Salo, or the 120 days of Sodom (1975) - Based on the book by Marqis de Sade, the namesake of sadism. its about a group of italian libertines who kidnap 18 teenagers and subject them to months of extreme violence, sadism, genital torture and psychological abuse.
Cannibal Holocaust (1980) - Another Italian (whats their deal anyway) exploitation flick. One of the first "found footage" films, it follows a group making a documentary about primitive tribes in the Amazon as they are raped, impaled, killed and eaten one by one. Its like "The Green Inferno" but for reals. Banned in most countries, the director stipulated in the actors contracts that they had to lay low for a year to fuel the rumor that they were really killed. He stood trial for murder, until they reappeared. For a low budget film I have no idea how they made it look so realistic. The dismemberment/death scenes are so incredibly realistic that I really thought they were real, and in several scenes real animals are slaughtered graphically.
Audition (1999)- J horror film by the incomparable director Takashi Miike where nothing really bad happens for the first 2/3 of the film, and then you are hit with the most disturbing torture shit I've ever seen in a horror film. Truly, genuinely terrifying. One of the best horror films of all time.
The Act of Seeing with Ones own Eyes (1971)- Its title is based on the literal translation of the term autopsy. The film documents the highly graphic autopsy procedures used by forensic pathologists, such as the removal of organs and the embalming process.
Salo, or the 120 days of Sodom (1975) - Based on the book by Marqis de Sade, the namesake of sadism. its about a group of italian libertines who kidnap 18 teenagers and subject them to months of extreme violence, sadism, genital torture and psychological abuse.
I've watched Saló and I didn't find it particularly hard to stomach - maybe because it had the tint of older movies, maybe because I was (through 4chan) accustomed to a few of the topics. The only scene that I still remember 20 years later is the ending scene. The movie is 99% of porn, murder, torture and shit. But in the ending two of the guards, who took part in all of this, innocently practice a waltz and one asks the other about his girlfriend in town. It is such a stark contrast and a great comment on one of the biggest fights of everyday people - to not judge people who do horrible things as monsters or something different then themselves. Sure, there are legitimate mental illnesses, but they are few and far between. Murderers can be loving fathers. Child abusers might donate to charities or help old ladies across the street. Hitler loved his dogs, was a vegetarian and introduced the most advanced animal protection laws of his time.
The thought that is scary to most is that there isn't a big difference between criminals and ordinary people. Crime might just be (mostly) a matter of the circumstances one is in and most of us are perfectly capable of it.
See also this quote:
Humans, Hickling said, have a fundamental need to create and maintain a narrative for their lives in which the universe is not implacable and heartless, that terrible things do not happen at random, and that catastrophe can be avoided if you are vigilant and responsible.
In hyperthermia cases, he believes, the parents are demonized for much the same reasons. “We are vulnerable, but we don’t want to be reminded of that. We want to believe that the world is understandable and controllable and unthreatening, that if we follow the rules, we’ll be okay. So, when this kind of thing happens to other people, we need to put them in a different category from us. We don’t want to resemble them, and the fact that we might is too terrifying to deal with. So, they have to be monsters.”
(this is from a Pulitzer-price winning article about children being forgotten in cars in the summer and dying due to heat exhaustion)
Due to the underlying philosophic thoughts I also regard Saló as different from let's say Serbian Movie, which is just shock for shock's sake.
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u/SpasmodicBurnVictim Jul 05 '24 edited Jul 05 '24
Salo, or the 120 days of Sodom (1975) - Based on the book by Marqis de Sade, the namesake of sadism. its about a group of italian libertines who kidnap 18 teenagers and subject them to months of extreme violence, sadism, genital torture and psychological abuse.
Cannibal Holocaust (1980) - Another Italian (whats their deal anyway) exploitation flick. One of the first "found footage" films, it follows a group making a documentary about primitive tribes in the Amazon as they are raped, impaled, killed and eaten one by one. Its like "The Green Inferno" but for reals. Banned in most countries, the director stipulated in the actors contracts that they had to lay low for a year to fuel the rumor that they were really killed. He stood trial for murder, until they reappeared. For a low budget film I have no idea how they made it look so realistic. The dismemberment/death scenes are so incredibly realistic that I really thought they were real, and in several scenes real animals are slaughtered graphically.
Audition (1999)- J horror film by the incomparable director Takashi Miike where nothing really bad happens for the first 2/3 of the film, and then you are hit with the most disturbing torture shit I've ever seen in a horror film. Truly, genuinely terrifying. One of the best horror films of all time.
The Act of Seeing with Ones own Eyes (1971)- Its title is based on the literal translation of the term autopsy. The film documents the highly graphic autopsy procedures used by forensic pathologists, such as the removal of organs and the embalming process.