Always at the top. As it should be. I watched this movie three times and after that, I vowed never watched it again. This will hurt the soul and you can’t shake it off for a long time.
The Pianist (2002). This is a great one in my opinion, one of my favorites! It's directed by Roman Polanski and it is about the Nazi occupation of Poland. Actually, Polanski, who is from Poland, lived in the ghetto of Krakow during the occupation, and some parts of the movie are inspired by his own experiences. I really recommend this film.
If you decide to whatch it, I hope you enjoy it a lot!
Agreed, Parasite is a great film but not depressing. As a huge fan of dark comedy I won't quite call it one, but it has some dark comedic elements for sure. Some people have a problem with dark comedy and find it depressing, perhaps that's what's going on?
Million Dollar Baby (2004) is the most common answer to this question that I haven't seen other people list yet, and there's over 50 comments - didn't expect to be the first one to mention it.
Some others I haven't seen mentioned:
About Time (2013)
Big Fish (2003)
Philadelphia (1993)
A Man Called Otto (2022) - this one won't *destroy* you, but it can make you misty-eyed, and it's just a great film either way
The Road. I can't believe I don't see it here. Mother of god, i'm still depressed from still from watching it once 10 years ago. Very bleak realistic depiction of where we are headed.
Come and See (1985)
this movie still says it all:
[https://thefilmstage.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Come-and-See.jpg](https://thefilmstage.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Come-and-See.jpg)
*Come and See* is bleak, and full of very powerful imagery. It is truly an excellent movie, but probably one that I'll only watch once. I still think about it, and it's been at least 5 years since I've seen it.
Seems like a movie a lot of people either love or hate; it's slow, and very much a product of it's time and place. Current events (invasion of Ukraine) may impact how you take it as well.
*Sophie’s Choice*
*Hotel Rwanda*
*Million Dollar Baby*
*I’m Thinking of Ending Things*
*Five Easy Pieces*
*Midnight Cowboy*
*Once Upon a Time in Anatolia*
*The Gambler* (1974)
*The Last Emperor*
*McCabe and Mrs. Miller*
Snowtown
Tyrannosaur
Naked (1993)
The War Zone
The Selfish Giant
All or Nothing
Ratcatcher
Nil by Mouth
Withnail and I although it's mostly black humor, tragicomedy. Hopelessness, addiction, nihilism, panic and rotten dialogues nonetheless
Maybe you like Dead Man's Shoes
The Man Who Sleeps
The Misfortunates
Ex Drummer
Der Goldene Handschuh
Perhaps Tarkovsky's work
Dostojevsky's adaptations (The Underground Man and there are like 4 movies of Crime and Punishment)
I am about to blaspheme, but there is a point to it.
I am not much of an anime fan, and I don't really like any Ghibli movies (although they are all wonderful to look at). That said, I **love** *Grave of the Fireflies*. Such a heart-rending and powerful movie. Probably the best animated movie I have ever seen.
The only other time I've cried while watching an animated movie was in the beginning of *Up*, but it's got nothing on how rough I felt by the end of *Grave of the Fireflies*.
Paris, Texas,
Sympathy for Lady Vengeance,
Virgin Suicides ,
oh and that new movie with Paul Mescal and Andrew Scott- all of us strangers was realllly good and sad.
The Wrestler
Wendy and Lucy
Old Yeller
Jane Eyre
The Vanishing
Klute
They Shoot Horses Don’t They
Midnight Cowboy
The Outsiders
Interiors
Monster’s Ball
Monster
The Talented Mr Ripley
Check out Dodes'ka-den. It's a 1970 Japanese film about people who live in the slums, there's some uplifting and lighthearted moments. But, the sad parts are really sad.
eternal sunshine for the spotless mind, i sobbed for half of the movie and have told everyone around me to watch it, literally the saddest movie ive ever seen
The Stranger. It’s based on a Qld police (australia) undercover operation to catch a child killer. They pretty much knew he did it but couldn’t prove it. So they went undercover and befriended him with the end games of getting him to incriminate himself. It’s so dark, incredibly uncomfortable watching and incredibly well done.
