Name a depressing movie. And I mean one that is depressing from stern to bow.

[Baitball Blogger]

I have a winner.

Homesman.

[cwydro]

1. Sophie's Choice.

Saw it years ago and wish I didn't.

[Baitball Blogger]

2. That's a good one.

I wonder if it's more than a coinky dinky that Meryl Streep was in both of them.

[cwydro]

6. I only remember that one scene.

Nothing else about it.

I hated that and never forgot it.

[uppityperson]

3. The Mist, Clockwork Orange, Sophie's Choice ETA top honors to Grave of the Fireflies

Grave of the Fireflies. That one is top most depressing ever, made more depressing by being animation by Miyazaki who did Totoro and so many others.

[cwydro]

7. I could never even watch Clockwork Orange.

I did try. Never got through it.

[Baitball Blogger]

8. I can see the artistic value in these movies.

But, they fall short of entertaining in my book.

[uppityperson]

9. Grave of the Fireflies is amazing but NOT a kid's movie and not happy at all

The boy tries so hard, then they both die. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095327/?ref_=nv_sr_1

[Baitball Blogger]

11. I would never be able to get through that one.

Pan's Labryinth I barely got through, but only because I spotted the strong martyr theme that was a popular concept in Spanish literature. My daughter, however, hated it.

[yellowdogintexas]

134. I have not had a movie depress me so much in a very long time like that one did

Here I am going through the new Myazaki collection we had just acquired and that thing just bombed me out. This is not 'Kiki's Delivery Service' that's for sure

[Xyzse]

148. That one hit me so hard.

I was hating the world for about a week.

[Xipe Totec]

55. Grave of The Fireflies - Agreed

I can't possibly see that movie again.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

4. The Pawnbroker.

It's an old one (1964) - I saw it when I was in college and it depressed me for days afterwards. It's a very good movie but a huge downer. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pawnbroker_%28film%29

[orleans]

5. what dreams may come n/t

[vanlassie]

56. Plus 1,000,000. OMG.

[cwydro]

10. Platoon is a great war movie.

However, I did find it to be depressing overall.

[lame54]

12. In The Company Of Men...

it is billed as a comedy

i found it to be quite serious and depressing

it was a good movie though - but once is enough

[hollysmom]

13. Brazil

I heard it was funny, left very depressed


http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088846/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

[hunter]

84. Brazil is one of my favorite movies.

Very prescient.

My frequent nightmares are always worse than Brazil, so maybe I'm used to it.

[lumberjack_jeff]

124. This. n/t

[angel823]

14. Yeah, I was thinking of "The Mist"

and "Requiem for a Dream"

Angel in TExasperated

[Beaverhausen]

15. 21 Grams

[misterhighwasted]

16. All Is Lost. The end was a sad ??.

A really depressing movie.

[tjwash]

17. A streetcar named desire, or, East Of Eden...pretty tied between those 2

Pretty much any Steinbeck or Williams novel put in movie form will depress the living hell out of you.

[olddots]

18. Midnight Cowboy

Step Up # 18 and alot of musicals with shitty music .

[KamaAina]

19. Fahrenheit 9/11.

[mainer]

20. Melancholia. Everybody on earth dies

Also, On The Beach. Everybody on earth dies.

[hifiguy]

32. Second, but Melancholia is such a gorgeous looking film.

That counts for something.

[applegrove]

105. I liked Melancholia. But yeah it was eary.

Last edited Fri Feb 20, 2015, 04:24 AM - Edit history (1)

[hunter]

88. For a light hearted movie where Everybody on Earth dies...

I enjoyed Seeking a Friend for the End of the World

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1307068

Melancholia appealed to me somewhat, but I was unable to achieve "willing suspension of disbelief" for the bad physics.

On the other hand, as someone who experiences the deepest darkest sorts of depression "off my meds" the idea that people who are naturally depressed will be the last sane people as the world ends amused me.

[countryjake]

21. As a bird lover, I nominate "The Tale of Teeka" & "Kes"...

both films about young lost boys who seek companionship with a feathered friend, only to soon learn the lesson on how fragile life actually is.

