(Don't know if this has been done before but) Movies so Traumatizing You Could Only Watch It Once.

[Worf]

As I age, I realize I've seen some great movies in my life. Films that affected me greatly and struck me to the core. I've also come to realize that there are some I can only watch once. Every time these films come up again on TCM or some streaming service I have to pass them by. While I admire them... I simply cannot relive said trauma again. Here's a list off the top of my head.

"12 Years a Slave" - A wonderful film. Well made but too traumatizing to watch once more.

"Storm Warning" - My Mom wouldn't let me watch it as a child. I finally saw it as an adult and realized why.

"Mississippi Burning" - Same reasons as No. 1.

"Come and See" - Perhaps the rawest depiction of the hell of war ever made.

"Shindler's List" - For obvious reasons.

"Do the Right Thing" - I lived through this while growing up in the Projects of NY City. No need to reopen that wound. Google Clifford Glover.

"Judas and the Black Messiah" - Been there done that in REAL time.

"Salo" - Some things people aren't meant to see.

As you can tell most of these have to do with racism in America. Problem is I watched the Civil Rights Marches and assassinations' in real time. It's just something you carry and cannot shake.

Worf

 

[KILO NOVEMBER]

Hands down, "The Exorcist".

 

[belfastboy]

Y

Hands down, "The Exorcist".

Yep, I was well into adulthood when I watched the Exorcist. Scared the crap out of me.....afraid to go home to my apartment alone.

 

[Pyritez]

'Re-Animator' & 'Shock Waves' both meet that criteria.

Re-Animator (1985) ⭐ 7.2 | Comedy, Horror, Sci-Fi

1h 24m | Unrated

m.imdb.com

Shock Waves (1977) ⭐ 5.5 | Horror, Mystery, Sci-Fi

1h 25m | PG

m.imdb.com

 

[EngProf]

Could not get all the way through "Eraserhead" the first time, so seeing it again is DEFINITELY out of the question.

 

[Edward]

Joker was like that for some I know who have had familial experience of a close relative with significant mental health issues of a similar nature.


For the last several years I've done a screening of The Eichmann Show https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4163668/?the-eichmann-show for my students studying the law regulating media reportage of the justice process. It covers very well the issues surrounding the televising of the 1961 trial of Adolf Eichmann in Israel - the first trial anywhere in the world to be filmed and broadcast. A significant part of the "open justice debate". Also has a broader place in history, as this was how the world saw those images of the death camps for the first time - and it was *after* this, in 1962, that the term "Holocaust" was coined, and the cultural understanding of this all as a single event as such came to be. A very well made film, but when they come to those scenes right to the end where they show the death camp footage (the film uses the actual footage, not created footage), it's always a hard watch, and you can really feel the atmosphere in the classroom change. I imagine a lot of them don't seek it out for a rewatch.

 

[belfastboy]

Pretty much any movie Meryl Streep ever made......nails on a chalkboard for me.

 

[FOXTROT LAMONT]

Barbie. And I had to sit through it twice.

 

[FOXTROT LAMONT]

Joker was like that for some I know who have had familial experience of a close relative with significant mental health issues of a similar nature.


For the last several years I've done a screening of The Eichmann Show https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4163668/?the-eichmann-show for my students studying the law regulating media reportage of the justice process. It covers very well the issues surrounding the televising of the 1961 trial of Adolf Eichmann in Israel - the first trial anywhere in the world to be filmed and broadcast. A significant part of the "open justice debate". Also has a broader place in history, as this was how the world saw those images of the death camps for the first time - and it was *after* this, in 1962, that the term "Holocaust" was coined, and the cultural understanding of this all as a single event as such came to be. A very well made film, but when they come to those scenes right to the end where they show the death camp footage (the film uses the actual footage, not created footage), it's always a hard watch, and you can really feel the atmosphere in the classroom change. I imagine a lot of them don't seek it out for a rewatch.

John Huston filmed archival concentration camp scenes for his documentary Testament.
He remarked its production to allay future doubt as to veracity of the Nazi extermination effort. Grim.

 

[doberdadinmd]

The Shining. Hands down. Probably didn't help that I was 11 at the time - don't know what my Dad was thinking taking me to this, though I was probably the one that wanted to see it.

 

[steve u]

I agree with "Come and See". It should be required watching for some people.
How about "Blood Meridian", the most gruesome book that's been tried at least twice to be put on film and failed.

 

[Benny Holiday]

I'm sure there are some others I could think of if I put some effort in, but most recently Killers of the Flower Moon, for two reasons: the disgraceful (and awfully true) narrative of native Americans being exploited for oil money, and for the excruciating length of the film that should have been edited by half.

 

[Nobert]

"Dancer in the Dark" I really think Von Trier enjoys making audiences feel bad.
"Yellow Submarine." Like giving a seven-year-old kid a bad acid trip.

 

[Trenchfriend]

I saw The Fly only once.

 

[FOXTROT LAMONT]

I'm sure there are some others I could think of if I put some effort in, but most recently Killers of the Flower Moon, for two reasons: the disgraceful (and awfully true) narrative of native Americans being exploited for oil money, and for the excruciating length of the film that should have been edited by half.

I haven't seen this yet, up me alley with petroleum so theres a professional link. I get a feel about it though whisper
a sickening bit of much.

 

[tonyb]

“Nekromantik”

I saw it in a little art house not long after its release. I have since forgiven the person who suggested we go see it. But it took a while.

 

[Chris94901]

Schindler’s List, obviously.

For me, though, The Shining, as well. I was 11 when my 26 year old sister took me to see it. I was sitting in an aisle seat. It was a very tense moment in the film, and the tension was palpable in the theatre. A woman walking down the aisle in the dark with a big tub of popcorn tripped. She grabbed my shoulder to keep from falling. Popcorn rained down. I screamed. Everyone in the theatre laughed to relieve the tension that had built. I saw it once again as an adult but never will again.

 

[Edward]

One surprise film that really shook me with its ending was Toy Story 3. I mean, the bit where it really does look like they're going to let the toys burn, they give up and accept their fates is full on, but the bit that really kicked me in the teeth is the very end when Andy gives Woody away. That hit really hard close to home - I have a bit of a hoarding tendency (we cleared out an obscene amount of stuff a few years ago, and need to do the same again now), and I have a tendency to get absurdly attached to the material in a very sentimental way. I also have something of a guilt reaction to passing on anything I've received as a present. Might have been a silly little kids movie, but the idea of Andy giving up his beloved Woody pressed a few of my buttons hard.

 

[Trenchfriend]

I hate Alien - Resurrection.

Maybe not a full trauma, because much too cheesy. But it's disgusting crap, for me. Jean-Pierre Jeunet style plus gore. Crap for the kids.

Any does the plot make any sense? How they can have Ripley-blood samples from Fiorina 161?? Non acid-proof Alien chambers??