the darkest plot (spoiler-tastic?)

[kuwaizair]

I'm not sure if this should go here, because its to cover all stories. novles, anime, games, tv, films, comics and what not.

anway like the deleated topic, this is nearly the same only for things done.
dark stories, disturbing movies. The things that make skin stand on end and send one into a wave of tingly ungood ness.

for some reason I found Highlander 2 quite dark, many may agree but they'll likly say it was a horrble movie more than dark. Then again the whole film was acctualy filmed with a 'dark tint'.

Robots! yes, the cheerfull little CG animation. how did I find it dark? well when the new guy takes over a once good company that allowes for new fresh ideas from outsiders, he (the 'bad guy') ends production on parts and only creates new bodies, robots who cannot afford these parts are hunted as 'outmodes', and captured and melted to create new parts. in human terms this to me would be "the poor being fed to the rich"[/code]
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few runes short of a set of 27

[Tullaryx]

Well, this is a topic near and dear to my ever darkening heart. I've always been more attracted to stories, films, games and even history that tells of disturbing and dark themes. There's quite a few films I've seen that would automatically fall under the umbrella of being very dark and disturbing. Some I'd consider, with alot of other critics and fans agreeing, as being beyond the pale in terms of its subject matter.

One film that I'd say would disturb even the most cynical and jaded audience would be Pier Paolo Pasolini's film adaptation of the Marquis De Sade's 120 Days of Sodom. Retitled Salo, Pasolini pretty much pushes the boundary of whats considered indecent and moves towards pornographic. It's pretty much a movie detailing four powerful Italian men from the ruling, elite classes of Fascist 1930's Italy and their abuse, molstation, torture and, inevitably, the murder of chosen young boys and girls for their own decadent and perverse amusement. It's hard to watch this film and see nothing but the disturbing images, but I assure you there's a point to be made in the film, but trying to find it can be difficult since stopping the film more than use to catch one's breath is the usual thing to do.

Another film I'd like to point out as being very disturbing and dark has to be Ruggero Deodato's cannibal exploitation (there's really no other kind when one comes down to it) film Cannibal Holocaust. Anyone who has heard of this film know just how intense its imagery really were. Even though the film is set-up like how The Blair Witch Project was done, the film really is the fake documentary of a group of documentarians who travel deep into the Amazon jungle to document a tribe of the Amazon. The film soon delves as to the reason why these documentarians disappeared and their found documentary film shows it in grisly detail. It also shows that the actions of the tribe may not be as heinous as it sounds as the film shows just how "civilized" modern man can be when confronted by peaceful, simple tribe of people. There's really no real acts of cannibalism in the film, but there was one scene where the natives (Deodato used real natives in the film) butchered and devoured a sea turtle while it was still alive.

Now, there's one book that I've been recommending to friends and co-workers that they should try and pick-up. This novel is Cormac McCarthy's very intense, violent and Homeric look at the Old West. Blood Meridian is a fictional account of a band of cowboy raiders who wreak havoc up and down the region of Texas-Mexican borders and most of the Southwest. What makes the book so dark is the behavior of the characters in the film and how little has changed from the barbarians and ancient man to the enlightened age of the later centuries. It also has one of the most intriguing and charismatic villain of the last century in Judge Holden. He makes Luca Blight look like a schoolboy in comparison.
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[Goldy]

Tullaryx, yeah i thought about viewing 120 Days of Sodom aka Salo but i gave it a miss due to the nature of the movie. Also i have not come across it yet but i would give Cannibal Holocaust a view.

Now of the truely disturbing films that i have seen i would have to say that Murder Set Pieces is the worst. It was not an easy film to watch and i will not go into any details here due to the insanity of this film.

Too a lesser extent High Tension and 2001 Maniacs are also messed up and also push the boundaries of what should be in a film.

Now what i have heard about August Underground and August Underground: Mordum.......these films are meant to be thee most disturbing out there.

[Tullaryx]

I've seen August Underground August Underground: Mordum. They're very disturbing, but the film is filmed in so low a budget that it shows in many of the scenes. It really brings the viewer back to reality and realize that they're just watching a movie. Really, these two films are just cheaper versions of two better films detailing the day-to-day activities of serial killers.

The best one of the two is John McNaughton's Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer. Instead of rambling on about this title I'll just post the review I wrote up about it.

