Disturbing, Disgusting, and Just Plain WRONG

The following discussion was inspired by an article titled "10 Most Disturbing Horror Movies," at Horror-Movies.Ca.  Anyone who likes scary/disgusting films should check out both this article and the comments attached to it.

The author of that article lists the following 10 horror films as the "most disturbing."

1. Pet Sematary
2. I Spit on Your Grave (1978)
3. The Hills Have Eyes (remake)
4. Seven
5. Irreversible
6. The House of 1000 Corpses
7. Funny Games
8. The Woman
9. Deadgirl
10. Dread

I had already seen Pet Sematary, I Spit on Your Grave, the Hills Have Eyes, Seven, and the House of 1000 Corpses, and I could see the inclusion of all these movies except Rob Zombie's "House."  In my opinion, "House" was terrible.

But what really caught my eye wasn't the films on this list that I'd already seen.  What got my attention was the 5 movies I hadn't.  So, armed with uTorrent and a strong stomach, I managed to find all of the films except "The Woman."  What follows are my thoughts on each.

1. Irreversible

This movie is very, very French.  On the plus side, Monica Bellucci spends much of this movie nude, and the cinematography is excellent.  On the minus side, this isn't really a horror movie.  I suppose I might find the extended rape scene more horrifying if I was a woman, but as it was I just couldn't find anything in this film disturbing.  It's a good movie, but I don't know why it was included on the above list.

2. Funny Games

This one follows the "home invasion" format, with some clever twists at the end.  Two guys hold a family of three hostage, forcing each to play a series of "games."  Again, I wouldn't really classify this one as a horror movie, but it IS disturbing.  I liked the ending.

3. Deadgirl

This one is definitely a horror movie.  Two high school kids find a nude woman who can't die in an abandoned basement.  As you might have guessed, things go downhill pretty quickly from there.  I thought the first 3/4 of this movie was fantastic, but it degenerates into a genre picture near the end.  It's frightening and has a couple of truly disgusting/disturbing parts, but it also shows a surprising amount of intelligence.

4. Dread

Three college students embark on a study of fear.  One of them takes the study too far.  It's a good movie, but nothing in it disturbed me.  It's also a bit too similar to the "Saw" movies.  Probably one of the more philosophical horror films out there.

And aside from the above four films, the comments that followed that article offered many more.  Here are three:

1. A Serbian Film

This is a very serious film, and it tries to say very serious things about Serbia.  The main character is an ex-porno star, who agrees to perform in one more picture.  Little does he know that this picture is - you guessed it - a snuff film.  The second half of the film features rape, sodomy, incest, mutilation, murder, and other acts of violence.  There is one scene in the middle that is NASTY, but it gets cartoonish near the end.  I watched the "uncut" version.  Kind of reminded me of Nekromantik.

2. Cannibal Holocaust

This movie is classic.  Four Americans go down to the Amazon to film real-life cannibals.  After their disappearance, a professor of anthropology is sent to find them and also to assess the documentary footage they left behind.  Real animal mutilation is interspersed with staged scenes of rape and torture.  This movie is still banned in several countries, and it is the ONLY movie discussed here that actually made me want to puke.

3. The Human Centipede (Full Sequence)

I haven't seen the first Human Centipede, but parts of the first movie are shown in the second.  An emotionally disturbed man tries to construct a "human centipede" by stitching living people together.  It's pretty sick, but it's also a pretty good movie.
 

Oh, and I also wanted to mention the film Prometheus while I'm at it.  Prometheus has plot holes that you could drive a truck through, but it is also a disturbing movie, with lots of gore.  The sequel, if it ever gets made, should be good.

Were I to compile my own list, it would look very different from the one at the top of this entry.  Of the "10 Most Disturbing" above, I'd probably only keep the remake of The Hills Have Eyes.  On top of that I'd add Cannibal Holocaust, and from these two go on to more contentious offerings.  I'd have to put John Carpenter's The Thing on there, probably The Exorcist I and III, the first Alien, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (both the original and the remake), Videodrome, Audition, Prince of Darkness..... and on, and on.  I've seen a lot of horror movies, and I would have to think long and hard before coming to any final decision.

