Sometimes, an R-rating isn't enough. Some of these projects started fights with TV networks, and some of them got banned from whole countries. It's pretty extreme stuff, but you can handle it – right?
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00:00Sometimes, an R rating isn't enough. Some of these projects started fights with TV networks,
00:05and some of them got banned from whole countries. It's pretty extreme stuff, but you can handle
00:09it, right?"
00:12How far is too far? When it comes to TV, that potentially gross line is always changing.
00:18Today, you can find just about every body part and swear word on the small screen at
00:24any given time of the day. But there was a time when TV was a bit more conservative.
00:31Whether or not that'd be shocking today, here are a few TV moments that took things too
00:35far.
00:36The CBS sitcom Two Broke Girls follows the exploits of two New York waitresses as they
00:43attempt to start their own cupcake business. But many viewers find the pair far from sweet.
00:50Comments sent to the FCC about the show's content included one woman urging the authorities
00:56to review an episode that depicts a naked doll being manipulated into quote-unquote
01:02graphic sexual acts. Of course, how graphic a Barbie can be without actual genitals is
01:09a different question entirely.
01:12When Married... with Children premiered in 1987, Al, Peg, and the rest of the Bundys
01:18weren't the picture-perfect family America was so used to seeing. Al constantly called
01:24Peg a horrible housewife, mother, and cook, while Peg was there to let her husband know
01:30just how inadequate he was as the man of the house. But it was an episode that took place
01:36in a bra shop that was the breaking point for one Michigan woman, Terri Ricolta. The
01:42episode compelled her to start a letter-writing campaign encouraging a boycott of the show.
01:48I sent my children out of the room after five minutes of this trash, but I'm excited to
01:53watch and see what kind of low-class advertisers would support this type of program.
01:57Ricolta's campaign became legitimate news. A few advertisers pulled their ads, and at
02:03least one episode wasn't aired. But ultimately, the publicity that Ricolta generated for the
02:09show is credited for helping it find its audience and stay on the air for 11 seasons. So you
02:17have Terri Ricolta to thank for classy jokes like this.
02:21Hey Bundy, I had steak tonight. What are you having?
02:26If I was the mailman, I'd be having your wife.
02:31Never afraid to push the boundaries of good taste for a laugh, one episode of Seinfeld
02:36crossed the line between humor and bigotry, according to Bronx Borough President Fernando
02:41Ferrer. He was one of numerous viewers offended by a plotline that saw the main characters
02:47caught up in a traffic jam caused by the Puerto Rican Day Parade and desecrating a
02:52Puerto Rican flag, causing angry bystanders to toss their car down a stairwell.
02:57You know it's like this every day in Puerto Rico.
03:02Both the comment and the flag-burning provoked outrage, with the National Puerto Rican Coalition
03:08calling it an unquestionable insult to the country and demanding an apology from NBC.
03:14The network quickly complied.
03:17Once accused of anti-Semitism, the Family Guy episode, When You Wish Upon a Weinstein,
03:23was temporarily banned on Fox, but eventually aired four years after it was originally produced
03:29and after the show had already gone to depths that were arguably far worse.
03:34However, the network refused to relent when it came to the season 8 finale, Partial Terms
03:41of Endearment.
03:42The so-called abortion episode was made but rejected, with both Fox and Adult Swim exercising
03:49their right not to air it.
03:51Instead, it was released as a standalone DVD and on BBC Three in the UK.
03:57Creator Seth MacFarlane saw it as a cop-out aimed at placating conservative viewers, saying,
04:03"...times really have changed. The network is making a decision that is, unfortunately,
04:08probably based on people's current ability to handle and dissect controversial narratives."
04:13It wasn't the first or last time Fox would deal with censorship issues.
04:19The classic sci-fi series The X-Files also had an episode banned for inappropriate content.
04:26Home was the first-ever X-Files episode to begin with a viewer discretion warning and
04:32remained the only one to carry a TVMA rating, which it probably deserved.
