Films that have "haunted" you...

Kurosawa's Ran haunted me as a kid.  Utterly beautiful and devastating visually, it's probably the first film that made me realize the power of cinema.  I mean, like everyone else I was hooked on movies because of Star Wars, Jaws, and Raiders... but Ran took it to another level.

Since then quite a few have had similar effects on me, but the ones that stand out most are (in the order I saw them) The Seventh Seal, The Conversation, Exotica, Eyes Wide Shut, Memento, Don't Look Now, Aguirre: The Wrath of God, Irreversible, and No Country for Old Men.

Mulholland Drive immediately comes to mind. Saw it for the first time like two years ago at 3 in the morning on TV and after the credits rolled I got into bed and just laid there for I don't know how long contemplating just what the fuck I just saw (also my first Lynch movie)

I don't know if 'haunted' is the exact word, but fucking hell, did Into The Wild do a number on me. That flick left me pensive and in my own head for weeks. Much like Fight Club did for me as a much younger fella, it crystalised a lot of thoughts and ideas I had about the world into amazing cinema, then delivered them back to me to truly blow my mind and touch something very deep.

It's rare, but when it happens, it validates a life time of film viewing. Cinema can touch your soul and truly effect your life if you let it.

I was just about to chime in with Eyes Wide Shut, when I saw Bailey already mentioned it.  It's to be expected, mos of Kubrick's films just get better with age.  EWS was the only Kubrick film I saw in the theater and it's not a film that made an immediate impression on me...it grew and festered in a way and now it's probably my favorite from his filmography.

Here's an excellent documentary on Kubrick you may not have seen.

E.T. and I have a complicated relationship, it's not even a film as much as a feeling and experience I keep going back to...nostalgia plays a big part, but it goes deeper than that.  It was kind of a perfect storm for me.

Se7en is a film I was and continue to kind of obsess about.  It was the first mainstream Hollywood film I'd seen that left a very large scar on my psyche, and I didn't realize you were allowed to do stuff like that in a Hollywood film.

Boogie Nights and Pulp Fiction are two of the main reasons I decided to move to LaLa land and take the filmmaking plunge.  I can't even watch Pulp anymore because I've seen it so many times it's like a blank wall...it's hard to enjoy the film after being burned into my psyche.

Black Swan wouldn't leave my head for months after I saw it.  Especially the brilliant score.  It's kind of calmed down though.

127 Hours had a powerful effect on me. Wound up seeing it 4 times in theatres, and then buying the bluray and showing it to everyone I know. Boyle's direction taps into so many intense emotions - hope, dread, agony, bliss - that I just find the whole experience to be about as cathartic as movies get.

The Mist - the first time I watched it I literally sat silent on the couch for about half an hour. Then had to put on a classic Disney film to cheer myself up. Yet, I couldn't get the movie out of my head and have since returned to it a number of times. And the horror never diminishes.

The Dark Knight  - Cliche fanboy answer, I know, but it's a film I never get tired of discussing and revisiting. And I'd say at least a couple times a week I'm running scenes from it through my head.

The Mist is a good one. DAMMIT, COULDN'T YOU JUST HAVE WAITED A MINUTE!

Obviously Schindler's List. My very manly-man buddy was a sobbing wreck when the credits rolled. 

Misery. I saw it at a fairly young age, and the realistic nature of the violence made it far more disturbing than any slasher movie. It didn't help that the entire theater groaned in pain during that scene and for about 10 seconds after. You're used to group-laughter, group-derision and group-cheers... group-pain is something unsettling. 

I'll agree with Drive.  I liked it, didn't go as nuts for as some people did, but I'd gladly sit through it again just to get to that masterful "Oh My Love" sequence.

An odd one because it's not very good: Session 9.

It's cheaply made, the big scary "reveal" is lame, but when I play it over in my mind it creeps me out.

Blair Witch 1 did the same. When the credits rolled I said "That was the stupidest thing ever!" And then I went home to bed and lay awake.

I was shown The Corporation in my first college history class (LIBRUL INDOCTRINASHUN!). I can, no fooling, divide my life between before and after the day I saw that movie.

