What's Grosser Than Gross?

Scott Hardie | March 24, 2012
Yesterday, the AV Club printed a discussion among their staff about movies that made them sick. It brought up some memories for me.

First to mind was seeing The Blair Witch Project at a sold-out show, and sitting in the first row, a few feet from the giant screen. The motion sickness had a much stronger effect on me than any scares did.

But the one movie that actually has induced me to throw up was The Miracle of Life, that PBS documentary with in utero footage. When I was little, I underwent a procedure that inserted a tiny wire camera inside me and showed the results on a screen. Ever since then, footage of the inside of the human body has a strong physiological effect on me. After five minutes, I'm sweating profusely and the blood has left my head and hands. After ten minutes, I'm yawning uncontrollably and my body is trying to faint. After fifteen minutes, up comes breakfast. Apparently the state of Illinois put this damned movie on their curriculum, because every teacher from 8th grade health class up through biology 101 in college required the class to watch it, year after year after year of my childhood. I spent a lot of those occasions scrunched up in the hall outside with my forehead on my knees, trying to block it out. Luckily, as an adult, I rarely encounter that kind of footage, save for an occasional brief flash of it on ER The last time I really saw it was in the footage of the stomach-stapling surgery in Super Size Me, which produced all of my usual symptoms again in the theater. Thanks, Morgan Spurlock.

What movies have made you sick?

Steve West | March 27, 2012
The first time I saw Pink Flamingos was intentional and it disgusted me. The second time was unintentional and I was only slightly revolted.