04:38The plot follows Mulder and Scully as they investigate a secluded farmhouse after an
04:44abandoned baby is found nearby.
04:47What they discover are three brothers, the younger two fathered by the eldest, which
04:52makes for a very complicated and gross family tree.
04:58"...when you know your boy will do anything for his mother."
05:02Fox removed the episode from syndication and only repeated it once as part of a 1999 Halloween
05:10special, advertising it as an episode so controversial it's been banned from television for three
05:16years.
05:17While The Simpsons usually takes a more subtle approach to lampooning its targets than shows
05:23like Family Guy or South Park, when Springfield's first family poked fun at Brazil, they almost
05:30wound up causing a diplomatic incident.
05:33The episode, Blame It On Lisa, saw The Simpsons head to Brazil and face all manners of trouble
05:40upon arrival.
05:42Homer is kidnapped by a cabbie, he and Bart are mugged by children, and there are rampant
05:48monkey attacks.
05:50"...the drunkenness, the ambiguous sexuality.
05:53I've gotta get out of here."
05:56The country's president, Fernando Henrique Cardoso, thought it brought a distortion of
06:02Brazilian reality to the screen.
06:04The Rio Tourism Board agreed, claiming that the $18 million it had recently spent on promoting
06:10the city in the States was now wasted.
06:13Meanwhile, a little over a decade later, the 2016 Olympics actually verified a few of The
06:19Simpsons' claims.
06:21When a show portrays a serial killer as a charismatic champion of justice with a pretty
06:27sweet Miami life, it's bound to attract a few copycats.
06:31In January 2014, 21-year-old Mark Howe was found guilty of murdering his mother after
06:37she'd been slashed more than 50 times.
06:41Howe's search history featured gems like Dexter's Kill Knife and What Does a Sociopath
06:47Need to Do to Blend in Seamlessly with Society?
06:51But clearly not How to Clear Your Browser History, you dummy.
06:55The event reignited the debate over whether the show should be taken off the air, since
07:00it wasn't even the first murder to be blamed on Showtime's crime drama.
07:05In 2008, aspiring Canadian filmmaker Mark Twitchell, who had been going under the name
07:12Dexter Morgan on Facebook, lured two men to his home under the pretense of making a horror
07:18film about a sword-wielding mass murderer.
07:22Twitchell killed one of the men, and the other managed to escape.
07:26And we can't forget Jessica Lopez, who strangled a woman and attempted to chop her up like
07:32the show's protagonist.
07:35Some of Britain's greatest exports have been created at the U.K.'s famous Pinewood Studios,
07:41but not everything that comes out of the world-renowned studio is guaranteed to be a success.
07:48"'Pile, Honey' was supposed to follow a reimagined version of Adolf Hitler and his partner Eva
08:03Braun, as they deal with living next door to a Jewish couple.
08:08The show, a 1990 spoof of terrible sitcoms, failed right out of the gate."
08:14"'I'm a very, very bad Hitler.'"
08:17The now-defunct Galaxy Channel was forced to pull the plug after the pilot episode because
08:23of accusations of anti-Semitism.
08:26Writer Greg Atkinson has always insisted his intentions were misunderstood, saying,
08:32"'Sometimes you can destroy bullies by laughing at them.
08:36This isn't about denying what happened, it's about being human in the face of inhumanity.'"
08:42About a decade later, comedy fans were finally ready to embrace the absurdity of a comedic
08:48Hitler.
08:49Uh, hooray?
08:52R-rated films are supposed to push your buttons.
08:54With freedom to deliver language, blood, nudity, and drug use, you can provide lots of provocative
09:00material.
09:01In some instances, though, R-rated movies use the creative freedom of their rating for
09:05less savory purposes.
09:07These are the films that go too far.
09:10Every generation gets their own take on the classic story The Most Dangerous Game, and
09:14this generation's incarnation came with The Hunt.
