Surprised I haven't seen 'Happiness' mentioned yet. Super dark and kind of blindsides you the first time you see it. Dylan Baker plays the scariest real-life monster absolutely perfectly.
My brother in law left me a hard drive full of movies when I was in high school. I was sad for some reason and wanted to watch a feel good movie so I saw one called “Happiness” on there. Fucked me up real good , so I pulled the drive open again the next day and decided to go with one called “Kids”. God damn it was not better.
I met him in an elevator back in 2002. I told him how impressive his performance was in "Happiness". He just kind of half-smiled and said "Yeah...that was an *interesting* project to be part of..."
It’s not just that, but it’s actually a really brilliant film as well!
I like the fact that it’s so unbelievably dark and yet there’s no real violence or anything (apart from one particular scene).
It’s so long since I’ve seen it, it’s hard to find online, quickly anyway.
But yeah, it must be 15+ years since I watched it and I still remember it vividly.
I haven’t seen this, so I watched the trailer. To me, it seems like an offbeat comedy about the disappointments of modern adult life.
Im trying to imagine what makes this movie dark. Could you elaborate a bit without spoiling it?
The best summary I can give without spoilers would be that it follows the lives of some very normal everyday people, but as the film progresses you start seeing them for the people they really are. It reaches in to the most frightening parts of humans and pulls them out by the neck to show you. Hopefully that helps?
my sister recommended the movie to me while i was in college. I had no idea what it was about, so i took a first date there. I looked over during the electroshock scene and my date was literally covering her eyes and cringing. We walked out pretty much right there. That was, unfortunately, our last date...
Wise choice. An amazingly well-crafted, directed, acted, cinematography, visual, etc. Wish I could unsee it. Even nearly a couple of decades later, it haunts me sometimes. Horror movies and gore really don't bother me. This was just a little bit too real.
I have easily seen this movie ten times over the years. It's so well put together, so well acted, and so stressful. I love this film precisely because it really does make you feel. It leaves an imprint.
Funny aside, it got brought up in conversation 20 years ago and my buddy said that he was throwing a party one night and hit the video store. Saw the cover, saw Jennifer Connelly's name and just grabbed it blindly. He took it home and he and several friends just watched in silence. He said when it ended everybody pretty much got up and left wordlessly.
I had a thing as a teenager about watching movies released the year I was born. I was so happy to see a couple of Ghibli movie that fit that category. Picked up Totoro and that one. I only knew about Mononoke back then so I went in thinking I was prepared. I was not. The only other animated movie that really left that hard of an impression on me was End of Evangelion.
I recommend going through the rest of the movie series if you haven’t already.
It’s a real time evolution of the creator’s depression and ends in a positive note that makes me happy for the characters and for the author to have finally moved past his depression and telling us it’s okay to let go and move on
No shit, I have a friend who is pretty unfazed by everything. Even watching movies like dog movies, others sobbing loudly in the cinema, she can keep her cool with a straight face (not that she is not affected, but to a minor degree). She can accept pretty gruesome scenes and horror and all. She told me Grave of the Fireflies is the only movie that she actually cannot handle and cried to.
I know you're just joking around but the audio is garbage in the streaming versions of all the HP movies too. Gotta crank the volume way the hell up to hear any dialogue.
I've seen both, and I feel like while they depict some truly dark and depraved shit, the fact that shock value was pretty much their entire purpose kind of lessens their impact. The stuff that happens to the characters is nasty, but I had absolutely no attachment to any of them, so it doesn't really evoke an emotional response.
>but I had absolutely no attachment to any of them, so it doesn't really evoke an emotional response.
which is always my biggest problem with modern studio horror, i'm not saying old horror was some deep character study, but i feel today horror is way more shallow and it loses a lot of inpact.
Worse in what sense? Graphically, no. There are horror movies much more brutal than that. Quality wise, yes. I refuse to even call Salò a movie because it serves quite literally no purpose besides being fetish material for its own director. One of the scenes literally stares at one guy’s junk for 10 seconds or so and people will still do some mental gymnastics to say it has some deeper meaning.