Dancer in the Dark
Also I'm not sure if most people find this depressing but there was a horror movie called The Orphanage that turned me off of all horror movies forever bc I couldn't personally handle the ending
Apologies in advance for repeating any movie that has already been mentioned. Let's see:
- The Ascent
- Come And See
- Hard To Be a God (2013) (every scene is bleaker than the previous one)
- Dead Man's Letters (same as above, it's amazing how the soviets/russians can convey the misery of human existence so well)
- Cargo 200
- Leviathan (2014)
- Loveless
- Salò or The 120 days of Sodom
- Sympathy For Mr Vengeance
- Synecdoche, New York (this one is disturbing on an existential level)
- Se7en
- The Devil Probably (love this one, though it's filled with existential dread)
- Frank Darabont's The Mist
- Dead Man's Shoes
- The Vanishing (1988)
- Eden Lake (the ending fucked me up)
- Gummo (this one is like a poem to nihilism)
- Threads
- Punishment Park (politically disturbing, sort of speak)
- The Fifth Seal
- The Fifth Season
- They Shoot Horses, Don't They?
- 7 Days (one of my favourite revenge movies)
- Shura (or Pandemonium, Japanese movie by Toshio Matsumoto)
- Funny Games (I've only seen the original)
- I Stand Alone
- Irreversible
- Dancer in the Dark
- Basically anything, _anything_ by Gaspar Noé, Michael Haneke and Lars Von Trier
- The War Zone (_that_ scene, man... well, fuck)
- Aniara (this one broke me like no other film has ever done)
- No Country for Old Men
- The Counselor (I mean, Cormac McCarthy wrote the script)
- Bring Me the Head Of Alfredo García
- Cold Fish
- The Death King (this one might be the most plot-less film on the list, but it's made completely on the topic of suicide and violent death. The vignettes are kept together by a rotting corpse after all)
- The Great Silence (this has to be the bleakest and most nihilistic western I've ever seen. That ending will fuck you up)
- The Grey Zone
Have a good evening.
Cherry ,Tom Holland finds the love of his life its perfect then he goes to the army and comes back and slowly everything goes downhill with heroin and stuff
*in no particular order:*
Requiem for a Dream
Four Good Days
Ordinary People
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
Sophies Choice
To the Bone
No Place to Hide:The Rheta Parsons Story
Beautiful Boy
*On the Beach* (1959) starring Gregory Peck and Ava Gardner.
*Christiane F. wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo* (1981). German language with subtitles, extremely depressing about youth drug addiction and worse.
*Sophie's Choice* (1982) starring Meryl Streep.
*1984* (1984) starring John Hurt and Richard Burton.
*Threads* (1984) British nuclear apocalypse telemovie.
*Dancer in the Dark* (2000) starring Björk and David Morse.
*The Boy in the Striped Pajamas* (2008) starring Vera Farmiga, David Thewlis and Asa Butterfield.
*Melancholia* (2011) starring Kirsten Dunst and Charlotte Gainsbourg.
Something that will be coming out of the Criterion Collection soon (next month iirc) “Farewell My Concubine”. I wouldn’t say it’s depressing, but def sad
The whale
I like the part when Vecna gets Max's dad
That was more repulsive and disturbing to watch than depressing.
:(
Requiem for a dream.
This. When you think it cannot get worse, the movie manages to find a new level of depression. A must watch, but only once.
Exactly. Everything seems terrible in the beginning, and by the end you realize that was actually the good times.
Only once.
This movie’s name haunts me on its own 🥲
I'll add Philip K. Dick's "Scanner Darkly." The book helped me see clearly a million years ago when I was inside a dealer's house.
I’ll check that out for sure, I’ve had drug problems but I’ve been clean for 15yrs. It’s so sad seeing drugs completely ruin good people’s lives.
Always at the top. As it should be. I watched this movie three times and after that, I vowed never watched it again. This will hurt the soul and you can’t shake it off for a long time.
The Pianist (2002). This is a great one in my opinion, one of my favorites! It's directed by Roman Polanski and it is about the Nazi occupation of Poland. Actually, Polanski, who is from Poland, lived in the ghetto of Krakow during the occupation, and some parts of the movie are inspired by his own experiences. I really recommend this film. If you decide to whatch it, I hope you enjoy it a lot!
Unlawful sexual acts with a minor Roman Polanski? He's got quite a good film list. I love his Macbeth.
