I think it’s fair to say that, whenever you begin exploring a new genre or medium, that you are going to start with the surface level works that are popular and more mainstream friendly. I very much recall that being the case when I first discovered anime and manga and it also very much applied to when I first discovered horror. However, as you continue to work through a genre or medium, you eventually find yourself looking for something else. Whether that be works that are more intellectually stimulating or are simply more graphic or challenging in the content that they depict, I think this is a common occurrence for fans of creative media. Having experienced something similar to this recently, I wanted to share the story of how I developed an interest in disturbing films that first waxed but later waned and how this helped illuminate what I was truly searching for.
To begin, I should first describe how I developed this interest in the first place. Having recently rediscovered my love for horror films, I quickly ended up searching for newer horror films that had been released while also looking for horror classics that I had missed. Part of this search led me to discover the films of the New French Extremity, French films that are deliberately transgressive and, while I have not enjoyed all of them, some of these films have been a truly incredible experience for me. Similarly, I discovered Cannibal Holocaust, a film that I had heard plenty about but had never seen until relatively recently. While not everything in that film is great, I was blown away by how the second half of the film changes your perception of the first half and how forward thinking the underlying message was. Having seen these films that some would consider “Extreme”, I was very curious to see more.
I guess YouTube was keeping good track of my interests as I was eventually recommended a video concerning the disturbing movie iceberg. Based on a meme format which depicts the well-known at the top and steadily becomes more and more obscure as you submerge, this chart depicts a steady descent into more and more disturbing films. Before I begin analysing the iceberg and how my interest in disturbing films waxed and waned, I want to first clarify my experience with the films in question. I’ve seen every film on tier 1, most of the films on tier 2 (haven’t seen Tusk or The Human Centipede) and two films from tier 3 (Martyrs and Cannibal Holocaust). I had heard of two films from tier 4 (Guinea Pig and August Underground) but the rest of the iceberg onwards was completely unknown to me. When doing research of these later films, alongside developing my opinions and thoughts on disturbing films as a whole and what I was truly looking for, I watched videos produced by Wendigoon, Unboxed Watched and Reviewed, Joe Darko and Faye Di Angelo and I thought it important that I not only credit them but thank them for providing a relatively safe way of experiencing some of these films and what they’re about. Of course, I do feel obligated to state that, even in this comparatively safe format, plenty of the content remains very disturbing so if you are in any shape or form squeamish then I would strongly recommend that you don’t even look at these videos.
Now back to my curiosity. As you can imagine, I was initially quite excited about the prospect of being able to see more films that would push my limits while simultaneously examining the human condition but, while I did end up picking up Salò or the 120 Days of Sodom and The House That Jack Built and there are a couple more films from the iceberg that I’m interested in, I quickly realised that most of these films were not what I was looking for. To me, there is a great difference between shocking content that uses it to make a point and shocking content that is produced for the sake of it. There are quite literally some films here that outright don’t have a story (and I’m not exaggerating)!
As I learned more and more about these films, the content within, the purpose that they serve, I realised that I wasn’t actually interested in disturbing films. More specifically, I was interested in disturbing films that had a statement to make about life and mankind. While several of the films that I was unaware of on this iceberg do fit into this category, I was also surprised that as you progress lower and lower down the iceberg, excluding most of tier 6 which fits into the Mondo film or shockumentary subgenre, I found it harder and harder to see the value of these movies.
Now I want to emphasise that I don’t want to sound condescending. I know for a fact that there are people out there who do manage to find value in these later films and, excepting some particularly egregious cases in the last couple of tiers, I’m not opposed to this. In fact, I do find it interesting to hear how people managed to find something in those works that managed to affect them in a way that they consider to be positive. However, based on my research in covering the plot summaries of these films, seeing other people’s reactions and seeing some clips that are included here and there, it became quite clear what I was actually looking for and that these films were, for the most part, not it.
Let me know your thoughts on how my interest in disturbing films waxed and waned, what your own thoughts are on the disturbing movie iceberg, whether you’ve seen any of the films on tier 4 or onwards, what you thought of them and any additional information you might have on the topic.
Hopefully you have found this article interesting and informative and, if you wish to seek any of the works I mentioned, don’t hesitate to use amazon.co.uk or amazon.com for all of your needs!