Henry: Portait of a Serial Killer

John McNaughton's directorial debut has been hailed as one of the best by any first-time director. I won't be one to disagree with those who agree. McNaughton took $125,000 dollars, an idea of fictionalizing a week in the life of one real-life serial killer Henry Lee Lucas, and a dedicated crew of filmmakers to create a raw, unflinching, visceral piece of filmmaking. Originally filmed and finished in 1986, Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer languished in ratings limbo as the filmmakers struggled with the MPAA over its X-rating. In fact, it's been reported and written in many publications that it is one of the few films screened by the MPAA where they saw no way an edit here or there can ever lower it to an R-rating. I think its fortunate for film fans and academics everywhere that McNaughton and company decided to release the film in 1990 unrated.

Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer was loosely-based on the life of one Henry Lee Lucas. One of the most prolific (though Lucas has since discounted ever killing over 600 people) serial killers in American history. From the beginning, Henry plunges the audience into a world seen through the eyes of a sociopath and as, Ebert once wrote in his own review: "an unforgettable portrait of the pathology of a man for whom killing is not a crime but simply a way of passing time and relieving boredom."

The first scene is haunting in its graphic and realistic portrayal of the randomness of a serial killer's passing. The film shows how such an individual's passing through the myriad roads and highways that criss-cross the American landscape makes his activities both anonymous and terrifyingly easy to hide. It was this stark and realistic portrayal of the aftermath of violence and death that has made some people label McNaughton's directorial debut as a snuff-film masquerading as an arthouse production. It's difficult to disagree with such people since the violence (though it doesn't go as far as most horror films of the era and barely a blip on the MPAA's radar in today's mega-blockbuster-shoot'em-ups) has no look of artificiality and not glossed-over with your typical horror/suspense sensibilities. It doesn't have that exploitation look that the horror films of the 70's and early 80's. What it did have was the look and feel of a documentary. The titular character (chillingly portrayed by Michael Rooker) commits his murders as one who sees nothing wrong in what they're doing. To Henry what he does he does to pass the time and to break-up the boredom of his existence. This behavior shows the banality of Henry's view of the world around him. It goes to show that as horrific as Henry must seem to the audience there's a sense of reality in what he does. We read about it on the news, in true-crime documentaries, and in the sensationalist shows dealing with serial and mass murderers.

But Henry is not the only one who wades into the dark underbelly of American life and society. There's Henry's former cellmate, Otis (played with relish by Tom Towles) who at first seems like a buffoon, but later shows his own pathology for senseless killings as Henry finally brings him into his own world. In fact, Otis' reaction to Henry's revelations about what he does in secret looks similar to the reaction of the violence addicted mass audience who revel in the violence in action films and horror retreads. Otis is at first confused and knows that he should be disgusted with the killings he first witness Henry committing, but he later gives in to his own primal impulses. He soon revels in the act of murder and even sees it as his own form of entertainment. It's during the home-invasion and subsequent murders of the home's family captured on videotape by Henry and Otis that this change in Otis hits home.

This is the juncture in the film that posits the damning question the filmmakers want to ask the audience. Do we recoil in horror and disgust at this horrifying, voyeuristic sequence or does the audience continue to watch with the dispassionate eyes of one who has become desensitized to onscreen violence. There's no clear answer to this question and the filmmakers don't condescend to the audience and try to sugar-coat the violence. It is also this sequence where we see the difference between Henry and Otis. Henry almost feels remote and disconnected from the acts he's committing. To him breaking the neck of a teenage boy might be the same as stepping on an ant. But to Otis the killings themselves becomes his addiction and only form of joy. He's willing to go beyond what his mentor has done to sate his appetites. We see Henry's reaction to this change in Otis and realize that as much as the audience want to hate Henry, he is the lesser of two evils. He doesn't take joy from his work and we cling to that barely there shred of decency in the hope that salvation and redemption is at the end of the ride.

To the filmmakers' credit Henry doesn't trivialize the gruesome events from scene one right up to the end credits by tacking on a Hollywoodize happy ending. As the final reel comes to a conclusion and we see Henry and Otis' sister, Becky driving off into the night (a sort of reverse-negative of the typical riding-off into the sunset of Hollywood past), the audience is ready to breath a sigh of relief from the relentless visual and emotional pounding the film has put on the audience. But the rug is pulled out from under the audience's feet. McNaughton and his writers do not believe in the redemption of Henry. In fact, they know that such things are only seen in Hollywood and fairytales. What they give the audience instead is a scene that continue to show that the film is steeped in the real world. People like Henry do not find forgiveness and salvation from their evil deeds. People like Henry continue to ply the roads and highways of America. Their seeming normalcy hiding the calculating, sociopathic murderous instincts just below the surface.