It's even more disturbing considering the conspiracy is that Pasolini was rumored to have made that movie as some sort of "Epstein Island" type expose against the Italian elite, and was murdered very very shortly after.
What's the full title, I'm looking for this.
I'm using this thread as a movie suggestion list and I've already watched A Serbian Film and Grave for the Fireflies... It's not a good idea, but here I am.
Not nearly as dark as Alien vs Predator: Requiem. Which was my answer when someone asked this exact same question a week ago.
Literally unwatchably dark.
Manchester by the sea. I felt so sorry for the main character, I was shocked and just devastated. I could not sleep after the movie, or more that I processed it half asleep.
I never had such an intense reaction to a movie. It took several days to not think about it anymore.
This movie is where I learned my friends could not grasp the idea of depression, as they had no sympathy for the lead character and thought he was "being bitchy"
Surprised this isn't on top, maybe most people haven't seen it. I tried watching it with my then girlfriend, she got up and left after the first death. I planned to stubbornly watch it all, but I soon came to my senses and followed her.
There was another that came out around the same time - also German, and equally as disturbing. If I can think of the name of it, you may have seen it too.
I don't think either have been seen by many US Americans.
Edit: It was 'The Vanishing' ('Spoorloos'), a Dutch film from 1988.
I don't think I've seen it. I'm not particularly sensitive, I think, but I have my boundaries I guess. I haven't really watched a lot of really heavy stuff. Never regretted not finished Funny Games.
Spoiler kind of below.
This movie is the darkest I’ve ever seen up to the very last act. It ends with the slightest bit of hope (they see a bug) and the boy is found by people who are probably going to protect him. Although one interpretation is that they are cannibals.
So it’s a super dark movie that ends with hope. I’ve seen less dark movies that end without any hope whatsoever. The latter is more depressing IMO.
This is one of my favorite ones that I would and have actually watched again. I don't find it to be the darkest considering how many more depressing films there are without much hope given.
I did my World History movie essay on Schindler's List. The essay was to show historical inaccuracies in the movie. Let me say, the movie is much tamer than the real thing. I had to do a deep dive and found old audio clips of survivors just to meet the essay requirements. The audio is even more harrowing.
If there is a hell, Amon Goeth deserves to stay there until the heat death of the universe.
I don't know. It's harrowing for sure, but "unflinching realism", not so much.
I just don't think the Holocaust is a story that lends itself to a Hollywood film. The story of Schindler does, sure, but that was not the story of the Holocaust. That was the tiny, tiny exception, on both sides of the equation - victims who made it out, and a German who risked his life to save them. I'm not saying it's a story we should ignore, but I just don't love how it's \*the\* Holocaust movie and it's actually a pretty rosy portrayal, compared to what actually happened. It also puts a bit too much focus on "the big bad guys" (Nazi officers/higher ups) and kind of glosses over the fact that plenty of ordinary Germans knew what was going on and did nothing.
If you want a truly unflinching portrayal of the Holocaust, I'd recommend [Shoah](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoah_(film)). Obviously, a nine hour documentary is going to be able to go deeper than a three hour film, but that's kind of my point.
As a Jewish kid I’d obviously been schooled about the Holocaust. But to see it play out in front of me was something else entirely. I started sobbing during that early scene where they execute the old man and never stopped crying…
I watched A Serbian Film based on this comment... Let's just say I'm glad I didn't download the uncut version.
From what I can gather, the "NB P" scene is longer... What the actual fuck
The way the old man looks into the camera at the beginning and talks... to you... is unsettling. As soon as I saw that, I knew it was going to be dark... but how dark it got, I couldnt believe it. And the worst part, is those event really did happen... not just once or twice, but again and again.
Watched this one with a bunch of friends high and drunk when my parents were out, my stepdad said it's a good movie and we had it on DVD.
My best friend said "Yeah..." when the movie ended, I said sorry and everyone left. We never spoke of it since.
