Six Movie Love Scenes That Scarred Me For Life
Crash
Hey Remy, is this that movie about race relations in L.A co-starring the goofy looking rapper, Ludacris?
No, this is that movie by David Cronenberg about the sub-culture of deviants who get sexually aroused from car wrecks.
You know, the one that stars that stars a pre-Office James Spader and Holly Hunt? The one where stuff like this happens:
I like the British version of The Office better now, by default.
Now I know I pride myself on having a huge pallet for weird, twisted stuff, as anyone who has read my pieces on here can attest to. But this movie just seemed to cross the line with me so many times when I watched it, that I didn’t even know what to make of it after I had seen it.
I am normally a big fan of Cronenberg’s self described “body horror” style of film making, but there is a particular scene in this film involving a leg scar and a car salesman, and that scene still screws me up when I see it.
Sleeping Beauty
I might file this one under most disturbing film I saw last year. I just did not like how this film felt. The movie has such a lovely veneer (and we will call that veneer Emily Browning), but once the innocence and beauty is stripped away from that (which is the whole purpose of this film), you are left wondering why you took this journey.
Realistically, if any of you took it, you took it for the same reason I did:
Now presenting, the reason we all watched the movie: Emily Browning
But do NOT watch this movie if you want to appreciate her porcelain beauty, because terrible things happen in this film. Terrible, inexplicable things. Things that you cannot unsee.
You see, the film is called Sleeping Beauty because it is about girls who get hired by very rich men to be surrogate sleepers. Not so much sexual partners, but a young, lovely girl who will LITERALLY sleep next to an old man to give him reason to feel alive again.
Yeah, it is as creepy as it sounds. And the girls do not sleep naturally. Oh no, that might make this all ok. No, they agree to being drugged. Guess where this is going.
This may be one of five films I have ever shut off in the middle. Yup. Had to. It was the scene where the naked old man is crawling all over while she is passed out, and he is licking her face and saying some of the creepiest stuff I have ever heard. Yup, that scene. Shut it right off.
It is literally sickening, and I have never been able to look at Emily Browning, or old men the same way.
Side note, I ended up breaking up with Emily Browning because of this role.
Side note to the side note, the last side not was a lie.
Blue Velvet
All you need to say is “closet scene” to most people, and they will crumple to the ground and weep a little bit. For woman, the scene is terrifying because of the helplessness of it all. For the men, the scene is terrifying for the helplessness of it all.
Dennis Hopper will always be Frank Booth to character me, in life and in death. The very embodiment of a truly sadistic and insane man, constantly dancing the high wire act between somewhat normal and frothing pitbull. But it is that scene, when Frank comes home, and Kyle MacLachlan has to hide in the closet and watch what he does to the Isabella Rossalleni character, that just ruins me.
Everytime I see this scene, I cringe and feel like I don’t know what is going to happen, even though I do.
And it is not just what he does to her, but how SHE begins reacting to it that will screw you up even worse.
Much like Cronenberg, David Lynch is a master at making things unsettling. And for me, and many others, this scene in Blue Velvet is the apex of that.
(Dis)honorable Mentions:
Kathy Bates in About Schmidt. It may not be a love scene, but I still went blind.
Every exploitation and grindhouse movie from the 70’s, with exceptional credit going to They Call Her One Eye: The rape trend in 70’s cinema was inexcusable and disgusting, and this was it at its worst. The close up in this scene will take ten years off your life.
The Brown Bunny: Vincent Gallo’s gross narcissism led us to inadvertently hate Chloe Sevigny. Awesome.
Kids: Poor Chloe Sevigny cannot escape this list.
Antichrist: Smash Willem Defoe’s junk and then yank him off for a bloody money shot. Screw you, Lars Von Trier. My eyes tried to commit suicide while watching this film.
And lastly, when I was twelve years old or so, I am pretty sure I saw a movie where Rob Lowe plays a retarded guy who gets reverse raped at one point by a woman “tricking” him into having sex with her. I have no idea what the movie is, might be called Square Dance, but I am too scared to find out. I am obviously still screwed up by it, if I am ending the list with it, sitting here, weeping. This list was not a good idea.
Who else caught Antonio Banderas’ “The Skin I Live In” last year? The sex scenes were weird, but not really life scarring.
But this was one of the more disturbing films for me last year (I haven’t watched Sleeping Beauty). Seriously, Antonio plays one messed up dude, and you don’t even realise how messed up until near the end.
The “love” scenes in Gasper Noe’s movies have definitely scarred me for life.
SPLICE. That is all.
A Serbian Film… Nuff said
@ Cassidy, I have yet to see Skin I Live In so cannot confirm.
@Those aren’t “love” scenes, those are tragedy scenes.
@SoloOnTheRocks, have to agree with you on that one. The inferred inter species incest was tough to swallow.
And Treznor, those were “love” scenes? A guy banging a plastic doll is not a love scene, but maybe the boner in the eye socket could be here hahaha
What do you mean “reverse raped”? I don’t know the Rob Lowe movie you’re talking about, but I am just curious what do you mean by that term?
If one person had sex with another against their will it’s rape. I don’t really see the potential for reversal. It’s a pretty symetrical interaction.
Oh, Remy, why do you put yourself through these films? I’m amazed you’re not a completely jaded and hollow shell of a man, who has been so desensitized by the most disturbing of images that he no longer feels or understands concepts like hope, compassion and joy.
