From the ambulances called to a Cineworld in Bolton to the infamous castration scene cut for inciting panic attacks, Adam White gathers 13 notorious films that truly tested the endurance of their viewers. Any good horror director will want their audiences gasping in their seats. Or covering their eyes. Screaming, even. What no one is aiming for, though, is full body collapse. But film history is full of movies so shocking, strange or downright ugly that viewers just stopped being conscious while watching them.
![[The poster artwork for ‘The Last House on the Left’, complete with fainting warning]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2022/01/07/13/MV5BMzY0YTZlNTQtNDg1YS00Y2IzLWJhZDctMmE2MDEzN2IzYzg1XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTQxNzMzNDI._V1_.jpg)
Coincidence or not, a hell of a lot of them seem to be French. But others are more mainstream. Take Saw III, a film so gnarly that Bolton ambulances were put on stand-by after reports that filmgoers were passing out during scenes of brain surgery. Cry babies!.
Last year, reports emerged of yet another film – the latest film in the Terrifier franchise – leaving audiences feeling rather queasy. Here are 13 films that quite literally knocked people out. One of the most notorious horror films in history, Tod Browning’s Freaks cast real actors with disabilities and physical differences to play carnival attractions. Test screenings for the film – held in 1931 – were so disastrous that numerous audience members fainted. One went on to sue filmmakers at MGM, claiming that the film was so grotesque that she miscarried as a result. MGM naturally got cold feet and cut the 90-minute film down to 60 for release. A graphic castration scene has subsequently never seen the light of day. Probably for the best, that.
