Spin off from anj's book thread...What movies do you wish you had not seen?

[amy g.]

Blue Velvet. It really creeped me out.

[Michelle T]

I saw this when I was a child - probably eight or nine years old. I have no idea what the name of the move is, though.

 

A man - I think he's a scientist or researcher, but not sure - spent time in India (? I think it was India - the movie picks up after he's returned to the states and to his family). One day, there is a package for his daughter in the mail. He sees the return markings and gets very tense, but lets the girl have the package, anyway. It's a doll.

 

It's a psychotic, killer doll that talks to the girl while she's alone, grows to life-size at night, and systematically alienates the girl from her family while killing off each and every person in the household.

 

Evidently, the father really torqued off someone on his travels.

 

I hate that movie, and I have no idea what it's called. It stuck with me for years. I even had a doll that was really large with eyes that open and shut and could walk if you held its hands - I put it on the back steps at night for a long, long time. I think my mother finally just got rid of it.

 

 

I saw it too. That show was on during the 70's. It would open with Rod Serling standing, smoking a cigarette, in front of a painting. Then the scary story would start. That episode scared me to death! I still don't like dolls that are too realistic. When her face got all scary and her teeth were so sharp, it really freaked me out!

Michelle T

[TraciWA]

Jaws

Still can't go past my ankles in salt water.

 

Blades of Glory

Left images in my head that still haven't gone away.;)

[Fourmother]

Island of Dr. Moreau - Saw this as a kid at the drive-in with my parents. I don't know what possessed them to take us to such a movie! It gave me the heebee geebees for years.

House of Sand and Fog - Based on the book of the same title which Oprah chose for her book club. I hated all the characters and wanted to give every one of them a V-8 slap on the forehead.

Hellraiser - I walked out after 15 minutes. Just couldn't take it. I have no idea what it was about. All I remember is there was a guy whose entire head was covered with protruding nails. Creepy!

[PrairieAir]

A.I. The most depressing sci-fi movie in existance. Everytime you thought "oh, finally...this movie might have a spot of brightness" if got even worse.

The adults in my family still talk about this one.

 

As for scary ones: Butterfly effect really disturbed me. Se7en upset both DH and I.

But the one that still haunts me from childhood is Ants with Suzzanne Sommers. I can still remember that kid dumpster diving for returnable bottles and coming out covered head to toe with ants.

 

Living in in fire ant territory, being covered with ants is very bad.

 

Ugh. I'd forgotten about A.I. I agree that it has got to be one of the most depressing movies I've ever watched. And my family laughed at me for crying for the poor little robot boy! Horrible!

 

I never saw The Butterfly Effect because I knew it would bother me. That type of movie gets to me easily. I should have known better than to watch Silence of the Lambs or Se7en. They're just not my kind of movie. I know several people, including my db who love that sort of thing though.

[Michele R.]

Dead Calm.

 

Angel Heart.

 

Blair Witch Project.

 

Misery.

 

The Crying Game (recommended by another homeschooler! I think she had this movie confused with something else; don't see this one. Ever!)

 

Dumb and Dumber (also recommended by another homeschooler!)

 

With the exception of the last, they're all just too sinister. Who needs that?!

 

-Michele R. (I'm new and enjoying these threads!)

[GraceinMD]

-Poltergeist

 

 

Ah, now I really feel terrible - considering how many of you didn't like Poltergeist. The summer I graduated from college, several of us talked my closest friend in the whole world - a credulous, dare I say very, very gullible, soul - into going to see the midnight showing of Poltergeist. She didn't know what the word 'poltergeist' meant, and we told her it was a German love story. She was NOT happy with us, but we thought it was hilarious :( (I don't actually even remember the story, so it obviously had no effect on me!)

 

What was that Angie Dickinson movie? - she was in an elevator, and you could see in the mirror up in the corner what was coming - lots of stabbing. That was pretty 'blech' for me.

 

I saw Coma after I'd broken my leg in college, and had to take the elevator to the third floor while my friends walked up the steps. The elevator opened up in between floors and I could see all these pipes (something like in the movie) - I thought I might just die right there.