Books I Read During Summer Vacation

Between Taiwan, Thailand, and Cambodia I didn't get all that much reading done this summer.  But that's not necessarily a bad thing...

 
1. "A Game of Thrones" by George R. R. Martin

Attempts at eloquence aside, this book is simply BAD ASS.  I haven't read a fantasy novel this good since the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and Martin's books might even surpass those celebrated novels.  Where his prose lacks poetry, he more than makes up for it with believable characters, intricate plotting, and an attention to detail that is second to none.  I am very happy that I read this book, and I plan on reading the remainder of Martin's "Song of Ice and Fire" as soon as they arrive in the mail.

2. "Alan Moore's Complete WildC.A.T.S." by Alan Moore, Jim Lee, and Some Other Guys

This TPB doesn't really feel like Alan Moore until the very end.  There are enough characters - and enough backstory - to make for a truly confusing reading experience, and it doesn't get good until the last few chapters.  Jim Lee drew most of it, but his art adds little to the story.

3. "The Ultimates 2 Vol. 2: Grand Theft America" by Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch

Continuing where the first Ultimates left off, this installment finds Thor institutionalized and America at the mercy of super-powered terrorists.  Captain America gets his ass kicked, Hawkeye is way cooler than in the original Avengers comics, and the Hulk returns from exile.  Not as good as the first Ultimates, but that one is hard to top.  Great writing and art throughout.

4. "Ultimate X-Men 1" (TPB) by Mark Millar and Other Dudes

I've never been a huge X-men fan, but this one makes everyone's favorite mutants seem slightly cooler.  Confronted by the sentinels on one hand and the Weapon X program on the other, the X-men strive to overcome individual differences and work as a team.  I like Millar's version of Wolverine and Magneto, but this one was a far cry from his work on The Ultimates.

5. "A Clash of Kings" by George R. R. Martin

The sequel to "A Game of Thrones," this one follows the exploits of the Starks as they face off against the Lannisters in the wake of Eddard Stark's death.  A great, absorbing work of fantasy.

6. "A Storm of Swords" by George R. R. Martin

The third book in Martin's "Song of Ice and Fire."  Forces realign after the decisive battle for Storm's End, with enough sex, violence, and political intrigue to keep anyone interested.  Metal bands take notice: you would be well-advised to mine this book for both song titles and lyrical content.

R & R

The post before this one, Treasure Island, represents the last of my books for the time being.  I now feel a need to rest from reading, so there will be no more entries here for a while.  Thanks to those (few) people that have been reading this.  I will be writing my other two blogs until June or so, and you are welcome to peruse those at your leisure.

Best 5 Books Read This Semester:

1. "Now Wait for Last Year" by Philip K. Dick

2. "American Tabloid" by James Ellroy

3. "Journey Without Maps" by Graham Greene

4. "One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

5. "Lies, Inc." by Philip K. Dick

 3 Books to Avoid

1. "The 120 Days of Sodom" by the Marquis de Sade

2. "The Dosadi Experiment" by Frank Herbert

3. "Whit" by Iain Banks

"Treasure Island" by Robert Louis Stevenson

Treasure Island was first published in 1883.  It was the first full-length novel that Stevenson wrote, and preceded The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by three years.

In a small English village, Jim Hawkins helps his mother run an inn.  One day a pirate by the name of Bill takes on lodgings in this inn, and after Bill's untimely demise young Hawkins discovers a treasure map among his belongings.  Hawkins and his two guardians then fit out a ship to search for the treasure, though subsequent events reveal mutinous intentions within their hired crew.

Treasure Island is a good, easy read, and has captivated children for generations.  It's not as deep as Stevenson's Strange Case, but it's concise, well-paced, and never grows boring.

"The 120 Days of Sodom and Other Stories" by the Marquis de Sade

"And now Durcet, whom the story had inflamed, like the old priest was moved to suck some asshole or other, but would not have a girl's.  He called for Hyacinthe, who of them all pleased him the most.  He placed the little chap, kissed his ass, frigged his prick and sucked it."

The Marquis de Sade wrote The 120 Days of Sodom in 1785, while he was imprisoned in the Bastille.  Many critics call it his masterpiece, though one wonders how any book that revolves almost exclusively around rape, torture, and milder forms of sexual perversion can be called a masterpiece.

