# 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:** 4
**Author:** ![Duke\_of\_Rat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Duke\_of\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duke_of_Rat)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2013, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bleakest-movie-you-have-ever-seen/657901/61 "2013-05-09T21:00:43Z")
Dang, there was some movie on the other night that I thought was nearly as depressing as _Eraserhead_, I remember even thinking how messed up it was, and now I can’t remember the name. I bet I looked it up on IMDB, I’ll see if any of my recent views offer any clues. ---
**Author:** ![Accidental\_Martyr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ce7236/32.png) [@Accidental\_Martyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Accidental_Martyr)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2013, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bleakest-movie-you-have-ever-seen/657901/62 "2013-05-09T21:00:54Z")
> [@Tequila\_Party](#): > > Dead Ringer? Almost. It’s actually **Dead Ringers** , directed by David Cronenberg. 🙂 **Requiem For a Dream, Dancer in The Dark,** and **Happiness** would also be on my list. ---
**Author:** ![Labrador\_Deceiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7c8e57/32.png) [@Labrador\_Deceiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labrador_Deceiver)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2013, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bleakest-movie-you-have-ever-seen/657901/63 "2013-05-09T21:05:15Z")
> [@Evin](#): > > _On The Beach_. Game over. Read the OP for game rules. ---
**Author:** ![Alikary\_Alibel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ce73a5/32.png) [@Alikary\_Alibel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alikary_Alibel)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2013, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bleakest-movie-you-have-ever-seen/657901/64 "2013-05-09T21:13:20Z")
For one thing, I don’t like Kirsten Dunst. For another, was it ever dreary… ---
**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 9, 2013, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bleakest-movie-you-have-ever-seen/657901/65 "2013-05-09T21:13:51Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > _Dead Man_- Jim Jarmusch & Johnny Depp film that was Synechoche’s predecessor to that title Dead Man bleak? ---
**Author:** ![Hrududu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Hrududu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hrududu)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2013, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bleakest-movie-you-have-ever-seen/657901/66 "2013-05-09T21:18:28Z")
Irreversible ---
**Author:** ![Gagundathar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a183cd/32.png) [@Gagundathar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gagundathar)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2013, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bleakest-movie-you-have-ever-seen/657901/67 "2013-05-09T21:37:49Z")
66 posts and nobody mentioned _Brazil_? That was probably the first time that I wept in a theater as an adult. My fiancee at the time was quite put out with me. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2013, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bleakest-movie-you-have-ever-seen/657901/68 "2013-05-09T21:52:21Z")
> [@Gagundathar](#): > > 66 posts and nobody mentioned _Brazil_? > … Damn! Beat me to it by _that_ much. Another maybe a lot of folks wouldn’t think of – _The Godfather_. ---
**Author:** ![Accidental\_Martyr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ce7236/32.png) [@Accidental\_Martyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Accidental_Martyr)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2013, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bleakest-movie-you-have-ever-seen/657901/69 "2013-05-09T22:49:45Z")
**Melancholia** > [@Alikary\_Alibel](#): > > For one thing, I don’t like Kirsten Dunst. For another, was it ever dreary… Is Lars Von Trier in the lead for this thread? ---
**Author:** ![The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/74df32/32.png) [@The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Devil_s_Grandmother)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2013, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bleakest-movie-you-have-ever-seen/657901/70 "2013-05-09T22:56:03Z")
I agree with so many of these, but still must mention \*Away from her \*the best movie I never want to see again. ---
**Author:** ![President\_Johnny\_Gentle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/5f9b8f/32.png) [@President\_Johnny\_Gentle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/President_Johnny_Gentle)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2013, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bleakest-movie-you-have-ever-seen/657901/71 "2013-05-09T23:08:00Z")
> [@Gagundathar](#): > > 66 posts and nobody mentioned _Brazil_? > That was probably the first time that I wept in a theater as an adult. > My fiancee at the time was quite put out with me. I considered it to be dystopian, so not allowed as per the OP. I may have read too quickly, but I haven’t seen anyone mention any Lynch films. I’ll put forward _Mulholland Drive_. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Accident](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f05b48/32.png) [@Mr.Accident](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Accident)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2013, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bleakest-movie-you-have-ever-seen/657901/72 "2013-05-09T23:15:01Z")
The Girl Next Door. A story about the rape and torture of a young girl, perpetrated by her neighbor and other kids from the neighborhood. Even more disturbing since it’s based on a true story, and gets most of the details of what really happened to that poor girl correct. ---
