When you think about the most disturbing films of all time, A Serbian Film always comes high on the list, and its subject matter and content are certainly not for the faint-hearted. Director Srdjan Spasojevic would deliberately shock and push the envelope as far as filmmaking would go in his country, and although the film could be seen as a satire on the nature of filmmaking itself, the shocking and unwatchable narrative would gain worldwide notoriety for its mind-numbing content. If you’re morbidly intrigued by this kind of thing, here are 5 disturbing movies like A Serbian Film.
5 Movies Like A Serbian Film
Anti-Christ (2009)
Lars Von Trier’s incredibly violent and shocking tale of a couple suffering from the aftermath of the death of their son has divided the film community, with some calling it “torture porn” and dismissing it as horrific and deliberately provocative, while others say it is a deeply layered exploration of its core themes, designed to make you think about the genre and the subject matter. Graphic scenes of sexual violence and mutilation, combined with supernatural imagery and overtones make this dense, layered, but ultimately almost unwatchable, with performances from Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsborough, playing “He” and “She” in their nightmarish Eden.
Cannibal Holocaust (1980)
Considered to be one of the first ever found footage films, this notorious low-budget shocker followed a group of anthropologists who travel to an Amazonian village to try and rescue a group of filmmakers that have gone missing there. The documentary style and grainy footage would fool audiences into thinking what they were watching was real, and the director of the film would be arrested for the movie and would have to appear in court with the actors to prove the film was fiction. In the UK it would be top of the list of so-called “video nasties” pulled off the shelves of video stores by the authorities, and banned in the country in an Orwellian purge of films that were not allowed to be viewed. The film would result in numerous rip-offs, but this was the original and possibly most shocking.
Eraserhead (1978)
Before Twin Peaks, Mulholland Drive, and online weather reports, director David Lynch was experimenting and learning his craft in nightmarish filmmaking, culminating in Eraserhead. The black-and-white living nightmare follows Henry Spencer, trapped in some dystopian industrial hellscape, struggling with the birth of his shrieking mutant child, and his relationship with his deranged partner. This is a dense and bleak presentation that is difficult to get through and more frustratingly, Lynch hardly ever passes comment on any of his productions, leaving his films open to interpretation, often evoking the most bizarre and contradictory explanations of work that probably defies that sort of scrutiny in the first place.
Irreversible (2002)
Monica Bellucci stars in a more grounded and more disturbing French shocker that takes place throughout one night in Paris, which is revealed in reverse. The film would become notorious for its depiction of violence and rape and features a long and almost unwatchable scene with Bellucci as the victim of the most heinous of crimes. Commentators are divided on the content, with some saying the production is satirizing the “rape revenge” genre, and others dismissing the whole thing as just more torture porn. In theatrical screenings, many of the walkouts were put down to the use of a low-frequency hum, piped through the speakers in theatres, resulting in many audience members having to leave, disturbed by the drone on a subliminal level.
Tetsuo: The Iron Man (1989)
Don’t mix this up with the much-loved Marvel Comics character, this is instead a cult sci-fi horror from the mind of filmmaker Shinya Tsukamoto. With its cyberpunk aesthetics, mixed with some strong body horror, mixing metal and flesh into a nightmarish descent that escalates the further it goes, this is a violent, grotesque viewing experience, but some love it very much, despite its perverse, often sexual overtones and twisted narrative.
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