"Holy shit, corporations are legally people?!"

It completely knocked me out of my nice little middle class conservative bubble. It confronted me with hundreds of ugly things I either had absolutely no knowledge of, or had pointedly ignored beforehand. That documentary kicked me in the ass onto the road towards progressivism. It scared me worse than every horror movie I've ever seen. Every single thing I learn about politics and business only confirms or adds to what I learned the day I watched that film.

From the Chewers' Scariest Films Of The 90s thread:

Enter The Void wins this thread for me hundreds of times over. Im still not even sure I *like* that film yet, but the desire to watch it again grows more and more every day. I just havent had the time/mental fortitude yet.

I was disturbed for DAYS after watching Requiem For A Dream for the first time.  I spent the entire weekend in a nasty fog

I agree about Blair Witch and Session 9, though I wouldn't agree that they're both not objectively good films.  When most horror is relegated to the realm of slasher flicks, "meta" stuff like Scream that's more thriller mixed with comedy, and gore/torturefests like (insert random horror flick from the last ten years here), it's refreshing to watch something that actually creeps you out and makes you not want to go home alone afterwards, LoL.  Both these films did that for me.

Munich came out at a time when its themes felt so urgent and immediate that I had trouble shaking it for weeks.  That last image was seared into my mind.  For my money, it is one the best when it comes to dealing with post-9/11 themes. 

Once Upon a Time in America has stuck with me since I first saw it five years ago. The score and cinematography evoke a dreamlike experience, which, based on your interpretation of the final scene, is entirely appropriate. Leone didn't make too many movies, but damn if he didn't leave a mark with every one he made.

This thread could easily be retitled "Lars Von Trier Movies & Other Films That Haunt You".

Both Dancer In The Dark and Dogville left me reeling for weeks.

The 1984 adaptation of Orwell's '1984' is pretty scarring. So unforgivingly bleak.

But THIS film haunts me through to the marrow.

An absolute nightmare of a movie. It will haunt you for months, filling up your dreams with it's images.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nexus-7 

What's a movie that's "haunted" you? I don't mean scared you, I mean just a movie that you weren't necessarily a huge fan of, but you can't get it out of your head and have a crazy desire to watch again.

The two films which haunt me most are both because of Heath Ledger performances although I saw them when he was alive and his subsequent fate has little to do with my feelings toward them - they haunted me before he died. In fact, if anything, it was the films which gave news of his death a greater impact on me than vice versa.

But as much as these qualify in the movies that you weren't necessarily a huge fan of, but you can't get it out of your head department, Ledger's performances haunt me to the extent that I have the opposite to a crazy desire to watch again. I'm a afraid to go through those insanely visceral feelings of sharing a character's pain first-hand again.

I'm talking about MONSTER'S BALL and BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bucho 

 

But as much as these qualify in the movies that you weren't necessarily a huge fan of, but you can't get it out of your head department, Ledger's performances haunt me to the extent that I have the opposite to a crazy desire to watch again. I'm a afraid to go through those insanely visceral feelings of sharing a character's pain first-hand again.

 

BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN.

 I have to agree with you on this (I have never seen Monster's Ball), but I saw this long before he died, and there is something in the way he melts into that character that was astonishing for me. I literally didn't know it was Ledger. I loved his early, light fare like 10 Things I Hate About Your or A Knight's Tale, but this was mindblowing. And haunting. The scene where Ledger grabs the shirt in Gyllenhall's closet is moving beyond words.

The other film that does this to me is A.I. For all the hate that can be thrown at it (Oh, flesh fair...), it haunted me long after I saw it in the theater and every six months or so, I am driven to watch it. It sat in my head and did a number of revolutions. I wrote papers on it in college. It is so sad, for everyone. I think its bleak outlook is often overlooked in the final scenes. It gets me every time.

Oldboy.  I wasn't a big fan of Asian cinema in general but tried to keep up with recommendations.  Some I liked, some I didn't.  This was the first one that totally blew my mind.  There's something about the way it just takes the stories about revenge that we're used to, and uses that against us to set up the bombshell.  My wife has no interest in foreign films but was in the house as I was watching it, and I was literally shouting at my TV once I'd figured things out.  But even after figuring things out I assumed I had to have been wrong, hoped that I was.

