Profoundly Disturbing: The Shocking Movies that Changed History

by Joe Bob Briggs

What the critics are
"Beyond the bounds of depravity!"–London Evening Standard
"Despicable . . . ugly and obscene . . . a degrading, senseless misuse of film and time." –The Los Angeles Times
"People are right to be shocked." –The New Yorker

From the murky depths can come the most extraordinary things. . . . Profoundly Disturbing examines the underground cult movies that have–unexpectedly and unintentionally–revolutionized the way that all movies would be made. Called "exploitation films" because they often exploit our most primal fears and desires, these overlooked movies pioneered new cinematographic techniques, subversive narrative structuring, and guerrilla marketing strategies that would eventually trickle up into mainstream cinema. In this book Joe Bob Briggs uncovers the most seminal cult movies of the twentieth century and reveals the fascinating untold stories behind their making.

Briggs is best known as the cowboy-hat wearing, Texas-drawling host of Joe Bob's Drive-in Theater and Monstervision, which ran for fourteen years on cable TV. His goofy, disarming take offers a refreshingly different perspective on movies and film making. He will make you laugh out loud but then surprise you with some truly insightful analysis. And, with more than three decades of immersion in the cult movie business, Briggs has a wealth of behind-the-scenes knowledge about the people who starred in, and made these movies. There is no one better qualified or more engaging to write about this subject.

All the subgenres in cult cinema are covered, with essays centering around twenty movies including Triumph of the Will (1938), Mudhoney (1965), Night of the Living Dead (1967), Deep Throat (1973), The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974), Drunken Master (1978), and Crash (1996). Accompanying the text are dozens of capsule reviews providing ideas for related films to discover, as well as kitschy and fun archival film stills. An essential reference and guide to this overlooked side of cinema, Profoundly Disturbing should be in the home of every movie fan, especially those who think they've seen everything.

Genres: Film, Nonfiction, History, Media Tie In, Horror, Essays, Pop Culture

256 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2003

About the author

John Irving Bloom, known by the stage name Joe Bob Briggs, is a syndicated American film critic, writer, and comic performer.

Reviews

[Rebecca Brock · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can't really review this book with any kind of unbiased opinion, because...I was Joe Bob's Researcher! (that sounded like it should be the title of a B-movie, so read it in your head as such).

Yep, 'tis true. Check out the thank you's at the bottom of the page and you'll see my name right there in black and white. It's funny, because no one ever thinks about the person who provides all the raw material for the author...and let me just tell you this, you have not worked your ass off until you've tried to find information on movies that are out of print, starring no one you've ever heard of, and that no one has ever really seen (I'm looking at you, "Mom and Dad.")

I'm happy to read the positive reviews of this book, but I feel like I should add my two cents to the pile and let readers know the massive amount of work that went into it. I remember scouring reputable websites and photocopying dozens and dozens of books and providing JB with files of reference material that were at least two or three inches thick. He definitely got his money's worth out of my efforts (considering I volunteered to do it...but that's another story. Let's just say, lesson learned).

I think the book came out beautifully, and I can't say enough good things about the index (I helped with that, too). I give it five stars for the amazing research. (ha ha).

Keep an eye out for the sequel to this review: Profoundly Erotic...or How I Learned to Stop Volunteering and Actually Be Appreciated for My Time. :)

[Jill H. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Most bad movie fans know the author of this book, Joe Bob Briggs, either from his tv shows Joe Bob's Drive-In Theater and Monstervision or his columns in newspapers and magazines. He is the ultimate lover of bad, obscure, strange, and underground film and here he presents the movies in those categories that he calls "shocking movies that changed history". He may be overstating the case for changing history but the 15 films he reviews in this tome certainly made the public (or a portion of the public) see film differently.

His choices are eclectic and run from The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, the classic silent German expressionist film to Deep Throat the trashy porn film that gave Linda Lovelace her 15 minutes of fame. His basis for including the films that he picked is the fact that they were probably the first films that dared to show things that were only hinted about in the mainstream......egregious violence and graphic sex were the two groundbreakings subjects that pretty much opened the floodgates for other film makers.

This is an easy read, fun for the film lover, and gives one the idea that maybe they are missing something by having never seen Ilsa: She-Wolf of the SS!!

