John’s Horror Banana-nanza Episode Six: Most Shocking/Disturbing Scenes Ever

So I’m taking a hard left with this episode. My reviews have been strictly horror until now, because I had the chance to watch “A Serbian Film” recently and tried to compare it with other horrifying, disturbing movies I’ve seen. Unfortunately, most of what I’ve seen have been so-so movies with explosive moments. In fact, one of the movies on the list is absolutely not horror.

So here it goes, a list of scenes from movies that may, or may not, be worth checking out. I guess it all depends on how twisted your tastes are, or how brave your eyes are.

10. Saw: Understandably, when you see this title, you probably think to yourself how there are far too many sequels out there. It’s hard to remember back in 2004 when Cary Elwes and Danny Glover were over-acting, and I was begging for Mel Gibson’s Riggs to show up and shoot the killer. However, there is a moment in this movie that I won’t soon forget, and it’s hard to convince anyone how incredible it was the very first time I saw it.

While the two main characters are trapped in a room for the entirety of the movie, a body is between them. There’s no real clue or even attention paid to his identity, and it’s clear, at least to the viewer, that the killer is an orderly named Zep. That is, until it’s revealed that even he is being forced by another hand to take part in the game.

Then, as Zep is killed and Elwes’s character crawls out of the room, the body in the middle of the room stands up. It is a chilling moment, when the realization comes that there will be no happy ending, that the killer has been right in front of not only the victims, but the audience, the entire time. I remember the first time I saw it being absolutely stunned. However, since then, the series has deteriorated into torture horror.

9. Last House on the Left (1972): While I haven’t seen the remake yet, the original is still a bit tame to me. It may have shocked people when it came out, as the violence depicted in it had yet to be seen at that time, but today it just doesn’t carry that visceral punch.

However, there is a scene that rips at the eyes is when the character Phyllis tries to escape after being tortured and raped. She nearly makes it, but is surrounded by Krug and his clan, then stabbed in the back. It’s typical horror/slasher stuff, until the stabbing continues to the point that the character Sadie starts playing with Phyllis’s guts. It’s powerful, and disturbing. The killers wash their hands afterwards, as if they even disgusted themselves. This moment takes a typical slasher to an extreme, and is hard to erase from memory.

8. For Colored Girls: Yes, this is not a horror movie. In fact, I haven’t even watched this movie the whole way. But what I saw was enough to know there’s no way I can justify it. There is a scene in this movie in which a character named Beau calls his two children over to him. He then carries both of them over to what looks like a six story window, holds them by their wrists out that window…and then drops the both of them to their death. I have no idea what that had to do with anything, and it really isn’t significant. It had enough of an impact to make me leave the room, and not want to finish it.

7. Alien Resurrection : This movie really doesn’t fit with the rest of the series. It has a hurried feel to it, and everyone who’s seen the series knows that by this point, Ellen Ripley was not only dead, she was melted. Yet, in this movie, she’s been cloned, and now she’s running around with Winona Ryder. The plot is stupid, and Ripley borderline has sex with aliens.

However, there’s a scene in which she enters a room where the failed clones are stored. And it is beyond creepy. Some of the clones just moan, others scream. But when the realization of what she’s looking like hits her, Ripley then stumbles across one final clone. In a mangled voice, it cries out “Kill me.”

Try to imagine seeing other versions of yourself, only mutated, and asking you to kill them. Yeah. It’s creepy.

6. Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer: This whole movie is dirty, creepy, and disturbingly real. John McNaughton achieved his goal of terrifying cinema, while showing nearly nothing. And Michael Rooker plays the lead character perfectly, and creepily. There are plenty of scenes to choose from in this movie, but the one that sticks out is when Henry and Otis attack a family on camera.

The two of them murder the family one by one with no sign of remorse, then watch the video over and over, reliving the murders. It’s truly terrifying, yet remarkably effective. I think I’ll do a full review on this movie later. If you think Friday the 13th is vulgar, you have no idea. However, there is still five more moments. It does, in fact, get worse.

