This 'gross' and sadistic serial killer film from Lars von Trier prompted a mass walkout

Danish director Lars Von Trier is well known for his controversial films and his equally controversial statements.

His 2009 film Antichrist was called “a grotesque masterpiece” while he was accused of making a porn film with his explicit Nymphomaniac in 2013.

In fact, he was at one point from the Cannes Film Festival for saying about Hitler: “He’s not what you would call a good guy but I understand him. I sympathise with him a little bit.” Jeez…

And the director’s latest film, The House That Jack Built, is provoking the same bewildered reaction.

The movie, starring Matt Dillon and Uma Thurman, is a dark comic thriller following a serial killer over the course of several decades, according to The Guardian.

You can watch the trailer for the film here: 

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But what’s really upset the audience at a screening at Cannes is the movie’s extremely graphic content.

At one point, Dillon shoots two children in the head with a rifle, a woman’s breast is sliced off and, in a flashback scene, a child pulls off a duckling’s leg with a pair of pliers.

Variety’s Ramin Setoodeh reported that more than 100 people left the cinema early because of the film’s “disgusting” content.

Read more: The scariest short horror films online

Here’s some of the Twitter reaction to the film’s screening:

Despite the criticism, all of this will no doubt boost the film’s profile and turn it into a gory cult classic. You really can’t pay for this sort of marketing.

(Image: Getty)