09:17This Craig Zobel film concerns a group of people who wake up and find out they're being
09:21hunted for sport, like any version of this tale does.
09:25The twist this time, though, is the story got filtered through the modern-day political
09:28zeitgeist with the hunters being left-leaning elites, while the victims were coded as conservatives.
09:34On paper, it's easy to see how the project received a green light as something that,
09:38in the vein of Team America World Police, could generate political discourse while drumming
09:43up ticket sales from moviegoers who wanted to be part of the conversation and the dark
09:47humor.
09:48However, the marketing for The Hunt inspired a wave of unforeseen controversy, largely
09:53from right-leaning news organizations.
09:55It even garnered an implied response from former President Donald Trump, who accused
10:00Hollywood of merely trying to stir up violence.
10:02The cause of all the brouhaha was that many saw The Hunt as endorsing violence against
10:06conservatives, though this seemed to ignore how the conservative characters were the heroes
10:11of the movie.
10:12Still, the uproar over The Hunt had a sizable impact and inspired the film to get delayed
10:17a whole six months.
10:18When it came time for this generation's Most Dangerous Game, perhaps the filmmakers tried
10:22to push a few too many buttons.
10:25R-rated comedies can sometimes draw flak for getting too racy with certain jokes, but the
10:30interview inspired a whole other level of vitriol.
10:33The film about two goofballs getting pressed into assassinating Kim Jong-un drew negative
10:38responses from North Korea, especially a scene depicting the leader's gruesome death.
10:43In fact, the film was so controversial that it inspired a hack, apparently stemming from
10:47North Korea, that leaked countless pieces of sensitive information, all stemming from
10:52distributor Sony Pictures.
10:54Things got even crazier when the hackers eventually graduated to threatening extreme violence
10:59against movie theaters that screened the interview.
11:02The consequences of the film's provocative humor were swift.
11:05By mid-December, the movie's theatrical release was largely canned, but that wasn't the end
11:10of the interview.
11:11On the contrary, the movie continued to inspire widespread discussion on how to respond when
11:16violent threats are made against artists.
11:18In the years since its release, the interview actor and co-director Seth Rogen has been
11:22upfront on what a grueling experience it all was.
11:25Rogen said to CinemaBlend,
11:27"...Truthfully, after the interview, co-director Evan Goldberg and I were a little traumatized,
11:32I think."
11:33Like many of Rogen's comedies, the interview was something that could provoke laughs but
11:37was also meant to push buttons, but nobody could have expected the outsized and unprecedented
11:42response his vitriol received.
11:45The anthology comedy Movie 43 provides more stars than there are in the heavens across
11:49its various individual segments.
11:51Whereas wall-to-wall crudeness in other comedies can help unearth some kind of deeper truth
11:55about humanity, Movie 43 is now widely regarded as one of the worst comedies to ever hit theater
12:01screens.
12:02The participation of movie stars ranging from Hugh Jackman to Richard Gere to Emma Stone
12:07couldn't help elevate the film.
12:09The only conversation drummed up by this box office dud was a handful of horrific moments
12:13that showed the film's desperation to wring yucks from moviegoers.
12:17Movie 43 employed yellowface, incest, and a closing sequence largely focused on physical
12:22abuse being hurled at a character played by Elizabeth Banks.
12:27Movie 43 embraced the idea of overloading the viewer on shocking material.
12:31Though the movie pushed the boundaries of what the R rating would allow, Movie 43 was
12:35hollow vulgarity to its very core.
12:39Released in 2011, The Hangover Part II drew some heavy criticism for going way too far
12:43in its attempts to be funny.
12:45For example, many people were outraged when the character of Stu learned that he slept
12:49with a transgender woman.
12:50We didn't get married, did we?
12:53Of course not.
12:54We just had some fun in the Chardonnay Room.
12:56The depiction of this revelation as being disgusting was correctly labeled by many as
13:00an example of bro comedies using blatant transphobia as a substitute for actual comedy.
