Audition

Audition is a 1999 Japanese horror film. The first 45 minutes or so move slowly, concentrating on character development and setting, and even after that the build-up to the climax is slow. There is foreshadowing. The film is talky in some spots, while having long periods of silence and little action in others. Moody, maybe? There's a stillness about it that makes the sudden movements that are there more striking. I like the style; I just don't like what it builds up to in this movie.

It's known to be particularly gory, with graphic torture. I don't like torture. I don't like images of pain and the infliction of pain. I don't like films in the "torture-porn" category whose raison d'être seems to be exposing the audience to ever more graphic images of that very thing. Why, then, did I watch this? Well, you see, it shows up on various lists of "best" horror films.

I found the last 30 minutes impossible to watch. I did try. I kept having to look away. I found the last part of this film more disturbing than any other I can recall right now. The Younger Son is surprised I tried to watch it and advises me against anything by this director.

trailer:

Moria gives it their top 5-star rating but warns:

It is during the last fifteen minutes or so that Audition enters into the genuinely disturbing with some of the most extreme and seat-squirmingly uncomfortable scenes of torture ever placed on screen

Stomp Tokyo says,

Audition is a film you'll tell your friends about, not so much by way of recommendation as much as to tell them how messed up it is.

1000 Misspent Hours calls it "exceptionally twisted" and warns, "“subjecting yourself” is the right phrase to describe the experience of watching Audition’s final 45 minutes."Slant Magazine calls it this directors "only truly essential" film. Rotten Tomatoes gives it 78%.