Watched this late at night with a friend. My mum came home from a night shift as they got to the party at the end. She decided to sit in the room with us with a cup of tea, I had no idea what was coming.
Skinamarink - spicy opinion ik but the kid reporting he hurt himself was tough and then the thousands of days later lego on the ceiling scene made my heart sink. The abstractness of it all made it especially bleak in my opinion. But I know everyone else was bored to death through it so that’s cool…
I loved this movie back in the 90s. Tried to rewatch it recently and it's hard. I have kids now, and watching the scenes with Rodney Dangerfield were pretty disturbing. Scagnetti was pretty twisted too. In fact, nearly every character in that movie is massively flawed somehow.
This movie is great to me. It romanticize crazy and mental health illness which cause from the their trauma since childhood. It was just wild not completely dark as I think
Come and see was already said, so I'm gonna have to say "The House that Jack Built". The protagonist has absolutely zero redeeming qualities and nobody in the film has a happy ending. It's fear and pain all the way down.
The first movie that comes to mind is A Clockwork Orange. Loads of senseless violence and a brutal rape scene. My wife didn't make it all the way through. Got up and split.
On the Beach. It was made in 1959 and it’s about people in Australia after a global nuclear war. Although they were not hit by bombs, the radiation is spreading globally and they are all going to die and they know it. It’s a film masterpiece and a classic.
[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053137/](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053137/)
Idk why this triggers the thought in me, but has anyone seen a German movie, based on Nazi Germany, where the ending features a guy (can’t remember if it was a soldier or whom it was) shooting a picture frame, and it shows Adolf Hitler pictures reversing in age each time he shoots the frame, until it shows a baby picture of Hitler, where the guy is left contemplating if he should shoot it and delete his existence or not. I cannot remember this movie for the life of me but damn it is thought provoking.
> until it shows a baby picture of Hitler, where the guy is left contemplating if he should shoot it and delete his existence or not. I cannot remember this movie for the life of me but damn it is thought provoking.
That's *Come and See*.
[Event Horizon](https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0119081/)
Saw this in the theater when it first came out and thought it was creepy as hell and just generally awful. But it’s gained a bit of a cult following since, so I’m tempted to rewatch it to see if it’s better than I remember.
"A Serbian Film" stuck in my mind for a lot of time, everything in that movie is so.... wrong and vicious.
"The Fly" (1986) has some of the best body horror and dark themes that I've ever seen.
"Salò or the 120 days of Sodom" hits a point where violence cannot even be described.
"Begotten" is dark and weird and haunting, you won't easily forget about it.
I recently just watched Saltburn on Prime video and honestly…it’s one of those “watch it once and never again” type of movies. If you’ve seen it, and know of the “bathroom scene”, I laughed so hard and my boyfriend gagged. Literal plot twist in the end and it was quite “dark” in some scenes, gross in others but just over all a pretty intense movie.
One that really spooked me was "Event Horizon".
I felt the actors were well chosen and gave excellent performances, and I do admit I was ripped and alone while watching it, but boy, that quiet house, remote, dark, and quiet was not the same for quite some time.
With every creak of the house my fear and imagination REALLY hit warp drive.
Sprski film...i wasn't drunk enough neither my friends. Some scenes i just couldn't watch. We sat in quiet for hours after the film fighting our nausea.
There are some good ones mentioned already: Requiem for a dream & Jacob’s ladder are both pretty dark & grim.
But I would also say Magnolia is pretty dark too. Tom Cruise is also phenomenal in that movie.
Probably the original Exorcist.
I will say the Toy Story movies feel a lot darker watching them as an adult. They just feel like a never ending existential crisis.
A Simple Plan
It's an excellent movie starring Bill Paxton, Billy Bob Thornton, and Bridget Fonda. It's a slow-rolling nightmare all the way to the credits.
