Memorable Torture Scenes

[TheWickerFan]

These are some of the most memorable torture scenes I've seen so far (and by memorable, I mean they were so disturbing that every detail remains etched on my memory and has caused some sleepless nights). Some of these films were very good, others not so much (I'll put an X next to the ones I disliked):

Salo, The 120 Days Of Sodom
Audition
Hostel
X The Devils
X Men Behind The Sun
Imprint (the banned episode of Masters Of Horror directed by Takashi Miike. The episode was flawed, but no torture scene has disturbed me quite as much as this one).

I have yet to see Shogun's Joy Of Torture and The Human Centipede; both look like contenders. Any others?

6/11 - Saw Human Centipede. No truly memorable torture scenes.

[Karl Kopfrkingl]

Have you seen Martyrs? It's a recent French film. I think it's worth seeing if you've got the stomach for it.

[TheWickerFan]

No I haven't. Thanks for the tip.

[FreddyMyers]

Definitely see Martyrs Wicker. 2 more good semi tortureous movies which are also French.....I think.....are Ils (Inside) and Frontiers

[TheWickerFan]

Saw Frontier(s). It was okay. Haven't seen Ils or Inside yet. I've really got to see Inside, everyone seems to love that film.

[Elvis_Christ]

I've really got to see Inside, everyone seems to love that film.

Yeh man you do. Awesome film... way better then Martyrs or Frontier(s) IMO.

Human Centipede is tame and not really disturbing at all.

Have been meaning to watch Joy of Torture 2: Oxen Split Torturing for awhile. Had a copy but it got scratched so I wasn't able to watch it. Teruo Ishii has some twisted shit in his flicks so your bound to find a lot of shit you're after in them.

The Devil's Experiment is worth a watch for the eyeball scene.

I've got Grotesque sitting on the shelf to watch which is meant to be jam packed with torture.

[TheWickerFan]

Oh boy, maybe I'll gather my courage and try a Guinea Pig film.

[fiend_skull]

Oh boy, maybe I'll gather my courage and try a Guinea Pig film.

Its not really as hard to watch as people say. I got through it without really cringing at all.

[Pris]

2 more good semi tortureous movies which are also French.....I think.....are Ils (Inside) and Frontiers


"Ils" and "Inside (À l'intérieur)" are actually two separate movies. "Ils" doesn't really have scenes of torture, it's more of a psychological thriller, but "Inside" will blow your mind. Definitely a recommendation.

As some of you already menitioned, other cool French horror flicks are "Frontière(s)", "Martyrs" and "Haute Tension".

[Elvis_Christ]

Its not really as hard to watch as people say. I got through it without really cringing at all.

I was more disturbed by the intent behind The Devil's Experiment. It actually is torture-porn literally.

Flower of Flesh & Blood didn't bother me at all.

[ChronoGrl]

Mum & Dad
The Girl Next Door
Dread

...

In recent memory. I'm not much of a torture fan myself...

[Posher778]

Torture movies usually bore me. They need a better story or they pretty much become mud. I'm just starting the Human Centipede, and hoping it's at least amusing.

[ChronoGrl]

Torture movies usually bore me. They need a better story or they pretty much become mud. I'm just starting the Human Centipede, and hoping it's at least amusing.

blah blah blah blah I'm so jaded and desensitized blah blah blah blah :cool:

[Posher778]

I didn't mean it like that at all, I just think human dismemberment and/or psychological torture gets boring to watch after a while.

[missmacabre]

I didn't mean it like that at all, I just think human dismemberment and/or psychological torture gets boring to watch after a while.

and I will vouch for him. If it wasn't for Deiter Laser Human centipede would have been sooooo boring. A little toooo linear, but what can you do with a movie about ass to mouth?

[milktoaste]

but what can you do with a movie about ass to mouth?

Really? I would have say you could do just about anything at that point. Emphasis on 'anything'.

[ChronoGrl]

I didn't mean it like that at all, I just think human dismemberment and/or psychological torture gets boring to watch after a while.

and I will vouch for him. If it wasn't for Deiter Laser Human centipede would have been sooooo boring. A little toooo linear, but what can you do with a movie about ass to mouth?

Geez - I can't even make fun of Posh without people taking it seriously... :rolleyes: What is this world coming to??

I'm not a huge fan of torture flicks... Not so much that it's repetitive, I just don't like feeling icky and unhappy...

