# Bleakest movie you have ever seen **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 9, 2013, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bleakest-movie-you-have-ever-seen/657901 "2013-05-09T16:32:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 11
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2013, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bleakest-movie-you-have-ever-seen/657901/201 "2013-05-15T02:51:41Z")
Peter Berg’s _Very Bad Things_ is supposed to be a comedy, I think. If I had been tempted to laugh at any part of it, the temptation definitely wore off by the ending. And what an ending that was. ---
**Author:** ![Flywheel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Flywheel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flywheel)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2013, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bleakest-movie-you-have-ever-seen/657901/202 "2013-05-15T03:02:36Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > Peter Berg’s _Very Bad Things_ is supposed to be a comedy, I think. > > If I had been tempted to laugh at any part of it, the temptation definitely wore off by the ending. And what an ending that was. Doubly so if you’ve actually had to care for a permanently wheelchair-bound relative. ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2013, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bleakest-movie-you-have-ever-seen/657901/203 "2013-05-15T03:09:07Z")
> [@Ulfreida](#): > > I not only loathed that film, by the end I loathed the reviewer who led me to it. Really? I came away loathing Peter Greenaway. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2013, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bleakest-movie-you-have-ever-seen/657901/204 "2013-05-15T17:19:12Z")
> [@gaffa](#): > > Don’t wolves hunt particularly well? I’ve read of starving wolf packs during times of heavy snows hunting down peasants in medieval Europe. ---
**Author:** ![Knorf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/58956e/32.png) [@Knorf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knorf)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2013, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bleakest-movie-you-have-ever-seen/657901/205 "2013-05-15T17:27:03Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > I’ve read of starving wolf packs during times of heavy snows hunting down peasants in medieval Europe. I’ve also read about dragons and angels of wrath descending upon and destroying sinful towns in medieval Europe. Fiction for everyone. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2013, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bleakest-movie-you-have-ever-seen/657901/206 "2013-05-15T17:28:11Z")
> [@Knorf](#): > > I’ve also read about dragons and angels of wrath descending upon and destroying sinful towns in medieval Europe. Fiction for everyone. T’ain’t no angels. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2013, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bleakest-movie-you-have-ever-seen/657901/207 "2013-05-15T17:30:03Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > T’ain’t no angels. That’s just god when he’s drunk. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2013, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bleakest-movie-you-have-ever-seen/657901/208 "2013-05-15T17:43:03Z")
[Wolf Attacks on Humans](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolf_attacks_on_humans). Admittedly rare but not unheard of. ---
**Author:** ![a35362](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3da27b/32.png) [@a35362](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/a35362)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2013, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bleakest-movie-you-have-ever-seen/657901/209 "2013-05-15T18:44:33Z")
I described them in a review as Wolves of Unusual Size whose growls sounded like velociraptors’. If they hadn’t overdone the wolves to ridiculous extremes (like _Jaws_ with wolves), I mighta bought it. ---
**Author:** ![Knorf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/58956e/32.png) [@Knorf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knorf)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2013, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bleakest-movie-you-have-ever-seen/657901/210 "2013-05-15T19:13:33Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > [Wolf Attacks on Humans](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolf_attacks_on_humans). Admittedly rare but not unheard of. It’s the description of otherwise healthy wolves methodically hunting a group of adult humans that I took exception to regarding _The Grey_. That’s just nonsense. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2013, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bleakest-movie-you-have-ever-seen/657901/211 "2013-05-15T19:26:53Z")
I’ll toss in _Thief_, with James Caan. Usual tale of a top-flight burglar who decides to quit and is blackmailed into one more mega-job by the mob. Great on the technology and technique of vault cracking etc. but utterly depressing final third and outcome. The kind of film you turn off and stare at the black screen and just say, “Shit,” in a low voice. ---
**Author:** ![Chum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3ab097/32.png) [@Chum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chum)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2013, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bleakest-movie-you-have-ever-seen/657901/212 "2013-05-15T19:42:23Z")
I’ve seen quite a few of these and actively avoided many. I think _Blue Valentine_ wins. ---
