Nowadays, it's easy to grow desensitized to all the blood and guts of the horror movie
genre.
But even the biggest cinematic thrillseekers have to draw the line every now and again
on what they can stomach seeing on-screen.
Here are some horror movies that had audiences reaching for the barf bags — or racing for
the exit sign.
The Hills Have Eyes
Alexandre Aja's remake of The Hills Have Eyes, about a group of desert-dwelling mutants,
was unsettling enough just based on the characters' physical deformities alone.
So when a whole gang of the crazed cretins started attacking one family in gratuitously
terrible ways, it was simply too much, sending some theater patrons sprinting away.
What made the film especially difficult to endure was how no one was safe from the clutches
of these creatures — not even the dog or the baby.
Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom
This 1975 Pier Paolo Pasolini pic still finds its way on almost every best/worst list of
the genre, even decades after its release.
It was an exceptionally graphic depiction of the nightmarish scenario that might unfold
for a group of children who'd been abducted by fascists in war-torn Europe.
From mutilation to the forced consumption of excrement, the most unimaginable horrors
were realized in this commonly walked-out-of film.
The film was inspired by some of the darkest literary works of all time, including Dante's
Divine Comedy, and seems to explore the depths of inhumanity presented in the existentialist
take on the nature of human evil presented in the Marquis de Sade's Justine.
Despite earning critical favor and timeless relevance, it's still incredibly hard to sit
through.
Trouble Every Day
Not everyone has a taste for cannibalism, and the massive walkouts and festival booing
that the unrated 2001 horror-drama Trouble Every Day by Claire Denis earned is proof.
The movie introduces an American couple honeymooning in Paris.
But the husband is really on a mission to track down the wife of a fellow doctor he'd
been obsessed with.
What he finds when he locates the couple is that the woman who's the object of his obsession
has a nasty habit of seducing men...and eating them, living out her darkest desires in explicit
visual detail.
The movie wasn't meant to be such a seat-emptier, as Denis herself once said, "I don't set out
to shock.
That's not my way of doing things.
I don't think it's explicit.
And the cannibalism?
It is how a kiss becomes a bite."
If you say so, lady.
And while we're on that subject...
Bite
This gory flick is about the effect of a bug bite gone very, very wrong.
But it was the audience that really got infected when Bite premiered at the Fantasia International
Film Festival.
The pic's producers were reportedly prepared in advance for the rampant upset stomachs
that would follow the screening and even passed out barf bags to attendees — but that didn't
stop people from exiting the flick early.
For those who haven't braved the vom-inducing experience, it's about a bachelorette whose
celebratory trip to Costa Rica goes way off course when she's bitten by a bug that she
thinks is harmless.
But the infection turns her into a murderous loon whose body slowly morphs into an insect
herself.
Reviewers who panned the film chided its illogical homage to David Cronenberg's The Fly, but
some still found favor in director Chad Archibald's use of gruesome screen tactics.
And almost everyone had to skip a meal or two after viewing it, whether they liked the
movie or not.
Caligula
This 1979 take on the Roman emperor, whose notorious sexual appetite and penchant for
cruelty marked his tyrannical reign and prompted his eventual assassination, was so exceedingly
violent that even famed reviewer Roger Ebert took leave of it early.
His scathing review was so harsh that he actually feared it might entice audiences to check
it out simply because they, quote, "simply cannot believe any film could be this vile."
He went on, writing, "Some of those people were walking out of the [theater] before I
did … others were sitting, depressed, in the lobby."
Ebert's assessment was echoed by many of his peers, as the film was consistently slammed
by even those who did manage to sit through its full two-and-a-half hour runtime.
Martyrs
Pascal Laugier's 2008 revenge horror flick is widely regarded as one of the most unsparingly
violent movies ever made.
The film, which follows two young women on a maniacal payback mission to hunt down their
former abusers, featured several scenes of extreme depravity and sent many audience members
packing along the way.
The movie was willfully provocative and prompted revulsion even in viewers with a relatively
strong constitution.
Baskin
This unrated Turkish fantasy-horror movie featured a group of police officers who inadvertently
waltzed through a door to hell…and left many moviegoers heading right out the door
to the theater.
The macabre movie was relatively well-received by critics who savored all its devilish delights,
but during its debut, there were walkouts galore.
Baskin's writer-director Can Evernol admitted, "the last few minutes were a bit much for
them."
Whether it was the nightmarish bloodbaths or the philosophical overtures of the demonic
beings, there were plenty of disgusting moments to be seen — and fled from — in this ghastly
movie.
Probably not a great date movie.
Probably.
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