SPEAKING of icky and unhappy... So apparently there are a whole wave of people who post and watch zit-popping videos on Youtube (I LERNED it from tosh.o, the Comedy Central show designed for us Oldies to learn which internet videos all the kids are into!)... Of course I had to check it out for myself... Wasn't really sure what I was expecting but, uhm, they delivered... And I thought of you MM and that Japanese artist you like and the fact that you like being made uncomfortable and I was honestly curious, "Does Jenn like zit/cyst-popping videos?"

Yes, watching someone lance a pus-filled swollen blemish made me think of you.

[Posher778]

Really? I would have say you could do just about anything at that point. Emphasis on 'anything'.



Thought crossed my mind.



Didn't last. Too boring.



:p

[missmacabre]

Geez - I can't even make fun of Posh without people taking it seriously... :rolleyes: What is this world coming to??

I'm not a huge fan of torture flicks... Not so much that it's repetitive, I just don't like feeling icky and unhappy...

SPEAKING of icky and unhappy... So apparently there are a whole wave of people who post and watch zit-popping videos on Youtube (I LERNED it from tosh.o, the Comedy Central show designed for us Oldies to learn which internet videos all the kids are into!)... Of course I had to check it out for myself... Wasn't really sure what I was expecting but, uhm, they delivered... And I thought of you MM and that Japanese artist you like and the fact that you like being made uncomfortable and I was honestly curious, "Does Jenn like zit/cyst-popping videos?"

Yes, watching someone lance a pus-filled swollen blemish made me think of you.

Awwwww. Funny story: One night I was talking with Psycom on facebook chat and he told me he was on youtube and watched a guy squeeze a chunk of pus the size of a chicken nugget out of his face. So obviously I had to see that. Even better than youtube zit popping, are "Bot Fly" extractions. Remember that sig someone on here had (Despare I think) of some thing being pulled out of an eye ball. Those are Botflies. They lay larvae in your skin. Cool, right?

[ManchestrMorgue]

I don't know if you would really call it torture, because death would have come quickly, but the arm breaking and fire extinguisher scenes in Irreversible really left a lasting impression on me. I still find these scenes really difficult to watch.

[PlagueBearer]

Irresversible was on the very edge - not often you are forced to watch a brutal rape, in ONE scene, for 10 or 15 minutes. But the rest is not that queezy.
Apart from the documentary "army medicine in vietnam" (neither torture or a movie.Just footage from real-life weapon injuries and surgery) which we had to see in the army, only "men behind the sun" can top it, and in this movie the torture scenes are s-i-c-k. Actually there was real-life torture in this movie, on cats and rats. In one scene you can see a cat beeing eaten alive by hundred of rats - a gruesome scene indeed, and yes its real. Later they pour gazoline on the rats and ignite them..
But for the parts of the film that depicts the torture on the chinese, they are sick and many. Probably best to stay clear of this movie if your not interested in a mashup between war movie and exploitation movie.

[TheWickerFan]

Irresversible was on the very edge - not often you are forced to watch a brutal rape, in ONE scene, for 10 or 15 minutes. But the rest is not that queezy.
Apart from the documentary "army medicine in vietnam" (neither torture or a movie.Just footage from real-life weapon injuries and surgery) which we had to see in the army, only "men behind the sun" can top it, and in this movie the torture scenes are s-i-c-k. Actually there was real-life torture in this movie, on cats and rats. In one scene you can see a cat beeing eaten alive by hundred of rats - a gruesome scene indeed, and yes its real. Later they pour gazoline on the rats and ignite them..
But for the parts of the film that depicts the torture on the chinese, they are sick and many. Probably best to stay clear of this movie if your not interested in a mashup between war movie and exploitation movie.

I did a thread called Cannibal Holocaust vs. Men Behind The Sun where we talked about the issue of non-simulated animal killings in film (people had a lot of interesting things to say).

An addition to Memorable Torture Scenes:

Philosophy Of A Knife - a brutal 4 hour documentary/art-house/torture-porn film about Unit 731.

[roshiq]

Recently saw The Stoning of Soraya M. (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1277737/); at the final act when the 'stoning' part begins it turned out unexpectedly pretty disturbing & brutal.

[neverending]

But is stoning torture? If the defining characteristic of torture is that it's meant to cause pain, yet have the victim survive- and the goal of stoning someone is to kill them, correct?

[PlagueBearer]

But is stoning torture? If the defining characteristic of torture is that it's meant to cause pain, yet have the victim survive- and the goal of stoning someone is to kill them, correct?

