6 hours ago
1
United 93
When the film ended suddenly and silently I found I was gripping the seat armrests and noticed too that nobody moved. I can’t remember a cinema experience where literally nobody moved after a film ended. It was dead quiet for several seconds, I am guessing that many if not most of the audience had actually witnessed the real event on 9/11 on TV, as I had. Visceral cinema a bit too close to the bone, yet sensitive, nonexploitative and direction as tight as it gets. waxanimal
Seconds
There isn’t a moment throughout when it isn’t twisting one nerve or many, from the depressed middle-aged man (John Randolph) going robotically through life, to the sinister men (Will Geer and Jeff Corey) who offer him a new life (turned into Rock Hudson) – that he can’t refuse, and can’t be allowed to leave.
Left me shaken for days, even though I had been warned. Mariner70
Gravity
I was both simultaneously claustrophobic and agoraphobic watching it. I would have loved to have seen the 3D version but I think I would have been hospitalised. Monstercat
Alien
Managed to get in to see Alien when it first came out when I was 14. Although it seems quite slow-paced these days, the whole thing, especially the last 20 minutes, had me coiled up like a spring. Remember we didn’t really know what the hell it was threatening Ripley at that point which just added to the tension. johnny5eyes
The Road
It made me feel almost sick. I had read the book and that was bad but the film took it to another level. I couldn’t stop watching it. It was a few years ago and I sometimes think about watching it again but I just can’t bring myself to despite it being a great film. I’m not sure I’m strong enough! Blidman
I remember feeling as though I’d been assaulted in some way, or just staggered out of a car wreck … I did though appreciate the quality of the film and performances etc. As such, I’ve tried to rewatch it on two occasions and I actually just can’t do it. JustAskham
Paranormal Activity
Everything was done with subtlety, the corner bed sheet, bedroom door moving marginally, but the real bogeyman, was the real time clock top right of the screen, ticking over capturing almost nothing, except a couple tossing and turning throughout the night, whilst unbeknown to them, a presence is around them, making the slightest of adjustments, within their bedroom. This is the one film, that no matter how many times I’ve seen it, still persists in unsettling me. Aubrey26
Munich
I love cold war-era spy films. Spielberg’s evocation of them with Munich is note-perfect. And yet, it speculates on real events and regularly shoves the true horror of this reality in your face. One minute you’re marvelling at the setting, sense of era, cinematography etc, then the next you’re dealing with the aftermath of an indiscriminate bomb attack. Or the assassination of an unarmed woman. Or a suicide. And Spielberg’s lens is absolutely unflinching. It’s as though it picks up the reality that Fleming and Le Carré were riffing off and says ‘You think this is entertaining? Really?’ MotoringJourno
Naked
Went to watch with a lady on a first (ish) date and after the film ended I expected we would move on to a drink but she said nope, I just want to go home. She felt thoroughly worn down by the film. In retrospect really not the right film to help advance a budding romance. franciscat
The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and His Lover
It’s the only time I have ever come close to passing out in the cinema. Long ago now, but I think it was the scene where a young boy was being forced to eat buttons that did it for me. Falland
Skinamarink
Now, be warned, for every horror fan who loved it, there are probably nine more who thought it was like watching paint dry. But for this small minority, myself included, it managed to hit the right buttons, and I don’t think there’s anything else, including Lynch, who hits the childhood nightmare buttons as accurately as that film. It’s minimalist, maddening, deeply unsettling on an atavistic level, and is about as bleak as it gets. hurtinthewarmup
Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World
Not only it was an unnerving watch. It also left me completely emotionally and physically exhausted after its three and a half hours. The anger, the frustration, sometimes even pure rage it induced in me stayed with me for the next 2-3 days. Such a brilliant movie, but also such a “never again” movie. Panthelya
Captain Phillips
Watched it at the cinema and did not anticipate the near constant tension it generated over its run time. When Hanks breaks down at the end of the film it mirrored the release this viewer needed as well! Rup3rtPupk1n
Kanal
Polish made about the Warsaw rising against the Germans. I think the final scene is a young couple of fighters who are escaping through the sewers, reaching the Vistula, but unable to get out because of metal bars at the end of the sewer. I don’t think anyone else has mentioned it and I have gone through 14 pages of posts. CONLIBLAB
Eden Lake
At least with an American film you can distance yourself a little. This film set in the north of England, with very realistic characters, was horrific. I watched on a laptop in bed, which made me feel like I was actually in the film, and had nightmares for six weeks afterwards. Have never watched a film in bed since. Sedation
Funny Games
Around two-thirds of the audience left halfway through the cinema screening and I regretted for a long time not being one of them. It is a psychological thriller with not a single scene of something horrible while the most horrible things happen in the film to a family. I would never ever watch this film again. HanseatUK1
Brilliant but unbearable. I constantly rewatch films that impress me, but this is once only. And some years after seeing it I actually had a strange young man in tennis kit knock on the front door with unusual questions. I did not admit him. Do not let him in. eroica
Haneke cleverly constructed the film to be both coldly unemotional and hyper stress-inducing. I had to pause for about an hour when watching it alone. Definitely a one watch movie. nigeljones
Whiplash
A pressure-cooker of a film, with an ambiguous ending … Was it all worth it to achieve greatness? The three of us watching it were, at times, forgetting to breathe, and my fellow cinema-goer to my right even got stomach cramps out of it. But as it ended, we all spontaneously applauded, and so did the entire audience at our small indie cinema! gladarvor