13:06Garnering even more media attention at the time was a photo in the end credits.
13:10The image parodies an actual photo taken in the Vietnam War of a South Vietnamese general
13:15executing a prisoner.
13:17The moment was dubbed by critics like Roger Ebert as
13:19"...a desecration of one of the most famous photos to come out of the Vietnam War."
13:24Here, fans were disappointed that a movie that was all about shock value crossed over
13:28from providing adult-skewing gags into outright disrespect.
13:32Zack and Miri Make a Porno is actually a sweet movie when you get right down to it, one about
13:36lifelong best friends who may actually have romantic feelings for one another.
13:40However, the fact that it had the word porno in its title meant the film already rubbed
13:44some moviegoers the wrong way.
13:46This was especially true in the movie's marketing, which kicked off with a poster that proved
13:50so suggestive that it ended up getting banned from being shown in movie theaters.
13:55Sometimes a movie that stirs up this much controversy can ride all the publicity to
13:59sizable box office success.
14:01Unfortunately, none of these marketing troubles inspired much interest from moviegoers.
14:06Released at the very end of October 2008, Zack and Miri Make a Porno ended up sinking
14:10without a trace at the box office.
14:12The Kevin Smith comedy, despite featuring raunchy scenes like Justin Long as an adult
14:16film star listing off the titles of movies he's appeared in, is ultimately a film that
14:21wants to tug at your heartstrings.
14:23Too bad its marketing garnered a reputation for being all the wrong kinds of boundary-pushing.
14:28Released in 2007, The Hills Have Eyes 2 is the kind of schlocky horror B-movie that audiences
14:33tend to watch because of its tasteless material.
14:36Graphic violence especially is the forte of this subgenre.
14:39However, this particular horror sequel used its sensibilities not to depict over-the-top
14:44violence but to continue a long tradition of using sexual assault in a throwaway manner.
14:49The Hills Have Eyes 2 centers much of its plot on the prospect of deformed mutants capturing
14:54human women for the purposes of forced breeding.
14:57The movie's emphasis on this element is made apparent in an opening scene, one depicting
15:01an unnamed woman trapped in the mutant's basement solely so she can breed children.
15:06Before she can establish even the barest personality, she's slaughtered after birthing a stillborn
15:11baby.
15:12Critics like Scott Tobias took The Hills Have Eyes 2 to task for resorting to such a shallow
15:17depiction of sexual assault, as well as for not giving any of the women in the film basic
15:21character development.
15:23While some grindhouse movies like Abel Ferrara's Ms. 45 have garnered praise for using grimy
15:28exploitation cinema to thoughtfully explore the perspective of a sexual assault survivor,
15:33the tactless treatment of sexual assault in The Hills Have Eyes 2 is just plain appalling.
15:38The 2007 Uwe Boll movie Postal opens with a sequence depicting Flight 11 just moments
15:44before it hits the North Tower, beginning the 9-11 terrorist attacks.
15:48In this version of the event, the two hijackers piloting the plane decide to abort the mission,
15:53only for the passengers to break into the cockpit and inadvertently cause the plane
15:57to crash into the tower.
15:59A sequence like this was always meant to establish the tasteless, and if the general critical
16:04reception is any indicator, humorless, aesthetic of the movie ahead.
16:08But the film's opening gag was perceived by many as way too provocative, to the point
16:12that one of its actors believed it cost the film its commercial potential.
16:16In the book My Year of Flops by Nathan Rabin, performer Dave Foley remarked,
16:20"...I think that crashing a plane into the Twin Towers at the start of the film hurt
16:24it."
16:25Rabin's video game source material wanted to shock and offend, but it seems that it
16:29went above and beyond the call of duty in its opening sequence, which took things from
16:33vulgar comedy to just plain vulgar.
16:37This Cuba Gooding Jr. and Horatio Sands story concerns two men who enlist in a singles cruise,
16:42only to discover it's exclusively for gay men.