I saw them both quite some time ago but I can still be moved to tears if I think on each of those stories for too long.

My dear old Dove is named after Teeka, the Goose.

[hedgehog]

22. Requiem for a Dream

[livetohike]

25. That's my choice too. Definitely the most depressing movie I've ever seen.

Never want to see even a minute of it again.

[NightWatcher]

30. If you can finish that movie without killing yourself, you're going to be fine

That was a truly downer of a movie.

[Baitball Blogger]

45. Fine praise, indeed.

"If you can finish that movie without killing yourself, you're going to be fine"

Your future as a movie reviewer will be a promising one.

[Ahpook]

23. Eraserhead

Bizarre as hell and very depressing to me.

[hifiguy]

33. More surreal than depressing to me.

The black and white photography is spectacularly beautiful, though.

[hunter]

87. Eraserhead was my top most worst ever "date" movie.

My girlfriend at the time had a very, very dark side, well beyond what we might call "goth" today.

Eraserhead was her idea of a "fun" date.

She'd also bring home these skinny self-destructive drug addicted street waifs, one of whom later tried to kill herself in my bathtub.

If I ever wanted to make a depressing and surrealistic movie about that period of my life, I have plenty of material...

[sendero]

155. I was going to choose this one also..

.... I'm a big Lynch fan, but I couldn't even get half done with this one. Wow, straight for the gut.

[shenmue]

24. Gallipoli

Breaker Morant, too.

[Newest Reality]

26. Dancer in the Dark

Directed by Lars von Trier, staring Bjork.

[lovemydog]

51. And most everything else by Lars von Trier

I was gonna mention the one with Nicole Kidman. It takes place on a stage and it's a metaphor for U.S. barbarism. Can't recall the name. Holy crap that was depressing. But I haven't stopped thinking about it. Depressing doesn't mean I didn't like it. I like most Bergman movies. Laugh riots they're not.

[mikeargo]

27. Mystic River

No way could I watch that again.

[Jenoch]

28. The Road,

based on the novel by Cormac McCarthy.

[graywarrior]

70. Child of God by Cormac McCarthy

Jesus, that was fucking depressing...but I watched it to the end.

[liberalhistorian]

115. ANY movie based on

anything written by Cormac McCarthy, the bleakest, most depressing author I've ever known. And that's even among often-depressing Irish authors (and yes, I'm Irish, so I can say shit like that, lol!).

No Country for Old Men and All the Pretty Horses also come to mind in addition to The Road and Child of God. The books are even bleaker than the movie. I can only take so much of his soul-sucking bleakness at a time. He must be a real picnic at a party, or to live with, lemme tell ya.

It's a good thing they never made a movie of Suttree, one of his earlier ones. It'd make any of the movies of his we've just discussed look like a trip to Disneyland. I was really disgusted, though, when No Country for Old Men won movie of the year. That's one of those inexplicable choices, like Terms of Endearment or American Beauty or Slumdog Millionaire (HATED HATED HATED that movie).

[graywarrior]

123. As I watched Child of God, I had no idea it was written by McCarthy

but when I researched it and found out, I was not surprised. My head lives inside a deep dark hole like that most of the time, (1/3 Irish, 1/3 Polish, 1/3 Italian) but I guess the Italian in me prevents me from blowing my head off.

I hate mainstream movies--the ones that win Oscars. I've found some excellent movies and series on Netflix, mostly British or Irish. In Bruges, The Fall, The Wind That Shakes the Barley, Jack Taylor, the Aussie version of Rake, Exile, and Peaky Blinders. Recently, I watched Magic City which was decent but I tend more toward Irish/British stuff.

[FrodosPet]

130. Isn't Cormac McCarthy a Centaur?

[graywarrior]

132. He wishes

[csziggy]

29. Barton Fink

I keep thinking the movie was made in black and white, but it was just grey and depressing.

For a whole different genre, Miracle Mile (1988) is really depressing. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miracle_Mile_%28film%29

[lovemydog]

52. I thought Barton Fink was hilarious.

I've seen it a few times and I laugh more.

