10 Movies That Judge You For Watching

Movies are a business above all else, and perhaps the most important rule of business is not to insult your customers

a rule that Hollywood has a pretty complicated relationship with at the best of times

Still, aside from films that accidentally show contempt for audiences through their sheer awfulness

there are occasionally films that don't care at all about placating viewers or making them feel comfortable

Every so often, a film will wear its disdain for filmgoers on its sleeve

veiled beneath either a thin layer of satire or, in extreme cases, literally blurted out in the audience's faces

So I'm Ellie with WhatCulture here with movies that judge you for watching

Jurassic World Jurassic World may not be a particularly good movie, but it is a surprisingly subversive one

offering up perhaps the most unexpected commentary on consumerism and Hollywood itself

found in such a large Hollywood blockbuster film. Throughout the film, numerous references are made to the general public being bored with traditional dinosaurs

hence why Jurassic World's engineers created the genetically engineered Indominus Rex to reignite interest in dinosaurs and indeed the park itself

It's tough not to view this as the writer-director expressing a certain contempt or frustration at least

towards both the blockbuster filmmaking process and insatiable audiences. After all, did the two prior Jurassic Park sequels not run the whole dino hunched dick firmly into the ground

Audiences grew wary of the series, and so Jurassic World sought to renew audience interest with a glossy new bigger, better take

The entire film basically a mockery of the relentless desire for more, more, more from audiences and the creative frustrations this presents for businesses

Common TV is cool, but you know what else is cool? Protecting your privacy online

Scan the QR code or click the link in the description and get up to 76% off a two-year NordVPN plan

plus three months free if you sign up today. I'd make that deal. Damn good deal

iTonya Tonya Harding biopic iTonya was marketed as an expose of all the dirty, dishy details

behind the figure skater's meteoric rise and dramatic fall, after her ex-husband infamously orchestrated an attack on her rival Nancy Kerrigan

resulting in Harding being banned from competitive figure skating for life. But I, Tonya, has a very interesting slant to the proceedings in that she is her own narrator for the film

and at times, she's not a reliable one. The idea, clearly, is to give a more balanced view of an event largely misinterpreted by the public

and while addressing the audience directly, Margot Robbie's Harding makes little effort to hide her disdain for a general public

that took the tabloid reporting at face value. When she speaks on the fallout of the event, she states

it was like being abused all over again only this time it was by you All of you You are all my attackers too It a moment that holds everyone accountable It uncomfortable and in many ways brilliant Funny games

Mikael Haneke's 1997 psychological thriller would be a one-of-a-kind movie had he not just

remade it shot for shot in 2007 with the Hollywood cast. It's a strange move but ultimately both

movies succeed in their abrasive style and story of a family that is terrorised by two young

invaders. But what makes it so unpleasant is the way in which the violence is shot. There's such a

cold detachment, refusing to cater to the Hollywood gratification that comes from bloodshed in movies

that makes things uncomfortably real. The films open and close with a willfully ear-assaulting

grindcore track, and when one of the family tries to shoot their way to freedom mid-movie

one of the attackers grabs a remote control and literally rewinds the film

allowing him to stop the escape attempt. But one of the most scathing accusations against

the bloodthirst of the audience comes in the final shot, where one of the boys stares directly

into the camera as if to uncomfortably confront the audience about their expectations for a movie

like this. Naturally, mainstream audiences hated it, which is presumably exactly what the director

wanted. Gladiator. Ridley Scott's best picture winning epic is for the most part a straight-up

earnest entry into the sword and sandals slasher genre. However, you don't need to look that hard

to see the film as a critique of audiences' lust for blood

and the removal of the human element few viewership. One need only play the most famous line of the film

the Are You Not Entertained?, to see how much of a call-out this is, forcing audiences both in the arena in the film

and those watching at home to actually look at what they're doing. Ridley Scott is basically asking

You wanted to see gladiatorial combat? Well, here's Russell Crowe decapitating people

with fountains of gore. That's what you wanted, right? Are you not entertained

In another instance, we're told in even more blatant terms, thrust this into another man's flesh and they will applaud and love you for that

It's hard not to look at the reality shows and other forms of sanctioned violence in our own

society to see exactly what aspects Scott is pointing at here. Rear Window. It's no secret

that Alfred Hitchcock's masterful thriller Rear Window is wholly concerned with voyeurism

what with the wheelchair-bound photographer protagonist L.B. Jeffries, played by James Stewart killing time by spying on his neighbours and eventually witnessing a murder. But what

Hitchcock's film does so cleverly is make the audience complicit in Jeffreys snooping

ultimately holding them to as much account as it does Jeffreys himself

Now, Roger Ebert's brilliant 1983 review of the film perhaps put it best

We are all asked to join Stewart in his voyeurism, and we cheerfully agree

We lust after Miss Torso in one of the windows, and we sympathise with Miss Lonely Hearts in

another We aloof and superior to their plights of course until the chilling gaze of the killer locks eyes with ours across the courtyard Because Hitchcock makes us accomplices in Stewart voyeurism

we're along for the ride. When an enraged man comes bursting through the door to kill Stewart

we can't detach ourselves because we look too, and so we share the guilt and in a way

we deserve what's coming to him. In these moments, Rear Window becomes a film about

humanity's instinctive desire to leer, and one that punishes us equally as a reward. Basically

