(Belated) Freaky Friday! #1: Top 10 Most Disturbing Horror Movies

AKA where I do a list, a rant, a poem – basically anything goes on Freaky Fridays. And when I get more of you lovely people following my blog you can give suggestions for what YOU’D like on Freaky Fridays.

SPOILERS AHEAD!! AND VERY MATURE CONTENT.

Soooooo, first one. I’ve been thinking about this over the weekend, I decided I wanted to do a list for the first post. Then I spent a while mulling it over, the best villains? No, too ordinary. The best zombie movies? Gosh, not yet, that will take a lot of thinking – like, months. You know I love me some zombie flicks. So, I have decided on *drum roll* the most disturbing horror films of all time. In my opinion of course. I’m not going on gore or blood, i’m going on films that you will never forget, that are forged into your memory and branded onto your nightmares. Here we go.

#10 Goodnight Mommy (2014)
This is an Austrian horror movie that follows the lives of a mother and her twin boys after she’s undergone cosmetic facial surgery. The premise, leaving the mother’s face always wrapped in gauze and bandages, has a sort of ‘Eyes without a face’ ring to it. But the atmosphere is just unsettling throughout, paranoia seeps in and you become just as perplexed and fearful as the boys and – eventually – the mother. The utter cruelty that comes from a nine year old is a cause for unease as it is, he glues – yes, glues – his mother to the living room floor. He glues her mouth shut. He burns her face. He cuts her lips with scissors. He is just a little psychopath, basically. It turns out his twin was a hallucination all along. The ending is disturbing also, the three of them all embracing with these fixed, strange smiles in a freakin’ cornfield. I just cannot with this film. Something about children being evil is petrifying enough but one that has hallucinations, access to sharp objects and cockroaches (that was a tough and bizarre scene).

#9 Scrapbook (2000)
Jeesh I had honestly forgotten about this film until about ten minutes ago. Possibly my preteen brain blocked it out. I remember watching it illegally in about four sessions on the bus to and from school, hiding it towards me so nobody saw the horrific, sadistic sexual violence. This film has a fairly simple presence; girl gets kidnapped, gets repeatedly raped and beaten for several days. But it’s just the production of it is so gritty, so realistic – you could seriously believe that the ordeals were truly happening to this poor girl. It goes beyond just being hit once, it’s constant beating and various ways of raping and he even urinates on her. The only saving grace for this daring film, literally the only saving grace, is that in the end she manages to kill him and put it in his awful scrapbook of murder and blah. But otherwise this film is honestly a test to watch, if you can make it to the end – congratulations! You have no soul. 🙂

#8 The Sacrament (2013)
I’ve actually, recently, reviewed this film as I’m making my way through Eli Roth’s repertoire, and it’s a fantastic film – it’s done brilliantly, acted amazingly but damn is it disturbing. Watching a mother slit her own daughter’s throat, hundreds of people drinking the poison and the “painless” death becomes agony and the gasp for breath and beg you to help them. It’s a tense, somewhat slow burn. But it’s just somehow just effective. It barely has any gore or guts but it still manages to be disturbing so, bravo, you sick people.

#7 Mother! (2017)
No, just – no freaking way with this bloody film. Nope. A baby gets freakin’ torn apart and eaten like a freaking fried chicken. I just can’t with this piece of evilness. Honestly even thinking about this film hurts my heart a little bit. Don’t get be wrong the premise is bizarrely and horribly intriguing and original and the acting is fantastic. But just f**k off Darren Aronofsky!

#6: 120 Days of Sodom or Salo (1957)
Why am I doing this list? I’m just mentally revisiting all of this devastation in one hit and it’s a strange mix of fear and just ‘nahhhhhhh’. Anyway, this film. Again it’s just a real test to watch, I barely managed to get through it and I’m good with shiz like this but holy hot guacamole. It’s so realistically done, filmed so naturally. And it’s just so brutal. We’re talking rape, all kinds of rape, forced marriage, murder, made to eat faeces, having to have orgies, being whipped and beaten. This film is scarring, cheers Italy.

