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What's a piece of art or media (film, book, painting etc) that you loved, but would never want to see again?
I have some obvious examples, like the anime Kare Kano, and the movies Lion (2016), It and The Exorcist. What are yours?
I think Requiem for a Dream is a good answer to this.
It is the answer. Enter The Void a close second for exactly the same reasons. What is it with drug films?
My wife wishes she hadn't even seen this the first time. She still brings it up as a scarring experience.
In high school this was known as "Hug Your Mom: The Movie."
I was super into films back in the day and was buying DVDs before even seeing them, this being one of them. Worst decision ever. A lot of people would come over for the first time and ask "...why do you own this?"
Why? Because it's a tremendous piece of film! Just because it makes you uncomfortable doesn't mean it shouldn't be watched.
I made the mistake of watching it while I was recovering from fracturing my pelvis (and was on a lot of painkillers, this was three days after the break). Definitely one of the worst decisions I've made.
My tolerance for watching things whereby suffering is depicted as evaporated over time as I've got older (and maybe since I became a Dad).
I think the classic American History X fits into this category. Immensely powerful film, but there's no way I could sit through most of what happens in it again.
There are other films in a similar category to that too, but I think that's the best example.
Came here to mention American History X. It was a great movie. Decades later I’m still haunted by the curb stomping scene. I have no desire to ever watch it again, despite being glad I saw it once.
Someone else mentioned Schindler’s List, that would probably be my second choice.
Grave of the Fireflies
This is more one I regret having experienced a second time, but I think it still fits the spirit of the question.
When I was a teenager I read Orson Scott Card's Treasurebox. At the time I felt really depressed because I had never been in a relationship and that's the end of the world when you're 16. So here comes this book featuring a main character who was like me in that regard. Eventually he meets someone who compliments him really well and I was just really caught up in this idea that it could happen to me some day. The book goes on for a while and I'm just enraptured by their relationship and how great this girl seems. Then it turns out she's a succubus and during the reveal she basically mocks him because she was just manipulating him the whole time yadda yadda. But it hit me like a ton of bricks because I had no idea what the book was about until that point and I was super caught up in this relationship. Teenage hormones, I guess? The book held a special place in my heart because it was so emotionally compelling to me at the time.
Fast-forward a few years later when I'm in my mid-20s and I attempted to re-read the book to recapture the mind-fuck. But it was awful. The girl was clearly this Mary Sue type before the reveal, the guy was really boring, and the plot itself was incredibly stupid. I don't think I even actually finished reading it the second time. The damage was done and the book no longer held a special place in my heart.
Which is probably good because teenage me was on his way to incel-dom (before that was a term). Fortunately I'm a well-adjusted 30-something with a wife and kids. And as far as I know my wife isn't a succubus.
I've noticed this happen to me a few times when I've rewatched things I loved when I was younger. The best example I can think of is American Pie.
I used to think it was one of the funniest movies I'd ever seen. It was a fun sex comedy. But it's basically a story about a bunch of sad virgin kids who do all manner of despicable things just to see a woman naked. When I rewatched it a year or two ago, I found myself not laughing at a lot of the jokes, feeling bad for all the female characters in the movie and wondering why these kids were all so horrible.
On one hand I don't think anyone was meant to think too much about what was going on...it's just dumb teenage humor. But I suppose normalizing that kind of behavior is harmful. You wouldn't see stuff like that today, that's for sure. What's funny is that it's still pretty tame compare to stuff in a lot of 80s movies (Porky's, Revenge of the Nerds, etc.)
I highly recommend the podcast '80s All Over where they step through each month of movie releases from 1980-1985 (they recently had to stop doing the podcast due to the time investment required).
This is an issue that comes up frequently, since the early '80s were the heyday of these types of teenage sex comedies.
Any holocaust movie: Schindler's List, Boy in the Striped Pajamas, the most recent one I saw was Son of Saul. Powerful movies, just don't need to see them again.
Funny you've put It and Exorcist in yours; my wife and I re-watch horror films all the time, though we're probably pretty numb to any fallout from seeing them.
Other ones I can re-watch but have a hard time seeing them again/have to be in the mood: Road to Perdition, Good Will Hunting, Life is Beautiful.
Irréversible.