 

The worst was, as a child, when I turned on my grandmother's TV and watched "Dark Shadows," and was terrified ---- way too terrified to get up and turn off the TV, which is what I wanted to do!

[Fourmother]

Another one I forgot: Scanners. I get the shivers just thinking about it.

[LG Gone Wild]

I once saw a movie called Dead Ringers about twin brother, psycho, murderer, gynocologists. EWWWWW

 

 

I liked it. :leaving:

[LG Gone Wild]

Same with Borat...

 

 

when I stumbled across Borat. It was the scene where Borat is nude wrestling with a fat man in a hotel room. OK. Ew. I quickly changed channels. Some time later I switched back and they were still going at it. I mean, I can handle male nudity but I saw, in detail, everyone's undercarriage. :ack2:

[gardenschooler]

I thought Misery, Silence of the Lambs, and Se7en were great. (Just so you aren't alone in your freakiness, Jenny - I wasn't planning on admitting to liking those!)

 

My ability to enjoy a scary movie went down with time, and each child. I can't handle them at all anymore.

 

We watched all the Halloween movies, Nightmare on Elm Street and the like as teenagers. Didn't bother us a bit.

 

And Sue, I remember Children of the Corn! I thought it was kind of funny actually. I'm sure I was under 30 when I saw it, though. :D

[Apiphobic]

The worst was, as a child, when I turned on my grandmother's TV and watched "Dark Shadows," and was terrified ---- way too terrified to get up and turn off the TV, which is what I wanted to do!

 

DARK SHADOWS!!!! Ohhh, I used to get up at night and sneak into the living room to watch that show. I loved, loved, loved it, but then I was so scared I couldn't go to sleep at night. My mom would have to lie next to me until I fell asleep.

 

To this day I enjoy scary movies, but unfortunately I don't get to watch them as often anymore. My absolute favorite is The Exorcist. *shivers*

[DIY-DY]

I saw it too. That show was on during the 70's. It would open with Rod Serling standing, smoking a cigarette, in front of a painting. Then the scary story would start. That episode scared me to death! I still don't like dolls that are too realistic. When her face got all scary and her teeth were so sharp, it really freaked me out!

Michelle T

 

Can I confess my deep relief that *somebody* out there knew what I was talking about? I've been trying for years to figure out what that show was, but with the few disjointed images I evidently hadn't been able to block, I've been unsuccessful in explaining it until now.

 

Yay.

 

And yeah, still not a big fan of dolls. We stick with stuffed animals around here - if they come to life and try to kill us, we can just beat the stuffing out of them and be done with it. :D

 

THANK YOU, THANK YOU!

[elizam]

I saw bits and pieces of Hannibal (and this was the tv version) and the scenes with Dr. Lecter giving Ray Liotta a labotomy while he is still alive haunts me still. I wish I had NEVER seen it.

 

 

Yep....that is by far the worst, scariest, most disturbing movie I've ever seen and I wonder what kind of person could think that stuff up!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[elizam]

I forgot to add that Sophie's Choice is second. I just HAD to see it...and wondered till I did why my mother would be so controlling and mean as to say, "no you cannot go see that" when I was in high school.

 

She knew me better than I knew myself. After I was grown and watched it and hated it, I called her and thanked her for not letting me see it at age 16.

[huntergirlnc21]

I forgot about this movie until a few minutes ago...

 

Natural Born Killers.

 

Gosh, what an awful movie. That's a couple of hours I want back.

[Oak Knoll Mom]

Oh.. my.. holy heck!! --The Blair Witch Project. I couldn't go into the woods behind my house for months.

 

It's funny, but this movie didn't scare me in the least. I think I get scared at movies that could be real or could happen to me. In Blair Witch, those people made stupid decision after stupid decision. Part of staying safe in the woods is thinking, not going off trail, and having everyone in on the plans and route, etc. I laughed at them and called them stupid. :-)

[Oak Knoll Mom]

In no particular order:

 

1. Mr. Brooks--no redeeming value to this movie at all. No lesson learned, no spark of humanity in the bad guy, just passed his demented and evil ways on to his daughter.