#5: Requiem For a Dream (2000)
The second Darren Aronofsky appearance on this list. Okay, hands held up, the eagle-eyed amongst you will note that this isn’t a horror movie. Correct. If i’m admitting to the struggle of the mid-numbers for this category, I had to steer slightly off of course for this number slot. It dawned on me that I had a fairly clear image of the first five films and the top two but the middle numbers stumped me for a week or so. Apologies, but I had to put this one in here. For those of you who haven’t witnessed this sharp, muddy and honest portrayal of the rock bottoms of various drug addictions, crazed utopias that devolve into this sickening, beautifully eerie spiral. Four people, four interwoven story lines all set into motion by the haunting piano piece of the title. I was about fourteen when I first saw this film and, a while before discovering my particular penchant for violent horrors, I remember finishing it with this atmosphere of unease and discomfort thick around me. I’ve been planning in rewatching it lately as an adult, to see if I find it just as viscerally unsettling as I did then. Personally I think this movie is a piece of art, it is just phenomenally produced, shot and acted and it doesn’t shy away from the gritty subject matter nor does it romanticise addiction, quite the opposite in fact. For those of you nineteen years late to the game you may not understand what I mean by the ending! For those of you who do, there’s nothing more to say. And, despite it being more of a psychological drama than anything else, it does maintain the mood and craftsmanship of any great psychological horror – it’s minute detail, its shocking visuals, its uncomfortable dirty realism all combine into this murky, itchy disturbance. Personally this film effects me more, emotionally and pictorially, than any horror. It doesn’t rely, until the end anyhow, on massively shocking visuals or gore, it’s more about in-articulation, losing your humanity, losing everything to this living inferno dreamscape.

#4: The Human Centipede 2 (Full Sequence) (2011)
I’m unsure how old I was when I first endured this film. I remember being fairly nonplussed with the first instalment in this body-horror franchise. I thought it was over-hyped and sometimes just a bit dull. In fact the only scene that stuck with me, and still makes my stomach churn a little, was the infected staples image. On the flip side of the coin, the second movie was too much. Strikingly meta, albeit over-relying on monochrome camerawork – be honest with us, Tom Six, was this just so you could save some dosh on fake blood and use chocolate sauce instead? – it follows a repugnant man, Martin, in the same world as us, a world in which the first film exists, who obsessively studies it. Even more meta is the inclusion of Ashlynn Yennie, who played Jenny in the first film, playing herself. The main difference between this fella and the sick b***ard from the first time round is that this one has zero medical training and so his – much larger scale – centipede is haphazardly constructed and even involves a pregnant woman which, to be fair, was a step too far. Pregnant women and infants do not belong in these films (but, then again, wait until #2 on this list) can we just universally agree on that? That put aside, there are certain scenes in this movie that really are sickening for no other reason than to get people talking – sexual and physical molestation of children, masturbating with sandpaper, the severing of the knee ligaments, removal of teeth with a hammer, anal exsanguination, removal of tongues with pliers, laxatives (‘nuf said), barbed-wire-wrapped-rape (a sentence I never thought i’d write), a newborn’s skull being crushed by an accelerator pedal and a live centipede being inserted into Martin’s anus. Blimey, what a list.

#3/Honorary Mention: Cannibal Holocaust (1980)
Okay, this 1980 Italian found-footage film didn’t make it onto the actual list because, unpopular opinion, I don’t actually find it disturbing. I’m not sure why, maybe as it’s dated now? Who knows. But I had to at least mention it because it involves the actual slaughter of animals such as turtles, monkeys and fish. I find that more disturbing than any on here!
DO
NOT
MESS
WITH
THE
ANIMALS!!!

#2: A Serbian Film (2010)
This is one of those exploitation horrors that if you’ve never actually watched it, it’s likely that you’ve heard about it. It follows an ageing porn star who becomes embroiled in one last hurrah, as it were, but what begins as a last assignment in the adult industry soon becomes a grotesque extended metaphor for life in Serbia – that the country ‘screws its inhabitants from the moment they’re born’. Soon this flick becomes all about the shock factor, it’s filthy and bloody and just perverse. It’s no coincidence that I always see this film at the top of most banned and disturbing horrors lists. I can’t remember exactly how many countries banned this one for, I may be wrong in thinking it’s over 10? Correct me in the comments if you know. Anyway, this film includes necrophilia, incest, newborn-rape (you don’t entirely see it, thank God!) and lots of just…uncomfortable feelings. It’s not even that it necessarily makes that much of an impression on first or second watch, it’s only when you start questioning the whole morality of it that it starts to f**k with you head.

