Contributor's Corner: Fucked Up Films

During the dawn of Viddy Well, we asked each interested contributor to fill out the same questionnaire. The questions spanned from grave to goofy, but the replies were nearly always unexpected.  This week we'll take a look at the following question: 

What are the top 5 most fucked up films you've ever seen? How have they scarred you for the better?

Dave Mcdermand:

A Serbian Film, Salo, Crispin Glover's What Is It? (not gross tho just funny), RV starring Robin Williams, anything from the Guinea Pig film series -- I'm thinking of one film in particular where the main character is a director, and he recreates these tapes a serial killer sent him.  Serbian Film fucked me up, dude. I have no idea if there's any positives about it except that I learned that rye makes you less horny...

Alex Swartzentruber:

1. Terror Firmer fucked me up in the best way. I was cracking up, disgusted, enthralled and horny at once. 
2. A Clockwork Orange fucked me up in high shcool. I had never seen anything like it. I watched it so much my mom hid my DVD from me. I somehow got it burnt from someone like it was porno, but it was just a Kubrick. Still my mom hid it from me. 
3. Wayne's World fucked my life. I grew up wanting to be Wayne and then when I became an adult with no job who lived with their parents but still knew how to party I realized that my hero was a character meant to be laughed at. I had fucked up hard.
4. Most recently, Castle Freak fucked me up. I had never heard of it and rented it randomly, and it's perfect. I have no idea how it flew under my radar for so long.
5. Any of the Hellraiser films. I went through a phase -- called my Hellraiser phase -- where I only watched Hellraiser movies. That was a bad phase because only the first two are good. There are a lot of Hellraiser movies. I watched a lot of bad movies...

Blake Haughton:

1. Human Centipede will always top the list, and I’m not really sure that you can gain anything from a movie like that. Gore doesn’t really bother me, nor do convoluted plots, so filling in this section is rather difficult, I suppose.
2. Battle Royale deserves a spot just for its rather insane happenings; it kind of set the standard for fight to the death movies.
3. Inception is fairly fucked up, but in a straight sort of way. The effects and the ideas behind it fucked everyone up (but I think that it also made me and others push past some insane theories).
4. Not that I’m a huge Chris Nolan fan, but Memento deserves a spot on the fucked up list. Watching it taught me to pay more attention to the details of what’s happening in movies, and constantly reminds me of the shades of gray justice of the world we live in.
5. I don’t have a fifth movie, since again you could really classify anything as FUCKED UP, and I try to reserve that for things that are big, and matter.

Jake Bottiglieri:

No particular order.

1. Teeth: Imbued me with the idea that all men try to fuck anything they can, even their own sisters.
2. The Wailing: Super recent. SPOILERS: You inadvertently root for satan-worshippers.
3. Lady Vengeance: An ending so grim not even its humor could help me shake it off.
4. Cannibal Holocaust: Easy to laugh now, but in HS this was the ultimate for me. Also: stone axe abortions.
5. Baskin. Another recent one. Legit the only time I almost walked out of a film because of violent content. Disturbing, nightmarish, but ultimately the film is “in” on the bit, which makes it go down easier once its finished.

Aaron Haughton: 

1. Irreversible. It's jarring in the structure -- because everything starts at the end and moves toward the beginning -- and the grueling and brutal rape scene that is sandwiched into the film. It's because of this vile act in an underground subway that affects the narrative; it's a revenge story with no revenge -- the wrong man gets clubbed to death; the villain gets away and the acts of violence the central character inflicts cannot be undone. 
2. Raw. It's unsettling in a very unique and wonderful way. The setup of the waxing scene is one of the best and most disturbing scenes I've ever scene. It lands all the body horror, but doesn't succumb to just being a shallow body horror for body horror's sake -- it has more to say and offer, and you can't look away. 
3. Taxi Driver. Travis Bickle is probably the greatest antihero of all time. Even though he's right, he's wrong. If he wouldn't have been spotted at the political rally, he would have shot and killed the senator. He's lost and confused in a world he doesn't understand or agree with. 
4. Gummo. I actually think this film is very charming and cute in a lot of ways, but it will surely be a shock to the system for many people. A lot of people can't get past the cat killing or seedy exploitation; such boring lives they must lead...
5. Pink Flamingos. The old lady in the play pin and how she would eat all the eggs makes me queasy, but in a good way. But, the asshole blossom scene. Goddamn...  I used to loop that scene on the TV when my roommate wasn't paying attention and then I'd leave the room. Several minutes later, when he finally looked at the TV, I'd hear a defeated cry of "Ahh, goddamn it..." I used to do that a lot. 

Anthony Cleveland:

I dunno... I kind of saw all mine at once as a junior or sophomore in high school. Pink Flamingos, Eraserhead, Tetsuo: the Iron Man, Cannibal Holocaust, and El Topo, I suppose would be my picks. After that, anything else felt like it was trying too hard, like A Serbian Film....well, I'll exclude Martyrs, that was actually a dark, disturbing ride. As far as impacting me in a positive way, it braced me for my fucked up years working security in the psych ward and all the disgusting things I see as a coroner.

What films fucked you up? We want to know. Share your thoughts and feelings in the comments section below, and, as always, remember to viddy well!