[Jennie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Exquisitely researched and brilliantly written - this book is a win all the way around. I love Joe Bob Briggs as an author. However, I knocked off one full star for this egregious error that made my librarian brain melt. In regards to Quentin Tarantino's name: "Connie was reading The Sound and the Fury at the time, and named her son after Quentin Compson, Faulkner's deaf-and-dumb innocent whose sense of beauty can only be expressed to himself." Um no, Mr. Briggs - that would be Benjy. Quentin, for those who haven't read The Sound and the Fury, is essentially the opposite of Benjy. As Wikipedia so eloquently puts it he is "the oldest Compson child: passionate and neurotic, he commits suicide as the tragic culmination of the damaging influence of his father's nihilistic philosophy and his inability to cope with his sister's sexual promiscuity." It's such an incredibly lazy mistake and one that is instantly recognizable to anyone who has read Faulkner (especially since Quentin appears in other works). It really made me wonder about the legitimacy of some of the other details throughout the rest of the book.

[Lucy Batson · Rating 5 out of 5]

John Bloom aka Joe Bob Briggs's outstanding collection of essays on films that shook things up is currently out of print, which is a shame because it's fun, informative, well-researched, and well-written. Joe Bob's love of film really shines through here, and this is a must-read for anybody interested in cinema, especially cult cinema.

[Paul Sand · Rating 4 out of 5]

Before reading this book I would have said that nobody knows trashy movies better than Joe Bob Briggs. But in one of the chapters in this book Joe Bob himself discusses people who do, indeed, know more about trashy movies than he. This book is (mainly) a fun read about 20 or so movies and their "impact on society" told with irreverence and wit. More than a little repetitive in spots, unfortunately.

[slightlyfoxed · Rating 4 out of 5]

More Joe Bloom than Joe Bob (although he is there) in a thoughtful analysis of films that shook people up at the time of release. Primary sources are used as much as possible, punctuated with fine insights. Fantastic bibliography.

Good stuff, if you know what I mean (and I think you do).

[Jason Fetters · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good movie book for movie geeks out there. Most of these movies I had already seen or own on DVD or blu-ray. The two I haven't seen are The Wild Bunch and Mom and Dad. Reading about those two movies made me want to see them.

I disagree that Drunken Master was such a success that it made children take martial arts lessons. That should have been Bruce Lee in Enter the Dragon that was a big hit and changed action movies forever in the US and how the Chinese view themselves. Lee empowered his people in such a way that it created pride in being Asian.

I like Joe Bob best when he writes about his grindhouse experiences and he really puts you in the world of seedy New York theaters. Movies like Blood Feast and Texas Chainsaw Massacre were shockers that changed cinema forever.

[Paul Stansfield · Rating 5 out of 5]

Essays about 15 of the most infamous, but still influential, movies ever, like "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari," "The Creature From the Black Lagoon," "Blood Feast," "The Wild Bunch," "Deep Throat," "The Exorcist," and "Reservoir Dogs." Each chapter has a nice background about each of the films, such as the director, writer, actors, and crew. And then a lot about what made each movie so controversial, and what effect they had on the viewing public. All in all, this book was both informative and entertaining, especially for those who like their movies a bit transgressive.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is more like it. Joe Bob expounds at great length on several classics (and several not-so-classics), each of them from the perspective of their most groundbreaking aesthetic and narrative decisions. Some of the inclusions here seem like a stretch (Drunken Master?), but the whole piece is as well considered as his best criticism.

And my god, what a relief to have this for a change instead of his comedically-fossilized early-90s musings on his severely-dated fictional persona.

[Ben Ackley · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a great, easy-to-read book!

I breezed through this volume in a week or two. I learned a lot about movies I hadn't heard of, and I learned more about movies I love! I expect nothing less from Joe Bob Briggs.

If you love horror or other ~tasteless~ genres, this is for you!

[Demi Spelbos · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome book to read for anyone that loves movies! So many new fun facts I now know!
-read for college essay-

[Brit McGinnis · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic read! Briggs's voice is so clear and knowledgeable, yet speaks with the enthusiasm of a fan. Keep a notepad nearby so you can add more movies to your Watch List while reading.