 

2. Titanic--the scenes of the dying and drowning people at the end really bothered me.

 

3. Some mini series based on a Stephen King book about people caught on an island during a storm and in order to escape, someone has to give one of their kids to the Devil/a devil.

 

4. A movie I watched when I was little (and I had no business watching) that started out with a scene of a man burying a woman in a shallow grave and then after he leaves, you see her hand coming up out of the ground. She survived and the rest of the movie was about he life afterward. May have been some TV movie about domestic violence--sort of like an afterschool special for grownups.

[hanki]

The Hills Have Eyes (recent version) disturbed me greatly! I absolutely hate when they throw babies/children into horror flicks.

 

There was also this movie and the name escapes me at the moment. I believe it was Wolf Creek?? It was supposedly based on a true story. It was your typical human torture film (minus babies) but it was quite disturbing.

[DIY-DY]

In Blair Witch, those people made stupid decision after stupid decision.

 

We kept snorting and mumbling, "Morons". It was like the old cliche of the one person going down the dark hallway in the haunted house, all alone. But without the creep-out factor of being trapped in a house where the doors shut on their own! Seriously, weren't they in Jersey, or something? So, if you pick a direction and head that way, you will eventually end up on the highway or in an industrial park. Now, that might have offered up some good, scary plotlines. LOL! We were pretty sure it was just somebody following them around, playing camp pranks on those gullible enough to fall for them. ;)

 

Of course, the "build up" surrounding it probably didn't help. We went in prepared to be scared witless b/c so many of our friends were absolutel terrified by it. We were disappointed.

[Apiphobic]

Okay, I just can't let this go. It keeps popping into my head, so I guess I just need to let it out.

 

Those movies you mentioned that you either wish you hadn't seen or have decided not to see, Sophie's Choice, Schindler's List, and Saving Private Ryan, are movies that, I think, are important to see.

 

I can read about the holocaust or about war, but it's nowhere near experiencing it firsthand or seeing it come to life on the screen with masterful directing, superb acting, and a well-written screenplay. I want a movie dealing with a sensitive topic like that to sucker punch me in the gut and put me right there in the middle of it, because the subject demands just that. It's a nasty, disgusting, reprehensible reality in our history, and it deserves to be brutal.

 

I want that emotional reaction to stick with me so I can have a better understanding of what happens/ed, and why it should never happen again. Just hearing about it or reading about it doesn't convey the horror of it. The visual impact is stronger in this case.

 

I think these movies are very valuable because of their stories, and they've made a stronger impression on me than any studies in school or any books I've read. Yes, they're hard to watch and even harder to stomach, but shouldn't we face them in the hopes that they'll make such an impression on us that it'll affect our decisions and behavior afterwards? Isn't that how people change? For the better, hopefully? If it's not a subject that you're too familiar with, doesn't this clarify it for you? And give you reason to want something better? And to that end, doesn't it change you a little so that your actions in the future reflect that?

 

I will say that some books have affected me more than the movie, so I guess not all movies convey the atrocities better than the book. I'm thinking of the book Angela's Ashes specifically. I loved the book even though my chest ached in the beginning, but I was disappointed with the movie. So I think that's why the direction, the acting and the screen-writing make the difference. I read Sophie's Choice (yes, it was much later after seeing the movie), but the movie affected me more strongly than the book.

 

So some movies, I think, shouldn't be dismissed because they give you the heebie jeebies. They should make you squirm and grimace, because their subject matter is so intense. I don't want to ignore it, sugarcoat it, or pretend it never happened, because I don't want it to ever happen again. Movies that are gory just for the sake of entertainment or whatever (Sweeney Todd comes to mind) do not even come close to being in the same category.

 

There, I've let it out. Thanks for listening. Now I can :chillpill:

[Jean in Newcastle]

I've only walked out of one movie. I can't remember the name. It was in a indie movie house and I don't think it was a main-stream movie. It was a movie about this Indian (from India) gang that way-laid travelers and murdered them. There was a strong religious element to it. It was so real (it is based on a real sect I think) and I just couldn't handle it. I went out into the lobby and worked on a jig-saw puzzle (told you it was a indie movie house!)