Oh well, to each their own.

[csziggy]

83. Maybe I should watch it again

I haven't been able to make myself do it since the first time I saw it. I was just left with such depression from the first time but maybe that's because of where I was in my life.

The other reason could be that the life and issues involved in the movie are so alien to me that I didn't understand much of what it showed.

[RebelOne]

31. The Pianist

I could not watch the entire movie because it was very depressing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pianist_%282002_film%29

[hopemountain]

126. my daughter sobbed driving home after this film

anything that makes my daughter so sad she is sobbing makes me sad.

[First Speaker]

34. The Paths of Glory

...World War One. Everyone is insane, except maybe Kirk Douglas, or a victim. I don't think any film quite touches the depths of human lunacy like this one...a super-depressing film...

[Sherman A1]

35. Excellent!

i completely agree.

[ailsagirl]

36. "In Cold Blood" was terribly depressing

Last edited Sun Feb 22, 2015, 08:00 PM - Edit history (1)

(as well it should be)

I saw it at the theatre and actually was sick to my stomach afterwards.

[pamela]

142. I just watched that again the other day.

That's really an amazing movie. They filmed it in all of the real locations-not just the real house but every place, the hardware store, bus station, etc. Even many of the real people played themselves like the lady in the diner, the jurors etc.

[WinkyDink]

151. Seconded.

[Texasgal]

37. Schindlers List

Two words: Red Dress.

[mythology]

42. To me that movies is the antithesis of depressing

It shows how even in the face of hell itself, there are people who will choose to do the right thing. The movie is actually #3 on AFI's list of most inspiring movies.

My pick for a depressing movie is The Matrix. Any world that has Keanu Reeves as the world's savior is just too horrible to think about.

[lovemydog]

54. That's how I feel.

The circumstances are obviously depressing. Chekov said I don't write tragedies to make people feel bad, I write them to inspire people to see another way. I think Spielberg succeeded with that picture. Not an easy task. But still, I can see why others might not feel the same. It's really heavy subject matter.

[Earth Bound Misfit]

38. Leaving Las Vegas

Best Actor for Nick Cage & nominations for Elizabeth Shue - Actress, lost to S. Sarandon Dead Man Walking & Director Mike Figgis - lost to Mel Gibson Braveheart. Fun is not to be found in this film.

[bigwillq]

40. I actually love that movie.

I thought the "love story" between Cage and Shue's characters was beautiful.

[Earth Bound Misfit]

59. So did I love the movie

The film is extremely well written, directed and acted...the chemistry between Cage and Shue is electric, Cage in particular was phenomenal. However, overall I found it a sad, dark and deeply upsetting film.

[Tribalceltic]

39. Love Story

What can you say about a twenty-five-year-old girl who died? That she was beautiful and brilliant? That she loved Mozart and Bach, the Beatles, and me?

[distantearlywarning]

41. The most depressing movie I've seen recently - Incendies

Trailer here:

It looked interesting and had good reviews, so we loaded it up on the big screen and popped some popcorn, thinking we were about to see an interesting, enjoyable drama. Yeah...not so much. Can't say much about it without spoiling some plot twists, but man, was it a downer. I watched it with my husband and we both sort of sat there deflated and horrified after it ended. It was not a fun movie night.

[Baitball Blogger]

43. I'm definitely going to research some of the titles in this thread

and plug them into wiki to read the plots. Because I can't see myself spending two hours of my time to see a downer.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

136. True!

A very good film, but definitely on the heavy side.

[Initech]

44. 51 replies and not a single mention of Schindler's List?

[Baitball Blogger]

46. I think someone mentioned it upthread.

Too depressing to look it up, though.

[Laffy Kat]

47. "Never Let Me Go"

The book depressed me so much I didn't want to see the movie but accidentally started watching it on TV. Wished I hadn't.

[Phentex]

154. that was such an odd book...

but it drew me in. I feel like the movie couldn't have made as much sense if you hadn't read the book first.