[Reggie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not quite my cup of tea now that I'm finished with it, but it was a great text about the movies that shocked the world. Very detailed and researched, and would delight cult movie fans!

[Bryan Davenport · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book by Joe Bob. Would love to see him write more of these or have Darcy find the time to write some. Would be great.

[Jesse]

"...Changed History?" Not by a long shot. Not most of 'em, at any rate. Entertaining enough.

[DURTY · Rating 5 out of 5]

Joe Bob says “ check it out”

[Alger Smythe-Hopkins · Rating 3 out of 5]

Being mean about this book is like kicking a puppy. It is so obviously a work of true love of an ardent fanboy that it doesn't matter if the selections are VERY subjective and the prose hackneyed and repetitive; the sheer enthusiasm of Briggs while he is breathlessly telling you about these INCREDIBLY SHOCKING films is endearing.

Now I have seen nearly all of these films, and while Briggs makes a good case for any one of these films being shocking on its own, considered as a whole they fail to impress. I have my own list of films that I would argue were much more shocking and influential, but this is Briggs' list, so no real complaints on his selections except that he doesn't make a strong enough case for most of them. Most have the appearance of being films that he just really thinks are under-appreciated, so the book at times feels like being locked in a small room with a comic book fan who is trying to explain in great detail why Marvel-DC crossovers are an abomination. Others he trots out with a depreciating chuckle so we know that HE doesn't think "Deep Throat" deserved so much attention, but here is everything he knows about it and here is why it belongs on his list. The inclusion of these lesser contenders simply proves that American audiences (which is what we are really talking about here) never run out of reasons to be offended, or stay away from a shocking film.

Where I do have a real quibble is how the list hurries through the early decades of film and then seems to get stuck in the period 1955-1975, the era when Briggs started watching films. Along the way he essentially dismisses the real force and influence of the pre-code era of Hollywood, films like "Freaks" or "Dante's Inferno" get no mention. Even then the only kinds of shock that get mention are sex and gore, meaning that the Cold War and religion get no play at all, despite "Threads" and "Last Temptation of Christ" being significant game changers in recent culture.

Also there is a strong American bias to the volume that somehow determines "Un Chien Andalou" and "Ecstasy" were less shocking and influential than "Ilsa She Wolf of the SS". The inclusion of "Reservoir Dogs" and a too long gossiping over Tarantino's inability to give proper credit might have seemed a good idea in 2000 when Kill Bill was just on the verge of release, but fifteen years on it just reads like filler. Again, these were Briggs' choices in 2000, I imagine his list looks very different now and he obviously had reasons for his choices at the time.

[Craig Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've always had a passionate love of movies, made all the more so in my childhood by watching shows like Up All Night with Gilbert Godfrey and Monster Vision with Joe Bob Briggs. Sure, neither shows were in the habit of featuring Oscar worthy movies, but they did show movies with plenty of gore, violence, and busty, scantily clad women, which suited my adolescent tastes just fine.

Anyway, what I loved about Monster Vision was that it was hosted by a friendly, witty, salt-of-the-Earth dude named Joe Bob Briggs, who presented himself as a fount of movie knowledge. He'd introduce each movie, and in between commercial breaks, discuss the film, either with the movie's star, director, or even the off-camera crew, and he'd relate anecdotes to how the movie was made, and how it received in theater. Watching a movie on Monster Vision was an experience, like watching a film with a film geek buddy.

So I was excited when I found this book at work! The book covers some of the most controversial films ever made (some - not all). Briggs discusses each movie, deftly switching from academic to dry wit seamlessly, that not only shows off his movie knowledge, but shows that he is a clearly a person who understands the art of cinema, but more importantly, also understands the FUN of cinema. He's just as capable of appreciating Citizen Kane as he is The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, because he knows that both movies are good in their own way. It was really fascinating to read the backstory to such movies as Deep Throat, Then God Created Woman, and Ilsa, She-Wolf of the SS - so much so, I now want to see all of these movies!

If I have any complaint, it's that I wish the book was longer, comprehensively including more titles, especially some of the crazier movies from the 70s and 80s (an era when truly some of the most bizarre films ever were made - I wonder why... cough, cocaine, cough cough). If you're a cinemaphile like me, I would definitely recommend this read! And look up old clips of Monster Vision on Youtube while you're at it, or any other clips featuring Joe Bob Briggs!

