# 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:** 5
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2013, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bleakest-movie-you-have-ever-seen/657901/81 "2013-05-10T00:32:30Z")
**Fanny and Alexander** , 5-hour version. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2013, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bleakest-movie-you-have-ever-seen/657901/82 "2013-05-10T00:33:53Z")
> [@cormac262](#): > > “The House of Sand and Fog” - the anti-thesis of “happy endings”. Despite awesome performances by all, just felt like slitting my wrists at the end. This. Great flick. I’ll never watch it again. ---
**Author:** ![tomcar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7993a0/32.png) [@tomcar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomcar)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2013, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bleakest-movie-you-have-ever-seen/657901/83 "2013-05-10T00:33:59Z")
For some reason, Lynch’s films aren’t Bleak to me. Dark, but not bleak. Von Trier on the other hand… Anyone watch Antichrist? Yeesh. ---
**Author:** ![HazelNutCoffee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ac91a4/32.png) [@HazelNutCoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HazelNutCoffee)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2013, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bleakest-movie-you-have-ever-seen/657901/84 "2013-05-10T00:41:08Z")
[Eden Lake](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eden_Lake). We watched it because it had gotten good reviews and we were in the mood for a horror movie, but the end was horrible. It’s the kind of ending that lingers in your head and makes you want to take out your brain and scrub it. ---
**Author:** ![Rib\_Eye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/53a042/32.png) [@Rib\_Eye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rib_Eye)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2013, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bleakest-movie-you-have-ever-seen/657901/85 "2013-05-10T00:48:23Z")
Anyone for _Antichrist?_ ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2013, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bleakest-movie-you-have-ever-seen/657901/86 "2013-05-10T00:53:10Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![panamajack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/47e85d/32.png) [@panamajack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panamajack)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2013, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bleakest-movie-you-have-ever-seen/657901/87 "2013-05-10T00:56:46Z")
_Treeless Mountain_ is a movie that’s bleak without being disturbing or violent. Just a hopeless situation for two little girls. I think it’s all the more depressing because it doesn’t feel all that extraordinary. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Tooth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c67d28/32.png) [@The\_Tooth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tooth)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2013, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bleakest-movie-you-have-ever-seen/657901/88 "2013-05-10T00:56:54Z")
**Happiness** , but in a good way. And **Fantastic Planet** , in a bad way. I don’t know if it’s bleak as such, but it did leave me unsettled and miserable as per spec. ---
**Author:** ![Infovore](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infovore/32/420_2.png) [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2013, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bleakest-movie-you-have-ever-seen/657901/89 "2013-05-10T01:02:05Z")
I haven’t seen most of the other films mentioned in the thread. For me, it was _Beyond the Mat_, the wrestling documentary. ---
**Author:** ![panamajack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/47e85d/32.png) [@panamajack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panamajack)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2013, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bleakest-movie-you-have-ever-seen/657901/90 "2013-05-10T01:02:16Z")
> [@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. First time I saw it I broke down in the first two minutes. You can also make someone think you’re heartless when you point out that Seita largely brought it on himself. The director is in agreement with this viewpoint, however. That’s something that’s more easily caught on a second viewing. ---
**Author:** ![HubZilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ccd318/32.png) [@HubZilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HubZilla)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2013, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bleakest-movie-you-have-ever-seen/657901/91 "2013-05-10T01:14:26Z")
> [@panamajack](#): > > That’s something that’s more easily caught on a second viewing. I caught that, too… And I force my mind to see it as a metaphor for Japan at the end of WWII. Give it up and go to the bank (surrender to the US), rather than stubbornly hang on and be devastated. If I take it literally, it makes me more upset. ---
**Author:** ![Backwater\_Under\_Duck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ba8739/32.png) [@Backwater\_Under\_Duck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Backwater_Under_Duck)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2013, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bleakest-movie-you-have-ever-seen/657901/92 "2013-05-10T01:15:33Z")
“Grapes of Wrath”. In spades. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2013, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bleakest-movie-you-have-ever-seen/657901/93 "2013-05-10T02:28:15Z")
_Man on Fire_ with Denzel Washington. I couldn’t finish watching it and got a friend to tell me how it ended. ---
**Author:** ![Becky2844](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@Becky2844](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Becky2844)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2013, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bleakest-movie-you-have-ever-seen/657901/94 "2013-05-10T02:44:44Z")
“El Norte” (old) It’s like “A Better Life” without a good ending. “The Good Life” with Mark Webber and Zooey Deschanel. What he does while waiting for his life to begin—he discounts the good compared to his bad past—and what he does with the \_\_\_\_\_\_ bequeathed to him by his father—it’s bleak until the last minute when it made me fist pump. Kind of a “One Flew Over the Cuckcoo’s Nest” moment. ---
**Author:** ![LawMonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d6d6ee/32.png) [@LawMonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LawMonkey)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2013, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bleakest-movie-you-have-ever-seen/657901/95 "2013-05-10T02:47:15Z")
+1 for _All Quiet on the Western Front_. I watched it once, and cried so much that I gave myself a splitting headache. Kept the VHS tape for many years, but never once felt the urge to put it in again. ---
**Author:** ![MacTech](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MacTech](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacTech)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2013, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bleakest-movie-you-have-ever-seen/657901/96 "2013-05-10T02:56:37Z")
[When the wind blows](http://youtu.be/N9aHT-IlkHo), absolutely heartbreaking and gut wrenching watching this lovable elderly British couple endure the effects of radiation sickness from a nuke strike… \ “Maybe we should get into…the…paper…bags…again…” ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2013, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bleakest-movie-you-have-ever-seen/657901/97 "2013-05-10T02:57:11Z")
[Se7en](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114369/?ref_=sr_1) deserves a mention. But [Breaking the Waves](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0115751/) gets my vote. Followed by [Dancer in the Dark](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0168629/). Lars Von Trier is an ass. Why does he think viewers want to wallow in misery? ---
**Author:** ![yawuntz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/a5b964/32.png) [@yawuntz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yawuntz)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2013, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bleakest-movie-you-have-ever-seen/657901/98 "2013-05-10T02:57:39Z")
Gotta be Alexandro Jodorowski’s El Topo (not to be confused with the rather non-bleak Topo Gigio material). This film would be terminally, _massively_ bleak if it weren’t so damn crazy, and full of itself. The Russian roulette scene in church is downright funny, at least if you’ve been watching El Topo for an hour or so already and you’re still there 😃 [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceHH3QGXvNw](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceHH3QGXvNw) ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2013, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bleakest-movie-you-have-ever-seen/657901/99 "2013-05-10T03:19:24Z")
I came here to nominate Breaking the Waves, Lars Von Trier is indeed an ass. Will watch no other film by him. Like a lot of European filmmakers, he seems to want to hurt the audience. Not worthy of anyone’s time or attention. I’ll nominate one that I have not yet seen mentioned in this thread, [They Shoot Horses Don’t They?](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065088/) ---
**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2013, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bleakest-movie-you-have-ever-seen/657901/100 "2013-05-10T03:28:59Z")
_Seventh Seal_ in my opinion or _Dr. Strangelove_ [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bleakest-movie-you-have-ever-seen/657901.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bleakest-movie-you-have-ever-seen/657901.md?page=6)