[pipi_k]

48. "On The Beach"

Depressing and hopeless

[maryellen99]

58. Threads nt

[CBGLuthier]

119. I remember seeing Threads after the american show The Day After

Threads made The Day After look like a picnic.

Another grim one on the same theme is Testament.

[PassingFair]

137. "Testament"

I have never been able to forget the scene where the mother sews a shroud for her first born.

[roamer65]

129. Yes. Threads qualifies. A realistic depiction of a post-nuclear war UK.

So realistic and depressing, it is almost the prequel to "1984".

[cyberswede]

99. Yes.

The book, too. I bawled like a baby when I read it.

[mainer]

100. Yes. Gave me nightmares as a kid

My parents should never have let me see it.

[newcriminal]

49. Night Mother

[LiberalLoner]

66. Big second.

[Sancho]

50. Black Swan

[Adsos Letter]

53. The Pledge

[vanlassie]

57. Brokeback Mountain.

[Marie Marie]

60. Barfly

[IcyPeas]

61. Sid and Nancy, also...Olive Kitteridge

[Exhibit A]

62. "Factotum"

Horrible, horrible movie I wish I'd never seen:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0417658/

The moral of the story seemed to be something like, "Yes, I'm miserable and don't really want to live, but somehow that is good for my writing." BLECH!

[sendero]

156. Now see..

... I kinda like it. To each his own

[cemaphonic]

63. Happiness

I know they were going for a black comedy tone, and I'm pretty tolerant of unsympathetic characters in fiction, but that movie was pretty relentless about shoving horrible people in your face for hours.

[Tom Ripley]

72. I first saw that in a theater and obseved an interesting audience reaction...

they were unmoved during the fantasy mass slaughter in the park, but the later scene of Hoffman's jism hitting the wall brought forth lots of gasps and groans.
People are funny.
I love Happiness.

[HeiressofBickworth]

64. Two of the current Foreign Film Oscar nominees

Leviathan - Russia. Filmed in a cold, dank fishing village in northern Russia. Everyone drank all the time. Very depressing people.

AND

Ida - Poland. Shot in several shades of grey. Main character was a very somber, depressed nun. Very slow movie with a hint of a plot somewhere near the end.

And while I also thought Meloncholia was nearly wrist-slitting depressing, the one that haunted me for the longest time was Never Let Me Go, about children who were conceived and used as organ donors.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

138. Add "Timbuktu" to that list

It's about an ISIS-like organization occupying that African city and how it affects a family of Tuareg tribespeople. (I saw it in a sneak preview.)

[Lydia Leftcoast]

140. Cries and Whispers

Three sisters in a house, one is dying in agony of cancer, the other two are going through the kind of drama that actresses in Ingmar Bergman films go through.

[HeiressofBickworth]

141. I saw Timbuktu

and I thought it a shocking portrayal of what happens to a tribe of non-political people. Although it was disgusting, it didn't leave me with the heavy, grey, barren feeling of the other two. Oh, yes, I did just see that Ida won as best foreign film -- they must all be on drugs to make a choice like that.

[SiobhanClancy]

65. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas

The ending was so horribly depressing that I wish I had never seen it Whatever parts of the film were perhaps less depressing were blown out of my mind.

[Monk06]

67. Three movies I have not been able to see twice. Pixote, Ponette and Pele the Conqueror.

[CanSocDem]

68. One Day In The Life of Ivan Denisovitch.

Don't believe me....??? See for yourself.

[NewJeffCT]

69. The Killing Fields

I saw it in the theater and just felt drained afterwards. Great movie, but a real downer.

[Tom Ripley]

71. Old Yeller

[WinkyDink]

152. Hardly depressing from the beginning.

[Mopar151]

73. Henry - Poitrait of a Serial Killer

Starts out creepy, gets worse.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

74. The Minus Man

Albert Knobbs

[kwassa]

75. Eyes Wide Shut

the movie was just so .... wrong.

[Scuba]

76. August: Osage County

Awful. Depressing. Awful depressing.

[Smarmie Doofus]

78. Depressing? I guess. (So is life, for most people.)

But great ensemble acting and superb script. One of my faves of the last three years.

