Books you wish you had never read, or movies you wish you had never seen? - Page 3

[SabrinaJL]

Anyways there is a scene where he breaks into the house while the teenage daughter is on the phone with her mom and he brutally assaults her and the mom is hearing the whole thing. I am still tormented by the scene; it was absolutely gutwrenching.

OMG!! I sooo agree. It's completely heartbreaking. I was sobbing and my DH stopped it and was like "It's just a movie!". I couldn't get him to understand that I could understand that woman's terror. I could imagine the horror of being in a situation where something awful is happening to your child and there's nothing you can do about it.

But there isn't any books or movies I wish I hadn't watched because of the way they made me feel or react. Good books and movies are supposed to have an impact. The ones I regret are horrible, boring ones that I feel like I wasted my time on.

The book is even worse. I think I read somewhere that Stephen King's wife told him to throw the book away and not publish it. She thought it was THAT disturbing...and it was.

Not true. HE was the one that felt it was that disturbing since it was based on an incident that happened to his son. In the introduction he says "I simply took the existing elements and threw in that one terrible what if. Put another way, I found myself not only thinking the unthinkable, but writing it down." Then he goes on to say, "I found the results so startling and so gruesome that I put the book in a drawer, thinking it would never be published." He discussed it with his wife and SHE encouraged him to publish it. Said it was "awful, but too good not to be read."

[thirtycats]

Not true. HE was the one that felt it was that disturbing since it was based on an incident that happened to his son. In the introduction he says "I simply took the existing elements and threw in that one terrible what if. Put another way, I found myself not only thinking the unthinkable, but writing it down." Then he goes on to say, "I found the results so startling and so gruesome that I put the book in a drawer, thinking it would never be published." He discussed it with his wife and SHE encouraged him to publish it. Said it was "awful, but too good not to be read."

Ah, thanks for correcting me!!! He's lucky to have such a supportive wife.

Dina

[SabrinaJL]

Heh, yeah he is. I'm certain I wouldn't be so supportive if it were based on something that happened to my kid. I'd think he was an ass for even thinking it, let alone writing it. But I guess since she's a writer too it's easier for her to understand.

[Viola]

Originally Posted by Avonlea

I wish I had NEVER seen Pet Cemetary as well. I am still haunted by certain parts of that movie.

Wow, my hubby said that movie disturbed him as well. I read the book, but never saw the movie. The book didn't really bother me at all. I guess maybe the visuals in the movie were more disturbing.

I read The Rape of Nanjing when I was pregnant with my first child. It was disturbing and I was really glad I had read it, but in the years since it has come back to haunt me. Usually when I'm trying to have sex. I guess I'm still glad I read it.

I used to read Dean Koontz stuff and it all leaves me with a rather gross feeling, so I just avoid all of his books now. And I wish I hadn't read some of them.

[Viola]

Originally Posted by Eustacia

The movie "Seven". I still have horrible thoughts when I think of that movie. I have been known to beg friends not to watch it.

Ugh, yes, this is definitely one I wish I hadn't seen and would tell people to stay away from. By the end, I was plugging my ears and closing my eyes and going "la la la" quietly to myself. Of course, the friend I was with had to tell me all about it.

I couldn't eat spaghetti for months after seeing that film. Ugh, I thought it was horrible and too gimmicky. At first it just seemed kind of dark and brooding, but it got ridiculous by the end.

[Viola]

Originally Posted by Attila the Honey

The movie "Jude"

I never saw the film, but I read the book. One night I'm reading along, I get up to go to the bathroom at around 2 am and am reading it on the toilet. Then I get to "that" scene. I was literally shocked! I did not expect that from a Thomas Hardy novel although thinking about it, I'm not sure why not. I tried to read Return of the Native three times, and I quit each time because I could see it was just not going to turn out well.

Oh, a book I definitely wish I hadn't read: A Fine Balance It had some bad scenes and then a few that seemed like they could have come right out of Jude the Obscure and Anna Karenina. But reading A Fine Balance is what prompted me to read Anna Karenina, which I liked, so maybe it wasn't all bad.

[Lucyloo]

The Baby of Macon

Salo: The 120 Days of Sodom It may well be a searing allegorical masterpiece of Fascism and Pasolini may well be a genius, but I would rather chew my own toes off than watch that again.

[Charles Baudelaire]

Okay, for me it would be the following movies. Wish I had NOT seen them and *I want my life back!!!*

1. Caligula, with Malcolm McDowell. Okay, the incest with Sis was bad enough, but the scene where he...uh...*devirginizes* the GROOM during this wedding scene with his well-aimed cream-coated *fist* was too much. Oh, and it had the biggest pe***s I've ever seen in my life (in person OR in film) in the orgy scene. It looked like a fleshy 3-liter bottle of Coke.

2. Artificial Intelligence. Oh, man -- if you have a child and love that child, you will HATE, HATE, HATE this movie. This horrible mother...you'll sit there waiting for this torture to end in the faint hope that this poor little kid can have some closure. Oh, it's dreadful and I wish I'd never seen it.

[brooklyngirl]

Interesting thread:

Most recently I found Mystic River to be so heavy that I wish I had skipped it. The scence with the boy in the car mad me physically ill and I had to leave the room.

Someone suggested I read American Psycho after I mentioned that I like horror. I had to explain to them after reading the book that there is a difference between horror and horrible.

There was also this short story that I read in a compilation that was about animal torture that still freaks me out.

The Ring scared the sh@%$! out of me.

[bluey]

Originally Posted by pumpkinhead

The Mothman Chronicles. The fact that it was supposedly based on true stories creeps me out big time. Make believe horror is ok, but when it's supposedly based in fact? CREEEEEEEEEEEEPY!

