Uncomfortable scenes.

I like to be challenged when I watch a film. I think its a great thing to be pushed out of your comfort zone, to be made squirm and be uncomfortable and nauseous. Its good for your head. It makes you think. And it makes for great cinema.

Sometimes though, you see something that leaves a horrible impression. You see it and think "ah shit, that's going to pop up in my dreams."

It would be very easy to fill this list with loads of gory and gruesome horror so I won't. OK, I'll put a few first and then head elsewhere.

Here's 9 scenes that broke my head.

The Exorcist

The famous Tom Savini once said that The Exorcist will only really affect you if you were raised Catholic. I was. Sort of. My parents gave it a half hearted effort and then gave up. Fair play. The scene in it that gets me is the defilement of the statue of Mary near the start of the film. And I have no idea why. It just feels transgressive even though I couldn't care less about a statue of Mary. Maybe its just the religion that was horsed into us in school still has a tenuous grip but it has always disturbed me. Weird.

Audition

A Japanese man who was recently widowed auditions women to be his new wife. Of course the woman he picks is an absolute psychopath. The film is infamous for a horrible scene of torture near the end but it's another scene that absolutely did me in. An imprisoned man begs for food and is offered a dogbowl filled with vomit. Which he hungrily laps up. Sorry, if you could see the face im making now you'd laugh. God it's vile.

The Curse Of Frankenstein.

When you think of old Hammer horror movies you think of camp silliness, garish special effects and busty wenches. But ye are looking back on them with adult eyes. I saw this one when i was about 10. I hadn't seen much horror at that stage so this one had an effect and the scene that did it is when Christopher Lee as Frankenstein's monster gets shot in the face. It's tame as hell now, and the blood looked like ketchup but i was horrified and wanted to puke. It supposedly caused uproar in the 1950's when it was made and i can see why.
 
Rules Of Attraction.

A young woman sits in a bath tub. Harry Nilsson plays his most famous song over the scene. Shit, this is even hard to type. She slits her wrist lengthwise. And then goes into an agonising death throe. The song distorts into something horrific as the life ebbs from her. This scene is so disturbing that it hasn't been available to see in its uncut form in Ireland or England since 2004. I remember seeing it uncut in the cinema. Numerous people got up and left. It killed the film dead, big full stop near the end of the film. Black comedy turned to just black. I still feel queasy thinking about it.

Taxi Driver.

Martin Scorsese's masterpiece and the scene in question involves him acting too. He's a passenger in Travis's taxi and is talking about his wife having an affair. He intends to kill her with a .44 magnum. It's not a physically violent scene but the language he uses to describe how he will kill her and the calm manner in which he says it is a real gut punch. It made my teeth itch. It's hard to describe tbh. You need to see it. I've read Scorsese decided to act in the scene as he was the only one who could do it as creepily as the idea he had in his head.

Eraserhead. 

Basically the entire film is an uncomfortable experience. A story of a man and woman dealing with their newborn child who also happens to be hideously deformed. Even the description is conjures up horrific images. When you first see the child it takes your breath away. In a horrible way. It's a horrible scene made even worse by the sympathy you have for the poor little unfortunate. Its a struggle not to leap for the remote to switch it off.

One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest.

A strange film. A classic from the second golden era of Hollywood that makes you sympathise with a rapist and cheer him on when he tries to murder a woman. I like the film but there's a lot going on under the surface in it. Randall McMurphy fakes insanity to avoid jail and finds himself squaring off against a nurse who ok, is a bit overzealous in her job but when he finally snaps and tries to strangle her and you find yourself hoping he kills her......ya well, there's something wrong there. Or its filmmaking doing something very right. 

Saving Private Ryan.

In a film famous for it's horrific depiction of warfare. it's a little small scene of 2 men fighting that freaked me out the most. 2 men, one a German soldier and one a Jewish American soldier find themselves scrapping in a room. It's dirty and nasty, wrestling and biting, until the German grabs the yank's knife and ever so slowly pushes the knife into his chest, quietly talking him into submission as he does it. It's horrible and the fact that it's a hitler youth knife killing a Jewish man makes it even worse. 

Superman 2

Ok. This is a silly one. It's a Superman film, it can't be that bad, oh but it is. I hate it. It made me squirm when i was 7 and still does now. Superman wants to be "with" Lois Lane. But he can't as a superhero so willingly gives up his powers to be a normal man. He finds himself in a diner standing up against a pure gowl who proceeds to kick the shit out of him. Normally Superman would laugh in his face but as Clark Kent he hasn't a hope. He gets an awful hiding and is then shocked at the sight of his own blood. It's mild as hell these days but it has always had an effect on me. Silly yes but it works.