Hardest film you've had to watch

Recently we've seen a lot of emotionally charged games; things like The Walking Dead, The Last of Us, Spec Ops: The Line and Cart Life. Of course we've seen a lot of response to them, particulary on how they impacted us, the player, through a certain scene or a certain choice. Thing is... I don't know, it kinda botters me a little. Sure, those games have hard scenes to watch or play through compared to other games, but if we compare them to difficult books (like Nineteen Eighty-Four) or, most of all, movies, they are still baby steps. I mean, we still don't have people like Michael Haneke (Funny Games, The White Ribbon, Amour) or Lars Von Trier (Breaking the Waves, Dancer in the Dark, Melancholia) who have an affinity to torture their audience through very, very cruel situations.

So, I have to ask, what was the hardest film you've ever had to watched? I'm not talking about movies who were just godawful or very gory and disgusting, I mean movies (or books) who were very emotionaly difficult to endure.

Melancholia

The Last King of Scotland

I didn't personally have a huge problem with it, but when I was in university residence I started watching Mystic River with a friend and she had to leave like, 10 or 15 minutes into it because she found the subject matter too distressing.

I can't blame her, the basis of that movie is pretty rough.

The original I Spit on your Grave

"Born on the Fourth of July"

A Good Day to Die Hard was pretty tough for me, John McClane for the most part is a shell of a man who still shoots guns. The scene where John was just swearing and talking to himself while driving that big rig truck through the streets of Russia like a mad men was where I knew he's lost it, even for a McClane. He went from action pack super hero to crazy creepy uncle overnight.

Don't laugh, but I could not make it through Face/Off. I don't know why, but I have a serious problem with dramatic stories where people pretend to be other people and use that disguise to hurt others. It makes me excruciatingly uncomfortable.

I've never watched a movie even close to that. I haven't seen any of the ones you listed off though, so I suppose I could just be watching the wrong stuff.

Nothing in movies really seems to phase me anymore, the last thing I remember watching and being uncomfortable was Kids back when it came out on video.

My mom flipped when she saw my brother and I watching this:

It is pretty messed up

The Road and Grave of the Fireflies come to mind, more so Grave of the Fireflies. I don't think I could watch that movie again because I got the experience that I wanted out of it and I don't want to try to replicate that.

I'm not a fan of emotional heavy-handedness and tear-jerking or shock value but when Brooks hangs himself in "Shawshank", it was pretty rough. Another moment in which emotions are handled well - Blade Runner ending and Se7en, which has a crushing bleakness from the start.

Vampires Suck - but it was part of my job to watch it, a mandate straight from my boss. In all honesty I fell asleep halfway through.

Antichrist starring Willem Defoe. I win.

冷たい熱帯魚 (Cold Fish) honestly shocked me. I didn't even wince at Hostel, but this got me for some reason. I watched an interview with the cast afterwards and couldn't believe they were actually normal people, not crazy psychopathic killers. Great acting I guess.

Come and See

Breaking the Waves.

Cannibal Apocalypse.

I guess Oldboy then. That movie just threw me on the floor and raped me.

Happiness. God damn that movie. Just... fuck. :(

edit --- although to be clear, I recognize that movie is quite good both because of and despite the narrative.

Salò, or the 120 days of sodom, there is simply nothing else that can match how horrible it is to watch this movie.

Oh yeah

The Road. I was like super depressed for like half a week because of that movie.

Grave of the Fireflies is like a long, slow, twist of the arm. I really have to mentally ready myself for the breaking point any time I watch it and it's never enough.

To think of a movie that hasn't been named here yet, I rewatched Perfect Blue recently. The vast majority of it isn't difficult to watch. But then there's the rape scene that just had my stomach churning.

I would probably say Martyrs. The suffering that the protagonist went through throughout her life was heartbreaking and the motives of her captives was sickening, but the end of the movie made it all worth it, even though I'm still not quite sure if I understand it.

I had to watch Michael Snow's Wavelength (twice) followed by his film Back and Forth in one sitting. That was pretty hard.

I tend to find films that set up a revenge plot then follow it through with 30 minutes of violent "payback" hard to watch - I hate the buildup and the violent purge tends to disturb me just as much - so probably Bedevilled/Straw Dogs/29 Palms (if that counts). I couldn't sit through Lee Chang-dong's Oasis, but that was probably just my mood.

Also, August Underground anyone?

Grave of the Fireflies. It's the only movie that I've ever seen that's made me genuinely sad, and stuck with me for a significant time afterwards.

I don't think I could ever watch it a second time.

Revolutionary road comes to mind. That film is emotionally draining

I usually try to avoid movies that have the potential to damage my psyche, but I can directly attribute more than a few nightmares to End of Evangelion.

Eight Below. Fantasic movie but man, when one of the dogs had to to leave one of theirs behind I couldn't keep my eyes dry.

Eden Lake...god damn that movie is fucked up on so many levels.

Definitely Dancer in the Dark. That ending scene man, fuck. I'm not sure I could watch that movie again.

Mamma Mia!

FUCK ME.

Blood of the Beasts. Oh, and Window Water Baby Moving.

My dad loves depressing, bleak movies and I'm sometimes roped into watching them. The worst were probably Deliverance and Missing. Good movies, I suppose, but I didn't enjoy them one bit.

David Lynch stuff. I had to watch Fire Walk With Me in two sittings, and Muholland Dr. and its freaky guy in the beginning put me on edge the whole time. Something about his stuff just terrifies me.

Actually, now that I think about it some more, Suicide Club.

What the fuck. Just what the fuck.

@warlordpayne: @hailinel: When that movie randomly crosses my mind all I have to do is listen to a bit of the soundtrack and suddenly all of those emotions that I had throughout the movie rush back to me while simultaneously killing my urge to watch it again which I think is incredible. I haven't been able to say that about other movies if any.

it gets me every time

Happiness, The Road, A Separation, The Elephant Man, and many others would be in the mix for 2nd and below, but the runaway number one would be The Heart is Deceitful above All Things. All those other films I loved; they're tough to watch, but they're great films. I don't know whether Heart is Deceitful is good or not. There's stuff in it to admire, for sure, but I have no interest in ever watching it again. It made me feel very gross and unhappy.

@vincentvendetta: Wait, how is 1984 a difficult book? Also people should read Darkness at Noon, because it's way better.

1984 is probably the bleakest book I have ever read. I'd classify it as difficult because it's so hard to stomach.

I wish I could remember the title of it, but there was this movie I watched on Netflix a few years ago about these two homeless friends just going about their lives. It was the most realistic portrayal of hopelessness I've ever seen in a work of fiction, and it was soul crushing. No over-the-top monologues or shocking turns, just grim acceptance with no end in sight. I wish I could find it again.

As for "hard to watch" in a more visceral sense, Black Swan was surprisingly rough for a Hollywood film. Film gore doesn't bother me, so August Underground and Guinea Pig and such don't have much effect, but Black Swan was just brutally tense the whole time. Every second, it felt like something horrible was going to happen.

That South Park movie.

I watched The Dictator the other day, I was actually angry while watching, it was that unfunny.

A Serbian Film

That is all....

Seven. I've seen other films that should have been worse but something about where I was when saw it, the praise it had garnered from my friends and my expectations of it being an intellectual thriller rather than a psychological one really fucked with me, I have no interest in ever seeing it again and got nothing of value from the experience.

Fuck you Seven.

Requiem for a Heavyweight. That ending is utterly devoid of hope.

For those that haven't seen it, the War Zone is an epically effed up movie, dark as all hell.

The Birds... It really freaked me out, even if it's an older movie.

Oldboy left me deeply unsettled.