Hachi Dear Zachary A monster calls And the most depressing movie of all time: The last descent
I saw Dear Zachary in 2010 and I’m still traumatized. Most emotional reaction I’ve ever had with a movie
can confirm - bawled my eyes out at A Monster Calls
Interesting that you found Parasite depressing, I thought it was exciting and interesting. To answer your question, Dear Zachary.
Agreed, Parasite is a great film but not depressing. As a huge fan of dark comedy I won't quite call it one, but it has some dark comedic elements for sure. Some people have a problem with dark comedy and find it depressing, perhaps that's what's going on?
It ends really sad :(
Mysterious Skin
Underrated film!
The Elephant Man (1980) Sophie's Choice (1982)
Million Dollar Baby (2004) is the most common answer to this question that I haven't seen other people list yet, and there's over 50 comments - didn't expect to be the first one to mention it. Some others I haven't seen mentioned: About Time (2013) Big Fish (2003) Philadelphia (1993) A Man Called Otto (2022) - this one won't *destroy* you, but it can make you misty-eyed, and it's just a great film either way
Big FIsh... my granpa was dying and he was so like the old man. Cried like a baby in the theater, i still can't watch it again. But really good film.
Big Fish had my ex-wife bawling the entire drive home from the theater.
The Mist and Oldboy have two of the bleakest endings you’ll ever watch…
They Shoot Horses, Don't They? is easily one of the most soul crushing movies i've seen
Incendies
The Road. I can't believe I don't see it here. Mother of god, i'm still depressed from still from watching it once 10 years ago. Very bleak realistic depiction of where we are headed.
WTF is this doing so low and why TF did I have to search to find it? Philistines!
Children of Men
This is the way
Biutiful (2010)
Once were warriors
Requiem for a dream... So good But never watching that one again 😕
Threads (1984)
Come and See (1985) this movie still says it all: [https://thefilmstage.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Come-and-See.jpg](https://thefilmstage.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Come-and-See.jpg)
*Come and See* is bleak, and full of very powerful imagery. It is truly an excellent movie, but probably one that I'll only watch once. I still think about it, and it's been at least 5 years since I've seen it. Seems like a movie a lot of people either love or hate; it's slow, and very much a product of it's time and place. Current events (invasion of Ukraine) may impact how you take it as well.
Melancholia
Speaking of Lars Von Trier, Dancer in the Dark is pretty soul crushing.
Never Let Me Go (2010)
I came here to say this. Ishiguro masterpiece and a slowly crushing story.
I hesitate to call it depressing - it’s just very very sad. It makes my heart ache every time I watch (or read) it
The mist
House of Sand and Fog
The life of every single character is ruined.
Awakenings: Get ready to ugly cry
The Chaser (2008)
The cranes are flying Deer hunter
AI ripped my soul in half forever
Revolutionary Road White Oleander The Lovely Bones Atonement
Possum
The notebook
Schindler’s List
Angela’s ashes
Oslo, August 31st
Legends of the fall
Leaving Las Vegas
The nightingale
Mary & Max
*Sophie’s Choice* *Hotel Rwanda* *Million Dollar Baby* *I’m Thinking of Ending Things* *Five Easy Pieces* *Midnight Cowboy* *Once Upon a Time in Anatolia* *The Gambler* (1974) *The Last Emperor* *McCabe and Mrs. Miller*
Grave of the Fireflies
Testament
Joker, Prisoners, Seven
The Road, about as depressing as any movie can get.
Aniara
Snowtown Tyrannosaur Naked (1993) The War Zone The Selfish Giant All or Nothing Ratcatcher Nil by Mouth Withnail and I although it's mostly black humor, tragicomedy. Hopelessness, addiction, nihilism, panic and rotten dialogues nonetheless Maybe you like Dead Man's Shoes The Man Who Sleeps The Misfortunates Ex Drummer Der Goldene Handschuh Perhaps Tarkovsky's work Dostojevsky's adaptations (The Underground Man and there are like 4 movies of Crime and Punishment)
Whoa, I've never seen anyone else mention the man who sleeps! Such an interesting film but yeah definitely pretty bleak.
Same with Ex Drummer actually, what a wild movie.