 

Most of the horror films that have been mentioned I have not watched - on purpose. I few I've seen way too much just in trailers, previews and movie clips on shows like Oprah. I also don't watch violent movies/shows. I've had too much real life violence in my life.

[Parabola]

I saw bits and pieces of Hannibal (and this was the tv version) and the scenes with Dr. Lecter giving Ray Liotta a labotomy while he is still alive haunts me still. I wish I had NEVER seen it.

 

I thought this scene was ridiculous. We were in the theater going....c'mon. Hannibal was just a big disappointment after how good Silence of the Lambs was.

 

I once saw a movie called Dead Ringers about twin brother, psycho, murderer, gynocologists. EWWWWW

I READ THAT BOOK - it was weird! I had no idea they made a movie out of it. I liked the book, it was strange.

 

Oh, and, of course, what mother can stand Sophie's Choice. :-(

Yeah, you'll have to put me on the NEVER SEE THIS MOVIE list too. I read the book, it was almost too much then before I had kids. Now...no way.

 

Rose Red

 

We LOVE horror movies, but...

Me and dh watched that one Sunday afternoon, had nightmares that night (both of us).

 

Another one we laughed at. It was hokey. And that guy who so stereotypically obnoxious....please. With the exception of It, Stephen King is not that scary. The Stand was an excellent book, but not scary. Cujo I never read or saw, that might be another exception. I don't think I could stand the suspense of that one.

 

Eraserhead. The Green Mile (I walked in during the electric chair scene). Betty Blue. Pan's Labyrinth. "Adult" movies. I probably could have done with the Blair Witch Project, too.

Eraserhead was great, it was...I don't have words. I liked Pan's Labyrinth too. And Blair Witch is THE one movie that actually creeped me out. Yes it was kind of contrived, yes the people made stupid decisions....but imagine being lost in a forest, totally lost in a forest, no idea which way to even try to go, helpless...and something weird like that is happening. Something you never really see. Yeah, that one got me.

 

Silence of the Lambs still is the most horrible thing I have ever seen!! (I didn't know what I was going to when I went). I really HATE movies (or shows) about serial killers. Why we find that entertainment, I will never understand!!

LOL, we just watched Zodiac last night. And while it was a good movie....it was very very fictionalized. I think serial killers are interesting, mostly because I will never fathom how a mind like that can be.

 

Lost Highway and Eraserhead- David Lynch movies that my dh loved and I hated; total waste of time

 

I prefer movies with happy endings, but I also enjoy movies that make me see something I needed to see or teach me something I needed to know. Schindler's List is a movie that fits this category. The Ring is another pointless and disturbing movie that I wish I hadn't seen. On the other hand, Pan's Labryinth was a beautiful movie even though it ended badly and was rather disturbing all the way through.

 

Oh, and Strictly Ballroom was *totally* stupid and yet I learned something so that makes it OK. ;)

 

Margaret

Again, I liked Eraserhead.. and I liked Lost Highway... other David Lynchs...eh. AND I LOVE THE RING. Its one of my favorite movies EVER. so much that I refused to watch the sequel. Sequels are never that good, especially horror movie sequels and there was no way I was going to ruin the original for myself.

 

I loved that movie...:confused: I'm beginning to feel more and more like a total weirdo. A number of the movies listed so far are ones I really liked.

I'm beginning to feel the same way, in an opposite kind of way.

 

My first reaction was Napoleon Dynamite. But then I read the thread and realized you meant something else. :D

 

Oh, I detest watching anything with Melanie Griffith. Her voice and her acting truly grate.

Oh lord, I really can't stand the woman either.

 

Dead Calm.

 

Angel Heart.

 

Blair Witch Project.

 

Misery.

 

The Crying Game (recommended by another homeschooler! I think she had this movie confused with something else; don't see this one. Ever!)

 

Dumb and Dumber (also recommended by another homeschooler!)

 

With the exception of the last, they're all just too sinister. Who needs that?!

