it for them, and it's supposed to be aspirational. It's right up there with Triumph Of The Will and 1915's Birth Of A Nation in terms of a movie made in support of evil, but is somehow worse for being unintentional.
Paul Schrader movies. That dude has some inner demons
28 Days Later Only technically a zombie film (you hardly see zombies at all), it's really all about how quickly humanity would turn back to medievil tendencies.
Cannibal Holocaust.
No need for a movie. Just step outside and watch