I love the term ‘unsee’, it brings to mind something so powerful and memorable that the witness couldn’t erase it from their mind if they tried.
For mine it is a far more powerful descriptor than eyecatching, spellbinding, even awe-inspiring, and it also doesn’t necessarily even have positive or negatives connotations.
I have used the term to describe more than a few films in reviews on this site, and I look forward to it being appropriate I the future, mainly because it means more interesting films are to come, films that don’t settle for the mainstream or merely replicating what has come before.
So imagine my surprise when I happened upon an article listing a bunch of movies that ‘you can’t unsee’. I was of course immediately intrigued, then after scanning the list and the reasoning behind each choice… Disappointed.
It seems for some the only things that cannot be ‘unseen’ are acts of great violence, perversion or controversy, hence every film on the list either was a pretend snuff film, a film veering dangerously close to pornography, or a film so perverted and disgusting that it was obviously only created to cause controversy.
I keep referring back to The Human Centipede as my personal line between film as an artform, and film as a platform to gain notoriety. When the director tells everyone in advance what the supposed ‘shock’ is to be, where is the skill in that?
Also on the list was A Serbian Tale, a film so vile that *and I’m sorry* a man rapes a newborn for the amusement of others.
That’s not cinema. That’s the work of simple minds wanting people to notice them.
Anyway I will shy away from pathetic and worthless dross in my list, although there are a few films below that desperately want your attention, some which blur the lines a little. But in my opinion the films listed below were made as films first and foremost, and not cries for help.
For the record, the American History X ‘kerb’ scene would be here if it wasn’t already in my Top 10 examples of cinema violence.
An 80s head trip of a film for people who prefer not to leave the couch. William Hurt stars as an eccentric scientist using sensory deprivation to research the impact it has on the mind.
Things become more intense after a visit to South America, where some gifted drugs escalate the effect of the experiences to such a degree that he starts wondering if his visions are in fact contact with God.
As you might guess the accompanying imagery is intense and more than a little surreal. In fact in my review I admitted to not being able to follow a lot of what went on the film, but I still can’t shake it.
The day after watching this film for the first time I described the basic outline to a friend who I knew would never watch it in a million years.
After he admitted as such I knew I could go to town, and passed on in some detail the events leading up to the ‘highlights’, which involve some excessively graphic and bloody kills.
The heroine (of sorts) takes her sweet time after planning her move, calmly preparing an arsenal of bladed weapons with which to carry out her vengeance.
But this isn’t the full extent of the ‘unseeable’, there are some sexual undertones that are particularly disturbing, and the ‘deal with it’ attitude of some of the elder women in the island setting is simply shocking.
Bedevilled hits the definition of ‘can’t unsee’ on many levels.
Another film which is not at all violent or disgusting, but has such arresting visuals and frankly bizarre imagery that you start to wonder about the mental state of those involved in creating such nuttiness.
A mock doco about a humble and quiet Japanese man who uses electricity to have him grow 50 feet tall to battle giant monsters and other such threats, all televised on reality tv to huge ratings, to the extent that Big Man sells his own body for advertising space.
After all this it is almost equally as nuts that a good portion of the film has the regular sized Big Man trying to deal with far more real family issues, which after watching him battle a giant Head on a Foot (!) seems a little crazy in its own right.
Watch all the Japsanity stuff like Helldriver, Big Tits Zombie and co, that you like, this is more creatively insane than all of them combined.
In 1995 I watched this film for the first time in a crowded independent theatre. After this maiden viewing I think it is safe to say that the deafening applause that ensued suggests no one on hand would easily forget what they had just witnessed.
After all it isn’t that often that you see a man do what a man cannot do. And have it so breathtakingly and mind blowingly awesome at the same time.
Jackie Chan was a one of a kind martial arts genius in the 80s and 90s. His closest competition was Jet Li, and Jackie had ten films better than anything he ever created.