**Author:** ![HubZilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ccd318/32.png) [@HubZilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HubZilla)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2013, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bleakest-movie-you-have-ever-seen/657901/213 "2013-05-15T20:58:00Z")
> [@Kobal2](#): > > ETA: oh, and I’ll add that even though I have\* Grave of the Fireflies\* on DVD, and it has been recommended to me a whole bunch of times… I still don’t have the balls to actually watch it. Same with _Come And See_. Come and See is one of those movies that just has you transfixed at the end. It’s like Spielberg watched this and said “This gives me somes idea for Saving Private Ryan and Schindler’s List, but let’s tone it down a bit. And not make the Nazis so evil” I think I’ll stick with heroic Western Front and non-China Pacific War movies from now on. Go John Wayne! ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2013, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bleakest-movie-you-have-ever-seen/657901/214 "2013-05-15T21:18:24Z")
> [@HubZilla](#): > > Come and See is one of those movies that just has you transfixed at the end. It’s like Spielberg watched this and said “This gives me somes idea for Saving Private Ryan and Schindler’s List, but let’s tone it down a bit. And not make the Nazis so evil” > > I think I’ll stick with heroic Western Front and non-China Pacific War movies from now on. Go John Wayne! To my mind, what makes _Come and See_ so horrifying is that it has definite touches of surrealism … but as the movie progresses, you realize that the cold factual reality of what happened in that time and place is more bizzare and horrible than any surreal imagery conjured up. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2013, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bleakest-movie-you-have-ever-seen/657901/215 "2013-05-16T01:48:29Z")
Back in the 1980’s, James Wood’s cocaine melodrama [The Boost](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0094783/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1) was pretty bleak. Haven’t seen it since then, so it may have lost some of its potency because of potential 80’s fashion traumady and synthesizer soundtrack horrors. I actually thought this was worse than the one where Robert Downey Jr. was being pimped out by James Spader because RDJ went from nothing to loser, while James Wood’s _went broke_. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![stegon66](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee59a6/32.png) [@stegon66](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stegon66)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2013, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bleakest-movie-you-have-ever-seen/657901/216 "2013-05-16T02:08:23Z")
Another vote for Come and See… ---
**Author:** ![stegon66](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee59a6/32.png) [@stegon66](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stegon66)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2013, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bleakest-movie-you-have-ever-seen/657901/217 "2013-05-16T02:13:26Z")
Andrzej Wajda’s Kanal is pretty grim. Re: The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover. It’s not upbeat by any means but I don’t know that I’d call it especially bleak… The villain gets his comeuppance in grand fashion so there is at least a sense of closure and satisfaction to be had. ---
**Author:** ![Yookeroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yookeroo/32/323_2.png) [@Yookeroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yookeroo)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2013, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bleakest-movie-you-have-ever-seen/657901/218 "2013-05-16T03:14:50Z")
> [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](#): > > Want to test & see if somebody is a sociopath? > > Show them **Grave Of The Fireflies**. > > If they don’t break down weeping during that film, they should be in a straightjacket. I must be a sociopath. I’ll nominate [Biutiful](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1164999/combined). ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2013, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bleakest-movie-you-have-ever-seen/657901/219 "2013-05-16T04:18:24Z")
> [@tomcar](#): > > Kill List (2011) is on Netflix now. It is a must see Horror/Thriller… and it is as bleak as a film can be. I just saw this film tonight and WTF re: the last 15 minutes!? I don’t understand what I just watched. Reminded me a bit of “A Serbian Film” actually. Not really a film I’d recommend. I could barely understand half the dialogue even though it was in English. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2013, 6:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bleakest-movie-you-have-ever-seen/657901/220 "2013-05-19T06:31:19Z")
I mentioned _Eraserhead_, but another candidate could very well be the epic Holocaust documentary [Shoah](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090015/?ref_=fn_tt_tt_1) (1985). We’ve watched all nine-hours-plus of it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bleakest-movie-you-have-ever-seen/657901.md?page=10) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bleakest-movie-you-have-ever-seen/657901.md?page=12)