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Really depressing films

Started by Nelson Swillie, February 02, 2011, 05:56:57 PM

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Santa's Boyfriend

Come and See. Few nations have a capacity for depressing cinema like Russia, and no other film portrays the sense of sadistic brutality of war better than this one.

uncle_rico

Quote from: Glebe on February 02, 2011, 07:06:48 PM
That's probably still my No.1 Most Disturbing Film Ever... and I've seen my share of gruelling video nasties.

It's been about five and a half years since I bought that film on a blind-buy and while I'd call it a 10/10 masterpiece of the genre, I have no desire whatsoever to see it again.  The fact that I watched it 3:00 AM with the lights turned off probably added to the disturb factor, aswell.  That final shot still haunts me.

Serge

I've mentioned it on here before, but fucking hell, Lilya 4-Ever is the most gruelling film I've ever sat through. The last 30 minutes are like being repeatedly punched in the face, and I was literally numbed for a couple of weeks after seeing it. The way it builds for the first half is almost comic - how much horrible shit can happen to one person? - but when the inevitability of the second half kicks in, and the fact that you can tell what's going to happen whilst Lilya remains blissfully unaware until she gets to Sweden, then it really is just soul-crushing stuff.

uglybob1986

Quote from: Harpo Speaks on February 02, 2011, 10:33:37 PM
New for the thread - Grave of the Fireflies. A laugh riot.
Seconded, one of the few films to make me teary. Unless you hate kids, in which case it is hilarious

babyshambler

Quote from: Nelson Swillie on February 02, 2011, 05:56:57 PM
Eden Lake - how the hell did this even get past the censors?

It's a tough watch in places, but quite a way off 'BAN THIS FILTH!', isn't it? Any particular scenes in mind?

El Unicornio, mang

I thought the scene where they
Spoiler alert
burn the boy's head
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was pretty shocking

phantom_power

dancer in the dark is the most depressing film i have seen. bjork's character just gets shit flung at her for the whole film and it just gets worse until the ultra-bleak finale


Big Jack McBastard

#37
Quote from: Shameless on February 02, 2011, 06:08:20 PM
The Elephant Man - nuff said

I saw this quite recently for the first time (the last of the Lynch films on my list) and really liked it, yeah the subject is grim and the actual life must have been hellish but for the most part it shows somewhat of an upturn in his existence. I even shed a tear of two at the climax of the theater scene.

Hardly a happy ending, but then who was expecting one?

Quote from: Serge on February 03, 2011, 12:02:25 AM
Lilya 4-Ever

Ooh this is sat on a spindle waiting to be watched, sounds lovely from the various accounts I've heard.

Dark Days is a pretty grim documentary about folks living in a disused section of the subway in New York, less their eventual fate but their general lot in life is depressing.

madhair60


Crabwalk

Quote from: Big Jack McBastard on February 03, 2011, 09:20:03 AM
I saw this quite recently for the first time (the last of the Lynch films on my list) and really liked it, yeah the subject is grim and the actual life must have been hellish but for the most part it shows somewhat of an upturn in his existence. I even shed a tear of two at the climax of the theater scene.

Hardly a happy ending, but then who was expecting one?

You only cried at that point?? Hard McBastard. When I first saw it a few years  ago I was in pieces pretty much from start to finish and I very rarely cry at anything. It must be that I identified with Merrick, having as I do a part of my anatomy reminiscent of an Elephant's.

Spoiler alert
A tail with a hairy bit on the end
[close]

Johnny Townmouse

I think depressing is relative really, an extremely subjective viewpoint. I didn't find Salo, Irreversible or Eden Lake particularly depressing, though I believe all three to be fantastic films (in descending order).

I think the film that most made me feel depressed afterwards was Mike Leigh's Naked. Not just because Katrin Cartlidge almost completely ruins it, but because I believe it to be Leigh's most unmercilessly grim film to date - with a message that leaves you feeling shitty and unhappy, and needing a bath, whilst also feeling desperately sorry for someone who, if they came near any female you care about, you would happily kick into a canal.

Quote from: El Unicornio, mang on February 02, 2011, 07:40:30 PMDear Zachary

Fuck. Thanks, probably the only film that could put a dampener on a day just by being reminded of it.

Famous Mortimer

That one with Timothy Spall as the cab driver (Mike Leigh, I think) was just so mercilessly miserable I turned it off halfway through. My brain refused to allow me to continue with it.