16:45They then pose as gay while trying to get closer to women who work on the boat.
16:48The comedy is full of jokes about straight men being terrified of the very presence of
16:52gay people and how gross the thought of two dudes kissing is.
16:56Critics savaged the film for its rampant homophobia, though many writers also slammed the movie
17:01for being too tedious.
17:03Rita Kempley of The Washington Post, for example, remarked that the tired and familiar attempts
17:07at comedy were just as insulting as the rampant gay panic material, adding that,
17:12"...it's time many of the movie's more offensive gags went back into the closet."
17:17Few films of the 1990s were as controversial as Natural Born Killers.
17:21The tale of murderous lovers Mickey and Mallory, played by Woody Harrelson and Juliette Lewis.
17:26Intended by writer and director Oliver Stone as a condemnation of the heavy presence of
17:30violence in the media, the general response to the movie is still divided today over whether
17:35or not the film achieved its intended goals.
17:38Critic Jeanette Maslin, for instance, observed that the movie seems to be more in love with
17:42graphic violence than critical of it.
17:44Maslin observed,
17:45"...while Natural Born Killers affects occasional disgust at the lurid world of Mickey and
17:49Mallory, it more often seems enamored of their exhilarating freedom."
17:53Critics who interpreted the film as being more of a love letter to this kind of behavior
17:57saw Natural Born Killers as a lot of ultra-violent noise without much of a purpose.
18:02Similarly, much has been written about how the film's treatment of indigenous cultures
18:06is almost as stomach-churning as its most gruesome instance of violence.
18:10With this 1994 film, Stone meant to make something that inspired a reaction in people.
18:15He succeeded, but unfortunately, it inspired a whole lot of critiques as Stone had made
18:19something as indulgent as the elements of society he intended to condemn.
18:24You'll never understand, Wayne.
18:26You and me, we're not even the same species.
18:29I used to be you, then I evolved.
18:32Revenge of the Nerds has often been seen as a film championing the downtrodden, a comedic
18:36form of voyeurism wherein the oppressed could live out their greatest fantasies.
18:40Now for many, Revenge of the Nerds is seen as trivializing rape culture.
18:44This is most apparent in an infamous sequence where the character of Lewis pretends to be
18:48the jock Stan so he can sleep with the quarterback's girlfriend, Betty.
18:52It's meant to be a cheerworthy sequence in the movie itself, but it registers to many
18:56now as an endorsement of sexual assault.
18:59Director Jeff Canut himself has recently expressed regret over ever including the scene in the
19:04film.
19:05In 2019, Canut told GQ,
19:07I've heard criticism a lot this year because of the MeToo movement.
19:10At the time, it was considered sort of a switch.
19:13It's not excusable.
19:14If it were my daughter, I probably wouldn't like it.
19:17The R-rated events of Revenge of the Nerds were intended to be seen as conventional escapism,
19:22but it's apparent to many now that the movie is more insidious than humorous.
19:27In his voyage up the river to find Marlon Brando's Colonel Kurt, Martin Sheen's Captain
19:31Willard sees a wide array of horrific and unforgettable sights that lay the horrors
19:35of the Vietnam War bare.
19:37Unfortunately, viewers are also exposed to a terrible sight late in the film.
19:41For a climactic scene involving a ritual performed by an Ithacao tribe, a water buffalo
19:46is killed on screen.
19:48This was apparently a real-life practice that was already underway before cameras started
19:52rolling, with director Francis Ford Coppola filming the ritual as it occurred.
19:57While intended to be a visual parallel to Willard's plan to assassinate Kurt with a
20:01machete, the sight of an animal killed on screen is jarring enough to render that thematic
20:06undercurrent irrelevant.
20:07Decades after the film's release, Coppola has stood by the scene, reaffirming that he
20:12was merely documenting reality itself.
20:14Coppola said to USA Today,
20:16"...I did not direct it or anything.
