How can I stop being so disturbed by this???

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About 2 years ago I watched the movie Cannibal Holocaust, which was great with how they made it all look so realistic. But one scene did disturb me and to this day I still feel distressed whenever I think about it. It's where the people cut into a rodent (I think it was a rodent) while it was still alive, and it was screaming helplessly. I heard this scene was actually live, which is why I find it extremely distressing. Why didn't they knock the poor thing out before cutting its body open? Then it wouldn't have felt any pain.
My empathy for this poor creature is very overwhelming. Can someone please help me to stop thinking about it?

I know how you feel. Cruelty of that sort has always effected me deeply.

Try to nudge those barbaric images out of your mind with more pleasant ones, I guess. That's the only advice I can offer, which is not worth too much.

I am sorry you had to see that; I feel disturbed even reading about it. That's really sick to think about. However, there are some sick people out there who create movies like that. Those have to be people with mental disorders.


However, the best way to get not to think about it would be to try positive affirmations on traumatic experiences.

I seem to have more stronger empathy for animals getting hurt than I do humans, but that does NOT mean I don't feel empathy for humans getting hurt. It's just a different sort of empathy, maybe because animals think in pictures and spend their whole lives avoiding predators, while humans think in words so are more aware of such danger in a scientific sense. I don't know.

And I don't think it's an Aspie thing to feel empathy more intensely with animals, because I've read somewhere that the reason why they make the characters in Tom & Jerry make human shouts when they're getting hurt instead of cat or dog screams is because it's not so distressing to the audience, whether they're children or adults. So I think it is wired into most humans to get more upset by animal torture. But like I said, I still feel for humans but in a different way. I mean, all the horrific stuff that went on in the nazi camps in WW2 disturbs me a lot too. Those poor Jews, and all the other people that died . Horrible stuff.

But with animals I feel more of a physical empathy, whilst with humans I feel more of an emotional empathy, so maybe I don't feel animal empathy any stronger, just differently. Do you see what I mean?

I have not seen the film and I am disturbed by it.

I've never seen this film and don't want to. I was shocked to find out that my son watched this movie at a friend's house when he was only 14 This friend was into horror movies and I knew that, but I was quite upset that the friend's mom wasn't monitoring what they were watching. He's not allowed to hang out with that friend anymore, and doesn't even want to. I felt like such a bad parent! My son said the movie bothered him for days after he watched it, and he still doesn't like to think about it. Cannibal Holocaust was actually banned in some countries and is considered to be one of the most disturbing films ever made.

I hate cruelty to animals, and I can't stand to see it, or read about it (real or not). It makes me sick, furious, and deeply troubles me. I also hate cruelty directed at young children. I recently saw this horror movie called "It Comes at Night". It's a really stupid movie (in my opinion) but it got good reviews on Rotten Tomatoes so I watched it. I wish I hadn't. A man guns down a 4 year old in cold blood in front of his mother in this movie, then kills the mother. It still makes me sick to think about it/write about it.

I wish I could help you forget this, and I know how you feel. You should forget about it and have the bad feelings fade gradually away over time. That's usually what happens with me and my son. I hope it fades away for you soon!

I haven't seen the movie either, but am haunted by something I saw over 30 years ago that still comes to mind every once in a while. Wish I had some advice for you to make it stop but I don't.

I definitely have much more empathy for animals than people. Well, more than for adults and older children anyway. I mentioned I can't stand seeing animals or little kids mistreated. I don't like a lot of people.

Time.

You can get PTSD from images. This is why violence in media is not benign.

It’s a very disturbing image.

You have to realize that this didn’t really happen.....that this happened in a fictional movie.

Though they did not kill the ginger cat, the trailer for "Man's Best Friend" has given me nightmares for 26 years. The effects were fact but still scary to a 12-year-old with the maturity of a 6-year-old. They also used a dog puppet to chase the cat up the tree as a part of the scene in which they tortured the poor kitty that way. I think he was probably more traumatized than I was.

The other movie that was really disturbed was the Grindhouse Horror, "Hobo with a Shotgun." Of the scenes I saw, no animals died but it was gory and in your face.

I don't like horror movies and I don't watch them because again, I think there are some sick people out there who have a twisted sense of entertainment. As Joe90 said, what happened during WWII was a living horror movie.