I have an acceptable tolerance for gross things in movies. I'm not terribly squeamish, although I don't particularly like excessive gore. But there are a few things I just can't handle watching on screen. So here is the tiny, weird list of gross things I can't watch in movies.
1. Throats being slit.
For some reason this is the absolute worst of all gory things for me. Heads and limbs being chopped off is fine, blood spewing is fine, but I cannot watch throats being slit. I just can't. I closed my eyes during large portions of Sweeney Todd.
2. Vomit.
All other bodily fluids can show up in gross-out comedies and gory movies, but this one just... ugggh. I can't watch or listen to other people vomit in real life without being a little sick myself, and I can not handle scenes where, for example, someone falls in someone else's vomit. Even just thinking about it is making me nauseous. Note, however, if somebody's mouth is spewing something that is clearly not vomit, that's not a problem. So whatever weird milk products all the deadites from Evil Dead were constantly leaking from their mouths is just fine. Well, I mean, it was disgusting, but at least it wasn't vomit.
3. People brushing their teeth.
I have no idea why this one grosses me out. It's not a staple of horror movies because it doesn't gross anyone else out, which means it shows up in random movies all the time and I have no warning. There's something about seeing somebody else's foamy spitty toothbrushing lather that makes me gag a little.
4. People's big toes being hurt.
This is perhaps the most specific item ever on a list. I remember an early episode of House where a kid had a nightmare that his toes were gangrenous and had to be amputated, and I was completely grossed out and couldn't watch it. Some of it has to do with the fact that I frequently feel sympathy pains for people and it makes my own toes hurt, but my toes aren't particularly sensitive, so I have no idea why this is so specific to my toes and, even more specifically, the big toe. The rest are uncomfortable to watch being hurt as well, but I can handle it. Fingers can be gangrenous and amputated, that's fine. But not the big toe. Also, stabbing or shooting scenes where somebody's big toe is stabbed or cut or shot off. Can't.
Honorable mentions (the things that I can watch without feeling sick, but I sure don't like them)
People being stabbed in the eyeball - Missing eyes don't really bother me, but I don't like seeing things go through eyeballs.
Flesh being pulled back - Another kind of weird one, but it really grosses me out if I see someone cut a layer of flesh and then just peel it back. There are a lot of medical hospital scenes that make me go, "Ew, yuck."
Limbs being bent in directions they shouldn't be - It's always disconcerting to me when I see a dead body in movies that has its arms or legs bent in the wrong direction. *shudder*
I am 100% with you on slit throats. One reason I like winter is that it lets me wear turtlenecks and those make me feel safe. I'm not sure I have ever articulated that to anyone, ever.
ReplyDeleteAnything to do with eyeballs squicks me right out. The Miracle Worker? Haunts me to this day.
Fingernails pulled completely back or off. I've mostly only ever seen this in Star Trek: The Next Generation with Data and even knowing it's clearly just a fake hand designed to create the illusion that Brent Spiner has the innards of an android does nothing to assuage my squeamishness.
I'm glad you felt safe sharing your turtleneck winter plans with me on this blog. Heh.
DeleteYeah, for me, it's *only* eyeballs being stabbed or pierced somehow. Anything else to do with them doesn't really bother me.
Fingernails is an interesting one. That used to bother me as a child but it doesn't really anymore.
Def def def agree about the vomit! And the teeth....which is weird. I didn't know there was anyone else out there that hated watching other people brush their teeth! Yay! *grins*
ReplyDeleteMy other two are that I also hate fingers nails being tampered with in any way. And noses. Not noses being broken or punched, but there's this one paticular move that action movies sometimes use where one person will grab another person up by the nose or sort of mush it in an upwardly direction....which is actually sounds really comical when put that way, but I tell you everytime it happens it always icks me out.
What! I thought I was the only one alone on the teeth thing too. *high five*
DeleteApparently fingernails is a more common squicky thing than I thought, as both you and above commenter Travis are uncomfortable with fingernail tampering. Mushing noses is an interesting one, though. What you're describing doesn't bother me even a little bit. Seeing noses being broken is really not pleasant for me, but only if it falls into the category of "limbs being bent in directions they shouldn't be."