Freaks from 1932. You can read all about it on the IMDb link.

It's on Watch TCM now.

I watched it last night and had such bad nightmares that the dog went downstairs to sleep.

Gooble gobble! One of us!

Saw it once back in the 80s. I really have no interest in seeing it again. It's kinda like driving by an accident scene.

Another film equally disturbing because it is an actual documentary filmed at Massachusetts Correctional Institution, a state hospital for the criminally insane. I saw it when it first appeared. Titicut Follies is the name. Here is a brief trailer:

When I was in med school in the mid-sixties, we toured a state mental institution, in the days before patients were sedated with Thorazine. It was like something out of Dante's Inferno. I can't imagine working there on a daily basis.

quote:

Originally posted by NK402:
When I was in med school in the mid-sixties, we toured a state mental institution, in the days before patients were sedated with Thorazine. It was like something out of Dante's Inferno. I can't imagine working there on a daily basis.

all you gotta do nowadays is live in / visit any major city

unbelievable the mentally ill persons walking around

see it here in SW FL every day. have relatives in Vegas ... see it there also on pretty much every street corner not in the 'burbs

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quote:

all you gotta do nowadays is live in / visit any major city

unbelievable the mentally ill persons walking around

see it here in SW FL every day. have relatives in Vegas ... see it there also on pretty much every street corner not in the 'burbs

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Our mental health system is broken. These people were supposed to be treated in a community mental health center. These days they are either incarcerated or on the streets. Very sad situation if you are a chronic schizophrenic without financial means.

While admittedly controversial in it's day, Tod Browning's Freaks is perhaps THE classic pre-code horror film. As for weird, give David Lynch's 1977 Eraserhead a look. It makes Freaks present like a Hallmark Hall of Fame holiday special.

quote:

Originally posted by hjs157:
While admittedly controversial in it's day, Tod Browning's Freaks is perhaps THE classic pre-code horror film. As for weird, give David Lynch's 1977 Eraserhead a look. It makes Freaks present like a Hallmark Hall of Fame holiday special.

I see your "Eraserhead" and raise one "Gummo".

quote:

Originally posted by Ripley:

quote:

Originally posted by hjs157:
While admittedly controversial in it's day, Tod Browning's Freaks is perhaps THE classic pre-code horror film. As for weird, give David Lynch's 1977 Eraserhead a look. It makes Freaks present like a Hallmark Hall of Fame holiday special.

I see your "Eraserhead" and raise one "Gummo".

I have never seen "Gummo," (except for a few scenes) but I was going to mention "Eraserhead" as the weirdest movie I have ever seen. It is very strange, and I have a high tolerance for strange. I found it almost impossible to understand. I don't understand it.

From what I understand of "Gummo" is that it is set in a recognizable, but fractured middle America. I know it doesn't have any conventional narrative.

"Eraserhead" is surreal and fantastical, and it is sometimes difficult to say what is even happening.

Weirdness is subjective, but "Eraserhead" is it for me.

quote:

Originally posted by jhe888:
..I have a high tolerance for strange...

Then by all means see "Gummo".

The thing about "Eraserhead", knowing David Lynch, I went in prepared. Not so for "Gummo" and yes, a fractured America as a basis doesn't make it any more comfortable.

quote:

Originally posted by jhe888:
..I have a high tolerance for strange..

^^^^^^^^^
Do enjoy Fellini films? I just cannot stay interested. Same with Bergman"s Personna. I do like late Van Gogh though.

saw Gummo a few years back

definitely worth a watch if you are into weird

its like a glimpse into an alternate reality that actually exists in the margins of society

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