Watching the Unwatchable: 18 'Dare You to Look' Scenes

The story of adventure junkie Aron Ralston was well publicized long before James Franco brought the tale to the big screen, but familiarity did little to quell the effects of the film's gory amputation scene. And even if you were one of the steel-stomached moviegoers who didn't pass out, bury your head in the shoulder of the person next to you, or lose your lunch during the scene, it's likely that the image of the protagonist cutting away at his own arm with the aid of a dull pocket knife will pop into your head the next time you're deciding whether or not you want to tour some visually stunning canyons. —Sandra Gonzalez

Pretty much everyone's a sadist in Inglourious Basterds — even the nominal heroes of the movie get a serious kick from all the blood-letting. In this ''interrogation'' scene, a Nazi sergeant refuses to give any German army intelligence to Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt.) So Aldo calls in his main enforcer: Staff Sergeant Donny Donnowitz, a.k.a. the baseball bat-wielding ''Bear Jew.'' The beating itself is bloody, but what makes it even worse is the brilliantly sustained lead-up to the violence — it's almost a relief when the guy's head finally gets bashed in. (Fun fact! The ''Bear Jew'' is played by director Eli Roth, who's practically a ''Dare-You-To-Look'' auteur thanks to the Hostel franchise.) —Darren Franich

It's hard to say what's harder to watch: the gleefully brutal home invasion near the beginning of Stanley Kubrick's sci-fi classic (in which Malcolm McDowell's Alex and his ''droogs'' assault an old man and rape his young wife) or the re-programming of Alex, complete with those claw-braces that keep his eyes open. Either makes us wish we could, for a moment, keep our eyes wide shut. —Marc Bernardin

We almost went with Marcellus Wallace (Ving Rhames) getting raped in the basement, but as hard as that is to watch, it doesn't have the same protracted agony as Mia (Uma Thurman) taking a blow to the heart with a very large needle. Plus, after she gets that home-administered adrenaline shot, she gains consciousness with it still stuck in her chest. Ughh. Say no to drugs, kids. —Kate Ward

Regular dentists are bad enough. But Nazi dentists? Nazi dentists who don't use novocaine?! It's hard to imagine a more perfect form of evil. So when Laurence Olivier slaps young Dustin Hoffman down in a dental chair and proceeds to interrogate him — ''Is it safe?'' — with the help of his whirring, buzzing friend, Mr. Pointy, you'll be forgiven for feeling a little clammy and lightheaded. —Chris Nashawaty

I'd never heard of ''curbing'' until I saw Tony Kaye's neo-Nazi diatribe. When Edward Norton's hate ideologue Derek Vineyard forces a black car thief to get down on the ground and place his open mouth on the sidewalk's curb, teeth grating, I got sick to my stomach. When Derek stomped on the back of the thief's head — splitting his head like a melon — I whipped my own head around as if struck. Despite being impressed with the power of Norton's performance, I've never seen the film again. —Marc Bernardin

Darren Aronofsky's drug-spiral odyssey is one cringeworthy moment after another, but never more so than when Harry (Jared Leto) shoots heroin into the cavernous black hole of infection that is forming on his arm. The festering arm is later sawed off by an emotionless doctor, but watching how it got that way is positively revolting. —Mark L. Luckie

Torture is never fun to watch, but most films — ones that aren't reveling in their own torture-pornitude, anyway — don't make you watch the most gruesome parts. Not Syriana. We get to squirm along with George Clooney as his CIA analyst gets his fingernail painstakingly removed with large pliers. Such a small body part to cause such agony. —Marc Bernardin

Speaking of fingers, watching Rutger Hauer snap Harrison Ford's in Ridley Scott's sci-fi noir is no walk in the park either. Like twigs, they seem to break so easily. Which is what makes it so skeevy. —Marc Bernardin

You were probably too busy shielding your eyes the first time, but if you actually rewatch Quentin Tarantino's ear-slicing scene — you know, the one where Michael Madsen's psychotic Mr. Blonde struts around to ''Stuck in the Middle With You'' and douses a cop hostage with gasoline — you might be shocked at just how much isn't shown. The camera pans away during the worst of it. Ironically, that just makes the whole thing that much more unbearable. —Chris Nashawaty

The sequels might have upped the gore ante, but none of them were as deeply disturbing as their predecessor. Watching Amanda (Shawnee Smith) dig through a live man's stomach was bad enough, but the film's climax — which showed Cary Elwes sawing off his own leg in a desperate attempt to break free of Jigsaw's psychotic trap — was one of the most horrific things ever put on screen. Even if you turned away, just imagining the gruesome act would be enough to make your blood curdle. —Kate Ward

We've got to say that being C. Thomas Howell's girlfriend was the second worst thing to happen to Jennifer Jason Leigh in this sparse highway thriller. The first would be getting kidnapped by serial killer Rutger Hauer, strung up between two tractor trailers, and slowly pulled apart. Yeah, that's bad. —Marc Bernardin

Nobody brings the crazy like Kathy Bates. When author Paul Sheldon (James Caan) veers off the road during a nasty snowstorm, his Number One Fan (Bates) promises to nurse him back to health. That is, until she slams a sledgehammer into his ankles to make sure he doesn't wander from her adoring gaze. —Mark L. Luckie

It just...doesn't...stop. The rape scene in Gaspar Noe's reverse-chronological-order film that stirred so much controversy is so hard to watch because the camera never cuts away. We don't get to take solace in the subliminal artifice that comes with edits; instead, we're forced to watch as Monica Belluci gets brutalized in one, long, steady take. —Marc Bernardin

The grotesque sight of Dr. Nicholas Garrigan (James McAvoy) dangling from the ceiling by his nipples, courtesy of two big ol' meat hooks jammed into his chest, is like a sucker punch to the gut. Unlike torture scenes in cheesy horror movies, this one terrifies because it's sickeningly realistic, especially given the story line. And what's more disturbing is that he never makes a sound, even as the hooks slice through his skin. Reportedly, McAvoy even passed out the first time he filmed this scene. Who wouldn't? —Jill LeGrow

It might be the most instinctively inviolate part of the human body, the eye. And so when, in this Luis Buñuel-Salvador Dalí short film, a knife slices into a woman's bare eyeball, it triggers the most visceral of responses. The most insidious part is that you're using the very organ that's being cut into to watch it. —Marc Bernardin

Before Hollywood dulled the scare factor of Japanese horror adaptations by churning out an endless supply of remakes (see: The Grudge, The Eye, etc.), Gore Verbinski's The Ring had us clinging to our seats — or to the person next to us — in sheer terror. One look at Katie (Amber Tamblyn) literally scared to death in that closet, and I'm out of the room faster than you can say ''Sarah Michelle Gellar.'' —Kate Ward

Torture. Long needles. A dismembered man in a burlap bag. Eating vomit. Do I really need to elaborate? (For your own sakes, no. Trust me.) Just writing this blurb about Takashi Miike's disturbing revenge film will give me nightmares — and the urge to shower. —Kate Ward