5. The Toxic Avenger: Honestly, if you don’t watch Troma movies with your tongue firmly in your cheek, you’ll never make it through them. There’s a lot in this movie that will either make you laugh or make you cringe, depending on how serious you take it. There’s the blind girl, the fat mayor…the list goes on and on. To me, it’s all very funny.

However, there’s one scene that simply goes over the top. And it’s the cause of a lot of inside jokes with my brother. Four teenagers are driving down the road, while drinking, and decide it’s time to play their favorite game. It involves running down people on the street with their cars and killing them, then taking their picture. So out goes a little boy on his bike. And yes, ten points later, he’s dead. Just to make sure though, the teens put the car in reverse and run over his head. This sounds violent, disgusting and reprehensible. But trust me, if you have a sense of humor, it’s funny as hell.

4. Cannibal Holocaust: I’ve said a lot about this movie, so I won’t go too in detail. It is widely, internationally known as one of the most crazy, controversial films ever. There is one scene, other than all the animal kills, that leaves me cringing every time.

While Dr. Monroe and his crew are just beginning to enter the jungle, one of the members of the tribe drags a woman from his canoe, then rapes her with a rock. Then begins to hit her over the head with the same rock. It’s gross, but according to the characters completely necessary. But hey, the whole movie is like this. I don’t know exactly why, but that particular scene is just more disturbing than the rest.

3. I Spit on Your Grave (1978): This is a gripping, yet somewhat disturbing film that has gotten a lot of undeserved criticism over the years. There is far too much rape in it for me, but the basic premise is an author named Jennifer goes to the woods to write a book, and is attacked and raped by four backwoods retards. She then gets revenge on them one by one, deservedly.

Most of the revenge is typical run of the mill slasher stuff. However, one of the men is tricked into believing that she wants to be with him. He climbs into a bathtub for sex with her, and while his eyes are closed, she slits his penis with a knife. At first, he’s not sure what happened, but when he realizes it, he’s bleeding everywhere, and she looks him in the bathroom to bleed to death. Through his penis. Undeniably, one of the most gut-wrenching moments in horror history. But not the most.

2. Salo: I thought that this was the most disturbing, disgusting movie I’d ever seen until last week, and rightfully so. Made in 1975 in Italy, this is a movie that was made to represent fascism in World War II, using four characters known as the Duke, Magistrate, President and Bishop as the heads of a hidden youth center. At least that’s what it should look like to outsiders. Inside, it’s a far different story, as the children are put through sexual depravity and horrors that are unfathomable.

The most disgusting of these horrors takes place as everyone sits down to dinner together. It took me a minute to realize what exactly they were eating, because of the poor English subtitles, but when I did, I have to say, I threw up in my mouth a little bit. They were, in fact, eating plates of shit. And then, to make things even worse, one of the characters remarked that they were allergic to corn. Just…sick.

1. A Serbian Film: My friend told me about this after he had seen “Salo” and said that it was basically child’s play compared to this. So of course, I thought this was impossible. Well, after some sexual mutilation and some roughhouse porn scenes, I was disturbed, but it wasn’t until the last scene when I came to the realization that it couldn’t get worse than this.

The main character, under the influence of a sexual drug used on bulls, is lead to a room with two people covered up and masked. He begins to assault the first, then looks over at the second. It’s hard to tell anyone exactly who he’s having sex with without ruining the movie, but it’s so disturbing, so atrocious, that when he loses his mind and kills the director and film crew, it feels more than justified. Let’s just say that when the guy leading him into the room mentions that it’s “A family affair,” he’s not just saying that in passing.

I recommend this movie only to someone who’s got a strong stomach, and can separate reality from fiction…to an extreme. Remember that phrase from Last House on the Left, “It’s only a movie”? Yeah. You’ll be repeating that to yourself.