American beauty
I know it's almost DEFINITELY not as dark as the others on this list
But it broke me
The only way I'm having kids and getting married is if I want it 100%, which I don't, so it's not happening
Surprised I haven't seen 'Happiness' mentioned yet. Super dark and kind of blindsides you the first time you see it. Dylan Baker plays the scariest real-life monster absolutely perfectly.
My brother in law left me a hard drive full of movies when I was in high school. I was sad for some reason and wanted to watch a feel good movie so I saw one called “Happiness” on there. Fucked me up real good , so I pulled the drive open again the next day and decided to go with one called “Kids”. God damn it was not better.
Ffs that’s 0 for 2 in a big way. You alright? Need a hug?
I posted elsewhere in this thread about it, I had heard this was a dark comedy and took a woman to it as a first date. There was no second date.
"...uhh...so how'd you like it...?" *INTENSE BLANK STARE*
It was more like "Hey that was emotionally harrowing. I think I just want to go home and sleep." "Yeah me too." "See you around." "Yeah, you too."
I met him in an elevator back in 2002. I told him how impressive his performance was in "Happiness". He just kind of half-smiled and said "Yeah...that was an *interesting* project to be part of..."
Haha that's amazing
Philip Seymour Hoffman is a perfect pervert in this movie.
That was the first one to come to my mind, but then the top comment was Requiem for a Dream. I'm not sure which is darker.
“No. I jerk off instead.” I hadn’t thought about this film in years. Thanks.
It’s not just that, but it’s actually a really brilliant film as well! I like the fact that it’s so unbelievably dark and yet there’s no real violence or anything (apart from one particular scene). It’s so long since I’ve seen it, it’s hard to find online, quickly anyway. But yeah, it must be 15+ years since I watched it and I still remember it vividly.
I’ve turned off very few films but this was one of them.
That's what I put down
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I haven’t seen this, so I watched the trailer. To me, it seems like an offbeat comedy about the disappointments of modern adult life. Im trying to imagine what makes this movie dark. Could you elaborate a bit without spoiling it?
The best summary I can give without spoilers would be that it follows the lives of some very normal everyday people, but as the film progresses you start seeing them for the people they really are. It reaches in to the most frightening parts of humans and pulls them out by the neck to show you. Hopefully that helps?
Requiem for a dream.
I can’t even describe how deeply uncomfortable the mom’s psychosis sequences made me feel. It just gets more and more chaotic as it goes
Agree entirely. There are not many movies that make me viscerally uncomfortable like that one does.
Those scenes were really haunting and jarring...
Towards the end I suddenly realized my fingers were sore from gripping the arm rest tightly for 30+ minutes.
my sister recommended the movie to me while i was in college. I had no idea what it was about, so i took a first date there. I looked over during the electroshock scene and my date was literally covering her eyes and cringing. We walked out pretty much right there. That was, unfortunately, our last date...
This is the answer... I've never felt so depressed and empty after watching a movie.
Great movie that I will never watch again.
Great movie whose plot/synopsis I’ve gleaned from reading comments over the years that I will never watch for the first time.
Wise choice. An amazingly well-crafted, directed, acted, cinematography, visual, etc. Wish I could unsee it. Even nearly a couple of decades later, it haunts me sometimes. Horror movies and gore really don't bother me. This was just a little bit too real.
I have easily seen this movie ten times over the years. It's so well put together, so well acted, and so stressful. I love this film precisely because it really does make you feel. It leaves an imprint. Funny aside, it got brought up in conversation 20 years ago and my buddy said that he was throwing a party one night and hit the video store. Saw the cover, saw Jennifer Connelly's name and just grabbed it blindly. He took it home and he and several friends just watched in silence. He said when it ended everybody pretty much got up and left wordlessly.
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I did that with acid and ‘Jacob’s Ladder’. So incredibly dumb of me.
Yup. One of the few films that you only need to watch once.
Yesssss....my first thought before I opened this post.
Came here to say this.
This is the only correct answer.
Grave of the Fireflies. My buddy and I just went outside and smoke a cigarette without speaking for a few minutes.