[Phentex]

153. reminded me a lot of my family...

the secrets. The secrets some already know. The secrets some think the others already know but don't. The way nobody wants to get together unless someones dies and then they are grumpy about it...

It gave me much to think about.

[underahedgerow]

145. Agreed, and just too much screaming for me...

Terribly depressing.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

77. The Mist.

No spoilers (although it was spoiled for me), but yeah. The Mist.

I always found Blood Diamond to be depressing, although slightly optimistic at the very end.

Dead Man Walking is quite grim.

[Baitball Blogger]

79. Though it was the right place to end that movie,

I couldn't help thinking about the recrimination he would get from everyone once the mist cleared.

[Stuart G]

80. Night and Fog..32 minutes. It is the most horrific, depressing film ever made

Read the first 10 viewer reviews of this film. It is the most horrific, depressing film ever made. From beginning to end, and it gets worse as it goes on.. And it is real, it happened, those people died. If you haven't seen it, you are warned. and ..one of those reviews is mine. It is depressing beyond anything you can imagine.

Toward the bottom of the review below, there is a link. It says, "See all 80 user reviews » " Hit that link, and read the first 10.


http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0048434/

[Adsos Letter]

101. We watched that in junior high

I can still picture the bulldozer scenes, and hear the narrator pronouncing Ohrdruf.

That was almost 50 years ago.

[Number9Dream]

81. Nature's Grave aka Long Weekend

The couple is despicable from the beginning. You're rooting for them to just die.
I wonder if Jim Caviezel regrets that one.

[Raine1967]

82. The Original Stepford Wives.

That movie bothers to me to no end.

[hunter]

85. The Unbearable Lightness of Being

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096332

In 1968, a Czech doctor with an active sex life meets a woman who wants monogamy, and then the Soviet invasion further disrupts their lives.

It's downhill all the way.

[El Supremo]

86. The Descendants

Miserable.

[cyberswede]

89. The Deer Hunter

I actually wish I could unsee that movie.

[truegrit44]

98. Agreed on Deer Hunter!

The one that still haunts me tho is "Of Mice and Men" the movie, never read the book.........thank Dog

[Paladin]

90. "Testament" (1983)

Jane Alexander and William Devane in a rollicking tale of a California community after a nuclear war, with agonizing deaths of family members and friends by radiation sickness or starvation an absolute certainty. Far and away the most depressing flick I've ever experienced; frankly, it makes some of the movies listed on this thread---"The Pianist," "Love Story," "The Deer Hunter"---look like "The Sound of Music" in comparison. Way too grim for me to recommend it to anybody.

[Liberal Veteran]

92. Oh, yeah. That was one grim movie. That scene at the sink was traumatizing.

Just a brutal sad movie.

[Paladin]

94. That scene where the mother is sewing her dead daughter into a shroud.....

Nope, that's one movie I'll never, ever watch again. Kind of sorry I even brought it up.....

[Liberal Veteran]

91. Ironweed. Jack Nicholson and Meryl Streep.

Not a great movie, but damn if it wasn't just depressing.

[sakabatou]

93. Grave of the Fireflies

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

95. Kurosawa's existential masterpiece, Ikiru

About an old man dying of cancer whose son doesn't care and who questions his meaningless life, when he finally finds meaning in a fight to keep a local kid's park open and then dies. After his death, life goes on as before, and where he once worked, clerks continue stamping meaningless forms. Depressing but one of the most powerful movies ever made and so beautifully directed. The comments on IMDB in their high, high praise must be read to be appreciated. I rank it among the five greatest films.

[Grammy23]

96. They Shoot Horses Don't They

I didn't actually see this one but my husband went with a friend while I was out of town. He said it was the most depressing thing he'd ever seen and, Based on that, I've never been curious enough to see for myself if his assessment was accurate. His description of it was enough.

[kairos12]

97. The House of Sand and Fog. Equally depressing book.

[LynneSin]

102. I once watched 'Dallas Buyers Club' and '12 Years a Slave' back to back on HBO

Afterwards I was so depressed I didn't want to get out of bed all the next day.