Stoning with a deadly outcome can be defined as torture imo - If we stick to the definition that describes torture as a way of making someone tell you something you want to hear, the whole stoning process is to make the victim beg for his life, confess sins etc. As well as set an example for the rest of the society. Wheter victim dies or lives may be of no concerne. But stoning as a penalty has/is beeing exercised different, with different purposes, and one of the purposes is to kill...
Anyway thats my interpretation of torture and stoning

[roshiq]

oh yes, sorry...you got it correct. Stoning isn't a torture at all actually...by "rule/law" continue it until 'the sinner' dies. So by definition it can't be categorized as torture of course except a method of punishment to kill the 'sinner' who committed one of the extreme level of sins & which is adultery.
The reason I put it here when it starts in that film some way it looked like kind of a hideous torture to me at some point but yes at the end it's not remains a torture at all. One of the most ferocious ways of killing people brutally is stoning..we can say.

[TheWickerFan]

One of the most ferocious ways of killing people brutally is stoning..we can say.

If only that were true. Read the book: What A Way To Go by Geoffrey Abbott, a fascinating little book about methods of torture and execution. Off the top of my head, methods that were especially gruesome:
Brazen Bull
Cauldron
Scaphismus (incredibly gruesome!)
Spanish Donkey
and many others

It never ceases to amaze me what people are capable of doing to each other.

[PlagueBearer]

Yes - Stoning in certain cultures, cultures that practices sharia, they follow rules, and like you said, continue it until 'the sinner' dies. I read somewhere it is very important that, “… no stone should be thrown that should kill with the first or second blow, or so small as a pebble to do no injury to the condemned.
Having problems confirming that rule, but stoning isnt a precise science(?), and when we talk about stoning here i guess we are thinking of capital punishment in the sharia system. But stoning has been reported from Yodok concentration camp in north korea and im not quite sure if death penalty is the motive there, i suspect the torturing element is the key factor there.
They made a documentary about that camp --> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1266731/

Anyway, i have a feeling that im deviating from topic here, namely torture scenes in movies :o

[roshiq]

Yes - Stoning in certain cultures, cultures that practices sharia, they follow rules, and like you said, continue it until 'the sinner' dies. I read somewhere it is very important that, “… no stone should be thrown that should kill with the first or second blow, or so small as a pebble to do no injury to the condemned.


Agree.

Thanks to WF & PB, I'll try to check out that book & the film if I get them around here in my locality.

[Pris]

I've recently seen the new Samuel L. Jackson movie "Unthinkable". It's about CIA black-ops' use of torture in the interrogation of terrorism suspects.

It's not really a horror flick, but includes lots of brutal and quite realistic torture scenes. Both Jackson and Michael Sheen (who portrays the suspect) give superb performances.

[massacre man]

*Insert title of movie starring or directed by Mel Gibson.*

[TheWickerFan]

WARNING POSSIBLE SPOILER

I haven't watched Passion Of The Christ, but I do remember the Hanged, Drawn, and Quartered scene from Braveheart.

[The Mothman]

An addition to Memorable Torture Scenes:

Philosophy Of A Knife - a brutal 4 hour documentary/art-house/torture-porn film about Unit 731.

dont forget to mention that its relentlessly boring.

[TheWickerFan]

dont forget to mention that its relentlessly boring.

I can't argue with that. 4 hours is way too long.

[discodude]

certain scenes in eric stanzes scrapbook did it for me and the opening sequence in a/undergound could have been very torturious!? yeah ive heard about that grotesque film,apparently it will never be released over here in the u.k?hype?

[Ferox13]

*Insert title of movie starring or directed by Mel Gibson.*

MAD MAX 2 gives him a pass for all the shit hes done..

it will never be released over here in the u.k?hype?

Naw - its pretty tough....

[The Mothman]

I can't argue with that. 4 hours is way too long.
wasn't the length that did it for me, i didn't even bother watching the second half.

[TheWickerFan]

wasn't the length that did it for me, i didn't even bother watching the second half.

You didn't miss anything.

I wouldn't recommend this film, but there were a couple of very disturbing torture scenes in it.

[TheWickerFan]

A sub-sub-sub genre, Torture of the teeth:

Marathon Man
Philosophy Of A Knife
The Dentist
Little Shop Of Horrors
Oldboy

[ChrisSTC]

For torture scenes I remember was See No Evil, and Law Abiding Citizen. Except L.A.C. didn't really show much.