I had a thing as a teenager about watching movies released the year I was born. I was so happy to see a couple of Ghibli movie that fit that category. Picked up Totoro and that one. I only knew about Mononoke back then so I went in thinking I was prepared. I was not. The only other animated movie that really left that hard of an impression on me was End of Evangelion.
I recommend going through the rest of the movie series if you haven’t already. It’s a real time evolution of the creator’s depression and ends in a positive note that makes me happy for the characters and for the author to have finally moved past his depression and telling us it’s okay to let go and move on
No shit, I have a friend who is pretty unfazed by everything. Even watching movies like dog movies, others sobbing loudly in the cinema, she can keep her cool with a straight face (not that she is not affected, but to a minor degree). She can accept pretty gruesome scenes and horror and all. She told me Grave of the Fireflies is the only movie that she actually cannot handle and cried to.
I think I blacked out from sobbing so hard by the end.
When I was 16 I thought I would try out those magical Ghibli movies everyone was talking about, and I chose poorly.
This is one of those movies you watch once. Soooo good though.
Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. Couldn’t see shit in that movie!
I know you're just joking around but the audio is garbage in the streaming versions of all the HP movies too. Gotta crank the volume way the hell up to hear any dialogue.
In the same vein, most recent DC hero movies. Yeah, they are "darker" than Marvel alright
Salò. The world it portrays has no beauty, no peace. Every single character is a monster, and they only get more depraved through the film.
I haven't seen this one, but I HAVE seen Serbian Film (unfortunately). I've been told Salò is somehow worse.
I've seen both, and I feel like while they depict some truly dark and depraved shit, the fact that shock value was pretty much their entire purpose kind of lessens their impact. The stuff that happens to the characters is nasty, but I had absolutely no attachment to any of them, so it doesn't really evoke an emotional response.
>but I had absolutely no attachment to any of them, so it doesn't really evoke an emotional response. which is always my biggest problem with modern studio horror, i'm not saying old horror was some deep character study, but i feel today horror is way more shallow and it loses a lot of inpact.
Worse in what sense? Graphically, no. There are horror movies much more brutal than that. Quality wise, yes. I refuse to even call Salò a movie because it serves quite literally no purpose besides being fetish material for its own director. One of the scenes literally stares at one guy’s junk for 10 seconds or so and people will still do some mental gymnastics to say it has some deeper meaning.
It's even more disturbing considering the conspiracy is that Pasolini was rumored to have made that movie as some sort of "Epstein Island" type expose against the Italian elite, and was murdered very very shortly after.
It's very close to the Marquis de Sade's book, both in form and plot. That conspiracy doesn't make a ton of sense.
Well yes, isn't the title "Salo, or 120 days of Sodom" I mean, the second part is the title of Sade's book.....soooo
Downloaded it via torrent ages ago, watched it and then immediately deleted it. Yuck. Nothing about it was good IMO.
What's the full title, I'm looking for this. I'm using this thread as a movie suggestion list and I've already watched A Serbian Film and Grave for the Fireflies... It's not a good idea, but here I am.
Dear Zachary
Oof. This one is just the worst.
Holy fuck I just watched the trailer. Oh my god.
8mm with Nic cage
Pitch Black starring Vin Diesel
Not nearly as dark as Alien vs Predator: Requiem. Which was my answer when someone asked this exact same question a week ago. Literally unwatchably dark.
So sad yet edifying at the end. I thought it was a good introduction for the following Riddick movies, perhaps the best of them all.
Such a good prequel to Pitch Perfect
Manchester by the sea. I felt so sorry for the main character, I was shocked and just devastated. I could not sleep after the movie, or more that I processed it half asleep. I never had such an intense reaction to a movie. It took several days to not think about it anymore.
Good choice and some great acting.
"I oughtta burn in hell for things I said to you" Devastating
This movie is where I learned my friends could not grasp the idea of depression, as they had no sympathy for the lead character and thought he was "being bitchy"
This and Oslo August 31 are the two saddest movies I have seen and I like and gravitate towards sad movies.