Hitchcock is calling you out for being a pervert, but that's okay because he was clearly one too

Star Wars The Last Jedi Star Wars The Last Jedi is one of the most polarizing blockbusters of the last decade

and arrived after the hardcore crowd felt that The Force Awakens overindulged in fan service

or perhaps even played it a bit too safe. After the disastrous experiment that was the prequels

familiarity was seemingly the last thing this franchise had to worry about

But then enter Rian Johnson. Johnson clearly wasn't interested in following J.J. Abrams' lead

and delivering a solidly competent rendition of the hits, deciding instead to throw out most of

the prominent fan theories and forge his own expectations-subverting path for the series

When Snoke is killed two-thirds of the way through the film and Kylo Ren tells Rey that

she was born to some random junkers, it's as though Johnson is directly criticising the audience

for their excessive emotional investment in their own headcanon fan theories. While watching The Last Jedi, you can practically feel Johnson's distaste for unreasonable

over-invested fans dripping from every single frame. Vice This Dick Cheney biopic isn't simply keen to make a mockery of its focal subject and

take America's balked political process to task. It also refuses to let the general public off the hook simply for participating in it

regardless of their own political beliefs. The focus group used to test the presentation of the Iraq war to the public earlier in the film

reappears in Vice's mid-credits scene, but this time they're arguing about the very movie you're

watching. On the right side of this spectrum, one member of the group calls out the film's apparent

liberal bias, while a left-leaning participant claims it's simply displaying the facts of the

case. Whoever you believe, a fight between the left and the right breaks out, all while an

apathetic young woman in the middles talks to her friend about how much she's looking forward to the

new Fast and the Furious movie. Now, clearly, Adam McKay is blaming the audience for much of the

current political miasma. The left and the right can't have a rational interaction with one another

while those disinterested youngsters are totally blinkered to the terrible future they're going to

inherit. Even though this scene boils down a lot to a bigger picture and nuance, this is a pretty

brilliant take on the subject matter. Man Bites Dog 1992 Belgian mockumentary Man Bites Dog was a film stridently ahead of its time in many key areas namely its approach to criticism of fetishistic violence in the media The film revolves around a camera crew who follow a serial killer on his

rounds, and over the course of the movie, they become increasingly involved in his killings

to the extent that they begin killing and getting killed themselves. The filmmakers do a fantastic

job of initially framing the movie as a kind of black comedy and showing killer Ben as a smart

and charismatic individual, therefore we sort of like him. Yet, as the film drags on, the increasingly

heinous actions of both Ben and the camera crew, namely committing child murder and rape

completely change the tone, making the audience feel ill and destroying the implicit relationship

between them and the central figure. The film punishes the viewer and their willingness to

follow a serial killer's lead. It's still a great movie, but maybe have something light and fun to

watch afterwards for the sake of your own sanity. Sucker Punch. Zack Snyder's Sucker Punch is

depending on your viewpoint, either a flagrantly sexist film that gleefully objectifies women

or a self-aware action film that seeks to take misogyny to task, or some confused mishmash of

both. In his own words, Snyder stated that the film was always intended to serve as a critique

of sexist geek culture, which has a historic penchant for depicting women in sexualized or

infantilised positions, all for the benefit of slobbering men. And these themes are very clear

when you look at the film. Women escape their abuse and become sexualised warriors battling

slathering beasts, and the men are pretty much across the board portrayed as being sex-obsessed

leering creeps. It's a film that points the finger, but does so in a confusing manner

and what I mean by that is that Snyder definitely critiques these male power fantasies

but also gives them exactly what they want, basically fuelling the situation rather than

leaving the message of change. Friday the 13th, Part 6, Jason Lives

Honestly, the sixth Friday the 13th movie is probably the best entry into the series

With an unexpectedly self-aware sense of humour, it casually dispenses with the failing tropes in favour of some actually fresh ideas

including a healthy lashing of meta-commentary on the slasher genre as a whole

This is best exemplified by the scene in which gravedigger Martin passes comment on Jason Voorhees' corpse being dug up

Martin grumbles, why'd they have to go and dig up Jason? Before turning to the audience and quipping

some folks sure got a strange idea of entertainment. It is so utterly tongue-in-cheek

and the way it's done almost makes you feel like the movie is embarrassed of its own existence

It also plays with the concept that Slash and Films endure, despite the quality seeing as the fifth movie tanked massively

but still made over ten times its budget. It's like the producers were saying to the audience

hell, you'll watch it anyway. Sadly, this is the only entry into the franchise that really bothered to look inward at its own tawdryness