# 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:** 7
**Author:** ![Crocodiles\_And\_Boulevards](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ee7513/32.png) [@Crocodiles\_And\_Boulevards](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crocodiles_And_Boulevards)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2013, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bleakest-movie-you-have-ever-seen/657901/121 "2013-05-10T18:56:02Z")
The Korean movie _Samaritan Girl_ is unrelentingly bleak. ---
**Author:** ![pohjonen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pohjonen/32/423_2.png) [@pohjonen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pohjonen)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2013, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bleakest-movie-you-have-ever-seen/657901/122 "2013-05-10T19:00:39Z")
[The Stoning of Soraya M](http://www.amazon.com/Stoning-Soraya-M-Mozhan-Marn%C3%B2/dp/B0031DDGA4/ref=sr_1_2?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1368212052&sr=1-2&keywords=the+stoning+of+soraya+m). In that it was based upon an actual incident, it is all the more bleak. ---
**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, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bleakest-movie-you-have-ever-seen/657901/123 "2013-05-10T19:58:39Z")
Kill List (2011) is on Netflix now. It is a must see Horror/Thriller… and it is as bleak as a film can be. ---
**Author:** ![drewtwo99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@drewtwo99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewtwo99)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2013, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bleakest-movie-you-have-ever-seen/657901/124 "2013-05-10T20:12:17Z")
> [@SykoSkotty](#): > > _Perhaps this would be for another thread and I apologize in advance_ > > I’ve heard numerous things about “The Human Centipede.” Never seen it. > > Can someone provide a brief description and possibly touch on why it’s so shocking? Crazy doctor sews 3 people ass to mouth and treats them like a pet. 'Nuff said. As I said earlier, I didn’t find it very shocking actually, just unrelentingly depressing. But that experience is atypical I think. Most people just think it’s really gross and hate it. I wouldn’t watch it again, mind you, but I didn’t hate it. It definitely affected me greatly and I felt pretty depressed for a while after seeing it. ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2013, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bleakest-movie-you-have-ever-seen/657901/125 "2013-05-10T20:25:06Z")
> [@Evil\_Captor](#): > > 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. Von Trier and Michael Hanke are two peas in the same pod. I have seen everything I ever wish to see by either of those assholes. Hanke can shove his Oscar up his ass. _8mm_, in which Nicholas Cage plays a good and decent private investigator hired to find if a snuff movie is genuine is pretty damn bleak. “There are things that, once you’ve seen them, you can never un-see.” ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2013, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bleakest-movie-you-have-ever-seen/657901/126 "2013-05-10T20:26:08Z")
My example hasn’t been mentioned yet, I think: _Come and See_. Easily the most bleak movie ever that isn’t a Holocaust movie or dystopian. More bleak than most of either - horrify, surreal, and the worst part is, no more horrifying and surreal than the reality. [![]( " - YouTube") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWL-qyS_UOM) ---
**Author:** ![teela\_brown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d9b06d/32.png) [@teela\_brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teela_brown)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2013, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bleakest-movie-you-have-ever-seen/657901/127 "2013-05-10T20:31:10Z")
Well, _Scott of the Antarctic_ was literally bleak. Many, many shots of men trudging desperately over the white icy plains of the Antarctic, dragging their supplies after them while slowly freezing and starving to death. And then they all die. The end. ---
**Author:** ![Steophan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steophan/32/9595_2.png) [@Steophan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steophan)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2013, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bleakest-movie-you-have-ever-seen/657901/128 "2013-05-10T20:44:25Z")
Speaking of Michael Haneke, his _The White Ribbon_ was an astonishingly bleak film. It’s set in Germany just before the First World War, and paints it as about the most depressing place ever. Actually I have similar feelings about _Seven Samurai_, but at least that has humour and action to offset the grinding poverty and helplessness of the peasants. ---
**Author:** ![Sr\_Siete](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6de8d8/32.png) [@Sr\_Siete](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sr_Siete)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2013, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bleakest-movie-you-have-ever-seen/657901/129 "2013-05-10T20:49:31Z")
> [@SykoSkotty](#): > > _Perhaps this would be for another thread and I apologize in advance_ > > I’ve heard numerous things about “The Human Centipede.” Never seen it. > > Can someone provide a brief description and possibly touch on why it’s so shocking? Crazy German doctor traps three idiot tourists. Although he’s old, weak, and barely able to move, an astonishing chain of incompetent and moronic choices allows him to trap them and sew them together. The end is way less bleak if you’ve spent an hour and a half mentally screaming at the three morons. ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2013, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bleakest-movie-you-have-ever-seen/657901/130 "2013-05-10T20:51:28Z")
I was going to second Requiem for a Dream, House of Sand and Fog, (Jennifer Connelly, the queen of bleak,) and Leaving Las Vegas, but recent posts reminded me of the whole “lost in the wilderness” genre. So: [Gerry](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0302674/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1) [The Canyon](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0960741/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1) ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2013, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bleakest-movie-you-have-ever-seen/657901/131 "2013-05-10T22:46:18Z")