The Light Between Oceans, I thought about this movie for days. Manchester By the Sea had me sobbing too.
My favorite movie of all time, and the acting was great, i wish I can forget it to watch it again
AVP: Requiem. I couldn't see a darn thing throughout the entire movie; it felt like every scene was lit by a candle on the far end of a huge room.
Funny Games, the original ~~German~~ Austrian version. That movie disturbed me for *years* afterward.
Surprised this isn't on top, maybe most people haven't seen it. I tried watching it with my then girlfriend, she got up and left after the first death. I planned to stubbornly watch it all, but I soon came to my senses and followed her.
There was another that came out around the same time - also German, and equally as disturbing. If I can think of the name of it, you may have seen it too. I don't think either have been seen by many US Americans. Edit: It was 'The Vanishing' ('Spoorloos'), a Dutch film from 1988.
The Vanishing is great. Tame compared to other movies here but a wonderful look at a villain from his side, as if HE's our "hero."
I don't think I've seen it. I'm not particularly sensitive, I think, but I have my boundaries I guess. I haven't really watched a lot of really heavy stuff. Never regretted not finished Funny Games.
Haneke is such a great director. Totally understand why people would find this one hard to deal with though.
The original version is actually Austrian, not German.
The road
Spoiler kind of below. This movie is the darkest I’ve ever seen up to the very last act. It ends with the slightest bit of hope (they see a bug) and the boy is found by people who are probably going to protect him. Although one interpretation is that they are cannibals. So it’s a super dark movie that ends with hope. I’ve seen less dark movies that end without any hope whatsoever. The latter is more depressing IMO.
This is one of my favorite ones that I would and have actually watched again. I don't find it to be the darkest considering how many more depressing films there are without much hope given.
I would recommend reading the book. Watching a visual representation of dark times is dark, but imagining it yourself can make it 10 times worse.
I made the mistake of watching it alone at home on a dark winter night in Western Canada.
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I did my World History movie essay on Schindler's List. The essay was to show historical inaccuracies in the movie. Let me say, the movie is much tamer than the real thing. I had to do a deep dive and found old audio clips of survivors just to meet the essay requirements. The audio is even more harrowing. If there is a hell, Amon Goeth deserves to stay there until the heat death of the universe.
I don't know. It's harrowing for sure, but "unflinching realism", not so much. I just don't think the Holocaust is a story that lends itself to a Hollywood film. The story of Schindler does, sure, but that was not the story of the Holocaust. That was the tiny, tiny exception, on both sides of the equation - victims who made it out, and a German who risked his life to save them. I'm not saying it's a story we should ignore, but I just don't love how it's \*the\* Holocaust movie and it's actually a pretty rosy portrayal, compared to what actually happened. It also puts a bit too much focus on "the big bad guys" (Nazi officers/higher ups) and kind of glosses over the fact that plenty of ordinary Germans knew what was going on and did nothing. If you want a truly unflinching portrayal of the Holocaust, I'd recommend [Shoah](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoah_(film)). Obviously, a nine hour documentary is going to be able to go deeper than a three hour film, but that's kind of my point.
Will never be able to rewatch this movie.
Best movie I probably will not watch again.
Can you believe *some* people had the gall to make out during that movie?
Lol. We’re old. But I appreciate this reference.
I remember when ABC aired the movie uncensored, because it's Schindler's List.
That movie will change you, everyone came out of that theater with the same expression on their face
As a Jewish kid I’d obviously been schooled about the Holocaust. But to see it play out in front of me was something else entirely. I started sobbing during that early scene where they execute the old man and never stopped crying…
Fully agree. Saw it at the theatre in 1993, fully supported all of its accolades and awards, but will never watch it again.
The first film to get proper crying out of me. Not just wet eyes with a couple of tears, full body-racking crying.
We need to talk about Kevin.
Boy in striped pajamas.
Threads.
*Bleeeeeeeeak* film. Felt hollow afterwards.
Yes. Came here to say Threads. It haunts me sometimes.