Let’s put this in perspective. Imagine you like Star Wars (which I will call Bruce Lee), then a decade later someone bursts onto the scene and makes a dozen films that leave Star Wars in the shade.
That was Jackie Chan vs the real world. Drunken Master 2 is the pinnacle of martial arts movies, and something even non-martial arts film fans can’t forget.
I was so underwhelmed by Enter the Void that I have subsequently tried to forget everything about it – tried real hard.
In what seems like abject desperation so called auteur Gaspar Noe ticks off all the bases, drug use, graphic violence, rape, non simulated intercourse and a grab bag of assorted controversial imagery.
Since I put my feelings of ennui on record I have has much feedback saying that I missed the point and/or defending Noe as a cinematic genius. Of course I defend myself with ‘yeah but it’s still shit’, and will continue to do so.
Unfortunately that makes it even harder to shed the bad memories created by this pretentious nonsense.
This entire film is a trip. Unexplainable, impossible to follow and defying explanation. The only thing harder than forgetting certain images (The chicken. The baby. That haircut.) is listening to pretentious gigs bang on about how it is a work of genius and – worse still – ‘you just don’t get it’.
I’ve got news for you Jack, I sure don’t get it and I don’t want to. In fact I actually wish I could forget some of this freaky shit and get my 90 minutes back.
A true pioneer in the Japsanity genre. Let me count the ways that Ichi the Killer is impossible to ignore in a list such as this.
1/ The opening credit is spelt out in semen.
2/ A man is hung up by hooks and covered in boiling oil. By;
3/ A man who loves pain so much he slit holes in his own cheeks, from which he blows smoke.
4/ The titular Ichi is a socially distant man whose primary vice is watching pretty women get beaten bad. And;
5/ Eviscerating people with all manner of sharp blades.
6/ There’s lots more but you get the picture.
What is it with South Korea? Every year if you look hard enough there are numerous undiscovered gems and oddities to be found. The Host, The Chaser, the Vengeance Trilogy, A Tale of Two Sisters. All ferociously original (ok maybe not so much The Host) and memorable in their own way.
I saw the Devil is another thing entirely, a film that surmises that a killer with no motive, minimal planning and no pattern of activity might be the hardest to catch, then pits him against a man who has decided that regular old justice isn’t going to do it for him.
Über violent, and perhaps more disturbing because the central conceit is so damn plausible when you think about it, I saw the Devil might not fit into a little box marked ‘entertainment’, but you won’t forget it in a hurry.
Kids
Fact #1: I’ve seen the film exactly one time in about 1996.
Fact #2: I didn’t think much of the film, but it did coin a running off-colour (bad) joke that me and a few friends drag out to this day. Fact #3: I could tell you nothing about the plot, but in the next breath describe two scenes in such detail that you’d think I watched it yesterday.
Fact #4: I like neither of those scenes. I just can’t forget them.
I don’t see this film as polarising like some critics claim. I see it as a reprehensible piece of work desperately trying to gain attention and notoriety thanks to several scenes where the lead pummels women.
Politics and social etiquette aside, you might, be on the side of the fence that believes every story has a right to be told, or you might join me and (I hope) the majority. Either way you won’t forget the sound of Joaqin Phoenix’ fist thudding sickeningly into Jessica Alba’s forehead and jaw for the 22nd time.
In an era where school kids can make decent animation with no training, Mega-Piranha deserves credit for taking a pathetic played out sack of a premise and packing it so full of shit that it was compressed into B grade cinematic diamonds.
It might be hard to take the following statement seriously, but Mega Piranha earns the right to have a giant fish leap from the ocean and swallow a helicopter whole.
There is no reason that we should ever be subjected to Mega P 2 – indeed there have already been several rip offs that fail dismally, but this is as unqualifyingly entertaining as a genuinely horrendous movie h ever been.