I watched it while high, which made the experience much more memorable. Terrifying and disgusting yet very beautifully crafted.
I agree. One of my favorite films but I don't know if I'm ever going to see it again. That opening scene must have been a crazy ride watching high.
I read Éden, Éden, Éden by Guyotat and The Painted Bird by Kosinski when I was a younger edgelord. Both of them are really good but also really over-the-top, and it's not something I would go out of my way to read again.
I don't know by what accidental process my middle school librarian acquired The Painted Bird. Reading that book at age 11 or so was an illuminating historical education, but definitely left some scars.
The Act of Killing and *Lake of Fire immediately jump to mind.
The Act of Killing is about the 1965 Indonesian genocide and the current lives of the people who perpetrated it. The director asks them to reenact some of the things they did during the genocide and its hard to watch. It's the kind of movie that you watch and then you sit around the rest of the day just feeling emotionally drained. It's an amazing movie and it's crazy that it didn't win the Academy Award for best documentary.
Lake of Fire is a documentary about abortion from the director of American History X (which was mentioned in another comment). The movie doesn't take sides and is very much a "just the facts, ma'am" style documentary. It's extremely graphic and not something I'll ever watch again. I can deal with fake violence without an issue. I've seen some fucked up horror movies but, as mentioned above, this is a documentary.
This is a bit broad but atheist media. I was big into it in my mid twenties: Richard Dawkins books, podcasts like The Atheist Experience and The Thinking Atheist, etc. While I'm still an atheist, I'm over it now. I consider it a settled question in my mind that I don't need to wrestle with anymore. There's only so many ways someone can say "God doesn't exist" or "Religion bad". Retreading the same arguments over and over again gets old after awhile.
I agree. But I think that is a product of having the privilege of being "released" from the burden of being a theist. Besides, it's a pretty straightforward philosophy (or hypothesis?) that you can't state in too many ways. But, if you are interested, there are lots of derivatives of this topic (e.g. meaning of life, morality etc.).
I really liked some of Louie C.K.'s comedy, but watching him kind of go on about how "any man could possibly be a bear-shark in a human suit and that's why you shouldn't date one if you don't have to" kinda isn't that funny now that it's a confessional, and his comedy after being found out boils down to "Fuck the youths and their pronouns, their truths make us all anxious and miserable," which I can get anywhere.
Goddamn you really summed up a large portion of comedians nowadays. I feel like in the aughts it was all about disgusting sex stories and lots of swearing. Now it's all about those damn youts.
It's kind of the way things work.
https://youtu.be/BGrfhsxxmdE
Guinea Pig's Mermaid in The Manhole movie. Any Guinea Pig's movie really.
I was young when i watched them, but "It Never Dies" was lame, "Flowers of Flesh and Blood" was really well done, but "Mermaid in the Manhole" is the one i remember more. Don't know if i would watch them again. Same with Cannibal Holocaust, because of the animal killings.
One i really liked? Maybe Irreversible, but i wouldn't say i would never watch again. It's just that i have no interest in re-watching movies.
EDIT: oh, remembered one. The Babadook. I'm 33, was 27 or 28 i think when i watched. It took two days for me to be able to sleep again. It scared me to death. I don't like movies with spirits or ghosts. I don't know where this huge fear comes from since i'm an atheist, but it's there.
I will never watch again. I remember i was fully awake 2 a.m. and couldn't turn off the light. I put Samsara (the 2001 movie) because it's slow and i already watched it so maybe i would sleep. Nope. Watched and stayed awake after.
Richard Wilson's installation piece, 20:50, is both astonishingly beautiful and deeply disturbing. I don't think I want to see it again, because if anything the experience will have got more distressing with time.
The original straw dogs, and the naked lunch book.
Satyajit Ray's Apu Trilogy. I saw the whole collection in late high school/early college through a local film festival series. Each film is a magnificent jewelbox of cinematography and storytelling, but the poverty and heartbreak of the characters' lives is just too painful to watch again.
Misery by Stephen King.
Mount Eerie's A Crow Looked at Me. If you're unfamiliar, it's the album he wrote and recorded after the death of his wife at a young age. It's the best album I never want to listen to again. The raw emotionality of it is incredible, but fuck, it's the downer to end all downers, in my opinion.