**Author:** ![Disgruntled\_Penguin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a8b319/32.png) [@Disgruntled\_Penguin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Disgruntled_Penguin)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2013, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bleakest-movie-you-have-ever-seen/657901/73 "2013-05-09T23:29:30Z")
> [@Hrududu](#): > > Irreversible After Requiem for a Dream was mentioned I kept reading to see if this movie was going to be mentioned or I would have. Truly Depressing stuff but a riveting movie. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2013, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bleakest-movie-you-have-ever-seen/657901/74 "2013-05-09T23:47:16Z")
It’s sort of “dystopia”, but not in a [crapsack world](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CrapsackWorld)sort of way. My vote is for \*\*Never Let Me Go \*\* with Carey Mulligan and Keira Knightley. It’s about a doomed love triangle at some alternate timeline 50s English boarding school. That would be bleak enough except why is it doomed? Oh yeah. Because they find out their all clones on some organ farm. And unlike most “expendable clone” flicks, like The Island, they know exactly what they are and what their fate is. ---
**Author:** ![Drain\_Bead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e47774/32.png) [@Drain\_Bead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drain_Bead)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2013, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bleakest-movie-you-have-ever-seen/657901/75 "2013-05-09T23:49:17Z")
Welcome to the Dollhouse. ---
**Author:** ![SpoilerVirgin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4491bb/32.png) [@SpoilerVirgin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpoilerVirgin)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2013, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bleakest-movie-you-have-ever-seen/657901/76 "2013-05-10T00:05:57Z")
The first movie that came to mind for me was [Northfork](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0322659/). Not necessarily the saddest, but definitely the bleakest. ---
**Author:** ![KarlGauss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/karlgauss/32/3713_2.png) [@KarlGauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGauss)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2013, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bleakest-movie-you-have-ever-seen/657901/77 "2013-05-10T00:09:36Z")
For many years, [1984](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087803/combined) (released in 1984, with Richard Burton and John Hurt) was by far the bleakest movie I had ever seen. A bleak introduction, a bleaker body of the movie, and a conclusion without hope and, yes, only bleakness. I don’t know why it was filmed in colour, because everything in it seemed to be grey. Then I saw [The Grey Zone](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0252480/combined). Good God. A fine movie, but given it’s no-holds-barred look at the daily existence of the Sonderkommando at Auschwitz during its “busy” period in late spring and early summer of 1944, it was the cinematic embodiment of bleak. ---
**Author:** ![Cuckoorex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ad7895/32.png) [@Cuckoorex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cuckoorex)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2013, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bleakest-movie-you-have-ever-seen/657901/78 "2013-05-10T00:09:58Z")
> [@Mr.Accident](#): > > The Girl Next Door. > > A story about the rape and torture of a young girl, perpetrated by her neighbor and other kids from the neighborhood. Even more disturbing since it’s based on a true story, and gets most of the details of what really happened to that poor girl correct. Yeah, forgot about that one; based on Jack Ketchum’s book of the same name. _An American Crime_ is another one, based on the actual events that inspired the book. ---
**Author:** ![adhemar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3da27b/32.png) [@adhemar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adhemar)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2013, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bleakest-movie-you-have-ever-seen/657901/79 "2013-05-10T00:12:38Z")
animal Room with Neil Patrick Harris, mildly mis-behaving high school student is laocked in a room with no supervision with all of the hard case students in the school some of which are sociopaths. No way to get away from the violent tendencies and a school that doesn’t care. Quite frightening. ---
**Author:** ![Accidental\_Martyr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ce7236/32.png) [@Accidental\_Martyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Accidental_Martyr)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2013, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bleakest-movie-you-have-ever-seen/657901/80 "2013-05-10T00:16:45Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > It’s sort of “dystopia”, but not in a [crapsack world](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CrapsackWorld)sort of way. My vote is for \*\*Never Let Me Go \*\* with Carey Mulligan and Keira Knightley. > > It’s about a doomed love triangle at some alternate timeline 50s English boarding school. That would be bleak enough except why is it doomed? Oh yeah. Because they find out their all clones on some organ farm. And unlike most “expendable clone” flicks, like The Island, they know exactly what they are and what their fate is. Oh yeah, add that one to my list too. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bleakest-movie-you-have-ever-seen/657901.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bleakest-movie-you-have-ever-seen/657901.md?page=5)