Five violent movie moments that are too brutal to watch
Cinema thrives thanks to the eclectic personalities who decide to consume its offerings, with many of us chomping down on comfort comedies and dramas. Yet, there are, of course, other delicacies that cinema has to offer, with a select group of viewers loving a bit of the old ultra-violence, delighting in horror movies and thrillers from the likes of Quentin Tarantino, Martin Scorsese and Lars Von Trier.
But filmmakers don’t want to alienate the entire population of movie lovers, so, most of the time, these violent moments are few and far between in the cinema and when they do appear, they might be visceral, but they’ll only hang around for a few seconds. However, if you search thoroughly enough through the archives, you’ll find a whole collection of nasty titles that dance joyously in the world of excessive violence and gore.
Horror films have long had a taste for such things, but often, the most shocking, violent moments come from beyond this genre in films that you wouldn’t expect to have such visual torture.
Explore five of the most violent movie moments below that were genuinely difficult to behold for our retinas, forcing us to look away rather than endure the gore.
Five most violent movie moments:
Achilles tendon – Hostel (Eli Roth, 2005)
Sitting right beside Saw as being one of the most notoriously nasty horror franchises of all time, Eli Roth’s Hostel series tells the story of unfortunate backpackers who are forced to endure torture from sadistic folk with more money than genuine sense. The first film in the series is the most watchable of the lot, though it does include one particularly brutal moment that is impossible to scrub from one’s memory.
The moment sees a man who has been violently tortured for several hours being taunted by his oppressor. They open the door for him to leave, but little does he know, the back of his Achilles tendon has been cut, and when he gets up…If you want to endure the pain of watching it, it’s linked below.
Crank Saw – Apostle (Gareth Evans, 2018)
What a strange career the Welsh filmmaker who changed Indonesian action cinema, Gareth Evans, has had. After he changed the action genre in 2011 with the release of The Raid and its sequel, he took to the world of folk horror, releasing the admittedly forgettable 2018 film Apostle starring Dan Stevens, which followed a man’s dangerous mission to rescue his sister from a sinister religious cult.
While witnessing the strange practices of the weird folk, the man sees a boy being framed for murder and being punished accordingly by having a massive drill screwed into the back of his head. You might not see a whole lot till the very end, but the whole tone and disturbing acting from the victim, played by Bill Milner, makes it a horrid watch.
Curb-stomp – American History X (Tony Kaye, 1998)
There are some moments throughout cinema that are so disturbing that they almost immediately become notorious, with the curb-stomp scene in Tony Kaye’s American History X being exactly this. To set the scene, Kaye’s Oscar nominee is all about the pervasive violence of society, telling the story of a neo-Nazi trying to repair his life after prison and his younger brother, who still sees him as a role model.
Similarly to the previous entry, what makes the curb-stomp incident so unwatchable isn’t actually the act itself. It’s the build-up, with the sound of the victim’s teeth scraping on the concrete burning into one’s ears.
Papercut – Jackass: The Movie (Jeff Tremaine, 2002)
Rarely do such viscerally violent moments come from the medium of documentary, but let’s be honest, Jackass isn’t exactly a stereotypical documentary. 2002’s Jackass: The Movie was an adaptation of the hugely popular MTV show that followed a group of friends engaging in silly stunts and dangerous pranks that often resulted in horrendous injuries and, admittedly, comedy gold in the process.
Most of their stunts are fun little skits, but the Papercut stunt in the first movie remains totally unwatchable. The scene sees Johnny Knoxville and Steve-O give themselves papercuts in undesirable places on their body, namely the gaps between their toes and the corners of their mouths. If you don’t wince, you’re not human.
Scissors – Antichrist (Lars von Trier, 2009)
Let’s bring this list to a close with one of the most intense movies of the 21st century, the 2009 Palme d’Or nominee Antichrist by maverick director Lars von Trier. A horror movie dressed up as an arthouse drama, Trier’s film told the story of a grieving couple who retreat to the nature of the woods after having recently lost their child. Yet, in their cabin in the woods, things don’t go as planned and “chaos reigns”.
Going mad with grief, anxiety and trauma, the couple end up mutilating themselves and their bodies, with Charlotte Gainsbourg’s character at one point taking a pair of scissors to her downstairs area. It should go without saying that the whole scene is so utterly disgusting that a clip cannot be sourced at all.
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