> [@EllisDee](#): > > I was going to second Requiem for a Dream, House of Sand and Fog, (Jennifer Connelly, the queen of bleak,) and Leaving Las Vegas, but recent posts reminded me of the whole “lost in the wilderness” genre. So: > > [Gerry](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0302674/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1) > [The Canyon](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0960741/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1) In that genre, the recent Liam Neeson film _[The Grey](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1601913/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1)_, where a crashed plane full of oil workers are decimated by a pack of wolves doing what wolves do very well. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2013, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bleakest-movie-you-have-ever-seen/657901/132 "2013-05-10T22:59:20Z")
_Days of Wine and Roses_, with Jack Lemmon and Lee Remick. ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2013, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bleakest-movie-you-have-ever-seen/657901/133 "2013-05-10T23:21:11Z")
> [@gaffa](#): > > In that genre, the recent Liam Neeson film _[The Grey](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1601913/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1)_, where a crashed plane full of oil workers are decimated by a pack of wolves doing what wolves do very well. Which brings to mind, at least to an extent, [Into the Wild](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0758758/?ref_=sr_5). While the movie itself isn’t really “bleak,” the way that Christopher McCandless ended up is. For those not familiar with the story, McCandless is a recent college grad who decides that he wants to go to Alaska, live off of the wilderness, and “find himself.” He ended up living in an abandoned school bus in the Alaska wilderness, with almost nothing in the way of supplies. He had a 10-pound bag of rice, a Remington semi-automatic rifle with 400 rounds of .22LR hollowpoint ammunition, a book of local plant life, several other books, and some camping equipment. He assumed he could forage for plant food and hunt game. For the next thirty days or so, McCandless poached porcupines, squirrels, and birds, such as ptarmigans and Canada geese. On June 9, 1992, he managed to kill a moose; however, he failed to preserve the meat properly, and within days it spoiled and was covered with maggots. Rather than thinly slicing and air-drying the meat, like jerky, as is usually done in the Alaskan bush, he smoked it, following the advice of hunters he had met in South Dakota. After 3 months, he decided to leave, but found that the trail was blocked by the rising river. He ended up starving to death in the school bus, and weighed just 67 pounds. He chose not to bring a compass, something that most people in the same situation would have considered essential. McCandless was also completely unaware that a hand-operated tram crossed the otherwise impassable river a quarter of a mile from where he attempted to cross. Had McCandless known this, he could easily have saved his own life. [sub]Parts of this post made possible through Wiki[/sub] ---
**Author:** ![user\_hostile](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/user_hostile/32/474_2.png) [@user\_hostile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/user_hostile)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2013, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bleakest-movie-you-have-ever-seen/657901/134 "2013-05-10T23:53:31Z")
_The Master_ with Joaquin Phoenix and Philip Seymour Hoffman. The story of an alcoholic and turpentine fueled hazed follower of a quasi-Scientologist. Joaquin blew me away with his performance–unlike any character I’d ever seen before. The whole film is about a man and his damaged-beyond-repair soul engaging in a futile search for redemption. I guess it hit a little too close to home. That’s one of only two films in my life that affected me so deeply that I was literally depressed the next day. Never want to see it again–but still one of the best films I’ve ever seen. ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2013, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bleakest-movie-you-have-ever-seen/657901/135 "2013-05-11T02:47:41Z")
> [@panamajack](#): > > 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. It’s even worse when you consider…the writer of the original novel agrees. Because it was mostly autobiographical…_he_ was “Seita,” and he made “himself” die. Lessie… •_The Grey_.—Scariest movie I’ve ever seen. Although maybe not as much “bleak” as “repeatedly shattering.” :eek: •_Das Boot_ •_Ran_ by Kurosawa was…_colorful_, to be certain, but not exactly _cheery_. •Ditto for _Cobra Verde_. Come to think of it, most of my picks veer less towards “upset and depressed” than towards “there is nothing left to feel.” Like the film equivalent of a[thousand yard stare.](http://www.milhist.net/images/2000YardStare.jpgn) ---
**Author:** ![HazelNutCoffee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ac91a4/32.png) [@HazelNutCoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HazelNutCoffee)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2013, 10:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bleakest-movie-you-have-ever-seen/657901/136 "2013-05-11T10:00:11Z")
> [@Rib\_Eye](#): > > Anyone for _Antichrist?_ I just thought it was weird and gross. At some parts my friend and I actually laughed out loud because of the sheer ridiculousness. I left the movie feeling disgusted. ---
**Author:** ![Encinitas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@Encinitas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Encinitas)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2013, 11:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bleakest-movie-you-have-ever-seen/657901/137 "2013-05-11T11:19:30Z")
_Eraserhead_ and _Mondo Cane_. I still have nightmares. ---
**Author:** ![polar\_bear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ec9cab/32.png) [@polar\_bear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/polar_bear)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2013, 11:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bleakest-movie-you-have-ever-seen/657901/138 "2013-05-11T11:39:59Z")
_Lilja4ever_ always pops up when these kind of questions are asked ---
**Author:** ![Jamodu\_Green](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Jamodu\_Green](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jamodu_Green)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2013, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bleakest-movie-you-have-ever-seen/657901/139 "2013-05-11T13:13:24Z")
[Hunger](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0986233/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1). It’s about Bobby Sands, who led a hunger strike. ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2013, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bleakest-movie-you-have-ever-seen/657901/140 "2013-05-11T13:44:22Z")
The Mist. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bleakest-movie-you-have-ever-seen/657901.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bleakest-movie-you-have-ever-seen/657901.md?page=8)