Viscerally Disturbing, Round 1: Men Behind The Sun vs. Cannibal Holocaust

[Cena's Little Helper]

Men Behind The Sun (1988, Directed by Mou Tun Fei)

Synopsis: A film about the World War II atrocities committed by Japan in Unit 731, a biological weapons experimentation program run by the Imperial Japanese Army.

Why This Film Was Chosen: It's probably the most well-known Category III film ever made (Category III is a Hong Kong rating that's equivalent to America's NC-17 or Britain's 18).

Key Disturbing Moment: A guy test subject is put in some kind of pressure chamber that causes his intestines to snake out of his anus.

vs.

Cannibal Holocaust (1980, Directed by Ruggero Deodato)

Synopsis: An NYU anthropology professor is hired by a PBS-like broadcasting corporation to find a team of documentarians in the Amazon rainforest. After he finds their remains, he comes back to the States to screen what was contained in their film canisters, and the rest is exploitation cinema history.

Why This Film Was Chosen: Because it's considered by many to be the most disturbing and controversial film ever made.

Key Disturbing Moment: The aforementioned documentarians marvel at a dead tribal woman who looks to have been skewered on a pole that was inserted through either her anal or vaginal cavity and which protrudes out of her mouth.​

 

[INDYjon22]

Well, on top of the skewered tribes girl, I think it is appropriate to mention all of the animal violence that transpires in this film. A total of 6 animals were killed in the making of this film, needless to say the disclaimer saying no animals were harmed in the making of this film was thrown out of the window. You really don't know gut wrenching, nauseating film until you watch a pig get kicked, squeal in pain, and then get shot. Or watch a turtle get cut open and stewed. Very sickening. Now, I am not trying to take anything away from Men Behind the Sun because, from what I have gathered, there is animal cruelty in it as well, but I don't think it is to the degree of Cannibal Holocaust.

On top of that, the director was out on trial for killing his actors. Yes, there was actually a controversy as to if Ruggero Deodato killed his actors to make the film seem more realistic. Knowing this little tidbit about the film definitely makes you question what you are watching, if you are truly watching people being murdered or not. Now, that ultimately was not the case. He just made the actors sign contracts that enabled them to be seen in public until the film was released, obviously a contract he had to break so that he wouldn't get put in jail. And the tribal girl that Tdigs mentioned was skewered on a pole. Well, they claim she wasn't actually killed but because she was a native or wherever they were filming no one knows for sure.

If I need to give any more reasons then I will, but I 100% believe Cannibal Holocaust wins this round.

 

[Cena's Little Helper]

Cannibal Holocaust has to be one of the most ingenious films ever made. Just like when that pussy Charlie Sheen turned over tapes from the Guinea Pig series to the FBI, the makers of Cannibal Holocaust had to prove to authorities that some portions of their film were indeed staged and not real (the woman on the pole being the focal point of the investigation).

When you tack onto this the grainy film stock Deodato used to make Cannibal Holocaust's documentary-within-a-film, the real animal killings, and the fact that Deodato even had the film's actors "disappear" so he could market Cannibal Holocaust as a snuff film, you have what I'd consider a damn fine candidate for the most disturbing film ever made.

 

[X]

What the fuck? How the fuck is Cannibal Holocaust winning this right now? It's not even 1/2 as viscerally disturbing or violent as Men Behind the Sun is. Most of the violence in Holocaust is straight-up cartoonish with how fake it looks, I mean sure it's slightly disturbing but it's not anything more than an exploitative mondo film in the same vein as shit like Faces of Death. Cannibalism is disturbing, until you realize how very rare it actually is in this day and age.

Men Behind the Sun on the other hand, is entirely based off of REAL events. It's a look into the darkest depths of humanity, there are very few things more disturbing than humans experimenting on other humans, especially when these experiments involve the most brutal and disturbing torture you'll ever see in any film. This shit really happened, look up Unit 731. These people experimented on innocent humans (women and children included) like they were ants under a magnifying glass. That's far, FAR more disturbing than some silly cheesy horror flick about people getting hunted by cannibals in the woods.

I really hope people aren't voting in this thing without actually having seen the films involved, otherwise you'd see just how far more violent and disturbing of a film Men Behind the Sun is. Easily gets my vote here, and is a serious candidate for winning this entire tournament.