It's hard to finish a movie like that and say in any way that you enjoyed it.  You really have to digest it and see if you appreciate it with the benefit of some distance from the viewing.  Then the next step is figuring out who you can actually recommend the film to as it's not for everybody.  I have friends that mention that movie every time I see them, however, because I lent it out to them.  I'd say it's pretty much my definition of a haunting movie though.  It'll stick with you whether you want it to or not.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Art Decade 

 

From the Chewers' Scariest Films Of The 90s thread:

 

 

Yes, most definitely.

I'll add Gus Van Sant's ELEPHANT.

Quote:

Originally Posted by MrTyres 

I have to agree with you on this (I have never seen Monster's Ball), but I saw this long before he died, and there is something in the way he melts into that character that was astonishing for me. I literally didn't know it was Ledger. I loved his early, light fare like 10 Things I Hate About Your or A Knight's Tale, but this was mindblowing. And haunting. The scene where Ledger grabs the shirt in Gyllenhall's closet is moving beyond words.

I didn't know he was anything special until MONSTER'S BALL, just another likable but not especially capable good looking kid doing a fun comedy here or there getting by on cheeky charm and cheekbones, but seeing that made me sit up and say, "Daaaaaayummmm, we got ourselves a contender." The film overall didn't click for me but Ledger was astoundingly, arrestingly good.

There's an uncanny and visceral truth to his performances in that movie and his final scenes in BROKEBACK which still breaks my heart a little just remembering them.

Quote:

Originally Posted by MrTyres 

(I have never seen Monster's Ball)

 

get on that shit.

 From the first time I saw it as a kid, that film left a mark that's never gone away. I still can't properly define it, but there's this wonderfully romantic tone about the film which is undercut with a strange melancholy, and it's so individual as a piece of narrative. Really, this thing ticks pretty much none  of the required boxes for modern storytelling: there's little to no action, the driving force behind the events (The aliens and why they need to 'call' this disparate group of unassuming people) is not explained at all, and the protagonist is, when viewed in coldly rational terms, a bit of a selfish twat.

Except he's kind of not. We buy him, and somehow understand his quiet desperation. We don't care why the aliens are summoning these people, just that it's wonderful in some way that doesn't require definition. And the film never feels slow - even though very little actually happens for long stretches - because Roy's journey is one of the soul, and we recognize him as a part of a bigger mystery. It's a film about ideas, and it invites us to bring those ideas to life in our minds along with the characters. In a way, it feels like a story about all the passions that drive us, define us and in some cases, may well redeem us. About the imagination, and how it can elevate us.

Couple this with Spielberg's direction, Dreyfuss's amazing performance, the coolness of Truffaut and Williams's amazing score and you get a film that works on you below any intellectual level of appreciation. It's a story that has absolutely no right to work, but hit me in a place that I've never forgotten... And every time I watch it, it does it all over again.

Scott Pilgrim would be the one that I don't like but keep having a desire to watch.  I feel like I'm missing out on something great but I just don't get it.  Well made (extremely) but I flat out hate every character in it and can't get beyond that.

In terms of "not being able to stop thinking about it" that would be Requiem for a Dream.  A pathetic admission but, apart from the first time I've watched it, I always stop the movie when everyone is happy and everything is going well.  The downhill slide and ending just destroyed me.  But it's such a phenomenally made movie that I have to spin it up every now and then, just not too conclusion.

THREADS and THE RAPTURE are great pics. When I was a kid I saw LOOKING FOR MR. GOODBAR on late night cable and that shit really fucked me up for a while. More recently, I couldn't shake IRREVERSIBLE for days.

Haunted me in the best way imaginable. 2001 changed me & the way I looked at life, people, & the world.

I don't know...this hit me square in the heart & affected me like few other films can. I've only seen it once but once seems to have enough. The experience watching is still fresh after almost a decade since it's release.

Eraserhead did a number on me.

I have to agree about The Rapture, Monster's Ball, The Mist, and Requiem For A Dream.

