A popular online forum recently asked the question, “What's an amazing Movie you never want to see again?” Nearly 250 people replied with their one-and-done titles.
Here are another 15 examples of amazing (in a good or bad way) movies that might not bear a repeat viewing.
1- Threads (1984)
Nuclear winter, anyone? Threads, a British-Australian flick, focuses on two families in Sheffield, England as nuclear war breaks out. It shows humankind's medical, social, and economic consequences in the aftermath of a nuclear attack. The two working-class families don't pay much attention to politics – until they see the mushroom cloud.
2- Irréversible (2002)
This violent drama drew protests for its nine-minute-long rape scene (presented in a single, unbroken shot) plus another scene of a man being beaten to death with a fire extinguisher. Some critics hated it and others said it was one of the year's best movies. Irréversible has only a 58% approval rating on the Rotten Tomatoes website, where the consensus is that there was too much gratuitous violence in the film.
3- Jojo Rabbit (2019)
A comedy-drama about Nazism? Okay then. Taika Waititi directs this offbeat movie about a 10-year-old Hitler Youth member who begins to question his beliefs while relying on an imaginary friend (played by Waititi) who looks just like Hitler. Nominated for six Academy Awards, it won for “best adapted screenplay.”
4- Atonement (2007)
An exquisitely detailed and emotionally devastating war film, Atonement is about the British class system and the consequences of a lie. A 13-year-old rich girl named Briony is madly crushing on the housekeeper's son, who has eyes only for her 18-year-old sister. When Briony accuses him of a terrible crime, he goes to prison. Later she tries to make things right, but it's too late.
5- Bone Tomahawk (2015)
Picture this: Kurt Russell, Patrick Wilson, David Arquette, Richard Jenkins, and Matthew Fox in an American Western cannibal horror film. Still with us? The cannibals are described as monsters, shunned by other Native American tribes. One forum member said they wished they could wipe the memory of the film from their brain.
6- Hereditary (2018)
Ari Aster (Midsommar, Beau is Afraid) hit the ground running with his first-ever movie, Hereditary. It's a psychological horror piece about a family that seems cursed after the grandmother dies. Toni Collette gives a bravura performance as a woman whose world has turned into a waking nightmare.
7- Come and See (1985)
This anti-war film took years to produce because Soviet authorities did not want it to be made. The topic is the Nazi occupation of Belarus during World War II, seen through the eyes of an idealistic teenager who joins the Belarusian resistance movement. Each atrocity shown on screen was something that actually happened during the war.
8- Dead Ringers (1988)
David Cronenberg, who practically invented body horror, directed this story of twin gynecologists (both played by Jeremy Irons) specializing in fertility issues. Enmeshment, drug addiction, paranoia, and other issues make their successful lives into a nightmare.
9- Breaking the Waves (1996)
Emily Watson made her film debut as Bess, a naïve (and possibly mentally ill) young Scottish woman, in this psychological stunner by Lars von Trier. Despite her family's protests, Bess marries an oil worker (Stellan Skarsgard). When her husband is critically injured in a workplace accident, he asks her to begin having relations with random men. Beth believes the abasement will somehow heal her husband.
If you guessed it's challenging to watch, then you are right.
10- 8mm (1999)
Joel Schumacher directed this crime thriller about a private investigator (Nicolas Cage) who's asked to track down the origins of a so-called “snuff film.” It's sordid and horrifying, and also extremely well-made. The late Roger Ebert said the movie is not exploitation but rather one that squarely faces moral issues vs. using them to prop up an action movie.
11- The Neverending Story (1984)
The first English-language film by director Wolfgang Petersen (Das Boot), this movie is about a bullied kid who finds a magical book that lets him escape his sad life. (It also encourages him to skip school for the day, so he can finish reading it.) The tale involves a young warrior who must save a dark and violent force from destroying a beautiful land called Fantasia. One scene, in particular, scarred many a 1980s kid.
12- Trainspotting (1996)
This dark comedy follows a young heroin addict (Ewan McGregor) as he and his friends try to figure out life in an Edinburgh slum. The excellent supporting cast includes Robert Carlyle, Jonny Lee Miller, and Kevin McKidd. As might be expected of a film about squalor and drug addiction, the movie is bleak but also funny.
13- The Elephant Man (1980)
David Lynch, generally associated with surrealism, turned to a real-life subject for this moving drama about John Merrick, a physically deformed man displayed in a late 19th-century British freak show. Anthony Hopkins is the surgeon who treats and later rescues Merrick (John Hurt). It's a dark, painful story, especially the scene in which Merrick says that he must have been “a disappointment” to his mother and wishes that she could love him as he was.
14- Salò, or The 120 Days of Sodom (1975)
Still banned in many countries, this graphic horror film focuses on four Italian libertines who kidnap, torture, and sexually brutalize 18 teenagers for four months. It's hard to imagine anyone wanting to watch it in the first place, let alone twice!
15- Uncut Gems (2019)
Adam Sandler moved away from his goofball persona in this intense crime thriller about a New York City jeweler with a serious gambling problem. To pay off his debts, he must retrieve a rare gem he has already sold. But it's not always easy to watch; one forum member called it too stressful and chaotic to enjoy.
Source: (Reddit).