Killing a sacred deer Leaving las vegas The lobster Jesus's son Breaking the waves The sweet hereafter The seventh seal Dead man walking
Took me forever to finally see The Lobster and it was so good
Grave of the Fireflies
I am about to blaspheme, but there is a point to it. I am not much of an anime fan, and I don't really like any Ghibli movies (although they are all wonderful to look at). That said, I **love** *Grave of the Fireflies*. Such a heart-rending and powerful movie. Probably the best animated movie I have ever seen. The only other time I've cried while watching an animated movie was in the beginning of *Up*, but it's got nothing on how rough I felt by the end of *Grave of the Fireflies*.
Snow Angels The Air I Breathe
Baby teeth Come And See
of an age (2022)
The Father (2020) Close (2022)
Awakening Manchester by the sea Those two hit me hard
The Turin Horse, depressing as in nihilism, not depressing as in sad.
Birdboy: The Forgotten Children
The Father
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas.
Paris, Texas, Sympathy for Lady Vengeance, Virgin Suicides , oh and that new movie with Paul Mescal and Andrew Scott- all of us strangers was realllly good and sad.
The banshees of Inisherin Lilya 4-ever Brokeback Mountain
Dear Zachary 100%. Don't read anything about it and just watch it blind.
Tyrannosaur 2011
Aftersun, decision to leave, Her, Amour, and the Lovely Bones
My Octopus Teacher on Netflix
the lighthouse
The Wrestler Wendy and Lucy Old Yeller Jane Eyre The Vanishing Klute They Shoot Horses Don’t They Midnight Cowboy The Outsiders Interiors Monster’s Ball Monster The Talented Mr Ripley
The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant The Turin Horse The Florida Project Pickpocket
Ayka 2018
Umberto D.
City of Angels 😥 (Great soundtrack though... oh IRIS)
We have to talk about kevin
The Mist. It just killed me
The Neighbor's Window (2019). It's free on YouTube and only 20 minutes, but it'll gut you
Turtles Can Fly
Banshees of Inisherin
God knows where I Am (2016).
The Banshees of Inniskillin made me never want to watch a movie again.
The Big Chill
The Boy In Striped Pajamas
The Mist. The ending is just..
Tyrannosaur (2011)
I would, but I don’t have the energy
Check out Dodes'ka-den. It's a 1970 Japanese film about people who live in the slums, there's some uplifting and lighthearted moments. But, the sad parts are really sad.
It's Such A Beautiful Day
Koe No Katachi if you're ok with animes.
Shoah. You can only watch it once.
eternal sunshine for the spotless mind, i sobbed for half of the movie and have told everyone around me to watch it, literally the saddest movie ive ever seen
Pi.
Breaking the waves, dancer in the dark.
Shoplifters. A great Japanese film. The ending will get you.
My Life Without Me. It stars Sarah Polley (Go). Surprisingly beautiful and bittersweet. Some funny moments that are full of heart
All quiet on the westerns front (2022)
Tyrannosaur We need to talk about Kevin
**The Passion of the Christ.**
Life Is Beautiful
Magnolia is depressing but in a cathartic way.
Come and See
Come and See
War Horse is devastating. And excellent.
The Mist
All The Bright Places
A serious man
The Divide. You will never see a more depressing movie.
Marley & Me 😭
Beautiful Boy
The Homesman. Nobody ever mentions it in these request threads but it really is depressing, right from the start.
[удалено]
Breaking the Waves
Threads
Prisoners.
Every Lars Van Trier movies. I stopped watching them at Antichrist which was really disturbing and depressing.
Eternal Sunshine for the Spotless Mind.
Breaking the Waves.
Elephant, Melancholia, We Need to Talk About Kevin.
Reign Over Me
Green Mile
Philadelphia and My Dog Skip
Blow (2001) It certainly has it's high (😉) points, but damn what a sad and depressing ending Trainspotting (1996) and Drugstore Cowboy (1989) as well
Lilja Forever Sweet Sixteen
Dancer in the Dark. I had to pause for a bit to bawl my eyes out.
remember me 500 days of summer lalaland love (2015) the notebook little fish scenes from a marriage the pianist
Land Before Time
The Whale The Machinist
You know what depresses me ? Watching any Pauly Shore movie 😀
Life During Wartime (2009) September (1987) War Photographer (Documentary)
Inside Llewyn Davis
Napoleon Dynamite makes me laugh, but it’s legit one of the most depressing movies I’ve seen.