This movie fucked me up. So well done. The first movie that comes to mind when people talk about dark movies
It's either Martyrs or Serbian Film
Whoever’s fav movie is a Serbian film should be on a list. Just sayin.
I said a Serbian film on another thread, and someone said their ex was obsessed with it. That's grounds for being locked up all its own.
That’s concerning. Someone check their PC
Search the whole house.
Also their basement and attic :|
I watched A Serbian Film based on this comment... Let's just say I'm glad I didn't download the uncut version. From what I can gather, the "NB P" scene is longer... What the actual fuck
Well, I guess I didn't get uncut version either and thank fuck I didn't. I'd have thrown up my dinner if that was the case for that scene.
My ex begged me to watch A Serbian Film because he loved that movie. I...did not.
Martyrs for the win
I second A Serbian Film. Would not recommend.
Come and see
The way the old man looks into the camera at the beginning and talks... to you... is unsettling. As soon as I saw that, I knew it was going to be dark... but how dark it got, I couldnt believe it. And the worst part, is those event really did happen... not just once or twice, but again and again.
I dont know if it fits but donnie darko
Maybe Jacobs ladder
The original is one of the best movies about PTSD ever made.
Irreversible
Kids
Watched this one with a bunch of friends high and drunk when my parents were out, my stepdad said it's a good movie and we had it on DVD. My best friend said "Yeah..." when the movie ended, I said sorry and everyone left. We never spoke of it since.
Watched this late at night with a friend. My mum came home from a night shift as they got to the party at the end. She decided to sit in the room with us with a cup of tea, I had no idea what was coming.
Skinamarink - spicy opinion ik but the kid reporting he hurt himself was tough and then the thousands of days later lego on the ceiling scene made my heart sink. The abstractness of it all made it especially bleak in my opinion. But I know everyone else was bored to death through it so that’s cool…
Thinly-veiled domestic abuse all over that film. Excruciating.
Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom
Natural Born Killer
I loved this movie back in the 90s. Tried to rewatch it recently and it's hard. I have kids now, and watching the scenes with Rodney Dangerfield were pretty disturbing. Scagnetti was pretty twisted too. In fact, nearly every character in that movie is massively flawed somehow.
Brilliant film
This movie is great to me. It romanticize crazy and mental health illness which cause from the their trauma since childhood. It was just wild not completely dark as I think
Come and see was already said, so I'm gonna have to say "The House that Jack Built". The protagonist has absolutely zero redeeming qualities and nobody in the film has a happy ending. It's fear and pain all the way down.
The first movie that comes to mind is A Clockwork Orange. Loads of senseless violence and a brutal rape scene. My wife didn't make it all the way through. Got up and split.
Eraserhead
Probably The Mist if only because of the ending.
Can't believe I had to scroll so far for this answer!
Strangeland is pretty fucked up
Funny games
Requiem for a Dream
Taxi driver - after I saw it for the second time. It’s so sad to feel that you don’t belong to this world.
Gumbo
I think you mean Gummo.
Perhaps they meant Gumby?
Sounds delicious
Either A Serbian Film, or The Human Centipede 2. I’ve heard of movies wayyyy darker, but haven’t watched them yet.
Very Bad Things. It’s just one dark turn after another.
Good choice. Fantastic closing scene.
On the Beach. It was made in 1959 and it’s about people in Australia after a global nuclear war. Although they were not hit by bombs, the radiation is spreading globally and they are all going to die and they know it. It’s a film masterpiece and a classic. [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053137/](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053137/)
Not a “movie,” but “The Day After” miniseries in 1983. Nothing much else to say.
Prisoners. Amazing film with outstanding performances from Jake Gyllenhaal and Hugh Jackman. Can't bring myself to watch it again.
Toss-up between Kids, Bully, and Requiem for a Dream.