#1: Martyrs (2008)
Here we are, number one. The big uno. This French horror film is many things: unnerving, grotesque, haunting, scaring, banned and has even been associated with being responsible for the New Wave French Extremity movement. The plot follows a young girl escaping from a year’s worth of torture and abuse, then sees this young girl’s, Lucie’s, hallucinations of a ghost figure. Years later she arrives to a family’s house as a young adult and shoots them, believing them responsible for her miserable childhood. Anna is there (her childhood friend) and Lucie subsequently kills herself. Anna finds a strange cellar under the basement with a woman, Sarah, who is emaciated and translucent, with metal bolted to her temples – her eyes in permanent darkness. This proves Lucie was right about the family and Sarah was the ghost-like, psychological representation of her guilt. Anna sets Sarah free, after pretty hard to bare attempts at removing the metal. plates. Then people arrive, gunning down Sarah (cry – seriously this film is so messed up) and kidnapping Anna (Like, what the frick did Anna do?). It’s revealed that these people are a sort of academic, philosophical cult who believe that by inflicting the most extreme systems of agony and torture on the human body a person could “transcend” to a utopia-esc post-heaven. They flay Anna alive, again incredibly disturbing to watch, and she survives, in a euphoric type state. The leader of the organisation, Mademoiselle, eagerly returns to hear of Anna’s revelations. Anna whispers in her ear. She proceeds to kill herself. The film ends on Anna’s face in a catatonic state. It had really mixed critical response, unsurprisingly. I just remember feeling so violated afterwards. The physical horror of it all is just too much.

Movie Review: Re-watch: Hostel (2005)

A.K.A I had blotted out how much the tendon scene and eye gunge make me squirm.
3.5/5 screams.

SPOILERS AHEAD

England is rainy and gloomy at the moment, which means I have plenty of time to re-watch some classics. Currently I have a Top 10 Eli Roth Movies list in the works but I realised it had been so many years since i’d seen some of his films that it would be unfair to numerically judge them without a second watch. First up, then, is Hostel, the film that really got Roth out there – placing him firmly on a pedestal entitled ‘Gore kings’.

The opening to this monster of a film is very visually uncomfortable, set along eerie whistling and tools clanging in some very blatant foregrounding. Then, wow, everything is suddenly very cheerful and raucous. It’s a weird transition and i’m not entirely sure it does what it’s supposed to. One of my first connections in this, strangely way stronger than the first watch, was sympathy for Josh. He comes across as very awkward, smart and manipulated by the more broody, boisterous two. Suddenly it’s all about excess, I can’t even count how many boobs we see in this serious of films (I should count them). I can’t say that this is a feminist film because, well, it’s just blatantly anti-women. Women are sex objects and evil temptresses in this film. I mean, Eli, what the frick? Who hurt you? How can you hate women when you’re married to Lorenza Izzo? I mean I’d never stop being happy if I were married to that beauty. Anyway, back to the point, when you go into this film please just abandon any ideologies of female empowerment because otherwise you’ll probably throw something at the television.

The blues in the colour scheme during the brothel scene are calm and soothing, set against vigorous sex noises. Interesting dichotomy, I think I like it. The audience certainly is lead to hate Ollie from the outset, he’s just so vulgar and the connection is zilch. I know that’s the point as he’s meant to be disposable as the first one to go. It has natural exposition which I appreciate. I felt very uncomfortable during the pimp scene, again my natural feminist instincts make me want to cry about how reified women are in this piece. All talking about ‘pussy’ and ‘just taking them’. Who are you Ollie? A Scandinavian version of Trump?

