mervyn-verstellung's - Traumatic Cinema List

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An apartment with an unhappy past, in a building filled with faintly sinister residents, sets the stage for filmmaker Roman Polanski's riveting thriller 'The Tenant'.

Polanski plays Trelkovsky, a quiet, timid file clerk whose unremarkable life becomes Increasingly overshadowed with dread and fear after he moves into his new home. Adding to his paranoia are the building's other occupants, who do nothing to alleviate his growing obsession with the untimely, tragic fate of the apartment's previous tenant. Is Trelkovsky's dread truly justified - or is it simply the result of his seemingly disintegrating mental state?

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As beautiful blonde Melanie Daniels (Tippi Hedren) rolls into Bodega Bay in pursuit of eligible bachelor Mitch Brenner (Rod Taylor), she is inexplicably attacked by a seagull.

Suddenly thousands of birds are flocking into town, preying on school-children and residents in a terrifying series of attacks. Soon Mitch and Melanie are fighting for their lives against a deadly force that can't be explained and can't be stopped in one of Hollywood's most horrific films of nature gone berserk.

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A tyrant schoolteacher - Delasalle (Paul Meurisse) in a seedy boarding school has both his wife (Vera Clouzot) and his mistress (Simone Signoret) looking for a way out as he maltreats them both. They decide to work together to murder their tormentor.

The two women drown Delasalle in the bath then dump the body in a swimming pool. When the pool is drained and no body found they start to worry. When his suit is returned, cleaned, they start to panic. Is he alive? Does someone else know? A spiral of perfectly crafted tension hurtles you to an unparalleled conclusion and an ending you will never forget!

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When Ellen, the matriarch of the Graham family, passes away, her daughter Annie (Toni Colette) and her husband (Gabriel Byrne) and their two children begin to unravel cryptic and increasingly terrifying secrets about their ancestry.

The more they discover, the more they find themselves trying to outrun the sinister fate they seem to have inherited.

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Deborah Kerr (in the performance of her career) plays the emotionally repressed vicar's daughter who takes up a job as a governess to two seemingly angelic orphans.

Gradually coming to believe that the children are possessed by the perverse spirits of their former governess and her sadistic lover, she begins to see manifestations of the ghosts prowling the huge gothic mansion of Bly House. Director Jack Clayton sustains a superbly haunting atmosphere throughout the film, and like James' original work, cleverly retains the ambiguity of wether the ghosts are real or the products of the governess's fevered imagination. Aided by Freddie Francis's exquisitely inventive and atmospheric CinemaScope photography, we, like the governess, are never quite sure what unspoken horrors are lurking beyond the edge of the frame and are kept guessing until the film's tragic conclusion.

When a friendless old widow dies in the market town of Crythin Gifford, a young solicitor is sent in to settle her estate. Following cryptic warnings from the locals regarding the terrifying history of the old woman's house, he very soon begins to see visions of a menacing woman in black...

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A Monster Calls is a spectacular story of one boy's journey for hope and courage.

With his mother (Felicity Jones) fighting a life-threatening illness and his strict grandmother (Sigourney Weaver) imposing new rules on his life, 12-year-old Conor O'Malley (Lewis MacDougall) is faced with a future beyond his control. Confused, angry, and alone, he immerses himself in a fantastical world of his own creation where he meets an ancient and giant creature known as 'The Monster' (Liam Neeson) who helps Conor to confront his nightmares.

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When a pair of sociopaths (Mink Stole and David Lochary) with a habit of kidnapping women in order to impregnate them attempt to challenge her title, Divine resolves to show them and the world the true meaning of the word 'filth'.

Incest, cannibalism, shrimping, and film history's most legendary gross-out ending - Waters and his merry band of Dreamlanders leave no taboo unsmashed in this gleefully subversive ode to outsiderhood, in which camp spectacle and pitch-black satire are wielded in an all-out assault on respectability.

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At a lavish ceremony hosted by her sister (Charlotte Gainsbourg, Antichrist), the wedding of Justine (Dunst, in an award winning performance) and her fiance Michael (Alexander Skarsgard, True Blood) is marred by fractious familial exchanges and Justine's battle with her own inner demons.

Meanwhile, the mysterious planet Melancholia emerges from behind the sun and appears to be headed on an apocalyptic collision course with the Earth...

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Four months after pregnant Sarah (Alysson Paradis) loses her husband in a horrific auto accident, she is visited on Christmas Eve by a mysterious madwoman. Alone and desperate to save her unborn child, Sarah fights to stay alive as each of her potential rescuers die at the woman's sadistic hands.

With scene after scene of shocking carnage and escalating mayhem, Inside delivers unbelievably realistic gore that dares you not to look away.

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Before distant voices, still lives and the long day closes confirmed his status as one of the cinematic masters of our day, these three short early films by Terrance Davies reveal a filmmaker of great early promise.

In stark black and white, Davis excavates the life of his fictional alter ego, Robert Tucker, in a narrative that slips like a shuffled pack of cards between childhood, middle age and death, shaping the raw materials of his own life into a rich tapestry of experiences and impressions.
Featuring:
- Children
- Madonna and Child
- Death and Transfiguraton

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When her husband Samuel (Samuel Theis) is mysteriously found dead in the snow below their secluded chalet, Sandra (Sandra Hüller) becomes the main suspect when the police begin to question whether he fell or was pushed.

The trial soon becomes not just an investigation, but a gripping psychological journey into the depths of Sandra and Samuel's complicated marriage. With conflicting evidence and inconsistent testimony, words are wielded like weapons and shocking truths come to light...

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Johnny (David Thewlis) is a frenetic and destructive outsider who tears through the lives of others like an emotional tornado.

On the run from Manchester, he seeks sanctuary with his ex-girlfriend Louise (Lesley Sharp) in London, where he immediately targets her vulnerable housemate Sophie (Katrin Cartlidge) with his unique blend of predatory charm. From there he embarks on a nocturnal odyssey across the city, dragging other disaffected souls into his orbit as he spirals towards his own personal apocalypse.

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With their marriage in pieces Anna and Mark's tense relationship has become a psychotic descent into screaming matches, violence and self-mutilation.

Believing his wife's only lover is the sinister Heinrich (Heinz Bennent), Mark (Sam Neill) is unaware of the demonic, tentacled creature that Anna (Isabelle Adjani) has hidden away for liaisons in a deserted apartment and will stop at nothing to protect.

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What is an ordinary couple? Here, as six relationships are put under the microscope of the camera, the universal themes of sex, power, illness, perversion and hair loss are dramatically revealed.

An English Squeak

The apparently bucolic aristo-existence of Peter and Flick is shadowed by an ailment on her part that makes physical intimacy impossible.

Slither in
"Ignorance is bliss, that to me is the beauty of a coma." B&B owners Gordon and Sheila fit their swinging lifestyle alongside looking after Sheila's bedridden sister.

All Over My Glasses
Michelle and Stephen are planning their wedding day. The first dance is R-Kelly's 'Bump and Grind' and there's five boxes of Doritos for the reception.

Straight As a Flute
When not making curly sausage casseroles for the vicar, Beverley and Tony survey their neighbour's Satan-inspired garden and tell of life under the full gaze of the Lord.

Hairless
"My songs are like my children," says singer Fonte. "Yet they're also like my parents, or a special uncle, who is particularly friendly at Christmas time."

More Than Happy
"You hear of people who have all sorts of sexual hang-ups... and I'm one of them." Les's optimism has carried him and Ray through eight traumatic married years.