I will probably come off sounding like a prude when I say that.  Nevertheless, as a work of fiction, and as a work of dramatic value, I found The 120 Days of Sodom to be one of the most boring things I have ever read.  It is little more than a catalog of debaucheries, whose orgiastic finale involves the brutal murders of several young children by psychopathic French aristocrats.

To make matters worse, it's a really long book, and I was only able to get through about half of it.  After finishing this first half, I realized that life is really, really short, and I would rather not spend another minute reading detailed descriptions of sodomy, incest, and whatever else the Marquis thought would shock readers of his time.

As a work of historical importance, The 120 Days of Sodom might be worth a glance.  But only a glance.  Reading any of the chapters at random would be enough.  It says a lot about the France of the Marquis's time, and anyone interested in the ongoing debates concerning the definition of the word pornography would do well to cultivate an acquaintance with this book.  As a story, however, it fails.

Included in this collection was another story, Florville and Courval, which I enjoyed quite a bit.  It shows a softer side of the Marquis, before he decided to follow his prick into infamy.

Despite what many of his critics alleged, the Marquis was a good writer.  I just wish he had used his ingenuity in other ways.  Whereas something like Fanny Hill could be considered a passing amusement, and American Psycho could be assigned a greater meaning, no one is going to get much out of this novel.  It is, instead, something like a black hole, liable to pull readers deeper into their own fixations.

With the above said, I now consign the Marquis to my bookshelf, where The 120 Days of Sodom is likely to remain, unread, for some time.  The curious will of course seek out this novel, but for the less-than-curious the above quote is, I hope, enough.

"One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

"When the pirate Sir Francis Drake attacked Riohacha in the sixteenth century, Ursula Iguaran's great-great-grandmother became so frightened with the ringing of alarm bells and the firing of cannons that she lost control of her nerves and sat down on a lighted stove.  The burns changed her into a useless wife for the rest of her days.  She could only sit on one side, cushioned by pillows, and something strange must have happened to her way of walking, for she never walked again in public.  She gave up all kinds of social activity, obsessed with the notion that her body gave off a singed odor.  Dawn would find her in the courtyard, for she did not dare fall asleep lest she dream of the English and their ferocious attack dogs as they came through the windows of her bedroom to submit her to shameful tortures with their red-hot irons.  Her husband, an Aragonese merchant by whom she had two children, spent half the value of his store on medicines and pastimes in an attempt to alleviate her terror.  Finally he sold the business and took the family to live far from the sea in a settlement of peaceful Indians located in the foothills, where he built his wife a bedroom without windows so that the pirates of her dream would have no way to get in."

This book was first published as Cien Anos de Soledad in 1967.  The English version was translated by Gregory Rabassa and published as One Hundred Years of Solitude in 1970.  The author, a Columbian, received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1982.

One Hundred Years of Solitude follows the rise and fall of Macondo, a mythical town somewhere in South America.  The novel details the immigration of several characters from a town in the west, and closes with the final days of this once-beautiful town by the river.  Throughout this narrative the Buendia family is center stage, beginning with Jose Arcadio Buendia and his wife, Ursula, and ending with both Ursula, who lives well past a hundred years, and Jose Arcadio's grandchildren.

One Hundred Years of Solitude is strongly reminiscent of Conrad's novel, Nostromo, and I would be surprised if Marquez had not read it.  I know that Jorge Luis Borges, the Argentine author, was strongly influenced by this book, and both Borges and Marquez seem to be taking Conrad's older works in new directions.  Both Marquez's and Borges's stories have a lyrical, hallucinatory quality that Conrad lacked, and while Borges may have been more interested in Escheresque, labyrinthine plot devices, both authors display a love of lonely towns and convoluted sentence structures.  While some of this convolution may originate in the difference between English and Spanish grammar, I would be surprised if there were not similarities that didn't transcend the common language of both authors.

One Hundred Years of Solitude is an incredible book, and moreover a book that should be read slowly.  There are so many fine details in this novel, and it was so well though-out, and the whole thing feels so epic, that I am tempted to compare it to The Lord of the Rings trilogy.  No, there aren't any dragons or orcs in this novel, but the fantastic elements are equally surprising.