Watch the trailer for the ‘gross, vomitous, torturous’ film at Cannes that provoked mass walkouts

Director Lars Von Trier’s latest, the serial killer movie The House That Jack Built, had several attendees walking out of the screening and condemning the film on social media.

Provocative Danish director Lars Von Trier’s latest film, the serial killer film The House That Jack Built, premiered at the ongoing Cannes Film Festival earlier this week. The reactions to the film have been quite extreme, even for Von Trier, who returned to Cannes after a six-year ban following controversial comments in which he appeared to sympathise with Adolf Hitler.

Matt Dillon in a still from The House That Jack Built.

Over a hundred audience members chose to flee the screening of the film, starring Matt Dillon and Uma Thurman, and some later took to social media to condemn the famously controversial filmmaker’s decisions. “Gross. Pretentious. Vomitive. Torturous. Pathetic,” one person wrote on Twitter. The film was described by Variety’s Ramin Setoodeh as ‘unlike’ anything he’d ever seen at the festival. He tweeted a picture of the empty seats at the auditorium, but also reported that those who stayed back gave the film an enthusiastic standing ovation.

The scene that caused most of the controversy reportedly showed Matt Dillon’s serial killer character shooting children with a rifle, and later mutilating a woman.

Von Trier was declared ‘persona non grata’ at the festival following his 2011 press conference for his film, Melancholia. The director appeared to sympathise with Adolf Hitler on a human level in his answer to a question, even as star Kirsten Dunst visibly tried to get him to stop talking.

The House That Jack Built will be released in Von Trier’s native Denmark in November. Here are some more reactions.

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