20:18That was the way they do it."
20:19To prove his point, Coppola made sure to emphasize that he refused to have an extra water buffalo
20:24around to kill in case extra takes were needed.
20:27Despite Coppola's statements, this scene of animal cruelty stands out in Apocalypse Now
20:32as horrifying for all the wrong reasons.
20:35Wolf Creek is the product of unchecked misogyny and a sickening fascination with violence.
20:41The movie positions itself as a typical slasher flick about three friends taking a trip through
20:45the Australian outback when their car breaks down in Wolf Creek Park.
20:48A man named Mick stumbles upon the group, and offers to help before revealing himself
20:53to be a sadistic killer.
20:54"...That's not a knife, this is a knife."
21:00The trio of protagonists in Wolf Creek contains one man, but he's sidelined for almost the
21:05entirety of the movie until he escapes with his life at the end.
21:09Most of the screen time is dedicated to showing Mick torturing the two women in ways that
21:13the film seems to find entertaining.
21:16After an implied sexual assault, Mick severs limbs and spinal cords while stabbing and
21:21shooting to his heart's content.
21:23The movie never lets up on showing women in horrendous pain and suffering.
21:27Roger Ebert rightfully called out the film for its misogyny, writing,
21:31There is a role for violence in film, but what the hell is the purpose of this sadistic
21:36celebration of pain and cruelty?
21:39Slashers have their place, but they don't have to be as openly hateful as Wolf Creek.
21:44Unfortunately, the visceral nature of these killings might be due to the movie being based
21:48on a true story — that of Ivan Milat, the serial killer known as the Backpacker Murderer.
21:55A movie with a title like I Spit on Your Grave sets a certain tone for audiences before they
21:59even walk into the theater.
22:01The film debuted in 1978 with a poster that read,
22:04This woman has just cut, chopped, broken, and burned five men beyond recognition, but
22:10no jury in America would ever convict her.
22:12Aside from the dubious claim about juries, the sentence perfectly sums up the film's
22:17fascination with violence.
22:19Unfortunately, violence is really the only thing this movie cares to show.
22:23The premise sees a woman seeking revenge on five men after they sexually assault her,
22:28and the weak plot merely serves as a means to string together one horrifying scene after
22:33another.
22:34The assault that kicks off the movie's revenge plot takes up gratuitous amounts of screen
22:38time, and the brutal murders that follow it don't really offer any sense of catharsis.
22:43Roger Ebert called the movie a vile bag of garbage and continued by saying,
22:47Attending it was one of the most depressing experiences of my life.
22:51The shock factor can carry a movie pretty far, though.
22:54Decades after its release, I Spit on Your Grave somehow spawned a 2010 remake and multiple
23:00sequels, each arguably as upsetting as the original.
23:04Sausage Party, the 2016 comedy from the minds of Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, begins with
23:09a premise reminiscent of Toy Story.
23:11When the lights go out at a local grocery store, the food items come alive.
23:16Most of them dream of one day being bought by a customer and taken to the great beyond,
23:20but they don't realize they're destined to be eaten alive.
23:24A feature-length adult animation with an imaginative concept seems like a promising proposition.
23:29On release, the movie generated a ton of buzz, and its critical reception was overwhelmingly
23:34positive.
23:35Looking back now, it's hard to imagine how the film even earned a release, much less
23:40critical praise considering how heavily it relies on being downright offensive for laughs.
23:46The crude sexual humor is rampant, but with a name like Sausage Party, what else would
23:50you expect?
23:51You couldn't fit an eggplant in there!
23:53It's too big!
23:54It'll tear you in half!"
23:55However, what's really jarring is just how many racial stereotypes were squeezed into
24:00the film.
24:01Scene after scene pairs Kareem Abdul-Lavash with Sammy Bagel Jr. and forces them to play
24:06out one anti-Muslim or anti-Semitic trope after another.