Sin City left me wanting to go home and wash the grime from myself.  I can't imagine how much more depressed I would have been if it hadn't been a warm, sunny day.  Great film, but I'll have to brace myself whenever I watch it again.

Children of Men reminded me there were still great stories to tell and great ways to film them.

Saving Private Ryan was a shockingly visceral experience in 1998. I remember actually ducking in the theater. That fucking sound design....I was shellshocked for days.

Empire Of The Sun haunted me as a kid.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Art Decade 

Empire Of The Sun haunted me as a kid.

God yeah. Young Bale was us when we first saw that masterpiece.

Se7en still fucks me up to this day..  The dreary mood, how everything is ugly and decaying.. The beginning still gets me.. with Freeman attempting to fall asleep while two very angry men have an inaudible argument just outside his apartment, with the build-up leading to that song and the title credits.

I saw the movie when I was waaaaay too young, and it literally fucked me up for a week straight.. My parents, who have always been very honest and fair when it comes to watching R-rated movies, had to answer about a thousand questions that I had when the credits rolled in the end.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nick Hexum 

Se7en still fucks me up to this day..  The dreary mood, how everything is ugly and decaying.. The beginning still gets me.. with Freeman attempting to fall asleep while two very angry men have an inaudible argument just outside his apartment, with the build-up leading to that song and the title credits.

 

I saw the movie when I was waaaaay too young, and it literally fucked me up for a week straight.. My parents, who have always been very honest and fair when it comes to watching R-rated movies, had to answer about a thousand questions that I had when the credits rolled in the end.

Seven is the only film as an adult to give me night terrors like when I was a kid. Fucked me the hell up the first time I watched that brilliant little cinematic nightmare.

Yeah, Seven is a good one.  Has Antichrist been mentioned yet?  Brr.

Quote:

Originally Posted by sirjonsnow 

Sin City left me wanting to go home and wash the grime from myself. 

Man Bites Dog did that for me.  I actually felt like I'd watched a snuff movie.

Time Bandits scared the ever-living shit outta me as a kid. Haunted me well into adolescence.

Prince Of Darkness too, Carpenter films always stay with you for a while.

An incredible portrait of true evil. I think about this documentary all the time. It haunts me.

White Dog

Antichrist gave me an uneasy feeling for a week.

I just finished The Divide, and I have a feeling it's going to stay with me for a while. 

Oh, another one that made me uneasy, and I'm not anit-religion by any stretch, was Jesus Camp.

The Fly

I've only seen it once...20 years ago. Never again.

Goodbye Uncle Tom

Roots is to this "documentary" what The Day After is to Threads. The horrors of slavery are brought to life with brutally grim accuracy & the film should be mandatory in high school history classes.

If we're going docos, Capturing The Friedmans still hasn't left me to this day and I saw it once on its release.

The Mist  had me shook up for a couple of days. I didn't catch it in theaters and managed to avoid the Chud hype. When I finally watched it at home, on DVD, over a stormy weekend, I just sat back on my couch going "No way. That did not just end that way. Holy shit. What the...No way."  Then I rewatched it in black and white... I thought about that ending and Ms. Carmody for days.

Again on the documentary tip:  the opening few minutes of Paradise Lost: The Child Murders of Robin Hood Hills took me a long time to shake off.  

Same here with Dear Zachary.

Getting positive on the doco front for a change, I have to say that When We Were Kings had me on a high that lasted like two weeks. Hell my heart still swells to this day when I remember certain moments.

The sucubis has got him!!!

Definitely Roberto Rosselini's Germany Year Zero. Overall such a somber film about post-war Berlin especially the struggle of a young boy and his family to survive in a very much destroyed and chaotic city of Berlin and which has a very, very sad ending ,maybe one of the saddest in film history. 

Honestly I can't think of many films sadder than that maybe something like Dancer in the Dark, Salo, In the Realm of the Senses, Blue Velvet or Grave of the Fireflies. 

Deliverance.

Apocalypse Now is another one that I don't think will ever leave me. Such a powerful experience that really made me think about war and what it can do to a person.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Art Decade 

Deliverance.

I saw that on HBO when I was 10.  Late at night.  By myself.    That hand at the end....Jesus.