Moving away from my tangents, maybe we can pretend this film is about re-appropriating the male gaze but, let’s be honest, it ain’t. The mobiles are hilarious and date the whole film which is quite cute and nostalgic. But the drugging scene was bloody annoying, I mean they could so easily have avoided that. Then, without much warning, GORE GORE GORE EVERYWHERE GORE. Honestly, classic Roth – I always forget how extreme his gore is, so unflinchingly close up as well. Then, ah the classic Achilles tendon scene. It still makes me flinch even now. I also love how the film is essentially a psychological thriller up until the cutting of the eye, gungy puss pouring out in the hole where her eye should be – just don’t eat your dinner during this film, and maybe lay off the popcorn – just saying. Also poor Josh, can we just take a moment to remember Josh – the poor bumbling idiot who, ironically (God you’re sick, Eli) gets his lips stitched together. “I always wanted to be a surgeon”. *Shivers*. The German has this sickening power and the more he talks the creepier he becomes. It’s even sadder when you realise the people using Elite Hunting have children, babies, families, lives. Yet they’re chopping off limbs and burning eyes out of their sockets like an abscess. Also, be careful when operating a heavy duty saw, they seem to not be idiot proof.

The ending: I learnt recently that there was an alternate ending to Hostel, in which the last standing man doesn’t slit the German’s throat in the toilet; instead he sees the German getting off the train with his little daughter, It’s then hinted very loudly that our man kidnaps the girl. Which ending do you think is more satisfying? The bloody, eye for an eye (pardon the mirroring in that) murder or the quieter, more psychological torture? Which is the the best revenge? Honestly though, the ending is so gloomy – it leaves you on a sour note, so I suppose – WARNING: Do not watch if you’re feeling sad…or nauseated.

Movie Review: The Sacrament (2013)

AKA the first horror film in years that had me on the brink of tears
4/5 screams

SPOILERS AHEAD

Where to even begin with this movie? I mean, blimey…just…damn. I finished it feeling like i’d just witnessed something horrifying and this is a rare feeling for me as I watch so many horrors and disturbing blah that I’m more or less entirely desensitised to gore and guts. So it says great things that this film managed to actually make me feel shocked, tense and very bleary eyed. I also think something so important about this movie is that it doesn’t over-rely on blood and violence, the actual horror of it is the eerie calmness of the destruction.

First of all, I had no idea that it was based on the 1978 Jonestown massacre until after watching, this fact makes it just that much more emotional and painful. But that aside, this film is brilliantly executed. I have to say that found footage horrors are my most hated type of movie – besides, perhaps, teen screams – and yet this film utilised the genre with such elegance. It really adds to the intimacy of the story which, when the mass suicide begins, means you are utterly embroiled in it. Children sipping cyanide from party cups, babies being given poison in syringes, people dying oh so slowly, foaming at the mouth like animals. The two particular moments that truly got to me were Josh comforting Andre as he convulses and begs not to die alone in a close-up, shaky cam. The second was in the cabin, Josh hides as Savannah’s mother rocks her mute child and slits her throat – you hear it too, not a sound you’ll forget in a hurry – whilst telling her to ‘just sleep baby’. Bloody hell, I was on the verge of tears. The raw, gritty camera work and stellar acting makes it just so real. I felt so emotionally connected to the characters that it was purely heart breaking. The writing is just so unafraid, it goes places most mainstream pictures wouldn’t dare to breach – a very bold and effective decision.

Honestly, I can’t quite decide whether I’m glad I watched this or not. I’ve left it with a feeling of unease, which I suppose demonstrates the power of it. Personally, this is now going to be in my top 5 Eli Roth films (even if he was only the producer in this one). Speaking of Roth, watch out for my Top 10 Eli Roth Movies list which i’ll be publishing soon.

Looking through the criticisms of this dense, hair-raising film I notice that a fair few critics thought it was too slow. I have to disagree with this, I have a terrible concentration span and so usually avoid slow-burners but this kept my attention throughout, it instilled such a tense and claustrophobic atmosphere which made it hard to not be all-encompassed by its mood.

Final thoughts: it’s definitely worth a watch but you’ve been warned that it really is disturbing, not visually but emotionally. And, unlike me, don’t make the mistake of then researching the Jonestown massacre and listen to the original, real ‘death tape’. Really, just don’t. Curiosity killed my Wednesday instead of the cat. But both dramatically, thematically and poignantly this is a great watch. Ti West, Eli Roth and the entire production team deserve a teary pat on the back.