24:09A sentient bottle of Native American liquor is given a cringe-worthy performance by Bill
24:14Hader, and the movie's Twinkie character is gay.
24:17The list of groups used as punchlines goes on and on, but the movie really should not.
24:23Bucky Larson, born to be a star, really tries its hardest to turn the adult film industry
24:28into one interminable running joke, but it really should have channeled its efforts elsewhere.
24:32The film follows its titular character after he discovers that his parents used to be porn
24:37stars.
24:38Bucky takes their history as inspiration and sets off for Hollywood, determined to find
24:43his own way to break into the industry.
24:45This is my destiny.
24:47I was born to be a star."
24:49It doesn't take long for Bucky to realize that his body doesn't exactly live up to adult
24:54film standards, but he finds his way to stardom despite anything that he's lacking.
24:58The problem with Bucky Larson might not be that it went too far with its lazy sex humor,
25:03but that it didn't go far enough with creating real characters or a story worth paying attention to.
25:08There are only so many small penis jokes someone can be expected to listen to, and Bucky Larson
25:14fills out more than a lifetime's quota.
25:18Darren Aronofsky has become synonymous with films that push boundaries.
25:21He isn't afraid to tell complicated stories or to present audiences with horrifying imagery
25:26that works to make the reality of his characters really hit home.
25:29It's a filmmaking strategy that's definitely earned him success, but one that's also sure
25:34to turn away plenty of viewers.
25:36Requiem for a Dream was Aronofsky's second film, and he had ambitious plans for it.
25:41The movie is an adaptation of a Hubert Selby Jr. novel, and the story centers on the lives
25:45of a group of addicts living in New York City.
25:47Sarah becomes addicted to amphetamines while trying to lose weight for a potential television
25:51appearance, while her son Harry and his friends use and deal heroin.
25:56The film uses split-screen segments and other editing techniques to disorient audiences
26:00and put them in the mindset of the movie's fractured characters.
26:04The bizarre and rapid editing is enough to make someone feel a bit queasy in certain
26:08moments, but it's the movie's depiction of needle injections, arm infections, violence,
26:13and sexual assault that really takes things over the top.
26:17The original cut of the film was rated NC-17, but even though the R-rated version cut down
26:22on some of the sexual content, the rest is still graphic enough to sicken an unprepared viewer.
26:28Oldboy is a 2003 South Korean film by director Park Chan-wook.
26:32Based on the Japanese manga of the same name, the movie follows a man named Oh Daesu, who's
26:37kidnapped and locked inside what amounts to a hotel room for 15 years.
26:42When he's suddenly released, Oh Daesu desperately begins looking for the truth behind his imprisonment
26:47and plotting revenge against the people who took him captive.
26:51By any measure, Oldboy is a fantastic film.
26:53It delivers a noir-styled story with some truly memorable fight scenes and a plot that
26:57keeps you guessing right up to the very end.
27:00However, critical acclaim and popular reception aside, the movie still goes too far, at least
27:06once.
27:07You might find the big twist a bit on the gross side, but that's not the gross-out moment
27:11that puts Oldboy over the top.
27:13The octopus-eating scene takes place shortly after Oh Daesu is released from his prison.
27:18He shows up at a sushi restaurant and demands to eat something that's still alive.
27:23He proceeds to chow down on a live octopus, which lead actor Choi Min-sik really did.
27:29Creating the scene took three takes, and each time Min-sik crushed a live octopus between
27:34his teeth.
27:35Does the scene create a thematically resonant moment in the movie?
27:39Sure.
27:40Was it completely necessary?
27:41Almost definitely not.
27:43The very premise of 2009's The Human Centipede takes things so far that it's a wonder that
27:48the movie ever got made.
27:50For anyone who's missed more than a decade's worth of jokes about the film, here's a basic
27:54breakdown of the plot.
27:55Dr. Josef Heider is a retired surgeon turned psychopath who's become obsessed with using
28:00his medical skills to make obscene creatures.