I do not recommended it. One I could handle and I had seen both in the movie theater on big screen. But to watch both of them back to back can take the happiness of person and put them in the most depressed of states.

And it wasn't just that people were dying of AIDs or being treated like shit as Slaves. (although that in itself is pretty damn depressing to watch).

It's that Americans in power held the control over these people who were dying of AIDs and being treated like shit as Slaves and choose to do nothing about it and thus even more people died of AIDs and were treated like shit as Slaves.

[ZombieHorde]

103. The Road. nt

[DFW]

104. Last Year at Marienbad

My parents were amazed when I told them I sat through the whole thing. Twenty years before me, they had walked out about two thirds through. I figured SOMETHING had to happen in this film. It didn't.

[petronius]

106. Breaking the Waves

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0115751/

[ohheckyeah]

107. Papillon

A 1973 Steve McQueen movie. The desperation in the movie depressed me for days.

[a la izquierda]

108. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

It about killed me.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

109. Requiem for a dream.

(shudders)

[sarge43]

110. All Quiet on the Western Front. nt

[mucifer]

111. The Conversation with Gene Hackman

[TrogL]

112. 1984

[GoCubsGo]

113. Ulee's Gold.

Depressing, despite a relatively good ending.

[Lil Missy]

114. Ironweed

Ugh

[liberalhistorian]

116. In addition to any movie based on

a Cormac McCarthy work, I'd also include American Beauty. Not only was it a completely shitty piece of shit for a movie with no redeeming features whatsoever, it was also unbelievably bleak and depressing with an unbelievably bleak and depressing ending. I'll never get back the two hours spent watching it and I never want to watch one second of it again. Same with the Cormac McCarthy movies, especially No Country for Old Men and The Road.

[jmowreader]

117. The Machinist

[My Good Babushka]

118. Leolo

I was going to say Dancer in the Dark first, but I saw that was taken.
Taxidermia is pretty dark, too.

[Burma Jones]

120. Monster's Ball is the most depressing movie I've seen.

Very well acted and directed.....

[LeftishBrit]

121. Possibly 'Le Petit Prince a Dit': a 90s French-Swiss film about a child dying of cancer

Very good, but depressing because of the subject matter.

I will not watch films about (a) the Holocaust or (b) predicted aftermath of nuclear war, because I know those would get me more depressed than I can cope with. I will read and learn about such things, but not actually watch.

[marmar]

122. Mystic River

[Ace Rothstein]

147. The first 30 seconds werent depressing then it goes full bore for 2 hours.

Really good movie though.

[nilesobek]

125. Doctor Zhivago.

Its slow. Its cold and dark. "Laura!"

[Paladin]

131. And they're making a musical of it on Broadway.

Honestly. I saw an ad for it in this morning's NY Times. There's forthcoming musical of "An American In Paris" as well. Frankly, I'm surprised that musicals of both movies haven't been done before now.

[hopemountain]

127. the bell jar

ugh. there is one more but i cannot remember the name of it. i think i blocked it - it was traumatically depressing.

[RandySF]

128. Just about every movie out from China.

[ailsagirl]

133. Looking for Mr Goodbar

Never saw it but a friend did and it sounded sickening and depressing

[Baitball Blogger]

150. I think it was the first book that I read that was dark.

Never saw it coming.

[PassingFair]

135. OK...I have the winner here: "The Seventh Continent"

Unrelentingly depressing.
Stays with you forever, if you can stay with it until the end.

[pamela]

139. An American Crime

Love Ellen Page so watching her be abused for two hours made my stomach hurt. Actually, that would have been depressing with any actress.

[avebury]

143. Shenandoah with Jimmy Stewart

While there is some humorous moments, the movie shows the impact of the Civil War on one Virginia family.

[LostOne4Ever]

144. Lorenzo's Oil (nt)

[LWolf]

146. The Heart is a Lonely Hunter. nt

[Lydia Leftcoast]

149. I'd forgotten that one but yes, definitely!

One of the few movies that Sondra Locke made before she took up with Clint Eastwood.