There is good reason I would avoid watching these films despite morbid curiosity, it’s the same reason I have not, and never intend to watch two girls one cup.
Kronos speaks the truth. There’s no such thing as reverse rape. Just like there’s no such thing as reverse racism, or reverse sexism. Also, I know this is just a typo, but “I pride myself on having a huge pallet for weird, twisted stuff” made me laugh like a dork at my desk. A pallet is a wooden skid you put a bunch of stuff on and movie around with a forklift. Your palate for something describes your taste for it. I want to see your huge pallet of weird, twisted stuff! Pics or doesn’t exist in the same warehouse as the Ark of Covenant from Raiders!
Ugh, speaking of typos: move around with a forklift, not movie around. Though I’d like to see that, too.
A few years ago I watched Irreversible… tried anyways. That scene, too real. Took me some time to shake it
My lady and I had a long discussion about the term reverse rape after I wrote the piece but before I published it. She said people would jump all over me for it. I told her there was an ironic element to that statement. Than we both laughed, and got on with our lives. I guess I figured you guys would laugh it off, seeing the absurdity of the overall piece, alas, she read you better than I, and I learned. Which is cool. I like to learn.
Also, @Sara C, you underestimate me, and I thought we were well past that. The Gods of typos and karma struck you immediately. lulz.
http://i01.i.aliimg.com/photo/v0/110693389/WM_Toy_Pallet_Assorted_Toy_Pallets_Price.jpg
@Bigdog, yeah, that movie is a soul destroying experience.
Your pallet is impressive. As is your palate, for that matter. And I’m glad to have helped you to learn the most important lesson of all: assume your girlfriend is right until proven otherwise.
Ick. I remember seeing that Howard the Duck scene as a kid. I wasn’t scarred so much as confused and weirded out and I didn’t even know why until later in life. Fuck you George Lucas…..for so very many things. Splice was icky as shit. Nice one on Super too. I am as hot for Ellen Page as I ever will be for a girl who looks like she’s goddamn 13 (which also gives me confused feelings), but that scene was just awful for me. But awful in the way it was meant to be which means awesome. How about Ripley loving the alien in Alien Resurrection? Awkwaaaaaard. Also have you seen Gummo? I recommend it if you want to see more disturbing images to haunt your soul. Mentally handicapped inbred prostitute servicing young redneck boys. That is all.
@Bigdog – Couldn’t agree more about Irreversible. That’s a movie I will only ever watch once.
@SoloOnTheRocks – I lol’ed at that “love” scene in Splice. I wouldn’t say it scarred me for life, but it definitely scarred me from ever taking that movie seriously.
and yes, the Howard the Duck love scene. I remember being a kid when I watched it, aroused by Lea Thompson in panties and completely freaked out by her having sexual relations with a duck. Too weird.
The movie where Rob Lowe is raped? You might be thinking of “The Stand.” He’s not retarded, he’s deaf/mute, and he’s not raped, he just has sex with an extremely creepy and insane person, but it sounds like this is what you’re thinking of.
the first Species movie… when i was a kid…. dear god…
You forgot Splice.
That is just.. There are no words.
Two I have to mention, sex scene in Monster Ball. I REALLY did NOT want to know what Billy Bob Thorton looked like naked. Seriously.
The second… Well, most will know it as Neo’s pasty white ass. I would totally rejoin the Matrix just to have that wiped from my mind forever.
if you think splice was in any way disturbing you have some serious movie watching to do.
You forgot Pink Flamingoes.
Which scene? All of them.
Agree with Irreversible and Splice. Just … ugh!
@Levi, you sound like someone who watched 120 Days of Sodom or A Serbian Film, but those films are just shocking to be shocking and hold no cinematic value other than making people sick or pushing a non-existent envelope. Yeah, not so much my goal with this piece, but appreciate the feedback none the less. @ Steve P, I actually had Pink Flamingos on here, and then just was so repulsed by having to face it again I took it off the list. Good call. Even thinking about it has me gagging.
You need to include “Sideways” in there. Maybe the sex scene in “Scary Movie”.
You are right. The Rob Lowe Movie you are trying to forget is Square Dance. Thanks for the warning. I will try to avoid these films.
I watched all of Sleeping Beauty. It was pretty disturbing. But strangely enough… I liked it. (Wonders if I should start dating old men… j/k) another very uncomfortable film Me You and Everyone We Know. There’s the two young teen girls who have this weird relationship with an old man… which leads them to give oral to a boy their own age… then the kid who is on a dating chatroom and tells a lady he wants to “poop back and forth” forever. Then meets the woman in real life… and she kisses him when she realizes her dirty conversations were with a small child!
This is the list? Really? This is tame.
If these movies really did upset/scar you, then you haven’t been on the internet very long.
This is a really tame movie, especially in this context. But as a kid, I always hated the love scene in the movie BIG. Especially in the end when she drops him off and it shows how oversized Tom Hanks clothes are on him, and you realize how young he is, and that she’d been sleeping with him. It was very “ugh” for me.
Basically… all of Hotel New Hampshire.
@Seriously,
yeah, I have only had interwebz in my state for two weeks, so give me some time to acclimate myself with the filth it is famous for.
Or,
you could just go back to my first few “most shocking moments” lists I made on this site, see the part about the person being “raped to death”, and realize I have toned it down on purpose, because I was encouraged to do so. Either way, your call…
Ever seen “Searching for Mr. Goodbar”? *Shudder*