Movie Review: The Perfection (2019)

AKA ‘Well that came out of nowhere, didn’t it?’
4/5 screams.

SPOILERS AHEAD

I thought i’d get this review out of my system whilst I can still remember my natural reactions to this latest release of Netflix’s homegrown horrors. Funnily enough this was one of the films that made me realise how much I wanted to start this blog. So, manners remembered, thank you Richard Shepherd for your inspiration. After ‘The Babysitter’, ‘Annihilation’, ‘The Open House’, ‘Before I Wake’ amongst others which compile the very mixed bag I had my doubts but tried to go in with an open mind anyhow.

Despite initial concerns about the ambiguous premise and trailer, on one Sunday morning I wrestled in bed with a delightful hangover. Downing orange juice like there was no tomorrow and cuddling into a fort made of pillows, I saw this film pop up on Netflix. I looked the trailer up in my fugue and, in hindsight, I now have very mixed feelings about the scene they chose for the promotional video. I think it was a very clever hook and certainly gripping but it was also such an important crux of the whole twisted journey that I think it may have been worth keeping it back in the arsenal. But maybe that’s just me.

One thing I loved about this movie was how multilayered its sub-genre identification is. Half of it was this shadowy, psychological thriller yet there were elements of body horror in there. The latter part of this artistic, paranoid tapestry even morphs into a revenge film. Instead of, as discussed in my review of ‘The Shrine’, getting lost in the chaos of different tropes it instead picks and chooses very certain and deliberate themes from each sub-genre without muddying the tone.

Honestly the atmosphere of this film is superb. Erotic, tense, bloody, twisted and oh so moody. The reds and beauty of the colour scheme transforms it into something elegant and wrong, something you know you shouldn’t be loving but you really are.

We can’t talk about ‘The Perfection’ without talking about the acting. There wasn’t one character I didn’t believe and didn’t have some sort of relationship with, even if it was revulsion or fear. The sexual connection in the beginning between the two female protagonists is beautiful and sensual and perfectly delicate. Now that is a sign of fantastic writing and production. The cherry on the cake was the music, these stunning eerie violins and cellos, you can almost taste the anxiety of being perfect in each piece.

Then, before I stop gushing over this film, the ending was an absolute grenade to the guts. I didn’t see it coming in the slightest, it was messy and perfectly balanced between shocking visuals, disgust and sympathy yet distracted by how stunning the music is.

Seriously, if you haven’t seen this film go and watch it now – it’s this darkly witty, sharp, sexy and stunningly captured expression of desire, abuse, self-esteem and even, somehow, morality. So clever. I plan on watching it again over the coming weeks and possibly doing a video review.

So what did you guys think about ‘The Perfection’? Do you agree with me or do you think it was trying too hard to be different, trying to be a piece of art rather than a film? Let me know in the comments.

Otherwise, don’t scream, see you next time.

A Little About This Blog

Now that we’ve got a horror film watched and under our belts, let’s have a cuppa and a chat about what on earth i’m up to on this page.

Well, if you’ve wandered in off of the dusty streets of the internet then welcome! I’m Liv and i’m a writer, performer, singer, freelance journalist and (if you can’t tell) a gigantic horror film nut. Anything with a few machetes and a few gallons of red corn syrup, sign me up, pal.

What You Can Expect:
$ Movie reviews
$ TV reviews
$ Top 10’s
$ Opinion pieces
$ Games/comics (I’m not particularly well versed in this side of the horror kingdom but if it’s something that peaks interest let me know in the comments).
$ Hopefully some video-blogs and some collaborations with fellow horror fans

My aim is to post at least one review per week as well as a weekly special entitled, somewhat self-consciously, ‘Fright Night Fridays’. Which, you guessed it, will hopefully get released every Friday.

I think that’s everything folks, if you have any recommendations please leave me a message in the comments or head on over to the contact page.

Movie Review: The Shrine (2010)

AKA Make your bleeding mind up:
2/5 screams

SPOILERS AHEAD:

Really I only have myself to blame for this film being my first review as I went off of YouTube comments for the recommendation *sighs*. Basically the trailer for this 2010 Canadian horror is just as bad as the film itself, that should have been my first hint.