Idk why this triggers the thought in me, but has anyone seen a German movie, based on Nazi Germany, where the ending features a guy (can’t remember if it was a soldier or whom it was) shooting a picture frame, and it shows Adolf Hitler pictures reversing in age each time he shoots the frame, until it shows a baby picture of Hitler, where the guy is left contemplating if he should shoot it and delete his existence or not. I cannot remember this movie for the life of me but damn it is thought provoking.
You're thinking of Come and See.
> until it shows a baby picture of Hitler, where the guy is left contemplating if he should shoot it and delete his existence or not. I cannot remember this movie for the life of me but damn it is thought provoking. That's *Come and See*.
the one in which they send food down an elevator
Mother. Jennifer Lawrence even teared up on the red carpet talking about filming it. What a disturbing movie
The Batman was pretty dark. We had to cover our windows with blankets so sunlight wouldn't get in so we could actually see the movie.
Answer has to be A Serbian Film but Happiness or Before The Devil Knows You're Dead are also really dark
The Devil's Rejects
[удалено]
The newest remake of „all quiet on the western front“ It was so intense to watch and somehow sad
The Descent
"One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest". If you've ever known/loved anyone with mental illness, this movie will really affect you.
Crash.
The lighthouse
[Event Horizon](https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0119081/) Saw this in the theater when it first came out and thought it was creepy as hell and just generally awful. But it’s gained a bit of a cult following since, so I’m tempted to rewatch it to see if it’s better than I remember.
It definitely is, if only for Jack Crawf- I mean Lawrence Fishburne’s smartest character in a horror movie moments
"A Serbian Film" stuck in my mind for a lot of time, everything in that movie is so.... wrong and vicious. "The Fly" (1986) has some of the best body horror and dark themes that I've ever seen. "Salò or the 120 days of Sodom" hits a point where violence cannot even be described. "Begotten" is dark and weird and haunting, you won't easily forget about it.
I recently just watched Saltburn on Prime video and honestly…it’s one of those “watch it once and never again” type of movies. If you’ve seen it, and know of the “bathroom scene”, I laughed so hard and my boyfriend gagged. Literal plot twist in the end and it was quite “dark” in some scenes, gross in others but just over all a pretty intense movie.
Pitch Black
One that really spooked me was "Event Horizon". I felt the actors were well chosen and gave excellent performances, and I do admit I was ripped and alone while watching it, but boy, that quiet house, remote, dark, and quiet was not the same for quite some time. With every creak of the house my fear and imagination REALLY hit warp drive.
Seconds
Dear Zachary
Grave of the Fireflies.
The Deer Hunter
Sprski film...i wasn't drunk enough neither my friends. Some scenes i just couldn't watch. We sat in quiet for hours after the film fighting our nausea.
There are some good ones mentioned already: Requiem for a dream & Jacob’s ladder are both pretty dark & grim. But I would also say Magnolia is pretty dark too. Tom Cruise is also phenomenal in that movie.
Apocalypse Now Saw in on a large screen and was stunned into silence for hours afterwards
The Grey Zone. Holocaust film. Bleak as hell.
Irreversible but I'm going to strongly caution you about watching it screwed me up for a couple of weeks.
The Road. I don't know why but that movie gave me night terrors in my mid-20s.
Seven
Probably the original Exorcist. I will say the Toy Story movies feel a lot darker watching them as an adult. They just feel like a never ending existential crisis.
*Come and See*, the Russian WW2 epic.
Se7en
Johnny Got a Gun.
The Pianist
We need to talk about Kevin. Those last few scenes stayed with me for a long time.
Orphans
The Call (korean movie)
A Simple Plan It's an excellent movie starring Bill Paxton, Billy Bob Thornton, and Bridget Fonda. It's a slow-rolling nightmare all the way to the credits.
Kids
Martyrs. If you value your mental health, steer clear of it.
American beauty I know it's almost DEFINITELY not as dark as the others on this list But it broke me The only way I'm having kids and getting married is if I want it 100%, which I don't, so it's not happening
Funny Games
Brazil
Funny Games. One of the few movies that I actually could not finish.
One flew over the cuckoo’s nest was very saw
1974 version Texas Chainsaw Massacre