 

-Michele R. (I'm new and enjoying these threads!)

heh. I thought Dumb and Dumber was hilarious. Utterly useless, but I laughed. I thought The Crying Game was good too.

 

The Hills Have Eyes (recent version) disturbed me greatly! I absolutely hate when they throw babies/children into horror flicks.

 

I didn't like Hills Have Eyes at all. I was not impressed with the mutants. I guess I expect my mutants to be more grotesque than that. We made fun of the people in that movie the whole way through.

But I did have to check with several people before I saw the movie to make sure the baby didn't die, because I heard about that and I wouldn't have been able to watch it if the baby died.

 

One thing I found really disturbing that was not a movie was the PS2 game Silent Hill. Those mutants were messed up.

 

The movie Heavenly Creatures was disturbing for me, I spent days afterward on the internet finding all I could on the movie and the event it was based on. Jacob's Ladder was kind of haunting, another one of my favorite movies ever. American Psycho was another one, I can't decide if I like this movie or not, but I think about it from time to time. The Cube and Momento were really good movies too, that haunt ya for days afterwards.

 

Oh, and did any of you ever watch the Faces of Death movies? I never knew if they were real like they claimed they were or not, but they were pretty awful.

[Melissa in CA]

Lorenzo's Oil....I was a fairly new mommy at the time and I cried sobbingly hard through this entire movie! I could never, ever, ever watch it again. Never. Ever. Ever. It was years ago that I saw this...and it still brings back horrible memories. I would rather have all my teeth pulled than see any part of it.

 

Cold Mountain...this movie disturbed me beyond belief. Not just the horrible nudity which really did NOT need to be in this movie, but the ending left my emotions in knots for days. I could not stop hugging my husband and thanking God for him. Would a happy ending have been so difficult?

 

The Mist...Hubby and I just rented and watched this last night. VERY disturbing ending!!!!! It's a thriller, which I love thrillers, but it also gives you a glimpse of true human nature and how evil people can be. The ending is the awful part though...we were both equally stunned and horrified. It was a bit like the ending of Seven, though not even remotely the same. :001_huh: :D

 

I could watch The Mist again, but the first two were far too emotional for me. I plan to NEVER see them again. Ever.

[CactusPair]

Yuck, so many of them! Lots that people have mentioned already (but I'm glad I saw Sophie's Choice).

 

Others that come to mind are

 

The Bone Collector,

 

Arlington Road

 

and some disgusting movie with Blair Underwood and Sean Connery. Dh and I would only watch classics and comedies a long while after seeing that one.

 

Also the last Bourne movie. Dumb.

[Lucky Mom]

The Crying Game......ewwwww!

 

Sophie's Choice

 

The Piano

 

Legends of the Fall

 

I hate totally depressing movies.

[jejily]

House of Sand and Fog - Based on the book of the same title which Oprah chose for her book club. I hated all the characters and wanted to give every one of them a V-8 slap on the forehead.

 

Oh, I loved this movie. I thought it was very well done. What an incredible conflict, although you're right about one thing: you don't know who to root for and who to hate; you feel compelled to do both for ALL the characters.

[Jackie in AR]

When A Stranger Calls. I saw it when I was a freshman in college, and that movie gave me the creeps for many years.

 

I've seen Silence of the Lambs, Seven, etc., and while I don't recommend those to anyone, they didn't really bother me as far as thinking those things might happen in my own life.

 

When A Stranger Calls could happen in anyone's life.

[jejily]

I probably don't have any originals to add here...

 

Se7en... ewww.

 

The Accused ... I was preggers with kiddo #1, this movie really bothered me

 

Sophie's Choice ... I thought this was an excellent movie, but that SCENE haunted me for a long, long time

 

Passion of the Christ ... some bloody flicks are tolerable because they're fake; this disturbed me because it was a true depiction of what was done to people back then

 

Saw ... only caught a portion of this on HBO... oh. my. This bothered me more than the movies I saw as a kid or young adult. I think the older I get, the less I can tolerate this kind of garbage.