I credit Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer as one of the truest work of American filmmaking. A great character study of a sociopathic individual whose banality can truly be called the face of evil. McNaughton's film is admired and reviled and both sides have credible points in taking their sides. It is a great piece of work that shows that filmmaking can go beyond its basic need to entertain. It is also a brutal piece of film that didn't have to be made the way it was made, but to do it in any other way would've diluted the message and impact of the story. 10/10

* * * *

The other film I'm talking about is as chilling and disturbing but just a few levels below the genius of McNaughton's film. This film is Funny Games by Michael Haneke. It's a film about how a nice family of three have their lives visited by extreme violence and cruelty and all of it filmed with a conspiratorial wink and nod to the audience. Haneke actually films certain scenes with the serial killers acknowledging the audience thus emphasizing the notion that by continuing to watch what they're doing to this family of three, we as an audience become complicit and an accessory to their acts.
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[Yvl]

I'd have to say Berserk, easily (where my current title, "Ascended from the Heavens" is from.) That show seriously screwed with my mind and sent me into depression for a few months. Followed by Evangelion, which should go without saying.
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[Tullaryx]

I'm surprised that no one's mentioned Takashii Miike's over-the-top and disturbing adaptation of an equally disturbing and ultraviolent manga.

Ichi the Killer

Ichi the Killer (aka Koroshiya 1 in Japan) is a tour-de-force of excessive violence that outdoes even the gialli masters like Argento, Fulci, Lenzi and Bava. Ichi the Killer's violence puts it in the realm of nightmare surrealism that's still to be surpassed and only matched in artistry by another auteur of film violence: Sam Peckinpah's The Wild Bunch.

Storytelling has never been Miike's strong suit. Only in Audition has his penchant and predilection for stylistic scene arrangement and directions been subdued enough to allow for a straightforward story. Miike shares alot in common with Dario Argento in creating dream-like (some would say nightmarish) sequences of images to propel a story from one violent encounter to the next. Throughout Ichi the Killer whatever semblance of a plot --- one of revenge and depravity --- gets heavy doses of moments where the story takes on the surreal. The ending in of itself really adds to the surrealistic tone of the film.

The violence comes quick and lingers. This film is definitely not for everyone, but just like a carwreck many will be tempted to check it out just to see what everyone has been talking about. To call the violence in this film excessive is an understatement. Blood flows in this film in almost the same amount as those in Peter Jackson's Dead-Alive (Braindead for all non-Americans). And just like in Jackson's ode to Romero, Miike's use of violence is cartoonish to the point that I expected Itchy and Scratchy and Tom and Jerry to make an apperance. The term arterial spray takes on a new meaning with Ichi the Killer and people who have seen Tarantino's Kill Bill can see where his inspiration for the Tea House sequence came from.

The characters in the film are very developed despite the over-the-top nature of the film. Every character in the film seem to have an inherent predilection to cause violence and pain on everyone else or have it inflicted on them. From the prostitutes to the children, violence and pain are the common denominator that everyone shares. Of particular note is the character of Kakihara, the sadistic Yakuza killer who goes on a spree of torture and killing to find the person or persons who killed his mob boss. Where the character of Ichi takes on an almost superheroish role, Kakihara is a character study in the nature of sadomasochism at its most extreme. By film's end Kakihara seems to be more of the hero of the film than Ichi. Kakihara's emjoyment at inflicting pain and receiving it is made compelling by the performance of Tadanobu Asano. He gives a chilling and intriguing performance that's infused with the rockstar-worpship mentality that some Japanese action-stars are known for. Before Capt. Jack Sparrow, Asano's Kakihara took the rockstar persona to new genre heights.

To say more about the film is really irrelevent since it'll just be to point out that Miike's film is ultra-violent. I must say that Ichi the Killer continues Miike's visual commentary on the nature of violence and how despite its distasteful nature people will try to experience it to sate their personal curiosity. Ichi the Killer doesn't so much as desensitize the audience to violence but shows them that we all have the capacity for infliciting and having it inflicted on us. Just watching the film could count as being both. The film is really not for a majority of the filmwatching community, but rest assured more people will have seen this film not because they're fans of this type of film, but because they were curious.
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[Amyral]

What strikes me more are movies that contain darker elements that you wouldn't expect to find, moreso than movies that try to cram their darkness in your face. A movie that comes to my mind is Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (although Depp made it more apparent in his new adaptation). There were subtle things, like how every vehicle had the exact number of seats as would be needed, indicating that Wonka knew most of the children wouldn't make it all the way through. Then, of course, the boat ride. Marylin Manson did a cover of the song Wonka did in that scene.

[Delsaber]

An argument could probably be made for the new Battlestar Galactica considering the near total genocide of the human race and plot elements which range from War on Terror parallels to trafficking of children to religious wars to attempted rape.
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