The trailer aside, I realised I was going in with zero expectations and, as I research horror most days purely for pleasure, this is rare for me – I usually know the ending or the spec’s or subjective reviews at the very least. I initially noticed how the tone seemed to shift from medieval to modern within a few seconds which was a little disconcerting but I let it slide, instead pondering on whether the low budget camerawork was intentional thematically or not…turns out it really was made on a shoestring so at least the editors managed to leave some doubt about that. Secondly, the introductory dialogue is beyond lazy; the so called ‘row’ between the couple, Carmen and Marcus, seems only to exist as a vehicle for what limited exposition there is and this dusts the conversations with an unrealistic cadence. So, not off to the best of starts with our protagonists. This skirmish is essentially trying to conveyor-belt-rush us into the first jump-scare which I, sadly, admit really did get me so, maybe, it was well designed but if it was it was the only one. The others, though few and far between, also felt rushed and like a second thought – not to mention they were cheesy and hammy without even attempting to have some meta-self-conscious edge or something else that indie-horrors like to promote.

The first scene that I started making any meaningful notes on was the car journey leading up to the fog scene. I enjoyed that the sub-genre of the film kept you guessing in the beginning – I found my mind wondering whether we were dealing with a Blair Witch type of suspense piece or a low budget ‘Hostel’ knock-off or even a follow on to King’s ‘The Mist’. After Carmen and Sarah come tet-a-tet with the worst garden gnome on the planet (can we please also remind Marcus how important the double tap is?) they all get kidnapped fairly successfully. Next we have the “I’m so sorry” scene which, oddly, did actually remind me of Heather’s BWP monologue I randomly used to audition for a theatre group once. In this flick I do think it came out of nowhere and far too early on, not to mention barely heartbeats before Sarah becomes a human pinboard message. I did like her bloodletting scene even if the gore seemed so out of place all of a sudden, purely because of the visuals – the white nightgowns against the deep reds and pales of skin. The gruesome images juxtaposed against the idyllic, if eerie, aesthetic of the outside village. The stripping scene was done well too, actually, it was gritty enough to not be overdone. However, side note: what the actual f**k were those Doctor Who revival-esc monsters with some serious gum disease? The prosthetic work almost had a ‘Hellraiser’, 80’s cult feel to it which did, surprisingly, fit perfectly with the cringey atmosphere.

One of my main issues with this film is that there’s no character development and they’re scarcely even particularly likeable. Nothing is done to make the audience connect with the three leads and the acting is mediocre at best. So this means that you don’t actually care whether they get sacrificed or enucleated which is a mahoosive issue when you think about impact. Moreover it means that the status of the movie itself never rises any higher than the low-budget, half-hearted slasher but without the adrenaline or a ‘Hostel’ rip-off but without the grotesque indulgence of the torture-porn. Back to the one-dimensional characters for a sec, they don’t even seem to have common sense. I felt myself rolling my eyes consistently throughout, “Oh, we should go!” no shit Sherlock! The decisions in this flick are just stupid, if Carmen had listened to Marcus and not followed Lydia – the suspiciously innocent child – then the whole disaster could of being avoided.

Furthermore, I accept that Carmen is meant to be a strong career gal but that is all she is, which kind of endorses the idea that these independent representations of women on screen means they either have to be annoying or hot. Or both. Seriously, i’m not going too deep into this – these characters, besides maybe Marcus, are dumb as paper.

Finally, my last realisation was that this film just could not make it’s bloody mind up about what it wanted to be. Moving from the strange hallucinations of the late-mid-section to the possession scene you suddenly feel like you’re watching ‘The Evil Dead’. So I reckon it’d be more enjoyable for non-horror-buffs because I was just half expecting the cenobites to rock up and half expecting Ash to follow with his chainsaw hand. Then the end comes and BOOM, tubular bells eat your heart out – now it’s ‘The Exorcist’. Seriously, what was this film trying to even be?

Last thoughts: I, sadistically, liked the fact that they weren’t afraid to kill of the kid. So, it may have been a terrible film but it had some guts…get it…*drum beat*. Otherwise it felt dull, uninspired, forgettable and nobody involved – the creation staff or actors – seemed to actually have given a crap about it.