28:03He kidnaps three tourists and sews them together in a line to form one continuous digestive
28:09tract.
28:10After that, Heider spends the rest of the movie continuing to torment the three as he
28:13trains his human centipede as a pet.
28:16Eventually, investigators stumble upon Heider's home, and a bloodbath brings the movie to
28:20its conclusion.
28:21The Human Centipede is nauseating to even think about, and watching it is no better.
28:26As we've already seen with other movies on this list, though, nausea-inducing shocks
28:30can take a movie pretty far.
28:33Horror movies often aim to make audiences uncomfortable, but it's a thin line between
28:37scaring an audience so badly they hide their eyes and showing them something so repulsive
28:42they're forced to look away from the screen.
28:44Hostile Park 2 found the line, poked it, then jumped right to the other side.
28:49The movie ran into problems well before it even made its way into theaters.
28:53The original theatrical poster had to be banned and replaced because it was too graphic.
28:58It simply featured a small bit of text overlaid on an image of chopped-up bloody flesh.
29:04The replacement poster had an unclothed woman's body holding what is presumably her own severed
29:10head, so that one likely ran into issues at most theaters as well.
29:14The story, such as it is, follows a group of art students on vacation who unwittingly
29:18get auctioned off to a secret ring of wealthy torture fanatics.
29:23Scene after scene of nudity and torture play out, including graphic depictions of scalping,
29:28multiple beheadings, and severed genitalia being fed to dogs.
29:33Saw took the world by storm in 2004.
29:36Horror fans were intrigued by the film's grotesque premise and delighted by its sudden twist
29:41ending.
29:42A lot of the magic has to do with James Wan's directing, which might be why there's little
29:46magic or substance to be found in the sequels.
29:49When you start with a sadistic killer dishing out punishment via elaborate torture devices
29:53to anyone he deems deserving, it's hard to get much more disturbing.
29:58That didn't stop the Saw sequels from trying to up the ante.
30:02And even though the most squeamish of viewers stopped after the first film, Saw III is the
30:07one that finally took things too far.
30:10There are, of course, all the nightmarish traps that fans had come to expect from the
30:14franchise.
30:15A woman is ripped apart after fishing a key out of acid and still failing to escape, another
30:19is frozen to death, and a man is drowned in the ground-up remains of pigs.
30:24It's all nauseating stuff.
30:26But then the film goes on to include a surgery scene in which serial killer John Kramer has
30:31his skull drilled open to relieve pressure on his brain.
30:35The movie is just one miserable scene after another, presented with sloppy editing and
30:41a story that would send an audience right to sleep if it weren't for the constant onslaught
30:46of nightmarish imagery on screen.
30:48A movie doesn't have to be gross or crude to go too far.
30:52Sometimes a film just finds a way to pour gas on a fire that really needs to die down.
30:58In 1991, Oliver Stone released his political thriller JFK, starring Kevin Costner and Gary
31:04Oldman.
31:05The film begins with the investigation of Kennedy's assassination, which ends after
31:08Lee Harvey Oswald is killed.
31:11Years later, though, the investigation is reopened, and a conspiracy tying the murders
31:15to members of the United States government itself is uncovered.
31:18We're going back into the case, Lou.
31:22Murder of the president."
31:24Conspiracy theories about the Kennedy assassination have been running rampant since 1963, and
31:29the most diehard believers didn't need Stone to step in and reaffirm their suspicions.
31:34He decided to do it anyway, and JFK glorifies the kind of thinking that keeps new conspiracy
31:40theories popping up online every day.
31:43In case anyone thought that Stone had just made the poor decision to use real conspiracy
31:47theories as fodder for a big movie, he came back and released a documentary called JFK
31:52Revisited Through the Looking Glass in 2021.
31:55It takes the same ideas at the heart of the original film's plot, but presents them as
31:59though they are definitive facts that Stone himself has uncovered.