Mention just the title of this film to anyone who has seen it, regardless of how long ago that was, and into their mind will immediately form a picture of two skinny legs having a small length of wood carefully – almost lovingly – placed in between them…
Now feet spaced apart. Keep your head over the ball. Nice backswing.
Whether or not the twist worked for you – and it sure as hell did for me the first time – Oldboy boasts several other unmissable and indelible sequences that will burn themselves into your frontal lobe. The octopus. The suicide landing on the car. The hammer being used forwards I the hallway. The hammer being used in reverse in someone’s mouth, not once, but twice…
The fact is I can’t see how anyone would want to watch a film which revolves around a man deciding to sever his own arm in the first place. I sure didn’t, but I was lent a bunch of DVDs and committed to reviewing the lot. Too late did I notice the one about the trapped thrill seeker.
It’s really the three or four minutes leading up to the event where Aron makes his decision, and obviously the bit after he pulls out the blunt pocket knife.
I couldn’t unsee that even before I watched the damn movie.
Where Oldboy was brilliant I still don’t know what to make of Perfume, and I don’t think a second viewing will help one bit. What I will say is that a film revolving around the sense of smell is in fact a confusing madhouse for the eyes.
Literally from the birth if the central character all the way to the stone courtyard orgy filled with hundreds of formerly irate French people going at it, the film has countless moments that will make you simultaneously squirm and wonder if what you are viewing is inspired or pretentious nonsense.
A bit of both I think.
This one might need a time stamp.
Sure nowadays a script that calls for giant warring robots laying waste to a city an be greenlit on the spot, but 20 odd years ago it would have been different.
I guarantee that James Cameron saw much more than a raised eyebrow when he asked for money to make a film about a liquid metal assassin that could take the form of anything it came into contact with, including a tiled floor and several supporting characters.
Today’s teen might see T2 and think ‘cool, but whatever’.
They sure as hell weren’t 90s teens…
Ichi might have picked up the baton and run with it, but Tetsuo made the cylinder out of metal it found laying around.
I’ve seen this film twice with a gap of probably twenty years separating the viewings, but despite the time elapsed my memory of this film hasn’t changed. I still couldn’t tell you one thing about the plot, but a guy enhances himself with scrap metal until he becomes more metal than man.
In the end he more or less turns into a tank.
The end.
In the 90s James Cameron turned cgi into a thing. In the 80s John Carpenter realised he didn’t have the technology nor the budget, so he hired Rob Bottin, who created some of the most amazingly grotesque and unforgettable special effects of all time out of various… things.
The result is a classic film, with some of the best images and ‘what the fuck’ moments on film.
Nicolas Winding Refn is a director on the way up. In 2011 he made Drive one if the best 80s films since the decade actually ended.
I actually could have put Drive in here for the ‘elevator stomp’ alone. I know my wife won’t forget her pin up boy Ryan Gosling taking his size 9s to the thug until his hat and shoes touched. I could also have listed Bronson, the film where Thomas Hardy stepped into the shoes – and out of the clothes – of the British hard man and regular prison visitor. That too was a trippy film.
But no. I have opted for the adventures of One Eye, so called because of his… One eye, a silent man who kills his way across ancient viking lands in all manner of extremely violent ways. The disemboweling happens early, but you’ll soon realise that old ‘Blinky’ is just getting started.
Like Perfume above this is either genius or lunacy. Unlike Perfume I think this one is easier to pick a side.
Where The Thing gained a credit on this list through its success in realising other-worldly images and scenes that have had millions gasping for reasons that are good. X-Tro on the other hand is pretty much the opposite.
The film opens with a twisted and strange looking canine esque alien which looks both eerie and cheap, and the film never let’s up from there.
It’s all quite amateurish but has enough ‘I can’t believe they tried that’ moments to justify entry on this list, if not on any lists relating to quality in any way, shape or form.
Wrapping up
Missed a few? Put in some I shouldna? Feel free to vent, correct or waste time below. This is my list though.
OGR