 

Scream ... this one freaked me out, too

 

Blue Lagoon ... not a scary flick, but most definitely not a movie I should have seen as a 13-year-old. A friend's mom took us. She (the mom) was clearly an idiot to take two impressionable girls to a movie like that. This was TMI for someone as young and innocent as I was. [batting eyelashes demurely]

 

 

Strangely enough, I think I've managed to block from my memory the worst of the movies I was silly enough to watch. Now, I'm (usually) a bit more selective.

 

[jail warden]

There was a Stephen King film some friends and I watched at a sleepover. Now realize I had no TV until about 3rd grade and Pinnochio was horrific when I saw it in K at school! I am NOT into horror in any way. I like suspense NOT horror, but anyway I digress! I have no clue of the name of the movie, but this lady went swimming and was underwater forever and when she tried to come up for air, the villan had put a glass cover over the pool and she drowned struggling to get up. I was able to block all other scenes from the movie, except that one because I love to swim and I loved to see how long I could stay underwater.

 

Another one was Aracnaphobia. Again, I do not like horror or normal animals that go crazy and kill people!

[Heather in Neverland]

Nightmare on Elm Street when I was about 13yo I think. It still freaks me out to this day.

[Susie in CA]

I watched this movie with dh at home. We both could'nt stop watching it even though it was extremely disturbing. DH and I did not sleep well that night. It took me days to recover from it. I'll never watch that one again.

 

Susie

[orangearrow]

Hands down - the movie Seven (and it looks like I'm definitely not the only one! LOL!)

 

DH and I were still dating and I liked "mind thrillers" and thought this would be a good one. DH had to pretty much haul me out of the theater when he realized I was sitting there crying and trying not to watch (and that was a movie you couldn't close your eyes to - the SOUNDS of that movie! :scared:). It's been.. what... 14 or 15 years? And I STILL have nightmares from that stupid movie and to this day, still, cannot watch a movie that's remotely "scary" because it'll bring Seven back up into my mind.

 

{{shiver}}

[E_Edgerton]

The Shining. My parents rented it and let me watch it when I was like 8 or 9. I still have flashbacks! Those twins.....:eek: I just try to avoid most scary movies now. Why self-induce fear...there's enough real scary stuff out there.

[kristavws]

Salem's Lot - I watched this when I was maybe 8 or 9 (and slept with the blankets over my head for a year afterwards)

 

There was a Stephen King movie I saw as an adult about a small island town in Maine that has to vote on which kid it wants to give to Satan. I can't remember the name, but I now avoid movies based upon King's books.

 

Poltergeist - also seen as a kid - thanks mom and dad!

 

Sophie's Choice has to be the saddest movie I have ever seen.

 

Krista

[Kim in Appalachia]

That movie was so depressing. I can still see and hear the little girl screaming and crying as her dad pulled away. I hated it.

[mcconnellboys]

Alien! Yuck! How I let them talk me into that, I'll never know.....

[lovemyboys]

Ohh, DarkShadows! Dbro and dsis would sneak into dmom's bedroom to watch on a little black & white tv. Mom didn't know they were doing it. The kids on the bus discussed all the "soaps" and db/ds thought that one sounded great....until dbro had nightmares for months. It took mom awhile to figure out the cause! He would crawl into bed with her every night.

[*anj*]

Oh, I loved this movie. I thought it was very well done. What an incredible conflict, although you're right about one thing: you don't know who to root for and who to hate; you feel compelled to do both for ALL the characters.

 

I agree. I really loved The House of Sand and Fog. Dh, on the other hand, intensely disliked it. Oh well.

I could watch/listen to Shohreh Aghdashloo read the Yellow Pages and I'd be glued to my seat. She's amazing.

[Pam "SFSOM" in TN]

and Pulp Fiction was hysterical and brilliant and sick :-)

 

Oh, I'm glad I'm not the only one who felt this way. I always feel guilty laughing hysterically at such a dark movie -- and I hated the Kill Bills and do NOT do horror/blood/slasher movies. I just can't.

 

But PF is definitely a guilty pleasure, but I could not even if someone were holding a needle of epinephrine to my chest :D articulate why.