House of Sand and Fog. OMG I’m still depressed over this one over 15 years after having seen it.
Am I the only one that saw Melancholia? Christ, it’s right there on the side of the package.
No, I count two. and jfc, was that awful
Dancer In the Dark.
Twelve Years a Slave, by far.
Most depressing Jennifer Connelly double-feature? Add in “Requiem For A Dream”.
That was especially disturbing because it was a true story.
When I saw it, I didn’t know about the big twist beforehand. If you don’t know yourself, don’t look it up before seeing it.
I also found “Death and the Maiden” extremely unpleasant.
Obviously none of you has ever seen Old Yeller:
[spoiler]Old Yeller (the dog) died!
I saw the movie decades ago when I was 8 or 9–and with a such a depressing movie ending I would never see it again!
[/spoiler]
Yeah, The Road’s certainly a contender, but I’ll be contrarian and nominate Ironweed. So depressing that no network ever shows it.
On the subject of depressing films about a post nuclear society, Testament (1983) is excellent.
The people weren’t in the strike zone, but they saw infrastructure fall apart and radiation poisoning happen.
The Road and Melancholia are both deeply depressing, but fantastical. I personally think House of Sand and Fog is more depressing because it’s rooted in reality.
Sounds like there are other realistically depressing movies suggested, but I haven’t seen them.
This is what I came in to nominate. Dark from beginning to end. I thought, “Oh hey, Bjork’s in it, should be interesting.” And it may have been a phenomenal movie, but it was just too gut-wrenching for me to notice.
I think you mean Grave of the fireflies.
And I agree with that one, with a mention of They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? (1969). I think I was 10 years old when I saw it late at night on TV in the old country. Felt like taking a huge, almost deadly, dose of cynicism early in life.
Shelter wasn’t a big laugh-fest either.
As “Requiem For A Dream” was already mentioned:
The Trojan Women.
The Last Picture Show.
terentii, is Russkie cinema as soul crushing and happiness sucking as their literature?
I think that’s an overgeneralization. For example, I had to read Crime and Punishment when I was in grad school, and quite honestly I found it rather tedious. The Soviet film version with Innokenty Smoktunovsky, on the other hand, is very, very good. YMMV.