[Pat · Rating 4 out of 5]

Joe Bob Briggs has written a thoughtful, inside-baseball look at 15 movies that changed how we think of films. Here they are:

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1919)
Mom and Dad (1947)
Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954)
And God Created Woman (1956)
The Curse of Frankenstein (1957)
Blood Feast (1963)
The Wild Bunch (1969)
Shaft (1971)
Deep Throat (1972)
The Exorcist (1973)
Ilsa, She-Wolf of the SS (1974)
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)
Drunken Master (1978)
Reservoir Dogs (1992)
Crash (1996)

The most valuable thing about this book, in my view, is that Briggs gives the origins, context, and consequences for each of these films and their casts/crews, not just critiques of the films themselves. It does such a good job that I almost feel that I've seen them (when in reality, I've seen only three of them).

Briggs' style is authoritative and accessible, a winning combination. His biases do show up in a few places, particularly for the last two films listed, but they don't overwhelm the critique. The bibliography and index are most helpful, as well.

NOTE, however: Briggs does not pull punches in the language, background stories, or imagery, as you might guess based on the book's title. Some of these essays are not for the faint of heart--I do confess to getting queasy at times. Trigger warnings for sexual abuse and extreme violence, at a minimum.

If you're interested in how films come to be made, or in any of the listed films specifically, I can recommend this book, with the caveats above.

[Damond · Rating 5 out of 5]

A terrific book detailing the stories behind several films that are/were socially disturbing. I really enjoyed that it detailed films that aren't normally covered by your traditional film history books. Briggs has done his research and he knows his stuff. He really goes all out to explain each choice and what makes that film so significant. If you want a film history book that makes you think and could even change your opinion on specific films or even whole genres, this is your book. For example, one interesting fact I took away from the book was that "Shaft" opened on the exact same day that the first multi-plex in America opened.

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Joe Bob Briggs reins in the redneck persona and exposes more of the film critic, John Bloom, in PROFOUNDLY DISTURBING... but then 'John Bloom' wouldn't have moved as many books as "Joe Bob Briggs". Here, he goes in for a more detailed look at the films that 'changed history', such as BLOOD FEAST, THE WILD BUNCH, THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE, DEEP THROAT, among others.

The persona and jokey tone of the previous collections of reviews are gone or sublimated, but the film buff knowledge comes right up front, and Joe Bob quickly proves that he knows his shit. Followed up a few years later by PROFOUNDLY EROTIC.

[Bryce Wilson · Rating 5 out of 5]

There's probably a special place in cineaste hell reserved for me for the sin of enjoying Joe Bob Briggs much more then sacred cows like Pauline Kael and J. Hoberman. Brigg's conversational prose, and good ol' boy style belie a deep knowledge of film history, a thoughtful and deep method, and most importantly a genuine affection for what he writes about that's largely absent from the work of most of today's professional critics.

It's fantastic to read the likes of Hershel Gordan Lewis written about with a manner of serious consideration usually reserved for Bergman and Herzog.

[Cole · Rating 4 out of 5]

i miss the drive-in. i miss the redskin, the vaska, and the 82nd twin (the theater haunts of my childhood). i miss being surprised and i miss being scared. sometimes i feel like movies are the only thing worth a damn. if you love the movies (and going to the movies, two different things entirely) then read this.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fine companion to Joe Bob's Profoundly Erotic (actually, this one came first). The one bad effect this book had on me is that I'm really dying to see Mom and Dad but probably never will. Oh, well.

[Rick · Rating 5 out of 5]

It will take me 100 years to watch all the movies mentioned in this book, but I will give it a try.

[Kevin · Rating 5 out of 5]

excellent "genre" book for movie fans

[Heather Domin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really, really enjoyed this book. The only reason I didn't give it 5 stars is because I wish it had an afterword to match the introduction.

[Mike Hunchback · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the most essential books on film of the last 20 years. A staggering work, no one should call himself a true fan of cinema without it.

[Mark Dunn · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an excellent book if you want facts about movies you love/hate but it was a lot like reading the encyclopedia. I honestly couldn't read the whole thing.