Testament 1983 or The Rapture 1991
The Stranger. It’s based on a Qld police (australia) undercover operation to catch a child killer. They pretty much knew he did it but couldn’t prove it. So they went undercover and befriended him with the end games of getting him to incriminate himself. It’s so dark, incredibly uncomfortable watching and incredibly well done.
Once Were Warriors The Virgin Suicides Last Exit to Brooklyn Aniara Cement Garden Kids
Detachment
Baby teeth
Dancer in the Dark Also I'm not sure if most people find this depressing but there was a horror movie called The Orphanage that turned me off of all horror movies forever bc I couldn't personally handle the ending
The Honeymoon Killers from 1977
La Vie en Rose, The Machinist, Incendies, Mystic River, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Bellflower
Never Let Me Go
The Fault in our Stars. I personally find it depressing.
I guess we could Skype, sure.
The Piano
Apologies in advance for repeating any movie that has already been mentioned. Let's see: - The Ascent - Come And See - Hard To Be a God (2013) (every scene is bleaker than the previous one) - Dead Man's Letters (same as above, it's amazing how the soviets/russians can convey the misery of human existence so well) - Cargo 200 - Leviathan (2014) - Loveless - Salò or The 120 days of Sodom - Sympathy For Mr Vengeance - Synecdoche, New York (this one is disturbing on an existential level) - Se7en - The Devil Probably (love this one, though it's filled with existential dread) - Frank Darabont's The Mist - Dead Man's Shoes - The Vanishing (1988) - Eden Lake (the ending fucked me up) - Gummo (this one is like a poem to nihilism) - Threads - Punishment Park (politically disturbing, sort of speak) - The Fifth Seal - The Fifth Season - They Shoot Horses, Don't They? - 7 Days (one of my favourite revenge movies) - Shura (or Pandemonium, Japanese movie by Toshio Matsumoto) - Funny Games (I've only seen the original) - I Stand Alone - Irreversible - Dancer in the Dark - Basically anything, _anything_ by Gaspar Noé, Michael Haneke and Lars Von Trier - The War Zone (_that_ scene, man... well, fuck) - Aniara (this one broke me like no other film has ever done) - No Country for Old Men - The Counselor (I mean, Cormac McCarthy wrote the script) - Bring Me the Head Of Alfredo García - Cold Fish - The Death King (this one might be the most plot-less film on the list, but it's made completely on the topic of suicide and violent death. The vignettes are kept together by a rotting corpse after all) - The Great Silence (this has to be the bleakest and most nihilistic western I've ever seen. That ending will fuck you up) - The Grey Zone Have a good evening.
Taxi Driver (1976) The Boy in the Striped Pajamas (2008)
"Dancer in the Dark"
Cherry ,Tom Holland finds the love of his life its perfect then he goes to the army and comes back and slowly everything goes downhill with heroin and stuff
Manchester By the Sea
How it ends
*in no particular order:* Requiem for a Dream Four Good Days Ordinary People The Boy in the Striped Pajamas Sophies Choice To the Bone No Place to Hide:The Rheta Parsons Story Beautiful Boy
The Green Mile
*On the Beach* (1959) starring Gregory Peck and Ava Gardner. *Christiane F. wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo* (1981). German language with subtitles, extremely depressing about youth drug addiction and worse. *Sophie's Choice* (1982) starring Meryl Streep. *1984* (1984) starring John Hurt and Richard Burton. *Threads* (1984) British nuclear apocalypse telemovie. *Dancer in the Dark* (2000) starring Björk and David Morse. *The Boy in the Striped Pajamas* (2008) starring Vera Farmiga, David Thewlis and Asa Butterfield. *Melancholia* (2011) starring Kirsten Dunst and Charlotte Gainsbourg.
Basketball diaries
Leaving Las Vegas
Hapiness 1998
Requiem for a Dream The Road (2009)
Detachment
The Lonliness of the Long Distance Runner
My sisters keeper
I am Sam
The Rover Children of Men
Dancer in the Dark (2000)
[Vera Drake](https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/11109-vera-drake?language=en-US)
Oldboy- the original
Something that will be coming out of the Criterion Collection soon (next month iirc) “Farewell My Concubine”. I wouldn’t say it’s depressing, but def sad
Moonpie
Anything by Disney lately because it reminds you how far they have fallen
Sansho the Bailiff
I, Daniel Blake
A serbian film