I thought Johnny Got His Gun was disturbing when I watched it in school. May have been because I was a kid though.
Dogville, and most of everything else by Lars von Trier (as others have mentioned).
this post was submitted on 22 May 2026
130 points (97.8% liked)
Ask Lemmy
40253 readers
789 users here now
A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions
Rules: (interactive)
1) Be nice and; have fun
Doxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, toxicity and dog-whistling are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them
2) All posts must end with a '?'
This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?
3) No spam
Please do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.
4) NSFW is okay, within reason
Just remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either !asklemmyafterdark@lemmy.world or !asklemmynsfw@lemmynsfw.com.
NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].
5) This is not a support community.
It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions.
If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email info@lemmy.world. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.
6) No US Politics.
Please don't post about current US Politics. If you need to do this, try !politicaldiscussion@lemmy.world or !uspolitics@lemmy.world
7) No Hit-and-Run questions.
Please don't delete your post for no apparent reason. If you plan on deleting a question later, say so in the post, or if you feel that you have a good reason to remove it, message a mod beforehand. It's not fair to the ones who took their time to answer, and it's not in the spirit of the community.
Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.
Partnered Communities:
Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu
founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
When I was a 13-year-old girl who didn't know she was queer I watched The House Bunny at my friend's sleepover birthday party and ran out of the room crying because it confirmed all my fears about young adulthood.
the skin i live in(2011) is extremely upsetting, and i'm not sure I would call it horror, although it would be pretty easy to make the argument for horrifying.
Uncut gems. Could not even finish it, just too stressful. One Battle After Another was similar in some ways, but actually an enjoyable watch for me.
load more comments
(2 replies)
All quiet on the western front
It's a movie about a German soldier during WWI, really trying to convey the horrors of war.
load more comments
(1 replies)
Grave of the Fireflies. You don't see any fighting and most people the protagonists meet are good, AND YET it's so depressing. Seeing how bad the horrors of war are, even in the best case scenario, was eye-opening for me.
load more comments
(2 replies)
Grave of the fireflies.
AI: Artificial intelligence
Messed me up a little because I watched it so young. I was old enough to understand the themes and moral dilemmas, but some scenes were just so heartbreaking. What matters? What's real? What does it mean to be alive or to be human?
Dancer in the dark. Sad story of a woman who does everything to be happy ans still cant.
Kids (1995)
Similar to Requiem, a one-time-only must-watch.
The Wall
Should not have been tripping acid first time I watched it
Some of the Black Mirror episodes give that existential dread. The one where a conciousness is imprisoned in a teddybear comes to mind.
Detachment. It's a story about a substitute school teacher. It's fucking glum. Good movie but ugh.
Using Adrian Brody as a segue, the Pianist, and Schindler's List. WWII stuff gets under the skin, especially as of late.
For an entirely different direction - Velocipastor. It's funny and absurd, but golly B movies make me cringe. I think there were a few parts that made me cringe myself inside out.
Came to say Requiem for a Dream but I see that's well represented.
I'll go with Legends of the Fall - a story told across multiple generations of a family, and damn near nothing but tragedy for any of them. It left me feeling so bleak towards the world. (Decades ago that I watched it, but that's my recollection.)
Pink Floyd The Wall - also just left me feeling like humanity is just endlessly fucked up and mostly terrible to each other.
Compliance might be cheating because it's based on a true story, but it's not s documentary despite being an almost exact retelling of the original events. Which just makes it more fucked up.
All great recommendations here
For a recent one I thought The Drama was quite tense and uncomfortable, worth a watch for sure.