Johnny Townmouse

Quote from: Famous Mortimer on February 03, 2011, 12:28:31 PM
That one with Timothy Spall as the cab driver (Mike Leigh, I think) was just so mercilessly miserable I turned it off halfway through. My brain refused to allow me to continue with it.

All or Nothing. Which is ironic, in this case, as I believe the final 20mins of that film is some of the best work Leigh has ever done. But I do adore Spall.

biggytitbo

Pixar films depress me. I find them utterly unbareable, both the quality of the films - the relentlessly sterile, empty, calculating mechanical coldness of them down to the critic proof repuation and that horrible sense of self satisfaction of everyone who works there.

Nelson Swillie

The Animals Film documentary. I paid twenty quid for the BFI DVD and didn't even make it through to the end. Gruelling isn't the word for it.

Lfbarfe

Adventures of a Plumber's Mate and The Blockhouse.

Neville Chamberlain

Quote from: biggytitbo on February 03, 2011, 01:32:11 PM
Pixar films depress me. I find them utterly unbareable, both the quality of the films - the relentlessly sterile, empty, calculating mechanical coldness of them down to the critic proof repuation and that horrible sense of self satisfaction of everyone who works there.

Yes, spot on, biggy. Pixar makes me vomit.

Nelson Swillie

Quote from: Lfbarfe on February 03, 2011, 02:46:13 PM
Adventures of a Plumber's Mate

I'd say Come Play With Me is worse, if only because I really did NOT want to see Alfie Bass's piss-stained longjohns.

Phil_A

As I seem to mention in every one of these threads, The Plague Dogs is grimness personified. I don't I've ever made it through the whole thing more than once. Not even Alan "Papers" Price on the soundtrack can lift the mood of chilling hopelessness which pervades the whole thing.

Nelson Swillie

I like the fact that the laboratory is called ARSE (Animal Research Scientific Experiments). The only bit of humour in a fucking grim film.

VegaLA

See, I point blank refuse to see any films focused on Animals. Something triggered that decision in the early 90s and i've stuck to it ever since, so although I can't remember EXACTLY what it was, it must have been strong for me to stand my ground after all this time.

Famous Mortimer

Quote from: VegaLA on February 03, 2011, 04:27:24 PM
See, I point blank refuse to see any films focused on Animals. Something triggered that decision in the early 90s and i've stuck to it ever since, so although I can't remember EXACTLY what it was, it must have been strong for me to stand my ground after all this time.
Are you in fact a monkey who was experimented on in the early 90s and gained human intelligence?

VegaLA

Quote from: Famous Mortimer on February 03, 2011, 04:48:54 PM
Are you in fact a monkey who was experimented on in the early 90s and gained human intelligence?
Might expalin the hairs on my back.
Spoiler alert
And all the bananas I constantly eat.
[close]
You and I are going on a little adventure.....

Glebe

I've never seen it, but Douglas Trumbo's Johnny Got His Gun looks really, really depressing... like a lot of people, I'm only familiar with it through the video for Metallica's One.

El Unicornio, mang

Quote from: VegaLA on February 03, 2011, 04:27:24 PM
See, I point blank refuse to see any films focused on Animals. Something triggered that decision in the early 90s and i've stuck to it ever since, so although I can't remember EXACTLY what it was, it must have been strong for me to stand my ground after all this time.

I'm the same. Won't even go near a film like The Cove because I know it has disturbing animal footage in it

Danger Man

Quote from: Famous Mortimer on February 03, 2011, 12:28:31 PM
That one with Timothy Spall as the cab driver (Mike Leigh, I think) was just so mercilessly miserable I turned it off halfway through. My brain refused to allow me to continue with it.

Although the ending offered some hope, that film got a lot worse in the second half. You'd have cried yourself to death if you had continued with it.

Capt.Midnight

Cannibal Holocaust  I'd read all the hype beforehand and prepared myself to be shocked to the core, instead I found it to be senseless and depressing.  If anyone's curious I'd suggest you don't bother, even the director regretted making it.

Johnny Townmouse

Quote from: Capt.Midnight on February 03, 2011, 11:57:25 PM
Cannibal Holocaust  I'd read all the hype beforehand and prepared myself to be shocked to the core, instead I found it to be senseless and depressing.  If anyone's curious I'd suggest you don't bother, even the director regretted making it.

The turtle scene is pathetic and horrible. And depressing, appropriately.

I will also give a 2nd vote for Come and See & Black Sun. Very disturbing indeed!

I also found Man Bites Dog pretty bleak especially
Spoiler alert
the rape scene when the crew get involved and the aftermath of it!
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