Most disturbing movie -- "Series Seven: The Contenders"

This was a movie that I had seen at Blockbuster on the shelf a few times before I finally gave in and rented it. I can't believe I didn't think of it for the "most disturbing movie" thread, so I'm giving it its own thread.

This movie is amazingly well done.

The premise is that the government, in a near future run-amok, has caught on to the "reality t.v." craze. In a scenario much like "The Running Man," and Stephen King's novella "The Long Walk" (under the pseudonym Richard Bachman), the government runs a death game.

People from ALL walks of American life, from ALL ages and conditions, are selected from a lottery. A random town is also selected. The people are notified, and in a manner a lot like a Publisher's Clearinghouse prize, the officials come up to them and surprise them by handing them a gun and announcing, "I'm here to help you! You are now a Contender!"

The people are given a chance to acquire weapons -- they're given some basic ones to start with. They are granted the right to carry them anywhere they go. Certain rules apply, like having to stay in the chosen town limits. There is NO QUARTER GIVEN. Any of the (five, six, or seven, I forgot which) contestants may track them down at any given time and try to KILL THEM BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY.

The "series" (there really is no series -- the movie picks up as though there has been and everyone is "familiar" with it) begins with a young pregnant girl who has survived this "game" longer than anyone has so far. Essentially, you're stuck in it, with no way out but to kill or be killed. If you kill all of the others in the group you're in, I think that's when you're allowed out of the competition. And there is no prize. LIVING is the prize. No money. Jack shit.

There are some GRUESOME scenes in this movie. One guy who was a reluctant contestant (dragged away from his family, his kids, his wife, forced to kill or be killed) at one point attempts suicide. He fails, and while he is in a hospital bed unable to move, another contestant, a mature woman who is a nurse, comes in and EUTHANIZES HIM. He is, meanwhile, screaming and begging her not to kill him.

If you can watch this movie without being disturbed and moved greatly, you are already too far gone to save. It's seriously disturbing, because it is grittily real. One contender is a young male cancer patient. One is his estranged former high school lover!

I have never seen a more powerful movie, with more implications for today's society. I would go so far as to say that even Schindler's List is not as powerful. The relevance to today's society is oppressively present in Series Seven: The Contenders. You watch it, and you get terrified about how close we really are to this.

It's a movie I hate to love, but I really am attached to it, and the way it was executed. I strongly recommend that those with strong wills and strong stomachs, who really want to be challenged, go and rent this movie. Good luck.

I mean, I've read what some people here think are "disturbing" movies and said, "Bah! That's not disturbing." NO ONE will see Series Seven: The Contenders and be able to truthfully say it is not disturbing.

Blue skies,
-Jeffrey

 

What, no one's seen this movie but me?!

Go fuckin' rent it. It will blow your mind!

 

I have watched ...my brothers has it on DVD... i liked it ... it has been a while since i have watched . I will re watch it and keep you company here for a while

 

oh dear it all looked like a lot of fun too me..erm maybe not the killing part. I could give people a good kicking though you might think i am joking , i am a little . Only a very small part of me is mad i can control myself.

 

While it was certainly disturbing, that movie kicked ass.

Made a mockery of so much rotten crap on TV.

They captured the feeling of reality TV so extremely well.

The camera crews are following around these absolutely mundane people as they try and figure out how to kill each other.

That old nurse lady was the scariest.

 

Yeah, she was creepy.


But remember how much each person LOATHED the whole game, and having to do it? They were FORCED -- it wasn't like they signed up to do this. There is nothing to WIN except to go on living. No million dollars at the end. No new car. They were pretty much kidnapped from their everyday lives by the government to entertain the masses, who lust for blood on t.v., and to watch the suffering of others. It was a HUGE stab at the shit they give us to watch
on television. And it was right on with its message.

None of the contenders was wrong to get all crafty and deceptive and murderous -- it was not their fault that they were put into that position. The nurse really did not like the idea of killing, but she did what she had to do, as did all of them, especially the pregnant girl.

I don't think that any movie yet has so accurately captured the essence of the horror of killing and murder, and what it does to the principals as well as the families of those involved.

Blue skies,
-Jeffrey

 

I watched it last night..i forgot how good it was. I take back my second post it was a bit silly realy thinking about it..i was only half remembering the film at that point :&

I liked the dawn character ... this is what i think i would be like .. i would do what i had to do , but still have the capacity to stop.

I found the film quite funny ....the high school art video and dawns 'playing with their heads' .The film was quite sad near the end . Above all the whole film was not completly moraly corrupt.

There religouse one killed with great ease ... the young girl 'had a plan' and was just ready and waiting for the call. Both of them were was kinda scarey.

I don't know if they were trying to say anything with the few violent movies that the the chap with cancer was watching every now and again ???.

 

I have to see it again to discuss any more detail than I have. It was months ago that I watched it. I would like to see about buying the DVD.

Yeah, it's not the kind of movie that makes you fantasize about being in the characters' places...

Blue skies,
-Jeffrey

 

.

 

all the other contenders get shot accept the two you mention...they end up in a cinema , they are in love .. dawn wants her baby back..so holds the audience for 'ransom'.. this is all shown as a reconstruction (don't ask me why , i realy am not sure) a host from the show walks in and says they MUST finish the game or no baby the cancer guy bites the bullet (pardon the pun) and says shoot me...then his wife crashes in and they both get shot (maybe all 3 actualy (sorry i could be here all year re scripting the whole darn thing the last image is of the cancer guy waking up (in hospital of course) and realising he will be in season 8.

 

Ooooh.


Thanks.

 

That sounds like a really good movie. Those are the type of movies I generly enjoy to see by the way it sounds. Ill definetly try to rent it