I'm right there with ya on that one. When dh is feeling particularly obnoxious he will say "they noticed you noticing them" (line from movie) and it still makes me shudder. That and Signs. I had the worst nightmare after seeing that. There is one more we watched recently that I know I felt robbed of my time after watching but I can't remember what it was. Must be blocking it out.

[JesseMomme]

Originally Posted by SabrinaJL

Heh, yeah he is. I'm certain I wouldn't be so supportive if it were based on something that happened to my kid. I'd think he was an ass for even thinking it, let alone writing it. But I guess since she's a writer too it's easier for her to understand.

My Dh probably knows (he's read most everything of Steven King) but what happened to his kid that actually spawned Pet Cemetary?

Here's my list:

- Seen Pet Cemetary several times (never read the book) Thanks. I had completely forgotton about Zelda until someone mentioned her, now I'm sitting here in the dark at 3:30am freaked out One time a high school friend of mine were sitting up late and talking about how Zelda scared us (my total forgotten till now flashback lol) and her grandmother came in to check on us without knocking. Her grandmother, a very small old Philipino woman, looked a lot like Zelda in the halflit hallway, we both screamed But the whole son coming back to "life" still creeps me out.

-Another vote for "The Ring". Didn't help that I was in the midst of battling ppd/anxiety attacks and that movie totally triggered me off. Couldnt' get it out of my head for days, and would not want to watch it again.

-Another vote for "Blair Witch Project". Went to see it at night when Kieran was just a baby and I looked like this all the way home, speechless I layed awake the entire night until the sun came up, literally breathless and jumping at the slightest noise, even at the cat. I still anyone who will listen that that was the scariest movie I ever saw. The sequal? Blah - LOL

-"House on the Haunted Hill" - (the remake) totally freakin f***** up. Lesson learned - if a movie looks like one big long Trent Reznor video, skip it.

had more but now im nak'ing lol

[fyrflymommy]

movies: all the icky horror movies that i watched as a teenager. they didn't really bother me back then but they do now!! ugh especially the "nightmare on elm st" series...gives me nightmares. oh and i saw the most disgusting movie ever when i was babysitting a friend of mine's son when i was 15 or 16. he went to sleep so i turned on whatever was in the vcr. oh yucky it was the director's unedited version of "the mangler". oh god i had to turn it off.

i don't watch horror anymore.

[sagewinna]

The scene in Trainspotting, where the baby dies, haunts me!

[Lucysmama]

My 10 year old brother sat me down when I was 8 and we watched 3 horror films: SHOCKER, PET CEMETARY, and NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET.

That one night totally changed my life. I am not kidding. I never felt safe in my house again after I saw those. I literally thought that murderers come randomly to people's houses and just kill them. SHOCKER was the worst of the 3. This insane guy kills families in their beds at night just for no reason! Who shows that to an 8 year old?

I still can't be alone overnight in my own house.

[Boobs]

I have a list. I hate these kinds of movies and don't know how I get roped into watching them! I can't stand watching violence.

Seven
Natural Born Killers
Pulp Fiction
Pet Cemetary
American History X
Deliverance
Several episodes of the Sopranos



I also regret watching a particular PETA dvd. I watched it because a friend of ours is the speaker on it, but I really didn't need to see the other stuff. Images from it run through my head sometimes and it's just too much. I wish I had never seen it.

[indie]

Originally Posted by Amywillo

I never saw the film, but I read the book. One night I'm reading along, I get up to go to the bathroom at around 2 am and am reading it on the toilet. Then I get to "that" scene. I was literally shocked! I did not expect that from a Thomas Hardy novel although thinking about it, I'm not sure why not. I tried to read Return of the Native three times, and I quit each time because I could see it was just not going to turn out well.

I loved Jude the Obscure. Its one of my top 10 favorite books. That was the last novel he ever wrote because the reception to it was so bad that he got mad and said he wasn't writing any more novels.

[China white]

Seven didn't bother me that much. Definately twisted plot and all, but it didn't freak me out. Then again, there may have been another *key* factor as to why it didn't ........... :

[JesseMomme]

Key factor - :LOL - Seven got to me because of the ending. Only watched it once, tried to sell it after that :LOL Appearantly everyone agreed with my private opinion and didn't want to buy it ROFL.

I thought of a few more -
Stephen King's "Regulators" and the other parallel book that went with it I forgot the name but the bad guy in both was a spirit named Tak. The whole young boy having to take his dead little sister down from a coathook and the whole dead family including baby in high chair at the dinner table was too much imagery for me.

Another SK book I wish I never started, because it was so was Gerald's Game. After a month and only a few chapters into it because I kept falling asleep I gave up.

I never saw the whole movie but one time I was channel surfing and came across one of the Candyman movies. A woman was standing over a small crib screaming her head off as there was blood all over it and the wall. Uh, no thank you CLICK! It still bugs me and that was years ago!

Movies that didn't bug me include anything Tarantino (Watched Kill Bill a few months ago and thought it was great) maybe its because most of his graphic violence is really quite cheesy. Anne Rice books don't bother me either, maybe because her characters are terrible yet 'romantic', and she is such a beautifully descriptive writer where I feel the female, feminine and feminist shows through.

[Dragonfly]

Originally Posted by wendyk

here's a scene in there where someone breaks into a house. Anyway, without ruining it for those that might want to see something this graphic and disturbing, I hated the movie & wish I had never seen it.

Ugh. Yeah. I was just thinking about that last night - where the psycho knocks on the door and says to the father/husband who lives there, "I like your house."

That's one that stays with you.

[chiromama]

the main one that comes to mind... "Casualties of War" with Michael J Fox. If you've seen it, you know what I mean.

I don't regret watching movies... I just regret seeing some scenes.